Portal:Current events/2020 June 16

• 2020 China–India skirmishes
  • At least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers have been killed in a clash in Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region, amid rising tensions between the two countries. Local media reported that the Indian soldiers were "beaten to death", and the Indian Army says no shots were fired. (BBC News)
• Mali War
  • President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta says that opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé, who was kidnapped in late March, is alive. Keïta said "we know who his captors are [...] And if it pleases God, he will come back soon". (Al Jazeera)
• 2020 boogaloo killings
  • The alleged gunman in a fatal attack on Santa Cruz County deputies is also charged with last month's murder of a Federal Protective Service officer in Oakland, California. A second man is also charged as an accomplice. Both men had ties to the far-right boogaloo movement. (NBC News)

• The World Trade Organization rules that the Saudi government violated Qatar’s intellectual property rights by promoting the pirate TV station beoutQ, which aired Qatari programs like beIN Sports after Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern countries cut ties with the Kingdom during the Qatar diplomatic crisis. The Qatari Communications Minister applauds the decision, while Saudi Arabia denies any involvement. (Al Jazeera)

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
    • Beijing closes all schools, locks down several residential estates and imposes a partial travel ban, urging residents not to leave the city, after 27 more COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the city, bringing the total to 106 new cases in the last five days. The new outbreak is linked to the Xinfadi Market. (The Nations)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
    • Brazil's Ministry of Health reports a record 34,918 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,282 more deaths in the last 24 hours. Despite the record daily rise, Chief of Staff of the Presidency Walter Souza Braga Netto says the virus is now under control. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Honduras
    • President Juan Orlando Hernández says that he, his wife, and their aides have been diagnosed with COVID-19. (CNA)
  • The total cases surpass eight million worldwide. (RNZ)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • The General Staff Department of the Korean People's Army says they are on "high alert" and are looking at plans to mobilize the army into the demilitarized zone, in response to defector groups in South Korea sending propaganda material across the border. (BBC News)
  • North Korea blows up the four-storey Inter-Korean Liaison Office in the Kaesong Industrial Region, according to South Korean authorities. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, had earlier threatened to destroy the "useless" building. A neighbouring apartment complex used by South Korean officials appears to have partially collapsed in the explosion. (Yonhap) (Al Jazeera)
• Chinese intelligence activity abroad, Sino-Russian relations since 1991
  • Russian investigators accuse Valery Mitko, President of Arctic Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and one of the country's leading Arctic researchers, "of treason" after alleging that he gave a document containing state secrets to Chinese intelligence in early 2018 at China's Dalian Maritime University, where he was a visiting professor. Mitko and his lawyer Ivan Pavlov deny any wrongdoing and say that all the materials were openly available. (CNN)

• Police reform in the United States
  • In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd last month, U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order limiting the use of police chokeholds, except in cases where “deadly force is allowed by law”. (CNBC)
• Moldova asks the U.S. to extradite businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc after accusing him of "involvement in the theft of $1 billion from banks in 2014–2015". (Reuters)
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company CEO Bill Johnson pleads guilty on behalf of his company to 84 counts of felony involuntary manslaughter in the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California's history, as well as one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. PG&E will pay a maximum fine of US$3.5 million, as well as an additional US$500,000 for the cost of investigations. (Al Jazeera) (The Sacramento Bee)
• The Indonesian National Police says that they have arrested Russ Medlin, an American fugitive wanted at home in connection with a $700 million cryptocurrency scam, on local teenage sex charges. (The Jakarta Post)

• 2020 Tanzanian general election
  • President John Magufuli dissolves parliament ahead of the election. In the decision, he highlights his government's achievements, citing "expanding infrastructure such as roads, electricity generation and reforming the mining sector". (Reuters)