Portal:Current events/2020 September 11

September 11, 2020 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Somali Civil War
- Six people are killed and twenty others injured after an al-Shabaab suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in Kismayo, Somalia. The target of the attack is suspected to be a local politician. (Al Jazeera)
War in Afghanistan
- September 2020 Afghanistan attacks
  - Two civilians and two soldiers are killed and 13 other people are injured during a bombing attack at a wedding in Khost, Afghanistan. (TOLONews)
Iraqi insurgency (2017–present)
- Security forces kill at least four leaders from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Samarra District, Iraq. (National Iraqi News Agency)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
    - President Rodrigo Duterte signs into law the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, a ₱165.5 billion (US$3.4 billion) stimulus package to extend the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act. (Reuters via U.S. News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
    - The interior ministry announces plans to convert Border Patrol Police camps into quarantine facilities in order to accommodate additional migrant workers as part of an effort to address the country's labour shortage caused by the pandemic. (Xinhua)
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Florida
    - It is announced that bars in South Florida counties such as Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County will remain closed. However, bars in the rest of the state will be allowed to reopen at a 50% capacity. (The Sun-Sentinel) (New York Daily News)

Disasters and accidents

A cave-in at a gold mine near Kamituga in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, kills at least 50 miners. (The Guardian)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - COVID-19 pandemic in California
      - It is announced that schools in Los Angeles County will remain closed until the winter. (Patch.com)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado
      - Governor Jared Polis says that the state might extend its mask mandate in indoor public spaces for another 30 days. (The Denver Post)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan
      - Michigan records 1,313 new cases, its highest single-day total since April 24. (MLive.com)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal
    - For the second time in the same week, Portugal reports the biggest daily increase in new cases since the national lockdown was lifted in May, with 687 new cases and three deaths, bringing the cumulative totals to 62,813 confirmed cases and 1,855 deaths in 193 days since the first infections were detected in the country. (DGS)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
    - Slovenia reports 108 new cases, an all-time high. (RTVSLO)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    - The United Kingdom reports 3,539 cases of COVID-19, up from 2,919 a day earlier. Six deaths are also reported. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vatican City
    - Vatican-based Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, tests positive for COVID-19. (Reuters via WTVB)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Kyrgyzstan
  - The number of recoveries in Kyrgyzstan reaches past 40,000. (Xinhua)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Namibia
  - The Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek, the country's main international airport, reopens to international flights after a six-month closure. (Xinhua)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, COVID-19 vaccine
  - The Brazilian state of Bahia is expected to conduct phase III trails of Russia's Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine and buy 50 million doses. (Reuters)

International relations

Japan–United Kingdom relations, Impact of Brexit
- Japan and the United Kingdom reach a tentative free trade agreement, which British trade secretary Liz Truss hails as the UK's "first major post-Brexit trade deal". (CNBC)
Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement
- Israel and Bahrain agree to establish relations. (Jerusalem Post)
China–United States relations
- The Chinese foreign ministry announces it would reciprocate the sanctions that the U.S. State Department imposed earlier this month onto its senior diplomats visiting the U.S., by also imposing similar countermeasures to U.S. diplomats in China. (AFP via CNA)

Law and crime

1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador
- A court in Madrid sentences former Salvadoran deputy minister for public security Inocente Orlando Montano Morales to 133 years in prison for the murders of six Jesuits and two others in San Salvador during the country's civil war in 1989. (AFP via Vanguard)
A court in Turkey sentences opposition parliamentarian Remziye Tosun of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to ten years in prison for "membership in a terrorist organization" and "treating wounded Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members" during clashes in 2016. Her lawyer rejects the verdict. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

2020 Iranian legislative election
- Run-off parliamentary elections are being held in Iran. The first round of the election was held in February and provoked criticism as more than 7000 applicants got barred from participating. (Foreign Brief)
Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa Fiame Naomi Mata'afa resigns over three proposed constitutional amendments, which would alter the power of the land and titles court. She also leaves the Human Rights Protection Party. Other MPs have already left the party over the issue and formed a new opposition party. (RNZ)