Year of Variants: Stubborn virus marks momentous 2021 (August)

ANKARA (AA) - With wildfires spreading to many parts of the world and July 2021 being recorded as the warmest month ever, scientists in South Africa detecting new COVID-19 variant and thousands of Afghans being stranded at Kabul airport mark the top news stories globally in August.

AUGUST

Aug. 1

- Myanmar's military regime leader Min Aung Hlaing names himself prime minister, pledges to hold elections by August 2023.

Aug. 2

- Australia deploys soldiers to patrol the streets of the city of Sydney, going door-to-door to advise residents against going outside as New South Wales recorded 207 new locally transmitted cases.

Aug. 3

- Wildfires in east Russia spread over a territory of over 1 million hectares.

Aug. 4

- Wildfires spread to many parts of the world, including most of North and South America, the African plateau, northern Arabian Peninsula, and Mediterranean coast of Europe as well as northern and eastern Europe.

Aug. 5

- Pharmaceutical company Moderna announces its coronavirus vaccine is 93% effective six months after injection.

Aug. 7

- Advancing Taliban marches on at least three more provincial capitals in the north of Afghanistan, a day after capturing Sheberghan, the capital of the Jawzjan province.

Aug. 8

- Dixie Fire, burning for three weeks in California, is declared the second-largest fire in the US state's history.

- More than 50 people have been killed as armed assailants launched simultaneous attacks on four villages in Ouatagouna, Mali.

Aug. 9

- The scale of the world’s unprecedented current warming trend is producing irreversible changes to the planet, a sobering new UN climate report has warned.

- A total of 816 people in Nigeria have died of a cholera outbreak since the beginning of the year.

Aug. 10

- Ethiopia abrogates the previous cease-fire in place since June 29 that unilaterally ended a government offensive on Tigray rebels in the country's north.

Aug. 11

- German police arrests an employee of the British Embassy on charges of spying for Russia.

Aug. 12

- All wildfires in Turkey are under control, authorities suspend hunting activities in the fire-affected areas of southern Antalya and southwestern Mugla provinces for two years.

Aug. 13

- July 2021 was the warmest month ever recorded as concerns continue to mount about the ravaging effects of climate change.

Aug. 14

- Magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti, leaving at least 2,207 people dead and more than 12,268 injured.

- As a heat wave that brought the hottest temperature ever recorded to Spain comes to an end, firefighters are scrambling to contain dozens of forest fires across the country.

Aug. 15

- Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani leaves the country as the Taliban marched on the capital Kabul.

- Canada announces an early federal election to be held on Sept. 20.

Aug. 19

- Thirty-nine irregular migrants have died as their boat sank off Spain's Canary Islands.

Aug. 20

- Malaysia’s king names Ismail Sabri Yakoob as the nation’s new prime minister.

- The death toll from floods in Turkey's Black Sea region rises to 79.

- The US extends land border restrictions with Canada and Mexico to non-essential travel, including tourism, for at least another month amid the spread of the coronavirus and its delta variant.

Aug. 21

- Thousands of Afghans remain at the airport in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, anxiously waiting for a chance to leave the country after the Taliban takeover.

Aug. 22

- At least 22 people were killed while search and rescue efforts continued for 45 missing after flash floods swept through the US state of Tennessee.

Aug. 23

- US Food and Drug Administration gives full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, nine months after it rolled off assembly lines under a special emergency use authorization.

Aug. 24

- Rolling Stones drummer Charles Robert “Charlie” Watts dies at the age of 80.

Aug. 26

- Multiple explosions shake Kabul, including two outside the airport serving the city, killing dozens and wounding over 100.

Aug. 27

- A total of 150 civilians were massacred in the Gida Kiramu locality in the East Wollega zone in Ethiopia's most populous regional state of Oromia.

Aug. 29

- At least 40 government soldiers were killed in a Houthi missile attack on a military base in southern Yemen.

- The US takes responsibility for a blast in Kabul, saying an airstrike targeted a vehicle that reportedly posed an “imminent” threat to Hamid Karzai International Airport from the ISIS-K, the Deash/ISIS terror affiliate.

- The US announces withdrawal completion of its forces from Afghanistan, bringing to an end to the longest war in American history.

Aug. 31

- Scientists in South Africa detect new COVID-19 variant known as C.1.2 in all nine provinces across the country.