Portal:Current events/2019 February 1

February 1, 2019 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

The Associated Press and Snopes say they are no longer providing fact-checking services for Facebook. (BBC News)
Boy Scouts of America membership controversies, Boy Scouts of America, Gender equality
- The Boy Scouts officially changes its name to Scouts BSA and young women join as official members of the organization for the first time. (ABC6) (Scouting Newsroom)

Disasters and accidents

January 2019 North American cold wave
- The death toll from a North American cold wave caused by a polar vortex rises to at least 21 people. (BBC News)
- A large-scale natural gas shortage in the U.S. state of Michigan is averted following the compliance of an emergency request from Consumers Energy for state residents to lower thermostats, after a fire at a natural gas compressor station threatened to halt the delivery of gas to consumers. The public's observance of the request resulted in a 10 percent decrease in natural gas usage across the state. (WNEM-TV) (Associated Press)

Three students at a school in Johannesburg, South Africa, are killed after a footbridge connecting the main school administration to various class rooms collapses. (AA)

International relations

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Cold War II, Russia–United States relations
- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the United States is suspending its role in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement made in 1987 with the USSR (and, by extension, its successor state Russia) banning both countries from possessing or testing nuclear and conventional intermediate-range missiles, as well as their launchers, citing Russian non-compliance with the treaty. (CNN)

Politics and elections

2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
- U.S. Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker announces that he is running for the office of the presidency in the 2020 presidential election. (CNN)
Republican and Democratic leaders call for the resignation of Virginian Governor Ralph Northam after a 1984 yearbook photograph apparently featuring Northam surfaces showing one person wearing blackface and another person wearing Ku Klux Klan attire. (The Hill)

Science and technology

A meteorite strikes near the Cuban town of Viñales, in the western province of Pinar del Río, after sightings of a fireball over the Florida Keys. The last confirmed meteorite to hit Cuba was in 1994. (DW)

Sports

2019 AFC Asian Cup
- Qatar defeats Japan 3-1 to win the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, earning them their first continental championship title. (The Guardian)
American Olympic alpine skier Lindsey Vonn announces she will retire after the 53rd Alpine Ski World Cup in Sweden, which is currently taking place and will conclude in March. (Time)