February 4, 2019 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attack
- Iraqi insurgency (2017–present)
- Somali Civil War (2009–present)
- 2019 Mogadishu bombing
- A Maltese port manager is killed at a fish market in Puntland by Al-Shabaab militants disguised as fishermen. (BBC News)
Business and economy
- German airline Germania declares bankruptcy and ceases operations, cancelling all flights immediately. (Reuters)
International relations
- 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
- Several European Union states, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Spain, officially recognize Juan Guaidó as interim President of Venezuela after Nicolás Maduro rejects the European ultimatum to call a new snap election. Other European Union countries, such as Greece and Ireland, stop short of recognizing Guaidó, while Italy's leading coalition party, the 5 Star Movement, declares that it is not "for the EU to tell another nation what to do". (BBC News)
Law and crime
- 25-year-old Australian footballer and refugee from Bahrain, Hakeem al-Araibi, is ordered to defend an extradition order back to Bahrain in a Bangkok court, after being detained upon arrival in Thailand for his honeymoon with his wife in November 2018. International community is treating it as a human rights issue; a campaign to free al-Araibi and return him to Australia is growing. (news.com.au)
Science and technology
- Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel
- After numerous cost overruns and delays, a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) highway tunnel in Seattle, Washington, U.S., opens to traffic, becoming the largest road tunnel in the contiguous United States. It was bored using Bertha, the world's largest tunnel boring machine. (The Washington Post)
- World Magnetic Model
- The location of the magnetic north pole is updated one year early due to its increasingly rapid movement toward Siberia from the Canadian Arctic at a rate of 55 kilometers (34 miles) per year. (NOAA)