Portal:Current events/2019 February 20
< Portal:Current events
February 20, 2019 (Wednesday)
Arts and culture
- The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a 30 percent increase in U.S. hate groups over the past four years with a 7% increase in 2018 alone. (NPR)
International relations
- 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, 2019 shipping of humanitarian aid to Venezuela
- The Venezuelan Navy closes its maritime borders with the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire ahead of the planned entry of international humanitarian aid into Venezuela on February 23, which Nicolás Maduro considers a precursor to invasion. (CNN)
Disasters and accidents
- 2019 Dhaka fire
- A fast-moving fire has swept through a historic district of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, killing at least 80 and wounding 50 others. (CNN)
Law and crime
- Timbs v. Indiana
- The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous 9–0 decision, rules the 8th Amendment's prohibition on excessive fines applies to state and local governments, as well as the federal government. (The Washington Post)
Politics and elections
- History of the UK Conservative Party
- Three British MPs – Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen – defect from the Conservative Party to The Independent Group, citing their opposition to Brexit and the party's adoption of UKIP policies. This brings the total number of The Independent Group MPs to eleven following recent defections from Labour. (The Guardian)
- 2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit
- The United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee permits those North Koreans on its global travel ban list to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, for the second summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Reuters)
Science and technology
- One surviving female specimen of the Fernandina Galápagos tortoise species, which was thought to be extinct for more than 100 years, is found. (USA Today)