Portal:Current events/2021 May 20

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan
  • 2021 Afghanistan attacks
    • Two separate roadside bombings kill 13 civilians in Helmand and Ghor Provinces. Meanwhile, militants stop a bus in western Afghanistan, targeting Hazara passengers and killing three of them. (ABC News)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Nigerian intelligence officials say that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has either been killed or critically injured after detonating explosives in his house to avoid capture from the rival IS–West African Province faction. Several other Boko Haram members are also killed in the attack. However, no secondary sources have confirmed Shekau's death. (The Guardian)
• Yemeni Civil War
  • The United States sanctions two Houthi leaders for their roles in the Marib campaign. (Al Jazeera English)
• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire in order to stop airstrikes in Gaza and the launching of rockets in Israel. The 11 days of conflict have killed 232 people in Gaza and 11 in Israel. Egypt agrees to observe the implementation of the ceasefire. (BBC News)

Business and economy

• ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, whose company owns TikTok, announces that he will step down as CEO and that human resources chief Rubo Liang will succeed him. (Reuters)
• Following recommendations from the Council on Ethics, the Government Pension Fund of Norway drops two firms from its portfolio for doing business with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Norges Bank Investment Management also blacklists a company for owning factories in Myanmar. (Al Jazeera English)
• Argentine cattle farmers begin a nine-day protest against the government's implementation of a month-long restriction on meat exports to deter inflation. Farmers have agreed to suspend their sales of cattles to slaughterhouses during the protest. (Radio France Internationale)

Disasters and accidents

• 2021 wildfire season
  • Wildfires in Attica, Greece, prompt the evacuation of several villages and monasteries as the fires spread throughout the Geraneia mountain range. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario
        • Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveils a three-step reopening plan as the number of COVID-19 cases decline. Golf, tennis, basketball, and other outdoor sports will be allowed to reopen on May 22, but the stay-at-home order will remain in place until June 2. (CBC News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Iowa
        • Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signs a law prohibiting schools and businesses from imposing mask mandates. She also signs a law that limits vaccine passports in the state. (Quad-City Times) (The Des Moines Register)
      • COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
        • The FDA announces its approval for measures allowing the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures for up to 30 days before administration. Previously, the agency had only allowed such storage for five days. (Time)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Nicaragua
      • Nicaragua approves the emergency use of the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine. (PharmiWeb)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Panama
      • Panama closes its border with Colombia due to COVID-19 concerns. The Colombian government had recently reopened the border, which had been closed since March 2020. Panama has so far recorded more than 370,000 COVID-19 cases and 6,300 deaths. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Brunei
      • Brunei suspends a reciprocal green lane arrangement with Singapore until further notice following the worsening situation of the pandemic in the latter country. (CNA)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Laos
      • Laos extends its nationwide lockdown for another 15 days until June 4 as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase. (Big News Network)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
      • Malaysia reports a record for the second consecutive day of 6,806 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 492,302. The country also reports a record 59 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 2,099. (Malay Mail)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in South America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
      • President Alberto Fernández announces a nine-day nationwide lockdown to reduce the spread of COVID-19. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, Lineage B.1.617
      • Brazil reports its first cases of the Lineage B.1.617 variant, which was first discovered in India. The variant had been detected among a group of six crew members of a ship travelling from South Africa to deliver iron ore in São Luís, Maranhão. (Geo News) (Al Arabiya English)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom
    • Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, receives his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. (CBS News) (BBC News)
  • COVID-19 vaccine
    • The European Commission signs a third contract with Pfizer and BioNTech to secure 1.8 billion doses of its vaccine. (Deutsche Welle)

International relations

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international relations, COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
  • The International Institute for Strategic Studies cancels the Shangri-La Dialogue intergovernmental forum which would have been held in Singapore on June 4–5 due to the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country. (France 24)
• China–Lithuania relations
  • Three-fifths of the Lithuanian Parliament vote to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning the forced internment of Muslim Uyghurs as genocide, demanding the repeal of the Hong Kong national security law, and calling for international observers to be allowed to enter Tibet and for the Chinese government to begin negotiations with the current Dalai Lama. (Reuters)
• Ethiopia announces that it will proceed with plans to start generating power from the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the coming rainy season between June and August. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also says that it will not tolerate "any move that's aimed at disrupting the water filling process, its operation and water releasing scheme". (AP)

Law and crime

• Colonial Pipeline cyberattack
  • In the aftermath of the attack, it is revealed at a Senate Armed Services cyber subcommittee hearing that the Department of Homeland Security was not alerted to the ransomware attack and that the Justice Department was not alerted to the ransom type or the amount of money demanded, prompting discussion about the numerous information silos in the government and difficulties of information-sharing between them. (USNI News)
  • Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic publishes a bitcoin wallet report showing that $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments were made to DarkSide or DarkSide affiliates over the last year, originating from 47 distinct wallets. According to a DarkTracer release of 2,226 victim organizations since May 2019, 99 organizations have been infected with the DarkSide malware – suggesting that approximately 47% of victims paid a ransom, and that the average payment was $1.9 million. The DarkSide developer has received bitcoins worth $15.5 million (17%), with the remaining $74.7 million (83%) going to the various affiliates. (The Washington Examiner) (Fox Business)
• International protests over the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • In Midtown Manhattan, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters clash at Times Square despite a ceasefire being announced between Israel and Hamas militants. One protester suffers a minor burn after fireworks were thrown from a car. (Fox News) (Newsweek)
• Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • U.S. President Joe Biden signs the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill that would expedite anti-Asian hate crime reviews to the U.S. Justice Department. (The New York Times)
• A fight between rival gangs erupts in a jail in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, resulting in the deaths of seven people. (BBC News)
• The French Constitutional Council strikes down Article 24 of the so-called global security law, which criminalized the sharing of images that could reveal the identity of police officers. (Euronews)

Politics and elections

• 2021 Ethiopian general election
  • After delaying it twice, the National Election Board of Ethiopia schedules elections for June 21. (Reuters)
• International reactions to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduces a resolution that would block an arms sale of $735 million in weapons to Israel in response to the conflict between Israel and Gaza. (CBS News)
• The Central Electoral Commission of Kyrgyzstan announces that it has invalidated the results of the Bishkek City Council elections. During a meeting, Chairwoman Nurzhan Shaildabekova called for free elections. (AKIpress News Agency)

Science and technology

• Microsoft announces that it will discontinue support for Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022. (Reuters)

Sports

• 2021 Copa América, 2021 Colombian protests
  • The CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, announces that Colombia will no longer co-host the 2021 Copa América with Argentina as the country is currently experiencing social unrest. (Associated Press)