Portal:Current events/2020 September 14

• Four soldiers are killed during a raid at a house in north Lebanon in pursuit of a militant wanted in connection with a fatal shooting last month. The militant is killed during the raid, and is identified as Khaled al-Talawi, a former Islamic State member who formed a splinter terrorist cell. (Reuters)

• 2020 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Sally rapidly intensifies into a strong Category 1 hurricane, and is expected to make landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border as a strong Category 2 hurricane. (National Hurricane Center)
  • Governor of Louisiana John Bel Edwards declares a state of emergency for New Orleans and other parts of the state as it is expected that Hurricane Sally will make landfall as a strong hurricane on Tuesday. (CNN)
  • Hurricane Paulette makes landfall on Bermuda as a high-end Category 1 hurricane. (Fox News)

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 vaccine
    • The United Arab Emirates approves Sinopharm's vaccine for frontline workers following successful Phase III clinical trials in Abu Dhabi. The WHO-recognized trial began on July 16 and involved 31,000 volunteers. (The National)

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics, COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  • President of Palau Tommy Remengesau Jr. announces he will be hosting an in-person meeting with the leaders of Kiribati, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Nauru's President Lionel Aingimea says the leaders agreed to attend Palau's Independence Day on October 1 as the five Pacific countries remain free of COVID-19. (RNZ)
• China–United States relations
  • The Embassy of the United States, Beijing says Terry Branstad is expected to leave his post as U.S. Ambassador to China in early October. No reason is given for the move and no replacement has been announced. China says it was not notified. (SCMP)

• Connecticut v. ExxonMobil Corp.
  • Connecticut Attorney General William Tong files a lawsuit against ExxonMobil for their products contributing to the emissions that cause global warming and climate change. (CTMirror)
• Aftermath of the Duma arson attack
  • Amiram Ben-Uliel, an Israeli terrorist who killed a Palestinian couple and their 18-month-old son during a racially-motivated arson attack in Duma, Nablus, West Bank in 2015, is sentenced to life imprisonment by an Israeli court. (Reuters)
• A man is in a coma after he was hit by a police car and kicked in the head by an officer during an arrest in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to the incident, the victim was being treated at a hospital for mental health issues. (BBC)
• A court in Rwanda charges Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, with 12 counts, including "terrorism, complicity in murder and forming or joining an armed group", among other charges. Rusesabagina, a strong critic of President Paul Kagame, did not respond to an offer of a plea. (Al Jazeera)

• 2020 Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) leadership election
  • Yoshihide Suga wins a ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, paving the way for him to become Prime Minister in a parliamentary vote this week. (Reuters)
• Second Libyan Civil War
  • The Tobruk-based House of Representatives resigns amid violent protests in eastern Libya over deteriorating living conditions and corruption. A spokesman for Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who is the de facto leader of eastern Libya, says the administration supports peaceful protests but would not allow "terrorists and the Muslim Brotherhood" to hijack them. (BBC)

• Climate change in the Arctic
  • Satellite imagery shows that a big chunk of ice shattered into many small pieces from the last remaining ice shelf in Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, Greenland. (BBC)
  • The discovery of the perfectly preserved remains of a cave bear, believed to be 22,000 to 39,500 years old (Late Pleistocene), is made in Lyakhovsky Islands, Siberia in the thawing permafrost. (AP)
• Life on Venus
  • The Jane Greaves-led international scientific team announce that they have detected a gas called phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus that indicates microorganisms may inhabit Earth's inhospitable neighbor. If confirmed, it would be the first known extraterrestrial life. (Reuters)