Portal:Current events/2019 September 20
September 20, 2019 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Boko Haram insurgency
- Nigeria bans international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger for allegedly providing food and medicine for Boko Haram militants in the north-east of the country. Action Against Hunger denies the Nigerian military's accusations. (BBC News) (Africanews)
- 2019 Karbala bombing
- A bomb explodes onboard a minibus at a security checkpoint near Karbala, Iraq, killing 12 civilians. (SFGate)
Arts and culture
- Under pressure from owner Hasbro, the next Brussels edition of the Monopoly board game censors Manneken Pis, the 17th-century bronze statue of a naked boy urinating, with swimming trunks. (The Telegraph)
Business and economy
- China–United States trade war
- The Trump administration lifts tariffs on 437 goods, amid talks. Chinese officials cancel a planned farm visit to return to China earlier. (Reuters)
- Nicotine marketing
- American retailer Walmart announces it will stop selling electronic cigarettes, which have recently caused at least eight deaths and 530 cases of a new extreme form of respiratory disease. (CNN)
Disasters and accidents
- A bus carrying Chinese tourists overturns near Bryce Canyon national park in Utah, United States. At least four passengers are killed and another five wounded. The National Transportation Safety Board launches an investigation. (The Guardian) (NTSB)
International relations
- Foreign relations of Taiwan
- U.S. President Donald Trump demands that European allies, in particular Germany and France, take back captured ISIL fighters, or else, he says, "we're going to let them go at your border". Trump also made the same threat in August. (AFP via MSN News)
- United States sanctions against Iran, 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack
- The United States unveils the "highest sanctions ever imposed on a country", targeting Iran's Central Bank and its National Development Fund. (Politico)
- The head of the Iranian Central Bank says the "re-boycotting" of the already-blacklisted institution shows the U.S.' failure to find new ways to pressure Iran. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- A woman who previously accused late United States financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager says she was "trafficked" to Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom and was abused by him at a house in London. She calls him "an abuser" and "a participant". Prince Andrew denies the allegations. (BBC News)
Politics and elections
- September 2019 climate strikes
- Millions of young people take to the streets and numerous businesses worldwide go on strike days before the UN Climate Summit, demanding that further action be taken to confront climate change. (Reuters) (NBC News)
- 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
- The Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio announces he is ending his presidential campaign, saying "I feel like I have contributed all I can to this primary election, and it's clearly not my time". (BBC News)
- 2019 Egyptian protests
- Thousands of protestors march across Egypt, including at Tahrir Square, demanding the resignation of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. (Al-Jazeera)
Science and technology
- Twitter suspensions
- Twitter suspends a network of 4,258 accounts using fake names being operated from the United Arab Emirates that were spreading fake news and propaganda, mostly about Qatar and the war in Yemen. Twitter also suspends the account of Saud al-Qahtani for violating the company's "platform manipulation" policies. (Al Jazeera)