Portal:Current events/2021 June 27

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan
  • Taliban insurgency
    • Thousands of people flee the northern Afghan city of Kunduz as heavy fighting between government forces and Taliban insurgents nears the city. Heavy clashes are also reported in Kandahar and Baghlan Provinces. (Al Jazeera)
• Somali Civil War; Capital punishment in Somalia
  • Twenty-one men are executed by a firing squad in Galkayo, in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, Somalia, after they were convicted of being members of the jihadist group al-Shabaab. It is the largest number of executions of members of the group in Puntland. While the executions were being carried out, al-Shabaab gunmen attacked the town of Wisil, Mudug, killing 20 soldiers. (BBC News)
• Colombian conflict
  • Three gun attacks in Colombia result in multiple deaths. Three off-duty police officers are shot dead in Pailitas, five men are murdered in San Vicente del Caguán, and another officer is killed in Cali. (Al Jazeera)
• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
  • Two blasts, possibly from armed drones, hit an Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Two IAF personnel suffered minor injuries. The Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist group is believed to be behind the attack. (DW)
• An explosion of a homemade bomb in a church in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, injures two women. (France 24)

Disasters and accidents

• Authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands said a boat carrying 20 dead individuals, including two children, was discovered drifting approximately a mile off the coast of Grand Turk. (AP)
• Seven people are killed and dozens are injured in a blast in a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh and causing damage to seven buildings. The cause of the blast is unknown but it is suspected to be caused by a gas leak. (ABC News)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh
      • Bangladesh reports a record 119 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 14,172. (Dhaka Tribune)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia
      • Indonesia reports a record 21,342 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, 9,394 of which are from Jakarta, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2.11 million. (detikHealth)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the State of Palestine
      • Palestine reports its first cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in two people from the West Bank cities of Qalqilya and Salfit who recently travelled from the United Arab Emirates. (Anadolu Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia
      • The Saudi Food and Drug Authority approves the inoculation of children between 12 and 17 years of age with the Pfizer–BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • Darwin and surrounding towns enter a two-day lockdown after a COVID-19 outbreak linked to the recent cluster in Sydney was reported. Restrictions also increase in Western Australia after a woman who recently returned from Sydney also tests positive. (The Guardian)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg
    • Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel tests positive for COVID-19. (Politico.eu)
• 2021 Western North America heat wave
  • The temperature reaches 46.6 °C (115.9 °F) in Lytton, British Columbia, breaking the all-time record for hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada. The previous record was 45 °C (113 °F) in Yellow Grass and Midale, Saskatchewan, in 1937. (CBC)

International relations

• Sudan announces that it will surrender former officials who are wanted on war crime charges to the International Criminal Court. Sudan has not named those who will be handed over. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• Women's rights in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia releases two women's rights activists, Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, after they completed and served their sentences. Both women were detained in July 2018 along with a dozen other activists. Human rights group welcome the release, with Human Rights Watch praising the women's activism. (Reuters)