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Worldwide current events
Sports events

Topics in the news

Summer Olympics closing ceremony

The Summer Olympics conclude (ceremony pictured) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At least 54 people are killed when a wedding is attacked by a suicide bomber in Gaziantep, southern Turkey.
The Airlander 10 hybrid airship – the largest aircraft flying today – completes its maiden civilian voyage.
A wildfire in the U.S. state of California displaces more than 82,000 residents, burns more than 30,000 acres (120 sq. km) and threatens at least 34,500 structures.
The China National Space Administration successfully launches Quantum Experiments at Space Scale, the first spacecraft capable of quantum key distribution.

August 23, 2016 (Tuesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram insurgency
- In a raid on Boko Haram Islamists' northeast heartland, Nigeria’s air force kills senior militants and possibly fatally wounds their leader, Abubakar Shekau. (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A U.S. service member is killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on patrol near the city of Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province. Another American service member and six Afghan soldiers were also injured in the blast. (NBC News)

Arts and culture

Philippine officials believe they may have recovered biggest natural giant clam pearl in the world - weighing 34kg. Officials are awaiting confirmation from gemologists that the find is indeed the world's largest pearl. If confirmed, it will beat the current record holder, the Pearl of Lao Tzu, which weighs 6.4kg. (BBC)

Business and economy

Former presenter Andrea Tantaros sues Fox News by accusing the network of being a "sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult." (The Washington Post)
New U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly rose in July, reaching their highest level in nearly nine years as demand increased broadly. (Reuters)

Health

2015–16 Zika virus epidemic
- The first infection outside Miami in Florida is discovered in Pinellas County. (Fox News)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korea–United States relations
- In response to the annual military drills, North Korea threatens to destroy Seoul and Washington, D.C. through nuclear weapons if provoked. Both South Korea and the United States insist the drills are for defense. (News.com.au)
- According to South Korean officials, North Korea has laid landmines on the northern side of the so-called Bridge of No Return near the village of Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to block potential defection by its own soldiers. (Yonhap) (Reuters)

Law and crime

2015 Bangkok bombing
- A Thai military court commences the trial of two Uighurs from the People's Republic of China with the bombing of a popular shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people. (AP via Star Tribune)
Philippine Drug War
- The Philippine human rights commission says that the International Criminal Court may have jurisdiction over the mass killings. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Politics and elections

Melania Trump plans to sue The Daily Mail and Politico after the publications allege that she worked as an escort. (CNN)

Sports

2016 Summer Paralympics
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds a ban of Russian athletes from next month's Paralympics over its state-sponsored doping program. (BBC)(CNN)

August 22, 2016 (Monday)

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Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Mindulle is forecast to make landfall near the Japanese capital Tokyo with flights and train services being cancelled. It arrives one day after Typhoon Kompasu. (Bloomberg), (CNN)
At least 40 people are killed and hundreds of thousands are evacuated due to flooding caused by days of heavy rain in central and eastern India. (ABC News)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations
- South Korea and the United States start annual military drills despite North Korea's threats of nuclear attacks. (AP)
Iran–Russia relations
- Iran confirms that Russia will stop using its Hamadan Airbase to launch attacks in Syria, saying Russia's use of Hamadan Airbase was "temporary, based on a Russian request," and that Russian operations are "finished for now". Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan earlier criticized Russia's announcement of its use of the base in Iran, saying "There has been a kind of showing-off and inconsiderate attitude behind the announcement of this news." (The Washington Post)

Law and crime

Ahmad al-Mahdi pleads guilty at the start of his trial before the International Criminal Court for the war crime of destroying cultural sites in Timbuktu. (BBC News)
Philippine Drug War
- The death toll estimates for the crackdown on recreational drugs in the Philippines reaches 1,800 amid a senate investigation of the killings. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte fires thousands of former president Benigno Aquino III appointees from the government. (Time magazine)
French presidential election, 2017, The Republicans (France) presidential primary, 2016
- Former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy officially declares his candidacy for president in 2017. (The Guardian)

Science and technology

Microsoft acknowledges that a Windows 10 update has stopped millions of webcams from working. (BBC)

August 21, 2016 (Sunday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- An al-Shabaab suicide car bomb kills at least 20 people in the town of Galkayo in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. (Reuters)
Gaziantep bombing
- The death toll from the Turkish wedding bombing rises to 50 with up to 94 people injured. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is suspected of conducting the attack. (Daily Sabah)

