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Artist's impression of K2-18b orbiting red dwarf K2-18

Houthi drone attacks on two major oil facilities force Saudi Arabia to cut more than half of its oil production.
Astronomers announce the detection of water in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b (artist's impression shown), the first such discovery for an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star.
A human stampede during the observance of Ashura in Karbala, Iraq, kills at least thirty-one people and injures more than a hundred others.
The Indian Space Research Organisation loses contact with Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lunar lander shortly before a hard landing on the Moon's surface.

September 15, 2019 (Sunday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack
- During a phone call, President of the United States Donald Trump tells Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that the U.S. supports Saudi Arabia in its efforts to fight terrorism and that the U.S. will cooperate in the aftermath of the oil facilities attacks. (Al Arabiya English)
- After accusations by U.S. and Saudi officials, Iran denies involvement in the attack and says it's "ready for war" against both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom blamed Iran for backing the Houthis. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

2019 Hong Kong protests
- Despite an official ban, thousands of people march from Causeway Bay to the center of town. Police use tear gas to disperse the protestors. (CNN)
2019 Tunisian presidential election
- Tunisians cast their vote in the first round of presidential elections. (Reuters)

Sports

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Final
- In basketball, Spain defeats Argentina 95–75 to win their second World Cup title. (news.com.au)

September 14, 2019 (Saturday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

2019 Abqaiq-Khurais attack, Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Two Saudi Aramco oil refineries, one in Abqaiq and one in Khurais, Saudi Arabia, are attacked by drones, resulting in massive fires. The fires are under control, according to the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. Houthi militants claim responsibility, saying that they used 10 drones for the attack. (Euronews)
- According to Al Jazeera, Saudi Aramco's exports and oil production are disrupted by 5 million barrels of oil a day, half of the entire Saudi Arabian oil exports. (Al Jazeera) (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

Seven people are hospitalized after a taxi drives onto the sidewalk outside Kanayama Station in Nagoya, Japan. (NHK)

Politics and elections

A charity ship, carrying 82 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya, is offered docking at the Italian island of Lampedusa. The migrants can be brought ashore after "several E.U. countries" agreed to take them in, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday. (Reuters)

Sport

In Gaelic football, Dublin defeat Kerry 1–18 to 0–15 in the 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay to become the first team in GAA history to win 5 All-Ireland titles in a row. (RTE)

September 13, 2019 (Friday)

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Business and economy

Parisian metro workers launch a general strike, the largest of its kind since 2007, in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. Two of the sixteen metro lines and two major regional train lines are shut down during morning rush hour. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A fire in a hospital kills eleven people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (G1)

International relations

Sanctions against North Korea, North Korea–United States relations
- The U.S. Treasury imposes sanctions on the Lazarus Group and two of its affiliates, accusing them of being responsible for several recent cyberattacks under direction from North Korea's RGB intelligence agency. (Washington Post)

Law and crime

Ponte Morandi collapse
- Three employees of infrastructure firm Atlantia are arrested by Italian police on suspicion of offences connected to falsification of safety documentations for motorway bridges. The probe follows the disaster which killed 43 in August 2018. (Reuters)
American actress Felicity Huffman is sentenced to fourteen days in jail and fined US$30,000 for her role in the college admissions bribery scandal. (Reuters)

September 12, 2019 (Thursday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Kulp bombing
- Seven civilians are killed and ten are injured in a roadside attack by the PKK in Kulp, Diyarbakir Province, Turkey. (Anadolu Agency)

Business and economy

The European Central Bank announces new monetary stimulus, with a second round of quantitative easing "for as long as it deems necessary" and lowering its already-negative main deposit rate. (CNBC)

Disasters and accidents

A train derails in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Tanganyika Province, killing about 15 people and injuring many others. (The Independent)

Law and crime

The French National Assembly says its president, Richard Ferrand, is put under formal investigation in a "financial impropriety" case. Ferrand stepped down as a minister in President Emmanuel Macron's government in 2017 over the case related to property deals, eight years ago, by a health insurance fund he managed in Brittany. Prosecutors in Lille say he is charged with a conflict of interest. (Reuters via France 24) (AFP via The Straits Times)
Death of Sahar Khodayari
- Iran's judiciary issues a warrant to arrest actress Saba Kamali after she posted a text in her Instagram sympathizing with Sahar Khodayari, which was reported to be found "insulting" to the third Shiite Imam, Hussain ibn Ali. (Radio Farda)

Politics and elections

Tongan Prime Minister ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, age 78, dies one day after being taken to a New Zealand hospital from his native country. (RNZ)
2020 U.S. Democratic Party presidential debates and forums
- The third major Democratic Party televised debate takes place at the Health and Physical Education Arena in Houston, Texas, with a focus on health care in the United States. (BBC)

Science and technology

Interstellar objects
- C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), a second interstellar comet after ʻOumuamua in 2017, is discovered by an amateur astronomer. (BBC)
Social media use in politics
- Twitter suspends several Cuban government and state media accounts, including First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raúl Castro and his daughter Mariela Castro. The pro-government Union of Journalists of Cuba denounces the suspensions as "massive censorship". (The Guardian) (BBC)
- Facebook suspends a chatbot on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official page for violating its hate speech policy. Netanyahu says the mistake was made by a volunteer employee. (The Guardian)

September 11, 2019 (Wednesday)

