The Taliban says that it now controls the Panjshir Valley, and thus all of Afghanistan. Resistance leader Amrullah Saleh denies leaving the country and says that the resistance, also led by Ahmad Massoud, continues.
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September 3, 2021 (Friday)
2.9 minutes to read
Armed conflicts and attacks
Six people are injured, three critically, in a mass stabbing at a supermarket in LynnMall, Auckland, New Zealand. The attacker, a man who had been under surveillance since 2016 for following ISIL online, is shot dead by police.
Rival armed groups clash in Tripoli, in what is described as the worst confrontation since the ceasefire reached in 2020 between the Government of National Accord and the Libyan National Army forces.
Health and environment
New South Wales reports a record 1,431 new cases and 12 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un demands that officials wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he rejects a donation of three million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the U.N. COVAX initiative.
Bangladesh has reported a total of 10,981 dengue fever cases and 48 related deaths since the beginning of the year.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends that healthy children between the ages of 12 and 15 should not be given a COVID-19 vaccine due to children being at low risk for COVID-19 and the vaccine only offering a marginal benefit.
The Singaporean health ministry will administer booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 60, people who are immunocompromised and residents of nursing home facilities beginning later this month.
Vietnam surpasses 500,000 cases of COVID-19 after reporting a record 14,922 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration approves the emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 12 and 17 years old.
French Polynesia extends their COVID-19 lockdown to September 20 following the deaths of more than 200 people over the past two weeks. The lockdown extension will apply to the Society Islands and the Tuamotus archipelago as the number of cases increase in those regions.
International relations
The European Union says that it will not currently recognize a Taliban government in Afghanistan and that the government will be "subjected to conditions". However, the EU also states that it will still engage the group in diplomatic talks.
China and Chile jointly announce the opening of a Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine production plant in the Santiago Metropolitan Area. Health minister Enrique Paris says that "it is a happy day for Chile and Latin American countries" because Chile would now be able to export vaccines.
Law and crime
Jake Angeli, also known as Jacob Chansley and "the QAnon shaman", pleads guilty to obstruction of the electoral college vote count during the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol. His sentencing is scheduled for November 17.
Defrocked Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pleads not guilty to three counts of indecent assault and battery on a 16-year-old boy at a wedding reception in Massachusetts in 1974. The statute of limitations paused when he left the state shortly after the alleged incident. McCarrick is the first American cardinal to be charged with a sex crime.
The president of Vanuatu, Obed Moses Tallis, pardons former prime ministers Charlot Salwai, Joe Natuman and Serge Vohor, all of whom were convicted of political and financial crimes, including bribery and corruption.
The European Union and AstraZeneca reach a settlement to end a legal battle over slow delivery of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, with an agreement that requires AstraZeneca to deliver the remaining 200 million doses of its vaccine to the EU countries at the end of March 2022.
The Congress of New Caledonia votes to make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all adults, including anyone visiting New Caledonia, and set December 31 as a deadline to vaccinate them.
Politics and elections
Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan, announces that he will not seek re-election after one year in office. Suga had replaced former Prime Minster Shinzo Abe who resigned for health reasons in September 2020.
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