Portal:Current events/2020 July 3
July 3, 2020 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 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. (BBC)
Business and economy
- 2020 China–India skirmishes
- 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 two 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 Pakistan
- 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, two months earlier than the first official confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Americas on January 21, and much earlier than the first reported case in Brazil at the end of February. (CGTN) (Web24)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
- 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)
- Germany–Poland relations; 2020 Polish presidential election
- 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 to be 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. (Rappler) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
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)