Portal:Current events/2019 May 7
May 7, 2019 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Second Libyan Civil War, 2019 Western Libya offensive
- The Libyan National Army shoots down a pro-GNA Mirage F1 fighter jet over Tripoli, capturing its pilot, who claimed to be Portuguese, though the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs couldn't confirm his identity. Pictures released by the LNA's media office show the wounded pilot flanked by LNA officials. (The Independent) (The Telegraph)
Health and environment
- Multiple environmentalists groups file a lawsuit to stop the US Forest Service from opening up large tracts of the Tongass National Forest to logging, allegedly without a proper study of the environmental impact. (Reuters)
International relations
- Iraq–United States relations
- United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who originally expected to be in Berlin today, makes an emergency trip to Iraq amid escalating tensions with Iran. Earlier this week, the U.S. deployed a bomber task force and the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the region. In today's meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and President Barham Salih, Pompeo reaffirmed the longstanding U.S. policy to ensure nobody interferes in their country. (BBC News) (CNN)
Law and crime
- Myanmar President Win Myint pardons two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been imprisoned at Insein Prison for more than 500 days after being charged with possession of classified documents under the Official Secrets Act. The pair were arrested in December 2017 as they were investigating the Inn Din massacre. (Reuters)
- List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump
- Michael Behenna, an American soldier convicted of killing an Iraqi prisoner in 2008, is pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump and invited to dinner. (NPR)
- 2019 STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting
- At least one person is killed and eight people are injured in a school shooting in Douglas County, Colorado. Two suspects are in custody. (KKTV) (ABC News via MSN.com)
- At least seven people are killed and another 20 injured in a shooting at Pavón Prison near Guatemala City. The injured have been taken to hospital. Security forces have regained control of the facility. (BBC News)
Politics and elections
- 2019 Danish general election
- Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen calls general elections for Grundlovsdag on 5 June, only a little more than a week after Danish elections for the European Parliament. (The Local)
- 2019 Istanbul mayoral election
- The European Union and leading member states such as Belgium, France and Germany, criticize the Turkish government's decision to re-run Istanbul's mayoral election, which was won by underdog Ekrem İmamoğlu of the opposition multi-party Nation Alliance. (BBC News) (Reuters)