Portal:Current events/2020 September 8

September 8, 2020 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi insurgency
- 2020 Iraq attacks
  - A bomb killed 3 police on the Diwaniyah-Babylon highway, Iraq. (National Iraqi News Agency)
Kivu conflict; 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo massacres
- Allied Democratic Forces militants stormed a village in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 23 people. (Al Jazeera)
War on terror
- According to a report from Brown University's "Costs of War" project, over 37 million people have been displaced by the wars fought by the United States since the September 11 attacks. (The New York Times)

Art and culture

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religion, Eastern Orthodoxy in Ukraine
- Patriarch Filaret, former honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, founder and current Patriarch of once again the second non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate, was confirmed to be a positive case of COVID-19. He becomes the first independent and non-canonical autocephalous leader or patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox faith to contract the disease. Months earlier, he had stated that the pandemic was God's punishment for same-sex marriage, which is currently not legally-recognized in Ukraine. Activists say homophobia is still widespread in the national culture. (Metro) (NBC news)

Disasters and accidents

2020 wildfire season
- 2020 California wildfires
  - The Pacific Gas and Electric Company shuts down power for an estimated 172,000 California customers in 22 counties. (SFGate)
- 2020 Washington wildfires
  - A wildfire destroys up to 80% of the town of Malden, Washington, including the town's fire station, post office, city hall, and library. The entire town's population was evacuated as the raging fire approached. (Reuters)
2020 Atlantic hurricane season
- The death toll from Hurricane Laura in Louisiana reaches to 26. (U.S. News & World Report)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona
    - Arizona reports 81 cases, the lowest in the state since late March. This also marks the first time the state reported fewer than 100 cases since April 10. (The Arizona Republic) (KTAR)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Iowa
    - The number of cases in Iowa exceeds 70,000. (The Hill)
  - The total number of children infected with COVID-19 in the United States since the pandemic began there in mid-March surpasses 500,000. (MSN)
  - The United States reports less than 30,000 cases for the first time since late June. (The Hill)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
  - COVID-19 pandemic in England
    - The British government bans gatherings of more than six people in England starting September 14, with some exceptions, amid a rise in cases, which hit nearly 3,000 on Sunday. (ABC Australia)
- COVID-19 vaccine
  - American company Pfizer and German company BioNTech announce that their vaccine could be ready for approval mid-October or early November. (The Hill)
  - Nine vaccine companies sign a pledge that they won't submit vaccine candidates for review by the Food and Drug Administration until their safety and efficacy is shown in large clinical trials. (NPR)
  - Phase III clinical trials for AstraZeneca and Oxford University's vaccine are paused after a participant suffers an illness requiring investigation in the United Kingdom. (BBC News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in India
  - India reports 1,133 deaths from COVID-19, the highest single-day total. The death toll in the country reaches 72,775. (ABC News)

International relations

2020 China–India skirmishes
- China says that Indian troops crossed the Line of Actual Control into the Shenpao mountain region near Pangong Tso Lake and then fired warning shots to intimidate Chinese border troops. A few hours later, India said that Chinese troops had fired into the air to intimidate Indian border troops, and that at no stage had the Indian Army crossed the LAC. (Global Times) (Times of India)
Aftermath of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, Germany–Russia relations
- Russia summons the German ambassador to Moscow over statements by the German government concerning Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Germany of "bluffing". (Reuters)

Law and crime

Blasphemy in Pakistan; Capital punishment in Pakistan
- A court in Lahore, Pakistan, sentences a Christian man to death for sending a "blasphemous" message to his former supervisor at work in 2013. The defendant said that his supervisor had tried to convert him to Islam, which he refused to do. The court rejected his testimony. (Al Jazeera)
Hong Kong national security law
- Prominent democracy campaigner and DJ Tam Tak-chi is charged with sedition under the colonial-era sedition law and is the first person charged with that crime since the 1997 handover of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China. (Al Jazeera)
List of mass shootings in the United States in 2020
- Seven people are killed in an overnight shooting at a residence in Aguanga, California. The residence was reportedly being used to grow illegal marijuana. Police believe the shooting was an isolated incident, but no suspects are in custody. (NBC News) (The Press-Enterprise)
Chinese foreign ministry says Australian-Chinese journalist Cheng Lei is detained in China on grounds of breaching the national security law and "suspected of carrying out illegal activities endangering China’s national security". (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

2020 Egyptian Senate election
- Run-off voting begins in Egypt as 26 candidates for the country's newly formed senate failed to get an absolute majority during the first election round in August. (Foreign Brief)