October 25, 2019 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Following the U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria, the United States is to deploy more troops to Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor Governorate to secure the country's petroleum gas and oilfields, according to a senior Department of Defense official. (Al Jazeera)
- 2018–19 Iraqi protests
- At least 40 people are killed and over 1,700 wounded when security forces violently clamp down on anti-government protestors in Iraq. (Al Jazeera) (BBC News)
- 2019 Ethiopian riots
- Ethiopian police report on Friday that the death toll from violent protests in Oromia Region was 67, including five officers. The protests started on Wednesday when protestors accused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of acting dictatorial, but they quickly degenerated into ethnic clashes. (The Guardian)
Arts and culture
- Hundreds of tourists flock to Uluru in Australia's Northern Territory to climb it for the last time before the park's ban on climbing goes into effect. The ban is being implemented to respect the wishes of the indigenous Aṉangu people, who find Uluru sacred. (Reuters)
Business and economy
- The United Automobile Workers ends their 40-day strike against General Motors after a new contract is ratified. (MLive)
- In a move that surprised insiders, Microsoft beats Amazon Web Services to win a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the United States Department of Defense. (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- Lion Air Flight 610
- Indonesian investigators conclude their probe of the disaster with the release of a 353-page final report. The report states the crash was caused by a combination of flawed software design by Boeing, a failure of Lion Air to ground the jet over issues it had previously experienced, and inappropriate pilot responses to the developing emergency. (BBC News)
- A car collides with pedestrians and other vehicles after running two red lights while accelerating in central Shanghai. At least five are killed and nine more injured. (South China Morning Post)
International relations
- Brexit negotiations
- The European Commission announces that the European Union has agreed to a further extension of the Brexit deadline. The length of the extension is yet to be decided. (BBC News)
Law and crime
- 2019 Grays incident
- Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, announces he has sent a team to Essex to verify the identities of the 39 bodies found in a lorry this week, who are thought by UK authorities to be Chinese nationals. Post-mortems are due to begin today. The Northern Irish driver remains in police custody, suspected of murder. (BBC News)
- It is suspected that six of the victims are Vietnamese nationals. The family of one of them, a 19-year-old woman, made public her last text message to her parents which she sent while dying. (BBC News)
- Two further people are arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people in connection to the case. (BBC News)
- Terrorism in Turkey
- Turkish police arrest nine people on terrorism charges in Adana, including one foreign national. The men are suspected of Islamic State membership, recruiting for the group, and planning terrorist attacks. (Anadolu Agency)
- Gorny shooting
- A Russian soldier shoots and kills eight fellow soldiers and wounds two others at a Russian Armed Forces base in the village of Gorny, Zabaykalsky Krai. Officials say the soldier is suspected of having a "nervous breakdown", according to Russian media. (BBC News)
Politics and elections
- 2019 Bolivian general election
- Official results announce that incumbent Bolivian president Evo Morales has achieved a great enough margin to win re-election, though the legitimacy of the electoral process has been questioned by protestors and international observers. (BBC News)
- 2019–20 Lebanese protests
- Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah calls on his supporters to leave the protests, warning the government's resignation will lead to "chaos" and "civil war". It comes the day after Hezbollah supporters violently clashed with protestors in central Beirut. (Al Jazeera)
- Mueller report, Mueller special counsel investigation
- A federal judge rules the U.S. Justice Department must provide Congress with grand jury information redacted from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (The Wall Street Journal)
- The Chicago Teachers Union 2019 strike extends into its seventh schoolday, on-par with its 2012 strike. A Cook County judge is expected to hear an emergency injunction filed against the Illinois High School Association for not allowing student athletes within Chicago Public Schools participate in state playoffs, despite the IHSA's long-standing ban against teams from striking districts. (WGN-TV)
Sports
- 2019–20 in English football
- Leicester City F.C. equals the 24-year record for the biggest ever Premier League win and the biggest ever victory by an away side in an English football top-flight game after beating Southampton F.C. 9–0 at St Mary's Stadium. It was also Southampton's worst ever defeat in all competitions in their history. (BBC Sport)