International relations

Philippine Drug War
- Rodrigo Duterte threatens to withdraw the Philippines from its founding membership of the United Nations after the international body criticized him over alleged human rights violations. (BBC)

Law and crime

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraq hangs 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group's massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014. (AP)
A shooter wounds at least 13 people at a house party in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls on fellow Labour Party members to remove Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming party leadership election. (Reuters) (The Observer via The Guardian)

August 20, 2016 (Saturday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Gaziantep bombing
- A suicide bomber targets a Kurdish wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep killing at least 22 people and wounding 94. (Reuters), (Reuters via New York Times)

Business and economy

India announces the new governor of its central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, is Urjit Patel, formerly the RBI's deputy governor for monetary policy. (Reuters)

Law and crime

A 27-year-old Mississippi man kills five people in the U.S. town of Citronelle, Alabama then kidnaps his pregnant ex-girlfriend from among the victims. Nearby, the Greene County, Mississippi Sheriff's office takes the surrender and confession of the suspect. (Reuters)

Sports

2016 Summer Olympics
- Mo Farah of Great Britain wins the men's 5,000 metres to go along with his earlier gold medal in the 10,000 metres. By successfully defending his golds from the 2012 Games in both events, he becomes only the second man to win these two events at consecutive Olympics, alongside Lasse Virén of Finland (1972 and 1976). (BBC)
- Matthew Centrowitz wins the men's 1,500 metres for the first American gold in the event since 1908. (BBC)
- In men's football, Brazil defeats Germany 5–4 on penalties after a 1–1 draw to claim their first-ever gold medal in the sport. (BBC)
- In women's golf, Inbee Park of South Korea wins the gold medal. (BBC)

August 19, 2016 (Friday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war
- Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fire cruise missiles at sites near Aleppo. The Russian Defense Ministry claims the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. (Pravda) (Reuters)

Arts and culture

The American town of Shishmaref, Alaska, votes to relocate the village from its current location on a barrier island, that has been disappearing through erosion and rising sea levels, to a site on the mainland. (The New York Times) (ABC News)

Law and crime

A Defense Department audit reveals that the United States Army had manipulated its finances, making $6.5 trillion of improper accounting adjustments in order to balance the books in 2015. (Reuters)(The Hill)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Paul Manafort resigns as chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. (The Guardian)

August 18, 2016 (Thursday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- Three bombings targeting police and military kill at least 12 people and wound 219 in southeast Turkey. (BBC)
Syrian civil war
- Syrian government warplanes bomb Kurdish-held areas of Al-Hasakah for the first time in the country's five-year civil war, killing at least 13 people. (BBC) (Reuters)

Law and crime

Eddie Bauer reports that malware was used to access payment data for cards used at their stores; payments made via their website were reportedly unaffected. (Reuters)
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo sentences former NFL player Darren Sharper to 18 years in prison in rape and drugging case involving as many as 16 women in several U.S. states. (BBC)
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says 22 people were executed by federal police during the 2015 Ecuandureo shootout in the western state of Michoacán last year. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Proposal for a new flag of Fiji:
- Fiji prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama scraps plans to change the flag of Fiji as the feel-good factor envelops the Pacific nation following a first Olympic medal, a gold in men's rugby sevens. (Guardian)
The Obama Administration says it wants to phase out the use of privately owned federal prisons. The move would affect private prisons which house 22,660 federal inmates, out of a total of nearly 200,000. (BBC)

Science and technology

Twitter announces 235,000 terror-linked accounts have been suspended over the past six months amid increasing pressure on tech companies from the White House to censor extremists from groups like ISIS. (CBS News)

August 17, 2016 (Wednesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Federal Security Service (FSB) officers kill at least four suspected North Caucasus Islamic militants during a counter-terrorism raid on an apartment building in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Business and economy

Cisco anounces a cut of 5,500 jobs in their shift from switches to software. (Reuters)
Energy Future Holdings, a Texas electric utility, asks a bankruptcy court in Delaware to confirm a plan that would allow it to exit Chapter 11 after more than two years. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Eight people are seriously injured when a passenger train collides with a tree that had fallen across the railway line at Saint-Aunès, Hérault, France. (BBC News Online)
All 511 passengers and crew are evacuated from the ferry Caribbean Fantasy which caught fire off San Juan, Puerto Rico. (World Maritime News)
An unusual kiting incident in India leaves three people dead. 500 birds were also injured in similar incidents. (CNN)

