Portal:Current events/2020 July 10

July 10, 2020 (2020-07-10) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Malian police throw tear gas and open fire at anti-government protesters occupying the national parliament building and the offices of state broadcaster Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Mali in Bamako. At least one person died from their injuries. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issues a presidential decree converting Istanbul's Hagia Sophia back to a mosque, after a court annulled the 1934 decree that transformed it into a museum. (CNN)
• Dame Vera Lynn, who died last month, receives a military funeral in East Sussex, England, on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Boycott Chinese products, China–India relations
  • The Indian government asks e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart to display the country of origin on new products listed by sellers on their sites by August 1 and items that were already being sold by October 1 without stipulating a mandatory deadline. The move comes during heightened tensions between India and China following the 2020 China–India skirmishes and a campaign to boycott Chinese-origin products in India. (The Economic Times)
• Enlargement of the eurozone
  • The European Central Bank accepts Bulgaria and Croatia into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a mandatory stage for countries that wish to adopt the euro. This is the currency bloc's first major expansion in half a decade. (Reuters)
• The U.S. Department of Transportation revokes permission to Pakistan International Airlines to conduct charter flights to the U.S., citing concerns by the Federal Aviation Administration over pilot certifications. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Venice, Italy, tests the MOSE system of 78 mobile floodgates for the first time. Construction of MOSE was authorized by Comitatone, the city's Venetian Lagoon committee, in April 2003. Commissioner Elisabetta Spitz said the project still needs another 18 months of testing. In November 2019, Venice was hit by the worst floods in half a century. (BBC)
• Tropical Storm Fay makes landfall in New Jersey, US, causing tropical storm force winds over Delaware, New Jersey, and Coastal New York. Flooding closed several roads. (Weather Channel)

Health and environment

• Authorities in Kazakhstan deny a report published by Chinese officials alleging that the country is experiencing an outbreak of "unknown pneumonia" potentially deadlier than COVID-19. (CNN)

Law and crime

• ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy
  • Members of the Philippine House Committee on Legislative Franchises vote against the franchise renewal of the ABS-CBN Corporation, the country's largest media conglomerate. (Reuters via The Guardian)
• COVID-19 pandemic in France
  • The bus driver who was left brain dead after being attacked by passengers who refused to wear face masks in Bayonne, France, dies of his injuries. (BBC)
• Special Counsel investigation (2017–2019)
  • U.S. President Donald Trump commutes the sentence of longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone on seven felony crimes days before Stone was to report to a federal prison to serve a 40-month term. (The New York Times) (Fox News)
• Chinese intelligence activity abroad
  • A court in Paris sentences to jail Pierre-Marie H., 69, and Henri M., 73, two former agents from the foreign intelligence service after convicting them of sharing secrets with China, for a 12-year sentence and an eight-year term respectively. (Washington Examiner)

Politics and elections

• 2020 Singaporean general election
  • Voting begins in Singapore's latest general election. The ruling People's Action Party is projected to maintain its majority, albeit with the oppositional Workers' Party gaining seats. (Reuters)

Franchise for ABS-CBN

• Members of the House of Representatives, particularly Comittee on Legislative Franchises, voted 70-11 to deny the new 25 year franchise for ABS-CBN. Only about 12.94% of the Congress voted for franchise renewal. According to a Social Weather Stations survey released following the rejection of the network's franchise renewal, showed that an overwhelming majority (75%) of all Filipinos want the network back. (ALJA ZEERA) (Bloomberg)

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July 2020

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