2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Eta
Heavy rainfall and tropical-storm force winds were recorded across much of Florida as a result of Eta's two landfalls there, causing widespread flooding, especially in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Streets remained inundated in both counties for several days, while floodwaters entered homes in parts of Broward County. More than 290,000 customers lost electricity in the Miami metropolitan area. Eta also caused some coastal and freshwater flooding in the Tampa Bay area, while over 40,000 customers in the region lost power. The storm then interacted with a cold front, causing flash flooding in Georgia and the Carolinas. Eta caused roughly $1.5 billion in damage in the United States and at least ten deaths, with nine in North Carolina and one in Florida.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Tropical Storm Theta
On November 6, the NHC began monitoring a non-tropical area of disturbed weather in the central Atlantic for possible gradual subtropical development. A non-tropical low subsequently formed about 1,300 mi (2,095 km) west-southwest of the Azores on November 8. The system became better organized as it began to detach from a frontal boundary during the following day. At 00:00 UTC on November 10, it developed into Subtropical Storm Theta.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Tropical Storm Theta
By 18:00 UTC that afternoon, the storm had transitioned into a Tropical Storm; it simultaneously attained what would be its peak intensity, with maximum winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 987 mbar (29.15 inHg). By the following morning, the effects of strong southwesterly shear had weakened Theta somewhat, though it soon began to regain some strength, and by 00:00 UTC on November 12, re-intensified to its earlier peak. Steady weakening occurred on November 13–14, as the storm experienced strong northerly vertical shear. By 06:00 UTC on November 15, Theta had weakened to a tropical depression about 120 mi (195 km) southwest of Madeira Island, and it degenerated to a remnant low six hours later.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
A tropical wave emerged into the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa at a low-latitude on October 30. The wave moved westward and remained disorganized for several days. Deep convection increased significantly on November 12 while the system was located over the central Caribbean, becoming a broad low-pressure area that day. At around 12:00 UTC on November 13, Tropical Depression Thirty-One formed about 185 mi (300 km) northwest of Aruba. Six hours later, the system strengthened into Tropical Storm Iota.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
Environmental conditions at the time—low vertical wind shear, extremely warm sea surface temperatures and a moist atmosphere—were favorable for rapid or even explosive intensification of the storm into a major hurricane. Iota reached hurricane strength by 06:00 UTC on November 15, while located about 295 mi (475 km) east of Providencia Island, Colombia, and reached Category 4 strength 24 hours later.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
Around 12:00 UTC on November 16, the hurricane attained its peak intensity with maximum winds of 155 mph (250 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 917 mbar (27.08 inHg) while located just 23 mi (37 km) northwest of Providencia Island. Data from Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicated that Iota had strengthened 105 mph (170 km/h) and that its central pressure had fallen 80 mbar (2.36 inHg) during the 42 hours preceding this achievement. Afterward, the hurricane weakened some as it passed over the relatively cool wake created nearly two weeks earlier by Hurricane Eta.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
At 03:40 UTC on November 17, Iota made landfall near Haulover, Nicaragua, in the Pearl Lagoon municipality with sustained winds of 145 mph (235 km/h). Its landfall location was approximately 15 mi (25 km) south of where Eta made landfall on November 3. After moving inland, Iota rapidly weakened over the mountainous terrain of Nicaragua, becoming a tropical storm by 18:00 UTC that day while located over western Nicaragua. Then, after moving over southern Honduras and east-central El Salvador, it weakened to a tropical depression by 12:00 UTC on November 18. Iota dissipated over western El Salvador several hours later.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
In Venezuela, flooding due to heavy rainfall damaged 288 homes in the state of Falcón, with most located in the Paraguaná Peninsula. The government of Colombia issued a hurricane warning for Providencia and a hurricane watch for the island of San Andrés on November 14. Iota caused extreme damage in the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. The hurricane demolished approximately 98 percent of the infrastructure on Providencia Island – including buildings constructed as early as the 15th century – while all homes were damaged to some degree.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
Portions of the mainland also suffered major damage, particularly in the Guajira Peninsula. Floodwaters impacted approximately 70 percent of the city of Cartagena. A total of 1,043 homes were damaged in Atlántico Department alone. Ten direct deaths occurred in Colombia. Hurricane warnings were issued for portions of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and of Honduras on November 14. In the former, wind damage was limited to an extent due to the recent passage of Hurricane Eta. However, the cyclone toppled many electrical poles and deroofed many homes and a makeshift hospital in the Bilwi area.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Systems, Hurricane Iota
Heavy rainfall, combined with already saturated soil due to Eta, caused widespread flooding and mudslides. Iota caused at least 56 deaths in Nicaragua, 39 directly and 17 indirectly. Heavy precipitation resulted in flooding and mudslides in Honduras, especially close to or north of Iota's path, completely destroying numerous homes. At least 13 people in Honduras were killed due to the direct effects of Iota. Mexico also reported extensive impacts from the storm, especially in Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz. Floodwaters and mudslides damaged almost 59,000 homes and left 135 communities isolated. Overall, Iota directly or indirectly caused at least 84 deaths, and total damage estimates for the hurricane amounted to $1.4 billion, about $1.25 billion of which was incurred in Honduras and Nicaragua.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Storm names
The following list of names was used for named storms that formed in the North Atlantic in 2020. As more than 21 named storms occurred, storms that formed after Wilfred were assigned names corresponding to the letters of the Greek alphabet. Use of this naming protocol had only happened once before, in 2005. The list of storm names for the 2020 season was the same list used in the 2014 season, as no names were retired from that year. The names Isaias, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred from the regular list were used for the first time this year, as were the auxiliary list names of Eta, Theta, and Iota. Isaias and Paulette replaced Ike and Paloma, respectively, after 2008, but both names went unused in 2014.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Storm names, Retirement
On March 17, 2021, during the joint 42nd and 43rd Sessions of the RA IV Hurricane Committee in the spring of 2021, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Laura, replacing it with Leah for the 2026 season. The letters Eta and Iota were also retired.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Storm names, Retirement, End of Greek alphabet usage
After the 2005 hurricane season, the WMO hurricane committee decided to keep using the Greek letter names as an auxiliary list each year, determining that retiring a Greek letter name by removing the name from use was not feasible. Instead, a storm with a Greek letter name found worthy of retirement would be included in the list of retired names along with the year of occurrence, but the Greek letter would be kept for future use.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Storm names, Retirement, End of Greek alphabet usage
In 2020, several highly devastating storms with Greek letter names, particularly Eta and Iota (which, under the previous policy, would have been retired as "Eta (2020)" and "Iota (2020)" respectively), prompted concerns from meteorologists, including retired Hurricane Specialist Unit chief James Franklin, that the current policy would defeat the purpose of name retirement. On March 17, 2021, the WMO announced that the use of the Greek list would be discontinued to avoid confusion. Instead, if the regular naming list is exhausted, an auxiliary list consisting of 21 given names would be used, which will allow the names to be retired.


2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Season effects
This is a table of the tropical cyclones that formed in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their duration, names, damage, impacted locations, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low. All of the damage figures are in 2020 USD.


2020 Atlético Ottawa season
The 2020 Atlético Ottawa season was the first season in club history.


2020 Atlético Ottawa season
It was announced on January 29, 2020, that Atlético Madrid had gained the approval of the Canadian Premier League to form an expansion club in the city of Ottawa, Ontario.


2020 Atlético Ottawa season
On March 20, 2020, the league announced a postponement of the start of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 29, 2020, the league announced that the season would be played in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, beginning August 13, in an event dubbed "The Island Games."


2020 Auburn Tigers baseball team
The 2020 Auburn Tigers baseball team will represent Auburn University in the 2020 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Tigers will play their home games at Plainsman Park.


2020 Auburn Tigers baseball team, Previous season
The Tigers finished 38–28 overall, and 14–16 in the conference. The Tigers won the Atlanta Regional and the Chapel Hill Super Regional in the 2019 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament  to advance to the College World Series for the first time since 1997.


2020 Auburn Tigers baseball team, Schedule and results
*Rankings are based on the team's current ranking in the D1Baseball poll.


2020 Auburn Tigers football team
The 2020 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Tigers played their home games at Jordan–Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama, and competed in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They were led by eighth-year head coach Gus Malzahn until his dismissal at the end of the regular season. The team's spring game, originally intended to be played on April 11, 2020, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tiger's regular-season schedule was also impacted as all non-conference games were canceled and the SEC allowed teams to play 10 in-conference games only.


2020 Auburn Tigers football team
On December 13, 2020, head coach Gus Malzahn was fired after eight years. After reaching the 2014 BCS National Championship Game at the end of the 2013 season, Auburn won at least 10 games under Malzahn only once more, in 2017. Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator, was designated to serve as the Tigers' interim coach for the Citrus Bowl. In December 2020, Bryan Harsin was hired as head coach.


2020 Auburn Tigers football team, SEC Media Days
In the preseason media poll, Auburn was predicted to finish in third place in the West Division.


