Portal:Current events/2015 October 21

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • The Taliban announced it overran Ghoryan in western Herat, the second district to fall in three days. (Long War Journal)
• Syrian Civil War
  • ISIL orders males aged 14 and older in Raqqa, its de facto Syrian capital, to register with the police, an action seen as the first step toward forced conscriptions in this region. (Al Jazeera America)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • Rockets fired by Houthi forces reportedly kill 14 people in city of Taiz, southwestern Yemen. (Reuters)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • According to a civilian vigilante, 20 people are killed after Boko Haram militants open fire on cars outside a village in Nigeria's restive northeast Borno state. (AFP via Yahoo)

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • The death toll from Tropical Storm Koppu that battered the Philippines' main island this weekend climbed to at least 39. Koppu forced more than 100,000 villagers into emergency shelters and destroyed rice fields ready for harvest. (AP) (BBC)
• A U.S. F-18 fighter jet crashes into farmland near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk county, England, killing the pilot. (Sky News)

• The American Academy of Pediatrics calls for pregnant women to abstain completely from alcohol during the entire three trimesters of the pregnancy, saying no amount of any type of alcohol should be considered safe since the risks, to the baby in particular (such as fetal alcohol syndrome, among many others), are too great. This puts the U.S. alongside other Western developed countries- except Italy and the United Kingdom, which still allow occasional small amounts- in urging complete abstinence. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the two other U.S. agencies that comment most about this issue, already recommend total alcohol abstinence. (CNN)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The President of Syria Bashar al-Assad visits Moscow for talks with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in an unannounced visit. (BBC)
• Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, and orders it to be implemented subject to certain conditions. The letter states the United States and European Union should clearly announce the elimination of sanctions against Iran. The imposition of sanctions at any level and under any pretext from any of the negotiating countries would violate the JCPOA. (Reuters) (Mehr News Agency) (Daily Mail)
• The Vatican denies an Italian newspaper report that Pope Francis has a benign brain tumour, saying the 78-year-old pontiff is in good health, and denounces the article as utterly reprehensible. (Reuters) (AP via Philly.com)
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem persuaded the Nazis to adopt their Final Solution to exterminate 6 million Jews is reproached by Holocaust experts and survivors, historians, world leaders, etc. Palestine Liberation Organization's Saeb Erakat and Israel's Zionist Union party's Isaac Herzog both blasted Netanyahu's claim. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to ... the Holocaust." Mehnaz Afridi, a Manhattan College professor who promotes Muslim-Jewish dialogue said, "this ... really is a terrible statement to make at this time." (Time) (Reuters) (CNN)

• Two Chinese consulate staff are killed and a consul general injured after a gunman opened fire on a restaurant in the city of Cebu, the "second city" of the Philippines. Various reports named the gunman as Chinese national Li Qingliang. (The Telegraph)
• St. Louis' police chief announces officers are stepping up patrols following fires at six predominantly African-American churches in the past two weeks. No one has been injured in any of the fires. The reward for information leading to an arrest is now $4,000; the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association will match the $2,000 reward being offered by the St. Louis Regional Crime Stoppers and the ATF. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Anti-Defamation League suggest the fires may be arson sparked by racist motivations. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) (NBC News)
• Wikileaks releases U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director John O. Brennan's personal information after the top spy's personal email account was allegedly hacked by a 13-year-old and information sent to Wikileaks. All of the documents predate Brennan's time in the Obama administration and reveal no classified data. Among the information released are Social Security numbers, an incomplete questionnaire for security clearance, and addresses of his family and associates. (BBC) (CNN)
• A British lawyer and his wife are found dead by their gardener at their home on the Caribbean island of Tobago. The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service believe the couple were murdered during a suspected robbery. (Independent)

• 2016 United States presidential election
  • Vice President Joe Biden says that he will not be seeking the Democratic Party nomination. (Los Angeles Times blog) (Washington Post)

• 2015 Major League Baseball postseason
  • In Major League Baseball, the New York Mets defeat the Chicago Cubs 8–3, completing a four-game sweep of the 2015 National League Championship Series, and advance to the 2015 World Series. (Newsday)