Portal:Current events/2021 August 23

August 23, 2021 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War In Afghanistan
- 2021 Taliban offensive
  - Panjshir resistance
    - The Taliban claim to have recaptured three districts in Baghlan Province that had been taken by local militias allied with Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh. Massoud and Saleh have established their resistance in the Panjshir Valley. (Yahoo! News) (Reuters)
  - The brother of deposed president Ashraf Ghani, Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, says he accepts that the Taliban won the war but that he "will not join them" and also calls for the formation of an inclusive government without Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and former president Hamid Karzai, blaming both men for "ruining the country". (India Today)
- Operation Allies Refuge
  - A security guard is killed and three more people are wounded in a gunfight between an unknown gunman and Afghan forces at the north gate of Kabul airport. German and American forces are also involved in the shooting. (Reuters)
Syrian civil war
- 2021 Daraa clashes
  - Syrian Army troops and pro-Iranian militias launch a major ground assault on a rebel-held enclave in the city of Daraa. Rebel forces say that they have repulsed the attack from the western side of the enclave. State media says that the army was preparing to end a "state of lawlessness and chaos" and "reimpose army control" in the city. (Reuters)
Tigray War
- The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctions the chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces Filipos Woldeyohannes, accusing him of leading his troops to commit multiple war crimes, including rapes, executions, massacres, looting, torture and purposely shooting civilians. The Department also called for the "immediate withdrawal of Eritrean troops" from Tigray. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

2021 California wildfires
- Around 400 homes are destroyed in the Caldor Fire in El Dorado County, California. Additionally, U.S. Route 50 remains closed in the area. (The Sacramento Bee)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
    - COVID-19 vaccination in the Philippines
      - The Philippine Food and Drug Administration issues an emergency use authorization for the Sputnik Light vaccine, making the country the first in Asia to approve the Russian single-dose vaccine. (Rappler)
    - The Philippines reports a record 18,332 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1.85 million. (ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka
    - Sri Lanka reports a record for the second consecutive day of 4,355 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 394,355. (Daily News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan, COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan
    - Taiwan begins the "contested" rollout of its first domestically-produced MVC COVID-19 vaccine, with President Tsai Ing-Wen among the first Taiwanese to receive a dose of the protein subunit vaccine. (Nikkei Asia)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
    - Vietnam imposes their toughest lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, prohibiting people from leaving their homes and also deploying the Vietnamese People's Army in order to enforce the lockdown in the country's largest city amid an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. (U.S. News & World Report)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    - COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales
      - New South Wales imposes a 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew in 12 LGAs of concern in Greater Sydney, limiting exercise to one hour in hotspot areas and mandating statewide outdoor mask wearing as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to remain high. (Nine News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in French Polynesia
    - The French overseas department of French Polynesia closes all schools and tightens its lockdown for two weeks amid an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant. (Radio France Internationale)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
    - New Zealand extends its level 4 lockdown until August 31 in Auckland and August 27 in the rest of the country as the number of cases related to the Delta variant outbreak reaches 100. (The Guardian)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus
    - Belarus will receive $1 billion from the International Monetary Fund to help fight the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. (Politico Europe)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
    - Germany drops incidence levels from its yardstick for deciding if restrictions should be in force to contain the spread of COVID-19 as more people are vaccinated. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom
    - The United Kingdom signs an agreement with Pfizer to secure 35 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine due to be delivered in the second half of 2022 as the government focuses on a "future-proof vaccine programme" to prevent any virus variants that are resistant to the vaccine. (BBC News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
    - COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey
      - New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announces that New Jersey will require teachers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by October 18 or face mandatory COVID-19 testing. (The Center Square)
    - The Food and Drug Administration gives full approval to the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first vaccine in the U.S. to be granted full licensure and thereby giving businesses, schools and universities more confidence to adopt vaccine mandates. (CNBC)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona
    - Arizona Senate president Karen Fann announces that the delivery of the draft report from Cyber Ninjas, the company leading an audit of Maricopa County's presidential election, has been delayed after CEO Doug Logan and two other members have tested positive for COVID-19. (NBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Florida
    - Palm Beach County announces that fans will be required to wear masks at athletic events amidst a cancellation of high school events in the county. (The Palm Beach Post)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Washington
    - Washington reimposes its indoor mask mandate, requiring people over the age of 5 to wear masks in indoor public spaces regardless of their vaccination status. (Patch)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
  - The patient zero of the Delta variant in Argentina, a 62-year-old Peruvian national, dies from the disease. The man had been indicted while hospitalized with multiple crimes related to him not informing the authorities about his symptoms, breaching quarantine, entering the country unvaccinated and infecting 13 other people. (Market Research Telecast)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt
  - Egypt reports its first case of the Delta Plus variant in a 35-year-old Egyptian woman who had shown "very mild" symptoms in July. (Al-Ahram)

International relations

2021 Belarus–European Union border crisis, Belarus–Poland relations
- Poland announces that it will build a wall on its border with Belarus in order to stop the flow of migrants entering the country through Belarus. (Euronews)

Law and crime

Protests over responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 pandemic in London
  - Anti-vax protesters storm the ITN headquarters in London, United Kingdom. (The Independent)
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is sentenced to more than five months in prison after admitting to burning a Black Lives Matter banner from a Black church during a pro-Trump rally on December 12 of last year. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

2021 New Caledonian independence referendum
- New Caledonia's pro- and anti-independence camps formally launch their campaigns ahead of a referendum on independence from France in December. (Papua New Guinea Post-Courier)
2021 Tunisian political crisis
- Tunisian president Kais Saied extends the suspension of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People's activity sine die as well as lawmakers' immunity. (Reuters)