2020 Auburn Tigers football team, Schedule
Auburn announced its 2020 football schedule on August 7, 2019. The 2020 schedule originally consisted of 7 home, 4 away, and 1 neutral game in the regular season.


2020 Auburn Tigers football team, Schedule
The Tigers had games scheduled against Alcorn State, North Carolina, Southern Miss, and UMass, which were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, the SEC announced the non-conference games would be canceled and only ten conference games would only be played.


2020 Auburn Tigers softball team
The 2020 Auburn Tigers softball team represents Auburn University in the 2020 NCAA Division I softball season. The Tigers play their home games at the Jane B. Moore Field.


2020 Auburn Tigers softball team, Previous season
The Tigers finished the 2019 season 39–21 overall, and 10–14 in the SEC to finish tenth in the conference. The Tigers went 2–2 in the Tucson Regional during the 2019 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament.


2020 Auburn Tigers softball team, Preseason, SEC preseason poll
The SEC preseason poll was released on January 15, 2020.


2020 Auburn Tigers softball team, Schedule and results
*Rankings are based on the team's current ranking in the NFCA poll.


2020 Austin Bold FC season
The 2020 Austin Bold FC season is the second season for Austin Bold FC in the USL Championship (USL-C), the second-tier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. This article covers the period from November 18, 2019, the day after the 2019 USL-C Playoff Final, to the conclusion of the 2020 USL-C Playoff Final, scheduled for November 12–16, 2020.


2020 Austin Bold FC season, Competitions, USL Championship, Match results
On January 9, 2020, the USL announced the 2020 season schedule.


2020 Austin Bold FC season, Competitions, U.S. Open Cup
As a USL Championship club, Austin will enter the competition in the Second Round, to be played April 7–9.


2020 Austin Peay Governors football team
The 2020 Austin Peay Governors football team represents Austin Peay State University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Governors are led by Scotty Walden and play their home games at Fortera Stadium. They are competing as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference.


2020 Austin Peay Governors football team, Previous season
The Governors finished the 2019 season ranked No. 8 in the FCS standings and went 11–4, 7–1 in OVC play to finish in a tie for first place.


2020 Austin Peay Governors football team, Previous season
Though they were co-champions with Southeast Missouri State, the Governors received the Ohio Valley Conference’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. They advanced to the Quarterfinals after beating Furman and Sacramento State before they lost 24–10 to Montana State.


2020 Austin Peay Governors football team, Schedule
Due to COVID-19, the OVC made the decision to postpone conference games to Spring 2021, allowing all member schools to play 3 non-conference games in the fall. However, OVC games were moved to Spring 2021


2020 Australia Day Honours
The Australia Day Honours 2020 are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2020 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley.


2020 Australia Day Honours
The Australia Day Honours are the first of the two major annual honours lists, the first announced to coincide with Australia Day (26 January), with the other being the Queen's Birthday Honours, which are announced on the second Monday in June.


2020 Australia national soccer team season
This page summarises the Australia men's national soccer team fixtures and results in 2020.


2020 Australia national soccer team season, Summary
The 2022 World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches were pushed back to 2021 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Australia had also accepted an invitation to participate in the 2020 Copa América as a guest nation, but this competition was also postponed to 2021, and Australia subsequently withdrew.


2020 Australia women's Tri-Nation Series
The 2020 Australia women's Tri-Nation Series was a cricket tournament that took place in Australia in January and February 2020. It was a tri-nation series between Australia women, England women and the India women cricket teams, with the matches played as Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) fixtures. All three teams used the series as their final warm-up ahead of the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup.


2020 Australia women's Tri-Nation Series
Ahead of the fifth match of the series, the Australian team were presented with the ICC Women's Championship trophy, after winning the 2017–20 ICC Women's Championship tournament. In the sixth match, Australia beat England by 16 runs, to advance to the final along with India. In the final, Australia beat India by 11 runs to win the series, with Jess Jonassen taking her first five-wicket haul in a WT20I match.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election
The 2020 Australian Capital Territory general election was held between 28 September and 17 October 2020 to elect all 25 members of the unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election
The incumbent Labor/Greens coalition government, led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, defeated the opposition Liberal Party. On the night of the election Barr claimed victory and confirmed Labor would again seek to enter into an arrangement with the Greens to form government, whilst Liberal leader Alistair Coe conceded the election and acknowledged the party would retain opposition status in the Assembly. The result meant that the Labor Party, which had been in office for 19 years at this election, won a sixth consecutive term of government in the Territory.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election
Despite the victory, Labor's representation in the Assembly dropped to 10 seats, whilst the Liberals also suffered a decline in their vote and fell to 9 seats. The Greens retained the balance of power and picked up the seats lost by the two larger parties to claim 6 seats, its largest representation in the Assembly in the party's history. Following the election, Labor and the Greens signed an agreement on 2 November to support a Labor-led Government with three ministers from the Greens.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election
The election was conducted by the ACT Electoral Commission, using the proportional Hare-Clark system. At the preliminary close of rolls, there were 302,630 people enrolled to vote representing a 6% increase on the 2016 election. Legislative changes in the Australian Capital Territory allowed for people to enrol during polling, with a further 3,370 electors enrolling before polling finished on 17 October.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Results, Distribution of seats
Labor won 43% of the three-party vote, the Liberals won 39% and the Greens won 18%.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Background
The incumbent Labor Party led by Chief Minister Andrew Barr was attempting to win re-election for a sixth term in the 25-member unicameral ACT Legislative Assembly. Labor formed a minority coalition government with the Greens after the 2016 election, with the Greens holding the balance of power; Labor 12 seats, Liberal 11 seats, Greens 2 seats. Greens member Shane Rattenbury remained in the cabinet for a second term. Leader of the Opposition and Liberals leader Jeremy Hanson was replaced by Alistair Coe following the election.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Background
All members of the unicameral Assembly faced re-election, with members being elected by the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. The Assembly was divided into five electorates with five members each:


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Redistribution
A redistribution of electoral boundaries for the ACT took place in 2019 for the 2020 election. The redistribution committee was appointed on 26 October 2018, and its final report was tabled on 13 August 2019.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates
137 candidates were formally declared for 2020 ACT Election on 24 September, with the total number of candidates down four from 2016's total. Of the 137 candidates, 129 were registered to political parties and eight were independents.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates
As part of the formal declaration, the candidates' names and any political party affiliation were announced, followed by a 'double randomisation' draw for each electorate to determine the order in which each party will appear on the ballot paper. A further draw then took place determining the starting order for the Robson rotations in each column. Under the Robson rotation system, 60 different versions of the ballot papers were printed for each electorate.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates
Sitting members are in bold. Successful candidates are identified with an asterisk.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates, Brindabella
Five seats are up for election. The Labor Party is defending two seats. The Liberal Party is defending three seats.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates, Ginninderra
Five seats are up for election. The Labor Party is defending three seats. The Liberal Party is defending two seats.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates, Kurrajong
Five seats are up for election. The Labor Party is defending two seats. The Liberal Party is defending two seats. The Greens are defending one seat.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates, Murrumbidgee
Five seats are up for election. The Labor Party is defending two seats. The Liberal Party is defending two seats. The Greens are defending one seat.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Candidates, Yerrabi
Five seats are up for election. The Labor Party is defending three seats. The Liberal Party is defending two seats.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Controversies
ACT Liberals candidate for Kurrajong, Robert Johnson, was alleged to have been the director of the ACT branch of the Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, an organisation belonging to the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, which is an umbrella organisation connected to the Chinese Communist Party, according to a 9 October 2020 article from the Canberra Times, which claims that his appointment to the position was reported on the parent organisation's official website.


2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, Controversies
An earlier Canberra Times article from 2 October 2020 also reported that Robert Johnson had featured in a China Central Television documentary which claimed that he served in the Australian Army in Afghanistan. In 2014, he was a standing committee member of the Jiangsu Overseas Exchange Association, within the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Jiangsu Provincial Government. ACT Liberals leader Alistair Coe denies allegations that Robert Johnson, who is also known as Jiang Jialiang (江嘉梁), has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.


2020 Australian GT Championship
The 2020 Australian GT Championship was scheduled to be the 24th running of the Australian GT Championship, a Motorsport Australia-sanctioned Australian motor racing championship open to FIA GT3 cars, FIA GT4 cars and similar cars as approved for the championship. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in only the first round of the Australian Endurance Championship, and the first & second rounds of the Australian GT Trophy Series taking place before the rest of the season was abandoned.


2020 Australian GT Championship, Race calendar
The 2020 calendar was unveiled on 31 October 2019. A revised calendar was announced on the 26 June 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in all further rounds being cancelled.


2020 Australian Grand Prix
The 2020 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020) was a Formula One motor race that was due to be held on 15 March 2020 in Melbourne, Victoria. The race was to be contested at the Albert Park Circuit and was intended to be the first round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship. Hours before the first practice session was due to begin, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.


