Portal:Current events/2019 June 19
June 19, 2019 (Wednesday)
Arts and culture
- Li Ka-shing, "Hong Kong's richest man", pledges to pay, via his charitable foundation, the tuition fees of the Shantou University's 2019 incoming class for up to five years. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- Venezuelan refugee crisis
- The UN predicts that over five million Venezuelans, over 15% of the nation's population, will have left the country by the end of 2019 since the start of the crisis in Venezuela—the total at the end of 2018 was 3.3 million. One million have left the country since November, with a daily average of 5,000 departures. Additionally, over 20% of all worldwide UN asylum requests are from Venezuelans; 350,000 applied in 2018 alone. (Financial Times)
Health and environment
- Millions of people in southeast India face water shortages due to drought and depleted groundwater. (CBC)
International relations
- Japan–North Korea relations
- The Japanese coast guard says its patrol boats have been pushing back hundreds of North Korean boats trying to poach in fishing grounds rich with squid off Japan's northern coast. (Japan Today)
Law and crime
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
- Four people, three Russians and a Ukrainian, will be charged with murder for the crash that killed 298 people on July 17, 2014. The trial is to be held on March 9, 2020 and take place in Badhoevedorp, Netherlands. (CNN)
- NXIVM leader Keith Raniere is found guilty of seven charges, including human trafficking, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation of a child, forced labor conspiracy, and racketeering. (NPR)
Politics and elections
- Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
- Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir says that the UN's report on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is unfounded, saying it has "clear contradictions and baseless allegations." (Gulf News)
- 2019 Conservative Party leadership election
- Rory Stewart is eliminated after coming in fifth place in today's third round voting. The front runner remains Boris Johnson. Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, and Sajid Javid came in second, third, and fourth respectively. A fourth round will be taken tomorrow. (BBC News)
- The House Democrats vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which is used to authorize war. (Vox) (HuffPost)