Portal:Current events/2021 October 23
October 23, 2021 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- October 2021 Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protests
- Clashes continue for the second day in Lahore, Pakistan, as the banned far-right Islamic extremist political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan is demonstrating to pressure the government to release its leader Saad Hussain Rizvi, who was arrested last year. Three protesters and two policemen were killed yesterday during the clashes and two protesters are killed today. (Al Jazeera)
- 2021 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks
- IS claims responsibility for the killing of 16 civilians during an assault at a village in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, three days ago. (Reuters)
- 2021 Uganda bombings
- One person is killed and three others injured when a bomb explodes in a bar in Kampala, Uganda. Three suspected terrorists are behind the attack. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- 2021 Pacific hurricane season
- A tropical storm intensifies into Hurricane Rick off Mexico's southern Pacific coast, and is expected to make landfall in the states of Michoacán and Colima. (AP via Federal News Network)
Health and environment
- COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Namibia
- Namibia suspends the usage of the Russian made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine amid reports from South Africa that the vaccine increases risk of men contracting HIV. (WION) (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
- The South Island reports its first community case of COVID-19 since November 2020 in a man who travelled from Rotorua to Blenheim on October 21. (Stuff)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
- Russia reports a record for the fifth consecutive day of 1,075 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 229,528. The country also reports a record for the third consecutive day of 37,678 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 8.2 million. (ANI News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea
- The percentage of the population that is fully vaccinated in South Korea surpasses 70%, allowing the government to ease their COVID-19-related restrictions in November. (The Straits Times)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Namibia
International relations
- Foreign relations of Turkey
- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan orders the ambassadors of ten Western nations to be expelled from the country after their embassies called for the release of political prisoner Osman Kavala. (Reuters)
- Foreign relations of Hungary, 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election
- At a rally in central Budapest, prime minister Viktor Orbán accuses the United States, the European Union, and philanthropist George Soros of trying to meddle in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The accusations come as opinion polls show Orbán's alliance Fidesz–KDNP and the rival United Opposition polling neck-and-neck. (Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
- European migrant crisis
- The trial of Matteo Salvini opens in Palermo, Italy. Salvini is accused of kidnapping and abuse of office when he ordered the detaining of 147 migrants at sea in August 2019, when he was serving as minister of the interior. Salvini said that the decision was agreed upon with the government, including then-prime minister Giuseppe Conte. (France 24)
- Illegal drug trade in Colombia
- Colombian police arrest Dario Antonio Úsuga (alias "Otoniel"), a leader of the Clan del Golfo drug cartel, in the town of Necoclí. Úsuga has been listed by authorities as one of the country's most-wanted drug traffickers. (AFP via CNA)
Science and technology
- Discoveries of exoplanets
- Scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa announce the discovery of 2M0437b, one of the youngest exoplanets ever found at a distant star. The exoplanet was discovered using the Subaru Telescope at the observatory on Mauna Kea. (SciTech)