2020 Australian Grand Prix
The race would have been the 85th race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix – which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928 – as well as the 25th time the event had been held at the Albert Park circuit and the 36th time the Australian Grand Prix had been a part of the Formula One World Championship. This was the first Formula One race to be cancelled since the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix, which was cancelled due to civil unrest.


2020 Australian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton initially entered the round as the defending World Drivers' Champion and his team, Mercedes, was the defending World Constructors' Champions. His team-mate Valtteri Bottas was due to be defending race winner.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Background
The Australian Grand Prix was officially confirmed as the first of twenty-two races of the originally planned 2020 Formula One World Championship at an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris in December 2019. The race was due to take place at the sixteen-turn, 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria on 15 March 2020.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
Initially, ten teams each with two drivers entered the race. Scuderia AlphaTauri were due to compete for the first time after the rebranding of Scuderia Toro Rosso. Esteban Ocon was due to return to the championship, replacing Nico Hülkenberg at Renault. Nicholas Latifi was scheduled to make his Grand Prix race debut with Williams, taking the seat previously filled by Robert Kubica. However, these events were all postponed by the cancellation of the race.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
Mission Winnow, the title sponsor of Ferrari, was banned from the race as it did not comply with local laws governing tobacco sponsorship.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The weeks before the Grand Prix saw several major sporting events either cancelled or postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization three days before the race. The Chinese Grand Prix had already been postponed several weeks prior and would later be cancelled altogether.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The Victorian Department of Health announced that the Australian Grand Prix would go ahead as planned, but Ferrari and AlphaTauri expressed concern as both teams were based in Italy, which had suffered one of the worst outbreaks of the virus outside China. As the Australian government did not initially implement a travel ban for Italy the way it had for China, Iran and South Korea, Ferrari and AlphaTauri were concerned over the ability of their staff to leave the quarantine zone established in northern Italy. Ross Brawn, the managing director of the sport, announced that Grands Prix would not go ahead if a team were blocked from entering a host nation, but added that a race could take place if a team voluntarily chose not to enter a host nation.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was originally scheduled to take place one week after the Australian race, announced that spectators would not be permitted to attend the event. Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix opted against similar measures, instead moving to minimise contact between spectators and competitors. The rule was also applied to competitors in support categories, including the Supercars Championship, S5000 Championship and the TCR Asia-Pacific Cup, which was to be held as a non-championship round of the TCR Australia Series.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Five crew members, four from Haas and one from McLaren, were entered into quarantine upon arriving in Melbourne when they displayed flu-like symptoms. All five of them were tested for COVID-19 and the results came out negative for the Haas members but positive for the McLaren member. McLaren made the announcement on Thursday evening and withdrew from the race. A photographer later entered isolation as well.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews was criticised for allowing the Grand Prix to go ahead, but responded by saying that cancelling the race would be a disproportionate reaction to the advice the state government had been given. Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen were also critical of the decision to hold the race, citing the National Basketball Association's decision to indefinitely suspend its 2019–20 season.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Daniel Andrews announced that spectators would be banned from attending if the Grand Prix were to go ahead, before the race was cancelled on the Friday morning a few hours before the Formula One cars were due to commence their first practice session. It subsequently emerged that only three teams—Red Bull Racing, its sister team Scuderia AlphaTauri and Racing Point—were willing to compete if the race went ahead. After the cancellation, a further fourteen team members from McLaren were put into quarantine.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
All support category events were also cancelled. These had conducted practice and qualifying sessions on the Thursday, along with a singular race for the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia series. A two-seater Minardi also performed some demonstration runs early on the Friday morning.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The 2020 season would eventually start with the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in July 2020.


2020 Australian Grand Prix, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Attempt to reschedule
Shortly after the cancellation, organisers announced that they planned to reschedule the race for later in the year. Several more Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed and the start of the championship delayed until July. A new calendar with eight races was eventually published, but the Australian Grand Prix was not included; however, Liberty Media announced that they intended to hold as many as fifteen races. In June 2020, federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham announced that the Australian government expected that the country's borders would be closed to international travel until 2021. The race was ultimately never rescheduled for the 2020 season, with the 2021 event moved from the traditional March date to November, before being cancelled.


2020 Australian Open
The 2020 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, from 20 January to 2 February 2020. It was the 108th edition of the Australian Open, the 52nd in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam of the year. The tournament consisted of events for professional players in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Junior and wheelchair players competed in singles and doubles tournaments. As in previous years, the tournament's main sponsor was Kia.


2020 Australian Open
Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka were the defending champions in Men's Singles and Women's Singles, respectively. Osaka lost in the third round to Coco Gauff. In contrast, Djokovic successfully defended his title by defeating Dominic Thiem to win the tournament for a record-extending eighth time.


2020 Australian Open
This was the first edition of the Australian Open with GreenSet, a hard surface produced by GreenSet Worldwide. GreenSet was the third type of hard surface used for the Australian Open.


2020 Australian Open, Tournament
The 2020 Australian Open was the 108th edition of the tournament, held at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.


2020 Australian Open, Tournament
The tournament is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is part of the 2020 ATP Tour and the 2020 WTA Tour calendars under the Grand Slam category. The tournament consists of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as the mixed doubles events. There are singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18), which are part of the Grade A category of tournaments. There are also singles, doubles and quad events for men's and women's wheelchair tennis players as part of the NEC tour under the Grand Slam category.


2020 Australian Open, Tournament
The tournament is played on hard courts and is taking place across a series of 25 courts, the three main show courts Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Arena and Margaret Court Arena. 1573 Arena (formerly Show Court Two) was upgraded into a main show court.


2020 Australian Open, Tournament, Impact of bushfires
The bushfires that had burned large portions of Australia for months left a smoke haze over Melbourne on the first day of qualifying. That day, the air over Melbourne was rated as the worst in the world. In qualifying, play was delayed, some players called for medical timeouts, and Dalila Jakupović was forced to retire, due to a coughing fit brought on by the poor air quality.


2020 Australian Open, Point distribution and prize money, Point distribution
Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points offered for each event.


2020 Australian Open, Point distribution and prize money, Prize money
The Australian Open total prize money for 2020 was increased by 13.6% to a tournament record A$71,000,000.


2020 Australian Open, Point distribution and prize money, Prize money
1Qualifiers prize money was also the Round of 128 prize money. *per team


2020 Australian Open – Boys' Doubles
David Ionel and Leandro Riedi won the Boys' Doubles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open, defeating Mikołaj Lorens and Kārlis Ozoliņš in the final, 6–7(8–10), 7–5, [10–4].


2020 Australian Open – Boys' Doubles
Jonáš Forejtek and Dalibor Svrčina were the defending champions, but Forejtek was no longer eligible to compete in junior events. Svrčina played alongside Jeffrey von der Schulenburg, but lost in the quarterfinals to Jérôme Kym and Dominic Stricker.


2020 Australian Open – Boys' Singles
Harold Mayot won the Boys' Singles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open, defeating Arthur Cazaux in the final, 6–4, 6–1.


2020 Australian Open – Boys' Singles
Lorenzo Musetti was the defending champion, but chose not to participate.


2020 Australian Open – Boys' Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Day-by-day summaries
The 2020 Australian Open described in detail, in the form of day-by-day summaries.


2020 Australian Open – Girls' Doubles
Alex Eala and Priska Madelyn Nugroho won the Girls' Doubles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open, defeating Živa Falkner and Matilda Mutavdzic in the final, 6–1, 6–2.


2020 Australian Open – Girls' Doubles
Natsumi Kawaguchi and Adrienn Nagy were the defending champions, but Nagy was no longer eligible to compete in junior events, while Kawaguchi chose not to participate.


2020 Australian Open – Girls' Singles
Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva won the Girls' Singles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open, defeating Weronika Baszak in the final, 5–7, 6–2, 6–2. This made her the first tennis player from Andorra to ever win a Grand Slam title in any discipline.


2020 Australian Open – Girls' Singles
Clara Tauson was the defending champion, but chose not to participate.


2020 Australian Open – Girls' Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Main Draw Wildcard Entries
The 2020 Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs and Entries are a group of events and internal selections to choose the eight men and eight women singles wildcard entries for the 2020 Australian Open, as well as seven male and seven female doubles teams plus eight mixed-doubles teams.


2020 Australian Open – Main Draw Wildcard Entries, American Wildcard Challenge
The USTA awarded a wildcard to the man and woman that earned the most ranking points across a group of three ATP/Challenger hardcourt events in the October and November 2019. For the men, the events included ATP Paris, Shenzhen, Charlottesville, Playford, Bratislava, Knoxville, Kobe, Houston, Champaign, Helsinki, Ortisei and Pune events. For the women, the events included Macon, Poitiers, Saguenay, Tyler, Toronto, Liuzhou, Nantes, Las Vegas, Shenzhen, Houston, Taipei and Tokyo events. For men, only the best two results from the three weeks of events were taken into account. While for women only the best three results from the four weeks of events were taken into account. Any player who otherwise qualified for the main draw of was excluded from wildcard considerations (as happened, in the case of Marcos Giron).


