Timeline 2020 July - September
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2020 Jul 1, US federal prosecutors sought to seize four tankers sailing toward Venezuela with gasoline supplied by Iran. The four tankers named in a complaint filed today — the Bella, Bering, Pandi and Luna — are currently transporting to Venezuela 1.1 million barrels of gasoline obtained via risky ship-to-ship transfers.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 1, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told VP Mike Pence that the state needed an additional 500 health care workers as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to set records there.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California dramatically rolled back efforts to reopen its economy, banning indoor restaurant dining in much of the state, closing bars and stepping up enforcement of the restrictions as COVID-19 infections surge. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered 19 counties with surging coronavirus outbreaks to shut public venues in an effort to keep the pandemic from spiraling out of control.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 1, San Francisco police said they will stop releasing the mug shots of people who have been arrested unless they pose a threat to the public, as part of an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Los Angeles city leaders voted to slash the Police Department budget by $150 million, reducing the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade amid nationwide demands to shift money away from law enforcement agencies during America's reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California to date had 232,466 cases of coronavirus and 6,088 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 25,935 cases and 583 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,658,324 with the death toll at 127,681.
(sfist.com, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, A Delaware sate official said an old whipping post that was used "disproportionally on Blacks" has been removed from outside the Old Sussex County Courthouse in Georgetown. It was reportedly last used in 1952.
(https://tinyurl.com/y7ggxccy)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 1, In Virginia work crews wielding a giant crane, harnesses and power tools wrested an imposing statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal along Richmond's famed Monument Avenue.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Seattle police turned out in force at the city's “occupied" protest zone, tore down demonstrators' encampments and used bicycles to herd the protesters after the mayor ordered the area cleared following two fatal shootings in less than two weeks.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, New research was reported that damage done by the coronavirus to the membranes of red blood cells that carry oxygen may explain why many COVID-19 patients have alarmingly low oxygen levels.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The healthcare unit of US supermarket chain Kroger Co said the US Food and Drug Administration had issued emergency use authorization for its at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that Facebook has banned an extremist anti-government network loosely associated with the broader "boogaloo" movement, a slang term supporters use to refer to a second Civil War or the collapse of civilization.
(SFC, 7/1/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that some 350 elephant carcasses have been found in the Okavango Delta of Botswana over the last two months. It was unknown why the animals are dying.
(BBC, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Britain announced that it was extending residency rights for up to 3 million Hong Kongers eligible for the British National Overseas passport, stressing that it would uphold its historic duty to the former British colony after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law in the city.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In Canada a string of shootings began in Winnipeg on the Canada Day national holiday. Unrelated shootings claimed the life of one woman and saw five others injured in a series of incidents. A teen suspect (14) was arrested the following afternoon in the North Kildonian neighborhood.
(The Independent, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 1, The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 99th anniversary by saying its success in containing Covid-19 proved its superiority and that of the country's socialist system.
(South China Morning Post, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 1, Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, said it had deleted Indian PM Narendra Modi's account at the request of the Indian embassy, as tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over a border skirmish.
(The Telegraph, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that more than 50 people have been killed in Ethiopia in unrest following the June 29 death of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular singer, sparked huge protests in the Oromia region. The death toll was soon raised to over 80. By one count the July riots left 239 people killed.
(AP, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A5)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.45)
2020 Jul 1, Germany took the helm of the EU's rotating presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the European Union must prepare for the possibility that talks with Britain on their post-Brexit relationship could fail.
(AFP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, German biotech firm BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said a jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine has shown potential and was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In Hong Kong protests against a new national-security law imposed by China on Hong Kong flared up. Thousands attended the illegal protests marking the 23rd anniversary of return to Chinese rule. About 370 people were arrested including ten for violating the security law that came into force at 11 p.m. the day before.
(AP, 7/2/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 1, Israel's parliament approved a law granting the country's internal security agency limited authority to use phone surveillance to track coronavirus cases as the country struggles to contain a second outbreak.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In central Mexico gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center and opened fire in Irapuato, Guanajuato state, killing 24 people and wounding seven. Drug gangs appeared to have been involved.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Russians with children received cash payments on the final day of a vote on constitutional changes that could allow Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. State exit polls suggested the changes will be backed by over two thirds of voters. Nenets, an autonomous region on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, was the only region in Russia out of 85 to reject the proposals, with more than 55 percent voting against. Voters approved a package of constitutional amendments, one of them stipulating that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(AFP, 7/8/20)(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 1, In South Africa some protesters against Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial burned their face masks as experts note a worrying level of resistance and misinformation around testing on the continent.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Taiwan's foreign ministry said Taiwan and Somaliland have agreed to establish ties based on “friendship and a shared commitment to common values of freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law." The two countries signed a bilateral agreement in Taipei on Feb. 26. Taiwan has been providing scholarships to students from the region of 3.9 million people.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 1, Uganda opened part of its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to allow in thousands of people stuck in no-man's land for more than a month.
(BBC, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The UN Security Council demanded an “immediate cessation of hostilities" in key conflicts including Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and Congo to tackle COVID-19 in its first resolution on the new coronavirus.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, US President Donald Trump at a press briefing celebrated a government report showing the country gained 4.8 million jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1% last month. A separate report today said that 1.43 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits during the final week of June.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision blocked a lower court ruling allowing curbside voting in Alabama and waiving some absentee ballot requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A US judge ordered Iran to pay another $879.1 million over a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen, ruling again that Tehran bore responsibility.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 2, The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases, the largest daily increase any country has ever reported.
(Reuters, 72/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, High Downs (99), American TV news and game show pioneer, died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 2, California to date had 246,841 cases of coronavirus and 6,264 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 26,854 cases and 590 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,739,879 with the death toll at 128,740.
(sfist.com, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Florida shattered records when it reported over 10,000 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase in the state since the pandemic started. In June, Florida infections rose by 168% or over 95,000 new cases. The percent of tests coming back positive has skyrocketed to 15% from 4% at the end of May.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In New Jersey casinos reopened in Atlantic City following a 108-day closure due to the coronavirus. Gamblers wore facemasks and di without smoking and drinking.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 2, A New York appellate judge ruled that Simon & Schuster could release a tell-all book by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, reversing a lower court.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, US federal prosecutors in New York said Swiss-based Novartis will pay $678 million to settle a fraud suit. The pharmaceutical company admitted to using an extensive kickback program for nearly a decade to influence doctors to prescribe certain medications.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 2, Texas Governor Greg Abbott decreed that face masks must be worn in all counties with over 20 coronavirus cases, billing the measure as a requirement to avoid another economic shutdown.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire by the FBI on charges she helped procure underage sex partners for financier Jeffrey Epstein.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Jonathan Irons (40), a Missouri man serving a 50-year sentence for burglary and assault, was freed after his sentence was overturned. Maya Moore, the W.N.B.A. star, helped lead the campaign to free him.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, GlaxoSmithKline's HIV business ViiV said it is within weeks of resubmitting its request for approval of its long-acting injection Cabenuva to US drug regulators.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A British judge refused a request by Venezuela's Pres. Nicolas Maduro who sought the return of $1.8 billion in gold bars sitting in the Bank of England to help his nation fight the coronavirus pandemic. The UK has recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A4)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 2, European law-enforcement agencies said they had infiltrated a secret global criminal chat system used to plot the murder of rival criminals, money laundering, and the selling of illegal goods.
(Business Insider, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, An anti-China protester in Hong Kong was pulled from a flight to London and arrested on suspicion of stabbing a police officer the day before.
(Business Insider, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In India the number of coronavirus infections surpassed 600,000, resulting in 17,834 deaths as authorities battled to contain the pandemic while easing lockdown rules.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Iran a fire and an explosion struck a building above Iran's underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility early today, a site that US-based analysts identified as a new centrifuge production plant. The fire appeared to have been the result of sabotage. A previously unknown group calling itself the Homeland Cheetahs, apparently a dissident group, claimed responsibility for the incident.
(AP, 7/2/20)(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Mexico posted a record daily tally of infections, as 6,741 cases carried the overall figure to 238,511.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, In northern Myanmar at least 162 people were killed in a landslide at a jade mine, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years that critics blame on the government's failure to take action against unsafe conditions.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Russia's Central Elections Commission announced early today that nearly 78 percent of voters had cast their ballot in favor of the changes to the constitution that could see Putin, 67, remain in power until 2036. The opposition and Western leaders voiced criticism over suspected poll violations.
(AFP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, It was reported that dozens of US embassy employees in Saudi Arabia became sick last month, and more than 20 others were quarantined after a birthday barbecue became a potential vector for the spread of the disease. A Sudanese driver for the top diplomats died.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Serbia reported 359 cases of the coronavirus and six deaths in the last 24 hours. In total Serbia has recorded more than 15,200 cases and nearly 290 deaths.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 2, Sweden said that Iran has agreed to compensate the families of victims who were killed when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by Iranian forces outside Tehran on January 8.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, Thailand said it would prohibit online sales of alcohol in a clampdown on underage drinking after a rise in sales during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Uganda Hussein Walugembe (29), a motorbike taxi rider, died after setting fire to himself inside a police station. Mr Walugembe had lent his motorbike to a friend, who was caught ferrying a passenger on June 29. Some riders alleged that officers had demanded a $40 (£32) bribe from Walugembe to release his vehicle.
(BBC, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN annual report said the world's mountain of discarded flat-screen TVs, cellphones and other electronic goods grew to a record high last year.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN report said there have been at least 1,324 additional violent deaths carried out in Venezuela by Pres. Maduro’s hit squads during “security operations" between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2020.
(Miami Herald, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Yemen the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels unleashed a new air campaign overnight on the war-torn country's capital and on other provinces, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi Arabia that were claimed by the rebels.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In South Dakota President Donald Trump dug deeper into America's divisions by accusing protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history" during a speech at Mount Rushmore. Trump said he will establish a “National Garden of American Heroes… a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived." Supporters, most of them maskless flouted public health guidelines that recommend not gathering in large groups.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, US prosecutors said Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a Nigerian man charged with conspiring to launder a fortune from email scams, has arrived in Chicago to face charges. UAE authorities arrested Abbas last month. Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, had showed off his wealth to 2.4 million Instagram followers. Hushpuppi, and another cyber-heist suspect Olalekan Jacob Ponle (aka Mr Woodberry) appeared in a Chicago court. They had been arrested in Dubai, where they lived, in June. Dubai police said they had been extradited to the US.
(NBC News, 7/4/20)(BBC, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 3, The US set another record with 52,300 newly reported coronavirus infections, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, In Colorado interim police chief Vanessa Wilson said the police officers who took disturbing photos at the memorial site where Elijah McClain was placed in a police chokehold and later died have all been terminated from the Aurora Police Department. McClain (23) died on August 30, 2019, days after police confronted him as he walked home from a convenience store.
(ABC News, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, California officials said the coronavirus is suspected of killing two more death row inmates at San Quentin State Prison, where about 40% of inmates are now infected.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, California to date had 250,431 cases of coronavirus and 6,312 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 27,745 cases and 595 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,793,022 with the death toll at 129,405.
(sfist.com, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In California Ari Gershman (45), a Danville doctor, was shot and killed while off-roading with his son near Downieville in Sierra County. The unnamed gunman was arrested a day later. The son escaped into the wilderness and spent 30 hours in the Tahoe National Forest before a search party found him. Police the following day arrested John Thomas Conway (40) of Honcut, a rural community in Butte County. Conway was hospitalized with a gunshot wound.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.B1)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.B2)
2020 Jul 3, In Florida Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a new overnight curfew effective immediately closing casinos, movie theaters and other entertainment venues to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order that allows local officials to issue their own mask mandates if they want, as coronavirus cases continued to increase.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, Medical technology company Becton Dickinson and Co said it received an order from the UK government for 65 million injection devices to support Britain's COVID-19 vaccination program.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Los Angeles-based company, formally known as Lucky Brand Dungarees, LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to millions of dollars in outstanding debts owed to lenders.
(Good Morning America, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 3, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi said their rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara failed to meet the main goals of a US study testing it in the most critically ill COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Zydus, part of Cadila Healthcare Ltd, said it has received approval from Indian regulators to begin human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine contender, as the novel coronavirus infections continue to surge in the world's fourth worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Australia reported a drop in new coronavirus cases, with a surge in the second most populated state Victoria appearing to have eased, although more than 10,000 people have refused to be tested in hotspot suburbs of Melbourne.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Bolivia has reported more than 32,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,000 deaths. Cases were expected to peak around the time of presidential elections planned for September.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 3, Botswana said it is investigating a staggeringly high number of elephant carcasses — 275 — found in the popular Okavango Delta area in recent weeks. A day earlier Botswana's government announced “an alarming surge of rhinoceros poaching in the Okavango Delta" in recent days.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, It was reported that distressed British satellite constellation operator OneWeb, which had entered bankruptcy protection proceedings at the end of March, has completed a sale process, with a consortium led by the UK Government as the winner. The group includes funding from India's Bharti Global.
(TechCrunch, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, China reported three new coronavirus cases in the mainland, compared with five cases a day earlier.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, It became clear that Graziano Mesina (78) had fled Corsica after the supreme court in Rome turned down an appeal against a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 3, The European Commission said it had given conditional approval for the use of antiviral remdesivir in severe COVID-19 patients following an accelerated review process, making it the region's first authorized therapy to treat the virus.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, French President Emmanuel Macron named Jean Castex, who coordinated France’s virus reopening strategy, as the country's new prime minister, replacing Edouard Philippe, who resigned earlier in the day.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, The Paris appeals court upheld a decision to end a years-long investigation into the plane crash that sparked Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, citing lack of sufficient evidence.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, German scientists began a nationwide study to gain a better overview of the actual prevalence of the new coronavirus in the country's population and test how well measures to prevent its spread are working.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, India reported another single-day record high of new coronavirus cases. The new 20,903 cases took the national total to 625,544. Another 379 deaths took that total to 18,213.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Two Israeli defence contractors said they will partner with Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 to develop technologies to help fight the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Tokyo reported 124 new cases, up from 107 the day before, partly due to increased testing among nightlife workers in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro districts.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Malian officials said armed men attacked farming villages in the central Mopti region this week, killing at least 33 people. Fulani armed groups have been targeting Dogon farmers and Dogon farmers have been responsible for attacks on Fulani villages in the region.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, The Mexican government said it has formally joined the Int'l. Labor Organization's Convention 189 on the rights of domestic workers. C189 entered into force on 5 September 2013. This makes Mexico the thirtieth member State of the ILO and the seventeenth member State in the Americas to ratify the Convention.
(https://tinyurl.com/ycwmtwkd)(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In Mexico soldiers patrolling the the border city of Nuevo Laredo came under fire from drug cartel gunmen. The military said 12 attackers were killed. In Guanajuato state armed men killed five police officers.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 3, Oman's health minister said the sultanate had witnessed a "scary" surge in cases that required boosting hospital capacity, especially intensive care units.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In eastern Pakistan a passenger train crashed into a bus carrying Sikh pilgrims, killing 22 people.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte signed a widely opposed anti-terror law that critics fear could be used against human rights defenders to muzzle dissent. The law allows the detention of suspects for up to 24 days without charges.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 3, In the Philippines thousands of jeepneys, flamboyantly decorated jeeps that serve as cheap public transport across the country, were back on the streets of Manila, bringing relief to companies and commuters who have struggled with coronavirus curbs.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, President Vladimir Putin ordered amendments that would allow him to remain in power until 2036 to be put into the Russian Constitution after voters approved the changes during a week-long plebiscite. Other key reforms include an amendment granting former Russian presidents automatic immunity from criminal prosecution, as well as reforms enshrining a reference to "belief in God" and a statement about marriage being only the union of a man and a woman. Changes to the constitution will come into force on July 4.
(AP, 7/3/20)(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A Russian Orthodox Church panel in Yekaterinburg defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. Father Sergiy urged his backers to come to defend the Sredneuralsk women's monastery where he has holed up since last month.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Serbia reported 309 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours along with 11 deaths.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, South Africa reported another record high of daily coronavirus cases with 8,728. Total cases now numbered more than 168,000.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Turkey launched a trial for 20 Saudi officials accused of killing Jamal Khashoggi in October, 2018, with rights groups saying the prosecution offered the best chance for justice for the slain journalist. The next session was scheduled for November 24.
(The Telegraph, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A court in Istanbul, Turkey, convicted Taner Kilic, Amnesty Int'l.'s former Turkey chairman, of membership in a terror organization and sentenced him to more than six years in prison. Three other activists were also convicted. Amnesty Int'l. condemned the ruling.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In northwestern Turkey an explosion at a fireworks factory killed four people and injured at least 97 others outside the town of Hendek, Sakarya province. A manager and two supervisors were soon detained following the explosion in northwestern Sakarya province.
(AP, 7/3/20)(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, Uganda so far has 900 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 847 recoveries and no deaths.
(BBC, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, President Donald Trump made remarks this evening at the second annual Salute to America July 4th event held in Washington, D.C. and claimed that a therapeutic and/or vaccine will be around “long before the end of the year".
(Good Morning America, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 4, On Arizona police fatally shot James “Jay" Garcia as he was parked in a car in a driveway in Phoenix. On July 20 Phoenix police released a nearly 12-minute video on its YouTube account summarizing the events that took place leading up to Garcia's death with 911 audio and body camera footage.
(NBC News, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 4, California to date had 251,175 cases of coronavirus and 6,318 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 27,931 cases and 596 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,809,108 with the death toll at 129,478.
(sfist.com, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Florida reported 11,445 new coronavirus cases, a single-day record, bringing the state total to more than 190,000.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 4, Texas reported a record daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, the latest sign that the virus is surging in many parts of the United States, casting a pall over Fourth of July celebrations.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Protesters in Baltimore, Maryland, pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city's Inner Harbor late today. The statue was owned by the city and dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In New York City Joey Chestnut (36) downed a record 75 hot dogs at the Nathan's Famous contest at Coney Island. In the women's division, returning champion Miki Sudo topped a field of five by devouring a record 48.5 Nathan's Famous hot dogs and buns. Nathan Handwerker opened his world renown seaside restaurant in 1916.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Portland, Oregon, Summer Taylor (24) and Diaz Love (32) were hit by a car that barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters on Interstate 5 early today. Taylor died of her injuries later in the evening. Car driver Dawit Kelete was chased down and put into custody.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Australia’s Victoria state locked down nine public housing towers and three more Melbourne suburbs after 108 new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Austria a Russian man (43) was shot dead near Vienna late today. Police soon detained a 47-year-old compatriot in what was considered a possible political assassination. The victim was an ethnic Chechen and a critic of Ramzan Kadyrov.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 4, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring masks on streets and in public transportation. He vetoed clauses requiring masks in churches, schools, shops and factories. Brazil has confirmed more than 61,500 deaths and over 1.5 million coronavirus infections, the 2nd most in the world behind the US.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 4, Pubs and movie theaters across England reopened as part of Britain’s biggest step toward post-outbreak normal.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed their negotiations through video conference to resolve a years-long dispute over the operation and filling of Ethiopia’s giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Egypt’s highest criminal court upheld a 15-year sentence for Ahmed Douma, one of the leading activists behind the country’s December 2011 uprising. He was one of 230 people convicted of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Egyptian police arrested Ahmed Bassam Zaki who, according to prosecutors, has confessed to assaulting at least six girls including one aged under 18 and to blackmailing the victims.
(AFP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 4, France said it is sending medics to its South American territory of French Guiana, where infections have surged as the virus swept neighboring Brazil.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, India reported its highest single-day spike, with 22,771 new confirmed cases for a total of more than 648,000, including 18,655 deaths.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, President Hassan Rouhani said Iranians who do not wear masks will be denied state services and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols will be shut for a week. The total number of cases hit 237,878 and a further 148 deaths brought the country's toll to 11,408.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides along the Kuma River. After several days of flooding at least 58 people died.
(AP, 7/4/20)(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 4, Tokyo confirmed 131 new cases, exceeding 100 for the third day in a row and hitting a new two-month high, prompting Governor Yuriko Koike to ask residents to avoid nonessential out-of-town visits.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Libya airstrikes late today on the al-Waitya airbase in the desert southwestern of Tripoli destroyed military equipment recently brought in by Turkey, including air-defense systems. Foreign jets hit the key military base on the city’s outskirts that was recently retaken by Turkey-backed forces.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 4, In New Zealand a rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, It was reported that motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves in Katsina state are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The recent attacks in the president's home state killed more than 100 people between April and June.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Russia marked a milestone as the death toll rose above 10,000. The national coronavirus task force reported 6,632 new infections, raising the total for the outbreak to 674,515.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Somalia a bomb explosion at a restaurant in the town of Baidoa killed six people. A suicide bomb attack close to Mogadishu injured at least seven. The militant group al-Shabab said it was behind both incidents.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, South Africa reported another record daily high in confirmed coronavirus cases. Confirmed cases climbed to more than 177,000, with a record 9,063 reported in the most recent 24-hour period.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Authorities in northeast Spain ordered the lockdown of El Segriá county around the city of Lleida, home to over 200,000 people, after health officials recorded a jump in 60 cases in 24 hours.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 5, Arizona reported 3,212 new hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a record high. Confirmed cases in the state have now passed 100,000.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 5, California to date had 255,024 cases of coronavirus and 6,337 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 28,771 cases and 598 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,852,807 with the death toll at 129,718.
(sfist.com, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Florida recorded some 10,000 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to more than 200,000 people infected.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, In Atlanta about 60 to 100 demonstrators, dressed in dark clothes and many wearing masks, caused "extensive damage" to the Georgia Bureau of Public Safety headquarters, including breaking several windows and spray painting graffiti on the building.
(ABC News, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Idaho two planes collided in the air and crashed into the Coeur d'Alene Lake late today. There were a total of eight passengers and crew on the two planes.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Rochester, NY, a statue of Frederick Douglass was taken from Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped shuttle slaves to freedom. The statue was found at the brink of the Genesee River gorge about 50 feet (15 meters) from its pedestal.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Broadway star Nick Cordero (41) died in Los Angeles of complications from COVID-19 following a 3-month battle with the disease.
(Good Morning America, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, announced that they are cancelling the multi-state natural gas project citing delays and increasing cost uncertainties. The $8 billion project was designed to cross Virginia and West Virginia into North Carolina.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 5, Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia issued a warning, one day after a hospital reported a case of suspected bubonic plague. The warning followed four reported cases of plague in people from Inner Mongolia last November, including two of pneumonic plague, a deadlier variant of plague.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Voters in Croatia cast ballots in what is expected be a close parliamentary race that could push the latest European Union member state further to the right. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a member of the center-right pan-EU European People’s Party, won the election. HDZ must now try and form a coalition government.
(AP, 7/5/20)(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Croatia has reported around 113 deaths and some 3,100 confirmed coronavirus infections.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, The Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky oil tanker, sought by the US over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran, was hijacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. 26 of the Indian sailors on board soon made it back to India, while two remained in Tehran. On July 19 a UN agency acknowledged that ship, allegedly smuggling Iranian crude oil, is back in Iranian waters.
(AP, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 5, The Dominican Republic held persidential elections. Businessman Luis Rodolfo Abinader won 54% of the vote topping Gonzalo Castillo of Dominican Liberation party, which has governed since 2004.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 5, Ethiopian police patrolled the country's troubled Oromia region and the capital, Addis Ababa, following a week of unrest in which 166 people were killed and more than 2,000 arrested, after popular singer Hachalu Hundessa was shot dead.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In France anti-racism groups led a “de-colonial tour" of Paris to call attention to monuments and streets honoring historical figures tied to the slave trade or colonial-era abuses.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Iran confirmed that a building, damaged by fire on July 2 at the underground Natanz nuclear site, was a new centrifuge assembly center.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Iran instituted mandatory mask-wearing as fears mount over newly spiking reported deaths from the coronavirus, even as its public increasingly shrugs off the danger of the COVID-19 illness it causes. Iran recorded 2,560 new confirmed cases over the last 24 hours, with 163 new deaths. That put its death toll since the start of the outbreak at more than 11,500, out of 240,438 confirmed cases.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Israeli military aircraft struck targets in the northern Gaza Strip late today following a barrage of rocket fire into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Israel ordered thousands of people into quarantine after a contentious phone surveillance program resumed while Palestinians in the West Bank returned to life under lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus cases in both areas. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 30,000 people were notified they must enter quarantine since July 2. Israel has seen more than 29,000 cases and 330 deaths.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In western Kenya residents of Rioma, Kisii County, stormed the local police station this evening after a police officer reportedly shot and killed a trader he accused of selling fake hand sanitizers.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Thousands of Libyans in Benghazi protested against Turkey’s military intervention on the side of Tripoli-based administration.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Mexico's confirmed COVID-19 infections topped 252,000 with more than 30,000 total deaths.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, Pakistan reported 93 more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s fatalities from COVID-19 to 4,712 since the start of its outbreak at the end of February. As many as 3,191 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, increasing the country’s overall cases to 228,474.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, South Africa for the first time recorded over 10,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases. This brought its total to more than 187,000.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, Spain's PM Pedro Sanchez proclaimed that "we have defeated the virus and controlled the pandemic."
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 5, A Sudanese government delegation arrived in Central Darfur province for talks with hundreds of protesters camped outside a government building demanding better security conditions. A week-long protest camp in the town of Nitrite called for the resignation of security officials in the province and a halt to attacks by government-sanctioned armed groups.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, The United Arab Emirates announced a wide-ranging government shakeup aimed at creating a more flexible and modern bureaucracy to tackle challenges as the coronavirus and lower oil prices erode what was already sluggish economic growth.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 6, The Trump administration said it was releasing the names of hundreds of thousands of businesses which took money from the high-profile $660 billion pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), letting the public see for the first time how the majority of the cash was spent and whether it helped save jobs.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, President Donald Trump said that US schools must open in the fall - a decision over which he has limited power - as governors struggle with a nationwide rise in coronavirus infections and states reverse and pause attempts to reopen.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The US State Department said Mohamed Amashah (24), a dual Egyptian-American citizen medical student detained without trial in an Egyptian prison for nearly 500 days, has been freed and returned to the United States. He had been held in pre-trial detention on charges of “misusing social media" and “aiding a terrorist group".
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states can require presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, A US District Court ordered Energy Transfer LP to shut and empty the largest pipeline from the North Dakota shale oil fields within 30 days, in a big win for the Native American tribes who have fought the line's route across a crucial water supply. In August a federal appeals court reversed the order.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, The Nasdaq closed at a record high of 10,433.65 as stock climbed globally.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.C3)
2020 Jul 6, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a COVID-19 outbreak in San Quentin State Prison was his "top focus and priority," and that nearly 1,000 inmates would be released early or relocated.
(Insider, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, California to date had 273,039 cases of coronavirus and 6,450 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 30,170 cases and 609 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,934,499 with the death toll at 130,271.
(sfist.com, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Mathematician Ronald Graham (84) died at his home in San Diego. His work included developing methods for worst-case analysis in scheduling theory.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.C15)
2020 Jul 6, Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency and authorized the activation of up to 1,000 National Guard troops following a weekend of violence in Atlanta that left five people dead, including a girl (8).
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 6, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (50) announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She reported no symptoms.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, It was reported that a wave of gun violence in Chicago has killed nine children since June 20. That includes a 7-year-old girl who was struck in the forehead by a bullet when three gunmen opened fire on a Fourth of July street party.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Colin Kaepernick and the Walt Disney Company announced a production deal that will see the activist quarterback produce “scripted and unscripted stories that explore race, social injustice and the quest for equity" for the media giant’s various platforms, including ESPN.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Charlie Daniels (83), country singer, songwriter and blazing fiddler, died.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Scientists reported that fossils dug up in Madagascar, dating from 237 million years ago, were those of a pocket sized dinosaur forerunner, named Kongonaphon, that was smaller than your cellphone.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it has signed a five-year contract to make the drug substance used in Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, adding to a series of deals likely to put it at the heart of future global vaccine production.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Uber announced that it has agreed to acquire the food delivery start-up Postmates for $2.65 billion as it aims to grow its presence in on-demand food delivery while its core ride-hailing business struggles.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Britain used a new legislation drafted in the memory of a killed Russian tax adviser to sanction 25 Russian nationals linked to prosecution and mistreatment of tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky as well as 20 Saudis involved in the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(The Telegraph, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, British online fashion retailer Boohoo said it will end relationships with any supplier found to have breached its code of conduct, following a media report about dire working conditions in one English factory. The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that workers in a factory in Leicester, central England, making clothes destined for Boohoo were being paid as little as 3.50 pounds ($4.38) an hour.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, In Cambodia the province of Siem Reap outlawed the trade of dog meat. The trade remains legal in other parts of the country. Recent reports estimated that 2-3 million dogs are killed annually in Cambodia for their meat.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 6, China joined a global arms trade treaty spurned by the United States, taking a swipe at US President Donald Trump's administration by accusing it of bullying, unilateralism and undermining efforts to combat global challenges.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Police in in northern Beijing arrested Xu Zhangrun (57), a law professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University and one of the few academics in China who have harshly criticized the ruling Communist Party, on an accusation of consorting with prostitutes. Xu published an essay in February blaming the culture of deception and censorship fostered by Xi for the spread of the coronavirus in China. Zhangrun was released on July 12.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)(AFP, 7/6/20)(The Telegraph, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 6, Egypt's Health Ministry has recorded 76,253 coronavirus infections, including 3,343 deaths. At least 10 doctors and six journalists have been arrested since the virus first hit Egypt in February.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 6, India reported 24,248 new cases of the coronavirus and has now confirmed over 697,000 cases including 19,693 deaths.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, Husham Al-Hashimi (47), a leading expert on the Islamic State group, was gunned down outside his home in Baghdad late today. He had recently turned his attention to Iran-backed militias in Iraq. His drive-by shooting involved two attackers on a motorcycle. A year later police arrested the shooter. He was identified as Ahmed Hamdawi al-Kinani, a police officer with the rank of first lieutenant in the Interior Ministry. In his confession, al-Kinani said he had worked with four other accomplices.
(AP, 7/7/20)(AP, 7/16/21)
2020 Jul 6, Israel launched a new spy satellite that could help monitor Iran’s nuclear activity, as Israeli officials remained evasive about recent incidents at Iranian industrial facilities that have raised suspicions of foreign sabotage.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Italian composer Ennio Morricone (91) died in Rome. His atmospheric scores for spaghetti westerns and some 500 films by a Who’s Who of international directors made him one of the world’s most versatile and influential creators of music for the modern cinema.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.74)
2020 Jul 6, Netherlands-based Mylan NV said it would launch a generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's COVID-19 antiviral remdesivir in India at 4,800 rupees ($64.31), about 80% below the price tag on the drug for wealthy nations.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Pakistan has now recorded 231,813 coronavirus infections and 4,762 deaths. Pakistan's foreign minister and health minister have recently tested positive for he virus.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, A Russian court convicted journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva of “justifying terrorism" after she wrote an opinion article in 2018 suggesting that teenage suicide bomber Mikhail Zhlobitsky (17) was driven to the act by anger at the repression of law enforcement agencies. The court in Pskov fined her 500,000 rubles (some £5,000). The judge seized her laptop and phone.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Saudi Arabia issued guidelines for about 1,000 pilgrims who will be allowed to perform the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca later this month, an experience that will be unlike any before because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, In South Korea Son Jong-woo (24), the operator of the largest child pornography web site ever uncovered, walked free from prison after a court in Seoul ruled that he could not be extradited to the US to face additional charges. Son had completed his 18-month term in April but was immediately detained again after a US federal grand jury indicted him on nine charges.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Spanish health officials said results from the final stage of a nationwide antibody study show some 5.2% of Spain's population has been exposed to the new coronavirus, confirming findings from earlier stages.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The UN warned that COVID-19 could cause an additional half a million AIDS deaths if treatment is disrupted long term. The UN also said the pandemic was jeopardizing years of progress against HIV.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, In Zimbabwe at least 12 nurses were arrested when they demonstrated against their working conditions, complaining that they do not have adequate protective gear to safely treat COVID-19 patients. The country has recorded about 700 cases of coronavirus infection and 8 deaths.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, The US State Department and the UN said that the Trump administration had formally notified the UN that the United States would leave the WHO next year.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that a Washington, DC federal court has ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay $879 million in its decision after finding the Iranian defendants directed the 1996 terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia where US forces were housed.
(PR Newswire, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt announced his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to move forward with the idea to reintroduce grizzly bears to the forested mountains in and around North Cascades National Park in north central Washington state.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 7, California to date had 283,750 cases of coronavirus and 6,569 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 30,940 cases and 621 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,948,397 with the death toll at 130,430.
(sfist.com, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, San Francisco-based Sunrun, the nation's largest residential solar company, said that it is acquiring Vivint Solar, a Utah-based leading competitor. The deal would form one of the world's largest providers of solar equipment.
(SFC, 7/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that a local health department In southwestern Missouri revealed earlier this week that an overnight summer camp has seen scores of campers, counselors and staff infected with the coronavirus.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, Researchers reported that a recently discovered species of seaweed is killing large patches of coral on once-pristine reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and is rapidly spreading across one of the most remote and protected ocean environments on earth. The new species of red algae has been named Chondria tumulosa.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Washington state Mary Kay Letourneau (58), a teacher who was convicted of raping Vili Fualaau (12) in 1996, died of cancer. The case that drew international headlines. Letourneau and Fualaau married on May 20, 2005, in Woodinville, Washington, after her release from prison.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that the US government has awarded Novavax Inc $1.6 billion to cover testing and manufacturing of a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus in the United States, with the aim of delivering 100 million doses by January.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said that the US government has signed a $450 million contract with the company for its potential COVID-19 antibody cocktail.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Florida reported 7,347 new cases, with the total number of diagnosed cases now at 213,794. The state's death toll has reached 3,943.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, The New York Department of Financial Services said Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $150 million in penalties over its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as part of a consent order with regulators in New York.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, NYC police said 64 people were shot over the weekend in a surge of shootings. The city surpassed 400 shootings in the first half of the year for the first time since 2016, with 528 by the end of last month.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Work crews In Richmond, Va., took down a monument to Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, the third major statue to be cleared away in less than a week as the Confederacy's former capital rushes to remove symbols of oppression in response to protests against police brutality and racism.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a police convoy in Nangarhar province killing four officers.
(SFC, 7/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 7, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro said he has tested positive for COVID-19. Sources close to the president said that Bolsonaro began exhibiting symptoms of the virus July 4.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Doctors reported that a Brazilian man infected with the AIDS virus has shown no sign of it for more than a year since he stopped HIV medicines after an intense experimental drug therapy aimed at purging hidden, dormant virus from his body.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Britain said it would resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia, halted last year after a UK court ruling over the Gulf kingdom's bombing campaign in neighboring Yemen.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Britain's GSK said that an injection of its cabotegravir drug given every two months was found to be 66% more effective in preventing HIV infections than Gilead's Truvada daily oral pills.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, UK-based Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc said that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved use of its Lysol Disinfectant Spray against COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In China a bus careered into a lake in the city of Anshun in the southwest province of Guizhou, killing 21 people. Five students heading to their university entrance exams were among those killed. It was later reported that the bus driver, upset that his home would be demolished, had been drinking at the wheel before plunging his vehicle into a reservoir.
(The Telegraph, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 7, Colombia's leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels asked the government late today to "agree a bilateral 90-day ceasefire" in response to a call from the United Nations to reduce violence and conflicts during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, Dubai allowed tourists back into the country following a COVID-19 shutdown.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.37)
2020 Jul 7, German prosecutors in the town of Zwickau seized servers that hosted thousands of sensitive police documents published as part of the BlueLeaks data dump. The publisher was not given an explanation. Prosecutors behind the seizure were acting at the request of the US government. The takedown came after DDoSecrets, the publisher that hosted the BlueLeaks files after they were obtained by an anonymous hacker, was permanently banned from Twitter.
(AFP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 7, In India 467 people have died from the coronavirus in the last day, bringing the nation's death toll to 20,160. Authorities reported a one-day increase of 22,252, bringing India's total number of coronavirus cases to 719,665.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Iraq partially reopened its southern Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran after more than three months of closure to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling party adopted a resolution urging the government to cancel a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping following Beijing's imposition of a new national security law for Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that all schools in Kenya will remain closed until next January because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kenya has confirmed more than 8,000 cases of coronavirus with at least 164 deaths along with a recent surge in new infections.
(BBC, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Kenyan police fired tear gas and detained scores of protesters demanding an end to police brutality. About 100 people took part in demonstrations across the capital, Nairobi.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Russia former journalist Ivan Safronov, who worked as an adviser to the director of Russia's state space corporation, was detained on charges of passing military secrets to a Western nation, accusations that many of his colleagues dismissed as absurd. Dozens of prominent journalists protested and were promptly detained.
(AP, 7/7/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 7, South Africa has confirmed 159,333 total cases of the coronavirus and 2,749 deaths.
(BBC, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkish authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 276 migrants to Europe on board a ship, and detained eight suspected smugglers.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkey detained another 41 people, many of them soldiers, for being suspected members of the Gulen community (cemaat), an Islamist movement the Pres. Erdogan blames for an attempted 2016 coup.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.48)
2020 Jul 7, The United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings concluded that the US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani was "unlawful." Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded it was an "arbitrary killing" that violated the UN charter.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 8, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and he lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold Trump administration rules allowing some employers to decline to provide contraceptive coverage on religious or moral grounds, which could leave more than 70,000 women without cost-free birth control.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, California to date had 290,199 cases of coronavirus and 6,575 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 31,808 cases and 626 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,046,351 with the death toll at 132,195.
(sfist.com, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, TV show Glee star Naya Rivera disappeared at California's Lake Piru. A boat rental employee found her boat floating with only son Josey (4) asleep inside and alerted authorities.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 8, Police in Miami arrested the former governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, César Horacio Duarte Jáquez (b.1963), who is wanted on corruption charges in his homeland. Duarte governed the northern border state from 2010 to 2016.
(The Telegraph, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Florida announced nearly 9,000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Positive test rates reached a new daily high of 18%, up from 12%-13% two weeks ago.
(AP, 7/9/20)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Dylan Jarrell (22) of Kentucky, who bought an AR-15 rifle that authorities alleged he planned to use to open fire at his former high school in 2018, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(NBC News, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar international students from staying in the US if they take classes entirely online this fall.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Two powerful tornadoes damaged farms, left one person dead and at least one other injured in western Minnesota as severe storms moved across parts of the Midwest.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, New York-based Brooks Brothers, a 202-year-old men's retailer, filed for bankruptcy and said it is closing 51 stores across the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 8, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests "likely contributed" to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas executed its first death row inmate since it first confirmed a case of coronavirus after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his execution to go ahead. Billy Joe Wardlow (45) was sentenced to death in 1993 for a robbery and murder in which he and his girlfriend tried to rob 82-year-old Carl Cole of his truck using a .45-caliber gun.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas has recorded over 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,670 deaths.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Work crews in Virginia took down the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors statue, installed in 1894, the 6th Confederate monument to be removed in Richmond amid national protests against police brutality and symbols many see as racist icons.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 8, Biogen Inc said it has submitted an application seeking US approval of its closely-watched Alzheimer's drug, as the company aims to be the first to bring a treatment to market that can alter the course of the mind-wasting disease.
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, BlueCity listed on New York's NASDAQ at a market valley of over $600 million. BlueCity Holdings Limited is a China-based LGBTQ focused internet technology company dedicated to providing comprehensive services to diverse users around the world. Blued, launched in 2012, is china's most popular social networking site for homosexual men.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.54)
2020 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in southern Kandahar province, killing three officers. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Australia the city of Melbourne and part of its surroundings began a six-week lockdown. Victoria authorities announced 134 new cases in the past 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that Brazil must take emergency measures to protect its Indigenous communities from the novel coronavirus.
(The Conversation, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that at least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists. The men had been found shot dead under bridges, in fields and along major roads within a 5km (three-mile) radius of Djibo between November 2019 and June 2020.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, China defended the World Health Organization and lashed out at the US decision to withdraw from the UN body.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that China has imported more than 300,000 tons of West African rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) from The Gambia since President Adama Barrow came to power in 2017. The rosewood being shipped out of The Gambia to China comes from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where it is illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Hong Kong Beijing's national security office was inaugurated. Hong Kong's educational bureau announced that schools must not allow students to play, sing or broadcast the protest anthem" Glory to Hong Kong," because it contains political images.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Iran said that its deaths from the novel coronavirus had surpassed 12,000, with authorities considering reimposing restrictive measures in Tehran to contain a resurgence of the disease. Another 153 deaths had been recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,084. Total cases had risen to 248,379 with 2,691 more people testing positive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly (61) died after falling ill at a ministerial meeting. Coulibaly had only just returned from France where he had received two-months' heart treatment.
(BBC, 7/8/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 8, Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen (64), serving a five-year sentence in the United States for providing millions of dollars to the militant Hezbollah group, arrived in Beirut after his early release.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Pakistan's national carrier said it is firing 28 pilots found to have tainted licenses. 262 pilots are currently grounded in the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said 82 percent of new coronavirus cases in the West Bank were linked to weddings and funerals. Over the past few weeks more than 4,000 new cases and 15 deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that Ukraine's security service has detained a suspected Russian agent who was allegedly planning to blow up an ammonia tank in the country’s war-torn east.
(The Telegraph, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 9, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison, after balking at certain conditions of the home confinement he was granted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The United States imposed sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, including a member of the ruling Politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities that China has detained in the western part of the country.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation, a decision that state and federal officials have warned could throw Oklahoma into chaos.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a New York prosecutor can obtain President Donald Trump's financial records but prevented - at least for now - Democratic-led House of Representatives committees from getting similar documents.
(Reuters, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Department of Labor said another 1.3 million US workers filed for unemployment insurance last week. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the record for weekly unemployment filings was 695,000 in 1982.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, It was reported that at least 50 journalists in the US have been arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the US, while dozens of others have also been injured by rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The Ivy League placed all sports on hold until at least January, making it the first Division I conference that will not play football because of the pandemic.
(NY Times, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, More than 60,500 new COVID-19 infections were reported across the United States, setting a one-day record as Americans were told to take new precautions and the pandemic becomes increasingly politicized. infections rose in 41 of the 50 states over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, California to date had 300,319 cases of coronavirus and 6,847 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 32,636 cases and 638 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,108,141 with the death toll at 133,106.
(sfist.com, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, It was reported that at least 26 lawmakers in Mississippi have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the biggest known outbreak in any state legislature in the nation. The state has seen a rapid rise in confirmed cases in the past two weeks, with the total hitting nearly 33,600.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio grabbed a roller to paint “Black Lives Matter" in front of the namesake Manhattan tower of President Donald Trump, who tweeted last week that the street mural would be “a symbol of hate".
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Texas hit a record number of daily coronavirus fatalities, with 105 new deaths recorded.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency late today in response to protests in Salt Lake city that erupted after authorities said a fatal police shooting in May was justified.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 9, The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Republican-authored lame-duck laws that stripped power from the incoming Democratic attorney general just before he took office in 2019.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 9, Bed Bath & Beyond said it plans to close about 200 stores over the next two years as its sales slid in the first quarter. The chain reported its quarterly sales dropped 49% due to temporary store closures amid the pandemic. Online sales soared 82%.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Several large drug makers including Merck & Co Inc and Pfizer Inc unveiled a $1 billion fund to bolster struggling antibiotic companies and sustain a pipeline for new treatments.
(Reuters, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Moderna Inc said it has signed an agreement with Spain's Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi SA to scale up the manufacturing and production of its potential COVID-19 vaccine to supply markets outside the United States.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents in response to China's imposition of a tough national security law on the semi-autonomous territory.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 9, Bolivia’s interim president announced that he has been infected with the new coronavirus. Three Cabinet ministers in the administration of Bolivian leader Jeanine Áñez have also tested positive for the virus, including Health Minister Eidy Roca and Presidency Minister Yerko Nuñez, who is hospitalized. The country has 42,984 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,577 deaths, and is seeing a rebound in the number of new cases amid reports that hospitals are being overwhelmed in some regions.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Bulgaria police raided the office of Pres. Rumen Radev and detained two aides on charges of influence peddling and disclosing state secrets. Demonstrators soon took the streets accusing the chief prosecutor of ordering the raid.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 9, In CongoDRC two protesters were shot dead and a policeman was lynched in clashes over plans to name a new head to the country's election panel. Police in Kinshasa used tear gas to break up thousands of members of President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Progress (UDPS) who had marched to near the seat of parliament.
(AFP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, India's Health Ministry said that India was doing “relatively well" managing COVID-19, pointing to 13 deaths per 1 million people, compared to about 400 in the United States and 320 in Brazil. India has tallied 793,802 infections and more than 21,600 deaths, with cases doubling every three weeks.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Indonesia has confirmed more than 68,000 cases of the coronavirus, including over 3,350 deaths, the most infections and fatalities in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Israeli troops shot and killed Ibrahim Abu Yakoub (29), a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, who they said was one of two men throwing firebombs at a guard post near the village of Kifl Haris. Palestinian officials say they merely strolling through their village.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Kazakhstan the Chinese embassy flagged a "significant increase" in cases in the Kazakh cities of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent since mid-June.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, At least 300,000 Puerto Ricans have filed unemployment claims linked to the pandemic — out of a civilian labor force of 1.05 million — and many others are ineligible for aid because they are part of the island’s large informal economy. Puerto Rico in mid-June had the highest insured unemployment rate in the country, at 23 percent.
(NY Times, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Russia Sergei Furgal, the opposition governor of the Khabarovsk region, was detained. Investigators searched the homes of several Kremlin critics who have urged supporters to protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
(AP, 7/9/20)(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Serbia’s authorities banned gatherings of more than 10 people in the capital Belgrade after two nights of violent clashes between police and thousands of demonstrators protesting coronavirus lockdown measures.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Authorities in South Korea searched for Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who vanished amid sexual harassment allegations after giving his daughter a message that she described as sounding like a will. The body of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon (64) was soon discovered on a hill in northern Seoul, several hours after his daughter reported him missing.
(AP, 7/9/20)(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Sudan's ruling body ratified a law banning the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, handing the movement for women’s rights in the African country a long-sought victory.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 9, The Swiss-based Int'l. Union for the Conservation of Nature updated its red list and said the lemurs of Madagascar are just one step away form extinction. North Atlantic Right Whales were also said to be nearing extinction.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 9, In northwestern Turkey a truck carrying fireworks exploded, killing three military police officers and wounded six others.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Efforts by the United Arab Emirates to fight the coronavirus have renewed questions about mass surveillance in this US-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Venezuela socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello (57), the country's No. 2 leader, announced that he has been infected with the new coronavirus. The government has reported 8,010 confirmed cases and 75 deaths.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The WHO said former Liberian pres. Ellen Johnson and former New Zealand PM Helen Clark will lead a new panel to give an assessment of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 10, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president's own conduct.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Goya Foods Inc, the largest Hispanic-owned US food company and a popular brand among Latino Americans, became the target of a boycott campaign on social media sparked by its CEO effusively praising President Donald Trump at the White House.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it will release more inmates to help protect the prisons from COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, California to date had 307,499 cases of coronavirus and 6,893 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 33,447 cases and 639 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,173,466 with the death toll at 133,940.
(sfist.com, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Trumpeter Eddie Gale (78) died in San Jose, Ca., after a long battle with cancer. His albums included "Ghetto Music" (1968) and "Black Rhythm Happening" (1969).
(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.C11)
2020 Jul 10, Florida reported 11,433 new cases, bringing the state's total cases to 244,151.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she is rolling back the city's reopening plans. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said the mayor had no authority to return to phase 1.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, It was reported that more than 150 Minneapolis police officers are filing work-related disability claims after the death of George Floyd and ensuing unrest, with about three-quarters citing post-traumatic stress disorder as the reason for their planned departures.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said the state will re-implement restrictions on bars and restaurants in certain counties to prevent further spread of the coronavirus effective this midnight.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said authorities will halt indoor restaurant service, close state parks to nonresidents and suspend autumn contact sports in response to surging coronavirus infections in the state effective July 13.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, A South Dakota teenager (17) was sentenced to 55 years in prison after admitting he fatally shot a Wyoming girl last fall. Shayna Ritthaler (16) went missing Oct. 3 after being seen getting into a Jeep-like vehicle at a coffee shop in Moorcroft, Wyoming. She was found Oct. 7 in the basement of the home the boy shared with his mother east of Sturgis.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Inpe, Brazil's national space agency, published figures showing 400 square miles of deforestation in the Amazon in June. Total deforestation from January to June was 1,890 square miles, up 25% from the same period last year.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 10, China reported two new coronavirus cases in the mainland. As of today mainland China had 83,587 confirmed coronavirus cases. The death toll remained at 4,634.
