Portal:Current events/2020 June 12

June 12, 2020 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Second Libyan Civil War
- 2019–20 Western Libya campaign
  - Eight mass graves containing hundreds of bodies are discovered in western Libya, most of them in the town of Tarhuna. The Government of National Accord (GNA) says the remains are of captured GNA fighters and civilians, apparent evidence of war crimes. (Al Jazeera)
June 2020 Afghanistan attacks
- Four people are killed and eight others injured by the bombing of a mosque in Kabul. No group claimed responsibility. (Reuters)
About 30 Indians cross the border into Nepal and clash with Nepali police when stopped in the district of Sarlahi. Nepali border guards opened fire, killing one man and injuring two. According to police, the forces fired when one of the men snatched a gun from them. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

Sanrio founder and CEO Shintaro Tsuji, whose company is best known for creating Hello Kitty, announces he will resign on July 1 citing a need to "transform the company to better respond to today's rapidly changing business environment." His grandson Tomokuni Tsuji is expected to replace him. (BBC News)
Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras says it will not do business with tankers that visited Venezuela in the past year, adhering to sanctions placed by the United States. (Reuters)

Law and crime

LGBTQ rights in the United States, Abortion in the United States
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services removes protections against discrimination within Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions. The move is condemned by civil rights groups and Democratic officials. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Slavery in Australia
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologizes for saying there was "no slavery" in Australia. He says that he was referring specifically to the fact that the first Australian colony of New South Wales was set up without the widespread use of slave labor. (CNN)
Lebanese liquidity crisis
- Hundreds protest over the handling of the country's economic crisis, many calling for Hassan Diab's government to resign. The Lebanese pound has lost 70 percent of its value since October, when protests began. The government announced the central bank will begin injecting more United States dollars into the market on Monday. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)
2020 Republican Party presidential primaries, Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign
- U.S. President Donald Trump announces the MAGA Rally that was to be held on June 19, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is rescheduled to June 20. The rally's original date had been widely criticized because the 19th is Juneteenth, the date commemorating the end of American slavery. The location was also criticized due to it being where the 1921 Tulsa race massacre took place, because of the ongoing George Floyd protests. (CNN) (The Hill)
President-elect of Burundi Évariste Ndayishimiye is set to take power immediately, days after the death of incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza, as the constitutional court says "it is not necessary to have an interim period", and that Ndayishimiye should be sworn-in "as soon as possible". (Reuters)
On the 122nd anniversary of the Philippines's independence from Spain, more than a thousand protestors march at the main campus of the University of the Philippines in Manila to protest a controversial anti-terrorism bill introduced by President Rodrigo Duterte. (Reuters)

Science and technology

Twitter says it has removed a network of more than 170,000 accounts it says were spreading pro-Communist Party of China propaganda on the social media platform, saying the Chinese-based network had links to earlier state-backed operations on Facebook and YouTube. More than a thousand Russia-based misinformation accounts are also removed. (BBC News)