Portal:Current events/2019 June 13

June 13, 2019 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

June 2019 Gulf of Oman incident, Iran–United States relations, Iran–Saudi Arabia relations
- Two oil tankers, one Norwegian and one Japanese, are damaged and abandoned after being attacked in the Gulf of Oman, with all crew members aboard both ships safely rescued. (BBC News)
- The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir directly blame Iran for being behind the attacks on both ships. Iranian officials deny the U.S. claims. (BBC News) (Reuters)
- The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) releases a video showing what CENTCOM spokesperson says, is an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' patrol boat approaching the Kokuka Courageous "and was observed and recorded removing an unexploded limpet mine from the M/T Kokuka Courageous." Iran denies involvement. (Associated Press) (Reuters)
A suicide bomber kills eleven and injures thirteen in an attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Reuters) (News18)

Disasters and accidents

One of the towers of the centuries-old Citadel of Ghazni, Afghanistan, collapses amid heavy rainfall. (BBC News)

Law and crime

Flint water crisis
- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announces that charges will be dropped against eight people in the Flint water crisis and investigations will be restarted in the scandal, which has plagued the city since 2014. (Wall Street Journal) (The Hill)

Politics and elections

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) recommends that the Trump administration remove Kellyanne Conway from her office as senior aide to President Trump because of her repeated violations of the Hatch Act of 1939. The Trump administration rejects the OSC's recommendations, saying they "are deeply flawed and violate [Conway's] constitutional rights to free speech and due process." (USA Today)
List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations
- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces she will resign at the end of June. (CBC)

Science and technology

Twitter suspensions
- Twitter says it has removed thousands of accounts that were being run by the Iranian government, to spread propaganda and fake news on the social media platform. It has also removed over a hundred accounts linked to the Catalan independence movement, and dozens of accounts related to Venezuela. (Reuters)

Sports

2019 NBA Finals
- In basketball, the Toronto Raptors defeat the Golden State Warriors four games to two to win their first NBA championship. The Toronto Raptors are also the first NBA team outside of the United States and the first from Canada to win the NBA Finals. (Los Angeles Times) (Business Insider)