Portal:Current events/2021 August 19

August 19, 2021 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- Taliban insurgency
  - 2021 Taliban offensive
    - A Taliban militant is stabbed by protestors in Asadabad while celebrating Independence Day. Fellow Taliban militants open fire on the crowd after the stabbing, killing two people and wounding eight others. Additionally, two people are injured during a protest in Jalalabad. (Al Jazeera)
    - More incidents are reported at the airport in Kabul, as civilians try to escape the country. A total of 12 people have been confirmed to have been killed at the airport since the fall of the city, primarily due to stampedes and gun incidents. (Business Insider)
    - Ahmad Massoud, the 32-year-old son of anti-Soviet mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, vows to resist a potential assault of the Taliban on Panjshir. Massoud, who is allied with self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh, says that the Taliban will face a "staunch resistance" if they attack. (Reuters)
    - U.S. president Joe Biden says that the Taliban "must decide if it wants international recognition", but that the group had not changed its priorities during the past 20 years. (RTE)
  - Operation Allies Refuge
    - The Pentagon announces that 7,000 civilians have been evacuated since August 14. (Axios)
- The Taliban declares the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. (Forbes)
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Three people are killed and 50 more wounded during a grenade attack at a Shiite religious procession in Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)
War in Somalia
- A suicide bomber blows himself up at a restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing three people and wounding several more. The restaurant was frequented by members of the security forces as it is near to a security agency. (Xinhua)
Mali War
- Jihadists ambush a convoy in Mopti, killing 11 soldiers and wounding 10 others. A roadside bomb hit the convoy, and gunmen then opened fire. (Republic World)
Thirty-two people are killed in Far North, Cameroon, in clashes between fishermen and herders since the beginning of the month. Nineteen villages have been burned. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020–2021 global chip shortage
- Toyota reduces its production quota for next month by 40% due to the resurgence of COVID-19 in Asia severely impacting the company's supply chains, especially those involved in chip production. Up to this point, the company was one of the only major car manufacturers to avoid scaling back production during the pandemic. Volkswagen warns that it might also have to reduce its production quotas for similar reasons. (BBC News)
Content subscription service OnlyFans announces that it will ban sexually explicit material beginning in October. The policy changes, according to UK-based company, are "to comply with the requests of the banking partners and payout providers". (Variety)

Disasters and accidents

2021 Haiti earthquake
- The death toll of the earthquake in Haiti reaches 2,189. (Associated Press)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    - COVID-19 vaccination in Australia
      - The number of people over the age of 16 who have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Australia surpasses 50%, with a record 309,010 doses administered yesterday. (ABC News Australia)
    - Australia reports a new single-day record of 754 new cases of COVID-19, including a record for the second consecutive day of 681 new cases of COVID-19 in New South Wales, surpassing the previous record set in August 2020 during the second wave of the pandemic in Victoria. (The Canberra Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    - Fiji surpasses 400 deaths from COVID-19. (RNZ)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, COVID-19 vaccination in New Zealand
    - Prime Minister Jacinda Arden's Cabinet grants approval for children between the ages of 12 and 15 to receive the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine beginning on September 1. (Newshub)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia
    - Indonesia receives their first shipment of 1.56 million doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. (Kabar24)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Iran
    - Iran surpasses 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
    - Japan reports a record for the second consecutive day of 25,156 new cases of COVID-19. (Jiji Press)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
    - Malaysia reports a record for the second consecutive day of 22,242 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1,489,460. (The Edge Markets)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines
    - Metro Manila and the provinces of Bataan and Laguna will have their restrictions eased under the slightly restrictive Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine beginning on August 21 for Metro Manila and Laguna and August 23 for Bataan. (Rappler)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, COVID-19 vaccination in Singapore
    - Singapore begins reopening its borders with the launch of Vaccinated Travel Lanes for fully vaccinated travellers from Germany and Brunei, while quarantine-free restrictions will be eased for travellers from Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China outside of Jiangsu Province, New Zealand and Taiwan. (CNA)
    - Beginning tomorrow, all travellers entering Singapore who are fully vaccinated with a World Health Organization-recognized COVID-19 vaccine will be issued a tamper-proof vaccination sticker in their passport upon the presentation of a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. (TODAY)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
    - Vietnam reports a record 10,654 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 312,611. (Viet Nam News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in France, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
  - France designates Algeria and Morocco as "high-risk" countries, which means that beginning from August 21, unvaccinated travellers will have to prove that their trip is essential, requiring a proof of negative COVID-19 test, and must accept a 10-day self-quarantine. (Radio France Internationale)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, COVID-19 vaccination in Kenya
  - Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board grants emergency use authorization for the Moderna and Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccines. (Bloomberg)
Ivory Coast reports an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 after a large number of poultry birds started dying in the Grand-Bassam commune near the capital Abidjan on July 20. (Reuters)

International relations

COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Hong Kong and Singapore abandon plans to resume a "travel bubble" for quarantine-free travel between the two cities due to differing COVID-19 policies. (The Straits Times)

Law and crime

The U.S. Supreme Court Building, the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, and other locations in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill area are evacuated after a man parked his truck in front of the Library of Congress and threatened to detonate a bomb while making anti-government statements. The man surrendered to the police several hours after he began his standoff. (CNBC)

Science and technology

Rain falls on the summit of Greenland for the first time in recorded history. The rain shower dumped more than 7 billion tonnes of water on the ice sheet. (CNN)

Sports

2020 Summer Paralympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports
- The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games reports the first Paralympic-linked case of COVID-19 at the Olympic village that is not a Paralympic athlete or a Japanese resident. (BBC News)