Portal:Current events/2024 August 21

August 21, 2024 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  - August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion
    - The Ukrainian military reports that it used United States-made weapons to destroy several pontoon bridges constructed by Russia following its destruction of at least three bridges over the Seym river in Kursk Oblast. (Reuters)
  - Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin states that Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on the Russian capital, and claims that all drones were taken down without casualties or damage based on preliminary information. (Reuters)
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
  - Pokrovsk offensive
    - The Russian Ministry of Defense states it has fully captured the village of Zhelanne in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Anadolu Agency)
    - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges advancements made by Russian Armed Forces on the Pokrovsk front, and announces the strengthening of regional Ukrainian positions in order to resist further advancements. (Reuters)
Islamist insurgency in the Sahel
- Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger write to the United Nations Security Council to denounce Ukrainian support for rebel groups in the Sahel region of West Africa. (Reuters)
Israel–Hamas war
- 2024 Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel
  - Hamas fires two rockets from the Gaza Strip with sirens sounding in Sderot, Ibim, and Nir Am. (Middle East Monitor)
Israeli incursions in the West Bank during the Israel–Hamas war, Israel–Hezbollah conflict, Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- One injured in Hezbollah launching 50 rockets, drone strikes and shelling on IDF's Tsnobar logistics site and several other IDF sites in the Golan Heights and Zar'it in northern Israel.(Al Jazeera)
- A Syrian national and Khalil al-Muqdah, a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, is killed in an Israeli airstrike in Sidon and Khiam in southern Lebanon. (Al Jazeera) (Al Jazeera)
- One killed and two injured in an Israeli airstrikes on a Hezbollah ammunition depot, an air defense system and the villages of Abu Sash, Wadi Hamool, Aita al-Shaab, Ramiya and Talousa of the Beqaa Valley. (Al Jazeera)
Somali Civil War
- Nine people, including five security officers and four civilians are killed and dozens are injured in an Al-Shabaab suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpoint on the Mogadishu–Afgoye highway in Somalia. (Daily Post Nigeria)

Business and economy

Unemployment in the United States
- The United States Department of Labor issues a significant estimate correction stating that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs between April 2023 and March 2024 than what was initially reported in July, the largest estimate revision since 2009. (AP) (CNBC)
2024 Canada railway shutdown
- Canada's two largest freight railroads Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National Railway announce a complete shutdown of services due to a contract dispute, shutting out its Teamsters-represented union workers. (Reuters) (AP)
With regards to the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence market, Bloomberg alleges that technology companies are "concealing their actual carbon footprints" by invoking outdated emissions accounting rules. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

Atchutapuram pharmaceutical factory explosion
- At least seventeen workers are killed and 41 others are injured, many from severe chemical burns, in an explosion at a pharmaceutical facility in Anakapalli, Andhra Pradesh, India. (Indian Express) (NDTV)
Twenty-eight people are killed and 23 others are injured when a bus carrying Shia Pakistani pilgrims to the Arba'in pilgrimage in Iraq crashes and overturns in Yazd province, Iran. (Reuters)
Four bodies are recovered from the superyacht Bayesian that sank two days ago, bringing the death toll to five. The search for the last missing person is ongoing. (Reuters)

Health and environment

2023–2024 mpox epidemic
- Thailand reports its first case of mpox in a 66-year-old European man who worked in an African country affected by the ongoing epidemic. (The New York Times)
- Several suspected cases of mpox clade 1b are reported in Somerset, England, United Kingdom. (Devon Live)
- Honduras reports five suspected cases of the new mpox clade. (Prensa Libre)

Law and crime

Hungary and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hungary–Ukraine relations
- A Hungarian law restricting or removing state support and accommodations for Ukrainian refugees not from regions directly affected by the Russian invasion comes into effect. (BBC News)
Sanski Most school shooting
- Three staff members are killed in a mass shooting at a school in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The perpetrator, who also worked at the school, is seriously injured after shooting himself. (AP)
Four people, including three children, are killed in a house fire in Bradford, England, United Kingdom. Police say that the fire was started deliberately and that a suspect has been arrested under suspicion of murder. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

International reactions to the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election
- The United States drafts a punitive sanctions list of sixty Venezuelan government officials from the country's National Electoral Council, Supreme Court, and counterintelligence police agency for alleged electoral fraud. (Reuters)
The Ukrainian parliament approves the Rome Statute treaty established by the International Criminal Court, thereby allowing the country to become a state party once the government ratifies with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. (Ukrinform)