Portal Current events 2021 April 19

April 19, 2021 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Northern Chad offensive
- The Chadian army says that 300 rebels have been killed and 150 more arrested during military operations in northern Chad. Five soldiers are also killed and 36 others wounded in the operation. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi, COVID-19 lockdown in India
      - Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announces a six-day lockdown in the National Capital Region of Delhi beginning tonight due to a record 25,462 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the past 24 hours. (AP)
    - Nationwide, a record 273,810 new cases are reported in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the total number of cases to 15 million. (Hindustan Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia
    - Cambodia reports a record 634 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 7,013. (Khmer Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, variants of SARS-CoV-2
    - Hong Kong announces the suspension of all flights from India, the Philippines, and Pakistan beginning tomorrow after an unspecified variant was detected in the city. (CNA)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, Lineage B.1.617
    - South Korea reports its first cases of the B.1.617 variant in nine people who travelled from India. (KBS World)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Greece
    - Greece suspends its planned rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pending a review from the European Medicines Agency. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland, Lineage B.1.617
    - Ireland reports its first three cases of the B.1.617 variant originally detected in India, with two of the three cases linked to travel. (Evening Standard)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia
    - Slovakia reopens stores, churches, libraries, swimming pools, and zoos. It also resumes services at limited capacity as part of the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions. (The Straits Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
    - Turkey reports a record 341 deaths in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 36,267. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    - Fiji's two cities of Lautoka and Nadi enter into a lockdown after the country records its first community transmission in 12 months. (FBC News)
    - All schools will be closed for the next three weeks due to the lockdown. (FBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
    - Australia and New Zealand reopen their borders to tourists from either country for quarantine-free travel. (News.com.au)
Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
- Rockfish in Fukushima is banned from exports after cesium is detected over the Japanese legal limit, likely caused by the discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. This is the first ban since the lifting of ban on all Fukushima fish in February 2020. (NHK) (China Daily)

International relations

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics, COVID-19 pandemic in India
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancels a planned trip to India due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country. (Reuters)
Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, Iran–Saudi Arabia relations
- An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirms a meeting between officials of the two countries and says that Iran has "always welcomed" dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Among the topics allegedly discussed in the meeting were the Vienna accord and a ceasefire in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has militarily intervened since 2015. Saudi sources declined to comment on the meeting. (Reuters)
Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan–South Korea relations
- South Korean fishermen stage a maritime demonstration to protest against the Japanese government's decision to release contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Around 150 fishing vessels take part in the protest. (Yonhap News Agency)

Law and crime

Death of Brian Sicknick, aftermath of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol
- Washington, D.C.'s chief medical examiner announces that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes but notes that "all that transpired [during the riot] played a role in his condition." (CNBC)
Russian opposition leader and activist Alexei Navalny, who has been on a hunger strike for three weeks, is moved from prison to a hospital, according to the Russian prison service. Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers hold a meeting to discuss Navalny's health and warn that Russia will be "held responsible" if anything happens to Navalny. (DW)

Politics and elections

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is officially named First Secretary of the Communist Party following the resignation of Raúl Castro. He is the first person not of the Castro family to hold the position since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. (BBC News)

Science and technology

Exploration of Mars, Mars 2020 mission
- NASA's Ingenuity helicopter successfully performs the first powered flight of a helicopter from the surface of another planet. (Phys.org) (Wired)
International Space Station programme
- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov confirms that Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station beginning in 2025. (RT)
The Biden administration scraps Trump-era restrictions on fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health. (Science)
A research team based at the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in Utah announces that the many Teratophoneus fossils unearthed at the site provide proof that, contrary to popular belief, Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs hunted in packs rather than individually. (The Washington Post)

Sports

The Super League
- UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin states at a press conference that the UEFA would begin making "legal assessments" on the following day, and that the organization would look to ban the twelve Super League clubs "as soon as possible", while Jesper Møller, chairman of the Danish Football Association and UEFA Executive Committee member, says that he expected the three Super League clubs in the semi-finals of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League: Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid CF, to be expelled from the competition this week. (CBS Sports)
- The Super League announces that it is taking legal action to prevent any attempts by UEFA and FIFA to punish its member clubs and players for taking part in its inaugural season. (Daily Mirror)
- Protests are held outside Elland Road stadium as Super League member club Liverpool plays Leeds United. Hundreds of people gathered to protest against Liverpool's involvement in the breakaway league. (BBC News)