2020 Australian Open – Main Draw Wildcard Entries, Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff
The Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-off featured 16-players in the men's and women's singles draws and took place from 4 to 8 December 2019 at Hengqin International Tennis Centre in Zhuhai, China.


2020 Australian Open – Main Draw Wildcard Entries, Australian Wildcard Playoff
The December Showdown is held annually for two weeks in December. The Showdown includes age championships for 12/u, 14/u, 16/u and 18/u age categories. It also hosts the 2020 Australian Wildcard Playoff which will be held from 9–15 December 2019 at Melbourne Park, offering a main draw singles wildcard for men and women and a main draw women's doubles wildcard.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Doubles
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury won the Men's Doubles tennis title at the 2020 Australian Open, defeating wildcards Max Purcell and Luke Saville in the final, 6–4, 6–2.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Doubles
Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut were the defending champions, but lost in the first round to Simone Bolelli and Benoît Paire.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Doubles
Marcelo Arévalo became the first player from El Salvador to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Doubles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Legends' Doubles
Mansour Bahrami and Mark Philippoussis were the defending champions, but chose not to participate together. Bahrami plays alongside Fabrice Santoro, whereas Philippoussis plays alongside Tommy Haas.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Singles
Defending champion Novak Djokovic successfully defended his title, defeating Dominic Thiem in the final, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 to win the Men's Singles title at the 2020 Australian Open. It was his record-extending eighth Australian Open title and 17th major singles title overall. Djokovic also regained the ATP no. 1 singles ranking from Rafael Nadal. Thiem became the first Austrian player to reach an Australian Open singles final. This was Thiem's third major singles final loss in as many attempts. The match also marked the first time Djokovic came back to win in a major final after trailing two sets to one, having lost each of the last seven times this had happened.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Singles
With his third-round win, Roger Federer became the first player to win 100 matches at the Australian Open. He also became the first player to have at least 100 wins at two majors (the other being Wimbledon).


2020 Australian Open – Men's Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Men's Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw for men's singles at the 2020 Australian Open.


2020 Australian Open – Mixed Doubles
Barbora Krejčíková and Rajeev Ram were the defending champions, but Ram chose not to participate. Krejčíková played alongside Nikola Mektić, and successfully defended the title, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray in the final 5–7, 6–4, [10–1].


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Doubles
Joachim Gérard and Stefan Olsson were the defending champions, but Olsson chose not to participate. Gérard played alongside Ben Weekes, but lost to Stéphane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in the semifinals.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Doubles
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won the title after defeating Houdet and Peifer in the final by 4–6, 6–4, [10–7].


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Singles
Gustavo Fernández was the defending champion, but lost to Gordon Reid in the quarterfinals.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Singles
Shingo Kunieda won the title, defeating Reid in the final, 6–4, 6–4.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Quad Doubles
Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson were the defending champions and successfully defended their title, defeating Andy Lapthorne and David Wagner in the final, 6–4, 6–3.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Quad Singles
Dylan Alcott was the five-time defending champion. He successfully defended his title defeating Andy Lapthorne in the final, 6–0, 6–4.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Women's Doubles
Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot were the defending champions of this event. They were beaten in the final by Yui Kamiji and Jordanne Whiley, who won their third Australian Open title as a pair and the latter's third as well. This was Kamiji's fifth title in this event, two others were won with Marjolein Buis.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Women's Singles
Diede de Groot was the defending champion in this event, but lost to Zhu Zhenzhen in the quarterfinals.


2020 Australian Open – Wheelchair Women's Singles
Yui Kamiji won the title, defeating Aniek van Koot in the final, 6–2, 6–2.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Doubles
Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic won their second Australian Open title, defeating Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová in the final, 6–2, 6–1. Despite the loss, Hsieh regained the WTA no. 1 doubles ranking for the first time since 2014, replacing her partner Strýcová. Mladenovic, Aryna Sabalenka and Xu Yifan were also in contention for the top ranking at the start of the tournament.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Doubles
Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai were the defending champions, but chose not to participate together. Stosur played alongside Ellen Perez, but they lost in the first round to Lara Arruabarrena and Ons Jabeur. Zhang teamed up with Peng Shuai, but they lost to Veronika Kudermetova and Alison Riske, also in the first round.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Doubles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Sofia Kenin won her first Grand Slam title, defeating Garbiñe Muguruza in the final, 4–6, 6–2, 6–2. Kenin became the first American woman, other than Serena Williams, to win the Australian Open women's singles title since Jennifer Capriati in 2002. Kenin was the youngest Australian Open finalist since Ana Ivanovic and the youngest champion since Maria Sharapova, both in 2008. Muguruza was the first unseeded player, without being awarded a wildcard or entering through a protected ranking, to reach the Australian Open final since Serena Williams in 2007. This was the first Australian Open final in the Open Era to be contested between two players ranked outside the top ten, and the first Grand Slam final to feature two players outside the top ten since the 2018 US Open final.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Naomi Osaka was the defending champion, but lost to Coco Gauff in the third round.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
This was the final tournament for the 2018 champion and former world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who announced her retirement effective at the end of the tournament. She lost in the third round to Ons Jabeur.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
This tournament was also the last event in which five-time Grand Slam champion, 2008 champion, and former World No. 1 Sharapova competed, losing to Donna Vekić in the first round. She announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis in February.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Bianca Andreescu, the reigning women's singles champion of the 2019 US Open, the Grand Slam tournament immediately preceding the 2020 Australian Open, withdrew due to a knee injury. This marked the first time since the 1996 Australian Open that the defending US Open champion (in that case, Steffi Graf) withdrew before the tournament.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Serena Williams was aiming to become the first woman to win a Grand Slam singles title in four different decades (as well as equal the all-time record for most Grand Slam titles held by Margaret Court) but she lost to Wang Qiang in the third round, her earliest exit in Melbourne since 2006.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
The elimination of Angelique Kerber in the fourth round guaranteed a first-time Australian Open champion for the third year in a row. Jabeur became the first Arabian woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament, as well as the first African woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam since Amanda Coetzer at the 2001 Australian Open.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian woman to reach the women's singles semifinals since Wendy Turnbull in 1984. Barty's quarterfinal win over Petra Kvitová was her first ever top ten singles win at a Grand Slam, having lost her five previous matches.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Anett Kontaveit became the first player from Estonia, male or female, to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, and the second to do so at any Grand Slam after Kaia Kanepi. She would lose to Simona Halep in straight sets.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2020 Australian Open – Women's Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw for women's singles at the 2020 Australian Open.


2020 Australian federal budget
The 2020 Australian federal budget is the federal budget to fund government services and operations for the 2020–21 financial year. The budget was presented to the House of Representatives by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on 6 October 2020. It is the seventh budget to be handed down by the Liberal/National Coalition since their election to government at the 2013 federal election, and the second budget to be handed down by Frydenberg and the Morrison Government.


2020 Australian federal budget
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recession, the budget was submitted five months later than the traditional annual date of the second Tuesday in May.


2020 Australian federal budget, Background
This budget comes after Australia has reported its largest budget deficit since the second world war. The Covid-19 pandemic put a strain on Australia’s economy, and emergency measures were taken to keep Australians employed.


2020 Australian federal budget, Background
The 2020/2021 budget, presented 5 months later than its traditional May date, will take this pandemic into account, especially for the department of Home Affairs, with a COVID-19 respond package.


2020 Australian federal budget, Forecasts, Revenues, Memorandum
Note: Capital gains tax is part of gross other individuals, company tax and superannuation fund taxes.