(Reuters, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, China said it was suspending imports from three Ecuadorean shrimp producers after detecting coronavirus in recent shipments, prompting one of the Ecuadorean producers to accuse China of "tarnishing the reputation" of the industry.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Smoore, China's biggest e-cigarette maker, launched its IPO in Hong Kong. It is now the world's most valuable vape firm, worth around $24 billion. This was a challenge to China's state-owned China Tobacco, which accounted for 6% of government revenues in 2019.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.53)
2020 Jul 10, In northern Egypt 11 people drowned off the coast, at a beach known for its rocky jetty and fast-moving waters. A young boy had run into the sea and began having difficulties. Ten people died in a failed attempt to rescue him.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, French bus driver Phillipe Monguillot (59) was declared brain dead following a July 5 attack by a group of unmasked passengers in Bayonne. Two men were charged with attempted murder following the attack, while another two men were charged with failing to help a person in danger.
(Insider, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, India reported 25,506 coronavirus cases, and another 475 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total fatality toll to 21,604.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Iranian state TV reported that Iran’s military chief has signed an agreement with Syria's president to reinforce Syria's air defense systems as part of a military cooperation agreement.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, An explosion rocked western Tehran early today, causing widespread power failures in two residential areas and unnerving Iranians awakened for the third consecutive week by an early-morning blast.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Italy's city of Venice opened all 78 movable sluice gates of its Experimental Electromechanical Module (MOSE), blocking the inlets to the lagoon that surrounds the city. The system was expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 10, Record-breaking rains this week in the south of Japan have killed 62 people in floods and landslides. The extreme weather is highlighting the vulnerability of nursing homes: Floodwaters killed 14 seniors in one nursing home.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Japan reported 243 new cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo as businesses have largely returned to normal.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Protesters in Mali forced the state broadcaster off air during large demonstrations in Bamako. This was the third rally in a month demanding that President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita stand down. At least one person was reported killed outside the national assembly.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, In Nepal landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rain killed at least 10 people and left 30 others missing. The death toll was soon raised to 117 with at least 47 missing.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A2)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 10, In Pakistan daily coronavirus infections dropped to 2,751 over the last 24 hours as testing decreased. Total deaths crossed the 5,000 mark.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Philippine lawmakers voted to reject the license renewal of ABS-CBN Corp., the country's largest TV network founded in 1953. The network had been repeatedly threatened by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte over its critical coverage. Some network programming continued over paid cable channels.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 10, A court in Moscow ruled to jail Sergei Furgal (50), the governor of the Khabarovsk region, pending a probe on charges of his involvement in multiple murders. The Investigative Committee, the nation’s main criminal investigation agency, said he is accused of involvement in the murders of several businessmen in the region and nearby territories in 2004 and 2005.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, South Africa overnight posted another record daily high of confirmed cases, 13,674, as Africa’s most developed country is a new global hot spot with 238,339 cases overall. More than a third are in Gauteng province. Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced he had tested positive with mild symptoms.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, In Serbia 14 policemen were injured in rioting when hundreds of right-wing demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building in downtown Belgrade. 71 people have been detained after clashes during the fourth night of anti-government protests that were initially sparked by the announcement of a new coronavirus lockdown.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, Singapore held parliamentary elections.The Ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won 83 of Parliament's 93 seats. The opposition Workers' Party (WP) took a record 10 seats in the best performance by an opposition party since independence in 1965.
(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A7)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.29)
2020 Jul 10, A leading doctor in Syria's overcrowded opposition-held enclave said hospitals are suspending non-emergency procedures and outpatient services following the detection of the first case of coronavirus. The first case of COVID-19 was reported a day earlier in Idlib province.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum. The news sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Hagia Sophia was originally built as a Christian cathedral.
(AP, 7/10/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 10, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem.
(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that the illegal global ivory trade has decreased, but trafficking of pangolins is on the rise.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's emergencies program, said that an outbreak of pneumonia in Kazakhstan, reported to be highly lethal, was "certainly on our radar". He also said it was possible it might be COVID-19. Kazakhstan's healthcare ministry branded Chinese media reports as "fake news".
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 11, Former special counsel Robert Mueller sharply defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, writing in a newspaper opinion piece that the probe was of “paramount importance" and asserting that a Trump ally, Roger Stone, “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so" despite the president's decision to commute his prison sentence.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, It was reported that employees of a Five Guys restaurant in Daphne, Alabama were fired for refusing to serve a group of police officers earlier this week.
(Insider, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, It was reported that a California doctor has been charged after it was found that vulnerable drug addicts were being paid hundreds of dollars in cash to receive an experimental procedure, after which several died of overdoses. Dr. Randy Rosen faced 88 felony charges from the Los Angeles Orange County district attorney. Prosecutors have accused him of fraudulently billing insurance companies over $650 million and stealing almost $52 million in what they call an elaborate scheme.
(CBS News, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, A fire early today destroyed the rooftop and most of the interior of the Catholic church San Gabriel that was undergoing renovation to mark its upcoming 250th anniversary celebration. The San Gabriel Mission was founded in 1771.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, California to date had 318,947 cases of coronavirus and 7,026 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 34,109 cases and 641 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,242,073 with the death toll at 134,729.
(sfist.com, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Marc Angelucci (52), a men's rights lawyer, was killed in San Bernardino County, Ca. The murder was later connected to Roy Den Hollander (72), another men's rights attorney who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the day after the July 19 attack that killed a New Jersey judge’s son and wounded her husband.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Florida visitors wore colorful face masks with mouse ears as Walt Disney World opened to the public in Orlando for the first time in four months amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the state.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In southern Texas police Officers Edelmiro Garza (45) and Ismael Chavez (39) were shot and killed by Audon Ignacio Camarillo (23), who later fatally shot himself after responding to a domestic disturbance call in McAllen.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Australia, health officials in Victoria reported 216 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, down from the record 288 the previous day.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Belgium wearing a face mask to slow the spread of the coronavirus became mandatory in shops, theaters, entertainment venues and other indoor spaces.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, A new UK study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that COVID-19 antibodies may start to decline 20 to 30 days after the onset of symptoms and that detectable amounts of antibodies fell rapidly in the weeks afterward.
(Yahoo News, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 11, Bulgaria's Pres. Ruman Radev called on the center-right government to step down and the chief prosecutor to resign as the only way to ease the growing political tensions that have sparked mass protests across the country. Radev, a vocal critic of PM Boyko Borissov’s center-right government, accused it of corruption, lack of justice and suppression of the freedom of speech.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, India reported a new daily high of 27,114, its biggest daily spike as the total number of coronavirus cases passed 820,916. The death toll rose by 519 for a total of 22,123.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A11)
2020 Jul 11, Iran said that it cannot afford to shut down its sanctions-hit economy, even as the country's novel coronavirus outbreak worsens with record-high death tolls and rising infections. The Health Minsitry said 88 people had died from the respiratory disease in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 12,635. The country's caseload rose to 255,117, with 2,397 new infections recorded.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhemi launched a new campaign against corruption at the country's borders, saying millions of dollars were being lost by not properly taxing imported goods.
(AFP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in downtown Tel Aviv, protesting what is widely seen as PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to address economic woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said dozens of US Marines at two bases on the southern Japanese island have been infected with the coronavirus in what is feared to be a massive outbreak. The next day officials reported 61 cases – 38 at Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma and another 23 at Camp Hansen.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 11, In Libya Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Khalifa Hifter's forces, called for oil revenues to flow into a bank account in a foreign country with a “clear mechanism" to distribute funds fairly among Libya’s regions.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Mali police fired tear gas in Bamako as scattered groups came out for a second straight day of anti-government protests, defying the president's latest call for dialogue. Mali Pres. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta announced the dissolution of the constitutional court in an attempt to calm unrest that saw four people killed in street protests a day earlier.
(AP, 7/11/20)(BBC, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, The Philippines by this time had recorded some 50,440 cases of the coronavirus and 1,300 deaths.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 11, In Puerto Rico dozens of activists marched through the historic part of San Juan, some wearing traditional Taino clothing, as they banged on drums and blew on conch shells to demand that the US territory’s government start by removing statues including those of explorer Christopher Columbus.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In eastern Russia thousands of demonstrators in Khabarovsk demonstrated against the July 9 arrest of regional Gov. Sergei Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Party. His 2018 election marked a setback for Pres. Putin's United Russia party.
(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 11, Russia scored a victory for its ally Syria by forcing the Security Council to limit humanitarian aid deliveries to the country’s mainly rebel-held northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey, a move that Western nations say will cut a lifeline for 1.3 million people.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In South Africa five people were killed after attackers stormed the International Pentecostal Holiness Church on the outskirts of Johannesburg, reportedly amid an argument over its leadership. At least 40 people were arrested including members of SAPS, the South African National Defence Force, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and the Department of Correctional Services.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, South Africa now has more than 250,000 confirmed cases, including more than 3,800 deaths.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, The South Korean army announced the death of former army Gen. Paik Sun-yup (99). He was celebrated as a major war hero for leading troops in several battle victories against North Korean soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Turkey’s parliament passed controversial legislation amending laws governing attorneys and bar associations, despite protests from critics who say the move could limit the independence of lawyers and reduce the professional associations’ clout.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 12, A fire and explosion aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard injured at least 57 people at a base in San Diego. On July 17 the Navy announced that all fires on the ship have been extinguished. In 2022 a military judge acquitted sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays (21) of arson.
(AP, 7/13/20)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A6)(SFC, 10/1/22, p.A11)
2020 Jul 12, California to date had 319,507 cases of coronavirus and 7,030 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 34,970 cases and 643 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,271,549 with the death toll at 135,029.
(sfist.com, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Florida announced 15,299 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total in any state. This raised Florida's total to 269,811.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 12, Joanna Cole (75), author of children's books, died Sioux City, Iowa. She teamed with the illustrator Bruce Degen to create one of the most popular and enduring children’s book series of recent decades, the bizarre but educational adventures chronicled under the rubric “The Magic School Bus".
(NY Times, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 12, US actress Kelly Preston (57) died in Houston after a silent battle with breast cancer. Her husband of 28 years, John Travolta, soon confirmed the news.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Preston)
2020 Jul 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in skirmishes on their volatile border that left four Azerbaijani soldiers dead and several troops wounded on both sides.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, Australia's government said that it will offer 10,000 Hong Kong passport holders currently living in Australia a chance to apply for permanent residence once their current passport expires.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 12, China raised its national-emergency response to its 2nd highest level in the face of the worse flooding in decades. Flooding in dozens of provinces has already caused the death or disappearance of 141 people, the loss of 28,000 homes and $11.7 bn in damages.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.34)
2020 Jul 12, Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned up to vote in an unofficial primary election held by the city’s pro-democracy camp as it gears up to field candidates for an upcoming legislative poll.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd shut one of its manufacturing plants in Gujarat state after at least 17 employees at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 12, Iran reported 194 deaths from the COVID-19 disease and 2,186 new cases in the past 24 hours. In total, 257,303 cases have been reported in the country, including 12,829 deaths. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged all citizens to help stem the region's deadliest outbreak.
(AFP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised to provide speedy financial help for self-employed workers following protests over the government's failure to address economic woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 12, Deaths in Mexico from the coronavirus pandemic rose above 35,000, with the Latin American country overtaking Italy for the world's fourth-highest death total.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, Voters in Poland cast ballots in the country's razor blade-close presidential runoff between the conservative, populist incumbent President Andrzej Duda and the liberal, pro-Europe Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski in a battle that reflects deep divisions in this EU nation.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, South Africa introduced new restrictions, including another ban on alcohol sales, to prevent drunks from taking up precious space in hospitals and to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 7/12/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.37)
2020 Jul 12, It was reported that Sudan has outlined wide-reaching reforms including allowing non-Muslims to drink alcohol, and scrapping the apostasy law and public flogging. The laws were initially approved in April but they have only now taken effect.
(BBC, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Sudanese security forces violently broke up a protest camp in the war-scarred Darfur region, killing at least protester and wounding a dozen others, including four children.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, In northwest Yemen an airstrike late today killed seven children and two women in Hajjah province. Saudi Arabia has frequently drawn international criticism for errant airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Trump administration escalated its actions against China by stepping squarely into one of the most sensitive regional issues dividing them and rejecting outright nearly all of Beijing’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The US Treasury said the federal government incurred a June deficit of $864 billion, its biggest monthly budget deficit in history.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, A US district judge ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana. Daniel Lewis Lee (47) had been scheduled to die today by lethal injection for the 1996 killing in Arkansas of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife and her daughter (8). The Trump administration immediately appealed to a higher court, asking that the executions move forward.
(AP, 7/13/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, The federal judge who presided over Roger Stone's criminal case ordered the government to explain the scope of President Donald Trump's order commuting Stone's prison term, saying it was unclear whether the clemency decision also impacts his term of supervised release by the US probation office.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, A US federal judge agreed to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, California's governor clamped new restrictions on businesses as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared, and the state's two largest school districts, in Los Angeles and San Diego, said children would be made to stay home in August.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, California to date had 333,356 cases of coronavirus and 7,089 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 36,150 cases and 656 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,353,348 with the death toll at 135,524.
(sfist.com, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Grant Imahara (b.1970), American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host, died in Los Angeles due to a brain aneurysm. From 2004 to 2014 Imahara was one of the presenters on the popular cable TV series "MythBusters" (2003-2018).
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.B2)
2020 Jul 13, Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins football team, announced that the name and logo of the team would be retired.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.23)
2020 Jul 13, A US federal judge in Georgia struck down a state anti-abortion law approved last year calling it unconstitutional.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, In Michigan the body of Susie Zhao (33), a professional poker player, was found burned in a parking lot at the Pontiac Lake State Recreation area. A Pontiac resident (60), wanted in connection to Zhao's death, was arrested on July 31.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2vjm75q)(ABC News, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 13, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. A federal judge in Nashville quickly blocked it.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, The Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic group founded by the business magnate George Soros, announced that it is investing $220 million in efforts to achieve racial equality in America.
(NY Times, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Semiconductor maker Analog Devices Inc said it would buy rival Maxim Integrated Products Inc for about $21 billion in the largest US deal this year, aiming to boost its market share in automotive and 5G chipmaking.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, PerkinElmer said it anticipates its second-quarter revenue will climb approximately 12%. The company said the increase was driven by better-than-expected demand for its full-suite of solutions aimed at helping support customers’ COVID-19 testing needs around the world.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE said two of their experimental coronavirus vaccines received 'fast track' designation from the US health agency, speeding up the regulatory review process.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, G7 finance ministers called for full implementation of a G20 freeze in debt service payments by all official bilateral creditors and adherence to debt data transparency standards. In a teleconference the G7 ministers also discussed domestic and international economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic and strategies to achieve a robust global recovery.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, In northern Afghanistan Taliban insurgents launched an attack on an intelligence compound in Aybak, Samangan province, killing at least 11 intelligence agency personnel. A suicide bomber and two insurgents were killed.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 13, Bangladesh officials said more than a million people have been marooned following two weeks of heavy rains, with the worst of it in the last few days.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, Brazil's government fired Lubia Vinhas, an official at the national space agency Inpe whose department is responsible for satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, China said it will impose sanctions on three US lawmakers and one ambassador in response to similar actions taken by the US last week against Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses against Muslims in the Xinjiang region. US Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Rep. Chris Smith and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback were targeted, as was the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Czech Republic reimposed restrictions for travel to Serbia and Montenegro after a spike of new coronavirus cases in the Balkan countries.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Prominent Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir (65), who had been jailed on charges of broadcasting false news, died of COVID-19 at a Cairo hospital. Monir had contracted the disease in pre-trial detention and was released on July 2 after falling ill in custody.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, Indonesia reported 1,282 new cases, bringing the total count to 76,981.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Iran reported 203 new coronavirus fatalities that took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak to 13,032. The overall number of cases rose to 259,652.
(AFP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Paschal Donohue (b.1974), Ireland's finance minister, took office as president of the Eurogroup, the influential club of euro-zone finance ministers.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.44)
2020 Jul 13, Israeli police and Jerusalem municipal officials scuffled with protesters demonstrating against PM Benjamin Netanyahu as officers dismantled tents set up by the demonstrator's outside the premier's residence.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Ivory Coast's vice president Daniel Kablan Duncan submitted his resignation less than a week after PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly died in Abidjan, throwing the West African country's political scene into further disarray three months before pivotal national elections.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, It was reported that a Lebanese waste management company is quarantining some 133 Syrian workers who tested positive for the coronavirus. Lebanon recorded a new daily high for infections.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Japan Federation of Medical Worker's Unions said about a third of Japanese medical institutions are cutting summer bonuses to staff, as many hospitals and clinics face a cash crunch, having had to delay routine treatments to make room for coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Malaysia's PM Muhyiddin Yassin secured a parliamentary majority (111-109) in favor of changing the speaker of the lower house. This meant that a no-confidence vote filed in May would likely not be debated.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.29)
2020 Jul 13, In Mali a measure of calm returned to Bamako as traffic again began to circulate on two of the city's main bridges, major choke points that protesters had targeted. 11 people have died and 124 have been injured in three days of unrest.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin supported a proposal to extend the deadline for a 25.7 trillion ruble ($363 billion) package of state spending, known as the national projects, by six years until 2030 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, It was reported that Russian prosecutors have brought charges of premeditated murder against three Moscow teenage sisters for killing their abusive father. Krestina, Angelina and Maria stabbed their 57-year old father Mikhail Khachaturyan in July 2018 after enduring years of intimidation, beatings and sexual abuse.
(The Telegraph, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, In eastern Russia thousands of demonstrators in Khabarovsk demonstrated for a third straight day against the July 9 arrest of regional Gov. Sergei Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Party.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 13, Russia reported 6,537 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall tally to 733,699, the fourth largest reported in the world.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Somalia’s army chief survived an assassination attempt when a suicide car bomber targeted his convoy in Mogadishu. At least one person was killed by the blast.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, A statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes was decapitated overnight in Cape Town in South Africa. Rhodes, a white supremacist, led the British colonization of parts of southern Africa during the 19th Century and made a fortune from mining.
(BBC, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 13, In South Sudan two aid workers were shot dead along with four people they were helping after members of an unknown armed group attacked them in Pajut town, Jonglei state.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 13, Swiss-based Lonza Group said that China's Junshi Biosciences has licensed the contract drug manufacturer's technology to help produce a neutralizing antibody against COVID-19. The antibody, JS016, has entered clinical trials in China, with the first healthy volunteer dosed on June 8 in an early-stage safety study. Junshi Biosciences is collaborating with Eli Lilly to co-develop the antibody.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The United Nations said the ranks of the world’s hungry grew by 10 million last year and warns that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 130 million more people into chronic hunger this year.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi urged the East African country's new government to "break the cycle of violence" and start cooperating with the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, The World Bank said the coronavirus pandemic has triggered the Africa's first recession in 25 years.
(BBC, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 14, President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order that he said will hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/14/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 14, The Trump administration rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Indiana, the US federal government carried out its first execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection Daniel Lewis Lee (47), a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in 1996 as part of a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. His final words were: "You’re killing an innocent man." Lee’s co-defendant and the reputed ringleader, Chevie Kehoe, received a life sentence.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In the SF Bay Area council members in Berkeley approved a reform measure that calls for a committee tasked with police reforms. They include removing the police department from responding to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness and finding ways to eventually cut the police budget by half. The vote also called for the creation of a separate city department to handle the enforcement of parking and traffic laws.
(The Guardian, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, California to date had 343,199 cases of coronavirus and 7,221 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 37,494 cases and 667 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,424,204 with the death toll at 136,432.
(sfist.com, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Florida reported a record new 132 deaths bringing the COVID-19 fatality total to 4,513. Florida announced 12,624 new cases of COVID-19. Forty states have reported an upward trend test-positivity rate over the last week.
(Good Morning America, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The FBI arrested an Indiana woman (19) they say was torturing and graphically killing cats and dogs. Private citizens helped identify Krystal Cherika Scott using social media and providing the information to law enforcement.
(Insider, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Kentucky 87 people were arrested and charged with a felony after a protest on the lawn of Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The protesters were demanding that charges be filed against the officers responsible for the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
(CBS News, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Michigan David Hudson (54), from Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty to defrauding his former employer Cummins Bridgeway LLC (CBL) of more than $4.5 million.
(Autoblog, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 14, In New York City the body of Fahim Saleh (33), a technology entrepreneur who founded Nigeria's Gokada ride-hailing app, was found decapitated and dismembered in a luxury apartment with a power saw plugged in nearby. Nigerian state officials in February banned all motorcycle taxis, known locally as 'okada'. On July 16 Tyrese Devon Haspil (21), Fahim Saleh's personal assistant, was taken into custody.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)(ABC News, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 14, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said that he was ordering public schools to reopen for classroom instruction in August if they are able to maintain social distancing for students and staff and meet other conditions.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, North Carolina-based life sciences company IQVIA Holdings Inc said it would collaborate with AstraZeneca Plc to speed up clinical studies of the British drugmaker's potential COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Reta Mays (46), a former Veterans Affairs nursing assistant in West Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court to killing seven hospital patients in 2017-2018 by injecting them with unnecessary insulin, and assaulting another patient with intent to murder. In October Tentative settlements were reached in several civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the families of veterans who died at a West Virginia hospital.
(ABC News, 7/14/20)(AP, 10/10/20)
2020 Jul 14, Landos Biopharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease, announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1 study of NX-13, the Company’s novel, orally administered therapeutic candidate for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
(Global Newswire, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it has struck a $1.7 billion cancer drug pact with Blueprint Medicines, as advances in genetic testing for rare mutations drive lucrative deals for expensive treatments.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, US industrial conglomerate 3M Co said it has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a rapid antigen test for COVID-19.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, New research was published showing that the emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane are soaring to new and dangerous highs.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 14, Scientists reported that a low dose of radiation to the lungs of COVID-19 pneumonia patients can help them recover more quickly. Doctors at Emory University in Atlanta treated 10 such patients with lung radiation and compared them to 10 patients of similar ages who received usual care, without radiation. With radiation, the average time to significant improvement was three days, compared to 12 days in the control group.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Armenia and Azerbaijan forces fought with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Belarus authorities barred Valery Tsepkalo and Vikto Babariko from running in the August 9 presidential election presidential elections. Police officers detained more than 250 people after mass protests erupted against the barring.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A2)(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Britain became one of the few countries to agree to ban the Chinese technology company Huawei from making equipment for Britain’s high-speed wireless network. US officials fear China could use such equipment to spy or launch a cyberattack.
(NY Times, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Britain and France moved to make face coverings compulsory in more places as both countries try to get their economies going while at the same time seeking to prevent further coronavirus outbreaks.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 31, A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde approved the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government. His legal team planned to appeal. In 2021 it was reported that Saab was carrying a letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accrediting him to Iran's supreme leader.
(AP, 8/4/20)(AP, 1/21/21)
2020 Jul 14, In Egypt a ruptured crude oil pipeline set off a monstrous blaze on a desert highway, injuring at least 17 people.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Ethiopia entered its third week without internet service for almost everyone after days of deadly unrest, as the government said it’s trying to prevent speech that could further inflame ethnic tensions.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Hong Kong reported over 200 new coronavirus cases in the last week, following nearly a month without a single case. For at least the next week, Hong Kong is closing bars, gyms, playgrounds, pools and entertainment venues, including Hong Kong Disneyland.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus said it had started human studies for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, as infections continue to surge in the world's third worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, India reported 906,752 cases of the coronavirus with 28,498 new infections, the third highest total in the world behind Brazil and the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian officials reported six more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 77 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 14, Iranian state TV reported that authorities have executed two men convicted of a 2010 bombing at a military parade in northwestern Iran that killed 12 spectators. The country's judiciary said that Iran last week executed Reza Asgari, a former employee of the defense ministry who was convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Iran a judicial spokesman confirmed three young men were on death row after being convicted of violent offences related to protesting. Iranians rallied around the Farsi-language hashtag “don’t execute" to demand clemency.
(The Telegraph, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Mexico reported 7,051 new infections and 836 additional deaths, as it proposed to the United States extending a ban on non-essential travel by land over their shared border for another 30 days.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, It was reported that a human-like robot designed to look and act like a female clerk has started providing services to the public at a government office in Perm, Siberia.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Russia confirmed 6,248 new coronavirus infections bringing the country's official number of cases to 739,947. Over the past 24 hours, 175 people have died bringing the total death toll to 11,614.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The UN's top court (ICJ) backed Qatar in a bitter row with four Middle East nations that imposed an air blockade against Doha after accusing it of backing radical Islamists and Iran. The acrimonious standoff erupted three years ago pitting Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 15, The Trump administration imposed sanctions on companies connected to a Russian businessman who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and suspected of helping finance the covert social media campaign aimed at American voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that US Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a "different mindset" to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, US Customs placed a detention order on imports of products made by subsidiaries of the world's largest medical glove maker, Malaysia's Top Glove Corp Bhd, an action taken against firms suspected of using forced labor.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, US authorities alleged in a lawsuit that former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh used bribery proceeds and stolen government funds to buy a mansion in a suburb of Washington, DC, as they sought to seize the property. Jammeh reportedly acquired at least 281 properties during his time in office and operated more than 100 private bank accounts directly or through companies or foundations in which he has shares or an interest.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, The US military accused Russian mercenaries fighting on the side of eastern Libya forces of planting land mines and improvised explosive devices in and around the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A US judge halted the execution of Wesley Ira Purkey (68), a man said to be suffering from dementia, who had been set to die by lethal injection in the federal government’s second execution after a 17-year hiatus. Purkey, convicted of a gruesome 1998 kidnapping and killing, was scheduled for execution this evening at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A federal judge in California late today blocked a rollback by the Trump administration of a rule on slashing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas operations on federal and tribal lands.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, California to date had 353,412 cases of coronavirus and 7,341 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 38,374 cases and 674 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,491,935 with the death toll at 137,277.
(sfist.com, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Fast-food staffers across Illinois and California filed complaints with city officials, walked from their jobs and staged strikes against quick service giants McDonald's and Burger King, demanding better treatment and proper workplace protections from the raging pandemic.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order late today, which outright banned cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Atlanta teenager Julian Conley (19), suspected in the killing an 8-year-old girl near the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed by police last month, surrendered. Secoriea Turner, was shot to death while riding in a car with her mother and a friend on July 4. Conley's attorney said his client witnessed the shooting, but did not open fire himself.
(AP, 7/16/20)(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 15, A US judge sentenced former Honolulu police officer John Rabago (44), to four years in prison for forcing a homeless man to lick a public urinal, telling him to imagine someone doing that to his two young daughters.
(NBC News, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, weeks after attending a campaign rally for President Trump in Tulsa.
(Yahoo News, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that federal agents have seized more than 20 vehicles and the money from 10 bank accounts belonging to married US Army veterans in Texas, saying the pair used personal information stolen from soldiers to defraud the military out of as much as $11 million. Kevin Pelayo and Cristine Fredericks allegedly used a transportation reimbursement program for federal employees to swindle the Army out of $2.3 million to $11.3 million.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Texas reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths with 10,791 new cases and 110 new fatalities. Texas has now 282,365 confirmed cases and 3,432 fatalities statewide.
(Good Morning America, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, BD Corp. said the US government will buy Becton, Dickinson and Co's COVID-19 testing devices and kits, as it ramps up its testing for the virus that has been spreading at an alarming rate.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Peacock, a US TV video streaming service, was launched by NBCUniversal, a part of the cable provider Comcast.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.52)
2020 Jul 15, Tweets promising bitcoin rewards hit some of the platform's largest accounts this afternoon, rolling through some of the largest and most influential Twitter accounts. Big companies were hit as were major political and politics-adjacent figures. Twitter put out a statement promising to investigate and "fix it," and locked down the accounts of those impacted and restricted all verified accounts.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body that coordinates regulation for the Group of 20 major economies, warned global financial system remains vulnerable to further liquidity stresses and a potential "sudden and sharp" market repricing as economies continue to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic. FSB chair Randal Quarles is also vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, which has taken a raft of measures to keep cheap money flowing and prop up ailing companies.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A global review of published studies found that the death rate for COVID-19 intensive care patients has dropped by about one-third since the start of the pandemic, due at least in part to better hospital care.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Bulgaria thousands of mostly young people took to the streets for a seventh day to protest against the government, accusing it of corruption, authoritarian rule and dependence on criminal groups. PM Boyko Borissov's center-right government faced a vote of no-confidence brought by the left-wing opposition.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said China is facing outbreaks of a debilitating virus in cattle that causes a condition called 'lumpy skin disease', following an incident on a farm in the eastern province of Zhejiang this week. Taiwan also reported its first case of the disease this month on Kinmen Island. The disease does not affect people and is thought to be spread by flies or mosquitoes.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Colombia Mario Paciolla (33), a UN volunteer from Naples, was found dead at his home in San Vicente de Caguán, a town in the southern jungle long used as a strategic rearguard for rebel groups and drug traffickers.
(The Guardian, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 15, The European Union executive urged member states to launch earlier and broader vaccination campaigns against flu this year to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and COVID-19 outbreaks in the autumn.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A European court overruled a 2016 decision that ordered Apple to pay $14.9 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 15, France's new PM Jean Castex laid out $110 billion in new spending to rescue the virus-battered economy from its worst crisis since World War II.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that death threats in Guatemala have driven two anti-corruption prosecutors from the country in the past year, and their unit’s leader has a protective order from a regional human rights commission because he is constantly harassed and threatened.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Indonesia the death toll from a flash flood in South Sulawesi province rose to 21 with two people missing. The flooding began July 13 triggered by heavy rains that caused three rivers to overflow.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a plan to distribute hundreds of dollars in grants to every Israeli in order to stimulate the country's sagging economy, days after thousands of people took to the streets to protest his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Jordan's high court dissolved the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
(https://tinyurl.com/y45fes8u)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 15, Mongolia's health ministry said a boy (15) has died of bubonic plague after eating an infected marmot in Gobi-Altai province.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra reshuffled his cabinet, sacked the health minister and brought in Pedro Cateriano as prime minister as coronavirus cases passed 350,000 with at least 13,000 deaths.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.24)
2020 Jul 15, An airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition killed at least 10 civilians, including six children and two women, in the mountainous northern Yemeni province of Jawf.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, International scientists released a study that found the greenhouse effect multiplied the chance of the Siberia region’s prolonged heat by at least 600 times, and maybe tens of thousands of times. They found that without climate change the type of prolonged heat that hit Siberia would happen once in 80,000 years, “effectively impossible without human influence".
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Tunisia PM Elyes Fakhfakh (b.1972) resigned over allegations of conflict of interest.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elyes_Fakhfakh)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 15, The United Nations Security Council heard that up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May.
(NBC News, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that the United Nations has asked the Nicolas Maduro regime to dismantle criminal gangs running gold mines in Venezuela's Amazon region. Nearly 150 people are reported to have died in or around the gold mines from March 2016 to 2020. Venezuelan human rights and environmental groups have said that legal and illegal mining are rapidly decimating Venezuela's Amazon. A UN report on Venezuela cited documented cases of executions, torture and forced disappearances. Among the atrocities cited is the execution of 38 young men by Pres. Nicolas Maduro’s hit squads.
(The Independent, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that coronavirus cases in Venezuela have jumped in recent weeks and two top lieutenants of President Nicolas Maduro have tested positive, triggering warnings from health workers that the pandemic may overwhelm the country's already battered healthcare system.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Zimbabwe postponed the reopening of schools citing rising numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19. New cases numbered 1,064 along with 20 deaths.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 16, The United States carried out its second federal execution in three days following a hiatus of nearly two decades, killing by lethal injection Wesley Ira Purkey, a Kansas man, whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed. Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was sentenced to be executed for kidnapping and killing Jennifer Long (16), before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He was also convicted in a state court in Kansas of using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, A US Pentagon report said Turkey sent between 3,500 and 3,800 paid Syrian fighters to Libya over the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 16, The US CDC reported that nearly 71,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year. Fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids accounted for 36,500 overdose deaths.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 16, California reported its largest two-day total of confirmed cases, nearly 20,000, along with 258 deaths over 48 hours. Military doctors, nurses and other health care specialists were being deployed to eight hospitals facing staffing shortages amid a record-breaking case numbers. California to date had 358,468 cases of coronavirus and 7,414 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 39,217 cases and 680 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,560,364 with the death toll at 138,201.
(AP, 7/16/20)(sfist.com, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, The Republican National Committee said it is sharply restricting attendance on three of the four nights of its convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month, as it looks for ways to move forward with the event while coronavirus cases are spiking in the state.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Florida reported the largest one-day increase in deaths from the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began and its second-largest increase in cases ever. Florida announced 13,965 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state and the center of the latest outbreak to over 315,775. Deaths rose by 156 to a total of 4,782.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to block the city from enforcing its mandate to wear a mask in public and other rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 16, Texas reported 10,000 new cases for the third straight day and 129 additional deaths. In Houston, an 86-person Army medical team worked to take over a wing of United Memorial Medical Center.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that countries around the world are reimposing lockdowns to curb the resurgence of the coronavirus. More than 13 million cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 578,000 deaths.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 16, Clashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on their shared border, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting. Armenia said four of its troops were killed on July 14.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Brazil's federal health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Shamima Begum, a UK woman who as a teenager ran away to join the Islamic State group, won the right to return to Britain to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds. She is one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria in 2015.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Officials in the English city of Bristol removed a statue of Jen Reid, a Black Lives Matter activist, that was installed on a pedestal once occupied by a monument to a 17th-century slave trader. It was erected before dawn a day earlier without the approval of city authorities.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said China's economy returned to growth in the second quarter following a coronavirus contraction, with President Xi Jinping promising continued expansion ahead and urging foreign companies to be a part of it.
(AFP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, In CongoDRC at least 40 people disappeared after members of the armed group known as Ngumino attacked the village of Kipupu while they were being pursued by the Mai Mai rebel group. Fighting that followed between the armed groups in villages in South Kivu province killed at least 43 people.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 16, A ruling by the EU Court of Justice saw the "EU-US privacy shield" invalidated due to concerns over the privacy of Europeans, with the court suggesting US surveillance laws were too far-reaching.
(The Telegraph, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Indian officials reported 16 more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 93 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 16, Iran's police dispersed protesters in Khuzestan province angry over the Islamic Republic's anemic economy amid a US sanctions campaign, and internet access to the wider region was disrupted as demonstrators shared videos of the rally.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Israel's Health Ministry reported 1,898 new cases of the virus. The country has registered more than 44,500 total cases. At least 380 Israelis have died of COVID-19.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, The Rijksmuseum Boerhaave museum in the Dutch city of Leiden finally opened an exhibition on contagious diseases through the ages after a long delay caused by the disease currently sweeping the world — COVID-19.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, North Macedonia's pro-Western Social Democrats said they were ready to start complicated power-sharing negotiations after winning a narrow election victory in a poll held up for months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Former PM Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats declared victory after receiving 36% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted. Authorities announced 94 new infections and eight deaths, raising the confirmed death toll to 401.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Russia plans to produce 30 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine domestically this year, with the potential to manufacture a further 170 million abroad. The first human trial of the vaccine, a month-long test on 38 people, ended this week. A 100-person Phase II trial wraps up on August 3.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Sudan said River Nile water levels have dropped as a reservoir behind Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance dam has filled up, hitting out at "any unilateral actions taken by any party." Both Sudan and Egypt are downstream, and fear the large dam will greatly reduce their access to water.
(BBC, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Swiss drugmaker Novartis's Sandoz division said it will not profit from 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19 for the pandemic's duration.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Tiwakorn Vithiton (45) has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital after posting a photo online showing himself wearing a shirt with the motto "I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy." The country's lese majeste law carries a punishment of 3-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 16, The United Arab Emirates said Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi using up to 15,000 volunteers. The human trial is a partnership between Sinopharm's China National Biotec Group (CNBG), Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a Middle Eastern subsidiary of UK cigarette filter maker Essentra has agreed to pay a fine of more than half a million pounds to US authorities to settle criminal allegations that it breached sanctions on North Korea. The UAE-based entity, called Essentra FZE, has been fined $665,000.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The Pentagon banned displays of the Confederate flag on military installations, in a carefully worded policy that doesn't mention the word ban or that specific flag.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US Justice Department filed a series of lawsuits seeking to recover at least $104 million in funds allegedly embezzled by former officials in Kuwait's Ministry of Defense. Three unnamed individuals, who were high-level officials in Kuwait's Ministry of Defense, opened six unauthorized bank accounts between 2009 and 2016 and used the accounts to facilitate the transfer of more than $100 million in Kuwaiti public funds to California bank accounts connected to convicted felon Victorino Noval (58).
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, US Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87) said she is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, but has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said a ban on evictions would be extended until Oct. 31 to ensure people wouldn't lose their homes if they contracted COVID-19.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an order requiring people to wear masks in public throughout the state, effective as of July 20. COVID-19 cases have surged in the state since restrictions were lifted in May.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, California to date had 367,367 cases of coronavirus and 7,526 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 40,068 cases and 697 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,634,807 with the death toll at 139,076.
(sfist.com, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Georgia Congressman John Lewis (80), a civil rights icon and the last of the Big Six civil rights activists led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The Rev. C.T. Vivian (95), an early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal campaigns in the civil rights movement and spent decades after advocating for justice and equality, died in Atlanta, Ga.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US Attorney’s office in Chicago announced that ComEd is paying a $200 million criminal fine as part of a federal investigation into a “years-long bribery scheme" involving jobs, contracts and payments to allies of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
(Chicago Tribune, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, In Florida three friends were found brutally murdered at a local lake. In the moments before he died, one of the victims was able to call his father and report the attack. No one has been arrested in the triple murder.
(ABC News, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US government executed Dustin Lee Honken (52), a convicted murderer, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Honken was a dealer in illegal methamphetamine when he and his girlfriend murdered five people in Iowa in 1993.
(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler demanded that President Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents he deployed to the city after some detained people on streets far from federal property they were sent to protect. Democratic members of Oregon's congressional delegation said they will demand a federal investigation into the deployment of federal officers in Portland, where local leaders say their presence outside federal buildings has inflamed tensions during nightly protests and led to violent confrontations and questionable arrests in recent weeks.
(AP, 7/17/20)(NBC News, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, It was reported that of the 1,798 inmates at the Federal Correctional Institute at Seagoville, Texas, at least 1,072 have contracted the coronavirus virus. Ten staff members have also tested positive and four have recovered.
(NBC News, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, In Texas the body of Pvt. Mejhor Morta (26) in the vicinity of Stillhjouse Hollow Lake, near the Fort Hood army base. The was third soldier from Fort Hood to be found dead this month in the area.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 17, Taliban officials said they have put Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob (30), the son of the movement's feared founder, in charge of their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating team. The shake-up, one of the most significant in years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Authorities in Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne meanwhile warned that its lockdown could become even tougher after a record 423 new cases were registered there.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, It was reported that British ministers are making plans to distribute millions of free coronavirus antibody tests after a version backed by the UK government passed its first major trials. The fingerprick tests, which can tell within 20 minutes if a person has ever been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6% accurate in secret human trials held in June.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, In China flights were curtailed and public transport shut down in Urumqi, the capital of the far-western Xinjiang region, after five new infections were detected. The city also reported eight new asymptomatic cases, taking Xinjiang's tally to six infections and 11 asymptomatic patients.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Egypt reported a total of 86,474 COVID-19 cases and 4,188 deaths, including 68 today. 703 new coronavirus cases marked the lowest figure since late May.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, EU leaders met face to face to try to rescue Europe's economy from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, India became the third country to record one million coronavirus cases, joining Brazil and the United States. A surge of 34,956 cases in the last 24 hours took the confirmed total to 1,003,832. A record 687 deaths took that total to 25,602.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, Israel announced sweeping new restrictions in response to a new surge in coronavirus cases, including weekend closures of many businesses and limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery. Israel has recorded over 56,000 cases, but just 430 deaths.
(AP, 7/17/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.35)
2020 Jul 17, Tokyo confirmed 293 coronavirus cases, a single-day record for a 2nd straight day.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, A video began circulating on social media that appeared to be a show of power by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups. The release of the video coincided with a visit by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to the group’s heartland.
(The Independent, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, Mexico's Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he is putting the army in charge of customs operations at borders and seaports to combat corruption and the massive smuggling of drugs and prescursor chemicals.
(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 17, Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex, landed in Mexico City to face corruption charges after being extradited from Spain. He was immediately hospitalized for anemia and poor health.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 17, Police in North Macedonia found 55 migrants in two separate incidents. All the migrants will be deported back to Greece, where they came from.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (44) was barred from leaving Moscow as police carried out a new raid on his offices. Navalny said he was questioned by investigators as part of a new probe into suspected slander over comments he made on social media.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Russian drugmaker R-Pharm said it has signed a deal with AstraZeneca for it to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the British pharmaceuticals giant and Oxford University.
(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Seyfi Dursunoglu (b.1932, also known by his stage name Huysuz Virjin (Grumpy Virgin), died. He was a Turkish performing artist, comedian, singer, TV presenter and drag artist. From the 1970s until the 2000s and was a well-known entertainment figure with his programs in Turkey's television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfi_Dursuno%C4%9Flu)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 18, The US Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for pooled COVID-19 testing. Quest Diagnostics will now be able to group up to four samples together and will only test them individually if the batch comes back positive.
(The Week, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 18, California to date had 375,686 cases of coronavirus and 7,620 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 40,893 cases and 700 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,676,942 with the death toll at 139,748.
(sfist.com, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Oregon protesters broke into the Portland Police Association building, set it on fire and started dumpster fires late today, as demonstrations that have been taking place since the death of George Floyd intensified for another night. Navy veteran Christopher David (53), a peaceful protester, was hit with a baton five times by one of the militarized federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump. Another officer, wearing green military camouflage, a helmet and gas mask, sprayed David full in the face with what appears to be pepper gas. Video of the incident went viral. Federal authorities had assembled a force of 114 federal officers to protect US government buildings in Portland, in response to ongoing protests, unrest and violence there, as part of a mission dubbed “Operation Diligent Valor".
(AP, 7/19/20)(AP, 7/20/20)(Politico, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 18, A federal appeals court overruled a judge's decision allowing the Texas Republican Party to hold an in-person convention in Houston, marking a big win for the nation's fourth-largest city in an ongoing battle with the state GOP.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Texas three people were killed and 9 injured when a vehicle driven by Ivan Robles (28) crossed a center line and crashed into members of the Thin Blue Line law Enforcement Motorcycle Club.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 18, In Bangladesh, confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 200,000 but experts say the number is much higher as the country lacks adequate labs for testing.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Britain has registered more than 45,300 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But the government said it will halt issuing daily updates to that toll while authorities investigate the way the statistics are compiled.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Canada's Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said that Ottawa has denied the Toronto Blue Jays' request to play at the Rogers Centre, their home stadium, during the shortened 60-game Major League Baseball season. The Canadian government does not believe it will be safe for the team to travel back and forth to play teams based in the United States.
(The Week, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Canada a glacier tour bus rolled down a steep embankment in Alberta killing three passengers and injuring several of 24 others.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 18, Chile had 321,205 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 7,186 deaths. As a share its population this was among the highest in the world.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.25)
2020 Jul 18, In France thousands of protesters marched through a Paris suburb to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Adama Traoré, a Black man in police custody whose case has mobilized broad anger against police brutality and racial injustice in France. The protest was also about broader anti-government grievances. Climate activists co-organized this year’s protest.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In France an arson attack badly damaged the 15th-century Gothic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes. On July 26 authorities detained and charged a repentant church volunteer after he told investigators that he was responsible for the arson attack. The 39-year-old Rwandan had been tasked with the job of locking up the cathedral.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 18, In India, a surge of 34,884 new coronavirus cases was reported as local governments continue to re-impose focused lockdowns in several parts of the country.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Iran’s Pres. Hassan Rouhani estimated as many as 25 million Iranians could have been infected with the coronavirus since the outbreak's beginning, and urged the public to take the pandemic seriously. Health officials have reported 2,166 new cases and 188 deaths in the last 24 hours. Iran has recorded more than 270,000 confirmed cases and at least 13,979 deaths.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Mexico's Health Ministry posted a record for new coronavirus cases reported on a single day, with 7,615 more confirmed cases, bringing its overall tally of infections to 338,913.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Russia tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the Far East in a rare show of defiance against the Kremlin as they protested the arrest of a popular governor. The protests in Khabarovsk, a city of some 600,000 people, began a week ago following the sudden arrest of popular governor Sergei Furgal in a murder probe.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, South Africa's 337,000 cases of coronavirus made up roughly half of all confirmed infections on the African continent and its struggles are a sign of trouble to come for nations with fewer health care resources.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 19, President Donald Trump pledged that the coronavirus was coming under control.
(Reuters, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Arizona's totals for the coronavirus rose to 2,761 deaths and more than 143, 600 infections.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, California to date had 383,059 cases of coronavirus and 7,704 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 41,383 cases and 700 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,752,257 with the death toll at 140,395.
(sfist.com, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, The state of Florida now has over 350,000 cases of coronavirus with another 12,478 reported today. Officials reported another 87 deaths, bringing the statewide total to 5,089.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Kentucky reported 979 new coronavirus cases reported, for a total of 23,161. A 30-day statewide mask mandate went into effect on July 10.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned citizens that there is a "statewide epidemic" of COVID-19. Louisiana has had 91,706 cases of COVID-19 and 3,433 deaths, according to the most recent state data.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, A gunman shot the son of a federal judge at her home in New Jersey. Esther Salas, was home at the time of the shooting at her residence in North Brunswick, N.J., but was not injured. Her son, Daniel Anderl, a college student, died in the shooting and her husband, Mark Anderl, was injured. On July 20 self-described "anti-feminist" lawyer Roy Den Hollander, was found dead. He has been identified as the "primary subject" suspected in the fatal shooting of Anderl.
(NY Times, 7/20/20)(The Week, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 19, South Carolina reported its highest number of daily new cases with 2,335 confirmed and 1 probable case of COVID-19. The state also recorded 19 additional deaths, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 1,138.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Texas reported 93 new COVID-19 fatalities, the first time in five days the number of deaths has been below 100. The state has reported 3,928 total fatalities during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, In China the emergency response level for Beijing was lowered to Level II, after two weeks of no new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Acrimonious European Union talks over an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund entered a third day Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that the summit of 27 leaders could still end without a deal.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, It was reported that more than 6,500 coronavirus cases have been recorded in French Guiana. Officials feared the number of infections is estimated to be much higher.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, In Honduras five black indigenous men were abducted from their homes by heavily armed gunmen in police uniforms. Among those abducted was Alberth Snider Centeno Thomas (27), president of the community board and a semi-professional footballer. He had previously reported threats linked to his role defending territorial rights. The abduction of the five Garifuna men come just weeks after the murder of Antonio Bernárdez (71), a Garifuna leader from the Punta Piedra community.
(The Guardian, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 19, Hong Kong tightened coronavirus restrictions, with non-essential civil servants told to work from home from this week. The global financial hub reported more than 100 cases of the coronavirus, a record number, bringing the city's total to 1,777 including 12 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, India, which has now confirmed more than 1 million coronavirus infections, reported a 24-hour record of 38,902 new cases.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Iran's state TV reported that the execution of three young men who participated in a November protest has been suspended after the country’s Supreme Court decided to review their case.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, It was reported that automotive sensor developer Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd said it will begin a pilot project in Israel for its COVID-19 symptom detection technology.
(Reuters, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, South Africa reported more than 350,800 cases of the coronavirus, ranking it fifth in the world and accounting for half the infections in Africa.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, Syrians headed to polling stations in government-held parts of the war-torn country to elect a new parliament amid strict health measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Some 167 seats are allocated for Pres. Assad’s ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party, guaranteeing it a solid majority.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, In northern Syria an explosion rocked a rebel-held area across the border from Turkey late today, killing at least five people and wounding dozens. Anadolu news reported another blast earlier today that wounded 13 people, including children, in the town of Afrin.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Zimbabwe police said more than 105,000 people have been arrested since March for violating regulations aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 20, President Trump defended his administration's deployment of federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Oregon, to target protesters, and threatened to send agents to more cities.
(The Week, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, A US federal appeals panel said that Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla was properly convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions in a case that strained relations with Turkey. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and has since returned to Turkey.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, California to date had 395,884 cases of coronavirus and 7,716 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 42,520 cases and 708 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,816,427 with the death toll at 140,879.
(sfist.com, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Former Fox News employee Jennifer Eckhart filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against Fox News and former network anchor Ed Henry, accusing him of raping her.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The charred body of a man who has not yet been identified was found in Max It Pawn, nearly two months after it was set alight on 28 May, following three days of Black Lives Matter protests.
