WOn June 1, 2008, a fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood, an American film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. The fire began when a worker used a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles that were being applied to a facade. He left before checking that all spots had cooled, and a three-alarm fire broke out. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriffs' deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire was extinguished after 24 hours.
WThe 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires season saw a year-to-year surge in fires occurring in the Amazon rainforest and Amazon biome within Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru during that year's Amazonian tropical dry season. Fires normally occur around the dry season as slash-and-burn methods are used to clear the forest to make way for agriculture, livestock, logging, and mining, leading to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Such activity is generally illegal within these nations, but enforcement of environmental protection can be lax. The increased rates of fire counts in 2019 led to international concern about the fate of the Amazon rainforest, which is the world's largest terrestrial carbon dioxide sink and plays a significant role in mitigating global warming.
WThe oil spill in northeastern Brazil is an ongoing spill of crude oil that has affected Brazilian jurisdictional waters and over 2,250 km (1,400 mi) of coastline in northeastern Brazil. The spill was first reported on 30 August 2019. The origin of the oil spill is unconfirmed but stated to not be Brazilian. By the end of October 2019, over 1,000 tonnes had been cleaned up; the spill had contaminated portions of all nine states of Brazil's Northeast Region.
WThe 2019 Reed Bank incident occurred when F/B Gem-Ver, a Philippine fishing boat anchored in Reed Bank in the South China Sea, sank after it was rammed by a Chinese vessel, Yuemaobinyu 42212, during the early morning hours of 9 June 2019. The stricken vessel's crew were later rescued by a Vietnamese fishing vessel.
WThe 2019–2020 Maltese protests started in Valletta and other urban centres of Malta on 20 November 2019, mainly calling for resignations after alleged political links to the assassination of journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia surfaced following the arrest of businessman Yorgen Fenech. The protesters also targeted government corruption and the lack of action on money laundering. The protests consisted of demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, and civil disobedience and have been unprecedented in Malta's political history since its independence from the United Kingdom.
WThe 2019 Bolivian protests were protests and marches from 21 October 2019 until late November of that year in Bolivia, in response to claims of electoral fraud in the 2019 general election of 20 October. After 11 November 2019, there were protests by supporters of the outgoing government in response to Jeanine Áñez becoming the acting president of Bolivia. The claims of fraud were made after the suspension of the preliminary vote count, in which incumbent Evo Morales was not leading by a large enough margin (10%) to avoid a runoff, and the subsequent publication of the official count, in which Morales won by just over 10%. Some international observers expressed concern over the integrity of the elections.
WOn July 14, 2019, Brandon Andrew Clark murdered Bianca Michelle Devins after allegedly seeing her kiss another man, although police reports say the murder was premeditated. Following a botched suicide attempt, Clark was charged with second-degree murder. He subsequently pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
WThe Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, formally the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC is a European Union (EU) directive which has been adopted and came into force on 7 June 2019. It is intended to ensure "a well-functioning marketplace for copyright". It extends existing European Union copyright law and is a component of the EU's Digital Single Market project. The European Council (EC) describes their key goals with the Directive as protecting press publications; reducing the "value gap" between the profits made by Internet platforms and by content creators; encouraging collaboration between these two groups, and creating copyright exceptions for text- and data-mining.
WVarious people and groups assert that U.S. president Donald Trump engaged in impeachable activity both before and during his presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of "Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred", which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.
WOn August 10, 2019, guards found the American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein unresponsive in his Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York jail cell, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. After prison guards performed CPR, he was transported in cardiac arrest to the New York Downtown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:39 a.m. The New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide by hanging. Epstein's lawyers challenged that conclusion and opened their own investigation, hiring pathologist Michael Baden.
WThe First Temptation of Christ is a 2019 Brazilian parody film produced by the comedy troupe Porta dos Fundos. It was released by Netflix on 3 December 2019 but was removed in September 2021.
WThe good conduct time allowance (GCTA) controversy started in August 2019 involving the employees of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). It begins with Bureau of Corrections Director General Nicanor Faeldon and several other government officials signing the document containing the release of former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez, the prime suspect in the rape and murder of Eileen Sarmenta and her friend Allan Gomez in 1993, and the release of Josman Aznar, Ariel Balansag, Alberto Caño and James Anthony Uy, the 4 suspects in the rape and murder of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in 1997, citing "good conduct."
