Portal:Current events/2019 May 20

May 20, 2019 (Monday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Thirty-two people are killed when Islamic State members started a prison riot and a fire in a prison located in Vahdat, Tajikistan. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera) (RT)

Arts and culture

Whole Foods Market announces it will eliminate disposable plastic straws in July from its stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. (USA Today)

Business and finance

Ascena Retail Group announces it will close all 650 Dressbarn stores by the end of the year. (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

Two people are killed, the pilot and the passenger, when a floatplane crashes into Metlakatla harbor near Ketchikan, Alaska. The pilot and passenger were the only people on board. (CBS News) (NBC News)

International relations

Iran–Saudi Arabia relations, Iran–United States relations
- Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif states that the "genocidal taunts" of U.S. President Donald Trump "won't end Iran", in response to President Trump's comments that if Iran attacked U.S. interests, "that will be the official end of Iran." He also blasted Saudi Arabian Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir for his previous May 19 remarks regarding Iran. (Brecorder)
Russia–United States relations
- U.S. F-22 stealth jets intercept four Russian Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers and two Russian Su-35 jets entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone off the coast of Alaska. The Russian jets and bombers did not enter the U.S. nor Canadian airspace according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. (CBS News) (CNN)

Law and crime

The Swedish prosecutor files an arrest warrant against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a rape allegation. Assange is serving a 50-week prison sentence in the United Kingdom for skipping bail. (Reuters)
The U.S. Supreme Court in Herrera v. Wyoming rules in favor of a Native American elk hunter from Montana who was convicted for hunting off-season in Bighorn National Forest, deciding that the 1868 federal treaty between the Crow Nation and the U.S. Government is still in force even after Wyoming became a state in 1890. The treaty gave tribe members hunting rights on "unoccupied" lands. (Reuters) (SCOTUS Blog)
Tax returns of Donald Trump
- Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia rules that accounting firm Mazars must comply with a subpoena issued by the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform to turn over U.S. President Donald Trump's financial records. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Ukrainian presidential inauguration
- Former comedian and reality television actor Volodymyr Zelensky is sworn in as the 6th President of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada. Zelensky announces the dissolution of parliament and calls a snap parliamentary election. (Deutsche Welle)
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman announces he will resign Wednesday in response to the new president's disbanding of parliament. (Al Jazeera)
Ibiza affair
- All ministers from the far-right Freedom Party of Austria, who make up close to half of Austria's cabinet, are resigning in response to their party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache being forced to resign as Vice-Chancellor after a video was published Friday showing Strache's participation in a compromising video. (BBC News)
2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro proposes early elections for Venezuela's National Assembly. Opposition leader and National Assembly President Juan Guaidó has stated a rejection of the proposal. (BBC News)
After several months of negotiations, President Félix Tshisekedi names Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba as the new Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an agreement with former president Joseph Kabila. He had not appointed a prime minister since being elected in December 2018. (Yahoo! News)

Science and technology

The redefinition of the SI system of measurement adopted by the majority of countries in the world takes effect. (BIPM)