Portal:Current events/2020 August 31

August 31, 2020 (2020-08-31) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Darfur; Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile
  • A peace deal is signed between Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front in South Sudan's capital Juba, raising hopes of peace after nearly 18 years of civil wars in the country. According to the agreement, the states Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and West Kordofan will be granted self-rule. The deal does not, however, include two major belligerent groups, the SPLM–N and SLM/A. (DW)
• Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel clashes in 2020
  • Palestinian militant group Hamas announces that a ceasefire agreement has been reached with the Israeli government to end a month-long series of cross-border firing involving the launch of incendiary balloons in the Gaza Strip. The agreement follows mediation talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials. (AFP via The Guardian)
• Syrian civil war, Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that 11 people, including one civilian, are killed by airstrikes allegedly carried out by the Israel Defense Forces near Damascus. (The Jerusalem Post)

Arts and culture

• Korean Wave
  • South Korean boy band BTS become the first all-South Korean act to top the United States record chart, after their single "Dynamite" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, COVID-19 recession
  • India's economy contracts by 23.9% in the April–June quarter, the country's worst recession on record since the government started releasing quarterly data in 1996. The lockdown caused massive disruptions to economic activity during the quarter. (BBC News) (Bloomberg Quint)
• Argentine debt restructuring
  • Argentina announces a deal with its creditors, allowing a way out of its ninth sovereign default. (Irish Times)
• Amazon Prime Air wins Federal Aviation Administration approval to operate a drone delivery service in the United States. Amazon becomes the third drone delivery service to win flight approval, after UPS and Wing. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• Two explosions in the United Arab Emirates kill three people and injure several others. One of the explosions occurred in Abu Dhabi and the other in Dubai. (Reuters)
• 2020 wildfire season
  • Over 8,000 acres are burnt and one house destroyed after a scrub fire grows out of control near New Zealand's Lake Pukaki, requiring the evacuation of Mount Cook Village. (Stuff)
• The death toll from the floods across Italy rise to seven people, as heavy rains affects more cities. Many more injuries and some missing are reported. (Il Messaggero) (Fanpage) (Teleclub Italia)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi
        • Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves extends the state's mask mandate to two weeks. (The Meridian Star)
      • The United States surpasses six million cases of COVID-19. (CNN)
      • AstraZeneca begins Phase III clinical trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, which it developed with the University of Oxford, to some 30,000 adults in the United States. (Bloomberg)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
      • Maryland-based vaccine development company Novavax signs a deal with Canada to supply up to 76 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. (CBC)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Finland
      • The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health launches a digital contact tracing app in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country. (CNA)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland
      • First Minister Nicola Sturgeon voices concerns after 160 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Scotland in the last 24 hours, a three-month high. She says the rise in cases was "partly the result of a greater number of people being tested", but it is "undoubtedly a concern" and that any connection between cases is being "carefully considered" by health protection teams. (BBC News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • Victoria reports 41 new deaths, including eight people who died in the last 24 hours. The other 33 were reported before yesterday, which includes 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 and were reported to DHHS by aged care facilities on August 30. (9News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
    • President Rodrigo Duterte extends the general community quarantine on Metro Manila until the end of September, while placing the provinces of Batangas and Bulacan and the cities of Bacolod and Tacloban under the same level of the eased quarantine protocol; meanwhile, the city of Iligan is placed under modified enhanced community quarantine, the most stringent lockdown measure. (Reuters via U.S. News) (Xinhua) (CNN Philippines)

