Portal:Current events/2019 October 1

October 1, 2019 (2019-10-01) (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Donbass, Minsk Protocol
  • Ukraine agrees to the "Steinmeier formula", aimed at granting a special self-governing status to the Donbass and organising OSCE-validated elections according to Ukrainian law. (Kyiv Post) (TASS)
• 2015–19 Iraqi protests, New Arab Spring
  • At least two people are killed and 200 are injured at protests against unemployment and government corruption in Iraq. Protestors also try to enter the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. (Reuters)
• Northern Mali conflict
  • Mali's government says jihadist militant attacks on military (FAMA) posts in Mondoro and Boulkessi, in the central Mopti Region, killed 25 troops and left 60 others missing, possibly captured, while also inflicting heavy equipment losses. (Reuters) (Deutsche Welle)
• 2019 Hong Kong protests
  • An 18-year-old protestor is shot in the chest by police and taken to hospital for surgery during clashes between pro-democracy protesters and the police in Hong Kong on National Day of the People's Republic of China. Video footage shows the police officer shooting the protester as the protester tries to hit his arm with a metal pipe. This is the first reported injury from a live round. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
  • China celebrates its National Day with parades across the country, including a large military parade in the capital Beijing. (CNN)

Business and economy

• Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff owner Dolphin Drilling announces it has found a buyer for the shipyard, infrastructure-based InfraStrata, saving it from closure. (Reuters)
• United Parcel Service announces that it has been designated as the first official, commercial, drone airline service by the Federal Aviation Administration. (Wired)
• In leaked audio from a meeting with employees in July, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg threatens to sue Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, if she is elected president and tries to "break up" large tech companies. (The Verge)

Disasters and accidents

• The Nanfang'ao Bridge, the only steel single-arch bridge in Taiwan, collapses on fishing boats in Su'ao. Ten people are injured and six are believed to have been trapped. (Reuters)
• Severe flooding affects Laxey, Isle of Man, with some residents evacuated from their homes. (Isle of Man Government)

Health and environment

• Climate change mitigation
  • Dutch farmers stage a protest in The Hague against proposals to halve livestock numbers in a bid to cut nitrogen emissions. Motoring group ANWB claims tractors on highways caused a total of 1,136km (700 miles) of traffic jams during morning rush hour, with tractors on one highway swerving back and forth to prevent traffic passing. (BBC)

International relations

• North Korea–United States relations, North Korean missile tests, Japan–North Korea relations
  • North Korea says it will resume working-level nuclear talks with the United States, reviving a denuclearization process that has remained stalled since a February summit in Vietnam ended without a deal. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • North Korea fires a missile which lands in the exclusive economic zone of Japan, according to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• A woman is killed and ten other people injured when a student attacks a teacher and students with a sword at a vocational school inside a shopping mall in Kuopio, Northern Savonia, Finland. Police disarm and arrest the suspect, who is one of the injured. (Evening Standard) (CNN) (NewsNow)
• A jury finds Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer, guilty of murder. Guyger was indicted last year after fatally shooting her unarmed neighbor, Botham Jean, in his own apartment, which she claims to have mistaken for her own. (The Sacramento Bee)
• A U.S. district judge in Boston, Massachusetts, upholds Harvard University's admissions process following a challenge from a group of Asian American applicants who believe the school discriminated against them. (CNN)
• In the United Kingdom, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they are suing The Mail on Sunday, as well as its parent company DMG Media, claiming the publisher's newspapers have been publishing "false and deliberately derogatory stories" about their lives. (Yahoo! News)
• Opioid epidemic in the United States
  • Johnson & Johnson announces it has reached a $20.4 million settlement with two Ohio counties over its role in the opioid epidemic in the United States. (The Washington Post)
• Aida Merlano, a former Congresswoman who is serving a fifteen-year sentence for buying votes and for firearms offences, escapes from prison in Bogotá, Colombia. (The Independent)

Politics and elections

• Impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accuses House Democrats of attempting to "intimidate" and "bully" five State Department officials whom key congressional committees have asked to interview as part of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The House Democrats in turn issue a warning to Pompeo to stop "intimidating" witnesses, telling Pompeo that it "is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry" into President Trump. (ABC News), (CNN)
  • U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani hires Watergate scandal prosecutor Jon Sale to represent him in the impeachment inquiry investigating the president. (CNBC)
  • Steve Linick, the inspector general of the U.S. State Department, requests an "urgent" briefing with senior congressional staff members regarding Ukraine. The private meeting will be held tomorrow. (CNN)
• Immigration policy of Donald Trump
  • The New York Times reports that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs in order to slow them down after they crossed the Mexico–United States border during a meeting in March. He also reportedly suggested digging a moat to fortify a border wall and filling it with "snakes or alligators", and wanted the wall "electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh". (Business Insider)
• Tax returns of Donald Trump
  • A U.S. federal judge in California blocks a state law requiring presidential candidates to disclose income tax returns before their names can appear on the state's primary ballot. The ruling is considered a win for President Donald Trump, who has resisted releasing his tax returns. (CNN)
• 2019 Peruvian constitutional crisis
  • The Vice President of Peru Mercedes Aráoz, who was named by the Congress as the acting president, resigns from both offices to facilitate the snap general election. (BBC)
• Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign
  • The Republican National Committee and the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign to reelect President Donald Trump raised $125 million between July and September, setting a new presidential fundraising record, the Associated Press reports. (Axios)

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