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Business and economy

China–United States trade war
- China publishes a list of 16 U.S. goods that will be temporarily exempted from its retaliatory import tariffs. (Reuters)
- China announces that it will allow the import of soybean meal from Argentina, to ensure livestock feed under the impact of the trade war with the U.S. Apart from Argentina, China has been increasing imports of soybeans and soymeal from other channels, such as allowing soybean meal, rapeseed meal and sunflower meal from Russia since September 6. (Global Times)
2019 Japan–South Korea trade dispute
- South Korea announces it will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization over Japanese government export controls. (Marketwatch)

Disasters and accidents

A crash of a twin-engine Convair 440 cargo plane near Toledo, Ohio, kills the two people on board. (CNN)
Effects of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas
- The Bahamian National Emergency Management Agency lists approximately 2,500 people as missing after Hurricane Dorian devastated the islands last week. (BBC)

International relations

Pastoral visit of Pope Francis to Africa
- At St. Peter's Square Pope Francis reviews highlights from his African visit to Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius on September 4-10. (Crux)

Politics and elections

Suffering from pneumonia, Tongan Prime Minister ʻAkilisi Pōhiva is rushed from hospital in Nukuʻalofa to one in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was treated for a liver condition earlier this year. According to a government spokesperson, Pōhiva is in a "very serious" condition. (RNZ)
B.J. Habibie, reformist Indonesian president, dies at 83, after spending more than a week in intensive care. (The Washington Post)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe rearranges his government cabinet, naming replacements at the Defense, Foreign Affairs, Environment and Olympics ministries, among others. (Al Jazeera)
Politics of the United Kingdom
- Scotland's Court of Session rules that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson violated the law by his suspension of Parliament from 9 September to 14 October, encouraging calls for MPs to get back to work immediately. (Reuters)
- The Johnson ministry releases the Operation Yellowhammer contingency plans in the event of a no-deal Brexit to the public. (BBC)
2019 Canadian federal election
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls a general election on 21 October. Governor General Julie Payette, the acting head of state, formally dissolves Parliament. (The Independent)

Science and technology

Scientists from Denmark and the United Kingdom report they have identified genetic information from a 1.7-million-year-old Stephanorhinus tooth enamel from Dmanisi, Georgia, making it the oldest genetic data ever recorded. (Cosmos)
Discoveries of exoplanets
- Water vapor is detected on exoplanet K2-18b, a super-Earth which is located about 111 light-years away from Earth. It is the first time water has been confirmed on an exoplanet within the circumstellar habitable zone of a star. (BBC) (Business Insider)

September 10, 2019 (Tuesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
- The United States Air Force launches a small shock and awe bombing raid using F-35 and F-15 Eagle warplanes on the ISIL-occupied Qanus Island in Iraq's Saladin Governorate, dropping 36,000 kg of explosives. The small island was being used by ISIL as a "major transit hub", according to the U.S.-led coalition. (The Independent) (Sky News)

Business and economy

Jack Ma retires and Daniel Zhang succeeds him as executive chairman of Alibaba Group. (International Business Times)

Disasters and accidents

Karbala stampede
- Thirty-one pilgrims are killed and 100 others are injured in a stampede in the city of Karbala, Iraq, while marking Ashura. (Gulf News)

Environment and health

Fukushima disaster cleanup
- As Tepco says that, by 2022, it will run out of storage room for what is now more than 1 million tonnes of radioactively contaminated reactor core cooling water, Japanese Minister of the Environment Yoshiaki Harada opines that "the only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it". (Reuters)

International relations

Colombia–Venezuela relations
- 150,000 Venezuelan troops begin exercises along the Colombian border. Nicolás Maduro's Venezuelan government says it is to intercept an attack from the other country, despite no indications there will be one. (Reuters)
2019 Hong Kong protests, Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act
- Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam urges "foreign parliaments" not to interfere in Hong Kong's internal affairs and says continued violence "cannot solve the issues". (CNN)

Politics and elections

List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations
- United States National Security Advisor John R. Bolton is dismissed by President Donald Trump, citing strong disagreements. Bolton insists he resigned. The interim replacement is to be Deputy Charles Kupperman, says the White House. (BBC)
September 2019 Israeli legislative election, Proposed Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley
- With next week's election in sight, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu proposes to annex parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Prime Minister of the State of Palestine Mohammad Shtayyeh replies that "Netanyahu is the chief destroyer of the peace process". (The Jerusalem Post) (NBC News)
2019 North Carolina's 9th congressional district special election
- In a special election viewed as prescient to the 2020 elections, Republican Dan Bishop beats Democrat Dan McCready by two percentage points. (The New York Times)
The California State Senate approves Assembly Bill 5, a bill to regulate gig economy work, introducing a formal test to classify workers as independent contractors or employees. (TechCrunch) (The Week)

September 9, 2019 (Monday)

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Disasters and accidents

Typhoon Faxai kills three people and causes damage to Japan's capital Tokyo. (The Japan Times)

International relations

Nuclear program of Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabia says it experiments with two nuclear reactors and wants to go ahead with the "full nuclear cycle", implying also uranium enrichment. The United States states they would like to pursue a Section 123 Agreement to accompany the transfer of U.S. technology. (Reuters)
The International Monetary Fund confirms that Kristalina Georgieva is the only candidate for the nomination as its Managing Director. (Politico.eu)

Law and crime

2019 Samoa assassination plot
- Three suspects appear in court in Apia, Samoa, where two of them enter not-guilty pleas and the other a guilty plea on charges of conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister of Samoa. The defendant who pleaded guilty is due to be sentenced on September 30. (RNZ)

Politics and elections