Portal:Current events/2021 September 26

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Afghanistan conflict
  • War in Afghanistan
    • 2021 Kabul Airlift
      • The Taliban calls for international commercial flights at the Kabul International Airport to resume after the airport was closed for evacuations. (UrduPoint)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Five Palestinians are killed in Biddu, Jerusalem, and two more are killed in Burqin during overnight military raids by Israeli soldiers. Two soldiers are also injured during one of the raids. According to Israeli officials, the Palestinians were members of a Hamas cell who were planning large-scale kidnappings and murders across the country. (Al Jazeera) (Times of Israel)
• Communal conflicts in Nigeria, Boko Haram insurgency
  • Gunmen raid the village of Madamai in Kaduna State, killing 34 people and wounding seven more. Two suspects are arrested. In Sokoto State, 22 security personnel are killed by ISWAP terrorists during an attack on a remote army base. Other gunmen in Kaduna then also attacked a church, resulting in the death of a person and the wounding of others. (Al Jazeera)
• Colombian conflict
  • Five people are killed and six more are injured during a mass shooting at a public venue in Tumaco, Colombia. A military commander has blamed the attack on FARC dissidents. (BBC News)
• 2020–2021 Ethiopian–Sudanese clashes
  • Sudan claims that it has repelled an advance by Ethiopian troops into Umm Barakit District, al-Fashaga. However, Ethiopia denies any movement of its forces on the Ethiopia–Sudan border. (BBC News)

Arts and culture

• 74th Tony Awards
  • Moulin Rouge! wins 10 Tony Awards at the 74th Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Additionally, The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez wins Best Play and A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller wins Best Revival of a Play. (NPR)

Business and economy

• 2021 United Kingdom fuel panic buying
  • UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announces the oil industry will be exempted from the Competition Act 1998 so that companies can coordinate and deliver petroleum products easier in light of fuel shortages brought on by panic buying. (BBC News)
• Peruvian prime minister Guido Bellido warns companies which drill for gas in the country to either pay higher taxes or face nationalization. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Earthquakes in 2021
  • An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 strikes Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana
      • Ghana receives 1.5 million doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by Germany. (Anadolu Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia
      • Tunisia lifts its nighttime curfew, but imposes vaccine certificates for public events as the number of cases declines. (The North African Journal)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Texas
      • Texas surpasses four million cases of COVID-19. (The Dallas Morning News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
    • Singapore reports a record 1,939 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 87,592. (The Straits Times)

International relations

• Human rights violations by the CIA
  • Yahoo! News reports that members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including then-Director Mike Pompeo, planned in 2017 to kidnap or potentially assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for leaking documents describing hacking tools used by the CIA. (Yahoo! News) (Rolling Stone)
• Kosovo–Serbia relations
  • 2021 North Kosovo protests
    • The Serbian government accuses Kosovo of "provocations" after it mobilized its special police units to the border, and places the Serbian Army on a heightened state of alert. The police units were mobilized after hundreds of Kosovo Serbs staged daily protests and blockaded roads connected to the two border crossings between the two countries after the Kosovar government passed a law requiring that Serbia-registered vehicles wear temporary license plates when entering the country. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar is released from Israeli prison after nearly two years in detention. She was charged for her affiliation with the left-wing political party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is considered an illegal organization in Israel. (Al Jazeera)
• The Taliban's religious police orders barbers in Afghanistan's Helmand Province and Kabul to stop trimming beards. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2021 German federal election
  • Germans head to the polls to elect the new Bundestag, as well as a new Chancellor to succeed Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after 16 years in power. (Al Jazeera)
  • Projections show the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) narrowly beating the governing centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) in the popular vote by 1.7 percentage points, with the latter on course for its worst showing since the end of World War II. Both parties claim the mandate for the Chancellorship. (Politico.eu)
  • The Greens and Free Democratic Party made enough gains to form a possible coalition government with either the CDU or the SPD. (NPR)
• 2021 Icelandic parliamentary election
  • The final results of yesterday's election in Iceland show that the ruling left-right coalition strengthened its majority despite Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir losing ground. The Independence Party won the most seats, with 16. (Reuters)
• 2021 Swiss same-sex marriage referendum, LGBT rights in Switzerland
  • Citizens in Switzerland cast their final vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage in the country. Although civil unions have been legal since 2007, recent polls showed a solid backing for the proposition. (France 24)
• 2021 Sammarinese abortion referendum, Abortion in San Marino
  • San Marino citizens vote in a referendum on the legalization of abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy or in cases where the health of the mother or fetus is at risk. (The Guardian)
• 2021 Tunisian political crisis
  • Around 2,000 Tunisians protest in front of the National Theatre in the capital of Tunis to demand the resignation of President Kais Saied. (Al Jazeera)

Sports

• 2021 Formula One World Championship
  • British racing driver Lewis Hamilton becomes the first driver to win 100 races in Formula One after winning the 2021 Russian Grand Prix for Mercedes. (AFP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• 2021 NFL season
  • In American football, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker kicks a 66-yard field goal during the team's 19–17 victory against the Detroit Lions, making it the longest field goal in National Football League history. (The Baltimore Sun)