Portal:Current events/2019 April 8
April 8, 2019 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Second Libyan Civil War, 2019 Western Libya offensive
- Forces loyal to the Government of National Accord retake Tripoli International Airport from the Libyan National Army. (Anadolu Agency)
- One of the vice chairmen of the GNA Presidential Council, Ali Faraj Qatrani, defects to the Tobruk-based government. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
- A warplane loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, reported to be a MiG-23, strikes Mitiga International Airport, the only functional airport in Tripoli. A LNA spokesman says civilian planes were not targeted in the air raid. (The Guardian)
- War in Afghanistan
- A roadside bomb kills three U.S. troops and one civilian contractor near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (BBC News)
Arts and culture
- The Nation's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel announces that she will step down as editor after 24 years, on June 15, 2019. (The New York Times)
Law and crime
- Nationwide protests against animal cruelty take place in Australia. In the city of Melbourne, protesters blocked a major intersection for four hours before it was dispatched by police; several people were arrested. (News.com.au)
- The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the United Kingdom releases a white paper proposing to set up an independent regulatory body which would require Internet companies to remove content and block websites considered harmful. (BBC News)
- 2019 college admissions bribery scandal
- American actress Felicity Huffman and 13 other defendants involved in a conspiracy regarding admission to prestigious colleges have agreed to plead guilty in the matter, prosecutors say. The 14 individuals are among 50 people accused of engaging in schemes that involved cheating on college entrance exams and paying $25 million in bribes to secure their children admission to well-known colleges. (WKZO)
- U.S. district judge Richard Seeborg halts the Trump administration’s policy of sending some asylum seekers to Mexico while their cases are pending in the United States. The national injunction will take effect Friday. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
- Eric Swalwell 2020 presidential campaign
- U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell from California announces he is running for the Democratic Party's nomination to be President of the United States in the 2020 presidential election. (Fox News)
- Eric Swalwell 2020 presidential campaign
- Trump administration dismissals and resignations
- U.S. President Donald Trump terminates the employment of Randolph Alles, the Director of the United States Secret Service. (CNN)
- United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces the designation of the entirety of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), effective April 15. This will be the first time the United States has designated a part of another government as a terrorist organization. (United States Department of State) (CBS News)
Science and technology
- David Saint-Jacques becomes the fourth Canadian astronaut to take part in a spacewalk and the first in 12 years as he begins a roughly seven-hour mission. (The Hamilton Spectator) (CBC.ca)
- Gravitational wave observations
- LIGO and Virgo detect a gravitational wave from a galaxy 6 billion light-years away in the direction of Cassiopeia, with further details being released on April 10. (New Scientist)
Sports
- 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
- In basketball, the Virginia Cavaliers defeat the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 85–77 in overtime, to win their first national title. (The Washington Post)