Portal:Current events/2020 May 22

May 22, 2020 (Friday)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Coronavirus recession
- Europe's largest coach operator Shearings collapses into administration with 2,460 immediate job losses and thousands of holidays cancelled. (The Guardian)
- American car rental company Hertz files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to accumulating nearly $19 billion in debt. (CBC News)

Disasters and accidents

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303
- An Airbus A320 carrying 99 people crashes in a residential area near Karachi Airport, Pakistan. Ninety-seven people onboard are killed; the other two survive with injuries. Another person died on the ground. Some people on the ground were also injured when the plane crashed near houses. (BBC News)
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declares states of emergency in Gladwin, Saginaw and Arenac counties due to the Edenville Dam failure and subsequent flooding of the Tittabawassee River earlier this week. (WJRT-TV)
A tractor-trailer and a truck carrying passengers crash head-on on a highway in Darfur, Sudan, causing 57 deaths and 20 injuries. (Associated Press via ABC News)
Hooghalen train crash
- A collision between a train and agricultural vehicle on a level crossing in Hooghalen, Drenthe, the Netherlands. The machinist died. (NOS)

Health and environment

Law and crime

A gunman kills seven people in Ukraine's Zhytomyr Oblast after a drunken quarrel during a fishing trip. The perpetrator is arrested afterwards. (MSN)

Politics and elections

May 2020 New Zealand National Party leadership election
- Todd Muller defeats Simon Bridges to become the new leader of the National Party, and the Leader of the Opposition. (Newshub)
2019–20 Hong Kong protests
- Hong Kong executive says that the newly-proposed security law will not hamper judicial independence. Many activists condemn the move; the organizer of many of last year's protests and convener of the Civil Human Rights Front Jimmy Sham says that the law is a "nuclear bomb" dropped by "the Chinese Communist Party" and calls for mass protests. Activist Joshua Wong also condemns the law and calls it a law "to silence Hongkongers". (The Standard Hong Kong)
Presidency of Jair Bolsonaro
- Following accusations by former Justice Minister Sérgio Moro and a judicial order, footage from a controversial Brazilian Cabinet meeting is released to the media. The profanity-laden footage shows President Jair Bolsonaro calling for political interference in security organs to protect his family; Bolsonaro alleges this was a reference to his private security team, while Moro says that Bolsonaro was referring to Federal Police investigations. (Al Jazeera)
- The footage also shows Environment Minister Ricardo Salles calling for the deregulation of environmental policies while the press is "distracted" by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reuters)