Portal:Current events/2017 August 25

• War in Afghanistan
  • New Zealand announces the stationing of three more non-combat military personnel in Afghanistan, boosting its military commitment to 13. (Reuters)
  • Four gunmen attack a Shiite mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people. (ABC News)
• Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
  • 2016–17 Northern Rakhine State clashes
    • Government officials in Myanmar report that 12 security personnel (ten policemen, one soldier and one immigration officer) and 59 Rohingya insurgents were killed overnight during coordinated attacks by insurgents on at least 26 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State. (BBC) (AP)
• 2017 Northern India riots
  • Riots erupt in Panchkula and later spread to other parts of the Northern Indian state of Haryana, as well as the state of Punjab and the Indian capital of New Delhi, after a special CBI court found the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape. At least 28 people have been killed and 250 others injured. (The Hindu) (The Washington Post)
• American involvement in the Somali Civil War
  • United States-supported Somali forces shoot and kill 10 Somalis, including three children, in Lower Shebelle's Bariire village near Mogadishu. While the Somalia government reports the other dead were members of the al Shabaab militia, Lower Shabelle deputy governor Ali Nur Mohamed says the victims were all civilians, farm owners, workers and their children. The U.S. Africa Command says they are investigating these civilian casualties reports. (Reuters) (Garowe Online)
  • Two British police officers were assaulted with a sword while trying to arrest a man outside Buckingham Palace. (Reuters)
• August 2017 Brussels attack
  • A Somali man has been shot dead after attacking soldiers with a machete in Brussels, in what prosecutors are treating as a terror attack. (BBC)

• Culture in Toronto
  • Toronto's Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras closes and its management resigns following public backlash to a fat-shaming email that said only "physically fit and slim" singers would be featured in shows. (Fox News) (BBC) (Global News)

• Environment of Brazil
  • Brazilian President Michel Temer abolishes the 46,000 km² National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca) ecological reserve, which spans the borders of Amapá and Pará states in northern Brazil. More than 20 domestic and multinational firms have expressed an interest in accessing the area's deposits of gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese. (The Guardian)

• Hurricane Harvey
  • In anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, residents from Corpus Christi to Galveston, Texas, and workers from Gulf of Mexico oil platforms are evacuating the region. The storm makes landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor as a Category 4 hurricane around 11 p.m. EDT (0300 UTC, August 26) as the strongest storm to hit the United States mainland since 2004. The National Hurricane Center predicts Harvey will linger over Texas for days, dumping 15–25 inches (38–64 cm), and as much as 35 inches (89 cm) of rain on some parts of the state. (CNN) (Reuters) (National Hurricane Center)
  • Oil prices rise in anticipation of Harvey's impact on production in the Gulf of Mexico. (Reuters)
• Accidents and incidents involving helicopters
  • An American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission crashes off the coast of Yemen with six aboard, five of whom have been rescued. The search continues for the other U.S. service member. (Reuters) (Military.com)

• Sanctions against North Korea
  • The Cabinet of Japan imposes sanctions on various companies in China and Namibia for their business relations with North Korea. (The Japan Times)

• Trial of Yingluck Shinawatra
  • Thailand's Supreme Court issues an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who didn't appear in court for the verdict in her negligence trial regarding a rice subsidy program for farmers. The court also issued a statement questioning her attorney's report that she is unwell and a potential flight risk, citing the lack of a physician's certificate. The reading of the verdict has been rescheduled to September 27. Sources within Shinawatra's party Pheu Thai Party have said that she has allegedly fled the country, though not saying where to, in response current prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered the border checkpoints to be closely monitored to prevent Shinawatra leaving the country if she has not already. (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New York Times) (BBC Asia)
• 2016 South Korean political scandal
  • Lee Jae-yong (Jay Y. Lee), the vice-chairman of the Samsung Group is sentenced to five years for graft for his involvement in the 2016 South Korean political scandal that led to the impeachment of President of South Korea Park Geun-hye. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
• Volkswagen emissions scandal
  • Former Volkswagen engineer James Liang is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox to 40 months in prison and a $200,000 fine for his role in the decade-long scheme to cheat on federal emissions tests for diesel-powered cars sold in the United States. He is the first company employee sent to prison in the scandal. (The New York Times) (Reuters)
• Donald Trump presidential pardons
  • U.S. President Donald Trump pardons former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio. (The Washington Post) (Reason)

• Political appointments by Donald Trump
  • Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka resigns expressing unhappiness with the direction of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. (New York Daily News) (The Federalist)
• Sexual orientation and gender identity in the United States military
  • President Donald Trump issues a presidential memorandum that stops funding of sex reassignment procedures for military personnel, and that denies entry of transgender individuals into the military. President Trump announced this policy change via Twitter in late July. Two LGBT rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit two weeks ago arguing this policy change is unconstitutional because it denies transgender service members equal protection and due process. (The Washington Post) (AP via NBC News)
• Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces, effective in 2019, it will no longer sponsor the Climate Leadership Awards program that honors voluntary corporate actions to combat global warming. (Reuters) (The Hill)

• 2017 in spaceflight
  • FORMOSAT-5, the first satellite fully designed by Taiwan's National Space Organization, is launched into low-earth orbit by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. (AP via Bloomberg)