(The Independent, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Oregon protesters outside Portland's US courthouse set a fire in the building's entryway early today in yet another night of conflict with federal agents who repeatedly tear gassed the demonstrators to drive them away.
(AFP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Pennsylvania Nathan Joseph Quidetto (20), angry over a botched drug deal, fired several shots into a residence in Derry where he mistakenly thought someone involved in the deal lived, killing Tracy Marie Squib (52), who was asleep in her bed. Quidetto was arrested on July 22.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 20, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said several new COVID-19 outbreaks have been identified at churches in West Virginia's Grant, Logan, and Wood counties.
(Good Morning America, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that rich Americans produce nearly 25% more heat-trapping gases than poorer people at home, according to a comprehensive study of US residential carbon footprints.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Chevron will take over Houston-based Noble Energy for $5 billion and assume Noble's debt. The total enterprise value of the deal was put at $13 billion.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 20, Whole Foods Market Inc, owned by Amazon, was sued by employees who accused the upscale grocery retailer of disciplining and retaliating against workers who wear "Black Lives Matter" face masks on the job, including one who said she was fired.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Uber Technologies Inc has quietly launched a service to give public health officials quick access to data on drivers and riders presumed to have come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Australia's New South Wales state reported 20 new infections, the highest in three months. Authorities here have been unable to trace some of the clusters and state authorities have urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and public transport.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The British government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and blocked arms sales to the former British territory following China's imposition of a new national security law.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 20, Britain said it had agreed in principle to buy 60 million doses of the Valneva vaccine, with an option to purchase 40 million more if it proved safe, effective and suitable. France's Valneva is aiming for clinical trials of the vaccine to start in November or December this year. The vaccine uses an adjuvant, or booster, by Dynavax.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Synairgen shares rose almost sixfold after the British drugmaker said its medicine helped reduce the risk of severe cases in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, but some experts have cautioned against too much optimism in the market.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, A University of Toronto-led study, published in Nature Climate Change, said polar bears could be starved into extinction by 2100 as the Arctic sea ice continues to shrink at alarming rates, making it hard for the bears to hunt for food.
(Good Morning America, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 20, Researchers said a COVID-19 vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc and China's military research unit has shown to be safe and induced immune response in most of the recipients. Some participants in the first CanSino clinical trial in March said in social media posts that researchers on the project claimed they had been injected Feb. 29, before regulators gave the study the go-ahead.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Indian police have arrested 14 people on suspicion of selling locally made doses of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir at five times the maximum retail price as a surge of novel coronavirus cases boosts demand for the antiviral drug. India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 1.11 million with more than 27,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Egypt’s parliament authorized the deployment of troops outside the country, a move that could escalate the spiraling war in Libya after the president threatened military action against Turkish-backed forces in the oil-rich country.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Human Rights Watch said the coronavirus has infected people inside several Egyptian prisons and killed at least 14 detainees, as authorities seek to stifle news of the spread of the virus behind bars.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, France began requiring face masks in supermarkets, shopping malls, banks, stores and indoor markets to curb signs that the coronavirus is making inroads again.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that global wealth managers are examining whether their clients in Hong Kong have ties to the city's pro-democracy movement, in an attempt to avoid getting caught in the crosshairs of China's new national security law, according to six people with knowledge of the matter.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, India reported more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus, a record daily high, raising the country's total to 1,118,043 including 27,497 deaths.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, Iran executed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, a former translator convicted of spying for the US and Israel. The judiciary said he helped to locate a top Iranian general killed later by the Americans. Majd was arrested about two years ago and was not directly involved in the killing of General Qasem Soleimani.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Iraq Hella Mewis, a German woman well known in Iraq’s art scene and an ardent supporter of mass anti-government protests, was kidnapped outside the Baghdad arts center where she worked.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 20, An Israeli court acquitted a soldier and a prison guard in the 2015 killing of Habtom Zerhom (29), an Eritrean man, who was shot and beaten to death by a mob in the aftermath of a terror attack after being mistaken for an assailant.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co said it aims to boost production capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to produce enough for 30 million people annually by the end of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Dutch electrical equipment maker Philips said a recent surge in orders for scanners and other medical equipment should enable group sales and margins to rebound over the next six months from a slump in the second quarter.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In North Carolina the body of Keonna Graham (23) was found in a hotel room in Shallotte. The following day suspect Michael Todd Hill (52), the winner of a $10 million lottery in 2017, was arrested in Southport.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Norway's Adevinta has won the auction to buy the bulk of eBay's classified ads unit for nearly $9 billion, with the US e-commerce firm planning to keep a minority stake.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin appointed lawmaker Mikhail Degtyaryov as acting governor to the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, where tens of thousands have been protesting against the arrest of the popular incumbent on charges of involvement in multiple murders.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The Syrian military said the country’s air defenses responded to Israeli air raids in south Damascus, saying they wounded seven soldiers and caused material damage. Israeli airstrikes on military posts south of Damascus reportedly killed five foreign fighters and wounded several others.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, A United Arab Emirates spacecraft began its journey to Mars following blastoff from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. The probe, named Amal (Hope), is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 20, The Vatican said that in very exceptional circumstances and with special permission, lay Catholics can be allowed to perform marriage rites.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono, who recently exposed alleged government corruption involving coronavirus supplies, has been charged with inciting public violence. Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume has also been arrested in Harare on the same charges. In September Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono was granted bail after being held in jail for more than a month on charges of inciting violence.
(BBC, 7/20/20)(The Telegraph, 9/2/20)
2020 Jul 21, President Donald Trump delivered his first virus briefing after a three-month hiatus and warned the pandemic would “get worse before it gets better." The global tally of people infected with the coronavirus neared 15 million.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum declaring that people living in the country illegally should be ignored for congressional apportionment in 2021.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.26)
2020 Jul 21, The White House announced the award of $75 million by the National Science Foundation for new institutes at three US universities to boost quantum information research.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, The US Justice Department announced an indictment charging two Chinese nationals — both in China — with hacking governments, dissidents, human rights activists and private companies, including those engaged in COVID-19 vaccine research. A grand jury indictment charged Li Xiaoyu (34) and Dong Jiazhi (33) with conducting a hacking campaign lasting more than 10 years.
(NBC News, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Adham Amin Hassoun (58), a man convicted of terrorism-related crimes, was deported from the US after a legal battle to hold him indefinitely stalled. In 2007, he was convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country along with Jose Padilla, who is still imprisoned. Hassoun had completed his sentence in 2018 and was then detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Patriot Act because authorities could not find a destination.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 21, California to date had 407,344 cases of coronavirus and 7,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 43,505 cases and 720 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,891,813 with the death toll at 141,883.
(sfist.com, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Chicago 15 people were shot, one person was being questioned and multiple suspects were being sought after gunfire erupted outside a funeral home on the city's South Side as the federal government moved forward on plans to deploy more agents to the city where violence is spiking.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, Larry Householder, the powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House, and four associates were arrested in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, US medical device maker Becton Dickinson and Co said it has received additional orders from the United States and Canada governments for 177 million syringes and needles for COVID-19 vaccination programs.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden outlined a sweeping plan aimed at breathing life into the coronavirus-battered U.S. economy by investing $775 billion in caregiving programs for children, the elderly and the disabled.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, It was reported that Biogen is seeking to layer its $750,000 spinal muscular atrophy drug on top of $2.1 million-per-patient Novartis gene therapy Zolgensma.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Britain Kevan Jones, a member of the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee ((ISC), published his report into Russian interference in British politics.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.36)
2020 Jul 21, Bulgaria’s center-right government survived the fifth no-confidence vote called by the Socialist opposition over its alleged failure to curb widespread graft. The protesters gathered in front of parliament and voiced dissatisfaction with what they call a corrupt model of governance in which influential media moguls and oligarchs support PM Boyko Borissov in return for state-sponsored favors.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Egypt an Islamic militant attack in northern Sinai killed two government troops and wounded four others. Armed forces, backed by airpower, reportedly killed 18 suspected Islamic militants and destroyed four vehicles, including three car bombs.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed said his country, Egypt and Sudan have reached a “major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement" on a massive dam project that has led to sharp regional tensions and led some to fear military conflict.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, EU leaders reached a deal early today on a huge stimulus plan for coronavirus-ravaged economies. The $2.1 trillion budget agreement, which came at the end of a five-day summit in Brussels, included a $857.33 billion recovery fund to help lift the continent out of its worst recession since World War II.
(The Week, 7/21/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.39)
2020 Jul 21, German biotech company CureVac said Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has taken an undisclosed stake in the firm as part of a $126 million financing round, the latest high-profile investor to come onboard ahead of a potential stock market listing.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Hong Kong reported 61 new coronavirus cases, including 58 that were locally transmitted, adding to a slew of new cases which have hit the global financial hub over the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Iran reported a new single-day record death toll of 229 from the novel coronavirus, after weeks of rising numbers in the Middle East's worst-hit country. This raised the overall toll to 14,634. The country's caseload rose to 278,827, with 2,625 more people testing positive for the disease in the past day.
(AFP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhemi met Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran during his first trip abroad since taking office. They had discussed expanding trade ties, fighting the novel coronavirus and efforts to ensure regional stability.
(AFP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Mexico reported 5,172 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to almost 350,000 . Daily deaths fell to 301 for a total of 39,500.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 21, First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov told Argumenty i Fakty newspaper that Russia’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus is ready.
(Good Morning America, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, South Korea's SK Bioscience said it has agreed to manufacture AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine to help the British company build global supplies of the vaccine that has shown promise against the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, It was reported that Catalonia leads Spain's 19 regions with 9,600 new reported COVID-19 cases since May 10 and its growth rate has more than doubled in the past three weeks.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Uganda recorded its first coronavirus death. The country's first case was confirmed on March 22 and since then confirmed cases have risen to more than 1,000. Only a few thousand daily tests were being performed.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 21, In northwestern Ukraine an armed man seized a long-distance bus and took people in it hostage launching an hours-long standoff with police. Maksim Krivosh (44), a Ukrainian born in Russia, seized the bus with 13 people. Krivosh released the hostages shortly after Pres. Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to watch “Earthlings," a 2005 American documentary exposing humanity’s cruel exploitation of animals.
(AP, 7/21/20)(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, The World Health Organization said it is facing a “serious funding gap" to battle the new outbreak of Ebola in remote corners of northern Equateur province amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Already there have been 20 confirmed deaths since the outbreak was declared on June 1.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 22, President Donald Trump announced he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order" mantle.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump was the country's “first" racist president. Biden also suggested that Trump is using race “as a wedge" to distract from his mishandling of the pandemic.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 22, The United States said that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property" and the private information of Americans.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was proposing the first US emissions standards for commercial aircraft. The proposed regulation seeks to align the United States with the 2016 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that the US and UK have agreed to end an "anomaly" that allowed Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat accused of running over British teenager Harry Dunn last year, to claim diplomatic immunity.
(ABC News, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that the United States Secret Service and United States Department of State is offering up to $2 million for information leading to the arrests or convictions of Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko, both Ukrainian nationals. The two allegedly hacked into the SEC system in 2016 that companies use to make their filings public known as Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, or EDGAR.
(ABC News, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Kim Kardashian said that her rapper husband Kanye West suffers from bipolar disorder and asked for compassion and empathy as he and his family try to manage his illness.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, California reported more than 12,800 new infections, a one-day record. California to date had 407,344 cases of coronavirus and 7,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 44,737 cases and 729 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,970,906 with the death toll at 143,190.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)(sfist.com, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Atlanta-based online lender Kabbage Inc said that it will offer checking accounts for small businesses, making it the latest financial technology startup to expand its offering to a broader suite of banking services.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Minnesota Washington County Attorney Pete Orput announced that Derek Chauvin and his estranged wife, Kellie Chauvin, have been accused of fraudulently filing tax returns from 2014 to 2019 and not filing individual income tax returns on time from 2016 to 2019. On May 25, Chauvin was filmed with his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.
(The Week, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Oregon Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, was tear-gassed by US government agents late today as he stood at a fence erected to protect a federal courthouse during another night of protests against the presence of the agents sent by Pres. Donald Trump to quell the city's ongoing unrest.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, More than 35,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in Utah, and over 250 people have died. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested. Officials said the Salt Lake City area is bucking a surge after the county issued a mandate a month ago for people to wear masks.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Joan Feynman (93), American astrophysicist, died in Ventura, Ca. She made important contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields; sun-Earth relations; and magnetospheric physics.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Feynman)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.86)
2020 Jul 22, In western Afghanistan a government air strike killed at least 14 people in Herat province, where hundreds of people had gathered to welcome home a freed Taliban fighter. The government promised an investigation.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, Australia recorded 502 new cases of the coronavirus, including 484 in Victoria state, where face were made compulsory as of July 23.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 22, Bolivia has reported nearly 2,300 confirmed deaths from COVID-19, although the real number is believed to be higher. Police in the major cities have recovered the bodies of hundreds of suspected victims of the coronavirus from homes, vehicles and, in some instances, the streets. The government says the peak of the outbreak is not expected until August.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Britain’s opposition Labour Party agreed to pay substantial damages to seven whistleblowers who sued for defamation after they voiced concerns last year of anti-Semitism within the party.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Ethiopia said the first-year target for filling the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) on the River Nile has been reached. The announcement came a day after Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agreed to resume talks over the dam, following a virtual summit.
(BBC, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Hungary Szabolcs Dull, the editor of independent news site Index.hu, was fired. last month Index moved its "independence barometer" to "in danger" from "independent" after it was confronted by management to reorganize its newsroom.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its version of anti-flu drug favipiravir showed promise in a late-stage study of 150 patients with mild to moderate coronavirus infection.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Madagascar reported a record 614 new coronavirus cases in the last day, bringing the total to 8,162 and 69 deaths. President Andry Rajoelina has been promoting a herbal drink to treat the virus.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 22, Scientists reported on artifacts found in a mountain cave in the state of Zacatecas in north-central Mexico. Limestone tools found at the site spanned from 31,000 to 12,500 years old, said archaeologist Ciprian Ardelean of Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas in Mexico, lead author of one of two studies published in the journal Nature.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that violence against women has surged in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s president has downplayed the problem and slashed the budgets of agencies charged with addressing women’s issues. Figures released this week show that crimes such as femicides climbed 7.7% in the first half of 2020, when compared with the same period last year.
(The Guardian, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Long-haul carrier Qatar Airways said it has launched international arbitration seeking at least $5 billion from four boycotting Arab countries for blocking its flights from their airspace and their markets.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Romania said its number of coronavirus infections rose by a record 1,030 new cases in a day. Romania has confirmed 40,163 cases since the pandemic reached it in late February and 2,101 people have died.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Russian activist and ethnographer Yuri Dmitriyev was sentenced to 3½ years in prison on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. Rights activists called this a politically driven fabrication. Dmitriyev had discovered a mass grave in the late 1990s full of skulls with holes in them and worked relentlessly to research and document Stalin-era purges in the Karelia region.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, Sudan’s PM Abdalla Hamdok announced the appointment of civilian governors for the country’s 18 provinces, another key step forward in a fragile transition to democracy over a year after the military ousted long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Turkish and Russian delegations met in Ankara to discuss the war in Libya and agreed to press ahead with efforts for a lasting cease-fire in the North African country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, UN agencies warned that food shortages will rise sharply in parts of war-torn Yemen in the next six months, mainly because of the overall economic decline and the pandemic that has ripped through the Arab world’s poorest country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 23, President Donald Trump scrapped plans for a four-night Republican National Convention celebration in Florida that had been set to draw more than 10,000 people to a pandemic hot spot to mark his renomination.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The Trump administration said that it is revoking an Obama-era housing regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs, a move that fair housing advocates have decried as an election year stunt designed to manipulate the fears of white voters.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, US and British officials claimed that a July 15 test of an anti-satellite weapon signaled a continuing Russian effort to develop technologies that could threaten space assets of the United States and its allies.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's outrage over a lawmaker’s verbal assault broadened into an extraordinary moment on the House floor as she and other Democrats assailed a sexist culture of “accepting violence and violent language against women" whose adherents include President Donald Trump. This came a day after she rejected an offer of contrition from Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., for his language during this week's Capitol steps confrontation.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The US Department of Justice announced that Alabama prisons have a pattern of using excessive force against male inmates, as it again accused the state of keeping prisoners in unconstitutional conditions.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A federal judge ordered the release of Michael Cohen to home confinement, agreeing with his lawyers that he was wrongly sent back to prison after making public statements critical of President Donald Trump.
(Today, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A US judge authorized the release of new records from a 2015 civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate who is facing criminal charges that she lured girls for the late financier to sexually abuse.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The US baseball season officially began, four months late because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.22)
2020 Jul 23, California to date had 428,980 cases of coronavirus and 8,187 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 45,857 cases and 740 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,027,741 with the death toll at 144,072.
(sfist.com, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Florida recorded 173 new coronavirus deaths, a daily high that pushed its toll from the pandemic to more than 5,500. Deaths inside nursing homes have also been on the rise, averaging about 40 per day in the last week after those numbers had dropped in mid-June to lower than 20 deaths per day.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a police accountability bill into law that included a ban on neck restraints, choke holds and so-called warrior-style training.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 23, A federal judge specifically blocked US agents from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers at protests in Oregon's largest city where President Donald Trump is testing the limits of federal power.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Texas set one-day records for increases in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the state, forcing one county to store bodies in refrigerated trucks and prompting a top health official there to call for new stay-at-home orders.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Australia rejected Beijing's territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United Nations, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating row.
(AFP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Bahrain, with a population of 1.6 million, has reported more than 37,000 cases of the coronavirus and 130 deaths. The government put the asymptomatic figure at 68%, mostly among healthy and young foreign laborers.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Britain and the EU broke up their latest round of post-Brexit trade negotiations by ruling out a quick deal but voicing hope for agreement in the coming months.
(AFP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, London-based Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), a firm backed by the UK government, said it has purchased a vaccine manufacturing facility from healthcare company Benchmark Holdings for 16 million pounds ($20.36 million) in cash, as the country ramps up efforts to produce potential coronavirus vaccines.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In northern Egypt four members of a family drowned at al-Safa beach off the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that a hospital in the southern French city of Lyon is testing patients with a new machine that enables them to breathe into a tube to see whether they have COVID-19 in a matter of seconds.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Emmanuel Farhi (b.1978), French economist and professor of economics at Harvard University, died. His most cited work was on safe assets, written in 2008 with Ricardo Caballero of MIT.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Farhi)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.60)
2020 Jul 23, A German court found Bruno Day (93), a former Nazi SS camp guard, guilty of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder and one case of accessory to attempted murder — equal to the number of people believed to have been killed at Stutthof concentration camp during his service there. Dey was 17, and later 18, at the time of his alleged crimes which were consequently heard in juvenile court in Hamburg. He was given a two-year juvenile sentence, which has been suspended.
(NBC News, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Germany 11 men were convicted of rape at the end of a year-long trial over a gang assault on an 18-year-old woman in October 2018. The case, in which most of the defendants were Syrian, added to tensions in Germany over migration.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Hong Kong reported 118 new coronavirus cases, a daily record, including 111 locally transmitted cases, adding to a deluge of new infections that have hit the global financial hub in the past two weeks. Total confirmed cases now numbered 2,250, including 14 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 23, Indonesian authorities in Bali arrested Marcus Beam, an American fugitive accused of investment fraud. Police said Beam had been making and selling sex videos in Bali to support his living expenses there.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5woy5nm)
2020 Jul 23, Baghdad International Airport reopened for scheduled commercial flights after months of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit Iraq especially hard in recent weeks. The country has recorded 102,226 coronavirus infections and 4,122 deaths. Today's tally was 2,361 new cases.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Tokyo announced a record 366 new daily coronavirus cases . Tokyo now has 10,420 confirmed cases including 327 deaths.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that five aid workers abducted last month in north-east Nigeria's Borno State have been killed. Pres. Muhammadu Buhari blamed Boko Haram and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In northwester Pakistan a bombing wounded at least 20 people in the town of Parachinar, a majority Shiite town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 23, Qatar, with a population of 2.8 million people, has reported more than 107,000 cases of the coronavirus and 163 deaths. Nearly 60% of those testing positive, mostly among healthy and young foreign laborers, showed little or no symptoms at all.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Romania the number of coronavirus infections rose by a record amount for a second consecutive day. Romania announced 1,112 new cases, taking confirmed cases to 41,275. Some 2,126 people have died.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a wide-ranging investigation into claims that unscrupulous officials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country’s 57 million people. South Africa now has more than 434,000 confirmed virus cases.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 23, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) announced a record increase of 572 coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours. South Africa witnessed some 17,000 extra deaths from natural causes or 59% more than would normally be expected between early May and mid-July, scientists said, suggesting many more people are dying of COVID-19 than shown in official figures.
(AFP, 7/23/20) (Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Regional authorities across Spain introduced fresh coronavirus restrictions aimed at stamping out a surge in infections that continues to defy efforts at containment and is damaging tourism. Health ministry data showed 2,615 new cases across the country, compared with a daily average of just 132 in June.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A Sudanese paramilitary group attacked civilians in the war-scarred region of South Darfur, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 more.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that a mass grave has been discovered in Sudan containing 28 bodies, thought to be the remains of army officers executed for carrying out a coup attempt in 1990 against former President Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Sudan’s protest leaders announced that they oppose the government’s economic reform plan to slash fuel subsidies and float the Sudanese currency, raising the specter of unrest as the country makes a fragile transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Uganda, at least 12 people have allegedly been killed by security officers enforcing measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus, while the country has only just confirmed its first death from Covid-19.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 24, US President Donald Trump signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill re-election battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, President Donald Trump said the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, fellow Republican James Inhofe, will not change the names of military bases after Congress passed legislation to rename posts that honor leaders of the Confederate armies who fought against US forces.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The Trump administration said it will allow the sale of advanced armed military drones bypassing part of an international weapons export control agreement that the US helped forge more than three decades ago.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, US prosecutors unveiled charges against 18 Portland, Oregon protesters ranging from assaulting police to arson and trespassing, a day after the Trump administration expanded the deployment of tactical police to Seattle. A US District judge denied the Oregon attorney general's request for a temporary restraining order to rein in the activities of federal agents responding to protests and unrest in Portland.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(Politico, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, It was reported that Goldman Sachs has reached a $3.9bn (£3bn) settlement with the Malaysian government for its role in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB corruption scheme.
(BBC, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In California the parents of Thaddeus Sran, a missing 2-year-old boy with special needs, were arrested after police found the remains of a toddler on farmland outside Madera. The child was reported missing by his parents on July 15.
(NBC News, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In California Chinese researcher Juan Tang (37), accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so she could work in the US, was booked into a Sacramento County jail and was expected to appear in federal court July 26.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, California to date had 434,016 cases of coronavirus and 8,232 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 47,077 cases and 758 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,103,371 with the death toll at 145,261.
(sfist.com, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Ann Syrdal (74), psychologist and computer science researcher, died at her home in San Jose, Ca. She helped develop synthetic voices that sounded like women and laid the groundwork for such modern digital assistants as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.
(NY Times, 8/21/20)
2020 Jul 24, Colorado teenager Alec McKinney (17), who opened fire at a Denver-area high school on May 7, 2019, in what has been described as an ambush attack, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
(NBC News, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Legendary television host Regis Philbin (88) died in Connecticut. He became a household name in the 1980s cohosting "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee" and later padded an impressive resume by hosting "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (1999-2002).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Philbin)
2020 Jul 24, In Chicago two statues of Christopher Columbus that stood in local parks were taken down early today at the direction of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a week after protesters trying to topple one of the monuments to the Italian explorer clashed with police.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Louisiana New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered bars closed and banned restaurants from selling alcoholic drinks to take away. That came after more than 2,000 new cases were reported for the surrounding state of Louisiana, including 103 in New Orleans.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's mandate for face-covering for anyone five years or older went into effect. The state reported 9 deaths and 396 new coronavirus cases bringing the case total to more than 16,100.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 24, Virginia removed overnight the busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials from its iconic state capitol. These included a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the same spot where he stood to assume command of the state's armed forces in the Civil War nearly 160 years ago.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews of the southern state of Victoria announced five deaths and 357 new cases. Victoria, where the death toll has risen to 61, earlier closed its border with neighboring New South Wales.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Belarus opposition candidate Valery Tsepkalo, who planned to challenge longtime authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko in next month's presidential election, said he has fled the country. Tsepkalo said that he moved to Russia with his two children after unnamed sources in the Belarus's Interior Ministry and the State Security Committee (the KGB) warned him about a looming arrest and plans to strip him of his parental rights and take his children away.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said the US FDA has approved its drug Breztri Aerosphere to treat patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, A panel of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended approving GlaxoSmithKline's experimental treatment for a common form of blood cancer, days after a similar nod from a US Food and Drug Administration panel.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, China ordered the closing of the US Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, in rapid retaliation for the closing of its consulate in Houston.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, It was reported that animal tests of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers show it triggers an immune response against the novel coronavirus, offering some promise as it goes into early-stage human trials. ARCoV is a messenger RNA vaccine which uses technology similar to candidates being developed by Moderna and BioNtech and Pfizer.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, El Salvador arrested its former defense minister David Munguia Paye for his involvement in a government pact with the country's principle gangs in 2012.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, Europe's Airbus said it would increase loan repayments to France and Spain in a "final" bid to reverse US tariffs and jog the United States into settling a 16-year-old dispute over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, France's visiting foreign minister pledged €15 million, about $17 million, in aid to Lebanon's schools, struggling under the weight of the country's economic crisis.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The German cruise ship “Mein Schiff 2" set sail in the North Sea for the first time since the industry was shut down months ago, using strict precautions to keep passengers and crew as safe as possible. The ship sailed off with 1,200 passengers on board compared to its normal 2,900 capacity.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 24, German authorities arrested a German woman (Nurten J.), who allegedly joined the Islamic State group in Syria, upon her return to the country. She is accused of membership in a foreign terrorist group, war crimes against property and other crimes. The fate of her children was not known.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Hungary more than 80 Index staff members resigned from the the country's main news site following the firing earlier this week of editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, India-based Cipla Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to sell anti-viral drug favipiravir to treat COVID-19. India reported over 49,310 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus with 740 new deaths, marking the biggest daily surge in cases. Total cases now numbered 1,287,945, the 3rd highest in the world behind the US and Brazil.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 24, In Iraq Hella Mewis, a German arts curator kidnapped in Baghdad on July 21, was freed by Iraqi security forces.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Israeli police used water cannons to disperse protesters in central Jerusalem and arrested at least 55 of them as clashes broke out overnight after thousands staged a protest against PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Immigration New Zealand confirmed that Behrouz Boochani (37) had been given the status, which allows him to legally stay in the country and gives him a path to citizenship. The journalist had fled Iran and then exposed Australia's degrading treatment of asylum-seekers while being held against his will for six years.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Russia dismissed US and British claims that it tested an anti-satellite weapon in space and declared that the accusations served to justify Washington's own plans to deploy weapons in orbit. Russia's Defense Ministry previously stated that the July 15 event involved “a small space vehicle" that “inspected one of the national satellites from a close distance using special equipment".
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Russia groups of Azerbaijanis beat up Armenians in Moscow early today and later assailed Armenian-owned stores. Azerbaijanis and Armenians have engaged in a series of fights and violent rampages in Moscow, venting their anger over recent cross-border clashes between the two ex-Soviet nations.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 24, South African police officers used water cannon to disperse protesters marching outside Parliament over the plight of the hospitality industry during the coronavirus pandemic. A day earlier confirmed cases in South Africa of the coronavirus surpassed 400,000.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In South Africa 68 inmates escaped from the Malmesbury Prison in the Western Cape. After all escapees were rearrested following a 2-day manhunt.
(BBC, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 24, Spain has reported over 900 new daily infections for the last two days as authorities warn that the country that lost over 28,000 lives before getting its outbreak under control could be facing the start of a second major outbreak. Catalonia became the latest region to crack down on nightlife, trying to tamp down on new infection clusters.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Swiss-based Novartis's sickle cell disease treatment Adakveo appeared set for European approval after a key committee gave its backing to the drug that booked $36 million in first-half US sales.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Thailand officials said prosecutors have dropped all charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who was accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a Sept. 3, 2012, car crash. Prosecutors cited the fact the family members (of the police officer) have been compensated" by Vorayuth's family.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The UN weather agency warned that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia's Arctic coast.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that nearly 100 workers at OBI Seafoods in Seward, Alaska, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Three days earlier 85 crew members of a factory fishing vessel docked in the Aleutian Islands tested positive.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 25, Protesters in Oakland, California, set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station, broke windows, spray-painted graffiti, shot fireworks and pointed lasers at officers after a peaceful demonstration turned to unrest.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, California to date had 441,602 cases of coronavirus and 8,345 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 47,685 cases and 760 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,154,361 with the death toll at 146,143.
(sfist.com, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, The Florida Department of Health reported an additional 12,199 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to 414,511. Florida has recorded 5,894 total deaths, with an increase of 126, and 23,730 hospitalizations, with an increase of 505.
(Good Morning America, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Bread for the World, a nonpartisan Christian organization that seeks to end hunger said, it asked for and received the resignation of Florida Rep. Ted Yoho from its board of directors following what it called his “verbal attack" on New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Kentucky hundreds of armed, predominantly Black, activists demanded justice for Breonna Taylor during peaceful demonstrations in Louisville that drew counter-protesters from a white militia group.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Tennessee actor John Saxon (83), whose good looks won him not only legions of female fans but also a wide array of roles, died at his home in Murfreesboro. Saxon appeared in nearly 200 roles in the movies and on television in a career that stretched over seven decades since he made his big screen debut in 1954 in uncredited roles in “It Should Happen to You" and George Cukor’s “A Star Is Born".
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Hurricane Hanna, the first of the 2020 Atlantic cyclone season, made landfall twice in Texas as a Category 1 storm within the span of little over an hour. Forecasters the next day downgraded Hanna to a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Texas Garrett Foster (28) was fatally shot late today at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin. Early reports suggested the victim was carrying a rifle when he approached a vehicle and was shot by its driver. The driver called 911 to report the incident and was later taken into custody and released. Police didn’t immediately identify the driver.
(Insider, 7/26/20)(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Utah three people including a 9-month-old were killed and multiple people injured after a small airplane crashed in West Jordan, a Salt Lake City suburb.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an executive order mandating that anyone arriving after nonessential travel must self-quarantine for 14 days.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 25, In Seattle, police declared a riot this afternoon following large demonstrations and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear crowds. Authorities made more than 40 arrests said 21 officers suffered mostly minor injuries.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that he had tested negative for the new coronavirus, based on a fourth test since he said July 7 that he had the virus.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that British rap artist Wiley (41) is facing a police investigation after a string of anti-Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him. Wiley, whose real name is Richard Cowie, released a number one single in Britain in 2012 and had several other top 10 hits. He received a UK government honor for his contribution to music in 2018.
(Reuters, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Peter Green (73), British blues guitarist, died on Canvey Island, England. He helped form Fleetwood Mac, which made its debut at the British Blues and Jazz Festival in 1967.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_(musician))
2020 Jul 25, France's interior minister vowed to fight “hateful ideology" after far-right extremists posted photos of a protest outside the offices of Sira Sylla, a Black lawmaker.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, French health authorities said the closely watched “R" gauge is now up to 1.3, suggesting that infected people are contaminating 1.3 other people on average.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, India recorded nearly 49,000 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to more than 1.3 million. 757 deaths in the last 24 hours riased that total to 31,358.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 25, Jordanian authorities raided the offices of the national teachers' union. It was ordered to close for two years and its board members were arrested. The board members were released after a month in detention.
(https://tinyurl.com/y4lnndqq)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 25, In Kenya two people were killed at Soko Ng'ombe market in eastern Garissa county, during a protest against the arrest of a man suspected of murder. Two police officers were soon arrested in connection with the shooting. According to Amnesty International, Kenyan officers have killed 21 people since March for failing to comply with coronavirus prevention measures such as curfews and mask-wearing.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Azimzhan Askarov (69), an ethnic Uzbek rights activist and human rights defender in Kyrgyzstan, died in a prison clinic. He was serving a life term on charges of involvement in ethnic violence that were widely criticized as trumped-up. He had documented violence and looting during the June 2010 violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad tat left 470 people killed.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, The Japanese ship MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and its crew was evacuated. The large bulk carrier later began leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters. The ship was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4,000 tons of fuel aboard. On August 7 PM Pravind Jugnauth declared a state of emergency. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines later said the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals. In 2021 Captain Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar admitted to drinking moderately during a birthday party onboard before the ship ran aground. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
(AP, 8/8/20)(AP, 12/18/20)(BBC, 12/21/21)(BBC, 12/27/21)
2020 Jul 25, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting to implement a "maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert" to contain the coronavirus. North Korea blamed the case on a defector returning from the south.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that after a brief lull due to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea is carrying out large-scale smuggling operations off the coast of China in violation of UN sanctions, importing oil and selling coal and sand to keep its economy afloat.
(NBC News, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Russia tens of thousands of people marched across the Far East city of Khabarovsk on the border with China to protest the arrest of the regional governor on murder charges, continuing a two-week wave of protests that has challenged the Kremlin.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, South Korea reported more than 100 new coronavirus cases for the first time in four months. The 113 new cases included 36 workers returning from Iraq and 32 crew members of a Russian freighter.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Sudan unidentified gunmen killed more than 60 people in the Darfur region, and another 20 the day before. Several villages were burned, and markets and shops looted.
(BBC, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that The Church of Sweden has more female than male priests for the first time, according to numbers released this month, a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960. The Lutheran institution was the official Swedish state church until 2000. It now has some 5.8 million members, representing some 57.7% of the country's population.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 26, California to date had 449,382 cases of coronavirus and 8,431 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 48,360 cases and 762 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,212,057 with the death toll at 146,732.
(sfist.com, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Total COVID-19 cases in Florida rose by 9,300 to 423,855, just one place behind California, which now leads the country with 448,497 cases. New York is in third place with 415,827 cases.
(Reuters, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, ProPublica posted a database of York City police disciplinary records. The searchable database contains 12,056 complaints against 3,996 active NYPD officers. ProPublica said it isn't obligated to comply with Judge Katherine Polk Failla's temporary restraining order because it is not a party to a union lawsuit challenging the release of such records.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Minnesota reported its largest one-day rise in coronavirus cases with more than 860 cases.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 26, In Oregon authorities declared a riot early today in Portland, where protesters breached a fence surrounding the city's federal courthouse building where US agents have been stationed. Multiple arrests were made, but it wasn't immediately clear how many.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Australia suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 10 fatalities and a rise in new infections despite an intense lockdown effort.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Britain's government said passengers arriving from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks, after a surge in cases in the Mediterranean country, with health officials pointing to nightlife as a possible culprit.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 26, Olivia de Havilland (104), golden age Hollywood actress, died in Paris. She won Oscars for "To Each His Own" (1946) and "The Heiress" (1950). She was the sister of actress Joan De Haviland, aka Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013. Olivia's other films included "Captain Blood" (1935, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and "Lady In a Cage" (1964).
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A1)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.74)
2020 Jul 26, Israeli police said they arrested more than a dozen Israelis in country-wide protests the previous night that drew thousands of people in a growing and persistent show of force against PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, An Israeli military drone crashed in southern Lebanon as regional tensions ran high.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Malaysian authorities searched for two dozen Rohingya refugees who were feared drowned after jumping off their boat neat the resort island of Langkawi. Only one of 25 refugees made it to shore.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 26, A light aircraft carrying 500kg of cocaine, worth an estimated £45 million crashed in Papua, New Guinea. The pilot, an Australian, soon surrendered to his country’s consulate in Papua. Five other men, allegedly linked to a Melbourne-based crime syndicate, were also later arrested.
(The Telegraph, 8/2/20)
2020 Jul 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Russian navy will get 40 new ships and vessels this year, as he attended a naval parade in St. Petersburg. He also said the Navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater nuclear drones, which the defence ministry said were in their final phase of testing.
(AP, 7/26/20)(Reuters, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said “certain initiatives" have been made to buy a fleet of fighter-bombers, accusing the US and other Western countries of arming Serbia’s NATO neighbors and its breakaway former province of Kosovo.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Serbian authorities reported 467 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours. The country has confirmed 23, 730 cases and 534 deaths.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 26, In northern Syria a bomb exploded this morning in a vegetable market in the Ras al-Ayn border town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters. 8 people were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, A UN report, released earlier this week, says more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 27, Pres. Donald Trump the United States has awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. Last week, Fujifilm Diosynth, a drug ingredient subsidiary of the Japanese firm, said it would make bulk drug substances for Novavax Inc.'s virus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major US cities appealed to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want their presence.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Governor Gavin Newsom said nearly 200 federal healthcare workers have been deployed to California's Central Valley agricultural breadbasket, where hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases as new infection rates soar.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, California to date had 463,155 cases of coronavirus and 8,544 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 49,224 cases and 765 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,286,663 with the death toll at 147,588.
(sfist.com, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Miami, Florida, David T. Hines (29) was charged in federal court for fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans and then using the money to buy himself a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan, among other things.
(Business Insider, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Portland, Oregon, US agents declared an “unlawful assembly," and just after 1 a.m., confronted protesters on the street and worked for hours to clear the area. Several people were seen being detained, but it was not immediately clear how many may were arrested.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it signed a $174 million agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and manufacture the British drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Moderna Inc said it had started a late-stage trial to test the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, the first such study under the Trump administration's program to speed development of measures against the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Remington Arms Co filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years as the US gunmaker faced financial troubles partly because some retailers placed restrictions on gun sales after school shootings.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Belgium's PM Sophie Wilmes unveiled a set of drastic social distancing measures aimed at avoiding a new general lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. From July 29 contacts outside family circles will be limited to the same five people over the next four weeks. Confirmed cases rose 71% from July 17-23 compared to the previous 7 days, with 47% of the cases detected in Antwerp province. Belgium has reported more than 66,000 cases and 9,821 deaths.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, UK-based clinical diagnostics company Novacyt announced more new products to test for the presence of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said that Farxiga, which is used for the most common form of diabetes, helped to improve renal function or reduced the risk of death compared with a placebo in diabetic and non-diabetic patients in a study.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, The Czech government announced an overhaul of its much-criticized system of tracking and isolating contacts of people with COVID-19 as it battles a spike in new infections. The Czech Republic has reported 15,324 cases of the new coronavirus since March, with 371 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Egyptian authorities released Adel Sabri, editor of the Masr al-Arabia independent news website, after more than two years in pre-trial detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, India's chemicals minister outlined plans to boost local manufacturing in the bulk drugs and medical device industries to reduce India's reliance on imports, particularly from China.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Indonesia two women were publicly caned in Aceh province for offering prostitution online, a violation of Shariah law.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 27, Indonesia announced that its confirmed cases of coronavirus have surpassed 100,000, the highest in Southeast Asia.
(SFC, 7/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that 2 anti-government protesters were killed and 21 were injured in Baghdad in new clashes between demonstrators and Iraqi security forces. Iraq's Health Ministry has reported 110,032 cases, including 4,362 deaths.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Israeli forces exchanged fire with Hezbollah militants along the volatile Israeli-Lebanese frontier, as Israeli civilians living in the area were ordered to remain indoors amid the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies in nearly a year.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Israeli settlers tried to burn down a mosque overnight near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Settlers attacked the mosque after midnight, spray painting anti-Palestinian slogans in Hebrew and then hurling fire bombs inside that burned part of the structure.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli medical imaging analytics company, said it has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for its mammography technology.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Libyan authorities shot dead three Sudanese migrants in a western coastal town who tried to escape after they were intercepted by the coast guard in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to shore.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, Russia-based Biotech group Biocad said it discussing producing in China a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Russia's Vector state virology institute. The potential vaccine - based on the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) - is expected to enter clinical trials in mid-August.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, South Africa said it had agreed to a $4.3 billion loan from the IMF for COVID-19 related help.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that flash floods have ravaged swaths of war-torn Yemen, leaving dozens dead and destroying thousands of homes. A hotel marooned in muddied water in the capital, Sanaa, collapsed late today, killing four people and injuring three.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Zimbabwe seven babies were stillborn at Harare Central Hospital night after urgent treatment was delayed because of staffing issues. Nurses are on strike nationwide because of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other concerns, and the maternity wards were overwhelmed.
(BBC, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Pres. Donald Trump issued a stout defense of hydroxychloroquine, a disproved use of a malaria drug, as a treatment for the coronavirus, hours after social media companies moved to take down videos promoting its use as potentially harmful misinformation.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The Trump administration said that it will reject new applications and shorten renewal periods for an Obama-era program that shields young people from deportation, taking a defiant stance after the US Supreme Court refused to let it be scrapped completely.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, US Attorney General William Barr testified to Congress about the protests following George Floyd's death and denounced violence that has emerged across the country. Barr stressed that Operation Legend was aimed at "predatory violence like murder and shootings" and was distinct from the controversial deployment of unidentified federal agents to counter protesters in Portland, Oregon. Barr also said he doesn’t believe that systemic racism in policing exists in the United States, despite being presented with data suggesting that it does.
(NBC News, 7/28/20)(Reuters, 7/29/20)(Yahoo News, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The US federal government announced that it would lend $765 million to the Eastman Kodak Company, known for making cameras and film, to help it start producing pharmaceutical ingredients.
(The Week, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, The US-based Recorded Future reported that the Vatican and the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong have been the targets of alleged Chinese state-backed hackers ahead of September talks on renewal of a landmark 2018 deal that helped thaw diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Arkansas reported a new one-day high in deaths from the coronavirus. 20 more deaths brought the state's total fatto 428.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 28, California to date had 468,425 cases of coronavirus and 8,627 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 50,144 cases and 775 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,342,498 with the death toll at 149,085.
(sfist.com, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Diana E.H. Russell (81), a leading feminist activist and scholar who popularized the term “femicide" to refer to the misogynist killing of women, and to distinguish these killings from other forms of homicide, died at a medical facility in Oakland, Calif.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul 28, Florida reported 191 new fatalities due to the coronavirus. Cases in the state have jumped by 9,230, bringing the total to over 441,900.
(Good Morning America, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Louisiana's Xavier Univ. announced that its has received a $20 million donation from MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Howard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Hampton University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and Tuskegee University were all recipients of the generous donation. To date, she has collectively donated a massive $1.7 billion.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A4)(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 28, Minneapolis police say they've identified the man who helped spark weeks of violence after the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports — and protesting racism and police brutality was not his intent. Police said this man was a member of the Hell's Angels biker gang intent on sparking this sort of violence.
(The Week, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that federal agents have left Seattle following complaints from local officials that their presence was increasing tensions with people protesting racial injustice.
(The Week, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Television journalist and founding president of Cable News Network (CNN), Reese Schonfeld (88), died in Manhattan. He and media entrepreneur Ted Turner started CNN in 1980.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Scientists reported that they have succeeded in reviving microbes retrieved from sediment deep under the seafloor in the heart of the South Pacific that had survived in a dormant state for 101.5 million years in research illustrating the resiliency of life on Earth.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Australia said it was sending a medical team to help Papua New Guinea fight an outbreak of coronavirus after the neighboring country experienced a rise in infections. There were 62 confirmed virus cases as of late today, up from just eight infections 11 days ago.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, It was reported that the UK government has given the green light for the export of British tear gas and rubber bullets to the US despite the continuing use of force against protesters – and warnings from the United Nations.
(The Independent, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Canada granted conditional approval to Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral treatment remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, making it the first approved treatment for the fast-spreading illness in the country. Canada has reported fewer than 9,000 coronavirus deaths among its 38 million people.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.25)
2020 Jul 28, China reported 57 new coronavirus cases in its northwestern Xinjiang region. China's death toll remains at 4,634 among 83,959 cases.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 28, An Egyptian court sentenced several women to two years in prison for posting "indecent" dance videos on TikTok.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 28, In southern France scientists and technicians began assembling huge parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source. World leaders involved in the project appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Gisèle Halimi (93), a prominent French lawyer, activist and author who championed feminist causes and human rights efforts for decades, died. She founded a feminist group with Simone de Beauvoir and played a key role in the decriminalization of abortion in France.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Jul 28, In Germany the number of daily new coronavirus cases almost doubled to 633. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) linked the increase to increased social contact at parties and in the workplace and urged people not to flout social distancing rules.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Iran reported 235 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, a record toll for a single day. This took the overall toll to 16,147.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Ireland's Central Bank fined the country's largest lender, Bank of Ireland, 1.7 million euros for regulatory breaches that caused loss to a client at its private banking arm and also for misleading the regulator.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, A court in Malaysia convicted former prime minister Najib Razak of seven charges of abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering related to the IMDB sovereign wealth scandal. Razak had co-founded and chaired the fund from which $4.5 billion disappeared between 2009 and 2015.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 28, New Zealand said that it will follow the lead of its intelligence allies by suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, following China's recent passing of a new security law for the semi-autonomous territory.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 28, North Korea introduced tougher prevention measures against the novel coronavirus, after it locked down the border town of Kaesong to tackle what could be its first publicly confirmed case of the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Authorities in Peru said more than 900 women and girls have gone missing and are feared to be dead in Peru since the country’s coronavirus lockdown started.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Russia reported 5,395 new COVID-19 cases and 150 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours. Russia's total case count now stood at 823,515 with 13,504 coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Turkey said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean that abruptly raised military tensions with neighboring Greece.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN human rights office reported that scores of North Korean women who had traveled abroad in a desperate search for work were abused by security officials and police through beatings, detention in unsanitary conditions, undernourishment and invasive body searches after being sent back home. The women spoke to UN human rights officials after eventually fleeing North Korea following their detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN said that the unprecedented social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will see nearly seven million more children experience stunting as a result of malnutrition.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Vietnam locked down the central city of Da Nang, its third-largest city, for two weeks after 22 cases of COVID-19 were found linked to a hospital.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview released today that he didn’t discuss the intelligence about potential Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they spoke by phone last week. Trump dismissed reports that Russia has been paying the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and said he'd not raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin.
(NBC News, 7/29/20)(AFP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, US President Donald Trump defended his push to use a coronavirus relief package to fund a new FBI headquarters near his Washington hotel despite opposition from fellow Republicans, citing his background as a real estate developer.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Spurred on by President Donald Trump's demand to pull troops out of Germany, defense leaders said the US will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe. The Pentagon plan will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete. About 24,000 US troops will remain in Germany.
(AP, 7/29/20)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, The US Justice Department said it would send dozens of law enforcement officers to Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit to fight violent crime, expanding the deployment of federal agents to major cities under a program promoted by President Donald Trump.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The US Department of Homeland Security and Oregon Governor Kate Brown said federal troops will begin a phased withdrawal from downtown Portland, ceding some security functions to Oregon state troopers and local law enforcement after two months of protests.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The US State Department imposed sanctions on President Bashar Assad's eldest son, Hafez, keeping up pressure on the Syrian leader and his inner circle. Separately, the US Treasury Department announced it had imposed sanctions on prominent Syrian businessman Wassim al-Qattan and nine entities for “enriching the Syrian regime through construction of luxury real estate".
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol officials issued broad new mask requirements after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (66), often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one.
(AP, 7/29/20)(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, US Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham testified that he wasn’t informed ahead of time about President Donald Trump's order seeking to exclude people in the US illegally from the process of redrawing congressional districts.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, New US rules went into effect expanding requirements for US exporters to obtain licenses for goods intended for military purposes, including for weapon development, military aircraft or surveillance operations. The rules banned exports to any entities in any relationship with China's People's Liberation Army, labelling them as potential military end users.
(South China Morning Post, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 29, The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.3 million diagnosed cases and over 150,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, California to date had 479,204 cases of coronavirus and 8,793 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 51,403 cases and 789 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,403,935 with the death toll at 150,159.
