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Worldwide current events
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Topics in the news

Egan Bernal

In cycling, Colombian Egan Bernal (pictured) becomes the first Latin American to win the Tour de France.
Incumbent President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi dies at the age of 92, and Mohamed Ennaceur is named as his interim replacement.
In a European heat wave, national all-time temperature records are broken in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
Theresa May is succeeded by Boris Johnson as the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

July 31, 2019 (Wednesday)

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Armed conflict and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- 32 civilians were killed and over 20 injured after their bus hit a land mine in Afghanistan. (NYPOST)

Law and crime

2019 Hong Kong protests
- At least 10 people are injured after fireworks were shot from a moving car into a crowd of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. (BBC)

July 30, 2019 (Tuesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- Four are killed and over 20 injured in a bomb blast near a police station in Quetta, Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

At least 18 people, including thirteen civilians and five crew members, are killed and 12 others injured after a small military plane crashes into a residential area near the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. (BBC)
Eleven deaths and multiple hospitalizations are attributed to the ongoing heat wave in Japan. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Al-Sultan Abdullah is crowned as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia at Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur. (Berita Harian)
Romanian Interior Minister and Special Telecommunication Service chief resign amid outrage over the slow response by police, state prosecutor's office and the secret service in charge of telecomunications to the disappearance and possible murder of a 15-year-old girl in the city of Caracal. (RFERL)

July 29, 2019 (Monday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- An Afghan National Army soldier kills two United States Armed Forces soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which local police suspect is an insider attack. (BBC)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Ten civilians, including children, are killed after a Saudi Arabian-led coalition air strike hits a market in northern Yemen, according to anonymous Houthi officials. (The Washington Post)
2018–19 Sudanese protests
- Five students are shot dead after security forces open fire in the city of El-Obeid during a protest. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

Billboard reports that Lil Nas X has broken the all-time record on the Billboard Hot 100 with his song "Old Town Road", as it spends its seventeenth week atop the chart; the previous record-holders are Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with "One Sweet Day", and Luis Fonsi with "Despacito" featuring Daddy Yankee. (Billboard)

Business and economy

International sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis
- Venezuelan officials are accused of using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in order to circumvent United States sanctions. (Yahoo Finance)
Capital One announces that a major data breach occurred on July 19, 2019, by one individual who compromised the data of about 106 million people in the United States and Canada. The Federal Bureau of Investigation have a made an arrest after the alleged hacker, 33-year-old Paige Thompson from Seattle, boasted about her actions online. (BBC)

Health and environment

The Wildlife Protection Society of India announces that the wild population of tigers in India has increased by a third since 2015 following a comprehensive survey. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi describes the news as a "historic achievement". (Sky News) (The Guardian)

Law and crime

An eight-year-old boy is killed and his mother injured after being pushed by a man into the path of an oncoming train at Frankfurt's main station, in Hesse, Germany. The attacker, a 40-year-old immigrant Eritrean man, also attempted to knock a third person onto the tracks. The suspect and the victims did not appear to have known one another. (Sky News)
2019 Altamira prison riot
- At least 57 people are killed, including sixteen who were beheaded, during prison riots in Pará, Brazil, which saw rival gangs battle for five hours. (BBC)

Politics and elections

After two FARC leaders go into hiding from drug trafficking charges in Colombia and the United States, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro makes a public statement saying they are welcome to take refuge in his country. He also welcomes other FARC rebels to Venezuela, calling them "leaders of peace". (Reuters)
2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests
- The Chinese government's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office condemns protests in Hong Kong as "evil and criminal acts committed by the radical elements", saying that Hong Kong's top priority is to "punish violent and unlawful acts in accordance with the law". Hong Kong legislators and journalists reject the statement from Beijing, expressing concern that this will worsen tensions. (BBC)

July 28, 2019 (Sunday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

28 July 2019 Kabul suicide bombing
- Gunfire and an explosion kills 20 and injures over 50 in an attack at the Kabul office of the vice-president candidate Amrullah Saleh, who was slightly injured in the attack. (BBC)
Libyan Civil War
- An airstrike kills five doctors in a hospital in the southern outskirts of Libya's capital Tripoli. (BBC)
During conflicts in the state of Amapá in northern Brazil, armed miners invade a native reserve and stab to death an indigenous man. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

At least 42 people die in a landslide striking a village in southern China. (BBC)
Heavy storms across central Italy kill three people and cause damages. One death was caused by lightning, one by a tornado, and one by getting caught in a flood. (Il Messaggero)

Law and crime

Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting
- A gunman opens fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people and wounding at least twelve others. The gunman is killed after engaging with the police. Police believe an accomplice is still at large. (SF Chronicle) (CBS News)

