What the news record showed on 19 August 2019
A look back at three reports from mid-August 2019: a hotel fire in Odesa, a measles outbreak in Kyiv and a missile-test accident in Russia.
What was in the news around 19 August 2019? Three reports from the days just before that date stand out, one from Odesa, one from Kyiv and one from northern Russia.
Fire in Odesa
On 17 August 2019, a fire at the Tokyo-Star hotel in Odesa killed nine people. It was the most immediate human loss among the reports from those days.
Measles in the capital
On 13 August 2019, it was reported that Kyiv had recorded its largest measles outbreak in all the years of Ukraine's independence.
Explosion near Severodvinsk
Also on 13 August 2019, Interfax reported that the governor of Arkhangelsk Oblast dismissed as complete nonsense the advice from authorities in Severodvinsk for residents of Nyonoksa to evacuate on 14 August. The advice followed an accidental explosion on the preceding Thursday of what was speculated to be a nuclear-powered missile. Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom said the failed test involved a nuclear isotope power source for a liquid-propelled rocket engine.
Taken together, the reports show a mid-August in which public safety, health and official communication were all under scrutiny, in Ukraine and beyond its border.
