Portal:Current events/2020 August 25

August 25, 2020 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- August 2020 Afghanistan attacks
  - A truck bombing kills at least three people and injures another 41 in Balkh Province, Afghanistan. (Reuters)
  - Afghan actress and filmmaker Saba Sahar survives an assassination attempt in Kabul while on the way to work, she suffered four gunshot wounds and was taken to a private hospital. The Taliban's spokesman denies any involvement in the attack. (International Business Times)

Business and economy

Ant files for an initial public offering of at least 10% of its capital in new shares on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. (Bloomberg via Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

2020 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Laura heads toward the Gulf Coast of the United States. The storm is now over western Cuba after killing multiple people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The coasts of Texas and Louisiana prepare to receive Laura as a category 3 (or higher) hurricane. (CNN)
- More than 385,000 residents are told to flee the cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur, in Texas saying as much as 13 feet (3.96 meters) of storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire communities. (AP)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - India reports its highest single-day record of recovered patients after more than 66,000 are declared recovered in the last 24 hours, pushing the recovery rate to 75.92%. (Hindustan Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
    - South Korea orders most schools in Seoul Capital Area to close and move classes back online as the country battles a resurgence in cases. All students, except for high school seniors, in the cities of Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, will take classes online until September 11. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    - Prime Minister Boris Johnson reverses an earlier advice against the wearing of face masks by secondary education students in local lockdown areas of England, following protests from head teachers and academic organisations against the earlier advice. Meanwhile, schools in areas of England not subject to tighter restrictions are given the discretion on whether to mandate the wearing of face masks for its students. (The Guardian)
Polio eradication
- The Africa Regional Certification Commission announces that they have declared Africa free of polio. (BBC News)

International relations

Foreign relations of Taiwan, Foreign relations of France
- Taiwan announces that it will open a representative office in Aix-en-Provence to serve southern France. This is the second Taiwanese representative office in France and the third office to open this year, coming after the establishment of an office in Hargeisa, Somaliland, and the re-opening of the office in Guam. (Taiwan News)
Ethiopia–Sudan relations
- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed meets with the Sudanese leadership in Khartoum to discuss the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. (Reuters)
Iran–United States relations, Sanctions against Iran
- The United Nations formally rejects the United States's request to reimpose its sanctions against Iran via the "snapback" provision of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), citing the Security Council's opposition due to the country's withdrawal from the JCPoA in 2018. (AFP via The Straits Times)

Law and crime

2020 United States racial unrest
- Shooting of Breonna Taylor
  - At least 64 people were arrested in Louisville, Kentucky as crowds marched over the death of Breonna Taylor. The protests were peaceful until a group of demonstrators "crossed several intersections, creating dangerous situations as traffic continued to try to make its way in the area," claimed Robert Schroeder, interim chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department. (CNN)
- Shooting of Jacob Blake, Kenosha unrest, Kenosha unrest shooting
  - Two people are fatally shot and one wounded during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the shooting of Jacob Blake. Police are investigating whether the incident occurred during a confrontation between protesters and armed men. (CNN)
  - Wisconsin's Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency due to persistent unrest in Kenosha. (The Wall Street Journal)
The High Court of Hong Kong denies release for the first person arrested under the Hong Kong national security law. The 23-year-old man had driven a motorbike into several policemen knocking them down on a narrow street before falling over and getting arrested. (Reuters)
Manchester United captain and England international Harry Maguire is given a suspended sentence of 21 months and 10 days in prison by a Greek court for repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery of police, violence against public employees and insult, following his arrest on the island of Mykonos. (BBC Sport)

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