2020 Australian federal budget, Debt and deficit
The 2020/21 budget is expected to produce a net deficit of approximately $213 billion.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix
The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich 2020) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 5 July 2020 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The race was the opening round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship, and the 34th running of the Austrian Grand Prix (the 33rd as part of the World Championship since 1950) as well as the first of two consecutive races held at the Red Bull Ring, with the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix taking place the week after.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton entered the round as the defending World Drivers' Champion and his team, Mercedes as the defending World Constructors' Champion. Max Verstappen was the defending race winner, having won the 2018 and 2019 Austrian Grands Prix. The race was won by Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas with Charles Leclerc in second for Ferrari and Lando Norris finishing third for McLaren – his first podium in Formula One. Norris became the 3rd youngest driver to achieve a podium.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The originally scheduled calendar for the 2020 championship was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the planned opening round in Australia was called off two days before the race was due to take place; prompting the FIA to draft a new calendar. The start of the championship was delayed until 5 July, with the Red Bull Ring hosting the Austrian Grand Prix as the opening round of the championship.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Organisers of the race signed a contract to host a second round at the circuit on 12 July which was known as the Styrian Grand Prix. The back-to-back Austrian races would mark the first time that a country hosted back-to-back races in the same season since 1995 when Japan hosted the Pacific and Japanese Grands Prix. This would also mark the first time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout would have hosted back-to-back World Championship races and the first time that a Formula One race weekend was held behind closed doors.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
Twenty drivers representing ten teams entered the race. Scuderia AlphaTauri made their debut as a constructor, having previously competed under the name Scuderia Toro Rosso from 2006 to 2019. Esteban Ocon made a return to the championship with Renault, replacing the departing Nico Hülkenberg after being out of the sport since the end of the 2018 season. Nicholas Latifi made his competitive debut with Williams, replacing Robert Kubica who only raced for one season with Williams after returning to F1 following a serious rally crash in 2011.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
Mercedes changed their livery to black instead of their traditional silver for the 2020 season. This was in support for the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement and a commitment to diversity and ending racism. Formula One launched a "We Race as One" initiative which focused on fighting the challenges of COVID-19 and global inequality. Rainbows would be displayed across the circuit and team liveries to show appreciation to key workers and individuals affected by the COVID-19 outbreak as well as being a gesture to bringing communities together. McLaren announced an updated livery for the 2020 season featuring a rainbow on the halo, rainbow colours on the sidepod and "End Racism" messaging.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Background, Tyres
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3 and C4 (designated hard, medium and soft respectively) compounds of tyres for teams to use at the event. These are the second, third, and fourth hardest compounds available of the five Pirelli produce. In recognition of the need to cut costs and to give Pirelli achievable targets due to the congested calendar, all drivers received identical tyre allocations getting two sets of hards, three sets of mediums and eight sets of softs.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Practice
Three practice sessions were held before the race; the first two sessions were held on Friday morning at 11:00-12:30 and 15-00-16:30 local time, respectively. The third practice session was held on Saturday morning at 12:00-13:00. The first session started with showers for 30 minutes, a few laps were set on the intermediate tyre before moving onto dry tyres. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the session with a 1:04.816 on soft tyres, more than three-tenths of a second quicker than teammate Valtteri Bottas.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Practice
Hamilton also topped the drier second practice session with a time of a 1:04.304 with Bottas trailing by 0.197s. The third practice session was much warmer than the previous sessions with track temperatures reaching as high as 49 °C (120 °F) compared to the peak track temperature of 36 °C (97 °F) from the day before. The session also saw the first crash of the season when Nicholas Latifi hit the barriers at turn 1 just after 45 minutes. Hamilton topped the session by posting a time of 1:04.130, 0.147s ahead of Bottas.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Qualifying report
The qualifying session was held on Saturday afternoon after the third practice session and was split into three parts. The first part (Q1) ran for 18 minutes, at the end of this period the five slowest cars were eliminated. During Q1, the 107% rule was in place, which required all drivers to set a time within 107% of the quickest Q1 time, in order to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying (Q2) ran for 15 minutes, after which the five slowest cars were eliminated. The third and final part of qualifying (Q3) ran for 12 minutes, after which the ten remaining cars had their grid positions set. The fastest driver of Q3 obtained pole position.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Qualifying report
Bottas clinched pole position ahead of teammate Hamilton, despite going onto the grass on his last Q3 attempt. Max Verstappen finished third in his Red Bull RB16, half a second behind the Mercedes pair. Lando Norris qualified a career best fourth in his McLaren ahead of Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon in fifth, with Sergio Pérez of Racing Point in sixth. Ferrari struggled in the session with Charles Leclerc only qualifying in seventh place, nearly one second off pole position, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel finished in 11th place, failing to make it into Q3. The rest of the top ten was rounded out by Carlos Sainz in eighth for McLaren, Lance Stroll in ninth for Racing Point and Daniel Ricciardo in tenth for Renault.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Qualifying report
Earlier, in Q1, the Alfa Romeo Racing team saw both their drivers eliminated with Antonio Giovinazzi and teammate Kimi Räikkönen qualifying in 18th and 19th places respectively, behind the Williams of George Russell and only ahead of the other Williams car of Nicholas Latifi who qualified last.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Qualifying report, Post-qualifying
Following Qualifying, Hamilton was summoned to the stewards under allegations that he did not slow down for the yellow flags shown when Bottas went off the track on his final Q3 run. He stated that he did not see any yellow flags and was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards as "conflicting signals were shown to the driver". However, prior to the race, Red Bull challenged the decision not to award Hamilton a penalty. The stewards reopened the case and decided that Hamilton had ignored yellow flags following new footage from the 360-degree onboard camera; He was then given a 3-place grid penalty for the race.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Early laps
The opening lap proceeded without incident, with the only change in position amongst the top ten being Sebastian Vettel claiming tenth place from Daniel Ricciardo. McLaren's Lando Norris, running in third place, was overtaken by Alexander Albon on lap three and then by Lewis Hamilton soon after. Hamilton later entered the podium positions by passing Albon on lap nine.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Early laps
The first incident of the race came on lap eleven when the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, running in second place, began to slow with a suspected electrical issue. He was able to return to the pits where his mechanics attempted to correct the problem. This was unsuccessful and he was forced to retire from the race. The ninth-placed Racing Point of Lance Stroll began to suffer power loss on lap 17, allowing Vettel and Ricciardo to close in. Ricciardo was soon forced to pull into the pits and retire with suspected overheating issues.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Early laps
On lap 21, Stroll entered the pits and retired from the race, having fallen behind Vettel and the two AlphaTauris. At the same time, 16th-placed Romain Grosjean spun onto the gravel at turn three. He dropped to the back of the field but was able to continue, entering the pits at the end of the lap to become the first driver to change tyres.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
On lap 25, 11th-placed Kevin Magnussen went straight on at turn two having suffered a brake failure, bringing out the first safety car of the race. All cars still remaining, except Grosjean, entered into the pits for their first tyre changes. The order of the top ten after the first round of pit stops was Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton, Albon, Norris, Sergio Pérez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr, Vettel, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat. The safety car period ended on lap 31. At the restart, Vettel attempted an overtake on the inside of Sainz Jr. at turn two. The cars made contact and Vettel's Ferrari was pitched into a spin, dropping him to 15th place. On lap 33 Pérez made it past Norris to take fourth place.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
Both Mercedes drivers, running first and second, were warned by their engineers to avoid driving over the kerbs. It emerged that the vibrations were damaging the cars' gearboxes, and it was feared this would cause a failure leading to immediate retirement. Running 15th, Grosjean suffered a brake failure on lap 50, but was able to make it to the pits to retire. At the same time, 13th-placed George Russell lost fuel pressure and pulled onto the grass on the inside of turn four, deploying the second safety car of the race.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
Eight of the fourteen remaining drivers elected to pit for a second tyre change, including Albon who changed to soft-compound tyres, whilst the leading Mercedes cars stayed out on their hard-compound tyres. The order of the top ten was now Bottas, Hamilton, Pérez, Albon, Norris, Leclerc, Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
Racing resumed on lap 55. However, almost immediately after the restart, the right-front wheel of Kimi Räikkönen's Alfa Romeo detached from the car as it was cross-threaded during his pitstop, he was forced to stop on the pit straight, bringing out a third safety car. Shortly prior to the safety car deployment, Albon had passed Pérez for third place. Racing resumed on lap 61. Shortly after the restart, Albon attempted an overtake on Hamilton for second place around the outside of turn three. Hamilton's front left wheel was caught in front of Albon's rear left, causing Albon to spin into the gravel. He was able to continue but returned to the track last of the running cars in 13th place. Shortly afterwards, Sainz passed both Ocon and Gasly to take sixth place.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
Fifth-placed Leclerc began to move towards the front, overtaking Norris on lap 64 and then Pérez on lap 65 to take third place. On the next lap, Hamilton received a five-second time penalty, having been judged by the stewards to have caused the earlier collision with Albon. Pérez then received the same penalty for having sped in the pit lane. On lap 68, Albon pulled over at turn six with an electrical failure and Norris passed Pérez for fourth place at turn two. On the penultimate lap, eleventh-placed Kvyat suffered a rear puncture which damaged his suspension and had to retire, making him the ninth retiree of the race. Sainz then passed Pérez for fifth place on the final lap.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
Bottas crossed the line, having led every lap of the race, to take the eighth win of his Formula One career and his second win at the Austrian Grand Prix, having won the 2017 edition. Hamilton finished second on track and Leclerc crossing the line in third. On the final lap, a late push from Norris set the fastest lap of the race and reduced his gap to Hamilton to 4.8 seconds, this meant that Hamilton's 5-second penalty dropped him to fourth promoting Leclerc and Norris to second and third respectively.


