Portal:Current events/2020 July 31

July 31, 2020 (2020-07-31) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2020 Chaman border clash
  • Twenty-two people are killed in clashes between Afghan civilians and Pakistani military forces. Fifteen people died and 80 others injured in Kandahar after Pakistani soldiers attacked civilian areas, while seven people were killed and 31 others injured in Pakistan when a crowd trying to enter Afghanistan became unruly and attacked military installations. The Afghan government warns of action if Pakistan "continues its rocket attacks", while the Pakistani military says it opened fire in self-defense, returning fire to the Afghan side. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 recession
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Spain
    • The Spanish economy suffers a historically large fall in the second quarter of 18.5% of GDP and enters in recession, making Spain the Eurozone country most economically devastated by the pandemic. (El Mundo)
  • Eurozone suffers an unprecedented 12.1% drop in GDP and enters in technical recession. (Euronews)
• James Murdoch, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, resigns from the board of News Corporation citing "disagreements over editorial content ... (and) some strategic decisions." News Corp owns media in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2020 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Isaias heads toward the Bahamas and the U.S. as a category 1 hurricane, after causing floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. A hurricane warning is issued for Florida's Atlantic Coast. (DW) (The Weather Channel)
• 2020 Kenai Peninsula mid-air collision
  • Seven people are killed in a mid-air collision near Soldotna, Alaska, United States. Among those killed was Alaska State Representative Gary Knopp. (The New York Times) (KTUU-TV)
• A minibus accident in Crimea (a disputed territory of Ukraine and Russia) leaves at least nine people dead and another nine wounded. (Reuters)
• An Alfa Pendular high-speed train derails in Coimbra, Portugal, killing two people and injuring at least 30 others. (BBC News)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
      • Vietnam reports a record 82 new COVID-19 cases in a day. (Vietnamese Heath Ministry)
      • Vietnam reports its first two deaths from COVID-19. The two men, "Patient 428" and "Patient 437" died of "complications from background diseases and COVID-19". (VnExpress)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
      • President Rodrigo Duterte downgrades the lockdown restrictions on Cebu City to the level of "general community quarantine", while extending the same level of restriction on Metro Manila until mid-August. (Al Jazeera)
      • The Philippines report a record high of 4,063 new cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Tokyo registers another record of new COVID-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began, with 463 new cases. Governor Yuriko Koike says the city may need to declare its own state of emergency if the virus continues to spread. (The Japan Times)
      • Japan reports another record of more than 1,500 cases in a single day. (Kyodo News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India
      • India reports a record 55,079 new COVID-19 cases, as well as 779 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 37,223 COVID-19 patients were cured and discharged, which also is the highest number of recoveries since the pandemic began. (Livemint)
      • India surpasses Italy in COVID-19 deaths, becoming the fifth-highest. (India.com)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
      • China reports 127 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. From that, 123 of them were locally transmitted which includes 112 in Xinjiang and 11 in Liaoning. It is the highest number of cases reported since March 5. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
      • The number of COVID-19 deaths in Mexico reaches 46,688, surpassing the United Kingdom. The death toll in the country is the third-highest in the world. (CNA) (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
      • The United States government is expected to pay $2.1 billion to Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline to try to develop and deliver 100 million doses of their potential COVID-19 vaccine. (CNBC)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    • COVID-19 pandemic in England
      • UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson postpones lockdown easing in England, for at least two weeks, after an increase in coronavirus cases. (BBC News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    • Fiji reports its first death from COVID-19. Health minister Ifereimi Waqainabete reported it as a 66-year-old man who had been repatriated from India where he had been receiving treatment. The man apparently contracted it while in India. (RNZ)
  • The World Health Organization reports a record increase in global COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with the total rising by more than 292,000. (Reuters)

International relations

• Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the Bahamas, COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    • The Bahamas announces that travelers from the United States will be required to either present a negative COVID-19 test or quarantine for 14 days. (USA Today)

Law and crime

• 2020 Twitter bitcoin scam
  • A 17-year-old boy in Tampa, Florida, U.S., is arrested and charged for his role in the Twitter bitcoin hack earlier this month. Two others, a man in Orlando, Florida and a man in the United Kingdom, were also charged. (Yahoo! Finance)
• Nine people are killed and five others injured during a shooting amid a dispute over ownership of a forest in Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (Dawn)
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturns the death sentence of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on five counts, ruling the judge erred several times in their initial decision. A new sentencing trial will take place. (CNN)

Politics and elections

• Afghan peace process
  • The government and the Taliban begin a three-day truce to start intra-Afghan talks. Early today, President Ashraf Ghani ordered the release of 500 Taliban prisoners to "show goodwill" to start the talks. (DW)
• Postponement of the 2020 Hong Kong legislative election
  • Citing the threat of COVID-19, Chief Executive Carrie Lam invokes emergency powers to postpone Hong Kong's election until September 5, 2021. (WNBC-TV)
• The UK House of Lords adds 36 new peers to their ranks. New members include Boris Johnson's brother Jo Johnson, former cricket captain Sir Ian Botham, Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev, and former chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond. Lord Speaker Norman Fowler criticizes these peerages for making the House too large. (BBC News)

Science and technology

• Twitter suspensions
  • White supremacist David Duke is permanently suspended from Twitter for repeatedly violating its rules on hate speech. (The Washington Post)
• China–United States trade war
  • U.S. President Donald Trump announces his intentions to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S.. (The Hill)

Sports

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports
  • Major League Baseball (MLB) reschedules today's series opener between the Milwaukee Brewers and host St. Louis Cardinals to be part of a Sunday doubleheader because two St. Louis players received positive results from COVID-19 tests administered following the conclusion of the Cards-Minneapolis Twins series. The Twins played the Cleveland Indians last night. This is the 15th MLB game postponed by positive COVID-19 results just eight days into the 2020 season. (CBS Sports) (Reuters)

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July 2020

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