Portal:Current events/2019 September 7

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), Afghan peace process
  • U.S. President Donald Trump says he has "called off" peace negotiations with the Taliban over the latest Taliban attack in Kabul. It is not clear if the talks are paused or altogether cancelled. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)

• Joichi Ito steps down as the director of the MIT Media Lab and as a member of the board of directors of The New York Times Company. Yesterday, The New Yorker wrote that the lab hid its financial links with Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein had pleaded guilty of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. (NPR)
• Mastercard cuts access to two Venezuelan banks. (Venezuelanalysis)

• 2019 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Lingling impacts South Korea, killing at least three people and knocking out power to over 50,000 homes, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. (Al Jazeera)

• Russia–Ukraine relations, Ukrainian crisis
  • Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners on a "35-to-35" basis, including Oleg Sentsov, Mykola Karpyuk, Olexandr Kolchenko, Roman Sushchenko, and 24 Ukrainian Navy sailors detained by Russia during the 2018 Kerch Strait incident. The exchange includes Kirill Vyshinsky. The Dutch government says it "seriously regrets" that Volodymyr Tsemakh is included in the swap. U.S. President Donald Trump lauds the move as "perhaps a first giant step to peace." (Reuters) (Ukrayinska Pravda) (Ukrayinska Pravda) (TASS)
• Nuclear program of Iran
  • The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announces it has activated the research and development of new uranium enrichment centrifuges. It is the third breach of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement from which the United States withdrew last year, reimposing U.S. sanctions on Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has recently stated his country will reimplement the agreement only if the remaining parties also do so, giving them two extra months. (Deutsche Welle)
• Colombia–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has the Venezuelan military deploy air defense missiles to its border with Colombia after declaring an "orange alert" signifying potential or likely incoming threat. (Al Masdar News)

• The Venezuelan de facto Attorney General Tarek William Saab announces a charge of high treason against acting president Juan Guaidó. This comes as part of an investigation where the Maduro government alleges Guaidó does not support the Venezuelan claim to the Guayana Esequiba region, despite Guaidó having been a vocal supporter of the claim since he entered politics in 2007. (South China Morning Post) (Yahoo!)

• Brexit
  • British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd resigns from Boris Johnson's cabinet and the Conservative whip in protest of both his handling of Brexit and his expulsion of 21 MPs from the party. Rudd will now sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons. (CNN)
• King Salman of Saudi Arabia replaces Minister of Energy Khalid al-Falih with his son Abdulaziz bin Salman by royal order. Earlier this month, al-Falih was replaced with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, head of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund and a close adviser to the crown prince, as chairman of Saudi Aramco. (Bloomberg)
• 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
  • Juan Guaidó appoints Leopoldo Lopez to form a shadow cabinet in preparation for taking control of the Venezuelan government. Lopez is currently in refuge in the Spanish embassy of Venezuelan capital Caracas after being freed from house arrest by dissident military during the 30 April uprising, which may have removed a bar placed on him from engaging in political activity. (VOA)