Portal:Current events/2020 August 20

August 20, 2020 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Piracy off the coast of Somalia
- A regional official in Somalia says that they are working to free a Panama-flagged ship's crew that was hijacked yesterday by pirates in the first successful incident since 2017. The number of crew and their nationalities remain unclear. The ship was traveling from the United Arab Emirates to the port of Mogadishu. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism
  - Airbnb bans house parties and limits almost all listed venues to 16 people as it tries to comply with gathering restrictions. (BBC News)
  - Australian youth travel agency STA Travel files for insolvency. (BBC News)
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation
  - American Airlines announces it will end service at 15 airports starting October 7. (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

2020 California wildfires
- A Vacaville-based Pacific Gas and Electric Company worker dies while assisting first responders of the LNU Lightning Complex fire. (SFGate)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland
      - Northern Ireland reduces the number of people allowed in outdoor gatherings to 15 people and limits indoor gatherings in private dwellings to six individuals from two households amid a rise in cases. (Sky News)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland
      - Scotland reports its highest number of daily new cases since May, with 77 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. (BBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in France
    - France reports a sharp spike of new cases in the last 24 hours when more than 4,700 cases reported. It is first time that more than 4,000 new cases reported since May and the highest number of new cases since April, when the country was still in lockdown. (LCI) (BBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
    - The number of new cases rises by 1,707 in the last 24 hours, while ten people die from the disease. This is the highest number of new cases since late April. (Euronews)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
    - Italy reports 845 new cases in the last 24 hours, majority of them are holidaymakers returning from other countries. This number marking the highest daily increase since May 16. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
    - Slovenia registers its highest number of new cases since April 3, with 43 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. (RTVSLO)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - India reports its highest single-day record of 69,672 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with 977 new deaths. 2,096,664 people from the total 2.8 million people have recovered. (The Tribune)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
    - The total number of infections in Vietnam surpasses 1,000 with 25 deaths. More than half of them are linked to a new outbreak that began in late July in Da Nang. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
  - Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
    - The state government of Victoria rescinds a driving restriction on Melbourne residents, in response to public criticism that the mandate limits their freedom of movement. The state has seen an emergence of cases that has led to the government declaring a state of disaster in early August. (Fox News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts
    - Students in Massachusetts will be required to take a flu vaccine in order to attend schools. (CBS News)

International relations

Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia
    - The Robert Koch Institute declares the Sibenik-Knin and Split-Dalmatia regions in Croatia as COVID-19 high-risk regions, issuing a travel warning against the two regions, which are popular with tourists. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica, COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - Costa Rica reopens for traveling for Americans in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. (CNN)
Post-Brexit United Kingdom relations with the European Union, English Channel migrant crossings (2018–present)
- The European Union rejects a request from the British government to negotiate a migration deal replicating the Dublin Regulation that would grant the deportation of undocumented migrants in the UK to EU member states. (CNA) (The Guardian)
Sanctions against Iran
- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces his intention to invoke the "snap back" provision of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, an endorsement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which would reimplement all of the United Nations' sanctions on Iran. The U.S., however, had withdrawn from JCPOA in 2018. (The Guardian)
China–Philippines relations, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Scarborough Shoal standoff
- The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs files a diplomatic protest with the Chinese government over the "illegal confiscation by the China Coast Guard of fish aggregating devices (payaos) of Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal in May." (Anadolu Agency)

Law and crime

2020 Thai protests
- Thai Police say they have arrested a further eight activists, including two popular rappers, in an increased crackdown on protestors who demand a change to the country's monarchy. All eight were later released on bail, according to one of their lawyers. (Reuters)
Manchester Arena bombing
- Hashem Abedi is sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. He was found guilty in March on 22 charges of murder for assisting his older brother Salman in carrying out the suicide bombing by sourcing out the materials used in creating the bomb. (Reuters via The Straits Times)
Flint water crisis
- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announces that the state will pay a $600 million settlement to Flint residents who were affected by lead contamination in the water, 80% of which will be distributed to families of children affected by the crisis. (The Washington Post)
Four defendants of the non-profit organization We Build The Wall, including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and its founder Brian Kolfage, are arrested on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering. The charges were stated in an indictment announced by the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which alleges that the four defendants defrauded the organization's donors, using the funds intended for the construction of the wall along the Mexico–U.S. border for personal expenses instead. (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

2020 United States presidential election
- Former Vice President Joe Biden is officially nominated at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. (ABC News)
Russian anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny falls ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and is rushed to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing. His spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, says it was suspected that he was poisoned by something mixed into his tea, with Navalny's team suspecting that it was in the airport café shortly before his flight. He is reported to be in a coma. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have offered Navalny medical assistance and unspecified protection in their countries. (BBC News) (The Indian Express)
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz resigns. He is the second high-profile minister to resign from the government this week, after Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski. (Reuters)
The South Korean National Intelligence Service reports that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has delegated some major responsibilities to his sister, Kim Yo-jong, that involves overseeing North Korea's relations with South Korea and the United States. South Korean lawmakers describe her new role as a "de facto second-in-command" of North Korea who "steers overall state affairs." (Fox News)