Portal:Current events/2021 June 14

Armed conflicts and attacks

• London, Ontario truck attack
  • Attorney General of Canada David Lametti approves a request to press terrorism charges against Nathaniel Veltman, who was arrested for a vehicle-ramming attack on Pakistani Muslim family in London, Ontario. (BBC News)
• 2021 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan conflict
  • Batken District head Uchkun Jorobaev announces that nine houses that were burnt in the Aksai village during border clashes with Tajikistan will be rebuilt. Reconstruction is expected to be complete in August. (AKIpress News Agency)

Disasters and accidents

• A massive fire occurs at a chemical plant in Rockton, Illinois, U.S., that produces greases, lubricants, metal working fluids and cleaners. The fire is being left to burn out in order to prevent runoff from spilling into the nearby Rock River. (NBC News)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba
      • Cuba expands their emergency vaccination plan to Havana and other parts of the island by using the Abdala vaccine. (Xinhua News Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Hawaii
        • Hawaii reports their first case of the Lineage B.1.617 Delta variant in an Oahu resident who traveled to Nevada. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Vermont, COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
        • Governor Phil Scott announces that 80% of individuals in Vermont have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first U.S. state to reach the milestone. Following the milestone, Scott announced that the state would lift their restrictions. (WCAX-TV)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Kyrgyzstan
      • Kyrgyzstan announces that it will receive 150,000 doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine by June 20. (AKIpress News Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
      • COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines
        • President Rodrigo Duterte extends the general community quarantines for Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces and places 21 areas under modified enhanced community quarantine from June 16 to 30 with varying restrictions. (ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • South Korea eases COVID-19-related restrictions at large concerts and sports events, with up to 4,000 people allowed to attend K-pop concerts and other cultural shows, as well as allowing sport stadiums to operate at 30% to 50% capacity depending on the district as the country continues its vaccination campaign. (CNA)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
      • COVID-19 pandemic in England
        • Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces that the UK's final relaxing of pandemic-related restrictions in England will be delayed by four weeks due to an increase in the number of cases of the Lineage B.1.617 Delta variant. Reopening has been delayed from June 21 to at least July 19. (The Washington Post)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    • Fiji reports 89 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours as the government warns that, due to the presence of the Delta variant, which was first detected in India, the situation is worse than that seen in Australia and New Zealand. Fiji has now reported 1,118 cases nationwide. (RNZ International)
  • COVID-19 vaccine
    • Phase III clinical trials for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate conclude in the U.S. and Mexico, showing an efficacy rating of 90.4%, down from the initial estimate of 96.4% efficacy reported in March. Additionally, the vaccine candidate was also found to be 86.3% effective against the Lineage B.1.1.7 Alpha variant that originated in the United Kingdom. (CNN International)
    • A study from the Public Health England shows that the vaccine developed by Pfizer is 96% effective against hospitalizations from the Delta variant, while the AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine is 92% effective. (Reuters)
• The United States is investigating a leak at the Taishan Power Plant, in Taishan, Guangdong, China, which is partially owned by EDF. The French firm ruled out the possibility of an accident, saying the radiation levels were within the limit. (CNN) (NHK World-Japan)
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces that it is banning imports of dogs from 113 countries for one year, stating that hundreds of dogs from these countries had falsified rabies certificates. (BBC News)

International relations

• Russia–United States relations
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin defends himself from accusations of hacking and suppressing dissent, saying that the United States also does the same. (Yahoo! News)
• 2021 Brussels summit
  • Leaders of the NATO countries gather at the 31st NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. (The Washington Post)
• Philippine drug war
  • Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda states that preliminary evidence collected from 2016 to 2019 shows there is "a reasonable basis to believe that the Crime Against Humanity of murder was committed" by the administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during their drug war, and that a full investigation on the matter will be sought. Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque attacked the comments as "legally erroneous and politically motivated", and says that the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction because the Philippines withdrew from the organization in 2019. (Al Jazeera English)
• Philippines–United States relations
  • Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. suspends the termination of its Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States for another six months, which was set to expire in August. (CNN International)

Law and crime

• Trump administration data seizure
  • John Demers resigns as U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division amid an investigation over allegations that the U.S. Department of Justice spied on Congressional Democrats during the Trump presidency. (NBC News)
  • U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says that he will strengthen the U.S. Department of Justice and vows to investigate any officials who engaged in data seizure. (The Washington Post)
• Post-coup unrest in Egypt (2013–2014)
  • Egypt's highest civilian court upholds the death sentence of 12 members of the Muslim Brotherhood over a 2013 sit-in, which ended with security forces opening fire and killing several hundred pro-Brotherhood protesters. The ruling, which cannot be appealed, leaves the men closer to execution with a pending approval by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. (Reuters)
• Aftermath of the 2021 United States Capitol attack
  • A Virginia couple who were seen carrying protest signs that questioned COVID-19 vaccines in the United States Capitol during the January 6 riot pleads guilty, making them the third and fourth suspects to do so after Jon Schaffer and Paul Hodgkins. Additionally, they are also the first suspects facing minor charges to do so. (The New York Times)
• 2021 Peruvian general election
  • An investigation is launched into supporters of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori and the Popular Force party for incidents of harassment of electoral authorities via the Internet. (Prensa Latina)
• Two American citizens, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and his son, plead guilty to helping former chairman of Nissan Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan to Lebanon in December 2019. Although Japan has asked for Ghosn's international capture, Lebanon has so far refused to extradite him. (Reuters)
• American intelligence specialist Reality Winner, who was convicted in 2018 for leaking an NSA report on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections to news site The Intercept, is released from prison. (CNBC)