Portal:Current events/2019 July 2
July 2, 2019 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Islamist militants attack a Niger Armed Forces base in the village of Inates, near the border with Mali, with two car bombs and gunmen, killing 18 soldiers. They also kidnapped four Nigerien soldiers and stole dozens of vehicles. (BBC News)
- Second Libyan Civil War
- A Libyan National Army airstrike on a suburb of Tripoli hits a detention centre for illegal migrants, killing at least 53 people and injuring 80 people. (Reuters) (CNN)
Disasters and accidents
- A fire on the Russian Navy's Losharik submarine kills 14 crew members while the vessel conducts tests in Russian territorial waters. (Sky News) (RFERL)
- At least 18 people have died and more than a dozen are still missing in devastating floods that swept southeastern Siberia, Russia. (The Japan Times)
International relations
- Iran–Saudi Arabia relations, Japan–Saudi Arabia relations
- Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir says his country will work with Japan and other nations to come up with a plan to ensure that ships can safely transit the Persian Gulf region. Jubeir also calls for "action" on Iran. (NHK)
- China–United Kingdom relations, Hong Kong–United Kingdom relations, 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests, Aftermath of the Handover of Hong Kong
- China warns the United Kingdom that "no country has the right to intervene on the issue of mass protests in Hong Kong", as it considers the problems of this self-governed city an "internal problem". For China, the agreement by which the United Kingdom returned Hong Kong is nothing more than "a historical document of no practical importance" and "that European country no longer has any responsibility over Hong Kong". The British chancellery, for its part, dismissed the Chinese opinion, and has said that "it is the right and obligation of the United Kingdom to work to enforce the agreement", which, in theory, guarantees a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong for 50 years until 2047 without Chinese interference. (Sky News)
Politics and elections
- 2020 United States presidential election
- There has been a shake-up within the campaign organization of former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, which includes the departure of the manager of Hickenlooper's presidential campaign, Bradley Komar. Komar and other departing staffers reportedly believe that Hickenlooper should quit the race as he has no realistic prospect of victory. (Reuters)
- Education in Argentina, Argentina–Cuba relations
- Argentine Education Minister Alejandro Finocchiaro, who strongly condemned a school in Chaco Province for displaying a Cuban flag and displaying pictures of Che Guevara, says the school "has no supervision" and that they are "indoctrinating children with communism and totalitarian and populist governments". He also added in an interview on state TV that the school will be reviewed. (La Nación) (Clarín)
- The Fidesz supermajority of Hungary's National Assembly passes a bill, which takes the entire research network away from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and hands them to a new government-backed organisation. (Index)
- 2019 European Parliament election
- The Ninth European Parliament starts its term. (BBC News)
- Fugitive Catalan independence leaders Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín, together with imprisoned Oriol Junqueras, are not allowed to take office as MEPs by the Supreme Court of Spain and Court of Justice of the European Union, while a pro-independence demonstration takes place in Strasbourg. (Reuters)
- The European Council nominates German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission. If confirmed by the European Parliament, she will be the first woman to hold the position. The Council also nominates Charles Michel of Belgium as President of the European Council, Josep Borrell of Spain as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Christine Lagarde of France as President of the European Central Bank. (BBC News)
- 2020 United States census
- The U.S. Departments of Justice and Commerce announce that the Trump administration will not implement a proposed citizenship question in the 2020 census, and will perform the census without the question. This follows the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting the administration's rationale for the question in the case Department of Commerce v. New York. (The Washington Post)
- Following the fatal shooting of a young Ethiopian–Israeli man on June 30, countrywide riots in Israel result in more than 80 injuries. (The Jerusalem Post)
Law and crime
- Tax returns of Donald Trump
- The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means sues U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Commissioner of Internal Revenue Charles Rettig to obtain six years of U.S. President Donald Trump's tax returns. (NPR)
Science and technology
- Solar eclipse of July 2, 2019
- A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of Chile and Argentina, and a large remote stretch of the southern Pacific. (time and date)
- Ascent Abort-2
- NASA carries out a successful in-flight test of the launch abort system of its new Orion spacecraft, a milestone in the development of the Artemis program to resume human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. (Space.com)