Portal:Current events/2019 November 18

• 2019 Hong Kong protests
  • Police seal off and trap hundreds of students and protesters inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University amid fears of a crackdown. After a police officer is injured, security forces threaten to fire live bullets if protesters do not give up lethal weapons. (Reuters)
  • Protesters manage to escape from the university by shimmying down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as the police fire projectiles. (Reuters)
• Second Libyan Civil War
  • An airstrike on a biscuit shop kills five Bangladeshi nationals and two Libyans and wounds 33 others in Tripoli, Libya. A U.N. envoy to Libya claims that it could be a war crime. (The Seattle Times)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • A South Korean oil drilling rig is seized by Houthi rebels. It is unknown how many sailors were on board. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• 2019 Iranian fuel protests
  • A Revolutionary Guard commander vows decisive action to restore calm to Iran. (Newsweek)
  • The death toll in the protests rises to 12, but reports vary. (BBC News)
• Northern Mali conflict
  • Militants kill 24 soldiers and wound 29 others on an army patrol in northern Mali. Seventeen militants were also killed in the melee. 6 injured soldiers later die increasing the death toll to 42. (Reuters) (The New York Times)

• Japan opens its first military arms show, as it tries to improve its military technology to combat external threats from China and North Korea. (Reuters)

• Fukushima nuclear disaster
  • The Japanese government authorizes a release of contaminated water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean. Officials say that the release represents a "significantly small" risk to human health. (Kyodo News Plus)

• Russia–Ukraine relations, Ukrainian crisis
  • Russia returns three Ukrainian Navy vessels it seized during an incident in the Kerch Strait last year. (Deutsche Welle) (Reuters)
• Israel–United States relations, Israeli occupation of the West Bank
  • The Trump administration announces that the United States no longer considers Israeli settlement of the West Bank as illegal per se under international law. The announcement is praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and condemned by the European Union, the Palestinian National Authority, and Jordanian Foreign Affairs Minister Ayman Safadi. (The Guardian)

• 2019 Hong Kong protests
  • The Hong Kong High Court rules that the government's mask ban violates the Basic Law. (South China Morning Post)
• LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia
  • Two Saudi journalists, one of whom worked for CNN and the BBC, are outed as gay, which prompts them to flee and seek asylum in Australia. (Reuters)
• 2019 Bolivian protests
  • Interim interior minister Arturo Murillo threatens to arrest MAS legislators, who refuse to recognize Jeanine Áñez's legitimacy, for "subversion". (The Globe Post)

• Marshall Islands general election
  • Citizens cast their votes for the 33 members of the country's legislature. (Reuters)
• 2019 Bolivian protests
  • Thousands of Bolivian coca farmers came out in protest in favour of Evo Morales and called for the resignation of Añez as Acting President. (Reuters)