Portal:Current events/2015 November 19

November 19, 2015 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Killing of captives by ISIL
- China vows to "bring to justice" those responsible for executing one of its citizens after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it had killed a Chinese hostage. China's Foreign Ministry also confirms the hostage's identity for the first time, naming him as Fan Jinghui. (Channel News Asia)
Metrojet Flight 9268
- According to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's official propaganda magazine, a soft drink can with an IED, a so-called "Schweppes bomb," was used to destroy the Russian airliner. (Reuters)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- The French National Assembly approves President François Hollande's request to extend the current state of emergency for three months. The Senate must still approve the measure. (NPR)
- U.S. officials say at least four of the Paris attackers were listed in a central counter-terrorism database maintained by the United States Intelligence Community. (Reuters) (UPI)
- United States authorities report dozens of suspected radicals in the U.S. are under "tight surveillance" to preclude a Paris copycat. An ISIL video threatens Washington, D.C. (ABC News)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- A Palestinian kills three people, including an American student and another Palestinian, and injures four others, after opening fire at Israeli cars and then ramming his vehicle into a group of pedestrians, injuring several more near Alon Shvut in the West Bank. (The Times of Israel)
- A Palestinian kills two men and wounds another outside an office building synagogue in southern Tel Aviv. (Ynet) (The Times of Israel)
A gunman shoots dead two Saudi Arabian policemen while they are on patrol in their vehicle in Saihat, located in Saudi Arabia's restive Eastern Province, which is predominantly Shia. (BBC)
U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehend five Pakistani nationals and one Afghan national trying to sneak into Arizona through the Mexico-U.S. border. (Fox 10 Phoenix)

Arts and culture

The Obama Administration through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports more than 500,000 people. a quarter of them children, were homeless this year amid scarce affordable housing across much of the nation. Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Hawaii all recently declared emergencies over the rise of homelessness. (Reuters)
16th Annual Latin Grammy Awards
- The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences members present the Latin Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. (Newser)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
  - "Hasta la Raíz" wins Song of the Year and Record of the Year. (ABC News)
  - Todo Tiene Su Hora performed by Juan Luis Guerra wins Album of the Year. (The Miami Herald)
Leaders and representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints release statements clarifying recent policy changes effecting same-sex couples and their children. (Deseret News)

Business and economy

The World Economic Forum in its annual Global Gender Gap Report says that it would take 118 years before women and men have equal pay for similar occupations, such as white collar jobs. (BBC) (The Huffington Post) (The Guardian)
The New York State Department of Financial Services fines Barclays $150m (£98.2m) for the way it treated its foreign exchange customers. (The Guardian)
Most of the employees of the Reserve Bank of India, that country's central bank, go on strike demanding better pension benefits. The RBI acknowledges "some interruptions" in its clearing and settlement functions. (BBC)

Health and medicine

In connection with World Toilet Day, the United Nations reports that 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation, and nearly one billion have no toilet facilities and are forced to relieve themselves in areas without facilities. (AP)
The U.S. clears genetically-modified Atlantic salmon, made by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies, for human consumption. (Reuters)
The American Medical Association urges Congress and/or the FDA to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and medical devices. The AMA says that the ads increase demand for inappropriate, expensive treatments even if cheaper ones have the same potentials. (The Washington Post) (The Science Times)

International relations

APEC Philippines 2015
- Asia-Pacific leaders, in the Philippines for the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which has been overshadowed by the concurrent Paris attacks, call on governments to urgently increase cooperation in the fight against terrorism. (AP)
- Local labor and farmer groups protest in Manila over talks on inclusive growth during the APEC meeting. (The Economic Times)
A Pew Research Center report finds, from 2009 to 2014, more Mexicans, including unauthorized immigrants, are leaving the United States than entering it. An increasing share of Mexicans says life north of the border is neither better nor worse than life in Mexico. (Reuters)
The United Nations General Assembly humanitarian committee adopts, by a 112–19 vote (with 50 abstentions), a resolution that condemns North Korea for gross violations of human rights and supports referring the country and its leaders to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The resolution will be sent to the full General Assembly, where it is expected to pass, given the committee vote. (Reuters via CBS News) (UPI)
The Obama Administration through the United States State Department expresses deep frustration over the lack of democratic progress in Thailand after last year's military coup, saying a new constitution there won't pass the "smell test" unless civil society helps to draft it. (AP) (US Dept of State)

Law and crime

A court sentences former restaurant spokesperson Jared Fogle to over 15 years imprisonment for sex with minors and the possession of child pornography. (NPR)
Convictions for sex offenses against minors accounts for the largest group of military inmates in U.S. military prisons. (AP via The Star Tribune)
Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst convicted and sentenced to a life imprisonment for providing top secret classified information to Israel, will be released by the Obama Administration on parole tomorrow after serving 30 years in a U.S. federal prison. He will be given an ankle monitor while he completes five years of parole in America. (CNN) (AP) (The Jerusalem Post)

Kuwaiti authorities announce they arrested six members of an extremist network suspected of supplying funds and weapons, including rockets, to Daesh (Islamic State) militants. Four others are still being sought outside of the country. The group includes a Lebanese, an Egyptian, five Syrians, two Australians, and a Kuwaiti national. (Reuters) (Time) (The Gulf News)

Politics and elections

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- A mass rally due to be held on November 29, 2015 in Paris on the eve of climate change talks is called off due to the threat of terrorism. (ABC News)
Peter Robinson announces he will step down as Northern Ireland's First Minister and as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, corresponding with recent tensions in the area and a murder linked with the Irish Republican Army. (ITV News)
The U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto-threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passes legislation to suspend the Obama administration's program to admit 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country. The bill will now face a vote in the U.S. Senate. (Reuters)