Portal:Current events/2019 June 15
< Portal:Current events
June 15, 2019 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- Yemen-based Houthi forces launch drone strikes on Jizan Regional Airport and Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi Arabian-led coalition spokesperson says a Houthi drone has been shot down near the Saudi city of Abha. (Reuters)
- 12 Kenyan police officers are killed when their vehicle hits a roadside bomb in east Wajir County, near the Somali border. No one has claimed responsibility, though the police had been pursuing suspected al-Shabab militants fighting Somalia's government and its backers. (BBC News) (Region week)
- Twin explosions rock Mogadishu killing 11 and injuring over 25. The first bomb went off near a checkpoint for the presidential palace killing nine and the other bomb killed the two occupants in the vehicle. Al Shabbab claimed responsibility. (Time) (Al Jazeera)
Arts and culture
- The Notre Dame Cathedral holds its first mass since the April 15 fire. (ABC News)
Disasters and accidents
- Seven people—four sanitation workers and three staff members—die after inhaling toxic fumes from a Darshsan Hotel sewer cleaning in the village of Fartikui in western India. The hotel owner is charged with the fatalities. (BBC News)
Health and environment
- The Ministry of Health of Peru reports that so far this year, 548 people have contracted Guillain–Barré syndrome in an outbreak in the country. It also clarified that in the five cases in which patients died, death was caused by complications with other serious diseases. (Perú.21)
International relations
- Japan–United States relations
- U.S. President Donald Trump thanks Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe by phone for his effort to mediate between the U.S. and Iran. (The Rahuma Daily)
- India–United States relations
- India announces that effective Sunday it will impose tariffs, some as high as 70 percent, on 28 United States products, including almonds and apples, in response to the U.S. government's refusal to exempt India from higher taxes on steel and aluminum imports. (BBC News)
Politics and elections
- 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests
- Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces that the government has suspended its plan to allow extraditions to mainland China. (BBC News)
- U.S. President Donald Trump confirms he has been briefed on a spike of UFO sightings in Earth's atmosphere by United States Navy pilots, saying "people are saying they're seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly". The U.S. Navy recently updated its guidelines for how its pilots can report "unidentified aircraft". (ABC News) (USA Today) (Fox News)
- Slovakia inaugurates Zuzana Čaputová as its first female elected President. (Euronews)