Portal:Current events/2021 May 6

May 6, 2021 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2021 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan conflict
- The Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that 136 houses and 84 facilities in the Batken region have been destroyed during clashes at the border. (AKIPress)
- Tajikistan authorities say that 19 people were killed and 87 others were injured during border clashes with Kyrgyzstan. (RFERL)
2021 Malé bombing
- Former president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed and four other people are injured in a bomb blast in the capital Malé. (BBC News)
2021 Jersey dispute
- France sends two patrol boats, the Athos and Le Themis, to Jersey in response to the British deployment of the HMS Severn and the HMS Tamar to Jersey. The dispute arose after French fishermen threatened to blockade the port of Saint Helier in protest of a new system for obtaining fishing permits. (Bloomberg)
Kivu conflict, Ituri conflict, Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo enacts a "state of siege" over the provinces of Kivu and Ituri for 30 days. During this time, both provinces will be placed under military rule. The provincial governments and entities of these provinces will either be replaced by offices of the FARDC or by the national police. Civil jurisdictions will also be replaced by military jurisdictions. (France 24)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    - COVID-19 vaccination in Russia
      - Russia authorizes the use of a single-shot "Sputnik Light" vaccine, which it says has an efficacy rate of 79.4%. (CNBC)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark
    - Gyms, theatres, and cinemas are reopened in Denmark as a part of the easing of restrictions and a reliance of the "corona pass", which confirms that a person has either tested negative in the past 72 hours, been vaccinated, or recently recovered from COVID-19. (France 24)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia
    - Prime Minister Zoran Zaev receives his first dose of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine. (Xinhua News Agency)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, Lineage P.1
    - Poland reports its first three cases of the Lineage P.1 variant, which was first discovered in Brazil, in the southern voivodeship of Silesia. (The First News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia
    - Cambodia ends a three-week blanket lockdown in Phnom Penh despite an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections, though tighter restrictions remain in place in some districts. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - India reports a world record of 412,262 new cases in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 21 million. The country also reports a record 3,980 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 230,168. (ABC Australia)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
    - Due to public outrage, President Rodrigo Duterte apologizes for receiving a dose of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV COVID-19 vaccine, which has not yet been authorized by the Philippines' Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. (BBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan
    - Uzbekistan reports 452 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the highest single-day total this year, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 93,176. (Xinhuanet)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
  - The New South Wales government restricts the size of gatherings and reintroduces a mandatory mask-wearing policy for indoor areas and public transport after the wife of a man who tested positive for COVID-19 also tests positive. The restrictions will be in effect until Monday at 12:01 a.m. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that the true COVID-19 death toll in the United States is more than 900,000 people. (NPR)

International relations

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide
- Latvia's Saeima votes to formally recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide. (RFERL)
China has "indefinitely" suspended all activity under a China–Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, its state economic planner said. This has occurred after China imposed sanctions on Australian wine and coal while failing to renew Australian hay import permits, and Australia states cancelled participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative and are reviewing Chinese company Landbridge Group's lease on the Port of Darwin previously provided for 99 years at A$506 million. (Al Jazeera – Suspension) (9News) (Al Jazeera – Port Darwin)

Law and crime

2021 Rio de Janeiro shootout
- At least 25 people are killed in a shootout between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the deadliest police operation to occur in the country since 2016. (BBC News)
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
- The International Criminal Court sentences Ugandan warlord and member of the Christian terrorist group Lord's Resistance Army Dominic Ongwen to 25 years in prison for charges including murder, rape and sexual enslavement. The former child soldier's lawyers had asked for a lenient sentence considering his childhood trauma. (DW)
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong is sentenced to a further 10 months imprisonment for participating in an unauthorized assembly on June 4, 2020 to commemorate the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Elections in the United Kingdom
- 2021 Senedd election, 2021 Scottish Parliament election
  - Wales and Scotland hold elections for their respective national parliaments. The elections use the proportional additional member system, unlike the first past the post system used in House of Commons elections. (The Guardian)
- 2021 Hartlepool by-election
  - In what is considered a major blow to the opposition Labour Party, the Conservative Party candidate Jill Mortimer wins the by-election in Hartlepool, becoming the first-ever Conservative and female MP in the constituency's history. Mortimer hails it as a "truly historic" result. (BBC News)