2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
Sainz finished fifth and Pérez's sixth-place finish was unaffected by his time penalty. Gasly took points for AlphaTauri with seventh place on the team's first race since their rebranding, and Ocon finished eighth on his return to the sport after a year out. Giovinazzi and Vettel rounded out the points positions, with debutant Nicholas Latifi being the only driver to finish the race outside the points in eleventh place.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix was the fifth round of the 2020 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season and the fourth round of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship. It was held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on 16 August 2020. Brad Binder was the defending MotoGP race winner who aimed for his second consecutive Grand Prix win, having won his and KTM's first race at the previous round.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix
Andrea Dovizioso was the defending race winner, having won the race in 2019. The race was won by Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso with Joan Mir in second for Suzuki, his first podium in MotoGP, while Jack Miller finished third for Pramac Racing.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The opening rounds of the 2020 championship was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the aborted opening round in Qatar, prompting the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme to draft a new calendar. However, the Austrian Grand Prix was not impacted by this change and kept its original date.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, MotoGP Championship standings before the race
After the third round at the Czech Grand Prix, Fabio Quartararo on 59 points, leads the championship by 17 points over Maverick Viñales, with Franco Morbidelli a further 28 points behind. In Teams' Championship, Petronas Yamaha SRT with 90 points, lead the championship from Monster Energy Yamaha, who have 69. KTM Factory Racing sit 22 points behind the factory Yamaha in third, and are only 5 points ahead of fourth-placed Ducati Team, who have 42 points, while Esponsorama Racing sit 5th on 35 points.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, MotoGP
The race, scheduled to be run for 28 laps, was red-flagged after 8 full laps due to an accident involving Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli. The race was later restarted over 20 laps with the starting grid determined by the classification of lap 8.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Moto2
The race, scheduled to be run for 25 laps, was red-flagged after 3 full laps due to an accident involving Enea Bastianini, Hafizh Syahrin, Edgar Pons, and Andi Farid Izdihar. The race was later restarted over 13 laps.


2020 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race
Below are the standings for the top five riders, constructors, and teams after the round.


2020 Auto Club 400
The 2020 Auto Club 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on March 1, 2020, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Contested over 200 laps on the two-mile (3.2 km) D-shaped oval, it was the third race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.


2020 Auto Club 400, Report, Background
Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) is a 2 miles (3.2 km), low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It is also used for open wheel racing events. The racetrack is located near the former locations of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway. The track is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation and is the only track owned by ISC to have naming rights sold. The speedway is served by the nearby Interstate 10 and Interstate 15 freeways as well as a Metrolink station located behind the backstretch.


2020 Auto Club 400, Practice, First practice
Alex Bowman was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 40.125 seconds and a speed of 179.439 mph (288.779 km/h).


2020 Auto Club 400, Practice, Final practice
Alex Bowman was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 40.764 seconds and a speed of 176.626 mph (284.252 km/h).


2020 Auto Club 400, Qualifying
Clint Bowyer scored the pole for the race with a time of 40.086 and a speed of 179.614 mph (289.061 km/h).


2020 Auto Club 400, Media, Television
The race was the 20th race Fox Sports covered at the Auto Club Speedway. Mike Joy and three-time Auto Club winner Jeff Gordon called the race in the booth for Fox. Jamie Little, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties for the television side. Larry McReynolds and Jamie McMurray provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.


2020 Auto Club 400, Media, Radio
MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and 2001 race winner Rusty Wallace called the race from the booth when the field raced their way down the front stretch.


2020 Auto Club 400, Media, Radio
Dan Hubbard called the race from a billboard outside turn 2 when the field raced their way through turns 1 and 2 & Kyle Rickey called the race from a billboard outside turn 3 when the field raced their way through turns 3 and 4. Kim Coon, Steve Post and Dillon Welch had the pit road duties for MRN.


2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500
The 2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 was a NASCAR Cup Series race that was held on October 25, 2020 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Contested over 334 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval, it was the 34th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, the eighth race of the Playoffs, and second race of the Round of 8. Rain forced the race to be stopped after 52 laps, and the race was re-commenced on Wednesday, October 28.


2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Report, Background
Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The track measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) around and is banked 24 degrees in the turns, and is of the oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly. The track layout is similar to Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway (formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway). The track is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., the same company that owns Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as the short-track Bristol Motor Speedway.


2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Qualifying
Kevin Harvick was awarded the pole for the race as determined by competition-based formula.


2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Media, Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Two–time Texas winner Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and 2000 Texas winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the action from the booth on Sunday. Allen, Burton and Letarte called the action from the booth on Wednesday. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman and Kelli Stavast handled the pit road duties on Sunday, Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties on Wednesday.


2020 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Media, Radio
PRN covered their final 2020 broadcast, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice & Mark Garrow covered the action for PRN when the field raced down the front straightaway. Rob Albright covered the action for PRN from a platform outside of Turns 1 & 2, & Pat Patterson covered the action from a platform outside of Turns 3 & 4 for PRN. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan and Wendy Venturini had the call from pit lane for PRN.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan on 9 February 2020. They were originally scheduled to take place in November 2020, but were brought forward after parliament was dissolved in December 2019. Opposition parties accused President Ilham Aliyev of limiting their ability to campaign, and called for a boycott of the election.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election
The ruling New Azerbaijan Party retained its majority, winning 72 of the 125 seats, although this was later reduced to 70 when results in two constituencies were annulled. The second largest party (the Civic Solidarity Party) won only three seats.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Electoral system
The 125 members of the National Assembly were elected in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Campaign
A total of 1,314 candidates contested the elections; 1,057 ran as independents, with 246 running as candidates of 19 different parties and 11 as nominees of initiative groups.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Campaign
Although a significant part of the opposition boycotted the elections, some parties (e.g. Musavat) announced that they would participate.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Results
The New Azerbaijan Party was initially reported to have won 72 seats, with 43 taken by independents. However, the results in four constituencies were later annulled by the Election Commission, with the New Azerbaijan Party and independents both losing two seats.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Results
Erkin Gadirli of the Republican Alternative Party won a seat running as an independent.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Results
Razi Nurullayev, the chairman of the spitter group from Azerbaijani Popular Front Party won a seat running as an independent.


2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election, Aftermath
The newly elected National Assembly met for the first time on 10 March and elected Sahiba Gafarova as Speaker.


2020 Azerbaijani protests
The 2020 Azerbaijani protests, also known within Azerbaijan as the Karabakh March (Azerbaijani: Qarabağ yürüşü), were series of civil protests from 12 to 15 July in various cities and towns in Azerbaijan. They erupted within the framework of the Armenian–Azerbaijani border clashes, and the protestors demanded full-scale war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.


2020 Azerbaijani protests
Initial protests erupted on 12 July, in Gobu, where the Azerbaijani refugees of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War live. Though the local police initially appealed to the crowd to disperse, the crowd ignored them. The Rapid Police Unit (RPU) then intervened and dispersed the protestors, numbering around 700 to 800 people, in the early hours of 13 July.


2020 Azerbaijani protests
On 14 July, after the deaths of Major General Polad Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev during the border clashes with Armenia, about 30 to 50 thousand people, calling for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic-related quarantine, war against Armenia, country-wide mobilisation and the resignation of Najmeddin Sadikov, the chief of general staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, demonstrated in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and Sumgayit, with smaller rallies in support of the military in other cities around Azerbaijan. After the initial demonstrations, a smaller group stormed the Parliament building, protesting the government's inaction, though security forces later evicted them. Subsequent clashes between the demonstrators and security forces resulted in seven police officers being injured, and several cars being damaged. The seemingly impromptu rally lasted well into the early hours of 15 July. It was the largest demonstration in Azerbaijan in years.


2020 Azerbaijani protests
No opposition or government figure appeared in front of the crowd when they stormed Parliament. Analysts said there was "neither a government official nor an intellectual" who could stand up to such a crowd. Some opposition members said that they "did not appear that day because they were worried about provocation". Government officials stated the government did not address the crowd because of the "restrictive and stay-at-home measures" because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some interpreted the Parliament break-in, and some of the earlier episodes, as provocations meant to discredit the protesters. According to Zaur Shiriyev, a Baku-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, the death of Hashimov and other high-ranking officers was a "turning point" and had "changed people's minds".


2020 Azerbaijani protests
The Azerbaijani government regarded the storming of the Parliament as a "provocation", with President Ilham Aliyev blaming the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the main opposition party, for the incident, though the PPFA declared its members innocent. The Azerbaijani authorities launched a criminal case over the incident and completed their preliminary investigation over the arrests on 11 September. 36 people were arrested—16 were members of the PFPA. Despite this, according to other Azerbaijani sources, as many as 120 people were detained after the protests, including journalists. Relatives of some detainees said that they could not get information about their family members for more than a day. According to some reports, some detainees were not fed or given a place to sleep.