(sfist.com, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a second successive day, with 217 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida also reported 9,446 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 451,000.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Louisiana reported 69 more coronavirus deaths for a statewide total of 3,769.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, In Boston Manuel Henriquez (57), the ex-CEO of Palo Alto-based Hercules Capital, was sentenced to six months in prison for paying about $450,000 in bribes to boost his two daughters' entrance exam scores and get one of them into Georgetown Univ. as a bogus tennis recruit. His wife was already locked up a federal prison in Dublin, Ca.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 29, Connie Culp (57), the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the US, died at the Cleveland Clinic, almost a dozen years after her groundbreaking operation. She died of complications from an infection unrelated to her transplant.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Virginia Karla Elizabeth Dominguez Gonzalez in Alexandria was found shot to death. In December, Gonzalez had testified that Ibrahim Bouaichi (33) was violent and not consensual during an October incident inside her apartment. Bouaichi went free on April 9 due to the risks of COVID-19 and reportedly killed Gonzalez. On August 5 he was chased down by the FBI and was found with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound when the officers went to the vehicle. He was then hospitalized and in grave condition.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul 29, Moderna Inc plans to price its experimental coronavirus vaccine in a way that ensures broad access, adding that it did not intend to conduct late-stage trials of the vaccine outside the United States.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Australian biotechnology company Vaxine Pty Ltd said it expects to start Phase II trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the next few weeks after "positive" results from the first stage human study.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Belarusian authorities detained dozens of Russian private military contractors accused of planning to destabilize Belarus amid an election campaign. 32 members of Russia's Wagner private military company were detained overnight at a sanitarium outside Minsk by a SWAT team from the Belarusian State Security Committee.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Britain said it has signed a deal for up to 60 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), its latest such arrangement as the race to tame the pandemic heats up.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Bulgaria tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country for a third consecutive week to demand the resignation of the government of PM Boyko Borissov and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. Pres. Rumen Radev backed the protesters.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, Amnesty Int'l. said Egypt has executed seven people convicted of killing a police officer in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, after a trial that was “marred by serious allegations of torture." The defendants were accused of killing the officer and the attempted killing of another person during a fight in November 2013.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The European Union's executive said it had agreed to buy a limited supply of the COVID-19 medicine remdesivir from US drugmaker Gilead to address the short-term needs of European patients, and hoped to be able to order more later.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The European Union said it has made available up to 45 million euros ($53 million) to increase the collection of plasma from COVID-19 survivors for the treatment of people who contract the disease.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Berlin's Tegel airport began large scale coronavirus testing, as airports across Germany prepared for the advent of free, compulsory testing for many passengers from next week.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Guatemala's government has reported more than 47,000 confirmed infections and more 1,800 deaths nationwide. Local hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of COVID-19 victims who have never been identified, and one hospital is creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes, their relatives will come looking for them.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Hong Kong detained four students, ages 16 to 21, for "inciting secession" on social media. They included Tony Chung, former leader of Studentlocalism, a protest group that had called for Hong Kong's independence from China.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.33)
2020 Jul 29, Hong Kong reported 118 new coronavirus cases, including 113 that were locally transmitted, as strict new measures including a restriction of gatherings to two people and a ban on restaurant dining, took effect.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Italian lawmakers approved the extension of a state of emergency for the coronavirus through October 15. Italy counted 289 new cases and six more deaths bringing its pandemic total to 246,776 and the death toll to 35,129.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance led by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it has completed test supplies of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, but pending regulator approval will likely prevent clinical trials from meeting a July start date.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Jordanian anti-riot police clashed with protesting teachers in the capital Amman, with several demonstrators being beaten with clubs and arrested.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The International Rescue Committee urged Libyan authorities to release over 200 Europe-bound migrant children intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to detention centers in the conflict-stricken country this year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Pakistan Tahir Ahmad Nasim (47), facing charges of blasphemy, was shot dead in court as he awaited the start of his hearing. His attacker (24) was arrested. Nasim was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community that many mainstream Islamic schools consider to hold blasphemous beliefs.
(The Telegraph, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The Philippines said it had slaughtered nearly 39,000 chickens in a poultry farm north of the capital Manila to curb a bird flu outbreak, more than four months after detecting H5N6 infections in a nearby province.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, A top Russian official has said the country's coronavirus vaccine is nearing the end of clinical trials and is likely to get approval in mid-August – potentially making it the world's first approved vaccine against the disease.
(The Telegraph, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Turkey's parliament adopted a law designed to force social-media giants to comply with Turkish requests to remove content.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 29, A Singapore court fined the nephew of PM Lee Hsien Loong for criticizing the judiciary in a Facebook post two years ago amid a deepening family feud.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, South Korea's Green Cross Corp said it has sought regulatory approval for Phase II trials of an experimental COVID-19 blood plasma treatment drug.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Spain reported 1,153 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily number in almost three months. Spain has officially recorded 282,641 cases and 28,441 deaths.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, Swiss-based Roche said its attempt to retool its rheumatoid arthritis drug Actemra/RoActemra to treat patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19-related pneumonia has failed in a late-stage trial.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered a public probe into the dropping of criminal charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation jumped 10% in Bolivia in 2019, the final year of President Evo Morales' government, partly because of reduced eradication efforts amid rising social and political conflicts.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN said more than 100 civilians including women and children were killed by ground fighting, explosive remnants and airstrikes in Libya between April and June, an increase of 65% from the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Venezuela the new Iranian Megasis supermarket, in the east of Caracas, was launched amid a tightening of the coronavirus quarantine. The inauguration was attended only by Venezuelan government officials, Iranian diplomatic personnel and businessmen.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, Vietnam confirmed four new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 450, with no deaths.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Yemeni separatists said they would give up their dreams of self-administration over southern Yemen to pursue a Riyadh agreement. Saudi Arabia declared early today that it had proposed a plan to “accelerate" implementation of a deal which calls for the creation of a new government within 30 days and the appointment of a new governor and security director for Aden.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 30, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover rode an Atlas V rocket as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. The rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Arizona reported a record increase with 172 COVID-19 fatalities, bringing that state's death toll to 3,626.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, It was reported that California has conditionally approved the $40 million sale of Seton Medical Center in Daly City and its Moss Beach facility to AHMC Healthcare, a for profit company based in southern California, from Verity Health, a nonprofit that filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 30, In southern California 15 Marines and one Navy sailor were aboard an assault amphibious vehicle that began taking on water. One Marine died, two others were injured and 8 were reported missing. Search efforts were called off on July 23. On August 7 it was reported that the bodies of the 8 missing were recovered following salvage operations.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A4)(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 30, In southern California a federal grand jury returned a 34-count indictment against Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar (61), alleging he accepted bribes, concealed income, evaded taxes and lied to investigators.
(NBC News, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The police chief of Vallejo, California, said he is opening an inquiry into allegations that officers bent their badges to mark on-duty killings.
(The Guardian, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, California to date had 488,857 cases of coronavirus and 8,965 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 52,267 cases and 803 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,487,072 with the death toll at 151,826.
(sfist.com, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a third day in a row, with 252 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida, California, and Texas, the three most populous US states, all set one-day records for fatalities.
(AP, 7/30/20)(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (61) was ousted from his role as speaker in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, following his arrest in what prosecutors called the “largest bribery scheme" in state history. Also arrested and charged were the speaker's adviser Jeffrey Longstreth (44); former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges (48); and prominent lobbyists Neil Clark (67), and Juan Cespedes (40).
(NBC News, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Herman Cain (74), a television host and former US Republican presidential candidate, died in Georgia after contracting COVID-19.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, In Michigan a man who swung a long sword and threw a dagger at Detroit police officers was killed in a clash with cops.
(Miami Herald, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, St. Louis County’s prosecutor announced that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, In Oregon the first nightly protest in downtown Portland after a deal was struck for the withdrawal of federal agents guarding a courthouse was largely peaceful and ended early the next day without any major confrontations between state police and demonstrators.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases, setting up a conflict with Republican legislative leaders and some conservatives who oppose such a requirement and successfully sued to kill the governor's "safer at home" order.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine candidate was effective in protecting rhesus macaques from the virus 13 weeks after the last vaccination.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Johnson & Johnson, the third Western biopharmaceutical company to begin a new trial of its Covid-19 vaccine this week, said it would test its vaccine in a single-dose format. A new study showed that the vaccine protected monkeys from infection.
(Dow Jones, 7/30/20)(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 30, In Afghanistan a suicide bombing in eastern Logar province late today killed at least nine people and wounded 40. The Taliban denied involvement.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Jul 30, Much of Canada's remaining intact ice shelf began broking apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming. The 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country's last intact ice shelf until the end of this month.
(AP, 8/7/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.32)
2020 Jul 30, China's health authority said it has asked local authorities to carry out regular coronavirus tests at wholesale markets, part of an all-out effort to control the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The Czech Republic reported that cases of the new coronavirus have surpassed 16,000 as a recent spike in infections continues. The health ministry recorded 278 cases nationwide a day earlier, the second highest daily rise in July.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, It was reported that Egypt’s president has approved new legal amendments that further exclude any serious competitors from elections and give the military greater control over civilian affairs. The amendments were published earlier this week in the country’s official gazette.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The European Union prolonged sanctions against dozens of North Korean officials and agencies for a year over Pyongyang’s continued efforts to develop nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The European Union slapped sanctions on six people and three organizations, including Russia’s military intelligence agency, accusing them of responsibility for several cyber-attacks that threatened EU interests. The EU imposed travel and financial sanctions on a department of Russia’s military intelligence service and on firms from North Korea and China over their suspected participation in major cyberattacks across the world.
(AP, 7/30/20)(The Telegraph, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Hong Kong's government disqualified 12 opposition pro-democracy figures from running in elections. The decision was internationally condemned.
(South China Morning Post, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Hong Kong reported 149 new coronavirus cases, a daily record, including 145 that were locally transmitted, with authorities warning the global financial hub faces a critical period as it tries to contain the outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The Philippines reported nearly 4,000 new coronavirus cases, a record daily jump in infections for the fourth time this month, just as President Rodrigo Duterte prepared to announce a major shift in his government's COVID-19 response.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Tropical Storm Isaias battered Puerto Rico as it continued on a forecast track toward the US East Coast, unleashing small landslides and causing widespread flooding and power outages on an island still recovering from previous hurricanes and earthquakes.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, A Moscow court sentenced former US Marine Trevor Reed to nine years in prison for assaulting and endangering the lives of two police officers in 2019.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 30, In Saudi Arabia masked pilgrims arrived at Mount Arafat, a desert hill near Islam’s holiest site, to pray and repent on the most important day of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage in Mecca. The number of hajj pilgrims this year was limited to anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000. All of this year's pilgrims are either residents or citizens of Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, South Africa's health ministry said there were 11,046 new cases of COVID-19 reported across the country. That brings the national total to 482,169, including 7,812 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, A Spanish court found American Victor Stemberger (77) guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced him to seven years in prison, rejecting his defense that he was duped.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, In northeastern Syria a car bomb exploded at checkpoint manned by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters, killing and wounding several people.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Former Taiwan Pres. Lee Teng-hui (97) died in Taipei. He took over as president in 1988 following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo and continued as Taiwan's first native president until 2000.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.B3)
2020 Jul 30, Veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson said two of the six former Citgo Petroleum Corp executives detained in Venezuela were moved to house arrest. Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Toledo were among six executives arrested in 2017 on charges of embezzlement that the US government and their lawyers say are baseless.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Yemen's Huthi rebels freed six members of the Baha'i faith whose years of imprisonment had raised international concern.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 31, President Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to ban the TikTok app in the US through executive authority before heading to Florida. TikTok has an estimated 65 million to 80 million users in the United States. It was said that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 31, The US Supreme Court declined by a 5-4 vote to halt the Trump administration's construction of portions of the border wall with Mexico following a recent lower court ruling that the administration improperly diverted money to the project.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv, Israel, for more than $67 million to US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The sale helped to cement Pres. Trump's controversial decision to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem in 2018 and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Jul 31, A US federal appeals court ruled vacated the death penalty of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but said he will remain in prison for the rest of his life. However, the court ordered a retrial over the sentence for Tsarnaev's crimes, where a new set of jurors can again decide if he should be sentenced to death.
(Business Insider, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, The US FDA said a salmonella outbreak has infected nearly 400 people in more than 30 states and was likely linked to red onions coming from Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, Ca. The company said it was recalling all varieties of onions that could have come in contact with the contaminated red onions.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 31, In Alaska 7 people, including state lawmaker Rep. Gary Knopp (67), died when two small airplanes collided in midair near the airport in Soldotna, a small community on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, California to date had 500,293 cases of coronavirus and 9,169 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 53,205 cases and 811 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,556,232 with the death toll at 153,268.
(sfist.com, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Officials in southern California said at least 45 fraternity members at the University of Southern California have tested positive for COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Florida Graham Clark (17) of Tampa was arrested "for being the mastermind behind" a July 15 Twitter hack that saw high-profile accounts, including those belonging to former President Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, taken over to promote a Bitcoin scam, which involved asking followers to send money to a Bitcoin address while claiming double that amount would be returned. The DoJ announced charges against two alleged co-conspirators, Mason Sheppard (19) and Nima Fazeli (22), of Orlando, Florida, who goes by the hacker name “Rolex". Sheppard, from Bognor Regis (UK), faces three charges in connection with the apparent cyber scam targeting around 130 accounts on the social media site. A Massachusetts teenager (16) was also soon linked to the Twitter hack.
(The Week, 7/31/20)(The Independent, 8/1/20)(SFC, 9/3/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 31, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a fourth day in a row, with 257 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida also reported 9,007 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 470,000.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, West Virginia confirmed 182 coronavirus cases, its highest daily count since the outbreak began.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 31, Twitter Inc said it has permanently suspended the account of David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, as the social media company tries to curb the spread of hateful content on its website.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur announced they will supply 100 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine to the United States as governments buy up supplies in hopes something will work.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have agreed to supply Japan with 120 million doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine in the first half of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Britain's PM Boris Johnson put some planned measures to ease the UK's lockdown on hold, just hours before they were due to take effect, saying the number of new coronavirus cases in the country is on the rise for the first time since May.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, British PM Boris Johnson named 36 new members to Parliament’s unelected House of Lords, including his brother, a slew of prominent Brexit supporters and a Russia-born newspaper owner whose father was a KGB agent.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, British film director Sir Alan Parker (b.1944) died in London following a long illness. His films included "Fame" (1980), Mississippi Burning" (1988), "The Commitments" (1991), and "Angela's Ashes" (1999).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Parker)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 31, A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde approved the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government. His legal team planned to appeal.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Jul 31, China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) said it would establish a joint venture company to develop wafer production units in Beijing to bump up its semiconductor output and reduce costs.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng Motors has raised an additional $300 million from investors including Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Cuba Eusebio Leal (77), the historian of Havana and longtime leader of the city's renewal, died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebio_Leal)(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.C11)
2020 Jul 31, The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Luxembourg had 240.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population over the last 14 days, much higher than any other country in the European Economic Area. Luxembourg said its large number of COVID-19 cases reflects its unrivalled level of testing.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Ahead of the announcement a group of 22 lawmakers issued a statement accusing the government of using the outbreak as an excuse to delay the vote.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Indian police said that at least 21 people have died in Punjab state over the last three days after drinking tainted alcohol. The death toll was later raised to at least 69. Local media put the number at 86. Police soon arrested more than two dozen people on suspicion of selling tainted alcohol.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, In India monsoon floods have swamped large parts of densely populated Bihar state and displaced more than 300,000 people, exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymieing the state's response to the pandemic. The floods have killed at least 24 people in the state. Bihar has so far recorded 48,197 coronavirus cases including 282 deaths.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, India recorded 55,079 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking its total to 1,638,871. The death toll rose by 779 taking that total to 35,747.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that after a decade of campaigning, Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido has won a court ruling that awarded $12m (£9.2m) to the Owino Uhuru community poisoned by lead pollution from a nearby factory.
(BBC, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, A military court in eastern Libya sentenced local photojournalist Ismail Bouzreeba al-Zway (39) to 15 years in prison on vague terrorism-related charges, prompting an outcry from human rights groups. He was first scooped up by security agents while covering a local news event in his hometown of Ajdabiya, east Libya, in 2018.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that demonstrators in northern Mexico have burned several government vehicles, blocked railway tracks and set afire a government office and highway toll booths to protest water payments to the US under a 1944 treaty. Farmers in Chihuahua want the water for their own crops.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, Mexican health officials reported 688 new deaths, pushing the country’s confirmed total to over 46,600. Mexico now has the third most COVID-19 deaths in the world, behind Brazil and the United States.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Northern Ireland launched the United Kingdom's first COVID-19 tracing app, and the first one that can also trace users in another country, Ireland, who have been in contact with someone suffering from the disease. NearForm launched a similar app in Ireland on July 8, and cases can now be traced across the island's open border by two separate health services.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The University Hospital of North Norway said three members of the crew of Norwegian cruise vessel Roald Amundsen have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The vessel had close to 200 passengers on board when it arrived at the Arctic port of Tromsoe.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Romania said its number of coronavirus infections rose by 1,295 new cases on the day taking the cumulative total to 50,886 cases. 2,343 people have died. The country is under a state of alert that is due to end in two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Saudi Arabia small groups of pilgrims, masked and physically distancing, made their way toward the massive multi-story Jamarat Complex in the Saudi valley area of Mina. There, the pilgrims cast pebbles at three large columns. It is here where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, out of submitting to God’s will. Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Slovakia reported its first coronavirus death since the middle of May, bringing its toll to 29, one of the lowest in Europe. A day earlier the country detected 27 new cases. 2,292 cases have been found since March.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In northern Sudan a speeding truck trying to overtake a car crashed into a passenger bus on a highway, killing 13 people and injuring 15.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE's far western desert near the border with Saudi Arabia reached what scientists called its “first criticality." That's when the nuclear chain reaction within the reactor is self-sustaining. This is the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, Vietnam reported its first-ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days with no local cases. Vietnam reported 37 more novel coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 546. More than 100 new cases have been confirmed in the past week, more than half of them patients at a hospital in Da Nang.
(AP, 7/31/20)(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, predicted the effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt for decades to come.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, Award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga (61), a nominee for this year's Booker Prize, was among scores arrested in Harare during an anti-government protest. The government had warned that participation in today's demonstration would be regarded as insurrection.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul, US federal officials found an incomplete tunnel intended for smuggling that ran from San Luis, Arizona, to a Mexican neighborhood. It had a ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, a rail system and extensive reinforcement. Authorities later said it was the most sophisticated tunnel in US history.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul, Unemployment in Barbados was estimated at close to 40% as COVID-19 kept tourists from visiting.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.23)
2020 Jul, Cuba's government announced that it would allow private restaurants to buy wholesale for the first time. Ministers also announced that private businesspeople could sign contracts to import and export goods through dozens of state-run companies with import/export licenses.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Jul, In Ethiopia at least three broadcasters linked to the opposition, only one of which had aired calls for violence, were closed this month.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.46)
2020 Jul, The French firm oil firm Total secured $15 billion in loans for its liquified natural gas operations in Mozambique. This was the biggest project finance deal in African history.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.33)
2020 Jul, In Iran a provincial court in Shiraz sentenced wrestler Navid Afkari (27) to death for the 2018 death of Hassan Torkaman, a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz, following an anti-government protest over economic problems. His brothers Vahid Afkari and Habib Afkari were sentenced to 54 and 27 years in prison, respectively. All three were construction workers. A video, later circulated on social media, claimed the three men confessed to the killing under torture.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Jul, Tunisia ended its ban on foreign names.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.47)
2020 Aug 1, California to date had 503,191 cases of coronavirus and 9,268 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 54,311 cases and 831 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,603,204 with the death toll at 153,986.
(sfist.com, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Florida reported 179 coronavirus deaths, raising that total to more than 7,000.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, More than a thousand people showed up in downtown Portland early today to peacefully protest, about three days after the announcement that the presence of US agents there would be reduced. The Portland Police Bureau declared an unlawful assembly late today when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon's largest city and threw bottles towards officers.
(AP, 8/1/20)(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Hurricane Isaias snapped trees and knocked out power as it blew through the Bahamas and headed toward the Florida coast.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, American actor and singer Wilford Brimley (85) died in Utah. He is best known for his roles in the Oscar-winning movie "Cocoon" (1985) and "The Firm" (1993).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilford_Brimley)(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken bid farewell to the three men left behind as their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked and headed toward a Sunday afternoon descent by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Facebook announced that it has obeyed a Brazilian judge's order for a worldwide block on the accounts of 12 of President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters who are under investigation for allegedly running a fake news network.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, London police arrested a Conservative Party lawmaker after a former parliamentary aide accused him of rape and sexual assault while they were in a relationship. The man was not named and was soon released on bail.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, Cambodian authorities arrested Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, for incitement to commit felony. The longtime government critic had complained about farmers' land being infringed upon by neighboring Vietnam.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 1, France began testing travelers from 16 countries where the coronavirus is circulating widely. They must now undergo virus tests upon arrival at French airports and ports unless they present proof of a negative test done within 72 hours of their departure. Those who test positive must quarantine for 14 days.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In Germany an estimated 17 thousand protested coronavirus restrictions in a Berlin demonstration that insisted “the end of the pandemic" has arrived — a declaration that comes just as authorities are voicing increasing concerns about an uptick in new infections. The country’s death toll was just over 9,150 people out of more than 210,670 confirmed virus cases.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Police in Erfurt said three Guineans were assaulted by a group of 10 to 12 Germans shortly after 3 a.m. near a meeting point for the far-right scene in a housing estate. Twelve suspected perpetrators were detained.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload close to 1.7 million.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In India a huge crane collapsed during load testing at the Hindustan Shipyard in Andhra Pradesh state, killing at least 11 workers.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 1, Iran said it has detained Jamshid Sharmahd, the leader of Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a little-known California-based opposition group, for allegedly planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people and wounded over 200 others. Sharmahd had been in Dubai, trying to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company.
(AP, 8/1/20)(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 1, According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the Nigerian city of Onitsha is the most polluted in the world.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 1, It was reported that Peruvian authorities are investigating whether the country failed to count 27,253 deaths caused by the coronavirus. Peru had only listed 19,021 victims because international standards required both a death certificate listing coronavirus and a positive test for the disease to be included in official statistics.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 1, In Russia thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Far East city of Khabarovsk to protest the arrest of their governor, keeping up a three-week wave of opposition that has challenged the Kremlin. Smaller demonstrations took place in at least 10 other cities and 55 people were detained in those protests.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, South Africa announced 10,107 new cases, bringing the tally to 503,290, along with 8,153 deaths.
(BBC, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, In South Korea prosecutors arrested Lee Man-hee (89), the leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious sect linked to more than 5,200 of the country's approximately 14,300 confirmed cases. He has denied charges of hiding members and underreporting gatherings to avoid broader quarantines. Mr Lee is also suspected of embezzling about 5.6 billion won (£3.6 million) in church funds, including about five billion won that he allegedly used to build a retreat.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In Vietnam a third person died of coronavirus complications in Da Nang. Twelve additional cases were confirmed, all linked to Da Nang.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 2, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour back to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A7)
2020 Aug 2, California to date had 509,396 cases of coronavirus and 9,369 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 55,097 cases and 836 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,649,669 with the death toll at 154,744.
(sfist.com, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Chicago Darrell Johnson (39) was arrested for the death of a 9-year-old boy who was fatally shot while playing in front of his home. The boy was one of 105 homicide victims in July. Johnson was soon charged with first-degree murder.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, Nevada lawmakers passed a bill allowing the state to mail active voters ballots ahead of the November election, joining seven states that plan automatic mail balloting. Gov. Steve Sisolak was expected to sign the bill. Pres. Trump the next morning called the bill "an illegal late night coup."
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 2, South Dakota health officials reported 88 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one new death. The state death toll is now 135 with total cases at 8,955.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 2, American classical pianist Leon Fleisher (92) died in Maryland. In 1964, he lost the use of his right hand due to a neurological condition eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia, forcing him to focus on the repertoire for the left hand.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Fleisher)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 2, In Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews of the southern state of Victoria announced a 8 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew on Melbourne, a city of 5 million people. Schools statewide are to return to home-based teaching and day care centers were closed. Andrews said there were seven deaths and 671 new cases over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, China reported 49 new confirmed cases, up from the previous day’s 45.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Ethiopia tens of thousands flooded the streets of Addis Ababa in a government-backed rally to celebrate the first stage of the filling of the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 2, Guyana's Elections Commission declared that Irfaan Ali, an opposition candidate, was the winner of the March 2 elections.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.27)
2020 Aug 2, Hong Kong reported 125 new infections as authorities tried to find the source of its latest outbreak.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, India reported 54,735 new coronavirus cases, down from the previous day's record 57,118. The country's total rose to 1.75 million.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Iran imposed symbolic sanctions on Richard Goldberg, a hawkish former expert with the White House National Security Council, because of his role in what it called “US economic terrorism against interests of the Islamic Republic and its citizens".
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, The Israeli military reportedly intercepted a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip late today in a rare attack punctuating months of relative calm.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Mexican police in Guanajuato state arrested Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, aka el Marro, the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima gang, along with five other suspects allegedly holding a kidnapped businesswoman.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 2, In the Philippines coronavirus infections surged past 100,000 in a troubling milestone after medical groups declared that the country was waging “a losing battle" against the virus and asked the president to reimpose a lockdown in the capital. The Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 103,185, including more than 2,000 deaths.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, South Korea reported 30 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to 14,366 with 301 deaths, but said only eight were acquired in the country.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Former Spanish monarch Juan Carlos (82), who served as king for almost four decades, left Spain for an unspecified destination amid a growing financial scandal. Juan Carlos is the target of official investigations in Spain and Switzerland, into possible financial wrongdoing.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Sweden a girl (12) was shot late today at a parking lot in the municipality of Botkyrka that is a popular hangout for teenagers. Investigators think the gunfire that killed her was intended for two men with ties to a criminal gang.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, Yemen’s Houthi rebels reportedly shot down a US-made drone over the country's northern border with Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Pres. Donald Trump said he has fired Jeff Lyash, the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and criticized the federally owned corporation for hiring foreign workers. Rep. Sen. Lamar Alexander said the White house was spreading misinformation about the TVA.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.C3)
2020 Aug 3, President Donald Trump said that the US government should get a cut from a potential Microsoft purchase of TikTok, a Chinese-owned video app.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for an American company to purchase Chinese-owned video app TikTok in order to protect users' data, saying "a safe way must be found for TikTok to continue".
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A US judge voided parts of a Trump administration rule that, according to New York's attorney general, illegally restricted paid sick leave for workers affected by the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The US Census Bureau said that the door-knocking and ability for households to respond either online, by phone or by mail to the questionnaire will stop at the end of September instead of the end of October so that it can meet an end-of-the-year deadline to turn in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, In southern California evacuation orders remained in place for thousands of people after a wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles exploded in size and forced crews to battle flames in triple-digit heat. The Apple Fire in Riverside County was 5% contained. The blaze began as two adjacent fires were reported on July 23 in Cherry Valley.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, California to date had 519,737 cases of coronavirus and 9,499 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 56,161 cases and 843 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,710,282 with the death toll at 155,331.
(sfist.com, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $22.1 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries won another contract, valued at $289 million, to build 17 more miles of border wall in Laredo, Texas. US Sen. Kevin Cramer, has championed the company to Pres. Donald Trump. The Republican senator has received donations from the company.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company is launching a late-stage study of its monoclonal antibody technology, and has employed a unique mobile treatment van to travel door to door to deliver this promising therapy to the residents and staff of America's long-term care facilities. Top scientists have said that a treatment called monoclonal antibodies might offer some protection from (coronavirus) infection until we get a vaccine capable of delivering longer-term immunity. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. also announced the start of its own late-stage trial in July, and has received funding from Operation Warp Speed.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said that the COVID-19 antibody drug combination it is developing both prevented and treated the disease in rhesus macaques and hamsters, adding to hope that it might work for people.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Afghan forces retook a prison in the country’s east, following an hours-long gunbattle a day after the Jalalabad facility was targeted by Islamic State militants in an attack that killed 29 people. The prison is believed to hold hundreds of IS members. Some of the 1,500 prisoners there escaped during the fighting. About 1,000 prisoners who earlier escaped had been found by security forces across the city. It wasn’t immediately clear if any prisoners were still at large.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Albanian prosecutors seized vast assets belonging to Ylli Ndroqi, also known as Xhemal Pasmaciu, a businessman and a media mogul suspected of building his empire with profits from drug trafficking. Ndroqi was seen going to a police station, but has not been detained.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, In Bolivia supporters of former President Evo Morales began blocking roads across the country to protest against the 2nd postponement of a general election because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next few weeks at least 30 people died because of oxygen shortages. Protesters said they are letting oxygen trucks and ambulances pass. Bolivia has reported 95,071 coronavirus cases and 3,827 deaths.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.30)
2020 Aug 3, John Hume (83), the visionary politician who won a Nobel Peace Prize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland, died in Northern Ireland. The Catholic leader of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party, Hume was seen as the principal architect of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace agreement.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hume)(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, France-based healthcare company Sanofi Aventis said it has been placed under formal investigation on charges of manslaughter over Depakine, which is an epilepsy drug that caused birth malfunctions and slow neurological development when taken during pregnancy. Depakine, which lost its patent in 1998, is prescribed in more than 100 countries.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Hong Kong reported 80 new coronavirus cases, dropping below 100 infections for the first time in 12 days, as a team of Chinese officials began preparations for widespread testing in the global financial hub, which has seen a resurgence in cases.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, India reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1.8 million - the third highest in the world. With 771 new deaths, the COVID-19 disease has now killed 38,135 people.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Indian drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd said it will supply millions of doses of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, including that being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, under a deal with the UK government.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that the number of people who have died with COVID-19 in Iran is far higher than the government has publicly admitted, according to figures leaked to BBC Persian. These figures say 42,000 people had died with the virus as of July 20. The official figure the same day was 14,405. Likewise, the cumulative count of infections was 451,024 that day, according to the leaked figures, compared to a public count of 278,827.
(Business Insider, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The Israeli military said it thwarted an infiltration attempt from Syria early today staged by four suspected militants it accused of trying to plant explosives. Later today Israeli jets struck several Syrian military targets, including intelligence-collection systems, observation posts, antiaircraft artillery facilities, and command and control centers, in response to the militant attack.
(AP, 8/3/20)(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 3, In Italy the city of Genoa inaugurated the new Genoa San Giorgio bridge, designed by Renzo Piano and built in a record 15 months following its collapse on Aug. 14, 2018.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 3, Lebanon's foreign minister resigned amid a severe economic and financial crisis gripping the Arab country, warning that a lack of vision and a will to make changes is risking turning Lebanon into a “failed state." Nassif Hitti was the first Cabinet minister to step down from his post amid the crisis, which poses as the most significant threat to the country since a devastating 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that authorities in the Netherlands and Spain have killed more than 1 million minks at breeding farms following outbreaks of coronavirus in the animals.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 3, In North Korea an apparent gas leak caused a deadly blast. As many as 15 people died in the explosion and resulting fire at a house in Hyesan, Yanggang Province.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 3, Norway's Hurtigruten cruise ship line halted all trips and apologized for procedural errors after an outbreak of the coronavirus on the MS Roald Amundsen ship infected at least 5 passengers and 36 crew.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 3, Portugal reported no coronavirus-related deaths from a day earlier for the first time since mid-March, when a lockdown was put in place, and the lowest number of new infections in almost three months. Portugal's total confirmed cases rose by 106 to 51,569. The death toll remained unchanged at 1,738.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said that at least 150,000 packs of Avifavir, an anti-viral drug Russian authorities have approved to treat COVID-19, would be sent to Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay. The drug will also be supplied to South Africa.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Officials issued a "serious" crisis warning in South Korea after a weekend of heavy rainfall caused floodwaters to overtake cities across the region. In Seoul the Han River spilled into the streets. At least 12 people have been reported killed and another 13 missing due to the heavy rainfall.
(AccuWeather, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, Spain said it aims to roll out a COVID-19 contact-tracing app across the country in September after a pilot showed it could detect almost twice as many potential infections as human trackers during a simulated outbreak on a tiny island. Spain used a new system developed by Google and Apple which holds data on individual devices to ensure privacy.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A Tanzanian small-scale miner, who became an overnight millionaire in June for selling two rough Tanzanite stones valued at $3.4m (£2.6m), has sold another gem for $2m. The third discovery by Saniniu Laizer weighed 6.3kg (14lb).
(BBC, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A confidential new UN report warned that several countries believe North Korea has likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its nuclear devices.
(The Telegraph, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The World Health Organization said an advance team looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the UN health agency is preparing the deployment of a larger group of experts to the suspected outbreak zone.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Vietnam reported 21 more novel coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 642. All of the new cases are linked to Danang.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said Zimbabwe's military and police are continuing to arrest scores of opposition members and activists after authorities thwarted an anti-government protest last week. Human rights groups accused the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of clamping down on dissent under the guise of enforcing anti-COVID-19 lockdown rules.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 4, President Donald Trump signed legislation that will devote nearly $3 billion a year to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands following its overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In an abrupt reversal, President Donald Trump encouraged voters in the critical swing state of Florida to vote by mail after months of criticizing the practice, and only days after threatening to sue Nevada over a new vote-by-mail law.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a call to action to warn of a potential outbreak between the end of this summer and winter of Acute flaccid myelitis, a rare, but potentially lethal disease that affects young children, where seeking medical attention right away could make all the difference.
(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain along the US East Coast after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it smashed boats together and caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people. One person in Maryland, one in Connecticut, one in New York and two others in North Carolina died as a result of the storm.
(AP, 8/4/20)(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Self-driving-car engineer Anthony Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a federal judge in San Francisco, after pleading guilty to one count of trade secret theft in May. In 2021 Donald Trump pardoned Levandowski in the final hours of his administration.
(Business Insider, 8/4/20)(SFC, 1/21/21, p.C1)
2020 Aug 4, California to date had 523,564 cases of coronavirus and 9,615 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 56,887 cases and 856 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,765,170 with the death toll at 156,668.
(sfist.com, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Drew Drechsel, known as “The Real Life Ninja" on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior," was arrested at his home in Saint Cloud, Florida. He is accused of manufacturing child porn, enticing a minor to travel for sex and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor.
(Miami Herald, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Chicago rapper Carlton Weekly (26) was killed in a triple shooting in the city's upscale community of Gold Coast. Weekly had performed as FBG Duck and rapped about gun violence. His last video, "Dead Bitches," was released in July.
(AP, 8/5/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.71)
2020 Aug 4, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said that he is setting a statewide order for people to wear masks in public amid a recent surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, In Missouri Cori Bush (44), a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer's fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Missouri became the 38th state to approve the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare as voters approved the measure in a referendum conducted concurrently with the state’s primary.
(Yahoo News, 8/5/20)(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, Frances Allen, American computer scientist and researcher, died at a nursing home in Schenectady, NY. She helped create the fundamental ideas that allow practically anyone to build fast, efficient and useful software for computers, smartphones and websites
(NY Times, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 4, Medical device maker Abiomed Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted its left-sided heart pumps emergency use authorization to help patients suffering from COVID-19-related heart and lung failures.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Veru Inc., an oncology and urology biopharmaceutical company with a focus on developing novel medicines for the management of prostate cancer, announced that it has confirmed in an in vitro study that VERU-111 has anti-inflammatory action against the key cytokines involved in the cytokine storm triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
(Global Newswire, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Argentina reached a deal with creditors as the country recorded 166 COVID-19 deaths, a daily record.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.26)
2020 Aug 4, The government of Brazil said an eighth minister in President Jair Bolsonaro's Cabinet has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Brazil has confirmed more than 2.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began. The official death toll has risen to 94,665, with 51,603 new cases and 1,154 deaths in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Indonesia said it will have capacity to produce 250 million doses a year of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 pending trials on humans, as the country seeks to halt a wave of infections that has shown no sign of relent. Indonesia has confirmed 115,056 cases of COVID-19 and 5,388 deaths since its first infections in March.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Iran confirmed over 2,700 new COVID-19 infections, its highest single-day count in more than a month, as the health ministry called for those without masks to be fined. The latest count takes the total cases identified in Iran since late February to 314,786. Another 212 people died from the virus during the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 17,617.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Dozens of Lebanese protesters tried to storm the Ministry of Energy, angered by prolonged power cuts as the country grapples with a crippling economic crisis. The highly-indebted government is facing a rapid inflation, soaring unemployment and poverty, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In Lebanon an explosion in Beirut killed at least 160 people and injured some 6,000 others. The blast appears to have been caused by the ignition of a stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, that had been stored at the port since 2013 when it was seized from the MV Rhosus, a Russian-owned cargo ship. 640 historic buildings were damaged. Deaths due to the blast later reached 215.
(AP, 8/5/20)(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A2)(AP, 8/7/20)(AP, 8/9/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.35)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.46)(SSFC, 9/26/21, p.A17)
2020 Aug 4, The chemical tanker Etienne rescued a group of 27 would-be refugees at the request of Maltese authorities as the migrants’ fishing boat sank. Malta, however, refused to let the migrants disembark and the Etienne has been stuck in international waters 17 miles off the small European Union island nation as food and water supplies are running low.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Aug 4, Dutch health authorities said new confirmed coronavirus cases nearly doubled in the Netherlands over the past week to 2,588.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, A Pakistani court sparked outrage by ruling a 14-year-old Christian girl was legally married to a Muslim man who allegedly abducted her at gunpoint. The Lahore High Court ruled that Maira Shahbaz had willingly converted to Islam and married Mohamad Nakash.
(The Telegraph, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Philippine police deployed road blocks to enforce a tough new lockdown on about 28 million people in the capital Manila and nearby provinces as the Southeast Asian country reported the region's biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases. The health ministry reported 6,352 new cases. Total infections rose to 112,593 with rising to roughly 2,100.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Taiwan said it provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus, as the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies. Taiwan has reported 476 cases of the new coronavirus, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Turkey reported 1,083 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths bringing the total infections to nearly 235,000 and deaths to 5,765.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The UN International Labor Organization welcomed a global agreement to combat the worst forms of child labor as the first time all of its member states have ratified a convention — in a process that lasted 21 years.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In Venezuela the Nicolás Maduro regime promoted Interior Minister Néstor Reverol to General in Chief, even though the officer is charged by federal prosecutors in New York with accepting large bribes in exchange for protecting drug shipments to the United States.
(Miami Herald, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Zimbabwe's Pres. Mnangagwa called the main opposition party "Terrorist," and vowed to "flush out" his opponents as anger with his government grows over alleged corruption and economic mismanagement.
(BBC, 8/4/20)(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 5, It was reported that President Donald Trump's reelection campaign and the national Republican Party have sued Nevada to block a new law that will send a mail-in ballot to every registered voter ahead of November's election.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, The US State Department announced its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program with bounties of up to $10 million for information that helps it catch state hackers trying to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. State-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have already been detected trying to interfere with the 2020 election.
(Business Insider, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 5, The United States imposed sanctions on Kuda Tagwirei, a business associate of Zimbabwe's Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa, in signs of the international community’s growing frustration with Mnangagwa’s administration. Over the last few days, in response to a particularly brutal, public, widespread, and on-going clampdown by security forces, the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter has gone viral, globally.
(AP, 8/6/20)(BBC, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 5, Arizona officials said 517 inmates at the state prison in Tucson have tested positive this week for the coronavirus. The state has 180,500 confirmed cases and more than 3,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 5, In Los Angeles Grammy Award-winning producer Detail, whose real name is Noel Fisher, was arrested in a sexual assault investigation. Detail has worked with the likes of Beyoncé and Lil Wayne.
(Entertainment Weekly, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, California to date had 528,567 cases of coronavirus and 9,707 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 57,708 cases and 866 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,816,509 with the death toll at 157,854.
(sfist.com, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Colorado a house fire killed five family members, including an infant and a 2-year-old. The victims were members of Denver's Senegalese community. Police later said fire appeared to be deliberately set by three unknown individuals wearing dark hoodies and full-face masks who fled the area in a dark colored 4-door sedan. On Jan. 27, 2021, three teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of murder and arson stemming from the house fire.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A4)(NBC News, 8/19/20)(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2020 Aug 5, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order granting convicted felons the right to vote after they complete their sentences, ending Iowa’s place as the only remaining state to broadly deny voting rights to felons.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Missouri became the 38th state to approve expanding Medicaid health care coverage to thousands more low-income adults in a vote paired with primary elections.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 5, Luis Archuleta (77), convicted of shooting Denver police Officer Daril Cinquanta in the stomach in 1971, was arrested in New Mexico. Archuleta, also known as Larry Pusateri, was convicted in 1973. He escaped from a Colorado state prison facility the next year.
(NBC News, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 5, In New York City journalist Pete Hamill (85) died. The columnist, editor and author personified the great New York City newspaper wars of a bygone era.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, It was reported that Johnson & Johnson has agreed to supply 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the United States for more than $1 billion. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, is still in the first and second phases of clinical trials.
(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Instagram, a unit of Facebook, launched Reels, a TikTok look-alike.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.52)
2020 Aug 5, Moderna Inc said smaller volume agreements for its experimental coronavirus vaccine have been priced in the range of $32 to $37 per dose, higher than the price set by the US deal for Pfizer Inc's vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Abu Dhabi state news said the emirate's defence and security entity Tawazun is to build a satellite assembly, integration and testing center with Airbus in the United Arab Emirates' oasis city of Al Ain.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Australia the streets of Melbourne’s usually vibrant downtown were draining of signs of life on the eve of Australia’s toughest-ever pandemic restrictions coming into force. Victoria set a new daily record of 725 coronavirus cases. Elsewhere in Australia, only 14 new infections were found.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Britain's all-party home affairs committee said the Government’s “inexplicable" decision to lift restrictions on some one million people who arrived in the UK between March 13 and lockdown on March 23 contributed to the pace and scale of the Covid-19 outbreak in Britain.
(The Telegraph, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok said it updated its content policies to curb misinformation on its platform ahead of the presidential election in the United States.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Egypt and Sudan suspended talks with Ethiopia after it proposed linking a deal on its newly constructed reservoir and giant hydroelectric dam to a broader agreement about the Blue Nile waters that would replace a colonial-era accord with Britain. Negotiations had just resumed through online conferencing on August 3.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, India's PM Narendra Modi set the ceremonial cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu devotees had destroyed the mosque in 1992.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 5, The Israeli military said it was establishing a coronavirus task force aimed at cutting the chain of infection in the country. Since reopening the economy in May new cases have spiked to record highs, with upwards of 2,000 infections a day.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Mozambique insurgents another assault on the port of Mocimoa da Praia. They killed more than 50 soldiers and sank a small naval ship.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 5, Relatives of a top Palestinian official rampaged through Ramallah late today, firing into the air and at government buildings after family member Khalil al-Sheikh was killed in a personal quarrel with a Palestinian security officer. Al-Sheikh was the brother of Hussein al-Sheikh, one of the most powerful men in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Officials in Scotland ordered bars, cafes and restaurants in the city of Aberdeen to close, re-imposing anti-virus restrictions after a cluster of 54 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the area was linked to a single bar.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Dr. Hawa Abdi (73), human rights activist and a rescuer of Somalia's refugees, died in Mogadishu.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 5, Sri Lanka held parliamentary elections. The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) secured a landslide victory. The United National Party was reduced to one member in the 225-seat parliament, down from 106.
(AP, 8/9/20)(Econ., 8/5/20, p.36)
2020 Aug 5, The UN reported that more than 1,300 people were killed in the first half of 2020 by armed groups in DR Congo, three times more than in the same period in 2019.
(AFP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Vietnam's health ministry reported an additional 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's total to 713 infections, with 8 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, President Trump signed executive orders barring transactions with TikTok and WeChat, two popular Chinese social media networks. The orders, which cited national security concerns, take effect in 45 days. Tencent, the owner of WeChat, is a Hong Kong-listed firm with close ties to China's Communist Party.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 6, President Trump said during a campaign visit to Ohio that Joe Biden is "following the radical left agenda: take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God." “He’s against God, he’s against guns."
(Yahoo News, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The US government sent text messages to cellphones in Russia and Iran offering up to $10 million for information about people trying to attack American voting systems.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, California to date had 537,410 cases of coronavirus and 9,965 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 58,769 cases and 881 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,870,367 with the death toll at 159,864.
(sfist.com, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence official publicly, filed a lawsuit in a US federal court, accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of sending a team of agents to Canada to kill him in October 2018.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, Brent Scowcroft (95), who played a prominent role in American foreign policy as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, died in Virginia. He was a Republican voice against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A study, published in Nature, found that a drug-resistant strain of the parasites that cause malaria were able to resist treatment by artemisinin - a frontline drug in the fight against the disease. Researchers warned that this "would pose a major public health threat" in Africa.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, It was reported that Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 1 million, but global health experts say the true toll is likely several times higher. More than 22,000 people in Africa have died of COVID-19 and infections were surging.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products will produce the company's potential COVID-19 vaccine in mainland China.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, In China the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court sentenced Xu Weihong, a Canadian citizen, to death on drug charges. Accomplice Wen Guanxiong was given a life sentence.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 6, Egypt and Greece signed a maritime deal that sets the sea boundary between the two countries and demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights. The deal is a response to a similar agreement between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based government last year that has spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut following the August 4 blast that killed more than 130 people. Macron promised that French aid would be given out with transparency.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Germany's health minister announced that Germany will require people arriving from countries deemed high risk, such as the United States, to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Guinea's ruling party asked Pres. Alpha Conde (82) to run for a third term in elections set for October.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.44)
2020 Aug 6, India recorded is biggest single-day death toll of 904 as new infections surged by 56,282 to nearly 2 million.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 6, Ivory Coast Pres. Alassane Ouattara agreed to contest elections in October. Opposition parties held that he has hit his term limit.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 6, Lebanese authorities arrested 16 people over the massive explosion at Beirut's port that killed at least 149 people.
(The Week, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A lone survivor was rescued off the coast of Mauritania. 27 people reportedly died after the engines on their migrant vessel failed, leaving them stranded near Nouadhibou.
(AFP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A surge in coronavirus cases in the Netherlands continued, rising to 601 cases in the past 24 hours from 427 cases a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, It was reported that North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries.
(The Telegraph, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Poland's Pres. Andrzej Duda was sworn in for a second term as president. It was reported that LGBT people are choosing to leave Poland amid rising homophobia promoted by Duda and other right-wing populist politicians in power.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, Poland reported a record 726 coronavirus infections, as it announced renewed local restrictions to counter the spike in cases. The health ministry said restrictions would return in 19 counties worst affected by the pandemic. Poland has reported a total of 49,515 coronavirus cases and 1,774 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said almost 150 people were extrajudicially killed by Malian and Burkinabe security forces in Mali between April and June. The quarterly MINUSMA report also found 50 extrajudicial killings in late May by Burkina Faso troops in the village of Boulkessi, and settlements close to the nation's Mali border. More than 1,700 people were killed by armed groups in the first half of this year, up from about 300 in the whole of 2018.
(AFP, 8/6/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said seasonal torrential rains have wreaked havoc on houses and infrastructure across Sudan, affecting more than 50,000 people.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Airstrikes in northern Yemen killed as many as nine children, making it the third such attack with significant child deaths in that rebel-controlled region this month.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, US treasury department head Steven Mnuchin said the US has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials, in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, A US federal judge granted the government's request to immediately end the Paramount Decrees, a set of antitrust rules from the late 1940s and early 1950s that ended Hollywood's monopoly on producing, distributing and exhibiting movies.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the USPS faces a "dire" financial position even as it posted a slightly narrower third-quarter loss amid soaring package demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Officials in Anchorage, Alaska, won a key ruling in favor of a ban on indoor restaurant dining after a standoff over COVID-19 restrictions moved to court.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The California insurance commissioner's office said it has settled a case with drugmaker AbbVie. The company will pay $24 million to settle allegations of $1.2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims related to prescriptions of the arthritis drug Humira.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 7, California to date had 543,657 cases of coronavirus and 10,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,018 cases and 899 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,926,063 with the death toll at 160,980.
(sfist.com, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, In Florida the Broward State Attorney’s Office said it is dropping the armed robbery case against Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar (28), but will prosecute New York Giants cornerback Deandre Baker (22) for stealing jewelry and money from people, at gunpoint, nearly 3 months ago at a house party in Miramar.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The Crow Tribe in Montana ordered its members to lock down for two weeks beginning today as tribal leaders moved to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on yet another reservation in the country.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that all school districts in his state, once the epicenter of the nation's COVID-19 crisis, could open for in-person learning in the fall based on their current low infection rates of the virus.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Portland's nightly protests turned violent again even after the city's mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets. A police officer hit by a rock early today suffered what was described as a serious injury. The overnight protest was in a residential neighborhood 6 miles away from the federal courthouse.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Thousands of bikers poured into the small South Dakota city of Sturgis as the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally rumbled to life despite fears it could lead to a massive coronavirus outbreak. Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the seven-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Dalia Samoudi (23), a Palestinian woman, died after being shot in the chest by an apparent stray bullet during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Cincinnati-based Meridian Bioscience Inc. (VIVO) reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $27.5 million.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pfizer Inc said it has signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Bulgarian police removed dozens of tent camps that had blocked key city intersections across the country as part of antigovernment protests.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 7, China sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. The court said he had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs. Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review.