International relations

• Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement, Israel–United Arab Emirates relations, Israel–Saudi Arabia relations
  • Israeli flag carrier El Al launches the first direct commercial flight between Israel and the United Arab Emirates following the normalization of relations between the two countries. The inaugural flight, which transported high-level delegations from Israel and the United States from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi, flew over Saudi Arabian airspace for the first time by an Israeli commercial aircraft. High-level officials on the flight include Senior Advisor to the U.S. President Jared Kushner, U.S. National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien, and Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat. (Al Jazeera)
• Aftermath of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, Belarus–Estonia relations, Belarus–Latvia relations, Belarus–Lithuania relations
  • The governments of the Baltic states declare Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and 29 other government officials persona non grata for suspected electoral fraud in the recent election and for attempting to suppress the protests responding to the election. (AP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• France–Lebanon relations, 2019–20 Lebanese protests, aftermath of the 2020 Beirut explosion
  • French President Emmanuel Macron visits Beirut, Lebanon, for the second time since the explosion to urge politicians to enact political and economic reforms. (Al Jazeera)
• 2020 China–India skirmishes
  • The Indian defence ministry accuses China's People's Liberation Army of militarising along the Line of Actual Control near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh. India claims China had violated the consensus arrived at previous high-level meetings, but the Chinese foreign ministry denied the claim with their spokesperson saying, "the Chinese border troops have always strictly abided by the Line of Actual Control and have never crossed the line." (CNN)
• Australia–China relations
  • Australian foreign minister Marise Payne confirms that Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei, an anchor for the China Global Television Network, a state-controlled media broadcaster, has been detained in Beijing under "residential surveillance" since August 14. The Chinese foreign ministry has not cited a rationale behind her detention. (CNN) (South China Morning Post)
  • The Chinese commerce ministry probes the Australian wine industry on 40 allegations of violating countervailing duties, following a complaint by the China Wine Industry Association regarding recent wine imports from Australia. (CNN)
• China–Czech Republic relations, One-China policy
  • The Czech foreign ministry summons the Chinese ambassador in Prague over threats made by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi against Senate President Miloš Vystrčil, who is on an official visit to Taiwan. (CNA)
• Russia–Slovakia relations
  • The Russian foreign ministry expels three Slovak diplomats from Moscow in a reciprocal move after the Slovak foreign ministry expelled three Russian diplomats from Bratislava on August 11 for alleged espionage. (Anadolu Agency)
• France–Turkey relations, European Union–Turkey relations, Aegean dispute
  • French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calls for a "coordinated European response" to recent Turkish aggression towards Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean, saying "Europe needs to leave the age of innocence behind and shape its own destiny". (Ekathimerini)
• Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • The United States vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for "the prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration" of terrorists. Ambassador Kelly Craft attributes the veto to the resolution's exclusion of repatriating foreign fighters in the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars. (AP via Global News)

Law and crime

• Rwandan humanitarian and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Paul Rusesabagina is shown off in handcuffs at the Rwanda Investigation Bureau headquarters in Kigali. The Bureau says he is detained on charges of terrorism, but does not say where or when he was arrested. (CBC)
• Australian Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge announces that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security will probe the alleged interference by foreign governments at the country's universities. (AFP via The Jakarta Post)
• Lawyers representing the families of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 state their intention to seek unspecified damages from four suspects charged by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service in connection with the incident. The claims have yet to be filed, as a Dutch District Court shall determine whether Dutch or Ukrainian law would be applied. (CNA) (VOA)

Politics and elections

• Venezuelan presidential crisis
  • Disputed President Nicolás Maduro pardons 110 lawmakers and associates of disputed acting President Juan Guaidó. Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez says the pardons were made "in the interests of promoting national reconciliation". (AFP via The Manila Times)
• 2020 Guinean presidential election
  • Incumbent President Alpha Condé accepts the nomination of his party, the Rally of the Guinean People, to run in the October election. Condé is allowed to seek a third term under the new constitution passed following a referendum in March that reset the presidential term limits. (AFP via France 24)
• Politics of Lebanon
  • Mustapha Adib, the current Lebanese ambassador to Germany, is designated by President Michel Aoun as the country's prime minister following the resignation of Hassan Diab and his cabinet in the wake of the Beirut explosion earlier this month. (DW)
• Politics of Monaco
  • Pierre Dartout is sworn in as Minister of State, succeeding Serge Telle. (L'Observateur de Monaco)

Science and technology

• Discoveries of exoplanets
  • NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite discovers TOI-824b, a Hot Neptune exoplanet that orbits dwarf star TOI-824, which is located 210 light-years away in the constellation Circinus. (Sci-News)

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August 2020

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