PORTAL:CURRENT EVENTS 2020 MAY 30

May 30, 2020 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Afghan peace process; War in Afghanistan; May 2020 Afghanistan attacks
- Abdullah Abdullah, the head of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation, which leads peace efforts with the Taliban, says that his team is ready to start discussions with the armed group "at any moment". The group has not commented on Abdullah's remarks. (Al Jazeera)
- A journalist and a technician are killed and seven others wounded when a private bus carrying network employees is bombed in Kabul. ISIL – Khorasan Province claims responsibility. (Reuters)
Shooting of Iyad Halaq
- Israeli police officers open fire in Jerusalem against an unarmed Palestinian 32-year-old man who had autism; the man dies at the scene. (The Guardian)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
  - Brazil reports a record 33,274 new cases of COVID-19 and 956 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 498,440 and 28,834 deaths, the fourth highest in the world. (Reuters)

International relations

Ethiopia–Sudan relations
- Sudan summons its Ethiopian ambassador regarding an attack at the border between the two countries that killed military personnel and civilians, including children. A Sudanese military spokesman blamed militias "supported by Ethiopia", while there was no response from the Ethiopian government. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Politics and elections

COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
- Russian President Vladimir Putin announces the adoption of a new package of measures to support the economy and citizens in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This payment does not cancel but supplements the previously introduced support measures. Additionally, Putin proposed to establish a monthly payment of five thousand rubles for families with children under three years of age. (RT)

Science and technology

Crew Dragon Demo-2
- SpaceX launches Crew Dragon carrying two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, to the International Space Station (ISS) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3:22 pm Eastern U.S. time. (CNN)
- Crew Dragon's mission is to check the ship's systems and the crew's readiness to work with it. Crew Dragon is heading to the ISS. It is the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 that American astronauts have been launched into orbit from the United States, and is the first ever crewed commercial space flight. (WSJ)
Researchers announce a 2.5cm millipede fossil discovered on the island of Kerrera, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, is the world's oldest-known land animal, which lived 425 million years ago in the Silurian period. (Reuters)

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