(Politico, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Israeli operatives, at the behest of the United States, assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, al Qaeda's second-highest leader, in Tehran according to a NY Times report in November. Iran at this time identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese history professor, and his daughter. Intelligence officials later said those were aliases. Al-Masri was a mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on American embassies in multiple African countries. Iran denied the NY Times report.
(NY Times, 11/14/20)
2020 Aug 7, In North Korea a train carrying goods arrived in the "totally blocked" city of Kaesong, following the discovery there of the country's first suspected coronavirus case.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pakistan recorded 782 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 17 deaths. In total Pakistan has reported 282,642 confirmed cases and 6,052 deaths.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said local biotech firm Genexine Inc has received regulatory approval for a Phase I human clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus treatment drug.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Spain reported 1,895 new coronavirus infections in the past day, mainly in the regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Aragon. Spain has seen a total of 314,362 cases of COVID-19 and recorded 28,503 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Moderna to secure early access to the COVID-19 vaccine the US biotech company is developing.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the United States.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 8, President Trump signed four executive orders on economic aid as stimulus talks stalled. Their impact may be limited, and legal challenges are expected. Trump extended supplemental unemployment benefits, but at a reduced rate of $400 per week from the previous $600. He also claimed authority to defer payroll taxes from august 1 to the end of the year.
(NY Times, 8/9/20)(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A8)
2020 Aug 8, California to date had 555,544 cases of coronavirus and 10,329 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,834 cases and 909 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,003,600 with the death toll at 162,422.
(sfist.com, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Portland, Oregon, a fire inside a police union building late today led authorities to declare a riot and force protesters away from the offices as violent demonstrations continued in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Texas a pair of Fort Hood soldiers were among those arrested at the conclusion of a two-day child prostitution sting. Nine men arrested also included a third US service member.
(Miami Herald, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 8, Brazil surpassed a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections with the new coronavirus.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Britain’s military said it has been asked by the government to help prevent people from reaching the UK from France in small boats, after a surge in the number of vessels making the dangerous journey.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Health care workers rallied in British cities demanding hefty pay raises for their hard work during the pandemic.
(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 8, China reported 31 new coronavirus cases, mainly in the western Xinjiang region, where an outbreak has infected 750 people.
(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 8, In northeastern Czech Republic at least 11 people were killed and 10 others injured in an apartment building fire in the town of Bohumin.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Konrad Steffen (69), a renowned researcher who helped warn the world that climate change was melting Greenland’s massive ice sheet, died there in an ice crevasse accident.
(NY Times, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 8, Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that an unknown gunman has killed two Lebanese nationals on the streets of Tehran. The assailant, riding a motorcycle, shot dead Maryam Dawood (27) and her father Habib Dawood, a history professor.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Israel thousands of demonstrators thronged the streets near the official residence of PM Benjamin Netanyahu in central Jerusalem, in a renewed show of strength as weeks of protests against the Israeli leader showed no signs of slowing.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Italy’s health minister announced that women in Italy can now use the abortion pill on an outpatient basis rather than be hospitalized to terminate a pregnancy.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Lebanon security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators n Beirut amid mounting fury over the massive explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Mexico officials in Guanajuato state confirmed that the bodies of seven men wee found with multiple gunshot wounds on the side of a road outside Jerecuaro. The state has seen more than 9,000 killings since a turf war began in 2017 between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the rival Jalisco cartel.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 8, Police in North Macedonia found 94 migrants packed into a truck in the country’s southeast. The truck driver fled from the scene.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 8, Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia's Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies showed little sign of dying down. Protesters demanded that regional governor Sergei Furgal be either released or tried in Khabarovsk.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Poland demonstrators turned out in Warsaw and other Polish cities to protest anti-LGBT attitudes promoted by the government as well as the detention of pro-LGBT protesters.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, A suicide car bomber attacked a military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least eight people and injuring 14 others.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 9, A US Border Patrol agent assigned to Tucson, Arizona, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking after he was found with thousands of pills and substances that tested positive for cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.
(Business Insider, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, A salmonella outbreak linked to onions has expanded to 43 states and Canada, prompting a recall from a producer in California and various grocery chains.
(NY Times, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, California to date had 559,963 cases of coronavirus and 10,374 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 61,951 cases and 911 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,040,904 with the death toll at 162,912.
(sfist.com, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Police in Louisville, Kentucky, banned protesters from demonstrating in the streets, after more than 70 nights of consecutive protests over the police killing of local Black woman Breonna Taylor. A handful of people were taken into custody for disorderly conduct and obstructing the roadway late today after the new restrictions went into place.
(Insider, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Washington, DC, a dispute that erupted into gun fire during a large outdoor party early today left one person dead and some 20 others injured.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, The most powerful earthquake to hit North Carolina in more than 100 years shook much of the state early today, rattling homes, businesses and residents. the 5.1-magnitude temblor was the largest earthquake to hit the state since 1916, when a magnitude 5.5 quake occurred near Skyland.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, A traditional Afghan council concluded with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan's warring sides.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Belarus held a presidential election. Opposition supporters suspected that election officials will manipulate results to give President Alexander Lukashenko (65) a sixth term in office. The opposition has coalesced around one candidate: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger. A government exit poll said Aleksandr Lukashenko had won almost 80 percent of the vote. That triggered protests against the repressive regime, and a heavy police response.
(AP, 8/9/20)(NY Times, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Egypt a car crash left at least nine people dead and seven others injured north of Cairo when a microbus collided with a small truck on a highway in the Nile Delta town of Banha.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), torn apart by internal strife, endorsed an extension of a UN arms embargo on Iran, just two months before it is set to expire.
(Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC)
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, India recorded nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, raising its total to 2,153,010. The Indian Medical Association said 196 doctors have died of COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 9, Namibia has seen a steady uptick of new coronavirus infections and has now reported 2,949 cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths since the start of the outbreak. The government planned for the first time to auction its 60% share of the country's annual horse mackerel and hake output to the highest bidder by the end of October, as it scrambles to raise funds for equipment and medicines to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Niger gunmen attacked a group of aid workers, killing six French citizens and two guides at a giraffe park in the Koure region. On Sept. 17 the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 8/9/20)(SFC, 9/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 9, In Pakistan troops with boats rushed to evacuate people in Sindh province as three days of heavy monsoon rains killed at least 58 people across the country.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 9, Puerto Rico was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots as officials called on the president of the US territory’s elections commission to resign.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time after his party secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that cemented his family's hold on power. Rajapaksa took oath before his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Yemen's Houthi rebels said that floods have swept through rebel-held parts of the country since mid-July amid heavy seasonal rains, leaving more than 130 dead and damaging more than 260 homes.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 10, The US Federal Reserve announced how much each large bank that underwent its 2020 stress tests will have to hold in additional capital.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Environmental Protection Agency approved a new chemical for use in repelling mosquitos, ticks, and other disease-bearing insects. The newly approved chemical, nootkatone, is a nontoxic oil found in Alaskan yellow cedars (Cupressus nootkatensis) and grapefruits, and it is so aromatic and safe for humans it is used in foods and perfumes.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, A rare storm packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it moved through Chicago and into Indiana and Michigan. The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois. Iowa state's agriculture department later estimated that the severe windstorm destroyed or seriously damaged more than 57 million bushels of commercial grain storage capacity in Iowa and a similar amount on farms.
(AP, 8/10/20)(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 10, A California judge ordered ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers in the state as employees eligible for benefits, rather than independent contractors.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, California to date had 571,539 cases of coronavirus and 10,451 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 63,636 cases and 913 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,079,941 with the death toll at 163,331.
(sfist.com, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Chicago more than 100 people were arrested following a night of looting and unrest that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in the city's upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city. Prosecutors later charged 42 people with felonies in connection with the looting.
(AP, 8/10/20)(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 10, In Maryland a gas explosion blew out windows and blasted doors off their hinges in three two-story rowhomes in Northwest Baltimore, killing one woman and injuring at least six other people.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, It was reported that at least five horses have been killed around Pearland, Texas, since late May. Police believe the horses were killed for their meat.
(MH, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Portland, Oregon, demonstrators took to the streets again late today and police broke up a protest outside a police precinct substation after they said protesters shined strobe lights at officers and hurled eggs and water bottles at them.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Washington state Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement late today after the City Council voted to slash the $400-million police budget by nearly $4 million.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Gilead Sciences Inc said it has filed a marketing application with the US Food and Drug Administration for its experimental COVID-19 drug remdesivir.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, McDonald's filed a lawsuit accusing former CEO Steve Easterbrook of lying, concealing evidence, and fraud linked to a sexual relationship with a subordinate while he was running the company.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Omeros Corp said its experimental treatment helped six patients, with acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by COVID-19, recover and get discharged from the hospital, sending the drug developer's shares up 60%.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Bahrain said Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Bahrain, after launching similar trials in the United Arab Emirates last month.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that the protesters who challenge the official vote results extending his 26-year rule will face a tough crackdown, deriding the opposition as “sheep" manipulated by foreign masters. Election officials said that Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80% of the vote, while opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya got 10%. Protester Alexander Taraikovsky (34), died in the Minsk under disputed circumstances. Mobile phone internet went offline after protesters clashed with police a day earlier.
(AP, 8/10/20)(Reuters, 8/11/20)(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 10, Bhutan ordered its first nationwide lockdown after a returning resident tested positive for coronavirus after being discharged from quarantine and coming into close contact with people in the capital Thimphu.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, A Royal Air Force surveillance plane flew over the English Channel as the British government sought to curb the number of people crossing from France in small boats. An inflatable dinghy carrying about 20 people was met by a UK Border Force boat and escorted to the port of Dover.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, China announced unspecified sanctions against 11 US politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing. The number of Americans named by the ministry exactly equals the number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the US last week over the crackdown.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Cuba reported a record 93 cases of the new coronavirus as a surge of the disease in the Havana area threatened to stall the re-opening of the country after a partial lockdown beginning in March. Cuba has reported just under 3,000 cases and 88 deaths to date.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Denmark said it has seen a new spread of COVID-19 infections in the past week with the reproduction rate rising to 1.4. In the past week infections have been confirmed in 67 out of Denmark's 98 municipalities.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Greek government imposed a midnight closing time on bars, cafes, clubs and restaurants from August 11 to August 23 to help stem increasing coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 10, The Hong Kong police arrested Jimmy Lai (72), a pro-democracy media tycoon and high-profile critic of the Chinese Communist Party, on charges of violating a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing. the Hong Kong Police Force said seven men between the ages of 39 and 72 were arrested on suspicion of breaching the security law. Two of Lai's sons were among those arrested.
(NY Times, 8/10/20)(The Week, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Iran shut down the Jahane Sanat newspaper after it published remarks by an expert who said the official figures on coronavirus cases and deaths in the country account for only 5% of the real toll, allegations rejected by the Health Ministry.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Lebanon’s Cabinet resigned over last week's devastating blast at the Beirut port, a decision that was made under pressure as several ministers quit or expressed their intention to step down. PM Diab's Cabinet now assumes a caretaker role until a new government is formed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Nigeria musician Sharif-Aminu (22) was sentenced in northern state of Kano to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad. Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad. An appeal was allowed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Philippines reported 6,958 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily case increase in the Southeast Asian country, taking its tally of cases to 136,638. A Health Ministry bulletin also reported 24 more fatalities, bringing the country's coronavirus death toll to 2,293.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Somalia at least 20 people were killed in a shoot-out between jailed militant Islamists and security officers at a prison in Mogadishu during an attempted prison escape.
(BBC, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Sri Lanka began reopening schools. Health authorities said the COVID-19 outbreak has been under control.
(SFC, 8/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 10, Trinidad and Tobago re-elected Keith Rawley (b.1949) as prime minister.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rowley)
2020 Aug 10, Turkey vowed to press ahead with searching for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, saying it plans to issue new exploration licenses for the area despite an escalating dispute with Greece over drilling rights. Greece slammed the announcement.
(AP, 8/11/20)(SFC, 8/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 10, Vietnam's health ministry reported six more coronavirus infections and two additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 847, with 13 fatalities.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 11, Joe Biden selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. She is the first Black woman, and the first person of Indian descent, to be nominated for national office by a major party.
(NY Times, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, The Big Ten and the Pac-12, two major college sports conferences whose schools include Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon, called off their football seasons for the fall.
(NY Times, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Mark Grenon, self-styled archbishop in a Florida-based church, was arrested in Colombia along with one of his sons. Grenon had marketed "Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS), a form of toxic bleach associated with seven deaths in the US. In recent years advocates of MMS have established a significant presence in Latin America.
(Business Insider, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, UCSF researchers reported that they have developed synthetic antibodies. dubbed AeroNabs, that neutralize the coronavirus.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A1)
2020 Aug 11, California to date had 576,427 cases of coronavirus and 10,500 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 65,140 cases and 929 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,116,751 with the death toll at 164,137.
(sfist.com, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, American singer and actor Trini Lopez (83), known for his cover of "If I Had a Hammer," died in Palm Springs, Ca.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trini_Lopez)
2020 Aug 11, Sumner Redstone (97), the billionaire entrepreneur who built a media empire encompassing CBS and Viacom, died in Los Angeles.
(NY Times, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Florida recorded a record high single-day death toll with 277 of the nation's 1,282 deaths..
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, The US state of Georgia recorded a record high single-day death toll with 122 of the nation's 1,282 deaths.
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc said the first group of participants had been dosed in an early-stage trial testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and that results from the trial were expected in the fourth quarter.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Moderna Inc said there was a possibility it was not the first company to make breakthroughs claimed in its patent applications, including those for its experimental coronavirus vaccine, according to a recent regulatory filing.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the top opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential vote, said she has left for Lithuania and called on her supporters to end demonstrations. Her husband has been at a Belarusian jail since his arrest in May.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, A British appeals court ruled that the use of facial recognition technology violated human rights and data protection laws. Civil rights campaigner Ed Bridges had his face scanned while shopping in 2017 and again as he attended a peaceful anti-arms protest in 2018.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 11, China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd launched a late-stage human trial that will involve as many as 1,620 patients in Indonesia for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that it is developing with Indonesian state-owned peer Bio Farma.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Egyptians started two days of voting for the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament that was revived as part of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum last year. The vote is mostly a symbolic exercise. The 300-seat Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, has no legislative powers and will have mainly an advisory role.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Egypt reopened Gaza’s main passenger crossing point for the first time in months for thousands of Palestinians who have been stranded on both sides of the border due to the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, German biotech firm BioNTech, which is working with US pharma giant Pfizer on a novel vaccine, reiterated it aimed to file for emergency authorization or approval as early as October, if ongoing trials succeed.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Greece asked the EU to hold an emergency meeting of the group's foreign ministers to press for sanctions against Turkey amid a new and dangerous tussle with its regional foe over energy and sea rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
(The Telegraph, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Hong Kong supporters of the Apple Daily newspaper lined up to buy an expanded print run in a bid to help the paper survive, a day after police raided its headquarters and detained up to ten people including founder Jimmy Lai.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 11, India reported 53,601 new cases of the coronavirus as its total neared 2.3 million. 871 new deaths were reported raising total fatalities to 45,257.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, Iran's judiciary reported that two Iranians have been sentenced to 10-year prison terms on charges of spying for Israel, Germany and Britain. They were identified as Masoud Mosaheb, the co-chairman of the Iran-Austrian Friendship Society, and Shahram Shirkhani.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Nasrin Sotoudeh (57), prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, began a hunger strike seeking better prison conditions and the release of political prisoners amid the pandemic. Sotoudeh, a mother of two, was arrested in 2018 on charges of collusion and propaganda against the system and eventually was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Iraq's military said a Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials north of Irbil, marking the first time that Turkey's operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Italy's new cases of the coronavirus increased by 412. Sicily reported 89 cases after 64 migrants tested positive at a screening center.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, Lebanon's health ministry said 307 more people tested positive raising total registered cases to 7,121. Seven new deaths raised that total to 87.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, In Mexico at least 13 people died when a bus overturned on a highway outside Mexico City.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 11, In Mozambique insurgents took the port of Mocimoa da Praia.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 11, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announced that she had ordered a new lockdown after the confirmation of four new COVID-19 cases, the country's first in 102 days.
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Dozens of Palestinians protested outside the German diplomatic office in the West Bank, seeking to draw attention to Israel's arrest of a leading coordinator of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel. Mahmoud Nawajaa was arrested on July 30 and remains in Israeli custody. He has not been charged.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Russia claimed it has developed the world's first vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus, as the pandemic marked another bleak milestone with 20 million infections globally. The new vaccine was dubbed "Sputnik V" after the Soviet satellite. Scientists in Russia and other countries warned that Russia's claim to have registered the first coronavirus vaccine was not the breakthrough that President Vladimir Putin claimed. They noted that the vaccine had not gone through final-stage, Phase 3 trials, which are expected to take months and are the only way to be sure an experimental drug is safe and effective.
(AP, 8/11/20)(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it received Indian regulatory approval to test its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients in an early-stage human trial.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Spain’s ministry reported 805 people nationwide hospitalized with the coronavirus over the past seven days. Half of the 64 people who died over the previous week were from Aragón, the region surrounding Zaragoza.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Sudanese authorities imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the eastern city of Port Sudan after tribal clashes earlier this week killed more than a dozen people and wounded more than 40 others.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the World Food Program would be sending 50,000 tons of wheat flour to Beirut to stabilize Lebanon's wheat supply.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, The UN reported that more than 70 people were killed and dozens injured during weekend clashes between South Sudan’s army and armed civilians in north-central Tonj.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, The FBI arrested Aníbal Jover, the former president of Puerto Rico’s Association of Certified Public Accountants. He became the seventh person arrested in connection with an ongoing federal fraud probe involving Puerto Rico's former education secretary Julia Keleher.
(NBC News, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, UNICEF USA announced its first major program supporting children in the United States. The agency will be investing $1 million this year on an initiative to help US cities become more child-friendly.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, In southern California a fire broke out in dense forest land north of Los Angeles. About 100 rural homes were evacuated in the Lake Hughes area of the Angeles National Forest.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, California to date had 590,606 cases of coronavirus and 10,736 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 66,482 cases and 940 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,191,689 with the death toll at 165,909.
(sfist.com, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that understaffing and inadequate supervision of staff and patients plagued campuses of the nonprofit Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health organization, where at least 41 intellectually disabled children have reported sexual assaults over the past quarter-century.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice halted visits to nursing homes and said that virus outbreaks were currently at 28 nursing homes statewide.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 12, Hundreds of women rallied across Belarus’ capital to protest a brutal police crackdown that left hundreds injured and thousands detained while challenging election results extending the 26-year rule of the country’s authoritarian leader. More than 300 CEOs of IT companies and investors signed a letter demanding a new election as well as an end to state-sponsored violence. Otherwise, they claimed, they'll head elsewhere.
(AP, 8/12/20)(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Britain reported a total of 1,009 new cases of COVID-19, taking the cumulative number of cases in the country to 313,798.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Germany's leading infectious disease institute said a first vaccine against the coronavirus could be available as early as autumn but warned that it may take longer to control the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Germany recorded the biggest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in more than three months, with the health minister warning of outbreaks in nearly all parts of the country due to holiday returnees and party-goers. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 1,226 to 218,519. Deaths remained relatively low, edging up by six to a total of 9,207.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Greek and Turkish frigates collided in the eastern Mediterranean raising tensions between the two countries over disputed waters.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.49)
2020 Aug 12, Greece announced 262 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily number since the outbreak began. Total confirmed cases reached 6,177 with 216 deaths.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 12, In southern India at least three people were killed in Bengaluru when police clashed with hundreds of Muslims during a protest over a Facebook post considered offensive to Islam. The person responsible for the post was arrested and a law prohibiting gatherings was imposed on the city.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, Indonesia's capital Jakarta extended its social restrictions to stem surging coronavirus transmission as the country reported 2,098 new cases. Indonesia has reported 132,816 coronavirus infections and 5,968 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, Israel said it foiled a cyberattack targeting its defense industry by the Lazarus Group, a shadowy entity that the US has linked to North Korea.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth said authorities have finished pumping out the fuel oil from the Japanese-owned ship that has caused a huge oil spill off the island's coast. The fuel was transferred to shore by helicopter and to another ship owned by Nagashiki Shipping.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, It was reported that a court in Nigeria has fined three men $52,000 (£40,000) each for hijacking a ship in March and securing a ransom of $200,000 for the release of its crew.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Police in North Macedonia discovered 148 migrants crammed into trucks in two separate operations. Two men have been arrested.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, In Scotland a driver was among 3 people killed this morning when a ScotRail train derailed in Aberdeenshire. An investigation later revealed that the train had struck a pile of washed-out rock and gravel before derailing.
(AP, 8/12/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, Sudan's PM Abdalla Hamdok said that troops have been deployed to Port Sudan to help contain fighting that over the past three days has left at least 25 people dead and scores more wounded. The fighting erupted earlier this week between the Beni Amer tribe and the displaced Nuba tribe.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Ukraine recorded a record daily jump of 1,592 coronavirus cases. The total number of cases rose to 86,140, including 1,992 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, A Zimbabwean magistrate ordered prison authorities to unchain journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, accused of mobilizing anti-government protests, but then ruled that his testimony of poor prison conditions must be heard in private.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump said his team was rejecting Democrats' bid to include funds for the US Postal Service and to shore up election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, as he vowed to block money to facilitate mail-in voting. Trump acknowledged that his position would starve the agency of money Democrats say it needs to process an anticipated surge in mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump, PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates, agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE. The Abraham accords required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/13/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.23)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump gave credence to a false and racist conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice president, fueling an online misinformation campaign that parallels the one he used to power his rise into politics.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Trump administration formally weakened a major climate change regulation, effectively freeing oil and gas companies from the need to detect and repair methane leaks.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 13, The US Justice Department accused Yale University of violating federal civil rights law by discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants.
(NY Times, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, US federal law enforcement officials said that they had conducted the “largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency" connected to terrorism. Three forfeiture complaints involved the Al-Qassam Brigades, better known as the military wing of Hamas, in addition to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
(NBC News, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, A federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld the constitutionality of the all-male military draft system, citing a 1981 US Supreme Court decision.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that the US has seized the cargo of four vessels, called Luna, Pandi, Bering and Bella, on the high seas in recent days and that they are now en route to Houston. US prosecutors filed a lawsuit last month to seize the gasoline aboard the four tankers that Iran is trying to ship to Venezuela.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 13, A US-based think-tank said satellite imagery suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have damaged pump houses connected to the country's main nuclear facility.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The US Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling that relaxes voting restrictions in Rhode Island during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Michael Cohen, Pres. Trump's one-time lawyer and fixer, released the foreward of his upcoming jailhouse tell-all in which he promised stories involving the president. The memoir will be titled: "Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump." The governemnt has tried to stop the publication. It was set for release on Sept. 8.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A5)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A9)
2020 Aug 13, Steven Donziger, the American lawyer who spent more than two decades suing Chevron Corp over pollution in the Ecuadorian rain forest, was disbarred in New York by a state appeals court. Nine years ago, Donziger had won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuador court, but was unable to enforce it after a US judge found it had been obtained through fraud.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, California to date had 601,975 cases of coronavirus and 10,981 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 67,778 cases and 947 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,244,238 with the death toll at 167,029.
(sfist.com, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Georgia's state Gov. Brian kemp said he's dropping a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta in a dispute over the city's requirement to wear marks in public and other restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Nevada recorded 602 new cases of the coronavirus to bring its total to 58,650. The death toll grew 34 to 1,030.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, In Portland, Oregon, a crowd of several hundred anti-racism protesters, some of whom had set a fire and launched fireworks around the US courthouse, mostly dispersed early today after police declared the gathering a riot and fired tear gas at them.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Maryland-based Novavax Inc said South Korea's SK bioscience would manufacture a component of the US drug developer's experimental coronavirus vaccine in a bid to boost its supply.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Dallas resident Collin Garrett Hayden (28), a male stripper accused of drug-dealing and being a white supremacist, was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison.
(Miami Herald, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, Crowds of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets and thousands of workers rallied outside industrial plants to denounce a police crackdown on demonstrations over a disputed election that extended the 26-year rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Nearly 7,000 people have been detained and hundreds injured in a harsh clampdown by police on demonstrators protesting the official results.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that at least 782 American guns have been discovered by British police since 2017.
(NY Times, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Chinese city of Shenzhen's government identified a Brazilian meat plant owned by Aurora, the country's third largest processor of chicken and pork, as the source of chicken wings that tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Authorities in the Chinese city of Xian separately reported that the outer packaging of shrimp imported from Ecuador also tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, ShanghaiPRIDE, one of China's longest running gay pride groups, said it was cancelling all activities and events for the foreseeable future, citing the need to protect the "safety" of its people and prompting a chorus of regret on social media.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, Researchers said a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) appeared to be safe and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and mid-stage trials.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on the mainland, up from 19 on the previous day. China's total number of cases now stands at 84,786. The official death toll is unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, In Egypt Essam el-Erian (66), senior leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, died of a heart attack in a Cairo prison where he had been serving a 25-year sentence.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, German biotech firm CureVac BV raised $213.3 million in its initial public offering in New York, setting the stage for the first stock market debut of a company developing a potential vaccine to combat the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Greek authorities quarantined the country's third largest migrant camp on the Aegean Sea island of Chios until August 25 after an asylum-seeker and a staff member were diagnosed with COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Iran recorded 174 deaths from coronavirus and 2,625 new cases to take its death toll to more than 19,000 and total cases to 336,324.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel's Defense Ministry said it has conducted a successful test of the Arrow-2 interceptor, the country’s advanced missile defense system against long-range ballistic attacks.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early today in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons from the Palestinian territory into Israel.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel charged five members of its border security force with stealing from Palestinians who were crossing illegally into Israel from the West Bank.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel's largest medical center said a newly developed saliva test aims to determine in less than a second whether or not you are infected with the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, In the Ivory Coast opposition and civil society groups demonstrated in Abidjan against Pres. Alassane Ouattara's decision to run for a third term in October.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 13, Lithuania designated the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group as a terrorist organization and issued a 10-year ban on all individuals related to the Iran-backed group from entering the Baltic nation’s territory.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Mozambique said its troops are fighting to regain control of the key port of Mocimboa da Praia, following multiple reports that it had fallen to Islamist militants a day earlier. Dozens of soldiers were reported killed, and a patrol boat sunk. The army said it has killed about 60 militants.
(BBC, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, South Korea confirmed plans to start building its first aircraft carrier next year as tensions grow in the Indo-Pacific region between the US and China and the question of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions remains unresolved.
(The Telegraph, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Spain now leads Europe with 44,400 new coronavirus cases confirmed over the past 14 days. New daily cases reached nearly 3,000.
(AP, 8/13/20)(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Spain's regional government of Andalusia said 12 out of 19 people suffering from meningitis in the southern province of Seville have tested positive for Nile fever, with the remaining seven samples still pending results. Greece has reported 10 cases of Nile fever and one death so far this summer.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The UN reported that at least eight children under the age of five have died in recent days from health problems linked to the dire conditions in a camp in northern Syria housing tens of thousands of female supporters of the Islamic State group and their children.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that an oil spill in Venezuela has coated a stretch of the country's Caribbean coastline. Fishermen and locals living around Morrocoy National Park began reporting oil washing ashore last week.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 13, Vietnam's health ministry reported 25 more coronavirus infections and three additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 905, with 20 fatalities.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 14, President Trump, via executive order, officially called on Chinese company ByteDance to divest itself of the US operations of the popular video-sharing app, TikTok. The president's order allows 90 days for the transaction to be completed.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the appointments of two top homeland security officials in the administration of President Donald Trump did not follow processes outlined in federal law. The GAO referred the issue to the inspector general for the US Department of Homeland Security.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, US authorities gave wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Prosecutors said radical Islamic cleric Abdullah al-Faisal (56) has been extradited from Jamaica to New York City on charges he recruited followers and fighters for the Islamic State through fiery online lectures and militant propaganda.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers said that the union's executive council had endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, warning "the very survival" of the US Postal Service is at stake.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, said he has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2xsf2r6)(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 14, Former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma (67) was arrested for allegedly conspiring with a relative, also a former CIA officer, to provide classified information to Beijing. Both had top secret clearance while working for the US government and multiple Chinese intelligence officials. The co-conspirator, now 85, is also a naturalized US citizen who was born in Shanghai.
(The Telegraph, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 14, Arizona's greater Phoenix's J.O. Combs Unified School District, that ignored state safety guidelines and voted to begin in-person learning on Aug. 17, canceled classes after staff said it was unsafe to return and called in sick.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the US Constitution's protection of the right to bear firearms. A stay issued by a lower court judge remained in place.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, California electrical providers instituted rolling blackouts late today for the first time since 2001 amid a potentially record-breaking heat wave that is expected to affect many states in the West through August 20.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, California to date had 604,609 cases of coronavirus and 11,028 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 69,503 cases and 958 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,289,323 with the death toll at 167,948.
(sfist.com, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The Florida High School Athletics Association voted to begin sports throughout in the Sunshine State on Aug. 24.
(Good Morning America, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Florida reported more than 6,200 new coronavirus cases and 200 deaths.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, Former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson (84), known as “Big Jim" during a long career (1976-1991), died. He was the state's longest-serving chief executive.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said NJ will mail a ballot to every voter in the state for November's elections, as well as hold in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, In Angola José Filomeno dos Santos (42), son of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, was jailed for five years for fraud from when he was head of the oil-rich country's Sovereign Wealth Fund.
(BBC, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Authorities in Belarus freed at least 2,000 of about 7,000 people who had been pulled off the streets by riot police in the days following a disputed election. Graphic descriptions of savage beatings and other abuse by police brought tens of thousands into the streets of Minsk in the biggest challenge in his tenure.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Britain extended lockdown restrictions on regions of northwest England, saying there was no evidence that the COVID-19 infection rate in the area had fallen.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Julian Bream (b.1933), British champion of the classical guitar and lute, died in England.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Bream)(Econ., 8/22/20, p.74)
2020 Aug 14, The head of China's banking and insurance regulator said China's peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platforms still have more than 800 billion yuan ($115 billion) unpaid to investors and their numbers have shrunk to just 29 across the country.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that the EU has agreed to buy at least 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine in its first such advance purchase deal, which could weaken plans led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for a global approach.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, India reported 1,007 coronavirus deaths bringing tis total to 48,040. Confirmed cases rose by 64,553.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, Israeli aircraft and tanks hit several militant sites in the Gaza Strip late today, responding to explosive-laden incendiary balloons launched across the frontier into Israeli territory.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that cases of the coronavirus have quadrupled in the past month in Madagascar, with more than 13,000 infections and 162 deaths, which has spread to all but one of its 22 regions. President Andry Rajoelina continued to stand by an herbal concoction called Covid-Organics, which was launched to great fanfare in April.
(BBC, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, In Nepal a landslide buried dozens of homes killing 11 people in the village of Lidi near the border with China.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, In the Netherlands rioters clashed overnight with police during a 2nd night of unrest in a low-income neighborhood of The Hague after authorities acted to stop residents from opening fire hydrants to cool off amid a weeklong heat wave.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, North Korea said it had lifted a three-week lockdown that was imposed on a border city after a defector believed to be carrying the coronavirus sneaked back into the country.
(AFP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank rallied against an agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel and the UAE announced a day earlier that they will normalize diplomatic ties.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The Philippines imposed a temporary ban on poultry meat imports from Brazil after two cities in China found traces of the new coronavirus in cargoes of imported frozen food, including chicken wings from the South American country.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, More than a quarter of South Korea’s medical clinics closed for a one-day strike in protest at government plans to train new doctors, as the country reported the highest number of domestic coronavirus cases since the end of March.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that Spanish police in Catalonia have broken up a gang of poachers believed to have captured 10,000 protected finches in two years, amassing an estimated €150,000 by illegally selling the animals as caged songbirds.
(The Telegraph, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN Security Council voted to reject the United States' effort to extend a global arms embargo on Iran.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN launched an appeal to raise $565 million to help Lebanon recover from this month's devastating port blast that killed 171 people.
(AFP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops issued a letter highlighting corruption, poverty and human rights abuses and called for an urgent resolution to the country's economic and political challenges. The government dismissed the charges.
(BBC, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sealed a defense cooperation deal with Polish officials that will pave the way to redeploy American troops from Germany to Poland.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the SalivaDirect COVID-19 diagnostic test developed by the Yale School of Public Health in partnership with the National Basketball Association.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, The US Food and Drug Administration approved Roche's Enspryng for the central nervous system disorder neuromyelitis optica, putting the Swiss drugmaker head-to-head with Alexion's Soliris in a costly treatment area.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, In California the explosive Loyalton Fire north of Lake Tahoe has burned through about 20,000 acres and is only 5 percent contained. It formed into a rare phenomenon known as a fire tornado, which the National Weather Service called "extremely dangerous fire behavior."
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, California to date had 619,243 cases of coronavirus and 11,217 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 70,556 cases and 964 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,357,396 with the death toll at 169,432.
(sfist.com, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, In Chicago a downtown march began peacefully, but a separate demonstration broke off resulting in two dozen arrests, 17 injured police officers and at least two injured protesters.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, In Michigan two men and two women were found dead from gunshot wounds in a house in Sumpter Township, a Wayne County suburb of Detroit. Suspect Raymond Lee Bailey (37) turned himself in the next day.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, A Nebraska school district said it had canceled classes after staff members tested positive for the new coronavirus, the latest state to see instruction disrupted after resuming in-person learning.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York had its lowest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 17. He confirmed 734 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 424,901 confirmed cases in New York State, with the highest concentration in New York City. Five deaths a day earlier brought that total to 25,244.
(Good Morning America, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested four people overnight and dispersed a protest that was heading toward the offices of the police union.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A8)
2020 Aug 15, Algeria started reopening its mosques, cafes, beaches and parks for the first time in five months. The country has reported more than 37,000 infections and 1,350 deaths.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that prosecutors in Angola have ordered the closure of places of worship belonging to one of Brazil's biggest churches, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), accusing it of corruption.
(BBC, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Australia's Victoria state reported 4 more deaths COVID-19 deaths and 303 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours in a positive trend downward.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, Belarus' embattled President Alexander Lukashenko appealed to his long-time ally Russian President Vladimir Putin as protesters continue to call for his resignation following his recent disputed election victory, which the opposition alleges he rigged. Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus gathered at the spot in the capital where a protester died in clashes with police, calling for authoritarian Lukashenko to resign after 26 years in power.
(The Week, 8/15/20)(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Thousands of British tourists beat a hasty retreat from France, packing out planes, trains and ferries to return to the UK by the early hours of this morning to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine at home.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that workers in the Chinese town of Pyawbwe earn about $1.20 a day untangling hair from Bangladesh and India.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 15, In Colombia eight people, all aged between 17 and 26, were killed in a massacre at a barbecue in the small town of Samaniego late today. Two other killings in Nariño province in the past seven days left at least four others dead. Colombia has seen 33 massacres this year and 45 human rights defenders have been killed in the same period.
(The Guardian, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that the Greek government has secretly expelled more than 1,000 refugees from Europe’s borders in recent months, sailing many of them to the edge of Greek territorial waters and then abandoning them in inflatable and sometimes overburdened life rafts.
(NY Times, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The prime ministers of India and Nepal spoke over the phone to try to ease bilateral tensions that have existed since a border dispute erupted between the two countries in May.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that 16,347 migrants reached Italian shores in small boats without help over the last year, while 5,271 were rescued at sea, most of those by charity boats.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, North Macedonia police found 80 migrants during a routine check in the central part of the country and arrested a truck driver for suspected migrant smuggling.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, Officials said grounded Japanese ship that leaked tons of oil near protected areas off the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has split apart, with remaining fuel spreading into the turquoise waters.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute said more than 1,040 immigration officers have been referred to the internal affairs office or forced to quit after they were caught demanding bribes and other acts of corruption.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that nearly 1,500 acres of rice fields in North Korea were flooded and about 730 singe-story homes and 179 housing blocks destroyed as of early August. This has prompted leader Kim Jong Un to tap into his private grain reserves to feed victims.
(Business Insider, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The Philippine health ministry reported 4,351 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 159 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 157,918 infections and 2,600 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Russia's health ministry reported the production start of the first batch of its new vaccine for COVID-19. Russian pharmaceutical company Petrovax confirmed it was running a trial for a COVID-19 candidate vaccine from China-based CanSino Biologics Inc.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, South Korea reported 166 newly confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest daily jump in five months.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, Turkey's coronavirus count rose to its highest daily level since June, with total deaths nearing 6,000. There were 1,256 new cases and 21 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing total cases above 278,000.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 16, Congressional Democrats called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a donor to Republican President Donald Trump, and US Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an Aug. 24 committee hearing.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, More than 100 demonstrators converged outside the North Carolina mansion of postmaster general Louis DeJoy, protesting the cutbacks, delays and other changes to the USPS that have created fears for mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, California to date had 624,007 cases of coronavirus and 11,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 71,869 cases and 970 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,401,167 with the death toll at 170,019.
(sfist.com, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A monitoring station in Death Valley measured a temperature of 54.4 degrees (130 degrees F).
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.17)
2020 Aug 16, In Ohio at least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around Cincinnati overnight.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A riot was declared in Portland, Oregon, as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early today, continuing a nightly ritual in the city.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Belarus thousands of people gathered in a square near the main government building for a rally to support President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition supporters whose protests have convulsed the country for a week held a major march in Minsk.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, China's health authority said new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded. Mainland China had 84,827 confirmed coronavirus cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Luis Rodolfo Abinader (53) was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 16, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the UAE proves that Israel doesn't need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians in order to achieve peace and normalization with Arab states. Telephone service between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began working.
(AP, 8/16/20)(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's offshore fishing zone following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Lebanon registered 439 new virus cases and six fatalities. The new infections bring to 8,881 the total number of cases, where COVID-19 has killed some 103 people. An August 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed around 180 people and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, New Zealand reported 13 new infections, bringing the country's number of active cases up to 69. Most of the cases were from community transmission and are linked to a cluster in Auckland, which is under a new lockdown.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Thousands of Puerto Ricans got a second chance to vote for the first time, a week after delayed and missing ballots marred the original primaries in a blow to the US territory’s democracy. Gov. Wanda Vázquez acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the US territory's governor last year amid political turmoil.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to offer Minsk military assistance if necessary to quell anti-government protests in Belarus.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Somali special forces ended a siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that was stormed by armed al-Shabab militants. At least 12 people were killed at the beachside Elite Hotel, in addition to five militants.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, South Korea reported 279 new confirmed infections, the highest 24-hour jump since early March.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Authorities said flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan for weeks, leaving at least 60 people dead and destroying thousands of homes since late July. More than 185,000 people in all but one of its 18 provinces have been affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 17, President Donald Trump denied trying to undermine the Postal Service's ability to handle a flood of mail-in ballots ahead of the November US election, as Democrats prepared to move against changes his administration has set in motion.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Trump administration issued final approval to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge that has been off-limits to drilling for decades.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The US Department of Commerce (DOC) prohibited anyone from selling chips to China's Huawei telecoms company, if they were produced with American technology. The new rule took effect on August 20.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.54)
2020 Aug 17, US Democrats opened their presidential nominating convention with a virtual program that spanned the ideological gamut, featuring speeches from the left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and two former Republican governors. Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of President Donald Trump during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, declaring him “in over his head" and warning that the nation's mounting crises would only get worse if he's reelected over Joe Biden.
(NY Times, 8/18/20)(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new regulation that would roll back health care protections for transgender people.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, It was reported that US intelligence has assessed that Iran paid the bounties to the Haqqani network, for the Bagram attack on 11 December, which killed two civilians and injured more than 70 others, including two Americans.
(The Guardian, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Amer Fakhoury (57), an American who was jailed for months in Lebanon and later released over decades-old murder and torture charges that he denied, died in Boston.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, FBI agents arrested Puerto Rico Rep. María Milagros Charbonier, one of Puerto Rico's most conservative and religious legislators, and three other people. No further details were immediately available.
(NBC News, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, California to date had 632,929 cases of coronavirus and 11,331 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 72,833 cases and 975 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,435,908 with the death toll at 170,453.
(sfist.com, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the first big university to move in-person classes online after new coronavirus outbreaks. Just one week into the semester, 177 students had tested positive, and hundreds of others were in quarantine because of possible exposure.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, In Texas Fort Hood Sgt. Elder Fernandes was last seen when his staff sergeant dropped him off at his home in Killeen. He was the 3rd Fort Hood soldier to go missing this year. His body was found on August 25 near railroad tracks in Temple.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A7)(NBC News, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 17, US drug developer Novavax Inc said that it is starting a mid-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, as the country experiences a surge in coronavirus cases. South Africa is fifth worst affected country with 583,653 coronavirus cases and 11,677 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko warned protesters that he will not give in to their demands for a new presidential election—unless they assassinate him. Workers heckled and jeered Lukashenko as he visited a factory and strikes grew across Belarus, raising the pressure on the authoritarian leader to step down after 26 years in power.
(The Daily Beast, 8/17/20)(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Central Party School in Beijing, where Cai Xia (67) taught for 15 years until 2012, announced that she had been expelled from the Communist Party after she denounced both the party and Xi in recent speeches and essays. She had described Mr. Xi's scrapping of the two-term limit as something the Central Committee had been forced to swallow. She moved to the US last year.
(NY Times, 8/18/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 17, It was reported that prosecutors in El Salvador have filed charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal conspiracy against ex-Pres. Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who has fled to Nicaragua.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 17, France-based Sanofi's said is buying US-based Principia Biopharma Inc $3.7 billion. The acquisition gives Sanofi Principia's pipeline in autoimmune diseases.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Iran seized a United Arab Emirates vessel and summoned the UAE envoy after two of its fishermen were shot dead in an incident in the Gulf.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 17, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian (60) who is deaf and couldn't hear their commands to stop at a West Bank checkpoint.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The head of Lebanon's customs authority was formally arrested after being questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the state-run National News Agency reported.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, A Taliban spokesman said a militant faction in Pakistan that split years ago from the Pakistani Taliban has returned and rejoined the insurgents. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, was formed in 2014 by Umar Khalid Khurasani when it split from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Syrian media said US forces clashed with Syrian troops in the northeast, killing at least one Syrian soldier and wounding two others. Americans “came under small arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of a checkpoint" and returned fire in self-defense. In 2022 Sgt. 1st Class Robert Nicoson, a paratrooper who was accused of leading a patrol into an unnecessary gunfight before ordering troops to delete videos of the incident, was acquitted of all charges.
(AP, 8/17/20)(The Fayetteville Observer, 1/9/22)
2020 Aug 18, President Donald Trump said that he will pardon Susan B. Anthony, a women's suffrage leader arrested for voting in 1872 in violation of laws permitting only men to vote.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation concluded that Trump campaign's interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave" counterintelligence threat as it detailed how associates of the Republican candidate had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin's help. Trump immediately denounced the 1,300-page report as “a hoax."
(AP, 8/18/20)(The Daily Beast, 10/5/20)
2020 Aug 18, Several Democratic state attorneys general said they will announce legal action against President Donald Trump's administration over Postal Service changes that may affect mail-in voting in the November US presidential election.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he would suspend cost-cutting measures and operational changes at the Postal Service until after the November election.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, On Wall Street the S&P 500 index closed at an all-time high at 3389.78. The Nasdaq composite index also made a record close at 11,210.84.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 18, Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for the presidency on the second night of their national convention, in a virtual roll call vote.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, The US government sued Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, accusing the firm of causing the submission of false claims to Medicare by using kickbacks to boost sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, The United States and Russia concluded two days of arms control talks with the two sides still at odds over the US demand to include China in any new treaty.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to wildfires in California, as the state battled the effects of a sweltering heat wave, rolling blackouts and the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, California to date had 636,833 cases of coronavirus and 11,390 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 74,020 cases and 987 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,480,487 with the death toll at 171,679.
(sfist.com, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, An independent inquiry reported that for-profit nursing homes in Connecticut had significantly more cases and deaths from COVID-19 than non-profit ones, shedding new light on the shortfalls of the state's pandemic response.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, US prosecutors alleged that New York attorney Jason Kurland (46), the self-dubbed “Lottery Lawyer," was actually stealing tens of millions of dollars from his clients with the help of three other individuals—including a mafia member—to fund their extravagant lifestyles. The indictment charged Kurland with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6bhxl7z)(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 18, In Oregon protesters lit fires, threw rocks and smashed windows at county government offices in Portland, prompting police to declare a riot, after weeks of mostly peaceful anti-racism demonstrations.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, South Dakota transportation officials said that this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew more than 460,000 vehicles during the 10-day event. The South Dakota Department of Health issued a warning that one person who spent several hours at a bar on Main Street in Sturgis has tested positive for COVID-19 and may have spread it to others. The city plans to conduct mass COVID-19 testing in an effort to catch outbreaks.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Vanda Pharmaceuticals said COVID-19 patients with pneumonia improved faster when treated with the company's experimental therapy than those on placebo, citing an interim analysis of data from a late-stage study.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In Belarus more factories joined a growing strike turning up pressure on Pres. Alexander Lukashenko to resign.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 18, Sinopharm chairman Liu Jingzhen said a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by the unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group could cost no more than 1,000 yuan ($144.27) for two shots.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, It was reported that Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor as the sheikhdom tries to claw its way out of an economic depression worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, France's labor ministry announced that face masks will be required in enclosed shared office spaces starting Sept. 1, citing an "upsurge" in COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned there could be no further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions while the country grapples with a surge in new infections. Germany has recorded a total of 225,404 coronavirus cases and 9,236 fatalities.
(AFP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, German authorities arrested a Syrian national (Khaled A.) on suspicion he was a member of two militant groups that fought against the government of President Bashar Assad during the early stages of the conflict in Syria.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In Germany Sarmad D., an Iraqi man (30), drove his car into motorcycles along a stretch of Berlin highway. Six people were injured, three of them severely in what officials soon called a terror attack.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Ireland's health minister warned that the country is at a "tipping point" in the face of rising coronavirus cases, as the cabinet reintroduced some restrictions on public meetings.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, The Special Tribunal for Lebanon based in the Hague found one of the four members of the Iran-backed militia and political party Hezbollah guilty of the 2005 car bomb assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. Only Salim Ayyash was found guilty of assassination by truck bomb. The other defendants, Hussein Oneissi, Assad Sabra, and Hassan Merhi were acquitted of a barrage of charges including conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and international homicide with explosives. A fifth man, Mustafa Badreddine was killed in Syria in 2016, after which charges against him were dropped.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Rumors of a coup d'etat and of the arrest of Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta drew hundreds of anti-government protesters into the streets of the capital, Bamako. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali resigned after the country’s military mutinied, arresting him and other government officials. The West African nation has been gripped by unrest for weeks, driven by charges that Keïta stole an election in March.
(The Telegraph, 8/18/20)(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, the Indian captain of a ship that spilled about 1,000 metric tons of oil into the Indian Ocean, endangering world-renowned coral reefs and lagoons in Mauritius, was arrested alongside the chief officer of the ship, Tilak Ratna Suboda, a Sri Lankan.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 18, The Norwegian Refugee Council said that a record one million people are displaced by violence in Burkina Faso amid the COVID-19 outbreak. More than 450,000 people were newly displaced in 2020, with 184 attacks against civilians recorded according to new figures by the Burkinabe Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Oman's sultan named foreign and finance ministers for the first time, putting officials in positions long wielded by his late predecessor. Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said also issued 28 decrees renaming and reorganizing ministries in a nation he took over in January.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, It was reported that Pakistan's drug regulator has greenlit the country's first Phase 3 clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is being developed by China's CanSino Biologics (CanSino) and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Gaza's sole power plant shut down, leaving the territory's 2 million residents with only around four hours of electricity a day after Israel cut off fuel supplies in response to incendiary balloons launched by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In the Philippines a mild coronavirus lockdown was eased in Jakarta and four outlying provinces to further reopen the country's battered economy. The Philippines has reported more than 164,000 cases including 2,681 deaths.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 18, In Somalia two soldiers were executed after being convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy who died from the bleeding.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, South Africans were again are allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes as the government relaxed lockdown restrictions introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, A senior UN official warned that war-torn Yemen is sliding toward famine as the coronavirus spreads and its economy implodes — all amid a funding crisis that is forcing the United Nations to make deeper aid cuts, including stopping treatment for 250,000 severely malnourished children.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, A Zimbabwean magistrate barred Beatrice Mtetwa, a top human rights lawyer, from representing jailed journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and ordered that Mtetwa be prosecuted for comments she posted on a Facebook page run by an American filmmaker.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Pres. Donald Trump's re-election campaign and Republican Party groups are suing a third Iowa county, seeking to invalidate thousands of absentee ballot request forms that have been returned by voters.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, US Attorney General William Barr announced that 1,485 people had been arrested in Operation Legend, an initiative in which the Trump administration sent more than 1,000 federal law enforcement officers to assist local law enforcement agencies in nine cities with rising crime rates.
