Portal:Current events/2021 June 17

June 17, 2021 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
- Further airstrikes by the IDF are conducted at sites north of Beit Lahia and in Gaza City belonging to armed militia groups, as well as a civil administration building in Jabalia and an agriculture field near Khan Yunis. Hamas media outlet Al-Aqsa TV says Hamas downed an Israeli drone. No casualties are reported. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

COVID-19 pandemic in France, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on The Walt Disney Company
- Disneyland Paris, Europe's most visited amusement park, reopens for the second time with enhanced health and safety measures after being closed for eight months due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first time that all Disney-owned and licensed theme parks have been open since January 2020. (France Bleu) (USA Today)
U.S. President Joe Biden signs a law that would make Juneteenth a federal holiday, thereby making it the first federal holiday since the 1983 establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (CBS News)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan
    - COVID-19 lockdowns, Afghanistan–United States relations
      - The U.S. Embassy in Kabul orders a lockdown on the building amid a rise of cases. (Army Times)
    - Afghanistan reports a record 515 new cases and 101 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (The Times of India)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Madhya Pradesh
      - Madhya Pradesh detects their first case of the Lineage B.1.617 Delta variant in Bhopal. (India Today)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
    - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces that the state of emergency will be lifted in nine prefectures on June 21. However, the government will maintain its quasi-emergency measures in seven prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka. (The Japan Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Kyrgyzstan
    - Kyrgyzstan receives a shipment of 80,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. (24.kg)
    - Kyrgyzstan reports a record of 787 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Kabar)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka
    - Sri Lanka reports its first community case of the highly transmissible Lineage B.1.617 Delta variant in five patients. (The Hindu)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
    - Vietnam reports a record of 515 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 12,014. (CNA)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
    - Portuguese authorities announce that travel in and out of the Lisbon metropolitan area will be banned on weekends from Friday at 3:00 p.m. until Monday at 6:00 a.m. amid an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. (ABC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine
    - Ukraine reports a new single-day record of 76,538 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, COVID-19 vaccination in Australia
    - The Australian federal government restricts the usage of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine to people over the age of 60 following a new recommendation from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. (ABC Australia)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    - Fiji reports a record 121 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, as new clusters are discovered, thereby bringing the national total to 1,443. (RNZ) (Xinhuanet)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois, COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
    - Illinois becomes the first state in the Midwest to vaccinate 70% of adults. (WQAD-TV)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia
  - Zambian authorities order the closure of schools for the next 21 days and also suspend election campaigns for the general election in August after reporting the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 in one day. At the same time, the authorities restrict activities in religious sites to meetings only twice a week and for only one hour per day. (Europa Press)

International relations

Tigray War
- The African Union (AU) launches an official commission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses committed in Ethiopia's Tigray Region. The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry rejects the commission as "misguided" and without legal basis, saying that a joint probe by the AU and Ethiopia should be used instead. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

Hong Kong national security law
- Police in Hong Kong arrest five executives of the Apple Daily newspaper as the newspaper warns that press freedom in the city is "hanging by a thread". It is the latest raid on the Beijing-critical newspaper which has already seen its chief Jimmy Lai convicted under various charges, including unlawful assembly, and who currently faces a national security law case along with 46 other activists. (France 24)
Shooting of Eyad al-Hallaq
- An Israeli police officer is charged with "reckless homicide" for killing an autistic Palestinian adult in Jerusalem's Old City in May 2020. (France 24)
St. Louis gun-toting controversy
- Pro-gun activists Mark and Patricia McCloskey plead guilty to misdemeanor charges relating to an incident last year where they brandished weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters during a George Floyd protest in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. They also agree to give up their guns and pay US$2,750 in total fines. (DW)
One person is killed, four are shot and eight are otherwise injured in eight drive-by shootings in the West Valley area near Phoenix, Arizona, United States. A male suspect is taken into custody. (NBC News)
A person is killed when a gunman opens fire on the offices of pro-Kurdish opposition party People's Democratic Party (HDP) in İzmir, İzmir Province, Turkey. The gunman also attempted to set fire to the office building. HDP MP from İzmir Serpil Kemalbay blames the current government for the attack, saying that officials were inciting violence against the party and its supporters. (Middle East Eye)

Politics and elections

California v. Texas, Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act
- The United States Supreme Court, in a 7–2 decision, dismisses a challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought before the court by Republican-led states and the former Trump administration. The Court stated that the challengers did not specify an injury caused by the ACA to establish standing. (LII) (BBC News)
Elections in the United Kingdom, 2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election
- The Liberal Democrats gains the Chesham and Amersham seat in a shock defeat to the ruling Conservative government. The Conservatives suffers a swing of 25.2% away from them in a by-election billed as a sign of further realignment in British politics. This is the first time that a non-Conservative MP represents the constituency. (The Guardian)
Repeal of the 2002 AUMF
- The United States House of Representatives votes 268–161 to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, a resolution that granted U.S. presidents the authority to engage in war with Iraq. The bill will now head to the United States Senate. (NPR)
The U.S. Supreme Court rejects a lawsuit brought by six African men against American food corporation Cargill and the American division of Nestlé for their use of child slavery in cocoa bean production in a 8–1 decision, saying that because the abuses took place outside the country, the Court did not have jurisdiction on the matter. (Reuters)
Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo returns to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for the first time in nearly 10 years, after the International Criminal Court upheld his acquittal for his role in the violence committed in the aftermath of the 2010 presidential elections earlier this year. The government of current president Alassane Ouattara supported his return as necessary for reconciliation, but did not comment if he will be imprisoned for misappropriating funds from a regional bank, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2019. (Al Jazeera)
Canada MPs in the House of Commons votes to censure Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan over his handling of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. (Global News)

Science and technology

China launches the Shenzhou 12 spacecraft carrying three astronauts on the first flight to the Tianhe core module. (El País)
French scientists announce in a Current Biology paper that coelacanths are capable of living up to 100 years, contrary to the long-held belief that they only live up to 20 years. (The Guardian)