Portal:Current events/2020 July 3

July 3, 2020 (2020-07-03) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Mexican Drug War
  • Mexican Army troops kill 12 drug cartel gunmen in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. In separate incidents, police kill five attackers in Torreón, Coahuila, and five police officers are shot dead in Guanajuato. (ABC News)
• Mali War
  • The Malian Armed Forces says nine troops were killed and two others wounded in an ambush by suspected jihadists in Mopti. (Al Jazeera)
• At least eight police officers are killed and five others injured in Uttar Pradesh, India, in an ambush as they were attempting to arrest a suspect for murder. The attack was carried out by several gunmen, two of whom were later killed by other officers. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

• The University of Cambridge accepts the resignation of historian David Starkey and strips him of his honorary fellowship, following controversy over his remarks about slavery on a podcast. (BBC)

Business and economy

• 2020 China–India skirmishes § Economic response
  • Indian Minister of Power R. K. Singh announces that India will halt the importation of US$2.8 billion worth of Chinese power equipment due to heightened tensions between the two nations. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

• Sheikhupura train-van crash
  • A passenger train collides with a van carrying Sikh pilgrims near Sheikhupura, Punjab, Pakistan, killing at least 21 people. (BBC via Yahoo! News)
• An explosion at a fireworks factory in Hendek, Sakarya, Turkey, kills four people and injures 73 others. (AP)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
      • Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tests positive for COVID-19. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia
      • Saudi Arabia surpasses 200,000 cases after reporting 4,193 infections in the past 24 hours while the death toll jumps to 1,802. (Al Arabiya)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • The European Union approves the use of the drug remdesivir to treat severe cases of COVID-19. (DW)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
    • An investigation led by the Federal University of Santa Catarina uncovers traces of SARS-CoV-2 in Florianópolis sewage samples drawn on November 27, 2019, two months earlier than the first official confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Americas on January 21, 2020, and much earlier than the first reported case in Brazil at the end of February. (CGTN) (Web24)

• UNICEF and the government of New Zealand pledge funding to Kiribati to target the high mortality rate among infants. The Pacific nation has a record of one in 25 children dying before the age of one due to preventable diseases. (RNZ)
• German lawmakers agree to a deal to end nuclear power by 2022 and the use of coal by 2038. (AP via Seattle Times)

International relations

• Libya–Russia relations
  • Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov announces that Russia will re-open its embassy in Libya. (Reuters via US News and World Report)
• 2020 Polish presidential election, Germany–Poland relations
  • Polish president Andrzej Duda accuses Germany of meddling in the country's presidential election after the tabloid Fakt, owned by German publisher Axel Springer, reported yesterday that he pardoned a man convicted of pedophilia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
  • An Istanbul court begins an in absentia trial of 20 Saudi Arabians they accuse of involvement in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. (Al Jazeera)
• St Paul's Cathedral bomb plot
  • British Muslim convert Safiyya Shaikh is sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting to suicide bomb St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. (BBC)
• Scotland's Court of Session fines Greenpeace £80,000 for breaching an injunction against the occupation of a Transocean oil rig in the North Sea. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

• 2019–20 Hong Kong protests
  • China appoints Zheng Yanxiong to head up the newly formed Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR; Yanxiong is best known for his suppression of protests in Wukan in 2011. (BBC)
• 2020 China–India skirmishes
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits soldiers in the Ladakh region amid heightened tensions between China and India. (Al Jazeera)
• Politics of France
  • Jean Castex is appointed Prime Minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron following the resignation of Édouard Philippe and amid speculation of a possible cabinet reshuffle. (CNBC) (Politico)
• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signs the Anti-Terrorism Act into law, repealing the Human Security Act signed in 2007. (The New York Times) (Al Jazeera)

Sports

• The Athletics Integrity Unit announces that it has banned Kenyan runner Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich from athletics for four years after missing multiple doping tests. (AP via The Charlotte Observer)
• The Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians are reviewing their names in response to the ongoing George Floyd protests.(NPR)

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