(The Week, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, A US government directive was announced giving pharmacists in all states permission to give childhood vaccinations.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering a document related to the 2017 secret surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, Senator Kamala Harris of California accepted the nomination to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president, embracing the historic nature of her candidacy and name-checking a lineage of trailblazing Black women.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In California thousands of people were under orders to evacuate in regions surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area as nearly 40 wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave now in its second week. Smoke blanketed the city of San Francisco. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that there were 367 wildfires burning in the state, many apparently started by some 11,000 dry lightning strikes that recently hit Northern and Central California. A pilot on a water dropping mission in western Fresno County died this morning when his helicopter crashed about an hour from New Coalinga Municipal Airport. A Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker died while assisting first responders at a fire in the Vacaville area.
(AP, 8/19/20)(The Week, 8/20/20)(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In California the SQF Complex or Sequoia Complex, a complex of two lightning wildfires, began burning in Sequoia National Forest and adjacent areas. The fire continued to Jan. 5 and covered 174,178 acres. The Castle Fire was later estimated to have killed between 7,500 and 10,600 mature sequoias. 10% to 14% of the total sequoia population was lost.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQF_Complex)(SFC, 9/17/21, p.C4)
2020 Aug 19, California to date had 641,838 cases of coronavirus and 11,558 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 75,273 cases and 1,005 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,523,826 with the death toll at 172,945.
(sfist.com, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Michigan will pay $600 million to compensate Flint residents whose health was damaged by lead-tainted drinking water after the city heeded state regulators’ advice not to treat it properly.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that the emergency approval of blood plasma as a potential COVID-19 treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration has now been put on hold.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $6.5 billion to add muscle to its portfolio of drugs for hard-to-treat autoimmune diseases.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Afghanistan bomb attacks in Kabul and in the north killed at least five people and wounded 15.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged EU leaders to reject the results of the presidential election which sparked massive protests and saw strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In southern China flooding and landslides from heavy seasonal rains and Typhoon Higos left at least five people missing in Yunnan province.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, France's national public health agency reported that there were 3,776 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 225,043.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, Germany's public health institute reported that there were 1,510 new cases in the past 24 hours, making the national total 226,914.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Honduras supporters of opposition parties, Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH) and Libertad y Refundacion (LIBRE), and of the Indignants Movement, demonstrated on a bridge with a Honduran flag reading "Where is the money" hanging from it, against the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, India's health ministry recorded 1,092 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide toll to 52,889. More than 2.7 million people in India have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
(Good Morning America, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Iran surpassed 20,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, the highest death toll for any Middle East country so far in the pandemic. Iran reported over 350,200 confirmed cases, with 20,125 deaths.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Iraq activist Reham Yacoub was gunned down in the southern province of Basra by unidentified gunmen, marking the second such killing in the span of a week.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, At least 45 migrants and refugees, including five children, died in a shipwreck off the coast of Zwara, Libya. They were among more than 80 people on board a vessel whose engine exploded.
(BBC, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The soldiers in Mali who led the coup that has toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita promised to hold fresh elections to return the country to civilian rule, amid swift condemnation of their putsch across Africa and the international community. The soldiers identified themselves as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company, has directly accused former President Enrique Peña Nieto and his treasury secretary of directing a scheme of kickbacks and embezzlement directly from the president’s office. Lozoya himself faced corruption charges.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un acknowledged the hardships faced by his population during the first meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s central body in eight months.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Norway's Foreign Ministry expelled a Russian diplomat linked to the case of a man jailed on accusation of spying for Russia. The suspected spy was arrested on Aug.15.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip rallied against the US-brokered deal to normalize ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The Spanish Ministry of Health reported that there were 3,715 new coronavirus cases within the last day.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, Sweden reported that COVID-19 claimed about 4,500 lives in the period to the end of June, a number which has now risen to 5,800.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, UAE authorities said that its Barakah nuclear power plant has been connected to the country's power grid.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The United Arab Emirates recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 infections in over a month, a day after the health minister warned cases may rise. The UAE saw 435 infections and one death in the past 24 hours. The UAE has recorded 65,341 total infections and 367 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 20, Pres. Donald Trump praised adherents of the false conspiracy theory QAnon, which alleges that the president is waging a covert war against a “deep state" cabal of Satan-worshiping Democrats involved in pedophilia and child sex trafficking. Facebook took its most sweeping actions yet, removing nearly 800 QAnon-affiliated groups from its site and restricting others.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, President Trump vowed to send law enforcement to polling places during the 2020 presidential election as he continues to make baseless claims about voter fraud and mail-in ballots.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Trump administration submitted a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Iran of failing to comply with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and calling for restoring UN sanctions against Tehran, including an arms embargo.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, A US federal judge ruled that Pres. Donald Trump cannot block a prosecutor's subpoena for eight years of his tax returns. Trump quickly appealed the decision and filed an emergency motion to delay turning over his tax returns.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall." Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors" in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. Bannon was arrested on a yacht owned by his friend Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire, off Westbrook, Connecticut. Guo by all accounts made his money in real estate and securities. He portrays himself in interviews and court records as an exiled whistleblower.
(AP, 8/20/20)(NBC News, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Democratic National Convention capped off four days of remote speeches, video montages and roll-call votes with a final address from the party’s presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
(NY Times, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, Seventy-three former Republican national security officials released a letter endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and calling President Trump unfit for the White House.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, It was reported that at least 4,800 chicks shipped to Maine farmers through the US Postal Service have arrived dead in recent weeks after rapid cuts hit the federal mail carrier's operations.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In California hundreds of wildfires fueled by strong winds, dry conditions and lightning strikes have burned more than 300,000 acres across the state. The death toll from the wildfires rose to at least five
(AP, 8/20/20)(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, An appeals court gave Uber and Lyft a last-minute reprieve from a California law requiring them to reclassify their drivers in the state as employees entitled to benefits.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, California to date had 652,094 cases of coronavirus and 11,795 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 76,330 cases and 1,013 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,571,102 with the death toll at 174,178.
(sfist.com, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In New Mexico a mystery started with the discovery of a large number of dead birds at the US Army White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument. Dead migratory birds were also being found in Colorado, Texas and Mexico.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5fgjb6w)
2020 Aug 20, Airbnb, the short-term home rental company said no more parties and events in homes listed on its platform, as it tries to enforce strict social-distancing norms to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Kansas City Chiefs said that after speaking with "a group of local leaders from diverse American Indian backgrounds and experiences," the team has decided to prohibit fans from donning headdresses or Native American-themed face paint at Arrowhead Stadium home games.
(The Week, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Heron Systems, a Maryland-based AI company, won the the final round in DARPA's AlphaDogfight trials.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2tjkhve)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.71)
2020 Aug 20, In Oregon about 100 people blocked traffic in Portland, vandalized an immigration building, set fires to dumpsters, and threw rocks and glass bottles at police late today. Police arrested three people.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the world, began reopening more than 100 of its locations in the United States for the first time in more than five months.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, American Airlines Group Inc said it plans to suspend flights to 15 US airports in October as travel demand remains low as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, It was reported that hundreds of Belarus employees of state television have gone on strike amid a rising tide of protests, calling for the resignation of Pres. Lukashenko after a vote the opposition saw as rigged. The state television workers were joined by journalists from the leading daily Zvyazda, who put out a statement demanding an end to censorship.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In London Hashem Abedi, the brother of the suicide bomber who set off the May 17, 2017, explosion at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, A new study reported that the Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019 and that the enormous ice melt could cover California in more than 4 feet of water.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 20, India reported 69,652 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, its highest daily increase yet. There were also an additional 977 coronavirus-related fatalities recorded within the last day, bringing the national total to 53,866.
(SFC, 8/120/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 20, In southern India a large fire at a government-run hydroelectric plant killed 9 workers in Telangana state.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 20, Iran unveiled two missiles it said had a bigger range than before, naming them after commanders killed in January by a US strike in Iraq.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In Iran the Muharram ceremonies began bringing millions of Muslims together to mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.40)
2020 Aug 20, Human rights monitors sounded the alarm over a recent spike in assassinations targeting civil rights activists in Iraq's south.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Lebanon’s Health Ministry tallied a record 605 confirmed new cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the total registered cases since late February to 10,952. The pandemic has killed 113 people in the country.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, Moroccan law enforcement stopped migrants from attempting to cross to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Around 300 migrants attempted to jump over a series of fences. One African man died and 11 other people sustained minor injuries.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny collapsed in an airplane bathroom. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, was in intensive care at a Siberian hospital today after suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman called poisoning.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Spain reported 3,349 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, down from 3,715 reported the previous day and bringing the cumulative total to 370,867. The health ministry said 122 people had died from the coronavirus over the past seven days.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Thailand police arrested nine pro-democracy activists, including two rappers, in a crackdown on growing protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and his administration to resign.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 21, The Trump administration dismissed near universal opposition to its demand to restore all UN sanctions on Iran, declaring that a 30-day countdown for the “snapback" of penalties eased under the 2015 nuclear deal had begun.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 election would be delivered on time, despite concerns that cost-cutting measures could result in widespread delays and millions of uncounted ballots. DeJoy earlier this week suspended all mail service changes until after the election, but said today he did not plan on returning decommissioned sorting machines to service before Nov. 3. The Postal Service had planned to remove 671 mail sorting machines nationwide, including 502 delivery barcode sorting machines capable of processing 35,000 pieces of mail per hour, by Sept. 30. As of Aug. 16 it had already decommissioned 95% of its target.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, On Wall Street the S&P 500 closed at 3397.16, another all-time high.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 21, Six states led by Pennsylvania sued the US Postal Service and the new postmaster general, saying service changes in recent weeks have harmed the ability of states to conduct free and fair elections.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Firefighters and aircraft from 10 states began arriving in California to help weary crews battling some of the largest blazes in state history as weekend weather threatened to renew the advance of flames that have killed six people and incinerated hundreds of homes. Two Bay Area clusters, the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex, became respectively the second- and third-largest wildfires in recent state history by size. The CZU Lightning Complex burned in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to a series of murders and rapes in California during the 1970s and 1980s.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, California to date had 659,768 cases of coronavirus and 11,988 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 77,556 cases and 1,031 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,623,727 with the death toll at 175,406.
(sfist.com, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Iowa City Michael Ray Stepanek (45) drove his car through a crowd of racial justice demonstrators, striking several people. Police arrested Stepanek after video of the incident circulated on social media. In December a judge granted Stepanek a deferred judgement. A felony charge of willful injury resulting in bodily injury against Stepanek will be dismissed and expunged as long as he does not commit a crime during a three-year term of probation.
(https://tinyurl.com/y66zjqqv)(SSFC, 1/10/21, p.A5)
2020 Aug 21, In Louisiana police officers followed Trayford Pellerin (31) on foot as he left a convenience store late today where he had created a disturbance with a knife in Lafayette. Stun guns failed to stop him, and the officers shot Pellerin as he tried to enter another convenience store, still with the knife. A night of violence erupted the next day after police shot and killed the Black man.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, The US Attorney's Office in New Orleans indicted 11 individuals in connection with a scam to create crashes between cars and 18-wheelers and cash in on insurance payments.
(Benzinga, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Boston a federal judge accepted plea deals from actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli in a video sentencing hearing. Loughlin will serve two months in prison and her husband will serve five months after the couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the college admissions scandal.
(CBS News, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In South Dakota the city of Sturgis began testing all city employees along with some first responders following the massive annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. At least 15 cases in Minnesota have been linked to the rally.
(Good Morning America, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Texas a dredging vessel in the port of Corpus Christi hit a natural gas pipeline sparking an explosion that sent six people to the hospital and left four others missing. The bodies of two missing crew members of a dredging boat were found the next day. Two other crew members of the dredging vessel Waymon L Boyd remained missing.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A4)(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Virginia Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins (45), a former Army Green Beret living, was arrested, charged with divulging military secrets about his unit's activities in former Soviet republics during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence. Prosecutors say the espionage took place from 1996 to 2011.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Belarus's state publishing house stopped printing top independent newspapers the Narodnaya Volya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing equipment malfunction. Authorities threatened demonstrators with criminal charges in a bid to stop protests.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Britain's AstraZeneca has received regulatory approval to conduct part of a Phase III trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in Russia.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Cyprus thousands of motorcyclists staged simultaneous rides through cities and towns to protest a police decree that they claim infringes on their constitutional right to unfettered mobility. Police say a ban on large-displacement motorcycles from some city streets during the predawn hours on certain days is needed to combat noise pollution that has gotten out of hand because of illegally modified motorcycles.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Czech authorities recorded 506 new coronavirus cases, the highest number of new infections in one day since the outbreak began there. Czechia has so far reported 21,551 confirmed cases of the virus, with 411 deaths, including 19 over the past week.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Iran has offered to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit two controversial nuclear sites as part of its diplomatic charm offensive to have the international arms embargo against Tehran lifted.
(The Telegraph, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Iraq protesters torched parliament offices in the oil-rich south following days of inaction by the government after two activists were assassinated.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Kenya's police teargassed protesters holding a peaceful demonstration against alleged corruption including the theft of supplies for the fight against COVID-19.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Lebanon began a two-week partial lockdown and nighttime curfew after coronavirus cases increased sharply following an explosion in Beirut that killed and injured thousands of people.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Libya's warring rival administrations announced in separate statements that they would cease all hostilities and organize nationwide elections soon, an understanding swiftly welcomed by the United Nations.
(AFP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Mexico the famous “floating gardens" of Xochimilco in Mexico City reopened to visitors after a five-month lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Mexico independent journalist Juan Nelcio Espinoza was arrested while covering a confrontation in the city of Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. Espinoza was later taken to a hospital by police where he was pronounced dead. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights soon called for an investigation.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 21, Pakistan issued sweeping financial sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban and other groups, just as the Taliban is in the midst of US-led peace process in the neighboring country. The orders were issued as part of Pakistan's efforts to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, Palestinian militants fired 12 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight, nine of which were intercepted. Israel responded with three airstrikes on targets linked to the territory's militant Hamas rulers. There were no reports of casualties.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Poland reported 903 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began. The country has reported 60,281 cases in all, and 1,938 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The chief doctor at the Siberian hospital where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being treated said that Navalny would remain there until his condition stabilized. Navalny's wife made a direct appeal to President Vladimir Putin to allow her husband to be evacuated to Germany, as Russian doctors denied he had been poisoned.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)(AFP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, South Korea reported 324 new cases of the coronavirus. The recent surge of infections now appears to be spreading nationwide.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 21, In Spain Nordin Benallal (41), a criminal known in Belgium as the “breakout king" after a series of audacious prison escapes, was arrested with two accomplices on suspicion of taking part in a violent kidnapping attempt.
(The Telegraph, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 21, Spain reported that the death toll in an outbreak of West Nile virus in the southern region of Andalusia has risen to two, after an 85-year old woman died in hospital.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Turkish government formally converted Istanbul’s Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a former Byzantine church, into a mosque. The move came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition for similarly turning Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 22, US President Donald Trump accused members of the "deep state" at the Food and Drug Administration, without providing evidence, of working to slow testing of COVID-19 vaccines until after the November presidential election.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, The US House passed legislation that would provide $25 billion to the United States Postal Service, while also banning any operational changes to the agency like the removal of mail-sorting machines and collection boxes and reversing already-enacted measures. It was unlikely the bill will pass the Republican-controlled Senate.
(The Week, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Mary Trump revealed that she had covertly taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry in 2018 and 2019. Trump’s older sister, a former federal judge, is heard sharply criticizing her brother in a series of recordings, at one point saying of the president, “He has no principles".
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Los Angeles Igorevich Kriuchkov (26), a Russian citizen, was arrested as he headed to the airport to return home. He was accused of offering a Tesla employee $1 million to enable a ransomware attack on the electric car company's plant in Nevada.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.D2)
2020 Aug 22, Three fire complexes ravaged forest and rural areas in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They have burned 1,175 square miles (3.043 square km), destroyed almost 1,000 homes and other structures and killed five people, three of them who were found in a home in an area under an evacuation order.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, California to date had 660,967 cases of coronavirus and 12,015 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 78,218 cases and 1,033 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,656,560 with the death toll at 176,070.
(sfist.com, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Colorado dozens of armed protesters descended on the Denver Police Headquarters and damaged buildings, set fires and injured an officer. A dozen people were arrested. Protesters cited a variety of reasons.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 22, It was reported that at least 32 positive coronavirus cases and now a woman's death have been linked to an August 7 wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, Maine.
(Good Morning America, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Oregon demonstrators faced off in Portland with the two sides — one aligned with a "Back the Blue" rally and the other a Black Lives Matter counter-demonstration — reportedly largely ignoring police warnings. Ultimately, Department of Homeland Security officers deemed the gatherings unlawful and moved through the plaza, forcing the crowd to disperse.
(The Week, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Earth Overshoot Day. Scientists have designated this as the date when humans have used all the resources the planet can produce in a year. Scientists say that humans began consuming more than the Earth can provide without being replenished around 1970. The coronavirus pandemic this year pushed the date back more than three weeks.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day)(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 22, The Belarusian Association of Journalists said that more than 20 news sites had been blocked, including those of US-funded Radio Liberty and Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite TV channel focusing on Belarus.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Britain recorded 1,288 new positive cases of COVID-19, up from 1,033 a day earlier.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Zheng Zhongwei, a Chinese health official, told state media that China has been giving experimental coronavirus vaccines to groups facing high infection risks since July. A government official in Chengdu said China has approved human testing for a potential coronavirus vaccine cultivated within insect cells.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, China reported 12 cases of the new coronavirus in the mainland, down from 22 cases a day earlier. Mainland China had 84,951 confirmed coronavirus cases. The COVID-19 death toll remained at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, The French health ministry reported 3,602 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The total coronavirus deaths in the country had risen by nine in the past 24 hours to 30,512. The total of confirmed infection cases in France now stands at 238,002.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Germany reported 2,034 new cases of the coronavirus, the first time the daily national increase has topped 2,000 since the end of April.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 22, Iran’s health minister said that at least 164 health care professionals have died while battling the coronavirus pandemic. The total death toll from COVID-19 stood at 20,502 out of nearly 356,800 confirmed cases.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Ireland reported more than 100 daily COVID-19 cases for the fourth time in eight days after the health service was notified of 156 new infections and two additional deaths.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Thousands of Israelis protested outside the prime minister’s official residence as summer-long demonstrations against Benjamin Netanyahu maintained their momentum.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Italy's health ministry reported 1,071 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, exceeding 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since May when the government eased rigid lockdown measures.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Mali top West African officials met with the junta leaders and the deposed president in Bamako trying to negotiate a return to civilian rule after a coup this week. ECOWAS has demanded the reinstatement of Pres. Keita.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Peru 13 people died in a stampede at a disco in Lima after a police raid to enforce the country's lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. 23 people were detained.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Poland a bus and a passenger van collided near the town of Gliwice, Silesia, killing all nine people in the van and injuring seven people who were traveling in the bus.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Russia’s most prominent Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, was in a critical condition and undergoing full tests at a German hospital after an emergency medical flight from Russia with suspected poisoning.
(Washington Post, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In South Africa Fredie Blom, thought to be the oldest man in the world, died in Cape Town at the age of 116.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, South Korea announced new measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus as officials reported 332 newly confirmed cases, marking the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 22, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged people to act on health advice on after official data showed daily COVID-19 infections had risen to a record level. The country saw 2,328 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 37 deaths of people having tested positive for the virus. Total cases rose to 102,971. The death toll has risen to 2,244.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 23, President Donald Trump announced emergency authorization to treat COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma. The authorization makes it easier for some patients to obtain the treatment but is not the same as full FDA approval.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s most influential and longest serving advisers, announced that she would be leaving the White House at the end of the month.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sharply criticized President Trump's sister and niece, a day after the Washington Post published leaked audio recordings of conversations of the two Trump relatives insulting the president.
(Yahoo News, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Jerry Falwell issued a statement to the Washington Examiner in which he said that his wife had had an affair with Giancarlo Granda and that Granda had been trying to extort money from the couple over the matter. The prominent evangelical leader, appeared to be nearing the end of his leadership at Liberty University, after Granda told Reuters he had a yearslong sexual relationship involving Falwell and his wife.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 23, It was reported that as many as 215,000 more people than usual died in the US during the first seven months of this year, suggesting the number of lives lost to COVID-19 is significantly higher than the official toll.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 23, California to date had 668,122 cases of coronavirus and 12,153 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 79,113 cases and 1,047 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,703,561 with the death toll at 176,808.
(sfist.com, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Florida reported 2,974 new coronavirus cases, breaking the 600,000 mark. The daily total peaked on July 15 when more than 15,000 cases were reported.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 23, In Maine a 63-day strike at the Bath Iron works came to an end with ship-builders voting to return to their jobs under a new 3-year contract.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 23, In North Carolina protests opposing US President Donald Trump took to the streets of Charlotte for a third straight night ahead of this week's Republican National Convention.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, Portland police arrested 14 people overnight after officers were hit by rocks, bottles and paint balls, following violent clashes between rival groups of demonstrators that roiled the city's downtown area a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Wisconsin a video posted on social media appeared to show police officers shoot at Jacob Blake (29), a Black man, seven times in the back as he leaned into a vehicle. Protesters soon gathered and marchers headed to the Kenosha County Public Safety Building, which houses the police and county sheriff's departments. Blake had surgery and was paralyzed from the waist down. Video later showed that Blake was armed with a knife. In 2021 federal prosecutors said they would not file charges against Officer Rusten Sheskey.
(AP, 8/24/20)(Insider, 8/24/20)(SSFC, 10/10/21, p.A13)
2020 Aug 23, American Airlines said it is preparing to begin spraying its airplane cabins with a disinfectant proven to fight COVID-19 on surfaces for up to seven days that has been granted emergency approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency for use in Texas.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Belarus some 200,000 protesters demanding the resignation of authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko rallied in a vast square in Minsk, keeping up the massive outburst of dissent that has shaken the country since a disputed presidential election two weeks ago. Lukashenko made a dramatic show of defiance against the massive protests demanding his resignation, toting a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest as he strode off a helicopter that landed at his residence while demonstrators massed nearby.
(AP, 8/23/20)(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, Chinese authorities detained 12 Hong Kong activists as they tried to reach Taiwan by speedboat.
(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 23, Hurricane Laura made landfall in the southeastern Dominican Republic and then traversed Haiti, where at least 31 people died. Four deaths were reported in the Dominican Republic.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Laura)(Econ., 8/29/20, p.24)
2020 Aug 23, Finland's PM Sanna Marin assumed the leadership of her Social Democratic Party eight months after taking the top job in the Nordic nation in December, when she became the world’s youngest serving head of government at 34. She was the only candidate running for the post and no vote was needed.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, India’s coronavirus caseload topped 3 million, with the country leading the world in new infections as the disease marched through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south. Health authorities reported 69,239 new cases and 912 deaths, bringing the total to 3,044,940.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had accepted a proposal to extend budget negotiations, preventing the government from collapsing and plunging the country into a new election.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter dismissed a cease-fire proposal by the UN-supported government as a “deception," claiming that rival militias were preparing to attack the strategic city of Sirte. Human Rights Watch later said that armed groups linked to the Tripoli-based government used heavy weapons to disperse anti-corruption rallies and of detaining, torturing and forcibly disappearing protesters from Aug 23-29.
(AP, 8/23/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, Libyan radio journalist Sami al-Sharif was detained by men in military uniforms affiliated with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord. Militiamen opened fire at protesters in Tripoli’s Martyrs Square, and dozens of protesters were arrested and their whereabouts were unknown.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 23, More than 50,000 Lithuanians joined hands in a human chain stretching 32 km (20 miles) from the capital of Vilnius to the Belarus border to express solidarity with their neighbor's dramatic struggle for democracy.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Madagascar a riot began at the prison in Farafagana, a city on the southeast coast. Twenty inmates were shot dead as authorities tried to stop the riot. A total of 88 inmates escaped the prison during the riot, and 31 remained on the loose.
(Good Morning America, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Mozambique the premises of two leading independent newspapers, the weekly Canal de Mozambique and the daily CanalMoz, were attacked late today with petrol bombs and burned. The Center for Democracy said the fire-bombing could be linked to a report Canal printed days earlier about bribery and the efforts of prominent Mozambicans to win control of part of the fuel retail business worth millions of dollars.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said five people have died in floods caused by heavy rain along its Black Sea coastline. A further 11 people were missing after flooding around the mountain town of Dereli in Giresun province.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 24, Republicans gathered to formally nominate President Donald Trump for reelection at a scaled-down convention kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, that begins a weeklong effort to convince the American people that the president deserves a second term. President Trump and Vice President Pence were officially nominated for re-election. On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Trump and his allies presented a bleak vision of the country’s future under a Biden administration.
(AP, 8/24/20)(The Week, 8/25/20)(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Twenty seven former Republican US lawmakers, including former Senator Jeff Flake, endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, the first day of the Republican National Convention, in the latest rebuke of President Donald Trump by members of his own party.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, A US military airstrike in Somalia reportedly killed six al-Shabab extremists after the al-Qaida-linked group attacked Somali forces while US forces were nearby.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 24, The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit the latest in a series of records as optimism about COVID-19 treatment boosted investor sentiment.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, The University of Alabama said that 531 cases had been identified among students, faculty and staff since classes resumed at its Tuscaloosa campus last week.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Firefighters battling three massive wildfires in Northern California got a break from the weather as humidity rose and there was no return of the onslaught of lightning strikes that ignited the infernos a week earlier. The death toll from the fires reached 7 over the weekend.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The California Supreme Court overturned Scott Peterson's 2005 death sentence in a case that attracted worldwide attention. The justices cited “significant errors" in jury selection in overturning the death penalty but welcomed prosecutors to again seek the sentence if they wish. His conviction for killing his pregnant wife will stand.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, California to date had 675,373 cases of coronavirus and 12,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 79,962 cases and 1,049 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,737,398 with the death toll at 177,215.
(sfist.com, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, A judge in Florida struck down the state’s requirement that public schools open their classrooms for in-person instruction.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, It was disclosed that the New York state attorney general is investigating whether Donald Trump and the Trump Organization improperly manipulated the value of the US president's assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits. Trump's son Eric has reportedly been uncooperative in the civil probe.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Wisconsin police officers deployed tear gas early today to disperse hundreds of people who took to the streets following a police shooting in Kenosha that also drew a harsh rebuke from the governor after a video posted on social media appeared to show officers shoot at Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back as he leaned into a vehicle. Protesters set several Kenosha businesses on fire early this morning. The father of Jacob Blake says his son was left paralyzed from the waist down. Wisconsin's governor called out the National Guard.
(AP, 8/24/20)(NY Times, 8/25/20)(AP, 8/25/20)(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Novavax Inc said it has begun enrolling volunteers for the second phase of an ongoing clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, with interim data expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Exxon Mobil Corp, Pfizer Inc. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. were kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, making way for Salesforce.com, Amgen Inc. and Honeywell International to enter the 124-year old equity gauge a week from today. ExxonMobil was ejected from the DJIA, having been a member since 1928.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5udfaal)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.13)
2020 Aug 24, In Australia notorious conman Peter Foster, who once assisted Cherie Blair in purchasing two properties in Bristol, was extradited to Sydney. Mr Foster was captured by two police officers disguised as joggers who tackled him on a beach in northern Queensland on August 20.
(The Telegraph, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Austria expelled a Russian diplomat for reported industrial espionage, prompting protests and a tit-for-tat response from Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Belarus police detained several leading opposition activists who have helped spearhead a wave of protests challenging the re-election of Pres. Alexander Lukashenko.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, In Germany the Charite hospital said a medical examination of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has found indications of poisoning. The clinical findings indicated poisoning by a substance from the group of active substances called cholinesterase inhibitors.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Hong Kong researchers reported that a 33-year-old man was infected a second time with the coronavirus more than four months after his first bout. This was the first documented case of so-called reinfection. The patient experienced no symptoms from his second infection, indicating his immune system may have learned how to respond.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of a trove of early Islamic gold coins found during recent salvage excavations near the central city of Yavne. The collection of 425 complete gold coins mostly dated to the Abbasid period around 1,100 years ago.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Italy kicked off human trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, joining a global effort to develop a response to the virus which has shown signs of resurging in Europe.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would sell its Japanese consumer healthcare business to US buyout fund Blackstone Group, as it aims to focus on developing drugs for unmet medical needs and rare diseases.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Mali an official in talks between the military junta and ECOWAS said the junta wants to put off elections for three years in order to prepare a new constitution prior to any vote.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, In the southern Philippines Muslim militant set off a powerful explosive followed by a suicide bombing that together killed 14 people in Jolo town, Sulu province.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, It was reported that Illegal gold diggers have destroyed a 2,000-year-old archaeological site in Sudan in the eastern region of the Sahara desert. The Jabal Maragha site, which dates from the Meroitic period between 350 BC and 350 AD, is said to have either been a small settlement or a checkpoint.
(BBC, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The Swiss-based World Health Organization said some 172 countries are engaging with the COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. COVAX is co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and is designed to guarantee equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines once they are developed and authorized for use.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Syria a explosion early today struck a gas pipeline in a Damascus suburb, causing a huge fire and cutting off electricity throughout the country. Islamic State group militants were suspected.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, Turkish rescue workers recovered the body of another victim of severe weekend floods that swept along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, raising the death toll to seven. At least nine other people remained missing.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The UN counter-terrorism chief said more than 10,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain active in Iraq and Syria two years after the militant group’s defeat, and their attacks have significantly increased this year.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 25, Eric Trump echoed falsehoods of his father, Melania Trump credited her husband with a dubious religious first, and the president's economic adviser wholly distorted the conditions Donald Trump inherited as Republicans stepped up to praise him on the 2nd night of their national convention.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn apologized for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The US Justice Department charged Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries with conspiring with rivals to raise generic-drug prices.
(The Week, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Los Angeles Daniel Silva (27), a tattoo artist who has been featured on the television reality show "Ink Master," was sentenced to 364 days in jail for a fatal car crash in May that killed his passenger, YouTuber Corey La Barrie.
(NBC News, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, California to date had 679,135 cases of coronavirus and 12,300 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 80,686 cases and 1,071 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,773,220 with the death toll at 178,326.
(sfist.com, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Kentucky police arrested 64 people in Louisville during what organizers described as a "massive demonstration" over the death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot in her home during a raid related to a drug suspect who didn't live there.
(The Week, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Oregon police in the city of Portland late today declared a gathering of hundreds of protesters outside City Hall as a riot, ordering the crowd to disperse or face arrest. About 200 demonstrators assembled downtown at Shemanski Park before marching to the City Hall, where some in the crowd broke glass doors and smashed a door switch.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana coasts as Laura strengthened into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam into land as a major storm with ferocious winds and deadly flooding.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Wisconsin two people were killed and another was injured late today as shots were fired during a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake. Gov. Tony Evers (D) declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, American Airlines said it will eliminate 19,000 jobs in October as it struggles with a sharp downturn in travel because of the pandemic.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Afghanistan a Taliban car bomb in the northern province of Balkh killed at least eight civilians, as well as two Afghan commandos whose unit was based nearby.
(NY Times, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Africa Regional Certification Commission announced that Africa has been declared free from wild polio. The disease is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(BBC, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Authorities in Belarus steadily cranked up the pressure on protesters pushing for the resignation of the country's authoritarian leader, jailing several opposition activists, summoning others for questioning and selectively ordering demonstrators to appear in court.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Democratic Republic of Congo said it has ended the world's largest measles outbreak that has killed more than 7,000 children since it was declared 14 months ago.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. A charge sheet named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, Iran's nuclear body said it held "constructive" talks with the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency amid tensions over a US bid to reimpose UN sanctions.
(AFP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Israel's military bombed militant positions in the Gaza Strip early today in response to incendiary balloons launched into southern Israel farmlands a day earlier.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Gaza's militant Hamas rulers imposed a territory-wide curfew after authorities detected the first local cases of the coronavirus, raising fears of a wider outbreak in the blockaded territory that is home to some 2 million Palestinians. Gaza has registered more than 100 cases and a fatality since the start of the pandemic, but until now all the infections were linked to quarantine facilities for returning travelers.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Kremlin brushed off allegations that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in a coma in a German hospital, was poisoned and said there have been no grounds for a criminal investigation so far because the politician's condition may have been triggered by other causes.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a notorious ally of Vladimir Putin, said he will use Russia’s corrupt courts to destroy Alexei Navalny financially if the stricken opposition leader ever recovers from a chemical agent believed to have been slipped into his tea.
(The Daily Beast, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, Sweden's Public Health Agency said about 3,700 people in Sweden were told in error that they had the coronavirus due to a fault in BGI Genomics' COVID-19 testing kit from China.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, A Thai court issued a new arrest warrant for Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, for the 2012 death of a motorcycle policeman killed after being stuck by Yoovidhya's Ferrari. The heir's current location was not known.
(SFC, 8/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Republicans used the third night of their convention to continue warning about violence and lawlessness, trying to capitalize on the unrest in Wisconsin. Vice President Mike Pence formally accepted his party's 2020 vice presidential nomination. Pence condemned the "violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities" but did not directly mention Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot in the back by police in Kenosha, sparking ongoing protests over racial injustice.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)(Yahoo News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Two federal health officials said officials in the Trump administration told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin discouraging people without coronavirus symptoms from being tested.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The Trump administration added 24 Chinese companies to a government list that bans them from purchasing certain sensitive US products, citing their role in helping the Chinese military construct artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, The US government warned that North Korean hackers are tapping into banks around the globe to make fraudulent money transfers and cause ATMs to spit out cash.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, The Justice Department executed Lezmond Mitchell (38) at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He was the only Native American man on federal death row and was executed against the wishes of Navajo leaders. He had been sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of a grandmother, Alyce Slim, and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Tiffany Lee. Mitchell was the fourth person to be executed since the Trump administration resumed federal capital punishment last year.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The US Department of Energy said it will provide $625 million over the next five years for five newly formed quantum information research hubs as it tries to keep ahead of competing nations like China on the emerging technology.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, US professional sports seasons seemed in doubt, as athletes staged walkouts to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was partly paralyzed after a white police officer shot him in Kenosha, Wis.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The US FDA authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesn't need any special computer equipment to get results. The 15-minute test from Abbot Laboratories will sell for $5.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 26, In Oakland, Ca., 600 to 700 people took part in the protests where “numerous fires (were) set, dozens of windows broken, (and) multiple businesses vandalized." The police Dept. said protesters threw objects at officers but none were injured. Several people were arrested.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, California to date had 683,928 cases of coronavirus and 12,461 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 81,919 cases and 1,091 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,816,968 with the death toll at 179,565.
(sfist.com, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, A chaotic night in Minneapolis began in the afternoon when police responded to a fatal shooting and began searching for a man and a woman suspected of being involved in the homicide and fled the scene on foot. A male suspect was spotted by officers outside the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. As officers approached the suspect, he produced a handgun and shot himself in the head. Unrest followed and people broke windows and stole merchandise. At least 33 people were arrested as Gov. Tim Walz mobilized the National Guard at the request of Mayor Jacob Frey.
(ABC News, 8/27/20)(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 26, Former Minnesota college student Tnuza Jamal Hassan (22), pleaded guilty in US District Court to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Hassan tried to travel to Afghanistan on Sept. 19, 2017, making it as far as Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before she was stopped because she lacked a visa.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Mississippi a drone carrying marijuana, cigarette lighters and cell phones was caught in a net above the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl. Two men were soon arrested on charges of conspiracy and smuggling.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 26, In Nebraska police investigator Luis “Mario" Herrera was shot in Lincoln as he sought to serve an arrest warrant on Felipe Vazquez (17) in the March stabbing death of Edward Varejcka (36). Herrera died on Sept. 7 and a second degree assault charge against Vazquez was raised to first degree murder.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Aug 26, Dallas-area taxicab driver Yaser Abdel Said (63), wanted for the Jan. 1, 2008, slayings of his two teenage daughters, was arrested in a small North Texas town. The teenage sisters were found shot multiple times in a cab outside a motel in Irving, a Dallas suburb.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Hurricane Laura rapidly gained strength, forecast to become a “catastrophic" Category 4 hurricane before striking Texas and Louisiana. Officials implored coastal residents to flee before it's too late.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Wisconsin authorities arrested Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white Illinois resident, and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of two protesters on August 25. Police said Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two and injuring one.
(Yahoo News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Moderna Inc said that an analysis of the early-stage data of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed it induced immune responses in older adults that were similar to younger participants.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, VBI Vaccines Inc said it expected to begin human testing of two of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine candidates at the end of the year.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Afghanistan overnight flash floods killed over 100 people and injured scores of others in Charikar, home to nearly 200,000 people and the capital of Parwan Province, just north of Kabul. The death toll soon rose to at least 150.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A3)(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Belarus' Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich was summoned for questioning and police detained dozens of demonstrators in a continuing crackdown on protests challenging the re-election of the country's authoritarian ruler. She is a member of an opposition council created to facilitate talks on a transition of power.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Authorities in Bosnia's Krajina region, which borders European Union-member Croatia, had to dispatch special police forces late today to a UN-run migrant camp near the town of Bihac to calm a protest by 1,000 migrants who live there, sparked by the alleged police beating of an unhoused migrant.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Egypt’s election commission said it would refer to prosecutors about 54 million people who did not vote in elections earlier this month for two-thirds of the Senate, the upper and mainly powerless chamber of the country’s Parliament. Lasheen Ibrahim, the commission’s chairman, had vowed to enforce a law penalizing any boycotter with a fine of up to 500 Egyptian pounds ($32).
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that French prosecutors have opened an investigation after national television broadcast social media video showing drug dealers openly carrying assault rifles in Grenoble. The video sparked outrage as concern rose over a crime wave in French holiday towns this summer.
(The Telegraph, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Greece and Turkey vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean as the NATO allies remained locked in a tense dispute over offshore energy exploration rights.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Hong Kong police arrested 16 people on charges related to ant-government protests last year, including opposition lawmakers Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, The IAEA said Iran has agreed to allow inspectors in to two sites where the country is suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Japanese researchers said that low concentrations of ozone can neutralize coronavirus particles, potentially providing a way for hospitals to disinfect examination rooms and waiting areas.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Jordan cartoonist Emad Hajjaj was arrested for criticizing the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that Mali has been suspended from a global body of French-speaking countries after a military junta overthrew the West African country's democratically elected president.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that at least 13 dead dolphins have been found on the seashore in Mauritius, more than a month after the huge oil spill caused by a Japanese-owned ship.
(BBC, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Trading on New Zealand's stock exchange was halted for several hours after what appeared to be a second offshore cyber attack in as many days.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Gaza’s Hamas rulers extended a full lockdown in the Palestinian enclave for three more days as coronavirus cases climbed following the detection this week of the first community transmissions of the virus in the densely populated, blockaded territory.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, A Palestinian man (46) fatally stabbed an Israeli man (39) near Petah Tikva. The suspect had entered Israel on a work permit and fled the scene, but was soon arrested.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Scotland said it is buying 300 COVID-19 testing machines that can give results in 12 minutes, helping to locate potential outbreaks in remote locations.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Africa Nathaniel Julius (16), who had Down's syndrome, was shot dead after going out to buy biscuits in Johannesburg's Eldorado Park suburb. A day later hundreds of local residents took to the streets to protest, leading to violent clashes with police. Two police officers were soon arrested over the deadly shooting.
(BBC, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Africa well-known conservationist West Mathewson died after he was mauled by two white lions as he was taking them for a walk.
(BBC, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Korea doctors in the greater Seoul area joined physicians in other parts of the country in a 3-day strike against government plans to boost the number of medical students. Health officials ordered the doctors of return to work.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 26, In Yemen fighting resumed overnight between the separatists and government forces in Abyan, after the separatists suspended participation in talks to implement a Saudi-brokered peace deal.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, Pres. Donald Trump delivered a triumphant, optimistic vision of America’s future as he accepted the Republican nomination for president at the White House. But he said that brighter horizon could only be secured if he defeated his Democratic foe, who currently has an advantage in most national and battleground state polls. Trump claimed accomplishments he didn't earn on the pandemic, energy and veterans at the convention finale that also heard Black Lives Matter baselessly accused of coordinating violent protests across the country. Some guests at the political event, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, needed to be escorted by police officers to safety upon leaving the White House grounds.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that Washington has blacklisted five Russian institutions it believes are developing chemical and biological weapons. Moscow called the decision “groundless" and said it will seek clarification.
(The Telegraph, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, A US District Court judge in Washington ruled that the Justice Department's new lethal injection protocol violated drug safety laws and ordered a planned execution for August 28 to be halted.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US Federal Reserve said it would focus more on keeping unemployment low in the future, even if inflation had to run slightly higher.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US government sought to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts it said were used by North Korean hackers who stole millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from two virtual exchanges, and used Chinese traders to launder their funds.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US Marshals Service said it has found 39 missing children in Georgia over two weeks in a mission known as "Operation Not Forgotten".
(CBS News, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, The group of wildfires near Santa Cruz, Ca., has burned 125 square miles (324 square km) and destroyed more than 500 buildings. While those fires are 20% contained, firefighters have been pushed to the breaking point since lightning ignited more than 500 blazes in one night last week.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, California to date had 689,554 cases of coronavirus and 12,622 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 82,828 cases and 1,098 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,860,397 with the death toll at 180,527.
(sfist.com, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In southern California two soldiers were killed and three injured when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed on San Clemente Island.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 27, Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm early this morning near the Louisiana-Texas border. The National Hurricane Center called the expected storm surge “unsurvivable," and said that it could push 40 miles inland. Laura plowed through Louisiana, killing at least six people and ripping apart buildings.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, A large chemical fire sent a dangerous cloud over Lake Charles, Louisiana, hours after the eye of Hurricane Laura passed directly over the city.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, US prosecutors in Detroit said the former president of the United Auto Workers, Dennis Williams (67), has been charged with conspiring with other union officials to embezzle UAW funds. Williams, of Corona, California, was charged with conspiring with successor Gary Jones and others to embezzle money between 2010 and September 2019. Williams was the head of the union from June 2014 to June 2018.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In North Carolina Ronnie Long (64) was freed after the state filed a motion in federal court a day earlier seeking to vacate his 1976 conviction by an all-white jury. He was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree rape and first-degree burglary. His attorney said forensic reports implicating another suspect weren't turned over to the defense by the state and that police "perjured themselves" during Long's trial.
(NBC News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Lord & Taylor, the first US department store (1826), said it is officially closing all 38 of its remaining stores. Liquidation sales have also begun storewide and online.
(Good Morning America, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, British police said a man (45) has been arrested in London on suspicion of war crimes relating to the first and second Liberian civil wars between 1989 and 2003.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Nearly 500 Burundian refugees living in Rwanda began their journey back to their home country, the first group to return after five years in exile following deadly political violence sent many fleeing. new president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has invited all those in exile to return and build a new nation.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The Danish government advised its citizens against traveling to France and Croatia as coronavirus thresholds passed 30 per 100,000 inhabitants. Denmark has reported 16,627 confirmed cases and 624 deaths.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that the European Commission has made a 336 million euros ($396 million) down payment to British drug maker AstraZeneca to secure at least 300 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, France-based clinical diagnostics company Novacyt, one of many healthcare companies whose shares have surged during the pandemic, launched a test to differentiate between COVID-19 and common winter diseases.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Chancellor Angela Merkel said most of Germany will impose a minimum fine of 50 euros ($59) for breaching mask-wearing rules as coronavirus infections rise again.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, India recorded its highest single-day increase with 75,760 new coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry also reported 1,023 deaths over the last 24 hours, raising that total to 60,472.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that archeologists in Japan have dug up the remains of more than 1,500 people who were buried in a 19th century mass grave in Osaka. An epidemic of syphilis was suspected as a possible cause. The area is being excavated for a city development project.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 27, In Lebanon two people - a 13-year-old Lebanese Sunni boy and a Syrian man - were killed in the Khaldeh area south of the capital in a shootout. The deadly battle between Sunnis and Shi'ites prompted warnings of more violence as the country is pushed to breaking point by a financial meltdown and political tensions.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita returned home after being detained for 10 days by the ruling military junta that staged a coup d'etat last week.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In New Zealand Brenton Tarrant, an Australian who last year murdered 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, was sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a rice-growing area devastated by Typhoon Bavi. The storm slammed into the country’s southwestern province of Hwanghae, dealing a damaging blow to its corn stalks, rice paddies and other crops, and raising fears of increased hunger among an already malnourished population. Kim Jong Un said the country was "fortunate" and had suffered only limited damage.
(AFP, 8/27/20) (The Telegraph, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed military support for embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, while urging a peaceful resolution to unrest and demonstrations that erupted after a disputed election.
(AFP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, South Korea reported 441 new coronavirus cases, its highest singe-day total in months.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, In Turkey human rights lawyer Ebru Timtik (42) died of a hunger strike in a hospital in Istanbul. She had launched the strike in prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues. The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP/C, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, In Uganda 10 children were killed by lightning in the north-western city of Arua after sheltering in a hut during a storm.
(BBC, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that renewed clashes between forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government and their rivals, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, left five fighters dead in the strategic port city of Hodeida.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 28, Speaking in New Hampshire Pres. Donald Trump said he was the only thing standing between “democracy and the mob," as he lashed out at protesters who accosted his supporters as they left the White House the night before.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, John Ratcliffe, head of the top US intelligence office, told lawmakers it will end in-person briefings on election security because there had been leaks from congressional committees. He said the office would send written reports instead, giving lawmakers less opportunity to press for details.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, Thousands of people gathered to march in Washington, D.C., to denounce racism, protest police brutality and commemorate the anniversary of the march in 1963 where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his "I Have a Dream" speech.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Black Lives Matter activists held their first Black National Convention. The virtual event adopted a political agenda calling for slavery reparations, universal basic income, environmental justice and legislation that entirely re-imagines criminal justice reform.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Remnants of Hurricane Laura doused Arkansas and were due to bring rain to the East Coast over the weekend.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright resigned under pressure after a recording of a man identified as him delivering a racist rant went viral.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, A federal judge in California agreed to release from jail Dr. Juan Tang, a university researcher accused of lying about her ties to China’s military and Communist Party to gain access to the US, after a Chinese emigre offered to put up $750,000 in home equity as bond.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to outlaw the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, effective January 1.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.B1)
2020 Aug 28, California to date had 693,268 cases of coronavirus and 12,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 83,666 cases and 1,110 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,910,400 with the death toll at 181,655.
(sfist.com, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Indiana Keith Nelson (45), the killer of a Kansas girl, became the fifth federal inmate put to death this year, an execution that went forward only after a higher court tossed a ruling that would have required the government to get a prescription for the drug used to kill him. In 1999 Nelson raped and strangled Pamela Butler (10) with a wire.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, Film star Chadwick Boseman (43), an actor whose work celebrated African-American pioneers and culture, died in Los Angeles after a four-year battle with colon cancer. His films included "42" (2013) in which he played Jackie Robinson; "Get on Up" (2014) and "Black Panther" (2018).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chadwick_Boseman)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 28, The death toll increased to 14 in Louisiana and Texas as the Gulf Coast cleaned up a day after being walloped by Hurricane Laura.
(Good Morning America, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Mississippi Barnard Lnell Morrow, a suspect in the March 14 shooting deaths of three people in Killeen, Texas, including a Fort Hood soldier, was arrested in Newton.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook should have taken down the page and event listing promoting a militia group that called for armed citizens to defend Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid ongoing protests there. The event, titled: "Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property," and the page, "Kenosha Guard," were removed after two people were killed in a shooting there on August 25.
