Portal:Current events/2024 June 21
June 21, 2024 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Israel–Hamas war
- Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- An IED kills five Pakistan Army personnel in Kurram District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (Arab News)
Business and economy
- France–Niger relations
- Niger's military junta revokes the operating license of French nuclear fuel producer Orano at the Imouraren uranium mine amid tensions between the two countries. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- 2024 Hajj disaster
- At least 1,119 pilgrims, more than half of whom are from Egypt, are now confirmed to have died from heat-related causes during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. (Barron's)
- President of Tunisia Kais Saied dismisses the Minister of Religious Affairs after 49 Tunisians are reported to have died in this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. (Al Arabiya)
- 2024 Guangdong floods
- The death toll from the floods and landslides in Meizhou, Guangdong, China, increases to 47 people. (Al Jazeera)
- 2024 North America heat waves
- At least six people die due to heat-related illness in the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona, United States, as temperatures reach 115 °F (46 °C). (AP)
- 2024 West African floods
- At least 21 people are killed by floods in Niger's Maradi region and the suburbs of Niamey after unusually heavy rainfall in the region. (AP)
- 2024 European heatwaves
- Most of Montenegro and parts of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia experience blackouts as a result of a heavy load on the electrical grid caused by an unexpected increase in power consumption due to high temperatures. (DW)
- At least 11 people are killed in wildfires in southeast Turkey. (ABC News)
- A worker is killed and five others are critically injured in an explosion at an aluminium processing plant in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy. (ANSA)
- France reports nearly 200 cases of cholera in Mayotte. (Le Monde)
- The death toll from torrential rains in El Salvador increases to 19 people, including at least two children. (AP)
International relations
- Enlargement of the European Union
- Accession of Moldova to the European Union, Accession of Ukraine to the European Union
- European Union member states agree to begin negotiations on the accession of Moldova and Ukraine to the EU next week. (The Independent)
- Moldovan president Maia Sandu signs the decree that begins negotiations on Moldova's accession to the European Union. Sandu also announces that the first Moldova–EU intergovernmental conference will take place on 25 June. (Anadolu Agency)
- Accession of Moldova to the European Union, Accession of Ukraine to the European Union
- Armenia–Palestine relations, International recognition of the State of Palestine
- Armenia officially recognises the State of Palestine. (Reuters)
- Israel–Ukraine relations
- Israel and Ukraine mutually impose travel restrictions to each others' citizens, preventing reciprocal visa-free travel without an authorization permit. (The Kyiv Independent)
Law and crime
- 2024 Fordyce shooting
- Four people are killed and ten others are wounded in a shooting at the Mad Butcher supermarket in Fordyce, Arkansas, United States. The suspect, Travis Eugene Posey, is shot and arrested by Arkansas State Police. (AP)
- Cross-Strait relations
- China officially defines Taiwanese separatist behavior as a criminal act. (Financial Times)
- LGBT rights in Namibia
- The High Court of Namibia rules that two colonial-era laws criminalizing sex between men are unconstitutional. (DW)
- A court in Geneva, Switzerland, sentences Indian-born billionaire Prakash Hinduja and three of his family members to four years in prison for exploiting domestic workers at their villa in Cologny. (AP)