Portal:Current events/2021 April 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Yemeni Civil War, Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • The Houthis say they have hit King Khalid Air Base, near the city of Khamis Mushait, in Saudi Arabia, with explosive drones. There is no immediate comment from the Saudi government. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Death and funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
  • The official funeral service takes place for Prince Philip, prince consort of the United Kingdom to Elizabeth II. The Duke's body is led in a limited procession to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, for interment in the Royal Vault. (AP on MSN)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India
      • India reports a record 234,692 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 14.52 million. (Hindustan Times)
      • Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a televised appeal to pilgrims to keep to "symbolic" celebrations and continue to follow safety guidelines as the festival of Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage traditionally drawing tens of millions of Hindus to the banks of the Ganges every year, begins. (al-Arabiya English)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia
      • Mongolia surpasses 20,000 cases of COVID-19. (Montsame)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
      • Thailand surpasses 40,000 cases of COVID-19. (Bangkok Post)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia
    • Tunisia announces the closure of all schools and restrictions on movement, which include a 7:00 p.m. curfew for vehicles, until April 30 to reduce the spread of COVID-19. (Reuters)
  • The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses three million. (NPR)

International relations

• 2021 Myanmar coup d'état
  • A Thai foreign ministry spokesman announces that Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will attend the next ASEAN Summit on April 24 in Jakarta, Indonesia, thereby marking his first foreign trip since taking power in the February 1 coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint. Local junta spokespeople refused to comment. (France 24)
• Foreign relations of the Czech Republic, 2014 Vrbětice ammunition warehouses explosions
  • Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announces that the Czech Republic is expelling eighteen Russian embassy diplomats who have been identified as spies in a case related to an ammunition warehouse explosion in 2014. (Euronews)
• Foreign relations of Uzbekistan
  • Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signs a decree for the country to open a diplomatic mission in Sweden. (Trend)

Law and crime

• Rwandan genocide
  • The United States deports Beatrice Munyenyezi to Rwanda after she served her jail term for lying on her U.S. citizenship naturalization process. Upon arrival in Rwanda, Munyenyezi was arrested on charges ranging from murder to complicity in rape during the course of the 1994 genocide. She did not comment during her arrest to local press but had previously denied the accusations while in the United States. (Reuters)
• European migrant crisis
  • A court in Sicily orders former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial accused of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for his role in a standoff with a Spanish-flagged migrant rescue ship operated by Proactiva Open Arms that he refused to allow to dock for nineteen days in 2019. A court order allowed the ship to dock after some migrants jumped overboard. (The Guardian)
• Myanmar's State Administration Council pardons and releases more than 23,000 prisoners to mark the Burmese New Year. Those released include an Australian businessman sentenced to 13 years in prison for drug possession, and three members of the Generation Wave pro-democracy movement. (The Guardian)