(Business Insider, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that Walmart has joined Microsoft’s bid to purchase the popular video app TikTok. A coalition including the software company Oracle has also made a bid.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Brazil's main prosecutor's office said that Wilson Witzel, a former federal judge and the governor of Rio de Janeiro, has been removed from office for 180 days due to corruption charges.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 28, China announced updates to export laws. ByteDance will now need Chinese government approval to sell US operations of the popular TikTok short-video app. Beijing added artificial intelligence interface technologies, including those that analyze data to make personalized content recommendations, to its list of export-control products published on the Ministry of Commerce’s website.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 28, China reported nine new confirmed cases of coronavirus, the same number as the previous day, with all of them travelling into the country from overseas.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that Egyptian police have arrested Mahmoud Ezzat (76), a high-level leader in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, at his hiding place in Cairo.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Indian lawmaker H. Vasanthakumar, from the country's main opposition party Congress, became the latest high profile figure to die from COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, The Israeli military struck militant targets in Gaza, including a weapons manufacturing site, after six rockets were fired from the territory.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign because of illness, just days after becoming the country’s longest-serving leader. A biography of Mr. Abe, "The Iconoclast" by Tobias Harris, was soon published.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.73)
2020 Aug 28, Namibia's President Hage Geingob announced a lift of lockdown restrictions, allowing international travel, schools to reopen and onsite alcohol consumption from September, but he extended an overnight curfew as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that flooding from heavy rains in Niger has killed at least 45 people this week and forced more than 226,000 from their homes.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport announced that it will cut hundreds of jobs as it warned that air traffic likely will not return to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until 2023-25.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The Dutch government brought forward to March a ban on mink-farming that had been scheduled to take effect in 2024.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 28, A polar bear attacked a camping site in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands, killing a 38-year-old Dutch man before being shot and killed by onlookers. Johan Jacobus Kootte was the fifth person on Svalbard to have been killed by polar bears since 1971.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Pakistan heavy overnight rains hit parts of the country including the financial capital Karachi bringing more flooding to towns and villages and leaving at least 36 people dead.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of a Norwegian diplomat in response to a similar move by Norway last week.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Sweden far-right activists burned a Quran in Malmo near a predominantly migrant neighborhood, sparking riots and unrest after more than 300 people gathered to protest. Police detained about 15 people.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 28, Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) convicted Oleksandr Levkivsky, a regional forestry official, for taking a $10,000 kickback to let out public land.
(Econ., 9/26/20, p.56)
2020 Aug 28, The UN rights chief called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to swiftly investigate death threats against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and bring those responsible to justice. Death threats were made in July after he had sent out a tweet condemning the massacre of 18 people in South Kivu, the strife-torn province in eastern DR Congo where he has his clinic. Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war.
(AFP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations and its 193 member nations to step up action to increase the number of women in military and civilian positions at all levels in the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution cutting the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 15,000 to 13,000 and expanded its mandate to address US and Israeli concerns about activities of the militant group Hezbollah.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 29, California to date had 698,370 cases of coronavirus and 12,837 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 84,424 cases and 1,110 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,954,676 with the death toll at 182,665.
(sfist.com, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, In Oregon a man was fatally shot as a caravan of Mr. Trump’s supporters drove through Portland for a pro-Trump rally and clashed with counter protesters. The man who was killed was wearing a hat with a far-right insignia. Right-wing Trump supporter, Aaron “Jay" Danielson, was shot and killed after he came downtown. On August 30 antifa supporter Michael Forest Reinoehl (48), the suspected shooter of Danielson, was shot and killed near Lacey, Wa., by law enforcement agents.
(NY Times, 8/30/20)(AP, 9/3/20)(AP, 9/4/20)(NY Times, 9/4/20)
2020 Aug 29, In Wisconsin family members of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was paralyzed after a Kenosha police officer shot him in the back, led a march and rally to call for an end to police violence. A crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse in Kenosha to denounce police violence and share messages of change.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree late today establishing a 46-member council, led by his former rival in last year’s presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah. It will have final say on whether the government will sign a peace deal with the Taliban after what are expected to be protracted and uncertain negotiations with the insurgents.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Belarus officials cracked down on the news media, deporting some foreign journalists and revoking the accreditation of many local journalists.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 29, Brazil registered another 758 novel coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours and 41,350 new cases. The nation has now registered 120,262 coronavirus deaths and 3,846,153 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, In northern a two-story restaurant collapsed during a local resident's 80th birthday celebration, leaving 29 people dead in Shanxi province.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that attackers armed with knives, some knowledge of their prey and a large dose of cruelty, are going after horses and ponies in pastures across France in what may be ritual mutilations.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, France reported 5,453 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The Tour de France race began in unusual conditions.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, Berlin police broke up a mass protest against coronavirus curbs and arrested 300 after demonstrators failed to keep their distance and wear masks as instructed.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, India-based Reliance said it would pay 3.4 billion for most of the Future Group, founded by Kishore Biyani (b.1961).
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.55)
2020 Aug 29, India reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country's outbreak currently the world's worst. The death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550. India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Indonesian police detained dozens of men in a raid on a gay party at a hotel in Jakarta. Nine people were arrested iunder a pronography law and 47 others released.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that Lebanese security forces have arrested three Egyptian men wanted in their home country on charges of involvement in an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel six years ago. Authorities soon detained possible witnesses and some of their acquaintances, who could face separate charges under the country’s vague morality laws.
(AP, 8/30/20)(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Aug 29, Malaysia extended its pandemic movement restrictions until the end of the year. The country has recorded more than 9,000 cases with 125 deaths.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Aug 29, Thousands of people marched through the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, in protest at the authorities' handling of a massive oil spill, and the discovery of at least 40 dead dolphins. Dead fish, turtles, whales and crabs were also observed.
(BBC, 8/30/20)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 29, The Philippines reported 3,637 new coronavirus infections and 94 more deaths, taking its tally to 213,131 cases and a toll of 3,419. Nearly a third of the Philippine deaths have been reported over the past 15 days.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Ukraine registered a record 2,481 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from 2,438 in the previous day. The country has so far reported a total of 116,987 infections and 2,492 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, The United Nations voiced alarm over what it called “a dramatic turn of events" in Libya's civil war, after a power struggle between leaders of the Tripoli-based government surfaced in the wake of anti-corruption protests.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that some people in Zimbabwe are calling themselves “keyboard warriors" as they take to graffiti and social media to pressure a government that promised reform but is now accused of gross human rights abuses.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 30, President Trump and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) traded harsh criticism of each other over violent clashes between anti-racism protesters and conservative counter protesters, a day after the fatal shooting of a member of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer. Patriot Prayer's founder, Joey Gibson, has held pro-Trump rallies repeatedly in Portland and other cities since 2016. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that state police will patrol the nightly protests in Portland with help from officers from neighboring communities.
(The Week, 8/31/20)(AP, 8/30/20)(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 30, The Trump administration blocked the scheduled removal of former Colombian paramilitary boss Salvatore Mancuso to Italy and now intends to deport him to his South American homeland, where he’s been found responsible for hundreds of war crimes.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Wildfires continue to burn from California to Minnesota, leaving millions of people to cough and wheeze through the toxic air. Sporadic power outages and the relentless heat have made life indoors almost equally intolerable.
(NY Times, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, California to date had 702,667 cases of coronavirus and 12,925 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 84,911 cases and 1,123 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,990,965 with the death toll at 183,005. Global confirmed cases topped 25 million.
(sfist.com, 8/30/20)(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 30, St. Louis police officer Tamarris L. Bohannon (29) died after being shot in the head by a barricaded gunman on the city's south side. A suspect (43) was taken into custody.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) urged President Trump to "reconsider" his plan to visit the city of Kenosha as protests continue over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, United Airlines announced that it was permanently eliminating a $200 fee for changing tickets for domestic travel, a move expected to put pressure on other carriers to drop the fees too.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, New coronavirus cases in Australia's state of Victoria returned to the triple digits.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Belarus tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Minsk beginning the fourth week of daily protests demanding the resignation of the country's authoritarian president after an election they call rigged gave him a sixth term in office.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said its Farxiga drug improved survival chances for patients suffering from kidney disease, underscoring the medicine's role outside its established field of diabetes.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, China's lockdown in Xinjiang province entered its 45th day. It was in response to 826 cases reported in Xinjiang since mid-July, China’s largest caseload since the initial outbreak. The Xinjiang lockdown is especially striking because of its severity, and because there hasn’t been a single new case of local transmission in over a week. China reported 17 new COVID-19 cases, up from 9 reported a day earlier.
(AP, 8/30/20)(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, France's defence minister said a senior French military officer has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing top secret documents to Russian intelligence. He was detained by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), the equivalent of MI5, 10 days ago.
(The Telegraph, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy. So far, more than 63,000 Indians have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Indonesia reported 2,858 new infections. Total number of cases now stood at 172,053, with 7,343 COVID-19 fatalities. The Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology said a more infectious mutation of the new coronavirus has been found in Indonesia. The D614G strain, which the WHO said was identified in February and has been circulating in Europe and the Americas, has also been found in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, The Israeli military struck militant targets in Gaza early today in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons out of the Hamas-run territory.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In northern Italy hurricane-force winds toppled a tree during a storm, killing two children in a tent at a campground.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Italian officials hastily chartered more ferries and put other measures into place to fight severe overcrowding at migrant centers on the tiny island of Lampedusa, where the arrival of 450 migrants on a rickety fishing boat triggered protests by islanders. A fire triggered an explosion on smuggling boat off of southern Italy, tossing 21 migrants into the sea and killing at least 3 of them.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Jordan reported 73 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah, said his group supports the formation of a government that would be able to improve economic conditions in the crisis-stricken country and undertake major reforms.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Voters in Montenegro cast ballots in tense parliamentary elections that pit the long-ruling pro-Western party against the opposition seeking closer ties with Serbia and Russia. The pro-Serb and Russian opposition groups claimed victory against the ruling pro-Western party.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, A $27 million smuggling operation got sniffed out before the MV Norma H II Voyage 818 could reach the US Virgin Islands. A K-9 agent sniffed 34 cargo boxes of vacuum-packed cash in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before leaving for St. Thomas.
(Miami Herald, 9/3/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Russia opposition activist Yegor Zhukov (22) was hospitalized after what supporters said was a vicious attack by two men outside his house in Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, South Korea reported its 17th day of triple-digit rises in coronavirus infections. The national tally rose to 19,699 cases of the new coronavirus and 323 COVID-19 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Sudan reported that rising floodwaters have hit the capital of Khartoum hard in recent days, as weeks of heavy flooding nationwide left at least 90 people dead and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Thailand about 1,000 people, calling themselves "Thai Pakdee" (Loyal Thai), gathered in a Bangkok sports stadium to defend the country's monarchy. Anti-government demonstrations across the country have gathered momentum posing a challenge to the rule of PM Prayuth Chan-ocha.
(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 30, The UN International Labor Organization said new labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles" the country's long-criticized “kafala" employment system. As of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers. The ILO also said Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country's official gazette.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Yemen the Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen's government reportedly foiled two attacks launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including an explosives-laden boat dispatched into the Red Sea near international shipping lanes.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, Zimbabwe's parks authorities said they are investigating the death of 11 elephants in a forest in the west of the country. The carcasses of the elephants were discovered August 28 in Pandamasue Forest.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, A US appeals court overturned the Trump administration's July 2019 rule that sought to suspend a regulation that more than doubled penalties for automakers failing to meet fuel efficiency requirements.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In southern California two deputies fatally shot a black man who scuffled with them after they tried to stop him for riding a bicycle in an unlawful manner. Dijon Kizzee (29) had dropped a bundle of clothes that included a handgun. A crowd gathered and marched to the sheriff’s station after the afternoon shooting, demanding justice. An autopsy report later said Kizzee was shot 16 times in the front and back.
(AP, 8/31/20)(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A6)(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Aug 31, California to date had 710,366 cases of coronavirus and 13,011 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 85,939 cases and 1,125 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,027,111 with the death toll at 183,499.
(sfist.com, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Tom Seaver (75), one of baseball’s greatest right-handed power pitchers, died in Calistoga, Ca. The Hall of Famer who won 311 games for four major league teams, most notably the Mets, whom he led from last place to a surprise world championship in his first three seasons.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Seaver)
2020 Aug 31, Police in Portland, Oregon, declared another riot late today after people broke windows, burglarized a business and lit a fire in an occupied apartment building. Officers reported seeing rocks and paint balloons thrown at them, and eventually made 19 arrests as they worked to disperse the crowd.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Argentina said it had restructured 99% of eligible bonds in its debt deal after almost all bondholders got on board, a major win for the country, which is mired in recession and default.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Aug 31, Belarus authorities jailed factory strike organizer Anatoly Bokun for 15 days and detained a leading opposition activist as part of a methodical effort to suppress weeks of protests against Pres. Lukashenko.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 31, It was reported that British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and partner Vir Biotechnology have started testing their experimental antibody on early-stage COVID-19 patients, entering the race to find a winner in a promising class of antiviral drugs to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania slapped their own travel sanctions on 30 top officials in Belarus, including Pres. Alexander Lukashenko, in response to a brutal crackdown against protesters who say the Aug. 9 presidential election was rigged.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, An Ethiopian diplomat said his country has asked the US for clarification on a report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has approved cutting up to $130 million in aid to Ethiopia because of the country’s dispute with Egypt and Sudan over a massive dam it is building on the Blue Nile. The planned cut was reported by Foreign Policy on August 27.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Finland's health authorities launched the country's own and long-waited contact tracing smartphone app to combat the spread of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Police in Hong Kong used pepper spray and made several arrests as dozens of protesters gathered at a subway station to mark the anniversary of a violent clash last year that stirred accusations of police brutality during anti-government rallies.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, India reported 78,512 novel coronavirus infections, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day when it posted the world's biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy. Coronavirus deaths went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In India Pranab Mukherjee (b.1935), former president (2012-2017), died in New Delhi of COVID-19. He had been on a ventilator for the last three weeks.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 31, An Israeli airliner made a historic first flight from Tel Aviv to the United Arab Emirates, emphasizing new diplomatic ties between the two countries.
(The Telegraph, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Israel’s military reportedly fired missiles late today on areas south of the capital Damascus killing two soldiers, wounding seven and causing material damage.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Mustapha Adib, Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, was appointed by the president to form a new government, after he secured 90 votes among the legislators in the 128-member parliament.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The World Bank said that the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month that killed and injured thousands of people has caused up to $4.6 billion in physical damage.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, One of Lebanon's most prominent philanthropists and a pioneer defender of the country's heritage, Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane (98), died from injuries she suffered in the massive Aug. 4 explosion that ripped through Beirut.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Aug 31, Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they have reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel. Under the deal, Hamas is to halt the launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease a blockade that has been tightened in recent weeks.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In the southern Philippines gunmen blocked a group of motorcycle riders, then opened fire killing nine people, mostly farmers, before fleeing in a van in Kabacan, Cotabato province.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 31, Romania announced an easing of coronavirus restrictions. The country has confirmed more than 87,500 cases and 3,600 deaths.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 31, Rwanda police announced that Paul Rusesabagina (66), portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda" as a hero who saved the lives of more than 1,200 people from the country's 1994 genocide, has been arrested on terror charges. Police said he is suspected to be the founder, leader, sponsor and member of violent, armed, extremist terror outfits including the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD). Rusesabagina's daughter later said her father was kidnapped in Dubai.
(AP, 8/31/20)(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Aug 31, Sudan’s transitional authorities and a rebel alliance signed a peace deal following months of tortuous negotiations aimed at ending the country’s decades-long civil wars, but other powerful armed groups have thus far declined to join them.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Swiss-based Nestle said it will pay $2 billion to buy the remaining stake in Aimmune Therapeutics Inc, gaining full ownership of the first US-approved peanut allergy treatment which has struggled with a slow launch due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Ugandan singer and opposition politician Bobi Wine said he faces “a pattern of repression and suppression" seeking to derail his bid to challenge the country's long-time president in elections next year.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The WHO warned that the risk of further spread of the vaccine-derived polio across central Africa and the Horn of Africa was “high," noting the large-scale population movements in the region. A new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad. More than a dozen African countries are currently battling outbreaks of polio caused by the virus, including Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Zambia. Last week the UN health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Aug, Ryan Cohen, the former boss of Chewy, an online pet food store, began amassing a large stake in GameStop, a brick-and-mortar purveyor of video games. In November he urged the board to invest in e-commerce and soon joined the board. The share value of GameStop rose and became a subject on a Reddit forum that drove the share price even higher.
(Econ., 1/30/21, p.60)
2020 Aug, Afghanistan's Pres. Ashraf Ghani revealed that in the preceding six months over 12,000 soldiers, police and civilians had been killed by the Taliban.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.33)
2020 Aug, Argentina's Pres. Alberto Fernandez signend a law expanding the country's territory by 1.7m square km.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.30)
2020 Aug, In Colombia illegal groups carried out 15 massacres this month, mainly of people they suspected of sympathizing with rivals.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.33)
2020 Aug, Egypt's transport ministry said $8.3 billion had been allocated to complete 1,000 bridges and tunnels by 2024.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.40)
2017 Aug, Myanmar government troops laid waste to more than 20 villages in Rakhine state. Two government soldiers later deserted and in 2020 confessed to participating in massacres targeting the Rohingya.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.32)
2020 Aug, Pakistani investigative journalist reported that the family of Asim Saleem Bajwa, a retired general how now heads the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, had amassed business interests worth tens of millions of dollars as he rose through the ranks. None of the holdings in question had been mentioned in the general's official declaration of assets.
(Econ., 10/31/20, p.37)
2020 Aug, In Siberia the remains of a woolly rhino, dating to the late Pleistocene era, was found at a river in the diamond-producing region of Yakutia complete with all its limbs, some of its organs, its tusk, and even its wool.
(AP, 12/30/20)
2020 Aug, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a major natural gas discovery off Turkey’s other coast, in the Black Sea. The finding was estimated at 320 billion cubic meters, and there is a strong expectation that the figure will be revised upwards as a result of additional exploratory drilling.
(Bloomberg, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Pres. Trump traveled to Kenosha, Wis., to offer support for law enforcement and to tour shops damaged by rioting. During the visit, Trump did not mention the name of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man shot by the police last week, nor did the president speak with his family.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, A US appeals court granted President Donald Trump's request to delay Manhattan's district attorney from accessing his tax returns in connection with a criminal probe of his business practices.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping nationwide order temporarily halting millions of US renters from being evicted, in a bid to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, California to date had 713,921 cases of coronavirus and 13,049 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 86,669 cases and 1,135 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,070,050 with the death toll at 184,517.
(sfist.com, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Rep. Joe Kennedy III fell short in his bid to unseat incumbent Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, ending a fractious Democratic primary by becoming the first member of the Kennedy family to lose an election in the state.
(Yahoo News, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Fabiana Pierre-Louis (40) was sworn in as the first Black female justice for the New Jersey Supreme Court.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiana_Pierre-Louis)
2020 Sep 1, The Afghan government said Afghan citizens will soon have their mothers’ names printed along with their fathers’ on their national identification cards, after years of campaigning by activists to do away with the shame associated with female names in public.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 1, In Austria a new law went into effect allowing descendants from Jewish refugees expelled from Austria under Nazi rule to apply for Austrian citizenship.
(The Week, 8/30/20)
2020 Sep 1, Authorities in Belarus detained scores of protesters as university students took to the streets of Minsk on the first day of classes to demand that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after an election the opposition has denounced as rigged.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said its Imfinzi medication has been approved in the EU to treat an aggressive form of lung cancer in previously untreated adult patients.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia, dubbed the "4+1," defeated US efforts to restore international sanctions on Iran.
(AFP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam that prompted a deadly attack on the magazine’s offices in 2015. The move coincides with the start of a terrorism trial connected to the attack.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, French drugmaker Sanofi said the rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara has failed as a COVID-19 treatment, following a similar flop of a Roche product.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, A thousand police officers in Germany raided the homes of 50 people as part of a nationwide crackdown on the online sharing and distribution of child pornography. Investigators seized around 2,000 phones, computers and other devices upon which images were stored.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Hong Kong began a free universal coronavirus testing program.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 1, Hungary closed its borders to most foreigners as coronavirus cases climbed.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 1, A power grid shareholding deal was signed between Laos state-owned Electricite du Laos (EdL) and China Southern Power Grid Co. China is Laos’s biggest creditor, and the deal will bind the landlocked, mountainous country of seven million people closer to its giant neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 1, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte publicly ordered the country's top customs official to shoot to kill drug smugglers.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, A Philippine court ordered the early release, based on good conduct, of US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, convicted in the 2014 murder of a transgender Filipino Jennifer Laude. The order drew protests from her family and lawyers. On Sept. 7 Pres. Duterte pardoned Pemberton.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, Russia became the 4th country to surpass 1 million coronavirus infections as authorities reported 4,729 new cases. Lockdown restrictions have been lifted in the majority of the country’s regions. Russia has a total of 1,000,048 reported cases and 17,299 deaths.
(AP, 9/1/20)(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 1, Saudi Arabia said Lt. Gen. Fahad bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, its top military commander in its yearslong war in Yemen, and his son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad bin Turki, have been removed from their posts along with other officials as part of an anti-corruption investigation. The kingdom is investigating four other officials as well, all on the orders of 84-year-old King Salman.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, In Thailand a panel appointed by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that a there was a conspiracy involving government officials, lawyers and a prosecutor to impeded the 2012 fatal hit-and-run case against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 1, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Mahmut Ozden, the Islamic State group’s top leader in Turkey, has been detained in an "ongoing" operation.
(The Telegraph, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Ukraine reported 2,088 new coronavirus cases. PM Denys Shmygal said the number of new cases in Ukraine will continue to rise in September and could reach 3,000 a day by the end of this month. The country has reported a total of 123,303 infections and 2,605 deaths from the virus.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 2, President Trump suggested that people in North Carolina stress-test the security of their elections systems by voting twice. Voting twice is illegal.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, President Trump ordered federal agencies in a memo released today to find ways to slash funding to Democrat-run cities roiled by protests against systemic racism in policing, including Portland, Seattle, Washington, and New York.
(The Week, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, Republican President Donald Trump's re-election campaign sued Steve Bullock, the Democratic governor of Montana, in an attempt to halt an expansion of mail-in voting in the run up to November's election.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that senior Chinese diplomats based in the US will now be required to seek permission before meeting with local government officials or visiting university campuses.
(South China Morning Post, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United States said that it will not pay some $80 million it currently owes to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York. The United States currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and $62 million for financial year 2020.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional. This came seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the US government debt will exceed the size of the economy in the 2021 federal fiscal year for the first time since WW II.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Washington DC a police officer, who has not been publicly identified, shot Deon Kay (18), an armed Black teenager, to death in the city’s Southeast section. Officers were called to the area because of a report of a man with a gun.
(NBC News, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 2, A police officer in San Leandro, California, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man wielding a baseball bat inside a Walmart. Officer Jason Fletcher shot and killed 33-year-old Steven Demarco Taylor on April 18.
(CBS News, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, California to date had 718,340 cases of coronavirus and 13,233 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 87,657 cases and 1,162 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,111,485 with the death toll at 185,669.
(sfist.com, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, A Mississippi commission voted to recommend new state flag featuring a magnolia to replace an old one seen as racist. Voters in November will make the final decision.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 2, In New Jersey Karim Elkorany (37), who worked as a telecommunications specialist in Iraq, was arrested on two counts of making false statements to the FBI. The former UN official was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting several women.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In New Jersey Princeton Univ. Pres. Christopher Eisgruber issued an open letter admitting that the school's educational system is and for decades has been racist.
(SSFC, 9/20/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 2, The family of Daniel Prude (41), a Black man from Rochester, N.Y., released graphic footage from a March incident in which officers placed a hood on him and pressed his face into the ground for two minutes. Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester. Dozens of protesters gathered in the streets of Rochester after body camera footage became public.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)(AP, 9/3/20)(The Week, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, Ford Motor Co said it is targeting the elimination of 1,400 US salaried jobs by year end as part of a multiyear $11 billion restructuring.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, United Airlines said it is preparing to furlough 16,370 workers on Oct. 1 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate the airline industry.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Australia's Victoria state extended its state of emergency for another six months as it reported 90 new coronavirus cases and six deaths over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 2, The British government re-imposed local COVID-19 restrictions on parts of the Greater Manchester area in northern England, just as they were being lifted, the latest in a series of abrupt reversals.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Belarus dozens of journalists gathered outside a police station in Minsk to protest the detention of colleagues covering a demonstration against the nation's authoritarian president and an election the opposition sees as rigged.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (77), the former schoolteacher known as Duch who became the most notorious killer during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in the 1970s, died at a hospital in Phnom Penh.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, It was reported that Congo is seeing an upsurge in cases of the plague, as the vast Central African nation also battles outbreaks of COVID-19 and Ebola. Since June, Congo has recorded at least 65 cases of the plague, including at least 10 deaths, in the eastern Ituri province.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Egypt's Interior Ministry said local police have killed at least seven suspected criminals in separate firefights in the southern province of Aswan. The ministry did not elaborate on when the shootouts took place.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, French President Emmanuel Macron met Iraqi leaders on his first visit to Baghdad where he stressed the war-scarred country must assert its "sovereignty" despite being caught up in US-Iran tensions.
(AFP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, French drugmaker Sanofi and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline said they had started a clinical trial of their protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and aimed to reach the final testing stage by December.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The German government said Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent that British authorities identified in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Israel recorded a record-high 3,000 new cases in a day as the country’s coronavirus czar is set to submit a list of more detailed recommended restrictions where infection rates have been highest.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, A livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sank during rough weather off a southern Japanese island. One Filipino crew member was rescued. The 11,947-ton Gulf Livestock 1 ship was carrying 5,800 cows west of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea when it sent a distress call early today in seas roughened by Typhoon Maysak.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The top UN official for Libya warned that the coronavirus pandemic in the war-ravaged country appears to be “spiraling out of control".
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, LGBT rights activist Mireya Rodríguez Lemus was found dead in her home in the Chihuahua town of Aquiles Serdan. Official identification of the body was not made until Sept. 8. She was at least the seventh rights activist killed in Mexico so far in 2020.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 2, Saudi Arabia announced that flights to and from the United Arab Emirates “from all countries" will now be able to use its airspace — a statement apparently allowing flyovers by Israel following a deal to normalize UAE-Israel relations.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Singapore health authorities said they have detected new COVID-19 clusters at foreign worker dormitories previously found to be clear of the infection, highlighting the challenge in containing the spread of the highly infectious virus. Foreign workers accounted for 94% of nearly 58,000 cases in the city-state.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.40)
2020 Sep 2, A Spanish court ordered the heirs of Gen. Francisco Franco to hand over to the state a 19th-century palace used by the late dictator as a summer retreat.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Syrian state media said air defenses opened fire late today on missiles launched by Israeli warplanes at a military airbase in the central province of Homs, shooting down some of them.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Tunisian lawmakers approved Hichem Mechichi as the country's new prime minister after pressing him for 11 hours over how he will bring the country out of an economic and social crisis that has driven a rise in migration to Europe and been worsened by the virus pandemic.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Turkey's health ministry said the country is experiencing a second peak of the first wave of the coronavirus. More than 273,000 people have tested positive and 6,462 have died.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 2, Ukraine registered a record 2,495 new coronavirus cases and 51 related deaths in the past 24 hours. The country has so far reported a total of 125,798 infections and 2,656 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United Arab Emirates recorded over 700 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily increase in more than three months. The UAE has recorded 71,540 infections and 387 deaths from COVID-19.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 3, Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, Pres. Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask and once again encouraged his supporters to try to vote twice if they vote by mail.
(NY Times, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 3, A new report in "The Atlantic" detailed multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the US military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers" and “suckers." Trump said that the story is “totally false".
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Arkansas reported its largest single-day increase in deaths from the coronavirus. 27 new deaths brought the state's total to 841, while 615 new cases brought that total 62,112.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Los Angeles City declared a fiscal emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic paving the way to furlough aboyt 15,000 employees.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, California to date had 723,110 cases of coronavirus and 13,396 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 88,485 cases and 1,192 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,146,223 with the death toll at 186,693.
(sfist.com, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In New York seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester were suspended by the city's mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 3, Law enforcement agents near Lacey, Wa., shot and killed an antifa supporter when they went to arrest him in the fatal shooting of a right-wing activist in Portland. Officers reported that the suspect, 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl, was armed. The arrest attempt came shortly after Reinoehl gave an interview to VICE News in which he appeared to acknowledge having killed Aaron “Jay" Danielson, 39, on August 29. It was later reported that four officers had fired over 30 rounds after they cornered Reinoehl.
(AP, 9/3/20)(NY Times, 9/4/20)(SFC, 10/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Juul Labs Inc said it would make a "significant" cut to its global workforce and explore pulling out of some European and Asia-Pacific markets to save cash and weather a tumultuous period for the e-cigarette industry. The company, partly owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, is planning to lay off about 1,200 employees, more than half its workforce.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, QuantumScape, the 10-year-old Silicon Valley battery startup backed by Volkswagen, said it plans to go public through a reverse merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp with an enterprise value of $3.3 billion.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that the US is cutting aid to Ethiopia over a controversial mega dam being built on a tributary of the River Nile. The move was triggered by Ethiopia's move to start filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam before reaching agreement with Egypt and Sudan.
(BBC, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Boston-based healthtech startup Biofourmis said it has closed a $100 million series C funding round led by SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund 2, as the Japanese firm extends its bets on a sector growing through the coronavirus outbreak. Biofourmis uses a wearable biosensor to remotely monitor patients for changes in their health.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko reshuffled his top lieutenants in an apparent attempt to strengthen his rule amid weeks of protests pushing for his resignation.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Hurricane Nana made landfall in Belize, pelting a relatively sparsely populated stretch of the country's coast with heavy rain and wind, before weakening to a tropical storm while pushing across Guatemala.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, AstraZeneca Plc signed a manufacturing deal with privately held Albany Molecular Research Inc to produce millions of doses of the British drugmaker's experimental coronavirus vaccine annually.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that Lee Young-guk (57) has published the book “I was Kim Jong-il’s bodyguard." Here he claims that he began a ten-year stint in the security team of current leader Kim Jong-un’s late father in 1978, after which he became a military adviser from 1988 to 1991. Mr. Lee faced, now in Canada, faced deportation to South Korea.
(The Telegraph, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that ethnic Mongolians are demonstrating their anger in China's Inner Mongolia province against a new bilingual education policy that they say is endangering the Mongolian language. Riot police broke up protests and parents were ordered to send children to school or else be declared ineligible for government subsidies or bank loans.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.35)(Econ., 1/30/21, p.34)
2020 Sep 3, The Czech Republic reported 650 new COVID-19 cases, its highest number for a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as infections gathered speed amid relaxed government restrictions. Overall cases since March rose to 25,773. The country has registered 425 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Denmark said it had registered 179 new COVID-19 infections in the past day, the highest rate since late April. Denmark has registered 626 coronavirus-related deaths since March.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Ethiopia’s government said it is “thankful" to Saudi Arabia for accepting Ethiopian migrants entering the country, but it barely commented on the squalid conditions they face in some Saudi detention centers, after a media report showed migrants crowded in bare rooms pleading for assistance.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, The French government unveiled a $118 billion recovery plan aimed at creating jobs, saving struggling businesses and yanking the country out of its worst economic slump since WWII.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, In western Germany five children were found dead in an apartment in Solingen, with local media reporting they were murdered by their mother who later tried to kill herself.
(The Telegraph, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In Jamaica PM Andrew Hollness (b.1972) won a 2nd term.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Holness)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.34)
2020 Sep 3, As Mexico struggles to pay a water debt to the United States, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he might personally appeal to President Donald Trump for clemency, or invite United Nations experts to audit water payments.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In Nepal thousands of people clashed with riot police in Lalitpur as they defied a government coronavirus shutdown to take part in a religious festival.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Russia said the West should not rush to judge it over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and said there were no grounds to accuse it of the crime, as talk in the West of punishing Moscow intensified.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, A panel of judges in Slovakia acquitted businessman Marian Kocner and one co-defendant, accused of masterminding the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist who had written about him and the journalist's fiancee. A third defendant was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Within hours, prosecutors appealed the verdicts in the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, South African healthcare workers protested against poor working conditions and urged the government to end corruption in the purchase of COVID-19 personal protective equipment.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Typhoon Maysak ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, A Filipino crew member was killed aboard the tanker ship MT New Diamond when a boiler exploded in the engine room. The ship was drifting off the coast of Sri Lanka as fire fighting efforts continued. After 2 days the fire was brought under control and the tanker, carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil, was towed further out to sea. The owner of the ship later agreed to pay Sri Lanka $2.3 million for its help in extinguishing the blaze.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A6)(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, A Syrian opposition war monitor said airstrikes on eastern Syria, believed to have been carried out by Israeli warplanes early today, killed 16 Iranian-backed fighters.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days, after a man recently jailed and with no overseas travel history tested positive in a Bangkok prison during a routine check for new inmates.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 4, President Donald Trump announced that Serbia and Kosovo have agreed to normalize economic ties as part of US-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, US Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration has reached a deal with lawmakers in Congress to ensure the government is funded past Sept. 30, removing the threat of a near-term government shutdown.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United States' largest police union endorsed President Donald Trump's re-election bid, boosting the Republican's message that he is the candidate of "law and order" amid US protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ordered the Trump administration to resume issuing diversity visas for immigrants from underrepresented countries, partially reversing a pandemic-related freeze on a wide range of immigrant and temporary visas.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ruled that two American men accused of smuggling Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan while he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges can be extradited. The final decision rests with the State Department.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge temporarily barred Detroit police from the use of striking weapons, chokeholds, chemical agents and rubber bullets against demonstrators, medical support personnel and legal observers in the city's ongoing anti-racism protests. The order will be in effect for at least 14 days.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, California to date had 729,876 cases of coronavirus and 13,611 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 89,308 cases and 1,204 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,199,998 with the death toll at 187,750.
(sfist.com, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In California the fast-spreading Creek Fire began late today near the Mammoth Pool Reservoir about 50 miles south of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra National Forest. At least 63 of the more than 150 people trapped by the massive fire were rescued by military helicopter.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 4, Mail balloting in the presidential election began as North Carolina started sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters — responding to a massive spike in requests that has played out across the country as voters look for a safer way to cast ballots during the pandemic.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Mississippi dropped the charges against Curtis Flowers. He was the victim of a campaign by Doug Evans, a white local prosecutor, to convict him for a 1996 quadruple murder, despite no good evidence tying Flowers to the crime.
(NY Times, 10/15/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Oregon law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly late today and arrested 27 people after protesters marched through the streets of Portland on to a police building, where officers stood waiting outside.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Texas a San Antonio police officer and a security guard fatally shot a Black shoplifting suspect after he stabbed the officer in the face.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Disney premiered its Mulan film on Disney+ for a premium fee in countries where the service had launched. Disney had spent 5 years and $200 million on the live-action remake of its 22-year old animation. Mulan's world premiere was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 9, 2020.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan_(2020_film))
2020 Sep 4, It was reported that US drugmaker AbbVie Inc will pay $180 million in upfront payment to develop and sell Chinese biotech company I-Mab's cancer drug.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Moderna Inc said it has been asking sites that are conducting clinical trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine to focus on enrolling at-risk minorities, even if that slows down the trial speed.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Bangladesh an underground gas pipeline at the Baitus Jalat Jame mosque exploded during evening prayers outside Dhaka, leaving 16 Muslim worshipers dead and dozens injured with critical burns. The death toll soon rose to 33. Eight people were later arrested for alleged negligence.
(AP, 9/4/20)(SFC, 9/7/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 4, In Belarus hundreds of demonstrators rallied again in Minsk to protest the disputed reelection of the nation's authoritarian president. Police dispersed university students attempting to show solidarity with peers who were detained earlier in the week. Police entered the State Linguistics University in Minsk to disperse an action by students who were expressing solidarity with classmates detained earlier. Officers rounded up several participants.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger in Belarus’ disputed presidential election, spoke to the UN Security Council and urged the international community to impose sanctions on “the individuals that committed electoral violations and crimes against humanity" and take other measures to stop the violence against protesters.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Brazil’s health ministry to date has confirmed more than 4 million cases of the coronavirus disease and 125,000 deaths. President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed opposition to administering vaccines that are yet to be proven on Brazilian soil.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Britain appointed Australia's former prime minister Tony Abbott (62) as a trade adviser as it seeks to agree new post-Brexit deals. The appointment sparked criticism from the opposition Labour party and campaign groups due to his past use of sexist language, skepticism of man-made climate change, and opposition to same-sex marriage.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Virgin Atlantic announced 1,150 more job cuts due to the coronavirus crisis, saying its 1.2 billion pound ($1.6 billion) rescue deal alone was not enough to secure its future.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A new investigation into companies trading in the Chinese city of Dandong, on the border with North Korea, shed a spotlight on Pyongyang’s global money laundering networks and raised fresh questions about China’s complicity in bypassing United Nations sanctions against Kim Jong-un’s regime.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized what he called “Islamic separatism" in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy".
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, German biotech firm Curevac said it had won nearly $300 million in government funding to speed up work on its prototype COVID-19 vaccine and build capacity to produce it at scale. Curevac's technology uses mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce proteins that can fight against diseases.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Hungary has registered 459 new cases of the coronavirus. The country has registered 7,381 confirmed cases and 621 deaths.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 4, India reported a daily jump of 83,341 coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3.94 million. 1,096 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 68,472.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The International Atomic Energy Agency reported (IAEA) that Iran continues to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium in violation of limitations set in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but has begun providing access to sites where the country was suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, NATO demanded Russia cooperate with an international investigation into the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, as EU diplomats cast doubt over whether the bloc could impose sanctions on Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern retained the restrictions put in place to beat the spread of the coronavirus until at least mid-September, as the country reported a new death related to the virus.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Russian scientists have belatedly published first results from early trials into the experimental Sputnik V vaccine. Developers of the vaccine said it appeared to be safe and to prompt an antibody response in all 40 people tested in the second phase of the study within three weeks. However, the authors noted that participants were only followed for 42 days, the study sample was small and there was no placebo or control vaccine used.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, South Korea said it will extend elevated social distancing restrictions for another week after reporting 198 new coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 4, Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising floodwaters and heavy rainfall killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses since late July.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Swiss-based Roche Holding AG said a therapy it co-developed with Cambridge-based Blueprint Medicines Corp was approved by the US health regulator for the treatment of patients with a type of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it has begun withdrawing troops from various camps around the country where tens of thousands of civilians sought protection during its civil war.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN said locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity. The outbreaks of African migratory locusts in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not related to the huge outbreak of billions of desert locusts that has affected East Africa for months.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Seven human rights experts affiliated with the UN raised concerns over Hong Kong’s new national security law in a letter addressed to Chinese authorities, saying the legislation limits certain fundamental freedoms.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 5, A federal judge said the US Census Bureau for now must stop following a plan that would have it winding down operations in order to finish the 2020 census at the end of September. The order stops the Census Bureau from winding down operations until a court hearing is held on Sept. 17.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Joe Biden's presidential campaign added former Democratic primary rival Pete Buttigieg, along with senior officials who served under President Barack Obama, to an expanded White House transition team.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Phoenix, Arizona, set a high-temperature record of 115 degrees for the date as emergency crews rescued several hikers at a popular recreation area in the city.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Authentic won the 146th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville. There were no fans in the stands, the first time the race was run without spectators in its long history.
(The Week, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Portland, Oregon, demonstrations against police brutality continued for the 100th consecutive day. Portland police declared a riot Saturday night after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails in the street, sparking a fire. Over 50 people were arrested.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Texas several boats sank on Lake Travis near Austin. The vessels were out on the lake for an event billed as a "Trump Boat Parade" in which boaters displayed their support for President Trump. There were no injuries or medical emergencies.
(The Week, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Albania a woman wanted in Italy for trying to recruit people to join the Islamic State group was arrested in Tirana. Lubjana Gjecaj (43) will be extradited to Italy where a court in Milan has sentenced her to three years in prison for association with terror groups.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, India’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country's vast hinterlands, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system. The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. The health ministry also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Iran opened the new school year after nearly seven months of closure. The reopening of schools came as many expressed concern over a possible increase in coronavirus infections, including medical professionals.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Thousands of Israelis again gathered outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence, calling for his resignation over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and corruption charges.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Mali's ex-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (75), who was ousted in a coup last month, flew to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for medical treatment after suffering a minor stroke.
(BBC, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, It was reported that Mexico’s General Attorney’s Office has found drones and the components needed to weaponize them during a search and seizure operation, and is now pursuing terrorism charges against the fast rising Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
(The Telegraph, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Mexico said it has recorded 122,765 deaths more than would be expected during the pandemic up to August in a report on excess mortality rates, suggesting Mexico's true coronavirus toll could be much higher. Mexico has recorded 67,326 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 629,409 cases, the world's fourth highest death toll from the virus.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, In North Korea a state newspaper reported that the ruling party is calling for the punishment of officials whose failure to follow orders resulted in "dozens of casualties" during typhoons that lashed the Korean peninsula this week.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Portugal reported 486 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily increase since the week its lockdown was lifted in May. The increase brought the cumulative total to 59,943, but just 1,838 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Senegal storm began that brought nearly a year's worth of rainfall in a single day, turning roads into rivers. At least six deaths were recorded nationwide.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 5, Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Liberation Movement-North rebel group said they have agreed to resume peace talks.
(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 6, The Washington Post reported that US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for years reimbursed workers of his New Breed Technologies company who made political contributions to Republican candidates. DeJoy sold the business in 2014. North Carolina has called for an investigation into the company.
(SFC, 9/7/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 6, The crew aboard the USS Nimitz sounded a “man overboard" alert, after being unable to find the sailor aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier during its patrol of the northern Arabian Sea.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in five counties due to wildfires. The Bobcat Fire broke out in Los Angeles County. After two weeks the fire had grown to 170 square miles and was only 17% contained.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 6, California to date had 737,382 cases of coronavirus and 13,718 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 90,662 cases and 1,216 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,274,388 with the death toll at 188,909.
(sfist.com, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Oregon a fire started outside a police precinct on Portland's north side resulted in about 15 arrests during protests late today and into Monday morning.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Belarus, despite a show of force from authorities, protesters set out to pressure President Alexander Lukashenko to step down after his disputed re-election. A massive rally in Minsk that drew an estimated 100,000 protesters. 633 people were detained for taking part in unsanctioned protests.
(The Week, 9/6/20)(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, It was reported that fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been as destructive as last year’s, but they have drawn less attention in a year overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. Enormous blazes — often intentionally set but worsened by unusually dry conditions — have also scorched 7,861 square miles, or about 10 percent, of the area known as the Pantanal from January to August, an area slightly larger than New Jersey.
(NY Times, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Britain one man was killed and at least five people were injured after a series of stabbings in Birmingham early today. Police said they are still hunting a single suspect. Zephaniah McLead (27) was arrested a day later. He was soon charged with murder and seven counts of attempted murder.
(AP, 9/6/20)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 6, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that an experimental reusable spacecraft launched into orbit two days ago has successfully returned to a designated site, marking a breakthrough that could lead to cheaper round-trips to space.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, Cyprus police said that four vessels appeared off Cyprus’ eastern and southern coast over the last two days carrying a total 123 migrants and about half of them have been permitted to disembark.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, Hong Kong demonstrators returned to the street to protest the city's Beijing-imposed national security law and the government's decision to delay Legislative Council elections for a year. About 290 people were arrested. Police tackled a 12-year old girl to the ground and arrested her on amid a protests against delayed parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/6/20)(The Telegraph, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, Israel's death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 1,000, as the government mulled steps for imposing new restrictions to quell a resurgence in infections. Overall, Israel has recorded nearly 130,000 cases of the virus.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Italy Willy Monteiro Duarte (21) was killed during a fight in Colleferro, a city on the outskirts of Rome. Four Italians were soon arrested, including two brothers with police records and a martial arts background. Duarte, who was born in Rome to parents from the African island nation of Cape Verde, had intervened while seeing a friend get beaten up in the fight and was then fatally beaten himself.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 6, Typhoon Haishen, the second powerful typhoon to slam Japan in a week, unleashed fierce winds and rain on southern islands, blowing off rooftops and leaving homes without power as it edged northward into an area vulnerable to flooding and mudslides.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Montenegro several thousand protesters gathered in Podgorica in a show of support for the ruling pro-Western party, which could lose power if the pro-Serb and pro-Russian groups manage to form a ruling coalition.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Tunisia a police officer was killed and another wounded in a knife attack in the coastal resort of Sousse. Three assailants were shot dead after the incident, which is being described as a terrorist attack. Tunisian authorities soon arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the deadly attack. The Islamic State group's Amaq agency claimed responsibility.
(BBC, 9/6/20)(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Republican President Donald Trump, accused by Joe Biden of putting lives at risk in his handling of the coronavirus, called his Democratic rival "stupid" and demanded an apology for what Trump called anti-vaccine rhetoric.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In southern California seven people were dead and a suspect remained at large following a shooting at a suspected illicit marijuana operation in Riverside County.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, California to date had 740,400 cases of coronavirus and 13,763 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 91,210 cases and 1,218 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,301,321 with the death toll at 189,215.
(sfist.com, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Chicago a girl (8) was killed and two adults were severely wounded after they were shot this evening while traveling in a vehicle on the city's South Side. The shooting occurred in the Canaryville neighborhood.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Oregon pro-Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed in the city of Salem. Earlier in the day vehicles waving flags for Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory and in support of police gathered at about noon at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Belarus leading opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova and two other members of an opposition council went missing, raising fears they were detained as authorities seek to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country's authoritarian leader. The next day Kolesnikova ripped up her passport to avoid being forced to move to Ukraine.
(AP, 9/7/20)(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 7, China-based Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical said it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinopharm Group to supply a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by German firm BioNTech.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Chinese and Indian troops exchanged fire along the southern coast of Pangong Lake in an area known in China as Shenpaoshan and in India as Chushul. The following day both sides accused each other of making provocative military moves and firing warning shots along their disputed border.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, Denmark said Tunisia was responsible for taking in 27 migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean by a Danish-flagged tanker that has not been able to find a European port to accept them. Tunisia rejected the claim.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Egypt a young man (26) died in police detention following his arrest over clashes in a Cairo neighborhood last week. The man's family accused the police of killing him.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 7, The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo that they could undermine their EU membership hopes by moving their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, France's interior minister said investigators have made numerous arrests since a macabre series of attacks left scores of horses mutilated or killed this year and have opened more than 150 investigations into such cases.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Berlin's Charite hospital said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been removed from a medically induced coma and is responding to speech.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Greece said it will be bolstering its military with new armament programs, a boost to military personnel and the development of the country’s defense industry. A tense stand-off with neighboring Turkey has led to concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Hungary registered 576 new coronavirus cases raising its total to 8,963 and 625 deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 7, India's coronavirus cases rose by 90,802 new cases in the last 24 hours raising its total to 4,204,614, now the 2nd highest in the world after the US. The death toll rose to 71,642 with 1,016 new deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 7, Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia claiming to have been at sea for seven months. The UN said as many as 30 may have died during the perilous voyage. Military operations in 2017 forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee from Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine state to Bangladesh.
(AFP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, It was reported that two Nigerian men have been arrested for allegedly scamming a German state that tried to buy 2.3m euros (£2m) of personal protective equipment (PPE).
(BBC, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Typhoon Haishen to a tropical storm late today as it made landfall near the North Korean coastal city of Hamhung. In South Korea, at least two people were missing as the storm barreled through South Korea’s southern and eastern regions.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Russia's deputy prime minister said a senior Russian delegation in Damascus is discussing the expansion of economic and trade cooperation with Syria and the two sides expect to sign an economic pact before the end of the year to circumvent US sanctions.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, A Saudi court issued final verdicts in the 2018 case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution. The court ordered a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for five men. Another individual received a 10-year sentence, and two others were ordered to serve seven years in prison.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In southern Somalia a US soldier was wounded and two Somali soldiers were killed when an al-Shabab suicide bomber tried to pass a checkpoint and attack a military compound but was stopped by the partner forces.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In South Africa protests over a hair advertisement, viewed as racially offensive, forced the closure of at least 60 outlets of a chain of drugstores of nationwide retailer Clicks. Some supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters vandalized some stores.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it had won a $6.64 billion order to provide wireless communication solutions to Verizon in the United States.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Sri Lanka firefighters began battled a new blaze on the tanker ship MT New Diamond. A patch of diesel fuel was reported near the ship.
(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 7, The Uganda Communications Commission in a statement said bloggers and online news sites must seek the necessary authorization with it by Oct. 5. Some saw the move as an attack on free speech ahead of next year's election.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, The World Food Program said an estimated 45 million people in southern Africa are food insecure, with the number of people without access to adequate affordable and nutritious food up 10% from last year. Zimbabwe is the worst affected country, with its number of food insecure people expected to reach 8.6 million by the end of this year.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 8, US President Donald Trump, facing the possibility of a cash crunch, said he would spend "whatever it takes" of his own money to finance his 2020 presidential campaign against Democrat Joe Biden if he had to.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that the US Justice Department is asking to take over President Donald Trump's defense in a defamation lawsuit from a writer who accused him of rape, and federal lawyers asked a court to allow a move that could put the American people on the hook for any money she might be awarded. E. Jean Carroll alleged last year that Trump raped her in a New York luxury department store in the mid-1990s.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that President Donald Trump has instructed that dozens of oil refiner requests for retroactive waivers from US biofuel laws be denied amid concerns the issue could cut into his support in the Farm Belt.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, The US Treasury sanctioned two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers who are allied with Hezbollah. The next day the Shiite Amal group, headed by Lebanon's longtime Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, denounced the sanctions.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, The number of children who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States reportedly has surpassed half a million. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association said the number of child cases of COVID-19 has risen to 513,415 following a 16 percent increase from August 20 through Sept. 3. The report says that 103 children have died due to COVID-19.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 8, In California more than 14,000 firefighters battled blazes across millions of acres. So far this year the state has had 7,606 fires and 2.3 million acres burned.
