Portal:Current events/2019 November 16
November 16, 2019 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Terrorism in Sri Lanka
- Gunmen open fire on two buses carrying Muslim voters to the polls near Anuradhapura. No casualties are reported and no arrests take place. (The Guardian)
- Syrian Civil War
- Turkey blames another attack on the PKK. The bombings targeted a bus terminal in al-Bab, Aleppo Governorate, killing 18 and wounding dozens of others. (Al Jazeera)
- 2019 Iraqi protests
- A car bomb detonates near a protest in Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 20. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- Gaza–Israel clashes (November 2019)
- Continuing rocket fire leads Israel to launch fresh strikes into Gaza in response. (France 24)
- An attack on civilians in the village of Mbau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, using bladed weapons, kills over 18 civilians. Islamic militants are the suspected attackers. (Reuters)
- 2019 Bolivian protests
- At least eight people were killed and dozens injured in Sacaba after security forces fired on supporters of ousted president Evo Morales. (NPR) (Associated Press)
- Bolivia's interim president met with a UN envoy, Jean Arnault, to discuss the country's political turmoil. (Global News)
Arts and culture
- LGBT rights in Hong Kong
- Amid violent protests, Hong Kong holds its gay pride parade in spite of a police ban. Human rights and pro-democracy and openly gay activist Jimmy Sham heads the march. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
International relations
- Iran–United States relations, Iran–Saudi Arabia relations, Egypt–Iran relations, Iran–United Arab Emirates relations, Bahrain–Iran relations, Shia–Sunni relations
- United States Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein asks Gulf States to be united amid rising tensions with Iran as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have divided opinions with Qatar. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- List of mass shootings in the United States in 2019
- A man killed his estranged wife and their three children and injured another child before killing himself in San Diego. (The New York Times)
Politics and elections
- 2019 Iranian fuel protests
- Large protests rock major Iranian cities with clashes reported between protesters and security forces. (Radio Farda)
- 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election
- Sri Lankan voters head to the polls to elect a new president. Although 35 candidates are running, the main frontrunners are former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of the right-wing Sri Lanka People's Front and current Minister of Housing and Construction Sajith Premadasa of the centre-right United National Party. (Reuters)
- Rajapaksa claims victory and Premadasa concedes defeat, with half of the votes counted for. (Reuters)
- Yellow vests movement
- Parisian police fire tear gas and water cannons at protestors and arrest around 105 people on the anniversary of the first yellow vest protests. (Reuters)
- 2019 Louisiana gubernatorial election
- Incumbent Democratic governor John Bel Edwards narrowly defeats businessman and Republican candidate Eddie Rispone to retain his seat; Louisiana Republicans also fall short of winning a supermajority in the Louisiana House of Representatives, allowing Edwards to retain veto power over legislation. The results follow recent gains by the Democratic Party in elections in Virginia and Kentucky and is considered as another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump. (Reuters)
- 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests
- In Hong Kong, soldiers belonging to China's People's Liberation Army are spotted in the streets helping clear debris left by protesters. (The Epoch Times)
- Protests in the Czech Republic
- On the 30th anniversary of the outbreak of the Velvet Revolution, over 200,000 people gathered at Letná, Prague, demanding better political culture and the resignation of prime minister Andrej Babiš. This was the second mass demonstration organized at Letná by Milion chvilek pro demokracii after a similar protest on 23 June 2019. (BBC News)