International relations

The governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia confirm that the Manus Regional Processing Centre will close following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea. (ABC News)
North Korean defectors
- North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, Thae Yong-ho, defects with his family to South Korea. (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

A Malaysian oil tanker, MT Vier Harmoni, is hijacked off the coast of Malaysia and is believed to have been taken to Indonesian waters near the island of Batam, according to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. The identity of the hijackers is not yet known. (BBC)
Judge Keyla Blanc, of Brazil's Special Tribunal for Fans and Major Events, orders Brazil police to question U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte over inconsistencies describing the armed robbery of himself and three other American Olympians. Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger are later removed from a plane returning to the United States. (Reuters), (Daily Telegraph)
The U.S. National Security Agency's website goes down amid hacking fears. (FOX News)

Science and technology

The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship makes its maiden civil flight. (BBC News Online)

More August 2016 events...

Ongoing events
Business Bangladesh Bank heist Brexit Panama Papers Venezuelan protests State of emergency in Venezuela Culture Pokémon Go phenomenon Disasters Atlantic hurricane season California wildfires Fort McMurray wildfire Pacific hurricane season Pacific typhoon season Philippine southwest monsoon floods Portugal wildfires Health Flint water crisis Zika virus outbreak Law Philippines v. China Political War in Afghanistan Boko Haram insurgency Brazil protests Burundian unrest Ethiopian protests European migrant crisis (timeline) Iraqi and Syrian Civil War (map) Military intervention against ISIL Mosul offensive Israeli–Palestinian conflict Lebanese political deadlock Libyan Civil War Moldova protests Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenian–Azeri border conflict Philippine Drug War PKK rebellion Polish Constitutional Court crisis Sinai insurgency South China Sea disputes Turkish coup d'état attempt Turkish purges War in Donbass Yemeni Civil War Zimbabwe protests More details on ongoing conflicts below Sports 2016–17 Premier League 2016 Formula One season 2016 ATP World Tour 2016 Major League Baseball season 2016 WTA Tour Technology Democratic National Committee email leak Philippine Commission on Elections data breach edit sidebar

Recent deaths
August 23: Steven Hill 22: S. R. Nathan 22: Toots Thielemans 20: Harry Gilmer 20: Brian Rix 19: Donald Henderson 19: Lou Pearlman 19: Jack Riley 19: Mohammad Ali Samatar 18: John William Vessey Jr. 17: Arthur Hiller 16: Mauril Bélanger 16: João Havelange 16: John McLaughlin 16: Gurdial Singh 15: Dalian Atkinson 15: Bobby Hutcherson 14: Fyvush Finkel 14: Robert Goff 13: Kenny Baker 13: Pramukh Swami Maharaj 12: Ruby Wilson 11: Hanif Mohammad 11: Glenn Yarbrough 10: Neill Armstrong 10: John Saunders 9: Gerald Grosvenor 9: Aftab Ghulam Nabi Kazi 9: Jimmy D. Long 9: W. Carter Merbreier 9: Ernst Neizvestny 9: Kalikho Pul 8: Edward Daly 7: John Boreland 7: Bryan Clauson 6: Helen Delich Bentley 6: Philip Bialowitz 6: Pete Fountain 5: Shamim Ara 4: Jean Antone 4: Patrice Munsel 3: Shahram Amiri 3: Chris Amon 3: Mel Hurtig 2: Forbes Carlile 2: David Huddleston 2: Franciszek Macharski 2: Ahmed Zewail edit sidebar

