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

ANKARA (AA) - An Indigenous band confirming more unmarked graves of Indigenous children being discovered in Canada, COVID-19 cases and deaths falling in most regions and European Medicine Agency authorizing use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15 marked the top news stories globally in May.

MAY

May 1

- India records 401,993 daily cases, Health Ministry figures show, setting a new global record.

- The land border between Spain and Portugal reopens for the first time in more than three months.

May 2

- Police in Berlin arrest at least 354 people who took part in May Day demonstrations that turned into full-scale riots.

May 3

- Democratic Republic of Congo announces the end of the 12th Ebola outbreak – three months after the first case was reported in the North Kivu province.

- German authorities uncover one of the largest child porn platforms in the darknet with four people arrested in the case, the Federal Criminal Office said in the southwestern city of Wiesbaden.

May 4

- Turkey’s new communications satellite Turksat 5A enters into orbit, the country's transportation minister announces.

May 5

- Former US President Donald Trump launches a new website to communicate with his supporters after being banned from top social media platforms.

May 6

- Tensions between the government and civil society continue to escalate as Colombia marks its eighth day of protests.

- A police officer and 24 people are killed in a clash that broke out in a Brazilian slum during an operation against illegal groups.

May 7

- Israeli police attacked Muslim worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City.

- World Health Organization gives green light to China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, approving the vaccine to be rolled out globally.

- Muslim worshippers suffer an Islamophobic attack outside an Islamic center in east London.

May 8

- The number of injured rose to 205 in Israeli attacks at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Damascus Gate of the Old City and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

- At least 58 people, mostly schoolgirls, are killed in three back-to-back blasts targeting a school in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.

May 9

- Israeli police used stun grenades to disperse Palestinians gathered at the Damascus Gate in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem.

- Spain lifts state of emergency, putting an end to nightly curfews for the vast majority of Spaniards and allowing travel across the country for the first time in more than six months.

- Debris from China's Long March rocket, announced to be out of control earlier, falls to Earth in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.

May 10

- COVID-19 cases and deaths are falling in most regions, including the worst affected Americas and Europe areas, but the "shocking global disparity" in vaccine access is one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic, the World Health Organization chief said.

May 11

- Latest census figures released by Beijing show China's population has exceeded 1.41 billion.

- Bangladeshi Mohammed Shajahan's photo titled "Mom Love" wins the Photo of the Year Award in the Istanbul Photo Awards, the seventh edition of the annual international photography contest held by Anadolu Agency to support photojournalists.

May 12

- Uganda’s 76-year-old President Yoweri Museveni is sworn in for a sixth term.

May 13

- Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is celebrated worldwide under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.

- Sierra Leone launches the Ebola vaccination campaign to prevent a new outbreak in the West African country.

May 14

- Representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government resume intra-Afghan negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha.

- Mali's Prime Minister Moctar Ouane resigns, and subsequently reappointed as transitional president, the Malian Presidency announces.

May 15

- China’s Zhurong lands on Mars, the Chinese National Space Agency announces.

May 16

- A 15-day period of gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions starts in Turkey as infections fall thanks to a strict lockdown.

- As France gears up to lift restrictions and welcome tourists in summer, it offers free PCR tests to foreigners to detect COVID-19, says Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune.

May 17

- Portugal reopens its borders to non-essential travel with most European nations, including the UK.

- At least 37 people have been killed in torrential rains in the southwestern and western Indian states, while Cyclone Tauktae has been forecast to hit one of the country's coastal states.

May 18

- US Central Command (CENTCOM) announces that efforts to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan by September are 20% complete.

- Spain deploys its army in the African enclave of Ceuta to deal with the surge of migrants flowing into its territory.

- At least 3,000 children, including 1,424 girls, have been out of school since the end of March following recent intercommunal clashes in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

May 19

- EU member states agree on a coordinated approach to open the bloc’s borders to vaccinated non-EU nationals.

