Portal:Current events/2019 May 5

May 5, 2019 (Sunday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Gaza–Israel clashes (May 2019), Iran–Israel proxy conflict
- Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip fire hundreds of rockets at Israel, killing two Israeli civilians in Ashkelon and one in Ashdod. Retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 23 Palestinians, including a senior Hamas commander. (CNN) (Haartez)
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- Taliban insurgents kill 13 and injure 55 people in an attack on a police headquarters in Puli Khumri, Afghanistan, using guns and suicide vests. The Taliban's high command recently rejected a ceasefire offer from the Afghan government. (BBC News)
The United States deploys a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to respond to threats from Iran. A U.S. official told CNN, "... the threats were against both U.S. maritime and land-based forces in the region." (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

Aeroflot Flight 1492
- At least 41 passengers are killed after Sukhoi Superjet 100 (flight SU1492), which suffered an inflight fire, is engulfed by fire after an emergency crash landing at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia. A five-person crew and 73 passengers were on board. (Aviation 24) (BBC News)
Seven Venezuelan military officers are killed in a helicopter crash. (AP)

International relations

Law and crime

LGBT rights in Brunei
- Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announces, via a television broadcast, that he has extended the moratorium on capital punishment for gay sex convictions. No executions have been carried out in Brunei since 1957. There has been overwhelming international backlash against a number of the changes affected by the stricter interpretation of Islamic law published on 3 April 2019. The Sultan also said Brunei will ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture. (BBC News) (CNN)

Politics and elections

2019 North Macedonian presidential election
- Voters in North Macedonia head to the polls for the second round of the 2019 presidential election. Stevo Pendarovski of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia wins over his opponent Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova. (Reuters) (The New York Times)
2019 Panamanian general election
- Laurentino Cortizo of the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party defeats Rómulo Roux of the center-right Democratic Change party in a narrow election to become the next president of Panama. Cortizo receives 33% of the vote to Roux's 31%, marking the return of the Democratic Revolutionary Party after 10 years out of the presidency. (BBC News)