Portal:Current events/2021 November 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in the Maghreb
  • The death toll from yesterday's mass shooting at a military post near a gold mine in Inata, Soum Province, Burkina Faso, increases to 32, including 28 gendarmes and four civilians, making the attack the deadliest against security forces in the country. (Reuters)
• Liverpool Women's Hospital bombing
  • Yesterday's taxi explosion in Liverpool, England, that killed the bomber and injured the driver outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital, is declared a terrorist incident by police. Mayor Joanne Anderson says that the driver locked the bomber inside the vehicle after noticing that the bomber was wearing an explosive device. (BBC News) (WalesOnline)
• Three al-Shabaab members escape from a maximum security prison in Kenya, including one of the perpetrators of the 2015 Garissa attack, in which 148 people were killed. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Infrastructure policy of the Joe Biden administration
  • U.S. President Joe Biden signs the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. (The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

• November 2021 Pacific Northwest floods
  • Merritt, British Columbia, Canada is evacuated after severe flooding inundated the city of about 7,000. Several highways throughout southern British Columbia were also washed out by heavy rain, leaving at least 10 people stranded. (CBC)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
      • Cambodia begins to allow fully vaccinated foreign travellers to visit the country without a quarantine if they show a negative test result from the previous 72 hours and test negative again upon arrival, as the country currently has the one of world's highest COVID-19 vaccination rates. (AFP via Barron's)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
      • India reopens its border to fully vaccinated foreign travellers on regular commercial flights after being closed for 18 months since March 2020 due to a decrease in the number of new COVID-19 cases. All travellers must follow COVID-19 protocols and show a negative test result from the previous 72 hours, except those from countries with mutual vaccine recognition. (AP)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka, COVID-19 drug development
      • Sri Lanka approves the use of the COVID-19 oral drug molnupiravir in the country. (Adaderana)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
      • Berlin begins to implement "2G" rule that limiting access to restaurants, cinemas, bars, and cultural and entertainment venues to those who are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 amid a rising number of COVID-19 cases across Germany. (VOA)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia
      • Latvia ends its 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and allows companies to fire employees who are unvaccinated against COVID-19. Unvaccinated people are also banned from taking their duties for parliament and entering shopping malls with a size greater than 1,500 square metres (16,000 sq ft). (Medical Xpress)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom
      • The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation approves the extension of age eligibility of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses in the United Kingdom to people between 40 and 49 years old and the second dose for teenagers between the ages of 16 and 17 years. (The Guardian)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland
      • Queensland reopens its state border to fully vaccinated Australians travelling by plane, as 70% of the state's adult population are now fully vaccinated. (ABC News Australia)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt
    • Egypt begins to ban unvaccinated public sector employees and university students from entering workplaces and universities unless they show a negative PCR test from the previous 72 hours. (Arab News)

International relations

• China–United States relations
  • US President Joe Biden holds a virtual bilateral meeting with China's leader Xi Jinping. (AP News)
• Foreign relations of Kiribati
  • The government of New Zealand vows to help islanders in Banaba, Kiribati, to access fresh water, as the island suffers from frequent droughts and is dependent on rainfall. (RNZ)
• 2021 Belarus–European Union border crisis
  • The European Union says it will impose new sanctions on Belarus in response to the migrant crisis on the Belarus–Poland border. (CNN)

Politics and elections

• 2021 Argentine legislative election
  • With nearly all votes counted, the ruling Peronist government loses control of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This is the first time since the return to democracy in 1983 that Peronists do not have a majority in either house. (El Mostrador Chile)

Science and technology

• Russia carries out a direct-ascent anti-satellite weapon test on the defunct Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 1408, creating a cloud of debris that threatens the International Space Station. (SpaceNews)