Portal:Current events/2021 September 28

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Kwatar Daban Masara airstrike
    • At least 50 civilians were killed by a Nigerian Air Force airstrike at a fish market in the village of Daban Masara, Borno State, two days ago. The military has imposed a ban on fishing in the area due to allegations that ISWAP was using the sales of the fish to fund their operations. (Reuters)
• South Thailand insurgency
  • Two police officers are killed and four others injured as their van is hit by a roadside bombing in Chanae District, Thailand. (Bangkok Post)
• Mali War
  • Mali accuses France of "abandoning the country" by reducing its forces in the fight against jihadist groups. In response to the remarks, France accuses Mali's military junta of "wiping their feet on the blood of French soldiers". (Channel 4)
• Five Sudanese security forces personnel are killed and a sixth is injured during clashes with an IS-linked group in Khartoum. Eleven terrorists are arrested. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• 2021 United Kingdom fuel panic buying
  • Defence Secretary Ben Wallace approves a request for 150 military tanker drivers to help deliver fuel to petrol stations. The Petrol Retailers Association says that 37% of its 5,500 stations have run out of fuel. (BBC News)
• The United Kingdom's Department for Transport announces that it is seizing control of train operating company Southeastern beginning next month following a "serious breach" of financial conduct. An investigation found that around £25 million in taxpayer funding is currently unaccounted for. (Sky News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption
  • Spain declares the island of La Palma a "disaster zone" as the Cumbre Vieja volcano continues to erupt and produce lava flows. (Reuters)
  • Lava flows from the volcano have reached the Atlantic Ocean after nine days, causing a massive cloud, according to local residents. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India, COVID-19 vaccination in India
      • The Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation will allow the Serum Institute of India to conduct trials of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in children between the ages of 7 and 11 years. (Business Standard)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces that the state of emergency that was declared in April will end on September 30, with COVID-19-related restrictions to then be gradually eased. (NPR)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
      • Singapore reports a record 2,236 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 91,775. (The Star)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Romania
      • Romania reports a record 11,049 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1,210,810. (RFE/RL)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
      • Russia reports a record 852 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 205,531. (The Brussels Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia
      • Serbia reports a record 8,467 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 926,269. (Tanjug)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria
      • Victoria reports a record 867 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, including 149 cases not previously reported due to technical issues. (9 News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica, COVID-19 vaccination in Costa Rica
    • Costa Rica mandates that all state workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 despite not specifying a deadline, making it the first Latin American country to impose a vaccination mandate. (Reuters)

International relations

• Australia–Nauru relations, Pacific Solution
  • Australia and Nauru announce that, last week, they renewed their agreement to maintain a detention center in Nauru for asylum seekers and refugees who are attempting to reach Australia. Australia has provided millions of dollars in order to maintain the offshore detention center. (RNZ)

Law and crime

• Capital Gazette shooting
  • Jarrod Ramos is sentenced to life in prison for the June 2018 murders of five employees in a mass shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. (MSN)
• September 2021 Guayaquil prison riot
  • Twenty-four people are killed and 42 others are wounded during a battle between rival gangs at a prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Some of the inmates were armed with guns and grenades. (Al Jazeera)
• Twenty-five people are injured, four critically, during an explosion at a block of flats in Gothenburg, Sweden. An accident has been ruled out, with authorities suspecting a criminal background. (The Guardian)
• In a 35-page report, a commission appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate sex abuses during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo finds that there were "clear structural failures" and "individual negligence" for the sex abuse and rape of women and girls between 2018 and 2020 by WHO staff. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom apologizes for the abuses. (France 24)

Science and technology

• NASA announces the scheduled launch of Lucy, a twelve-year space probe on the Jupiter trojan asteroids, the first mission to do so. It will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on October 16. (AFP via The Straits Times)