August 2, 2019 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Yemeni Civil War, Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
- At least 19 Yemeni soldiers are killed by an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula attack on a military camp in Abyan, Yemen. (Al Jazeera)
- 2019 Bangkok bombings
- Multiple bomb blasts hit Bangkok, Thailand, as United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a regional security summit. At least four people are injured. (DW)
Business and economy
- 2019 Japan–South Korea trade dispute
- Japan announces the removal of South Korea from its list of most trusted trading partners, effective on August 28. (Marketwatch)
International relations
- Russia–United States relations
- The United States formally withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. (CNN)
Law and crime
- 2019 Zagreb shooting
- Women's rights in Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabia grants women the right to travel without permission from a male guardian, and expands their marriage and custodial rights in a series of royal decrees. (Reuters)
- Capital punishment in Japan
- Japan carries out the first executions this year, hanging Koichi Shoji, 64, who killed two women in 2001, and serial killer Yasunori Suzuki, 50, who killed three women between 2004 and 2005 in Fukuoka Prefecture. (Kyodo News)
Politics and elections
- UK House of Commons: 2019 Brecon and Radnorshire by-election
- The Liberal Democrats gain the Brecon and Radnorshire seat from the Conservatives. This marks the first time a seat has changed hands in a by-election triggered by a successful recall petition. The working majority of the Conservative government is reduced to one. (The Guardian)
- List of Donald Trump nominees who have withdrawn
- President Trump announces he will not nominate Representative John Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence when he resigns on August 15, and plans to block Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon from serving as acting director. (The New York Times) (The New York Times²)
- Murder of Alexandra Măceșanu
- Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă sacks Minister of Education Ecaterina Andronescu for her controversial comments in a television interview about murdered 15-year-old girl Alexandra Măceșanu, saying she was "taught not to get in cars with strangers". A 65-year-old man has since admitted killing Alexandra Măceșanu and another teenage girl who has been missing since April. (BBC News)
- Deforestation in Brazil
- Brazil's National Space Research Institute Director-General Ricardo Galvão is dismissed from office as a result of the release of data showing a rise in Amazon deforestation. President Jair Bolsonaro has called the release of the data "irresponsible and sensationalist". (BBC News) (The Guardian)
Sports
- Argentine footballer Lionel Messi is suspended from his national team for three months and fined US$50,000 for criticizing the South American Football Confederation. (The New York Times)