WJulian Assange was investigated by the Eastern District of Virginia grand jury for US computer-related crimes committed in 2012. His request for political asylum was granted by Ecuador and he remained in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London from 2012 until 2019. In 2019, a US indictment from 2018 was made public following the termination of his asylum status and his subsequent arrest by the UK Metropolitan Police in London. The US indictment accused Assange of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion by helping US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning gain access to privileged information, which Assange intended to publish on WikiLeaks. The charge was less serious than those levelled against Manning, and carries a maximum sentence of five years with a possibility of parole.
WJoker is a 2019 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver. The film, based on DC Comics characters, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker and provides a possible origin story for the character. Set in 1981, it follows Arthur Fleck, a failed clown and stand-up comedian whose descent into insanity and nihilism inspires a violent counter-cultural revolution against the wealthy in a decaying Gotham City. Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham, and Marc Maron appear in supporting roles. Joker was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, and Joint Effort, in association with Bron Creative and Village Roadshow Pictures, and distributed by Warner Bros.
WAlexandria Kostial was a 21-year-old University of Mississippi student who was found dead near a Mississippi lake in July 2019. A suspect, 22-year-old Brandon Theesfeld of Fort Worth, Texas, was arrested and charged with murder after Kostial's remains were discovered by a Lafayette County deputy. It was reported that Kostial had been shot multiple times.
WThe murder of Mackenzie Lueck occurred on June 17, 2019. Lueck, a 23-year-old student at the University of Utah, was reported missing and her bound, burned, and buried remains were later discovered. Ayoola Ajayi, 31, was arrested and charged with Lueck's kidnapping and murder. In October 2020, Ajayi pleaded guilty to Lueck's murder and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without parole.
WMulan is a 2020 American fantasy action drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin, it is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1998 film of the same name, itself based on the Chinese folklore story Ballad of Mulan. The film stars Yifei Liu in the title role, alongside Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li in supporting roles. In the film, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, masquerades as a man to take her ailing father's place during a general conscription to counter the Rouran army in Imperial China.
W"Old Town Road" is a song by American rapper Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. Lil Nas X also recorded a remix with American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, which was released on April 5, 2019. Both were included on Lil Nas X's first EP, 7 (2019).
WPewDiePie vs T-Series was an online rivalry between two YouTube channels, PewDiePie and T-Series for the title of the most-subscribed YouTube channel. T-Series has held the title of most-viewed YouTube channel since February 2017, and PewDiePie had been the most-subscribed YouTube channel since August 2013. The rivalry between the two YouTube channels began when T-Series' subscriber count began to near PewDiePie's in late 2018.
W"Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal" is an episode of the BBC's news and current affairs programme Newsnight broadcast on BBC Two on 16 November 2019. The 58-minute programme saw Prince Andrew, Duke of York, interviewed by journalist Emily Maitlis about his relationship with convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew's responses in the interview received negative reactions from both the media and the public. In May 2020, it was announced that he would permanently resign from all his public roles over his ties to Epstein.
WThe Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) was launched by the Department of Transportation of the Philippines in 2017, with the goal of making the country's public transportation system efficient and environmentally friendly by 2020. The program calls for the phasing-out jeepneys, buses and other Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs) that are at least 15 years old and replacing them with safer, more comfortable and more environmentally-friendly alternatives over the next three years. Currently, there are 220,000 jeepney units operating throughout the country.
WToTok is a messaging app developed by Giacomo Ziani. It was introduced in Abu Dhabi Global Market economic free zone. According to The New York Times, it is also a mass surveillance tool of the United Arab Emirates intelligence services, used to gather private information on users' phones. The Times's reporting, denied by the app's developers, caused Google and Apple to remove the app in December 2019.
WThe United States recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel through a presidential proclamation signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on March 25, 2019. The directive made the United States the first country to recognize Israeli rather than Syrian sovereignty over the Golan Heights region. The Golan Heights, widely viewed as Syrian territory under Israeli military occupation have been under de facto Israeli control since about 1981.
WYouTube Rewind 2019: For the Record is a video that was uploaded to YouTube's official channel on the video-sharing website YouTube on December 5, 2019, as the tenth and final part of the YouTube Rewind series. The video contains montages of the top videos and YouTubers of the year.