Portal:Current events/2016 May 19

Current events of May 19, 2016 (2016-05-19) (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Syrian civil war Syrian government forces and allies, including Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, retake a large area southeast of Damascus, including the key town of Deir al-Asafir. (BBC) (Al Arabiya) Fighting between Jaysh al-Islam and rival factions led by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Ghouta, near Damascus, leaves more than 50 people dead. (Swiss Info) (Ara News) Taliban insurgency Eight policemen are killed in an insider attack in Zabul Province. (Hindustan Times) Iraqi civil war (2014–present) At least three civilians are killed and 10 others wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq. (Rudaw) Arts and culture Oppenheimer Blue, a large and rare blue diamond, is sold for $57.6 million USD, the most expensive jewel ever sold at an auction. (Reuters) (Swiss Info) Business and economics German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer bids to merge with American agrochemical and agricultural firm Monsanto. (Forbes) (Bloomberg) Google honors Asian American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, who held controversial views about racial harmony, terrorism and American power, with a doodle. (Democracy Now) (The Washington Post) Disasters and accidents EgyptAir Flight 804 EgyptAir Flight 804 between Paris and Cairo disappears with 56 passengers and 10 crew onboard. The plane was at 37,000 feet when it disappeared ten minutes before entering Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. It is later reported to have crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos. Locals reported seeing a fireball. (Reuters) (The Telegraph) (The Guardian) 2016 Silk Way Airlines Antonov An-12 crash An Azerbaijani cargo airplane crashes during landing in southern Afghanistan, killing seven out of its nine crew members. (Washington Post) (Daily Sabah) Law and Crime A unanimous opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court finds that the constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial does not guarantee a speedy sentencing hearing. (CNS) San Francisco Police Department Chief Greg Suhr resigns from his position several hours after a black woman is shot by police in San Francisco. (ABC News) International relations Accession of Montenegro to NATO Montenegro and NATO sign an accession agreement, paving the way for the country's future entry into the military alliance. All of NATO's members must now ratify the agreement, with Prime Minister Milo Đukanović expecting Montenegro to join by mid 2017. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) Politics and election Decommunization in Ukraine: Ukraine's Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, decides that the country's third largest city, Dnipropetrovsk, be renamed Dnipro as part of the decommunization drive. (Kyiv Post), (Radio Free Europe) Philippine general election, 2016 In the Philippine general election, the Liberal Party emerges as the party with a plurality of seats in the Philippine Senate election, 2016 and Philippine House of Representatives elections, 2016. (Xinhua) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks Yisrael Beiteinu party leader and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to be Defense Minister. Current defense minister and former army chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon's role in the future government is unclear. Leiberman is known for his hawkish and uncompromising views. (The Guardian) (Israel Hayom) Science A new species of horned dinosaur, Machairoceratops cronusi, thought to have lived about 77 million years ago, is discovered in southern Utah. (Huffington Post) (FOX News) (PLOS One) Google receives a United States patent for an adhesive for its self-driving cars, so-called human flypaper, designed to minimize injuries in a pedestrian accident by holding the person to the car rather than being thrown after impact. (The Verge) (ABC News)