Ongoing conflicts
Africa Algeria and Tunisia Maghreb insurgency ISIL insurgency in Tunisia Central African Republic Civil war Democratic Republic of the Congo Kivu conflict ADF insurgency Ituri conflict Lord's Resistance Army insurgency Libya Civil war Mali Northern Mali conflict Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger Boko Haram insurgency Somalia Civil war South Sudan Ethnic violence (South Sudanese Civil War) Sudan War in Darfur South Kordofan conflict Sudanese nomadic conflicts Americas Colombian conflict Internal conflict in Peru Mexican War on Drugs Asia Afghanistan Afghanistan War China Xinjiang conflict India Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Insurgency in Northeast India India and Pakistan Kashmir conflict Pakistan War in North-West Pakistan Balochistan conflict Philippines CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion Moro conflict Moro conflict in Sabah Southeast Asia Internal conflict in Burma Papua conflict South Thailand insurgency Europe Georgia Abkhaz–Georgian conflict Georgian–Ossetian conflict Chechen–Russian conflict North Caucasus insurgency Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Ukraine War in Donbass Russian military intervention in Ukraine Middle East Arab–Israeli conflict Gaza–Israel conflict Israeli–Lebanese conflict Israeli–Palestinian conflict Egypt Sinai insurgency Iran Iran–PJAK conflict Iraqi civil war American-led intervention in Iraq Iranian intervention in Iraq Syrian Civil War American-led intervention in Syria Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon Turkey Turkey–PKK conflict Turkey–ISIL conflict Yemeni Crisis Yemeni Civil War Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Houthi rebellion Al-Qaeda insurgency South Yemen insurgency edit sidebar

Elections and Referendums
Recent August 7: São Tomé and Príncipe, President (2nd round) 7: Thailand, Constitutional referendum 11: Zambia, National Assembly, President, Constitutional referendum Upcoming August 27: Gabon, President September 4: Hong Kong, Legislative Council 8: Seychelles, National Assembly 11: Belarus, House of Representatives 11: Croatia, Parliament edit sidebar

Trials
Recently concluded Australia: Brett Peter Cowan, Craig Thomson, Robert Hughes, Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara Brazil: Mensalão scandal Canada: Luka Magnotta China: Ji Jianye, Li Chuncheng, Jiang Jiemin, Liao Shaohua, Ni Fake, Ling Jihua, Chen Baihuai, Zhou Yongkang, Gu Junshan Croatia: Ivo Sanader Egypt: Hosni Mubarak, Peter Greste, Mohamed Morsi Germany: Bernie Ecclestone, Uli Hoeness, Christian Wulff Iran: Mohammad Reza Rahimi Israel: Hussam Qawasmeh Jordan: Abu Qatada Philippines: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Romania: Liviu Dragnea, Dan Diaconescu, Gheorghe Ștefan, Gabriel Sandu, Dorin Cocoş, Dumitru Nicolae Russia: Leonid Khabarov, Eston Kohver, Vladimir Kvachkov South Africa: Shrien Dewani, Oscar Pistorius Turkey: Kenan Evren, Tahsin Şahinkaya United Kingdom: Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, Derek Rose, Stuart Hazell, Mark Bridger, Andrew Lancel, Dale Cregan, Ray Wilkins, Liam Adams, R v Grillo and Grillo, Ian Watkins, William Roache, Dave Lee Travis, Nicholas Jacobs, Nigel Evans, Max Clifford, Stuart Hall, Dappy, Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, Rolf Harris, Tulisa Contostavlos, Chris Denning, Ray Teret, Gary Glitter, Fred Talbot, Adam Johnson United States: Abu Hamza al-Masri, Michael Grimm, Jesse Jackson Jr., Bob McDonnell, Vilma Bautista, Kermit Gosnell, Chelsea Manning, Whitey Bulger, Robert Bales, Nidal Malik Hasan, Jodi Arias, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, James Eagan Holmes, Sheldon Silver, Dylan Quick International ECCC: Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan ICC: Germain Katanga ICTY: Momčilo Perišić, Mladen Markač, Ante Gotovina, Zdravko Tolimir, Radovan Karadžić Ongoing China: Yao Mugen, Guo Youming, Yang Weize, Zhu Zuoli Germany: Beate Zschäpe Iran: Babak Zanjani Netherlands: Geert Wilders Philippines: Andal Ampatuan, Jr., Jovito Palparan Romania: Darius Vâlcov, Dan Șova, Elena Udrea, Radu Mazăre, Gheorghe Nichita, Marian Vanghelie, Cătălin Voicu, Relu Fenechiu Russia: Alexei Navalny South Korea: MV Sewol crew members Spain: Lionel Messi United States: Dean Skelos International ICTY: Ratko Mladić Upcoming China: Wu Changshun Estonia: Edgar Savisaar Libya: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi United Kingdom: Max Clifford, Rolf Harris, Ched Evans United States: Paul Anthony Ciancia, Javaris Crittenton, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Aaron Hernandez, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, Rick Perry, Bill Cosby International ICC: Laurent Gbagbo edit sidebar