Portal:Current events/2019 November 1

November 1, 2019 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Business and economy

Google purchases activity tracker company Fitbit for US$2.1 billion, in an attempt to break into the digital health and smartwatch markets. (Reuters)
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States launches a national security review of TikTok-owner ByteDance's US$1 billion purchase of social media platform Musical.ly. (Reuters)
California Governor Gavin Newsom issues a statement calling on the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the state's largest utility company, to find a "consensual resolution" to its bankruptcy case, threatening a state takeover if an agreement cannot be reached. PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January in response to lawsuits pertaining to wildfires caused by PG&E's equipment. (NPR)

Disasters and accidents

A Grumman OV-1 Mohawk crashes at an air show in Stuart, Florida, killing the pilot. (WPTV-TV)
In Tottenham, London, a 1-year-old boy dies after falling from a ninth-floor council flat window with a faulty handle in a tower block. The boy's mother had urged the Haringey London Borough Council to fix the window for two months, a neighbour says. Critics say the death is the latest in a number of incidents suggesting problems with the ways in which public housing is managed in the country. (The Sun)

Law and crime

Crime in France
- A gunman shoots and injures six people at a bar in Marseille, France. The gunman is still at large. (Euronews)
2019 Samoa assassination plot
- A man who had pled guilty to conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister of Samoa, and was due to be sentenced today, has changed his plea from guilty to not-guilty. (Radio New Zealand)
Irish mixed-martial artist Conor McGregor is convicted for assaulting a man in a Drimnagh pub in April, and is fined €1,000. (BBC News)
Essex lorry deaths
- Earlier statements about the victims being of Chinese nationality are repudiated. Essex Police say all victims were Vietnamese. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
- Former Texas representative Beto O'Rourke drops out of the presidential primaries. (Vox)
Tens of thousands of protestors, mostly consisting of supporters of the conservative Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal, march in Islamabad demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan by Sunday. The army announces later in the evening that they will continue to support the elected government. (Reuters)
2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses
- A New York Times-Siena College poll finds there is no clear Democratic Party frontrunner among voters in Iowa three months away from the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses. Senator Elizabeth Warren leads the poll with 22 percent, followed by Senator Bernie Sanders with 19 percent. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg holds 18 percent in a rise to third place, while former Vice President Joe Biden, seen by many to be the frontrunner for his party's nomination, comes in fourth place with 17 percent. (CNN)