- India reports its highest daily figure for deaths from the coronavirus with 4,529 fatalities. The nationwide tally stands at 283,248.

May 20

- At least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, have been killed and more than 1,900 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry.

- To give a new impetus to its vaccination drive, Turkey finalizes a deal to buy 60 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with an option for an additional 30 million.

- EU institutions reach a political agreement on digital COVID certificates. The document, proposed in March by the European Commission, is meant to facilitate travel within the bloc by waiving quarantine or test requirements for those who hold the pass.

- A UN report reveals that YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group, continues to recruit and exploit children in the conflict-hit country.

May 21

- Personal data of at least 279 million Indonesians are allegedly leaked and sold on a hacker platform in May.

- More than a million people in Madagascar are experiencing the worst drought in 40 years due to the devastating famine in the southern part of the country.

May 22

- Nyiragongo, one of the world's most active volcanoes, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, erupts and forces thousands of residents in North Kivu’s Goma to flee to Rwanda.

- Italy's rock band Maneskin wins the 65th Eurovision song contest held in Rotterdam.

- A handwritten letter by Albert Einstein that contains his famous E=mc2 equation is sold at auction for more than $1.2 million.

May 23

- The coronavirus pandemic is worsening in Latin America and the Caribbean with more than 1 million fatalities registered as deaths and infections continue to decline in North America and Europe.

- At least 16 people are killed and five others missing during a 100-kilometer (62-mile) mountain marathon cross-country race in northwest Gansu Province, China, according to media reports.

- Citing a “bomb threat,” a Belarusian MIG-29 fighter jet forces a Ryanair plane passing through Belarus’ airspace to land, and then detains passenger Roman Protasevich, a journalist wanted for his involvement in "terrorist incidents."

May 24

- Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends a court hearing, according to local media reports, in her first public appearance after being detained in a military coup this February.

- World Health Organization estimates that at least 115,000 healthcare workers have lost their lives in the fight against coronavirus, the WHO chief said on the opening day of the 74th World Health Assembly.

May 25

- Mali's military arrests the country's interim president, premier and defense chief, transporting them to a military base, news outlets reported.

- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel on the first stop of his first Middle East tour since taking office. Blinken later visits Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan.

May 26

- Gunman opens fire at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail maintenance yard in San Jose, California, killing at least eight people.

- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser accuses the government of “disastrously” failing the public by reacting slowly to the spread of the coronavirus.

- Some 154 people have died following a boat mishap in Kebbi State of Northwest Nigeria.

May 27

- France played a role in and bears political responsibility for the 1994 Rwandan genocide of ethnic Tutsis, says the French president in the African country.

- Remains of 215 children are found at a Canadian residential school, an Indigenous band confirmed.

May 28

- European Medicine Agency authorizes the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use in children aged 12-15.

- Germany officially acknowledges that it committed “genocide” against Herero and Nama people in what is called Namibia today at the start of the 20th century.

- 215 unmarked graves of more Indigenous children are discovered at a British Columbia residential school in Canada.

May 29

- Austria’s Integration Ministry launches a controversial website “Islam map,” providing details of the country’s 620 mosques and Islamic associations, with the location, address, and names of officials.

- Colombian President Ivan Duque deploys troops to the western province of Valle del Cauca and its capital Cali, as four people died in demonstrations against a government tax reform.

May 30

- One person has been killed and more than 100 students have been kidnapped in an armed attack on an Islamic school in central Nigeria’s Niger state.

- US actor Joe Lara, best known for starring in the American TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, dies over the weekend along with six other passengers in a plane crash in the state of Tennessee.

May 31

- China further relaxes its family planning policy and allows couples to have three children, the state-run media says.

- Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland holds its long-awaited parliamentary and local elections.

- The number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asian countries exceeds 4 million, including 78,515 fatalities and more than 3.6 million recoveries, according to official figures.