Portal:Current events/2021 May 23

May 23, 2021 (Sunday)

Disasters and accidents

Stresa–Mottarone cable car crash
- Fourteen people are killed and another is wounded when the Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone Cable Car in Piedmont, Italy, collapses and falls to the ground. (La Stampa)
An unidentified source says a North Korean 5,500-ton freighter named Chongbong, which is on the U.N. Security Council blacklist, sinks with 6,500 tons of iron off the coast of Shimane Prefecture in western Japan. All 21 crew members on board are rescued by a North Korean oil ship passing nearby. (Yonhap News)

Business and economy

Tribune Publishing shareholders approve a deal for the sale of nine newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and the New York Daily News, to Alden Global Capital. Alden owns the Boston Herald, The Denver Post, and The San Jose Mercury News through its Digital First Media chain. With Tribune, Alden will be the second-largest newspaper company in the United States, after Gannett. (Fox Business)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - India reports more than 8,800 cases of the deadly "black fungus" in a growing epidemic of the disease. The normally rare infection has a mortality rate of 50% and is believed to occur 12 to 18 days after recovery from COVID-19. Following the increase in the number of cases, India's states and territories are told to declare the disease as an epidemic. (BBC News)
    - A report is published documenting the ways people have been taking advantage of the pandemic to enrich themselves. Documented issues include selling false medical equipment or drugs, selling medical equipment or drugs at up to 10x the price, buying all available supplies so they will only be found on the black market, operating hospitals like expensive private hotels, charging twenty times the normal prices for ambulance services, charging a hundred times the regular cost for cremation services or supplies, selling false reports and records, and selling children orphaned by the pandemic. (The New Indian Express)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
    - Malaysia reports a record 6,976 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 512,091. (Malay Mail)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
    - Pakistan surpasses 900,000 cases of COVID-19. (Hindustan Times)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
    - Germany begins to implement a two-week quarantine for German citizens and residents who have travelled from the United Kingdom, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated. Additionally, all non-essential travel to the UK is banned amidst an outbreak of the Indian Lineage B.1.617 variant. (Euronews)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    - Russia surpasses five million cases of COVID-19. (ANI News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom
    - The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the United Kingdom reaches 60 million. (Sky News)
Thailand orders strict controls on the movements of cattle and buffalo following an outbreak of a rarely-fatal disease that causes lumps to form on the animals’ skin and which can also reduce milk production. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Corruption in Iraq
- Iraqi President Barham Salih says that $150 billion in oil has been stolen from the country since the 2003 invasion due to corruption. (The National News) (WRAL-TV)
Ryanair Flight 4978
- The opposition to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accuses the Belarusian government of diverting Ryanair Flight 4978 from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, and forcing it to land in Minsk in order to arrest opposition journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich, who was on board. Although the motive for the forced landing was an alleged bomb threat, no explosives were found. (DW)
- NATO demands an international investigation into Belarus' diversion of the Ryanair flight. (The Daily Telegraph)
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
- Israeli police announce they have arrested over 1,550 demonstrators, most of them Palestinians, since May 9 for allegedly disrupting the peace, and that they will arrest hundreds more in the upcoming days. (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

2021 Samoan constitutional crisis, April 2021 Samoan general election
- The Supreme Court of Samoa overturns a proclamation by head of state Tuimalealiifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II which had suspended the opening of parliament on Monday. The ruling, which declared that Sualauvi had acted unlawfully, allows for the opening of parliament, as previously scheduled. (RNZ)
- Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi announces that he will not convene the new session of parliament on Monday, defying the new ruling by the Supreme Court. (RNZ)
Aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état
- A total of 125,900 school teachers have been suspended for joining the civil disobedience movement and opposing the military junta. A teachers' union federation spokesman said that this move comes just before the start of the new school year in the country. (Reuters)

Sports

103rd PGA Championship
- In golf, Phil Mickelson wins his 6th major by winning the 2021 PGA Championship. At age 50, Mickelson becomes the oldest player to win a major championship. (CBC)
2020–21 Ligue 1
- Lille OSC win Ligue 1, the top tier of the French football league system, after defeating Angers SCO 2–1 on the final match day. It is Lille's first title since 2011 as they end Paris Saint-Germain's run of three consecutive titles. (CNA)