Portal:Current events/2021 May 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to continue strikes in Gaza, including Hamas targets. (Times of Israel)
  • The death toll in Gaza from the Israeli airstrikes rises to 212 people, including 61 children. (Al Jazeera)
  • The Biden administration approves a $735-million weapons sale to Israel. (The Washington Post)
  • The offices of the Qatar branch of the Red Crescent Society is destroyed by an Israeli air strike, killing two Palestinians and wounding ten others. The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemns the attack. (Al Jazeera)
  • The Israeli military shells southern Lebanon after several Grad-type rockets were fired at Israel. (Deutsche Welle)
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that security forces killed Sofi Nurettin, a high-ranking member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, in northern Iraq. (AP)

Business and economy

• IPO of between US$35 and 40 billion, Gojek claims that it is the country's largest business deal. (CNBC)

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
      • travel bubble agreement, which was initially scheduled to begin on May 26, due to an increase in the number of unlinked community cases of COVID-19 in Singapore. (CNBC)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
      • Malaysia reports a record 45 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 1,947. (The Star)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, COVID-19 vaccination in the Philippines
      • The government signs an agreement with Pfizer to purchase 40 million doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, the Philippines' largest supply agreement for a COVID-19 vaccine. (Bloomberg)
    • Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
      • Saudi Arabia eases an international travel ban for those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. However, citizens from 20 countries remain banned from entering the country and Saudi citizens are banned from travelling to 13 high-risk countries, either directly or indirectly. (The Independent)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan
      • Taiwan reports a record 335 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, 333 of which are locally transmitted cases. This subsequently brings the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2,017. (Taiwan News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
      • Thailand reports a record 9,635 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which includes 6,853 cases among prisoners from jail clusters. This subsequently brings the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 111,082. (The Straits Times)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
      • Mario Draghi's government approves a decree that would gradually phase out curfew to 11 p.m. beginning tomorrow and making the six regions an lowest-risk "white zone" by the first week of June. The curfew then will start at midnight from June 7 and be abolished completely on June 21. (Wanted in Rome)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
      • Turkey begins to gradually lift its COVID-19 restrictions, including the 17-day full lockdown, which will end at 5:00 a.m. as the number of infections has declined. This gradual normalization will last until June 1. (Anadolu Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
      • Lockdown restrictions are eased in England, Wales, and Scotland with museums, cinemas, children's play areas, and hotels reopening. Pubs, bars, and restaurants can now serve customers indoors again with social distancing rules in place. In England, people can now gather in groups of 30 outdoors and meet indoors in groups of up to six. A ban on international travel is also lifted. (BBC News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, COVID-19 vaccination in South Africa
    • South Africa begins the second phase of its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for people aged 60 or older as the government has set a goal to vaccinate five million people by the end of June. (The New York Times)
• Namibia bans all imports of poultry and poultry products from South Africa due to an outbreak of avian influenza that was detected there. (Reuters)
• In the first global study of its kind, the
  middle-aged, are particularly susceptible to risks from overworking. (Reuters)
• Galapagos Islands. (CNN)

• European migrant crisis, Morocco–Spain relations
  • More than 5,000 migrants cross the
    Guardia Civil agents and 150 national police officers will be deployed to maintain security in the city. The crossings come amid tensions between Spain and Morocco over Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali's hospital treatment in Spain for COVID-19. (The Guardian)

• International protests over the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • Protesters gather in Sanaa, Yemen, to protest Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip. During the protest, demonstrators are seen calling for a boycott of Israeli and American goods, as well as chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". (Al-Ahram)
• Chinese Mexicans and five Japanese Mexicans were slaughtered. This is the first time the Mexican government apologizes for the massacre. (AP)
• The United States approves the release of Saifullah Paracha, a 73-year-old Pakistani man who is currently the oldest prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He is expected to be formally released in the next few months. (Dawn)

Politics and elections

• Elections in Chile
  • Independent candidates win the largest number of seats in the election for the Constitutional Convention. The traditional center-right and center-left alliances reach their worst performance in an election since 1990, while the coalition between Broad Front and the Communist Party becomes the second-largest political force. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
  • In the
    election of regional governors, Christian Democrat Claudio Orrego and leftist Karina Oliva move to the second round in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, while the officialist Catalina Parot gets fourth place. (Mercopress)
• The
  Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, who has held power since November 1998. (Reuters)

• The
  Kyrgyzstan government to an international court. (Rferl)