2020 Azerbaijani protests
The protests are believed to have led to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war later in the year.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The territorial ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh is fiercely contested between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The conflict over the region has its roots in events following World War I. Until the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the region was de jure part of Azerbaijan, although large parts were de facto held by the internationally unrecognised Republic of Artsakh supported by Armenia.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
During the Soviet era, an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan SSR governed the predominantly Armenian-populated region. As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate during the late 1980s the question of Nagorno-Karabakh's status re-emerged, and on 20 February 1988 the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast passed a resolution requesting transfer of the oblast from the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR. Azerbaijan rejected the request several times, and ethnic violence began shortly after with a series of pogroms between 1988 and 1990 against Armenians in Sumgait, Ganja and Baku, and against Azerbaijanis in Gugark and Stepanakert.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Following the revocation of Nagorno-Karabakh's autonomous status, an independence referendum was held in the region on 10 December 1991. The Azerbaijani population, which then constituted around 22.8% of the region's population boycotted the referendum. 99.8% of participants voted in favour. In early 1992, following the Soviet Union's collapse, the region descended into outright war.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War resulted in the displacement of approximately 725,000 Azerbaijanis and 300,000–500,000 Armenians from both Azerbaijan and Armenia. The 1994 Bishkek Protocol brought the fighting to an end and resulted in significant Armenian territorial gains: in addition to controlling most of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Republic of Artsakh also occupied the surrounding Azerbaijani populated districts of Agdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Kalbajar, Qubadli, Lachin and Zangilan.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The terms of the Bishkek agreement produced a frozen conflict, and long-standing international mediation attempts to create a peace process were initiated by the OSCE Minsk Group in 1994, with the interrupted Madrid Principles being the most recent iteration prior to 2020. The United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions in 1993 calling for the withdrawal of "occupying forces" from the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh,and in 2008 the General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces, although the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the United States, voted against it.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Border clashes
For three decades multiple violations of the ceasefire occurred, the most serious being the four-day 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In August 2019, in a declaration in favour of unification, the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan stated "Artsakh is Armenia, full stop". From 12 to 16 July 2020, skirmishes occurred on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, mainly in the Tavush province of Armenia and the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan. The skirmishes were conducted mainly through artillery and drones, without infantry, and were of varying intensity, injuring many, and killing at least 17 military and one civilian.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Background, Border clashes
Among Azerbaijani military casualties were high-ranking officers, including Major General Polad Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev. Hashimov was buried alongside Mirzayev on 15 July in the Second Alley of Honor in Baku. Azerbaijan's minister of defence, Zakir Hasanov, chief of general staff, Najmaddin Sadigov, and, the mayor of Baku, Eldar Azizov, attended the funeral. On the same day, President Ilham Aliyev had a telephone conversation with Hashimov's mother, expressing his deep condolences to her. A street was named after Hashimov in his native Vandam, in Gabala District. A park named after Polad Hashimov was opened in the Osmangazi district of Bursa, Turkey on 28 October. Both Hashimov and Mirzayev were declared National Heroes of Azerbaijan in December 2020.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Gobu protests
On 12 July, despite COVID-19 regulations, mass pro-war protests erupted at night in Gobu Park, near Baku,  where the Azerbaijani internally displaced persons (IDPs) live. Protesters, chanting slogans such as Martyrs do not die, the homeland will not be divided, moved towards the Bina Bazaar. The  local police initially talked to the crowd and tried to disperse it, but the crowd ignored them. The protestors, numbering around 700 to 800 people, were broadcasting the events via social media, which attracted more participants. The Rapid Police Unit (RPU) intervened and dispersed the crowd an hour after the protests had begun. Police detained dozens of protestors, though they were released afterwards. The RPU was deployed in Lokbatan to ensure security.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March
On 14 July, hundreds of people arrived in front of Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev's house in the Khatai District of Baku, where his body was due to arrive. Mirzayev was one of the high-ranking officers killed during the border skirmishes with Armenia. Shortly after, demonstrations erupted in Sumgait, where Major General Polad Hashimov was residing before his death during the border skirmishes, and Ahmadli, with hundreds of demonstrators chanting pro-army slogans. The demonstrations spread to others parts of Baku, with about 30 to 50 thousand demonstrators being present.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March
They first marched to Freedom Square, then to the Martyrs' Lane but were not allowed enter it, or the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. The Baku Police did not allow vehicles to enter the area to ensure the crowd's safety. The demonstrators, waving the Azerbaijani flag, called for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic related quarantine, mobilisation and a war against Armenia to retake the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. There were smaller rallies in support of the military in other cities around Azerbaijan, usually connected to the burials of fallen soldiers.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March
On the same day, a video calling for mobilisation on behalf of Azerbaijan's minister of defence, Zakir Hasanov, was spread on the social media. The video shows an unidentified man sitting in a police car talking through a loudspeaker. Dozens of people, including two in police uniforms, appeared to have gathered around the car. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed that the video was fake, though local social media users disputed this. The Azerbaijani military authorities said they were unaware of who disseminated the information.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March
Elshad Hajiyev, a spokesman for the Baku State Traffic Police, said he was unaware of the identity of the person "sitting in a police car and calling for mobilisation". The State Service for Mobilization and Conscription of Azerbaijan, in a statement referring to the recruitment of the reservists, said there was "no reason for such a need today". The service added it had received numerous appeals from the citizens willing to serve on the frontline and provide assistance.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March, Storming of the Parliament
After the initial demonstrations, a smaller group reached the front of the National Assembly on the night of 14 and 15 July. Apart from support for the army and calls for war, the demonstrators demanded the resignation of the chief of general staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the deputy minister of defence, Najmeddin Sadikov, who was suspected of giving the coordinates of Polad Hashimov's location to the Armenian authorities, leading to his death. At around 01:00, street lights were turned off in front of the Parliament building.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March, Storming of the Parliament
However, the demonstrators protested this by turning their phone lights and whistling. Although a representative from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence arrived to address the crowd, the demonstrators did not allow him to speak and demanded that the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, come and speak. At around 04:00, riots broke out, during which police cars were overturned. Several demonstrators  breached the National Assembly, protesting the government's inaction. They smashed windows and chandeliers inside, but security forces later evicted them.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March, Storming of the Parliament
A BBC Azerbaijani Service correspondent at the scene reported that although there were guards inside, they did not interfere with the crowd. According to a report by the Azerbaijani Parliament, the demonstrators damaged a number of items in the Parliament worth 22,150 AZN in total. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs accused the demonstrators of deliberately disobeying the demands of police officers and attacking them with stones and other objects.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, The Karabakh March, Storming of the Parliament
As a result, seven police officers were injured, two service cars of the State Traffic Police Department were overturned and rendered useless, fourteen more service cars and the road infrastructure in the area were seriously damaged. After that, security forces used water cannons, tear gas and batons to disperse those gathered in front of the Parliament building. Other demonstrators tried to convince police to join them. The demonstrators moved towards Martyrs' Lane and continued protesting there. They began to disperse in the early morning near Baku Boulevard and Freedom Square. According to Turan, an independent Azerbaijani news agency, several hundred protesters then marched, escorted by police, to the Nariman Narimanov Monument and the building of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes, before dispersing.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Domestic response
On 15 July, no opposition or government figure appeared in front of the crowd. Analysts said there was "neither a government official nor an intellectual" who could stand up to such a crowd. Some opposition members said they "did not appear that day because they were worried about provocation". Government officials said the government did not address the crowd because of the "restrictive and stay-at-home measures" for the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Domestic response
Political analyst Rashad Shirin attributed the government's reluctance to appear in public to the "fact that they were not used to speaking ... and were not prepared for such a tense situation". He also said the president's speech in a spontaneous, chaotic rally could be problematic because there were security issues. Isa Gambar, head of the National Centre for Strategic Thought, said the government had "no influential people to bring" before the crowd. According to him, the Azerbaijani government had subjugated the intellectuals, and "forced them to lose prestige, or completely excluded them from the socio-political process".


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Domestic response
Khadija Ismayilova, a human rights activist and investigative journalist, said that although the expectations of the crowd in front of the Parliament were a "promise of mobilisation", there was "no government in Azerbaijan that could make that promise". Recalling the 2013 Baku protests, Ismayilova speculated that the government will "once again take steps to get rid of unpopular people". Zahid Oruj, an Azerbaijani MP and head of the Centre for Social Research, believed that it was wrong to approach the issue through the prism of government officials failing to appear before the crowd. Some interpreted the Parliament break-in, and some other earlier episodes, as provocations meant to discredit the protesters.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
The Azerbaijani government regarded the storming of the Parliament as a provocation, calling the protestors a "group of provocateurs". On 15 July, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan announced they had launched a criminal case against a group of individuals during a rally in support of the army in Baku and that investigative measures were being taken. On the same day, a statement issued on behalf of the Azerbaijani Parliament  condemned the actions of "some provocateurs aimed at destruction and damage".


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
In a screed delivered on the same day, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, blamed the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the country's main opposition party, and the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), an alliance of Azerbaijan's opposition parties, for the storming of the Parliament building. He declared the need to "finish with the 'fifth column', calling them "worse than the Armenians". In response, the PFPA and NCDF stated they had not organised the rally and declared their members innocent. The PFPA released a statement saying it had declared its support for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces since the beginning of the skirmishes and called Aliyev's speech "a disgrace to the state" adding that it was "an announcement of the beginning of the next wave of repressions".


