May 19, 2023 (Friday)
Disasters and accidents
- 2023 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- The death toll from Cyclone Mocha's landfall in Myanmar increases to 463 people. (BBC News)
- A 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, causing tsunami warnings in Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and other countries in the South Pacific, and generating a 60 cm (2.0 ft) tsunami in Lenakel, Vanuatu. (The Guardian) (ABC News)
Health and environment
- The United States confirms a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, in a slaughter plant in South Carolina. (Reuters)
International relations
- Foreign relations of Syria, 2023 Arab League summit, Sanctions against Syria
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to attend an Arab League summit, the first since Syria was readmitted following a 12-year suspension due to the civil war. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- Mahsa Amini protests, Capital punishment in Iran
- Three men are executed in Iran for killing three security officials during protests in Isfahan in November and for links to the MEK Shia terrorist organization. Western human rights organizations say that the convictions were based on forced confessions. (Al Jazeera)
- Criticism of Greenpeace
- The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia announces that Greenpeace is now considered an undesirable organization. In response, Greenpeace Russia announces that it will close all of its offices. (The Moscow Times)
- Zimbabwe releases over 4,000 prisoners to address prison overcrowding. The country, with a maximum prison capacity of 17,000 inmates, currently has more than 20,000 people in prison. (AP)
Politics and elections
- 2023 Ecuadorian political crisis
- Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso says he will not run in the upcoming election. (The Washington Post)