Portal:Current events/2019 September 18

September 18, 2019 (Wednesday)

Business and economy

2019 Japan–South Korea trade dispute
- South Korea officially removes Japan from its "whitelist" of countries with fast-track trade status. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

At least 27 people, a majority of them children, are killed in a fire caused by an electrical problem at a boarding school in a suburb near the Liberian capital of Monrovia. (BBC News)
A Twin Otter cargo plane carrying rice and four people goes missing shortly after its departure from Timika, Indonesia. (The Loadstar)

International relations

Saudi Arabia joins the International Maritime Security Construct. (Arab News)
Solomon Islands–United States relations
- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence cancels a meeting with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in response to the country's move to cut ties with Taiwan and establish relations with China. (RNZ)

Law and crime

2019 Samoa assassination plot
- Prosecutiors in the case of the latest attempt to kill Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi announce that Eletise Leafa Vitale, convicted of the assassination of one of Malielegoai's cabinet members in another failed attempt at killing him in 1999, will testify in the trial against the conspirators of this year's plot. (RNZ)
Crisis in Venezuela
- The NGO Human Rights Watch publishes details of what it deems to be arbitrary executions and arrests in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government alleges that most of those listed in the report were armed criminals, but admits to have placed several hundred security agents under investigation for abuses of power and extrajudicial actions. (Human Rights Watch)
Murder of Derk Wiersum
- Dutch lawyer Derk Wiersum has been shot to death near his home. At the time of his death he was the lawyer of state witness Nabil Bakkali in the Marengo-proces against the Mocro Maffia led by Ridouan Taghi. (BBC News)

Politics and elections