Portal:Current events/2021 May 18

May 18, 2021 (2021-05-18) (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
  • A Hamas rocket kills two Thai workers and injures ten others in southern Israel, bringing the death toll there to 12. (Times of Israel)
  • The death toll from the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza rise to at least 217 Palestinians killed, including 63 children according to Hamas-controlled sources. About 1,500 others have been wounded. Gaza's main COVID-19 laboratory is destroyed by a strike, stopping all COVID-19 tests as a result. Four more protesters are also killed in the West Bank. (Al Jazeera)
  • The IDF reports the death of 160 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. However, the deaths are not confirmed by either the groups or Palestinian authorities. (Jerusalem Post)
  • Israeli police fire stun grenades, rubber bullets, and spray skunk water at protestors gathered at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. (Sky News)
  • One Palestinian is killed and dozens more are wounded after Israeli security forces open fire on protesters marching at a military checkpoint in the Beit El settlement in the West Bank. Further clashes are also reported in Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Budrus. (Al Jazeera)
• Spillover of the Moro conflict
  • Five Abu Sayyaf militants are killed during a shootout with police in Beaufort, Sabah, Malaysia. All of those killed were Filipinos. (Al Jazeera)
• 2021 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan conflict
  • Officials in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan announce that they have agreed to joint security controls following clashes between the two countries at the border. (RFERL)

Disasters and accidents

• Cyclone Tauktae
  • More than 90 people are missing after a barge sailing off the coast of Mumbai, India sank during severe weather. (BBC)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India
      • India reports a record 4,329 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 278,719. (The Times of India)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
      • Malaysia reports a record for the second consecutive day of 47 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 1,994. (Free Malaysia Today)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, COVID-19 vaccination in Singapore
      • The Singaporean Health Sciences Authority approves the use of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine for children between the ages of 12 and 15. (CNBC)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education
      • Taipei and New Taipei City close all elementary, middle and high schools until May 28 amid an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. (Kyodo News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
      • Thailand reports a record 35 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 649. (CNA)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
    • Argentina reports records of 35,543 new cases of COVID-19 and 745 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the total number of cases to 3.37 million and the death toll to 71,771. (Minuto Uno)
• Darwin's Arch collapses in the Galapagos Islands. (CNN)

International relations

• European migrant crisis, Morocco–Spain relations
  • Spain deploys the Army in Ceuta to control the border with Morocco while immigrants continue to arrive in the face of the permissiveness of the Moroccan police. At least one migrant is reported dead while trying to cross the border in Melilla. (El País in English)
  • The mayor-president of Ceuta Juan Jesús Vivas calls the situation an "invasion" and announces the suspension of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for Wednesday as the city is experiencing an "state of emergency atmosphere". (20 minutos)
  • Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha González Laya summons the Moroccan ambassador, who is later recalled to Rabat for consultations. (Europa Press) (BBC News)
• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issues a gag order that forbids his cabinet from publicly discussing the South China Sea dispute, which comes after some of his secretaries criticized the government of China over the presence of Chinese vessels in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. (Al Jazeera)
• Lebanon–Saudi Arabia relations, Lebanon–United Arab Emirates relations
  • Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates both summon their Lebanese ambassadors after Lebanese Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe accused the Gulf States of playing a role in the rise of ISIL in a heated exchange with a Saudi guest during an interview yesterday. Wehbe has since apologized for his remarks. (Al Jazeera)
• Libya–Tunisia relations
  • Tunisia's flag carrier Tunisair announces that it has resumed services to Libya in light of the UN-sponsored peace agreement, becoming the first foreign airline to connect to the country since the outbreak of the Second Libyan Civil War seven years ago. Yesterday, the airline flew its first flights to Benghazi and Tripoli, and has scheduled five flights to both cities each week. (Al Jazeera)
• It is revealed that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is currently attempting to build a Chinese university in Budapest. The cost of the project amounts to €1.5 billion of public funds with €279 million of direct spending and a €1.25 billion loan that would need to be repaid to China, an amount for a single school larger than Hungary’s entire higher education financing. Construction costs would be paid directly to the Chinese State Civil Engineering Company. However, the mayor of Budapest opposes the project. (Hungary Today) (Global Construction Review)

Politics and elections

• 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis
  • International protests over the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
    • Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, protest across the city during a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to the Ford River Rouge Complex over the United States's support of Israel response to attacks from Gaza. (Detroit Free Press)
  • Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and communities inside Israel hold a general strike to protest Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. The Central Committee of Fatah calls it a "day of rage". (Middle East Eye)

Sports

• Transgender people in sports
  • The French Rugby Federation allows trans women players to feature in top-level women's rugby union in the country starting next season, overturning the World Rugby's advice against this. (CNN)

Month

May 2021

Previous day

May 17

Next day

May 19