May 19, 2020 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Insurgency in Balochistan
- Six Pakistani soldiers are killed when their vehicle was targeted by a roadside bomb in Balochistan. In another attack, a soldier is shot dead by separatists. (Al Jazeera)
- Second Libyan Civil War
- War in Afghanistan; May 2020 Afghanistan attacks
- Gunmen storm a mosque in Afghanistan's central Parwan Province, killing seven people and wounding 12 others. (Al Jazeera)
- Afghan troops repel a Taliban attack on the northern city of Kunduz, killing up to 40 insurgents. (The Hindu)
Disasters and accidents
- One day after former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard disappeared near the Marina Del Rey beach in Venice Beach, California while swimming, the United States Coast Guard calls off the search. The Los Angeles Police Department is still searching for him. (CNN)
- Amid heavy flooding in the Tittabawassee River caused by three straight days of heavy rainfall, the Edenville Dam in central Michigan partially collapses, prompting evacuations downstream. Governor Gretchen Whitmer declares a state of emergency for Midland County and the Michigan Army National Guard has been called in to assist. (AccuWeather)
Health and environment
- COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
- COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota
- Annie Glenn, widow of astronaut John Glenn and disability rights advocate, dies of COVID-19 in a nursing home in Minnesota. (CNN)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan
- Michigan becomes the fourth state in the U.S. to pass 5,000 deaths from COVID-19. The state has 5,017 reported deaths and 52,350 total cases. (MLive.com)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
- The Brazilian Ministry of Health reports 17,408 new confirmed cases and 1,179 more deaths from COVID-19, their highest daily death toll to date, bringing Brazil's death toll to 17,971 and 271,628 total cases. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in South Sudan
- Vice President of South Sudan Riek Machar and his wife Angelina Teny (who acts as defense minister) test positive for COVID-19 and self-isolate. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
International relations
- Trump peace plan, Israel–Palestine relations, Palestine–United States relations
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces the termination of all agreements, including security ones, with Israel and the United States in response to Israel's plans to annex the Jordan Valley. (WAFA)
- United Kingdom–Venezuela relations
- The Central Bank of Venezuela launches a legal claim against the Bank of England, to try to force the British bank to release €930m ($1bn; £820m) worth of Venezuelan gold it claims it holds. (BBC News)
Law and crime
- 2020 Toronto machete attack
- The Toronto Police declares a machete attack that occurred at an erotic massage parlor in February to be an act of terrorism driven by incel ideology. The attack left one woman dead and another injured. (Global News)
- Capital punishment in the United States
- In the first execution since the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States began, a Missouri man is put to death by lethal injection for murdering an elderly woman in 1991. (The Associated Press)
Politics and elections
- The Parliament of Lesotho accepts the resignation of Tom Thabane. Finance minister Moeketsi Majoro replaces him as interim Prime Minister. (Reuters)