Politics and elections

Hong Kong protests
- Tens of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of pro-China Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam take over the streets in Sai Wan and Causeway Bay, near China's Hong Kong Liaison Office, despite an official police ban on protests near the Chinese government building. (BBC)
- During protests, Hong Kong groups organize to put pressure on the United Kingdom, asking for help to uphold the city-state's legal rights. The Joint Agreement of 1997 signed by the UK and China outlines that Hong Kong will have legislative and judiciary independence, based on systems implemented there under British rule. (The Guardian)
2021 Peruvian general election
- President Martín Vizcarra announces that he will present a constitutional reform that calls a snap election for April 2020. (Reuters)

Sports

2019 Tour de France
- In road cycling, Colombia's Egan Bernal wins the Tour de France by 1:11 on general classification over his British teammate Geraint Thomas. The 22-year-old Bernal is the first Colombian and first Latin American rider to win the Tour, and the youngest rider to do so since 1909. (BBC)

July 27, 2019 (Saturday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Japan–North Korea relations
- Japan warns on Saturday that the new North Korean projectiles have trajectories that are not typical for conventional ballistic missiles, making them difficult or impossible to intercept en route to Japan. (Al-Manar)
2019 Borno funeral attack
- At least 65 people are killed and 10 injured in an attack by Boko Haram at a funeral in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (CNN)

Law and crime

Two American teenagers are arrested in Rome for extortion and murder of an Italian military officer. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

President Félix Tshisekedi and the Congolese parliament, controlled by a rival party, agree to form a new government following negotiations, six months after he replaced Joseph Kabila during the 2018 DR Congo general election. Sylvestre Ilunga will be formally nominated for the post of Prime Minister in the coming week. (News24)
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro again accuses the United States of flying over its national waters. (El Sol de Mexico)
2019 Moscow City Duma election
- Several thousand people attend a rally in Moscow organized by opposition members due to several opposition candidates being disqualified from regional elections. The protests turned violent and police detained about 1,000 people, including politician Alexei Navalny. (BBC)

July 26, 2019 (Friday)

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Business and economy

The U.S. Department of Justice approves a $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. If finalized, they will become the third-largest mobile network operator in the nation. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Heavy rains in Al Haouz Province, Morocco, trigger a landslide, resulting in the deaths of 15 people. (The New York Times) (Morocco World News)
Two people die and more than 17 are injured when an internal balcony collapses at a nightclub in the South Korean city of Gwangju. (BBC)
At least nine people are killed and 60 others injured when two earthquakes strike the province of Batanes in the Philippines. (InquirerNet)

Health and environment

Saudi Arabia suspends visas for Hajj pilgrims arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid safety concerns regarding the ongoing Ebola epidemic in Kivu. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

A man from the Bronx, New York City, is arrested for attempting to join the Taliban. (ABC News)
Sixteen American Marines are arrested at Camp Pendleton, California, on suspicion of aiding human smuggling and drug charges. (CBS News)

July 25, 2019 (Thursday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Japan–North Korea relations
- North Korea tests two new missiles that land in the Sea of Japan, though not within Japanese territory. Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya condemns the testing as "extremely regrettable". (Al Jazeera) (DW)

Health and environment

July 2019 European heat wave
- A number of national maximum temperature records are broken, several surpassing records set the previous day: Germany sees 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) at Lingen, Belgium 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) at Begijnendijk and The Netherlands 40.7 °C (105.3 °F) at Gilze en Rijen. (Accuweather) (The Guardian)
- The United Kingdom reports a temperature reading of 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) in Cambridge, the second highest UK temperature yet recorded. It is subsequently confirmed that a reading of 38.7 °C (101.7 °F) is verified, also in Cambridge, beating the previous record of 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) set in Faversham, Kent on 10 August 2003 to become the new national record. (The Guardian)
- All-time records for various cities and towns in Western Europe are broken, most notably Paris, reaching a temperature of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F).

Law and crime

Capital punishment in the United States
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr resumes the federal usage of the death penalty. Five inmates are expected to be executed between December 2019 and January 2020. If carried out, these would be the first federal executions in the United States in sixteen years. (CNBC) (The New York Times)
At least four people are killed and two wounded in a shooting spree that spread across multiple Los Angeles neighborhoods. Police tackled and arrested the suspect, Gerry Zaragoza, after a 12-hour manhunt. (CNN) (Reuters via AOL.com)

Politics and elections

The 92-year-old and first freely-elected President of Tunisia, Beji Caid Essebsi, dies. Tunisian parliament President Mohamed Ennaceur takes the role of interim president. (Associated Press), (BBC News)
2019 Algerian protests
- Algerian interim president Abdelkader Bensalah appoints a six-member panel to set a presidential election date. The previous date of July 4 was cancelled due to lack of candidates amid mass protests. (Reuters)