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
The preliminary investigation over the arrests was completed on 11 September. 37 people were prosecuted, officially charged with intentionally causing minor bodily harm, intentionally destroying or damaging another's property, violating public order, and resisting or using force against a government official. Among them, 36 were arrested, and one was put under house arrest. 16 of those prosecuted were members of the PFPA. Others prosecuted included members of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Movement (ADR) and the Muslim Union Movement.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
Despite this, according to other Azerbaijani sources, as many as 120 people were detained after the protests, including members of the NIDA Civic Movement and journalists. Relatives of some detainees said they could not obtain information about them for more than a day. According to some reports, a number of detainees were not fed or given a place to sleep.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
In response to the demonstrators' calls for mobilisation, President Aliyev said that only 150 people had signed up to go to the frontline. This statement caused anger and frustration in the Azerbaijani public. Azerbaijani activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev said that the president's statement was humiliating for the people who flooded the streets. According to him, the message that the Azerbaijani public expected from the state and the president was completely different—a positive reaction. Azerbaijani MP Zahid Oruj said those who "draw conclusions from the president's speech as disappointing distort the real purpose of the head of state".


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
He stressed the president's speech had "increased the morale of the society and strengthened their confidence in victory". Oruj said that interpreting the president's speech as "Azerbaijan does not want to fight" meant distorting Aliyev's true purpose. He added that "against the background of people who sometimes sound like fighting, great ideals of young people, forces trying to gain points by exploiting the feelings of the homeland, not all applicants intended to go to the trenches".


2020 Azerbaijani protests, Aftermath, Government response
The protests are believed to have led to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war later in September of the same year.


2020 Azerbaijani protests, International reactions
On 20 July 2020, the United States Department of State urged the Azerbaijani government to avoid using the COVID-19 pandemic to "silence civil society advocacy, opposition voices, or public discussion". On 13 August, the Amnesty International also urged to end the "violent persecution of opposition activists". These actions were widely seen as an attempt to "eliminate pro-democracy advocates and political rivals once and for all".


2020 Azorean regional election
The 2020 Azorean regional election was held on 25 October 2020, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. All 57 members of the assembly were up for election.


2020 Azorean regional election
The Socialist Party (PS) again won the most votes with 39%, but lost their majority against all predictions. The party won 25 seats, 5 seats fewer than in 2016 and 4 seats short of a majority. The Socialists' main opponent, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), made significant gains by winning almost 34% of the votes and 21 seats, two more than in 2016. The CDS – People's Party was able to hold on to its status as the third biggest party in the region but lost almost 2% of the votes and one member on the regional parliament.


2020 Azorean regional election
Overall, CDS–PP got 5.5% of the votes and 3 seats. The Left Bloc (BE) was also able to hold on to their 2016 score, holding their 2 seats and winning a similar share of vote to that received in 2016, with 3.8%. The Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) was wiped out from the regional parliament by losing their sole member, elected in 2016, and polling just 1.7% of the votes.


2020 Azorean regional election
The big surprise in the elections was the arrival of new parties, from left to right, in the Azores regional parliament. CHEGA (CH) polled 5% of the votes and was able to elect 2 members to the regional parliament. People–Animals–Nature (PAN) also elected one MP as did the Liberal Initiative (IL). The new composition of the regional assembly gave the rightwing parties a majority over the left, with 29 against 28. On election night, PSD leader José Manuel Bolieiro said the night was a historic one for democracy and the autonomous region. PS leader Vasco Cordeiro said the PS won the elections and should have a chance to form a government but acknowledged that the picture was challenging. In the days after the election, both PS and PSD started talks with parties to see if deals were possible.


2020 Azorean regional election
On November 2, PSD, CDS–PP and PPM announced they had reached an agreement to form a government. Shortly afterwards, Carlos Furtardo, the leader of CHEGA also announced the party would support a PSD/CDS–PP/PPM government in the regional Parliament. Despite this announcement, there were divisions in CHEGA as the party's national leader, André Ventura, said no deal had been made with the Social Democrats and that the order was to not support the PSD led coalition. However, a few days later, on November 6, CHEGA and PSD reached an agreement after CHEGA dropped several of their demands.


2020 Azorean regional election
On the next day, November 7, the Representative of the Republic in the Azores, Pedro Catarino, after hearing all parties represented in the regional parliament, appointed José Manuel Bolieiro as President and asked him to form a government. On 24 November, José Manuel Bolieiro and his cabinet were sworn in to office.


2020 Azorean regional election
The turnout in these elections increased compared to the previous one, with 45.4% of voters casting a ballot, compared with the record-low 40.9% in the 2016 elections.


2020 Azorean regional election, Electoral system
The 57 members of the Azores regional parliament are elected through a proportional system in which the 9 islands elect a number of MPs proportional to the number of registered voters. MPs are allocated by using the D'Hondt method. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency. Current distribution of MPs by constituency:


2020 Azorean regional election, Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores in the term between 2016 and 2020.


2020 Azorean regional election, Parties, Parties running in the election
14 lists were on the ballot for the 2020 Azorean regional election, 13 parties and one coalition only in Corvo. The parties that contested the election and their lead candidates, were: (alphabetically ordered)


2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020 took place on 20 December 2020 at the dock10 studios in Salford.


2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award
The event was broadcast live on BBC One and hosted by Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott.


2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, Nominees
The nominees for the award were revealed on 1 December 2020. On the night of the final, the public were allowed to vote for one of only six pre-selected contenders.


2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, Controversy
This year’s Award was cornered by controversy, when the WBC World Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury, issued a video on social media politely requesting the BBC remove his name from the nominations for the award: ‘This is a message for the @bbcsport and their SPOTY award. Please take me off your list as I'm the people's champion and have no need for verifications or any awards.’ The BBC ignored Fury’s request. Fury then had his lawyers send the BBC an official letter repeating his request. The BBC did not remove Fury’s name from the nominations. Fury requested his fans to respect his wishes and not to vote for him.


2020 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, Other awards
In addition to the main award as "Sports Personality of the Year", several other awards were also announced:


2020 BC Lions season
The 2020 BC Lions season was scheduled to be the 63rd season for the team in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and their 67th overall. Training camps, pre-season games, and regular season games were initially postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CFL announced on April 7, 2020 that the start of the 2020 CFL season would not occur before July 2020. On May 20, 2020, it was announced that the league would likely not begin regular season play prior to September 2020. On August 17, 2020 however, the season was officially cancelled due to COVID-19.


2020 BC Lions season
This would have been the third season with Ed Hervey as the Lions' general manager. The Lions' incumbent head coach, DeVone Claybrooks, was fired on November 6, 2019 after one season. Rick Campbell was announced as the team's head coach on December 2, 2019.


2020 BC Lions season
The Lions were scheduled to hold their training camp at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops, British Columbia for the 11th straight year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, this was postponed and the Lions will fulfill the last year of their contract in 2021.


2020 BC Lions season, Offseason, CFL National Draft
The 2020 CFL National Draft took place on April 30, 2020. The Lions were scheduled to select third in each round, less any traded picks, after finishing third-last in the 2019 league standings. However, the club traded their third and 12th overall selections to the Calgary Stampeders in exchange for the first and 15th overall picks. Selecting first overall for the first time since the 1999 CFL Draft, the Lions selected linebacker, Jordan Williams.


2020 BC Lions season, Offseason, CFL National Draft
The Lions acquired an additional fifth-round pick after trading a negotiation list player and a fourth-round pick to the Stampeders for Justin Renfrow. The team also sent a sixth-round selection to Montreal in part of the trade for Tyrell Sutton.


2020 BC Lions season, Offseason, CFL Global Draft
The 2020 CFL Global Draft was scheduled to take place on April 16, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this draft and its accompanying combine were postponed to occur just before the start of training camp, which was ultimately cancelled. The Lions were scheduled to select third in each round with the number of rounds never announced.


2020 BC Men's Curling Championship
The 2020 BC Men's Curling Championship, the provincial men's curling championship for British Columbia, was held from January 28 to February 2, 2020, at the Western Financial Place in Cranbrook. The winning Jim Cotter rink represented British Columbia at the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier in Kingston, Ontario and finished with a 2–5 record. The event was held in conjunction with the 2020 British Columbia Scotties Tournament of Hearts.


2020 BC Men's Curling Championship
Jim Cotter won his ninth BC Men's Curling Championship when he defeated former world junior champion Tyler Tardi 10–6 in the final.


2020 BDO & WDF calendar
2020 BDO & WDF season of darts comprises every tournament of British Darts Organisation and World Darts Federation. The category or prize money of the tournaments may be vary depending on darts organization.


2020 BDO & WDF calendar
BDO and WDF most important tournaments are the BDO World Darts Championship and WDF World Cup.