June 19, 2016 (Sunday)
Arts and culture
- Pan-Orthodox Council
- A gathering of Eastern Orthodox Churches, the first of its kind in a millennium, opens on the Greek island of Crete. However, the Russian, Bulgarian, Georgian and the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch refused to attend after a dispute. The gathering will last until June 27. (BBC)
Disasters and accidents
- Heavy rain in Central Java has caused landslides and flooding with 24 people dead and at least 26 missing in the Indonesian province. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- At least 14 people, mostly children, are killed in a storm that struck Lake Syamozero in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Those killed were among 49 people who went rafting on the lake late at night before a storm capsized their boats. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
International relations
- Japan–United States relations
- Over 50,000 people protest in Okinawa capital Naha against U.S. military presence on the Japanese island, spurred on by last month's arrest of an U.S. Marine veteran, civilian contractor for the rape and killing of a 20-year-old local woman. (Reuters) (AP) (The Washington Post)
Law and crime
- Clashes between the Mexican police and members of the radical Mexican teachers union National Coordinator of Education Workers in Oaxaca leaves at least six people dead. (AP via Fox News)
Politics and elections
- Italian local elections, 2016
- Voters in the Italian capital of Rome go to the polls for a runoff election to select a new Mayor of Rome with exit polls showing Virginia Raggi of the Five Star Movement will become the first female Mayor. (BBC) (France 24)
- Wukan protests, 2016's events :
- Thousands of people are reported to have spontaneously marched in southern China's village of Wukan in Guangdong province over the arrest of the village's democratically elected leader, 70-year-old Lin Zuluan, who had been planning meetings and protests about corruption, illegal land grabs, and the government's failure to return land to the people, per the 2011 agreement. (AP) (South China Morning Post)
- City of Lufeng prosecutors said in a statement that Lin was being held on suspicion of taking bribes. Renmin University's Zhang Mingin, a political science professor, says the bribery charge was "strange" since a village chief does not have the authority to approve projects that could result in kickbacks. (U.S. News & World Report)
- Plainclothes policemen and policemen in riot-control gear establish checkpoints, guard government buildings, and increase patrols on the streets of Wukan. The earlier operation to arrest Lin included hundreds of police. (South China Morning Post) (The Scotsman)
Sport
- In golf, American golfer Dustin Johnson wins the 2016 U.S. Open, his first major. (New Zealand Herald)[permanent dead link]
- In basketball, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors in seven games to win the 2016 NBA Championship. Cleveland, winning its first NBA title in the franchise's 45-year history, also became the first NBA team to rally from a 3-1 deficit and win the crown. Tonight's victory also ends the 52-year title drought of Cleveland's major sports teams; in 1964, the Cleveland Browns shut out the Baltimore Colts for the NFL title. Cleveland's LeBron James is unanimously voted the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals, his third such award. (The Guardian), (Ohio.com) (ESPN)