Portal:Current events/2021 November 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in the Maghreb
  • 2021 Niger attacks
    • Gunmen raid the camp of a self-defence militia in the village of Bakorat, Niger, killing 25 people. (Reuters)
• 2021 Uganda bombings
  • Three suicide bombers blow themselves up near a police station and the entrance of the Parliament in Kampala, killing three people and injuring 33 others. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the attacks. (Reuters)
• 2021 Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis
  • Fifteen Armenian soldiers are killed and twelve more are captured by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces during border clashes, amid mutual recriminations before a Russian-brokered ceasefire is agreed at 19:00 local time. (JAMnews)

Business and economy

• Gas prices for the United Kingdom and the European Union increase by 17% after the German energy regulator suspends the approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany. The regulator says that the pipeline needs to comply with German law before they can certify the €10 billion project. (BBC News)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
      • President Rodrigo Duterte orders the lifting of the mandate to use face shields in areas under Alert 3 and lower levels, which includes the National Capital Region. However, face shields will continue to be used in areas under Alert level 5 and areas under granular lockdown. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • South Korea reports a new single-day record of 495 critical cases of COVID-19. (Yonhap News Agency)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, COVID-19 drug development
      • Russia authorizes Pfizer to conduct clinical trials for its experimental COVID-19 drug named Paxlovid, which will continue until March 2023. (The Hill)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine
      • Ukraine reports a record 838 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 77,895. (Anadolu Agency)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
    • New Zealand reports a record 222 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (New Zealand Herald)
  • Deployment of COVID-19 vaccines
    • The number of Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses supplied worldwide surpasses two billion. (Medical Xpress)
  • COVID-19 drug development
    • Pfizer and the Medicines Patent Pool sign a global licensing agreement that will allow Pfizer's experimental COVID-19 oral drug Paxlovid to be manufactured under a royalty-free license in 95 low and middle-income countries. (The Wall Street Journal)
• 2020–21 H5N8 outbreak
  • Japan reports an outbreak of the H5N8 bird flu strain at a farm with about 11,000 egg-laying chickens in Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture. (Reuters)
• A peer-reviewed study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine announces that an Argentinian woman has allegedly been "functionally cured" of HIV by her own immune system. If confirmed, the woman would be only the second individual in history whose own immune system successfully destroyed the disease without any form of stem-cell transplantation. (USA Today)
• Maryland reports their first case of monkeypox in a resident who traveled from Nigeria. (WJZ-TV)

International relations

• 2021 Belarus–European Union border crisis
  • Migrants at a temporarily closed checkpoint in Kuźnica, Poland, throw stones at Polish border guards, while attempting to destroy the border fence in order to break through the Belarus–Poland border. The guards respond with water cannons and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the mob. The Polish ministry accuses the Belarusian military of aiding the attacks along Poland's borders. (BBC News)
• Russo-Ukrainian War
  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson states that the west will have to choose between reliance on Russian gas and supporting Ukraine amid reported buildups of the Russian military near the border with Ukraine. (The Guardian)
• Belarus–European Union relations
  • Researchers at the American cybersecurity firm Mandiant report that the Belarusian government has ties to the hacker group Ghostwriter, which was accused of targeting various German politicians and ministries in September and has since been accused of launching misinformation campaigns against Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine. (RFE/RL)

Law and crime

• The Mexican Secretariat of National Defense announces that Rosalinda González Valencia, the wife of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera "El Mencho" Cervantes, is re-arrested. González was previously detained in 2018 for allegedly running the finances of the cartel, but was released on bail. (BBC News)
• According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, nearly 1,000 hate crimes against Europe’s Christians were recorded in 2020. The organization documented 980 incidents against Christians, including arson attacks on Catholic churches, desecration and robbery of Eucharistic hosts, assaults on priests, and anti-Catholic graffiti on Church property by abortion activists. (Catholic News Agency)

Politics and elections

• Politics of Monaco
  • Princess Charlene of Monaco cancels all upcoming activities, including those of Monaco's national celebrations, due to ill health, according to a statement from the royal palace. The Princess is said to be suffering from "deep fatigue". (Reuters)
• Pandora Papers
  • The impeachment against Chilean President Sebastián Piñera is defeated in the Senate, after the motion fails to meet the minimum two-thirds threshold in a vote. (Bloomberg)

Science and technology

• Moons of Saturn
  • A new moon of Saturn, S/2019 S 1, is announced, bringing the total number of known moons to 83. (Minor Planet Center)