(Good Morning America, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, California to date had 744,433 cases of coronavirus and 13,816 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 91,695 cases and 1,222 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,325,586 with the death toll at 189,580.
(sfist.com, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Top police leaders in Rochester, New York, announced their retirements amid nightly protests over the handling of the suffocation death of Daniel Prude, whose family filed a federal lawsuit alleging a cover-up by law enforcement.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act as wildfires continue to spread throughout the state.
(Good Morning America, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Police arrested 11 people in Portland as protests continued to take place after 100 days of demonstrations in the Oregon city against racism and police brutality.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration announced that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for a $5 million tourism ad campaign aimed at drawing people to the state, even as it emerges as one of the nation’s top hot spots for COVID-19 infections.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, In Tennessee a single-engine Piper PA-28 airplane carrying three people, crashed near Warren County Memorial Airport in McMinnville, which is northeast of Nashville. a single survivor soon died.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said that Thermo Fisher Scientific would manufacture the drug developer's experimental coronavirus vaccine, as it looks to boost the supply ahead of large trials this month.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Australian journalists Bill Birtles and Michael Smith arrived in Sidney after being rushed out of China following a 5-day diplomatic standoff. Chinese investigators had sought to question them about Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian news anchor who was detained in August for national security crimes.
(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A2)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.35)
2020 Sep 8, Britain's government admitted that it may break international law by not applying parts of its Brexit divorce deal relating to Northern Ireland, as a top legal adviser quit, reportedly over the plans.
(AFP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said it has paused global trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine after an unexplained illness in a participant, a move seen as dimming prospects for an early rollout.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Chinese leader Xi Jinping praised China's role in battling the coronavirus pandemic and expressed support for the World Health Organization, in a repudiation of US criticism and a bid to rally domestic support for Communist Party leadership.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Nongfu Spring, China's most popular brand of bottled water, went public on Hong Kong's bourse. Zhong Shanshan (b.1954), founded the company in 1966 and became China's 2nd wealthiest person following the IPO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Shanshan)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.55)
2020 Sep 8, A major fire erupted late today and swept through the notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving thousands of people in need of emergency shelter. 36 people have tested positive at the camp for COVID-19. A 2nd fire on Sept. 10 destroyed nearly everything that had been spared in the first fire. Authorities said both fire were deliberately started.
(AP, 9/9/20)(NY Times, 9/10/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 8, Indonesia reported 200,035 cases of the coronavirus. The country has also seen by far the most fatalities among medical workers in the region, leading to concerns about the long-term impact on the nation's fragile healthcare system. 100 more deaths raised the confirmed death toll to 8,230.
(AP, 9/8/20)(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 8, Iran said it is building a sophisticated new building near its underground Natanz nuclear site. The new structure is being built in the wake of a July explosion that damaged a building that housed centrifuge machines.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Iran told Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran since 2016, that she faces a "new indictment." Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of sedition and jailed for five years in September 2016. She was due for release in March 2021.
(AFP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Human rights group Fortify Rights said two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear" in villages where minority Rohingya Muslims lived.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, South Korea's Celltrion Inc said it will begin commercial production of its experimental treatment for COVID-19 this month, as it pushes ahead with clinical trials of the antibody drug.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Swiss-based Lonza said the first patient has been treated with a cell therapy made in its "Cocoon" platform, which the contract drug maker hopes catches on at medical centers aiming to boost use of personalized cancer treatments.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Ukraine registered a record 57 deaths related to the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a previous record of 54 deaths registered last week. A total of 140,479 cases were registered in Ukraine as of Sept. 8, with 2,934 deaths.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said it has confirmed two coronavirus cases in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Gasoline shortages have returned to Venezuela, sparking mile-long lines in the capital as international concerns mounted that Iran yet again may be trying to come to the South American nation's rescue.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that an environmental group in Zimbabwe has applied to the country’s High Court to stop a Chinese firm from mining coal in Hwange National Park, which hosts one of Africa’s largest populations of elephants. The mining license was granted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to the Chinese firm in February, 2019, and the firm has started exploratory work in the park. Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced a ban on mining in all national parks, reversing a decision to let Chinese firms explore for coal at its famous Hwange game park with immediate effect.
(AP, 9/8/20)(BBC, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Whistle-blower Brian Murphy, former head of the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence branch, accused top officials at the Department of Homeland Security of downplaying threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Journalist Bob Woodward in his new book "Rage" said Trump told him that he had purposely minimized the risks of the coronavirus to the public, despite knowing in February that the virus was much deadlier than the flu and could be spread through the air.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The top American commander for the Middle East said the US is reducing its troop presence in Iraq this month from 5,200 to 3,000.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Amtrak Chief Executive William Flynn told Congress the US passenger railroad needs up to $4.9 billion in government funding to avoid service and job cuts, and address mounting losses.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Wildfires continued to sweep through the Pacific Northwest and California, killing at least six people. Thick smoke choked much of the state and cast an eerie orange hue across the sky. More than two dozen major fires were burning around the state, some of them among the largest ever recorded in recent California history.
(AP, 9/9/20)(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Smoke blotted out the sun in San Francisco, and ash fluttered down from the sky.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, California to date had 746,312 cases of coronavirus and 13,911 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 92,377 cases and 1,234 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,359,720 with the death toll at 190,815.
(sfist.com, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, In Florida Sylvester Ofori, a pastor and self-proclaimed prophet, shot and killed his estranged wife, Barbara Tommey (27), outside her job at a bank near the Mall at Millenia.
(Orlando Sentinel, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 9, Henry van Ameringen, a philanthropist and heir to a family fortune in the fragrance industry, died at his home in Manhattan. He was among the first openly gay major donors to fund LGBTQ. and AIDS-related organizations, at a time before they enjoyed more mainstream support.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 9, Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, called on that state’s Legislature to make a small change to how mail-in ballots are counted that could make a huge difference in how quickly election results are reported in November.
(Yahoo News, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that J.C. Penney has reached a deal to sell its retail business to Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners, averting a liquidation.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Kool & the Gang co-founder Ronald "Khalis" Bell (68) died at his home in the US Virgin Islands.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Shere Hite (77), author of the landmark 1976 book on women’s sexuality, “The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality," died in London. Her work enraged some men and Christian groups, and criticism and threats drove her to leave the US.
(NY Times, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 9, In Afghanistan at least 10 bystanders were killed in a bombing in Kabul that targeted first VP Amrullah Saleh, who survived.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 9, Belarus authorities detained lawyer Maxim Znak, one of the last two leading members of an opposition council who remained free.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 9, Brazilian lab and hospital group DASA S.A. said it has agreed to conduct clinical Phase 2 and 3 trials in Brazil for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by COVAXX, a unit of privately-owned United Biomedical Inc.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Britain's Internal Market Bill was published. It became contentious as it overrides parts of the EU's legal divorce deal, known as the Withdrawal Agreement, which came into effect on 31 January 2020.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5lnu988)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.46)
2020 Sep 9, The Czech Republic reported more than 1,000 coronavirus cases for a second day in a row, as it widened compulsory wearing of face masks in an attempt to contain the outbreak.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, In Egypt journalist Islam el-Kalhy, who reported on a young man’s death in police custody, was detained on charges of reporting fake news. Egypt is ranked among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 9, Ethiopia's northern Tigray region held elections in a show of defiance against PM Abiy Ahmed, who called the regional vote illegal but said the government would not respond with force. The Tigray Independence Party (TIP) has called for Tigray to form its own country.
(https://tinyurl.com/yyccbbt4)(SFC, 11/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, France fined Switzerland's Novartis and Roche 444 million euros (403.55 million pounds), after its competition authority said they used abusive practices to push costly eye injection Lucentis over a cheaper drug. Novartis must pay 385 million euros and Roche about 60 million euros, according to the decision.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, India reported 89,706 new coronavirus cases and 1,115 deaths over the last 24 hours taking total fatalities up to 73,890. Total caseload reached 4.37 million.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that 26 scientists, most of them working at universities in Italy, have signed an open letter questioning the reliability of the data presented in the early-stage trial results of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, named "Sputnik-V".
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, In eastern Mexico Julio Valdivia (41) of the newspaper El Mundo de Veracruz was found decapitated. He had covered a confrontation between police and suspected criminals the previous day. He was the fifth journalist slain in Mexico this year.
(The Telegraph, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The leaders of the three main opposition groups in Montenegro signed a coalition agreement to form the next government and sought to alleviate fears that they would steer the small Balkan state off its pro-Western course and back toward traditional allies Serbia and Russia.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Amnesty International accused Mozambique’s government security forces of torturing suspected members of an Islamist insurgency in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province — as well as “possible extrajudicial executions", and of “discarding of a large number of corpses into apparent mass graves".
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, North Korean state media said Typhoon Maysak wrecked nearly 60 bridges and destroyed or inundated more than 2,000 houses when it hit on Sep 3.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said it had signed a deal to supply Mexican pharmaceutical firm Landsteiner Scientific with 32 million doses of the Russian-produced COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik-V".
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Serbia suspended all foreign military exercises on the eve of planned maneuvers with Russia in Belarus, citing alleged pressure from the European Union.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Somaliland opened a "representative office" in Taipei. This followed the opening in August of a similar Taiwanese office in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital.
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.38)
2020 Sep 9, Top South African human rights lawyer George Bizos (92), who famously defended Nelson Mandela, died.
(BBC, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The United Arab Emirates recorded 883 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily increase in over three months. The UAE has recorded 75,981 infections and 393 deaths from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, A new UN report said the world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, United Nations peacekeepers returned to provide protection for a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Congolese Dr. Denis Mukwege, who has faced death threats, after alarmed supporters urged the UN to reinstate the security following months without it.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls — some said to be survivors of sexual violence — as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, The Houthi administration in Yemen suspended all UN and humanitarian flights to the capital Sanaa as its Saudi-led coalition foe blocks commercial vessels in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Saudi-led coalition held 21 commercial vessels in Hodeidah port, preventing more than 500,000 tons of fuel from entering the country.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 10, A federal court rejected President Trump’s order to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census, ruling that it was so clearly illegal that a lawsuit challenging the order need not go to a trial.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, The US government confirmed it will end enhanced screening of some international passengers for COVID-19 and drop requirements that travelers coming from the targeted countries arrive at 15 designated US airports, starting Sept. 14.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The Trump administration charged Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits, a Russian national, of serving as a translation manager in a Russian effort that at least since 2014 has tried to disrupt the political system in the US and other countries.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 10, The NFL football season officially began when the Kansas City Chiefs launched their Super Bowl title defense with a 34-20 win over the Houston Texans, but the rest of the league began play on Sept. 13.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 10, The death toll from West Coast wildfires rose to at least 23 as dozens of blazes continued to spread in California, Oregon, and Washington state. The August Complex fire burning in northern California became the largest fire in state history, covering 471,185 acres in the Mendocino National Forest.
(The Week, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, California to date had 751,184 cases of coronavirus and 14,089 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 92,776 cases and 1,236 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,396,047 with the death toll at 191,731.
(sfist.com, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Former New York Jets wide receiver Joshua Bellamy (31) was arrested in Florida and charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. He was accused of taking part in a $24 million fraud scheme that allegedly took loan money meant for businesses as coronavirus relief and using it on personal expenses.
(NBC News, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Texas four Houston police officers were fired after a months-long investigation of a fatal shooting found that they were "objectively unreasonable" in discharging 21 rounds at Nicolas Chavez (27), a man in distress on April 21.
(ABC News, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Microsoft announced that hackers from Russia, China, and Iran are trying to influence the 2020 presidential election. MS warned that China is growing more adept at targeting campaign workers. But contrary to Trump administration warnings, Beijing is mostly aiming at Biden campaign officials.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Century 21, a company, best known for designer goods offered at discounted prices, announced that operations at 13 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida would end after nearly 60 years.
(Good Morning America, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Jane Fraser will be the next chief executive of Citigroup, making her the first woman to lead a major US financial institution.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, A group representing some of the largest US and international apparel companies called on Washington to convince other countries to pressure China to end forced labor in its Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
(South China Morning Post, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, BP entered the offshore wind market with a $1.1 billion deal to buy 50% stakes in two US developments from Norway's Equinor, a significant step by the oil firm towards its energy transition goals.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, British actress Diana Rigg (82) died in London. She had enthralled London and New York theater audiences with her performances in classic roles for more than a half-century. She remained best known as the quintessential new woman of the 1960s on the television series “The Avengers" and found new fans later playing Lady Olenna Tyrell on “Game of Thrones".
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, It was reported that Chinese authorities have told major media outlets not to cover Walt Disney Co's release of "Mulan", in an order issued after controversy erupted overseas over the film's links with the Xinjiang region. The film is to open in local theatres on Sept. 11.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The Chinese and Indian foreign ministers agreed that their troops should disengage from a tense border standoff, maintain proper distance and ease tensions in the Ladakh region where the two countries in June had their deadliest clash in decades.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Violent demonstrations in Bogota, Colombia, continued into a 2nd day over the death of Javier Ordonez, a man police officers shocked with a stun gun for more than two minutes after they stopped him for allegedly violating social distancing rules by drinking publicly after 9 p.m. The violence left at least seven people dead. Mayor Claudia Lopez said 46 of the city's streets had been totally destroyed. 60 police precincts were also damaged. In 2021 an independent investigation backed by the mayor of Bogotá’s office and the United Nations said police were responsible for the deaths of 11 protesters.
(AP, 9/11/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)(The Guardian, 12/13/21)
2020 Sep 10, The Danish government appointed an envoy to “help open doors" for a new approach on migration to Europe and to “ensure that real refugees are helped faster and better in the surrounding areas".
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The east German state of Brandenburg, where a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar, said it will impose a 15-km quarantine zone around the area where the case was discovered. The German farmers' association DBV called for a corridor free of wild boar to be created along Germany's border with Poland.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, India reported another record spike of 95,735 coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours as well as 1,172 deaths. Total infections reached 4,465,863 with 75,062 fatalities.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, Indonesia posted a record high 3,861 positive cases. Doctors in Jakarta warned the coronavirus pandemic is “not under control" with intensive care units in the city nearing full capacity. New lockdown measures were ordered amid a spike in infections. The country has recorded more than 203,000 cases of the coronavirus and 8,336 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Lebanon a huge fire broke out at the Port of Beirut, sending up a thick column of black smoke and raising new panic among traumatized residents after last month's catastrophic blast at the same site killed nearly 200 people.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Hundreds of young Libyans flooded the streets of Benghazi and other eastern cities late today, setting piles of tires ablaze, a spontaneous outburst of anger over the area’s crippling electricity shortages.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Human Rights Watch accused Libyan armed groups linked to the Tripoli-based government of using heavy weapons to disperse anti-corruption rallies last month in the capital and of detaining, torturing and forcibly disappearing protesters.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Montenegro reported 128 new coronavirus cases, with nearly every fifth person tested found to be positive.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Moroccan authorities said police arrested five people suspected of plotting suicide bombings and being part of an extremist network linked to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, In the Netherlands a group of activists took a Congolese funeral statue from the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, saying they were recovering art looted during the colonial era. The activists were quickly arrested and the statue returned undamaged.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Portugal reported 585 new infections, mainly in Greater Lisbon and the northern region. PM Antonio Costa said stricter measures will be adopted in Lisbon and Porto to contain a worrying rise in coronavirus cases as workers slowly return to offices and pupils gear up to go back to schools. Confirmed deaths totaled 1,852.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, In Venezuela Matthew Heath (39), a former US Marine corporal, was arrested traveling along the Caribbean coast accused of scheming with three Venezuelans to sabotage oil refineries and other infrastructure to stir unrest.
(AP, 10/31/20)
2020 Sep 11, Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said he disagreed with President Donald Trump's assessment the United States has "rounded the corner" on the coronavirus pandemic, saying the statistics are disturbing.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In California the North Complex remained the deadliest this year, with nine confirmed deaths. A search continued for 19 people who remained unaccounted for. Berry Creek, a tiny hamlet in the Sierra Nevada foothills, was largely destroyed.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, California to date had 752,684 cases of coronavirus and 14,141 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 93,502 cases and 1,278 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,438,739 with the death toll at 192,834.
(sfist.com, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, A federal circuit court ruled that Floridians with felony convictions are only allowed to vote if they have paid off all fees and fines associated with their conviction.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Georgia Roderick Walker (26) was arrested and beaten after Clayton County sheriff’s deputies pulled over a vehicle he was riding in. A sheriff's deputy was soon fired after being captured on video repeatedly punching the Black man during a traffic stop for a broken tail light.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, Fires continued to spread across the Western US. More than 500,000 Oregon residents, over 10 percent of the state’s population, have evacuated their homes. Oregon reported at least eight fatalities from blazes that have taken a toll from one end of the state to the other.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel, which agreed to temporarily suspend its plans to annex West Bank territory. US Pres. Donald Trump announced the agreement, following a three-way phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Belarus authorities detained scores of demonstrators while seeking to end more than a month of protests against the rigged re-election of Pres. Alexander Likashenko.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 11, Britain announced its first major post-Brexit trade agreement -- a deal with Japan -- as its negotiations with the European Union become increasingly fractious.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Cambodia a group of women in Phnom Penh held a small but spirited protest demanding the release of their detained husbands, as the United Nations human rights office joined two international rights groups in condemning a recent wave of arrests of dissidents and activists in the Southeast Asian nation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In CongoDRC more than 50 people were killed after landslides collapsed three artisanal gold mining wells near the city of Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Czech Republic reported 1,382 coronavirus cases, which was over 200 more than its previous daily high and led to the return of face masks being mandatory in enclosed public spaces.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Ethiopians welcomed what many people around the world might like to see: the beginning of a new year. Following a calendar seven years behind the Gregorian one used by much of the world, Ethiopians marked the beginning of 2013.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thousands of refugees and migrants left without shelter on the Greek island of Lesbos after fires destroyed the overcrowded Moria camp held a brief protest on a road to the island's main town, demanding to be allowed to leave.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The number of new confirmed coronavirus cases spiked in parts of eastern Europe. Hungary reported 718 virus cases, 142 more than the country's previous 24-hour record.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Swami Agnivesh (Vepa Shyam Rao), champion of India's indentured laborers, died in new Delhi at age 80.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivesh)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.82)
2020 Sep 11, Israeli warplanes fired missiles on suburbs of Syria's northern city of Aleppo early today, amid increased airstrikes in recent weeks. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Italian authorities said police have arrested four men and are investigating another four on suspicion of sexually assaulting two British girls at a villa where a party was being held in the southern province of Matera.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Jamaica Toots Hibbert (77), the front man for the reggae group Toots and the Maytals, died in Kingston.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toots_and_the_Maytals)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 11, Japan suspended imports of pork and live pigs from Germany after a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar in eastern Germany.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, Latvia restricted the entry conditions applying to people coming from Estonia, bursting a travel bubble that had allowed individuals to move freely within the three-country Baltic region amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Libya’s east-based parliament convened an emergency meeting to address the eruption of rare protests over dire living conditions across the country’s east, rallies that mirror similar recent protests in the west of the divided nation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Mexico a group of women in the city of Ecatepec took over offices of the human rights commission of the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital. Shortly after midnight, police entered the building and beat the women and children with them, before taking them away in unmarked vehicles to the prosecutor’s office in a neighboring municipality. Protesters have focused their anger on the president, popularly known as Amlo, who has repeatedly downplayed the country’s human rights crisis.
(The Guardian, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 11, Morocco recorded a record 2,430 coronavirus cases and has confirmed more than 1,000 new cases every day since July - the steepest increase among its North African peers. Working conditions are so bad for some medics in Morocco handling a surging coronavirus outbreak that they have staged protests against inadequate staffing and poorly equipped facilities.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 11, Myanmar reported 115 new coronavirus cases, a day after imposing sweeping new lockdown measures in its battle on a second wave of infections. The country's tally stands at 2,265 cases and 14 deaths after infections quadrupled over the last month.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Dutch public health institute said that 1,270 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest number since mid-April and the second time this week that Dutch daily infections have topped 1,000.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, It was reported that lawmakers in Nigeria's Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14. State governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the state.
(BBC, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Somalia a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the southern port city of Kismayo killing two people.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 11, Spain’s Health Ministry reported 4,137 new infections in 24 hours, taking the total tally in the pandemic to over 550,000, the highest in Europe. A day earlier the country’s official death toll reached 26,699.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Sudanese officials said flash floods have killed more than 100 people this summer and inundated over 100,000 houses, threatening even a famous archaeological site near the capital of Khartoum and compounding the country's already dire economic situation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thai health authorities confirmed another coronavirus infection had been detected in the country, in an Uzbek professional soccer player, eight days after the virus resurfaced following a more than three-month absence.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Turkey's Health Ministry announced 56 more deaths and 1,671 new cases, bringing the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 6,951 and cases to nearly 290,000.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, Ukraine registered a record daily high of 3,144 new cases of the novel coronavirus, topping a previous record of 2,836 on Sept. 5. Ukraine had 148,756 registered cases with 3,076 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging resolution on tackling the coronavirus pandemic over objections from the United States and Israel, which protested a successful last-minute Cuban amendment that strongly urged countries to oppose any unilateral economic, financial or trade sanctions.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 12, President Trump traveled to Nevada for a campaign rally in Douglas County as he sets his sights on winning over the state he narrowly lost in 2016.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies — a female (31) and a male (24) — were shot this evening while sitting in their patrol vehicle in Compton. Both deputies were left in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds. The suspect ran away.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, Search and rescue workers found three more bodies in the rubble of a Northern California wildfire, raising the death toll in that fire to 12 and total deaths in the state's recent blazes to 22. 29 major wildfires were burning around the state.
(AP, 9/12/20)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 12, California to date had 755,854 cases of coronavirus and 14,252 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 93,917 cases and 1,284 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,466,012 with the death toll at 193,351.
(sfist.com, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, It was reported that coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a man walking along a rural stretch of highway. He returned to the scene the next day and discovered the body. On Feb. 18, 2021, Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors. on August 26 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor traffic charges and was fined $500 for each count.
(AP, 9/14/20)(SFC, 2/20/21, p.A4)(SFC, 8/27/21, p.A11)
2020 Sep 12, The first direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in Doha, Qatar. The actual face-to-face negotiations to end the nation's nearly two-decades old conflict will start on Sept. 14.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, In Belarus about 10,000 women marched through Minsk with riot police violently detaining dozens of the marchers.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, AstraZeneca announced that it received confirmation from the United Kingdom's Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to resume clinical trials for the company's coronavirus vaccine in the UK after they were paused over safety concerns earlier this week.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, In France police stopped more than 200 people and detained over 25 in Paris as activists sought to revive the "yellow vest" movement.
(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 12, Greece's PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to buy 18 French Rafale fighter jets, most of the "slightly used," plus four helicopters and advanced weapons to go with them.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.51)
2020 Sep 12, India reported a record rise in new coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day after registering 97,570 new cases. The world's second most populous country now has 4.65 million confirmed cases.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Iranian state news media reported the state execution of Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestler, at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz. He was accused of fatally stabbing a water supply company employee during a 2018 antigovernment protest in Shiraz. Afkari can be heard on an audio tape smuggled from prison saying that he had been tortured until he falsely confessed.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem late Saturday, demanding he resign over his trial on corruption charges and what is widely seen as his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, At the Venice film festival "Nomadland", a US movie about a community of van dwellers traversing the vast American West, won the Golden Lion award for best film.
(Reuters, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, In the Ivory Coast thousands of opposition supporters gathered in the city of Yamoussoukro to support Henri Konan Bedie becoming their candidate for the Oct. 31 presidential election.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Lebanese soldiers fired rubber bullets and live rounds in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to march to the presidential palace during an anti-government demonstration.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, It was reported that Mali's new military leaders have agreed to establish an 18-month transition government until an election can take place, following last month's coup.
(BBC, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Thousands of people protested in Mauritius again over the government’s handling of an offshore oil spill that has become the Indian Ocean island nation’s worst environmental disaster in years.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Mexico reported 5,674 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 421 additional fatalities, bringing its totals to 663,973 infections and 70,604 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Puerto Rico's Gov. Wanda Vazquez reopened beaches, casinos, gyms and movie theaters across the US territory following a drop in coronavirus cases. As of the next day the island reported 539 deaths and 37,000 cases.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 13, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations and expanding the scope of a July action.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Pres. Donald Trump held an indoor campaign rally near Las Vegas for the first time since late June. Health officials blamed that June event, in Tulsa, Okla., for an increase in local virus cases.
(NY Times, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, California to date had 759,402 cases of coronavirus and 14,370 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 94,614 cases and 1,302 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,512,451 with the death toll at 193,976.
(sfist.com, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In New Jersey two people were killed and at least six others are injured following a shooting early today outside a house party near a popular housing area for Rutgers University students.
(The Independent, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Pennsylvania protests in Lancaster degenerated into rioting that damaged the city's police headquarters and produced an arson fire that blocked a downtown intersection. Ricardo Munoz (27) was shot by police earlier in the day after a reported domestic dispute. 13 people were soon arrested and accused of committing crimes during the demonstrations.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 13, Argentina recorded 9,056 confirmed COVID-19 cases testing indicated a positive rate of 50.4%, one of the highest in the world. The country has a total of 555,537 confirmed cases, the tenth-highest case load in the world, with 11,412 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Belarus tens of thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in Minsk again. Police said around 250 protesters have been arrested. More than 100,000 demonstrators calling for the authoritarian president of Belarus to resign
(The Week, 9/13/20)(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, It was reported that a vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. Nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August — an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. More than 20,000 fires were detected in the first two weeks of this month, more than burned in the whole of September in 2019.
(AP, 9/13/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.77)
2020 Sep 13, China reported 10 new coronavirus cases in the mainland. Mainland China had a total of 85,194 confirmed infections of the coronavirus. The COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Egyptian judicial officials said prosecutors have ordered four policemen to be detained pending an investigation into the death of a young man while in detention.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, An Israeli court sentence top model Bar Refaeli (35) to nine months of community service and her mother, Zipi, to 16 months in prison on tax evasion charges.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 13, The Lebanese military killed a wanted militant leader during a raid in the country's north that also left four of its troops dead. Khaled Tellawi was blamed for an attack last month that killed three men in a northern village.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, Mali's opposition coalition known as M5-RFP publicly objected to the junta's plan, announced a day earlier, after three days of talks on Mali's political future. ECOWAS has warned that by Sept. 15 the junta must designate a civilian leader to head a one-year transition period or else the country could face further sanctions.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Nepal a landslide caused by heavy rainfall swept through three villages killing at least 11 people. 15 others were believed buried.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 13, In the Philippines US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton (25), convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman, was deported after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Russians cast their ballots in dozens of local elections, with nearly 160,000 candidates vying for seats in local parliaments and governors being elected in several regions. The main Kremlin party retained its dominance in regional elections across Russia, but the opposition made gains in some areas. Two allies of Alexei Navalny were elected to their city councils in Novosibirsk and Tomsk.
(The Week, 9/13/20)(AP, 9/14/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.49)
2020 Sep 13, More than 3 million Syrian students started school in government-held areas, marking the first school day amid strict measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Syria, which had a population of 23 million before its conflict began in March 2011, has registered 3,506 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as 152 deaths in government-held areas. The actual number of cases is believed to be much higher.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement allowing for the construction of a 1,445 km (898 miles) crude oil pipeline.
(BBC, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 14, Pres. Donald Trump visited California and blamed the wildfires ravaging the West Coast not on climate change but on the failure by Western states to properly manage their forests. West Coast fires pushed into new areas, prompting fresh evacuations in Idaho, Oregon and California. At least 27 people dead and dozens more missing.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, A federal appeals court ruled upheld a Trump administration policy that could lead to the deportation of about 400,000 immigrants who originally came to the US in emergency circumstances, like earthquakes or civil wars.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The US deported a key witness in an ongoing investigation into sexual abuse at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso. The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General had forbidden the woman's deportation, but changed course, and the woman was sent to Mexico.
(Business Insider, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 14, Alaska dentist Seth Lookhart (35), convicted on 46 counts of defrauding the federal Medicaid program, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The state requested that the court order Lookhart to pay more than $2 million in restitution for the Medicaid fraud.
(Today, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 14, California and 19 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to weaken curbs on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, saying the widespread West Coast wildfires should be a reminder of the dangers posed by climate change.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, California to date had 765,498 cases of coronavirus and 14,457 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,275 cases and 1,307 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,551,575 with the death toll at 194,443.
(sfist.com, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Amazon.com Inc said it is recruiting 100,000 more workers - the fourth hiring spree it has announced for the United States this year - to keep pace with e-commerce demand that jumped during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Eli Lilly and Co said its rheumatoid arthritis drug shortened the recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients also given Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral remdesivir.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc launched its add-on treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease nearly five months after Food and Drug Administration's approval, as the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its roll out in the United States.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Oracle surged 5.6% as the cloud services company said it would team up with China's ByteDance to keep TikTok operating in the United States, beating Microsoft Corp in a deal structured as a partnership rather than an outright sale.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Verizon, the country's largest phone company, said it is buying prepaid phone seller Tracfone for up to $6.9 billion, expanding its low-income customer business.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Belarus' authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko visited Russia in a bid to secure more loans and political support, as demonstrations against the extension of his 26-year rule entered their sixth week. President Vladimir Putin announced a $1.5 billion loan to Belarus when he hosted his counterpart for more than four hours of talks in Sochi.
(AP, 9/14/20)(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, A Chinese academic countered US-backed allegations that China is using forced sterilization against Muslims in Xinjiang, saying the claims were based on "fabricated facts" and "falsified data".
(South China Morning Post, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The Czech Republic reported 1,038 new cases of the coronavirus, the sixth time in the past week the daily rise was above the 1,000 level.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The national Geologic Survey of Denmark and Greenland said that a big chunk of Greenland's ice cap, estimated at 42 square miles, has broken off in the far northeastern Arctic.
(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 14, It was reported that German carmaker Daimler AG will pay $2.2 billion to resolve a US government diesel emissions cheating investigation and claims from 250,000 US vehicle owners.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, In India a woman (19), who belonged to the Dalit community, was raped by four men in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. Her family found her naked, bleeding and paralyzed with a split tongue and a broken spine in a field outside their home. She died on Sept. 28. Four men, all from an upper caste, were arrested.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 14, Indonesia's capital of Jakarta began two weeks of social restrictions to curb a rise of coronavirus infections.
(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 14, A suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria killed 10 fighters, including eight Iraqis. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike also destroyed arms depots and ambulances were seen rushing to the area.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, An Israeli court handed down three life sentences to Jewish extremist Amiram Ben-Uliel, convicted in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The constitutional council of the Ivory Coast waved through the controversial 3rd term candidacy of Pres. Alassane Ouattara.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.41)
2020 Sep 14, Yoshihide Suga (71) was elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party, all but assuring that he will become the country's new prime minister when a parliamentary election is held later in the week.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The rival government in eastern Libya submitted its resignation after a number of protests over deteriorating living conditions and corruption. The parliament in Tobruk needs to approve the resignation of the government. The parallel government in the east of the country is not recognized by the international community.
(BBC, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Libya’s coast guard intercepted three boats, and one of them capsized. The coast guard retrieved two bodies, and survivors reported 22 others were missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, In Mozambique a video emerged showing people dressed in army uniforms beating and killing a naked woman in the restive gas-rich Cabo Delgado province. The defence ministry soon condemned the footage as "horrifying" and vowed to "ascertain their authenticity".
(BBC, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, Nigerian health workers demanding the payment of a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients went on strike only a week after doctors in Africa's most populous country staged a walk out.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, In the Philippines new rules cut the social distancing minimum to 30 centimeters (12 inches) on public transport, as the country saw another daily record in newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The country reported 259 new confirmed deaths, a record for the second time in three days. Total fatalities increased to 4,630, while infections have doubled in the past 35 days to 265,888.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund said Russia has recruited sufficient participants for its large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trial, known as a Phase III trial. Initial results are expected in October or November this year.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Swiss drugmaker said Novartis said its Beovu matched Regeneron's Eylea in vision clarity scores for a blindness-causing eye disease, after early safety stumbles for the medicine in another condition caused disappointing early sales.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Human Rights Watch said international donors slashed their funding in June partly because of the “systemic interference" in relief operations by the Houthi rebels who hold Yemen's capital, Sanaa, as well as by the country's internationally recognized government and their southern separatists.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Vietnam jailed four people over their roles in the death of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated truck in Britain last October.
(The Telegraph, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, It was reported that astronomers using powerful telescopes have detected the chemical phosphine in the toxic atmosphere of Venus that could be a signal of something living in one of the solar system’s most inhospitable environments. Reanalysis of the data substantially reduced the amount of phosphine one part per billion.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)(Econ., 2/13/21, p.67)
2020 Sep 15, The US issued a sweeping new advisory warning against travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention" and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws."
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, US export restrictions on critical mobile chips used by China's Huawei went into effect.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.57)
2020 Sep 15, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation that bars local or state officials from closing churches or other houses of worship and that bans the changing of election dates.
(SFC, 9/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 15, Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed peace agreements in Washington, heralding a new era of friendship between wealthy Gulf nations and the Jewish state.
(The Telegraph, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, FBI data disclosed that a surge in people buying guns since the coronavirus pandemic began has flooded the FBI's background check system, causing a spike in the number of delayed checks and allowing gun sales to proceed without them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, California to date had 767,240 cases of coronavirus and 14,505 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,711 cases and 1,347 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,602,981 with the death toll at 195,693.
(sfist.com, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Pfizer Inc said participants were showing mostly mild-to-moderate side effects when given either the company's experimental coronavirus vaccine or a placebo in an ongoing late-stage study.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, It was reported that the city of Louisville will pay millions to the mother of Breonna Taylor and reform police practices as part of a lawsuit settlement months after Taylor's slaying by police thrust the Black woman's name to the forefront of a national reckoning on race.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Steve Carter (90), Black playwright, died in Tomball, Texas. He was one of many to emerge from the Negro Ensemble Company in NYC in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
(SSFC, 9/20/20, p.C12)
2020 Sep 15, Becton Dickinson said it is investigating reports from US nursing homes that its rapid coronavirus testing equipment is producing false-positive results.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, US drug developer Novavax Inc said it was doubling its potential COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to two billion doses annually under an agreement with Serum Institute of India.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Sandra Mason (b.1949), the Governor-General of Barbados, opened Parliament and proposed the abolition of her job. She pronounced the words of PM Mia Motley: "Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state."
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.34)
2020 Sep 15, Momcilo Krajisnik (75), former Bosnia wartime leader (1992-1995), died in Banja Luka, the seat of the Serb-run part of Bosnia called Republika Srpska, after contracting the new coronavirus. He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the UN war crimes tribunal for persecuting and expelling non-Serbs.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 15, Former British lawmaker Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting two women a decade apart. Elphicke was convicted in July at London's Southwark Crown Court of three counts of assault against two victims.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, China successfully sent nine satellites into orbit in its first commercial launch of a rocket from a platform in the Yellow Sea.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 15, Police in France arrested Eric Danboy Bagale, a former presidential guard from the Central African Republic (CAR), for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was accused of leading a group of largely Christian militias which carried out revenge killings after the CAR's president was ousted in 2013.
(BBC, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 15, Germany agreed to take in 1,553 people from 408 families now living in Greece. Germany had already agreed to take in around 1,200 other asylumn seekers housed in Greece.
(SFC, 9/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 15, Germany's Defense Ministry said that the government has chosen arms manufacturer Haenel, which is owned by a company in Abu Dhabi, to make assault rifles for the military, sidelining long-time supplier Heckler & Koch. The contract still requires approval by Parliament.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Germany awarded $745 million in funding to biotech firms BioNTech and CureVac to speed up work on COVID-19 vaccines and expand German production capacity.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Authorities in southern Germany said they have recorded three more cases of COVID-19 in people who frequented bars visited by a 26-year-old American woman suspected of flouting quarantine rules in the Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The latest cases take the total number of recent infections there to 59, including 25 staff at a hotel resort that caters to US military personnel and at which the woman worked.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The Greek government called on the EU to jointly run new refugee camps on Greece's eastern islands as part of a planned overhaul of the EU's migration policies.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, India's coronavirus death toll crossed 80,000, swelled by 1,054 in the last 24 hours. The country reported 83,809 new coronavirus infections for its lowest daily jump in a week. At least 17 members of the Indian parliament have tested positive for the coronavirus. Total cases numbered 4.93 million.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Libya's east-based army claimed that its troops killed at least seven Islamic State militants, including foreign fighters, in an overnight raid on their hideout in the country’s south.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, It was reported that authorities in Panama have discovered a mass grave they believe contains the bodies of people tortured and killed by a religious cult. The deceased victims included a pregnant mother and her five children, and the family’s teenage neighbor.
(The Independent, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Swiss contract drug maker Lonza said it has struck a deal with California-based biopharmaceutical company Humanigen to expand manufacturing capacity for Humanigen's lenzilumab, a drug candidate in late-stage clinical trials for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Volkan Bozkir, Turkish diplomat and the new president of the UN General Assembly warned that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global cooperation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Ukraine registered a record 76 deaths related to the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a record of 72 deaths registered last week.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The UN said countries are set to miss all of the targets they set themselves a decade ago to preserve nature and save Earth's vital biodiversity.
(AFP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The World Trade Organization ruled that tariffs imposed by the United States on more than $200 billion of Chinese products in 2018 were inconsistent with global trading rules.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The US Justice Department said it has charged five Chinese residents and two Malaysian businessmen in a wide-ranging hacking effort. The two Malaysian businessmen, Wong Ong Hua (46) and Ling Yang Ching (32) were charged with conspiring with two of the Chinese hackers to profit from computer intrusions targeting videogame companies in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Attorney General William Barr, at Hillsdale College in Michigan, called the coronavirus lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history" since slavery.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress that universal mask-wearing could bring the pandemic under control within a few months. Redfield also said vaccines might not be available for most Americans until the middle of 2021. Hours later, Pres. Donald Trump rebuked Redfield, questioning the value of masks and saying a vaccine would be available to the public more quickly.
(NY Times, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, It was reported that the US has imposed sanctions on The Gambia's former First Lady Zineb Jammeh after accusing her of corruption during her husband Yahya Jammeh's rule. She was suspected to have helped him in the illegal transfer of money, and controlled his assets abroad.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Hurricane Sally strengthened overnight and made landfall in Alabama this morning as a Category 2 storm. It weakened to a still-dangerous Category 1, with winds of 80 mph, by mid-morning. The hurricane left at least two people dead in Alabama.
(AP, 9/16/20)(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 16, If carbon emissions continue at current rates, so much mercury will leach from thawing permafrost that fish in the Yukon River could become dangerous to eat within a few decades, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, California to date had 771,841 cases of coronavirus and 14,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,997 cases and 1,360 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,627,276 with the death toll at 196,691.
(sfist.com, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The body of Michael Williams (44) was found ablaze in rural Iowa. He was believed to have been killed on Sept. 12. He was allegedly strangled to death, wrapped in cloth and plastic that was secured with rope and tape, and then transported to a rural area where his body was burned. On Sept. 22 four white people were charged with murder.
(Miami Herald, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 16, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that everyone in the mayor's office, including the mayor himself, will be furloughed for one week without pay beginning Oct. 1 to close a budget shortfall created by the pandemic.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Stanley Crouch (74), the fiercely iconoclastic social critic who elevated the invention of jazz into a metaphor for the indelible contributions that Black people have made to American democracy, died at a hospital in the Bronx.
(NY Times, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Hmong American Ee Lee (36) was found brutally beaten in Washington Park, Milwaukee. Lee died three days later. A group of five to seven people were caught on film at the location where the struggle happened. Other cameras captured two groups of people — totaling 11 individuals — leaving the park on bicycles after the attack.
(NextShark, 1/14/20)
2020 Sep 16, Snowflake, an American maker of database programs, went public on the NYSE. It doubled its valuation on the first day of trading from $33bn to over $70bn.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.64)
2020 Sep 16, Applied DNA Sciences said it plans to initiate clinical trial of one of its five LineaDNA vaccine candidates for veterinary use to prevent coronavirus infections in domestic cats.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Eli Lilly and Co said interim trial data showed its experimental antibody treatment reduced the need for hospitalization and emergency room visits for patients with moderate COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, A coalition of 11 state treasurers called on drugmaker Gilead Sciences to reduce the price of remdesivir, its promising treatment for some patients of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Authorities in Bosnia arrested nine former Bosnian Serb military officers and troops who are suspected in the killing of 44 civilians during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Britain reported 3,991 new coronavirus cases up from 3,105 a day earlier.
(SFC, 9/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 16, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU will build its own agency for biomedical research and convene a global health summit in Italy next year in a bid to be better prepared for future pandemics.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, A top German security official said authorities in western Germany have suspended 29 police officers suspected of sharing far-right propaganda in WhatsApp groups, at least two of which were active for several years.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early today in response to rocket fire toward Israel the previous night that coincided with the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and two Arab countries at the White House.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, An Israeli court sentenced a young man to 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in the 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Israel's Betalin Therapeutics said it is preparing an initial public offering that will value the biotech firm between $150-170 million to fund trials for its diabetes treatment. Betalin is developing an artificial micro-pancreas that is implanted in the thigh of diabetics to help control the level of sugar in their blood.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Japan's parliament elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's 99th prime minister.
(The Week, 9/16/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.36)
2020 Sep 16, A senior Portuguese official said Lisbon and Rabat are negotiating a deal that would allow an agreed number of citizens from Morocco to work legally in Portugal.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, In rural Romania a stash of some 200 rare and valuable books, stolen in 2017 from a London warehouse, was discovered hidden in a concealed space under a house.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 16, It was reported that a military court in Somalia has sentenced a militant Islamist to life in prison for his role in a deadly attack last January on a US base in Kenya. Farhan Mohamud Hassan was also convicted of being a member of al-Shabab.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co Ltd said it had delivered the world's first very large container ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Singapore's Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte Ltd.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Turkey began final Phase III trials of an experimental Chinese coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine candidate being trialed was developed by Sinovac.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, In north-eastern Uganda 219 prisoners broke out of a prison facility in Moroto. Seven were soon recaptured. One soldier and two inmates were killed.
(BBC, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Independent experts for the UN’s top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric shocks, genital mutilation and asphyxiation.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, US President Donald Trump announced a new round of pandemic assistance to farmers of about $13 billion at a campaign rally in Wisconsin late today, delivering aid to an important sector in a crucial battleground state.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The United States imposed sanctions on an official from Hezbollah, a movement backed by Iran and deemed a terrorist group by Washington, and two firms based in Lebanon, which is wrestling with an economic crisis. Nathan Sales, the State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, said Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, delivering testimony that puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has said he would designate it a terror group.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The US National Institutes of Health launched a clinical trial of fostamatinib, sold under the brand name Tavalisse by Rigel Pharmaceuticals and currently used to treat a blood platelet-destroying autoimmune disorder, in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Winston Groom (b.1943), author of "Forrest Gump," died in Fairhope, Alabama. His work included 16 books of fiction and nonfiction. Forrest Gump was made into a 1994 movie and won six Oscars in 1995.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Groom)(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 17, A US federal judge said the city of Berkeley, Ca., cannot require cell phone retailers to warn customers about possible radiation dangers from holding phones close to their bodies. The Berkeley ordinance had taken effect in 2016.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.B1)
2020 Sep 17, A California firefighter died while battling the El Dorado wildfire in California's San Bernardino National Forest. The fire, which officials have said was started by pyrotechnics at a gender reveal party, has burned nearly 20,000 acre.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 17, California to date had 774,194 cases of coronavirus and 14,788 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 96,563 cases and 1,384 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,670,496 with the death toll at 197,589.
(sfist.com, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it had ramped up nighttime aerial anti-mosquito spraying in high-risk areas of western Michigan after announcing it suspects that 28 horses and one human have contracted Eastern equine encephalitis in 11 counties in the state.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Missouri the shooting death of a woman in St. Louis marked the citys 195th homicide this year.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 17, New Jersey officials agreed to make the state one of the first to adopt a so-called millionaires tax to alleviate shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Gov. Philip Murphy said the tax would help make up shortfalls caused by the pandemic.
(NY Times, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper security envelope.
(https://tinyurl.com/y52v3sjg)(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 17, CVS Health Corp said it plans to add more than 2,000 new COVID-19 drive-thru test sites at select CVS Pharmacy locations across the United States.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Australia reported its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 cases in nearly three months, as states said restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus will be further relaxed.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in Belarus' disputed presidential election, said that activists are compiling a list of law enforcement officers who were allegedly involved in violence against protesters denouncing the results of the vote.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that a British COVID-19 test known as DnaNudge, that gives results in just over an hour and which requires no laboratory, was accurate in almost all cases.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Cambodia a lightning strike killed seven people, a family of four and three relatives, in Battambang province.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that police in Canada believe a sophisticated network of criminals is targeting transport trucks across the country, after seven hot tubs and C$230,000 (US$175,000) worth of beef were stolen in brazen daylight thefts.
(The Guardian, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Czech Republic reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time and tightened preventive measures after a surge in infections that is among the fastest in Europe.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, Germany’s federal agriculture ministry said one more case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that BioNTech is buying a production site in Germany for the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Pfizer, aiming to boost output by several hundred million doses next year, and hopes to have the shot ready to file for approval in October.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Greek police began moving hundreds of migrants to an army-built camp on the island of Lesbos after a fire destroyed an overcrowded facility, leaving them homeless for days.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, India reported another record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours. 1,132 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the disease to 83,198.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Israeli and Dubai diamond exchanges announced they had struck a deal to boost trade.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Lebanon’s largest prison grappled with an alarming coronavirus outbreak, as many inmates refused to take preventative measures or get tested under the impression that catching the virus could speed up their release as part of a rumored general amnesty. Over 200 of the 3,000 detainees at Roumieh prison have tested positive in recent days.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The number of new coronavirus cases in the Netherlands hit a record high for the third consecutive day. The health ministry warned that test capacity was not nearly enough to deal with the wave of possible infections expected in the coming months.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Portugal reported 770 new coronavirus infections, its biggest increase in five months. Ten deaths were also reported.
(SFC, 9/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 17, South Africa, which had one of the world's earliest and strictest lockdowns, announced a further easing of anti-coronavirus measures, effective on Sept. 20. South Africa has so far reported more than 650,000 confirmed infections, with over 15,000 deaths. The number of new cases has dropped from about 12,000 per day in July to fewer than 2,000.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, South Korea said it has approved Celltrion Inc's experimental COVID-19 treatment for Phase 2/3 clinical trials, as the firm plans to seek a conditional approval of the antibody drug for an emergency use.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Sudan five young artists, known for their support for last year's pro-democracy uprising, were convicted and sentenced to two months in prison on charges of public disturbance and violating public safety measures by a criminal court in Khartoum.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 17, Ukraine strongly warned thousands of Hasidic Jewish pilgrims who have been stuck on its border for days that it won't allow them into the country due to coronavirus restrictions. About 2,000 people have gathered at the border with Belarus, in hope of traveling to the Ukrainian city of Uman to visit the grave of Hasidic rabbi Nachman of Breslov (d.1810).
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, A UN report said targeted killings, intimidation and sexual assaults of both men and women were committed against opposition supporters ahead of the disputed May election in Burundi. The report saw little optimism in the government of new President Evariste Ndayishimiye, saying it is “extremely concerned" that he has appointed senior officials who face international sanctions for alleged human rights abuses in the country’s 2015 political turmoil.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, UN food chief David Beasley called on the world's billionaires to step up to help save some 30 million people he said are at risk of dying if they don't receive help from the World Food Program.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, President Trump claimed there will be 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine ready before the end of the year.
(The Week, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that the US has deployed additional troops and armored vehicles into eastern Syria after a number of clashes with Russian forces, including a recent vehicle collision that injured four American service members.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The White House said the federal government will award an $11.6 billion aid package to Puerto Rico, focused on the territory's energy and education systems, to help the island recover from the devastation brought by 2017's Hurricane Maria.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87) died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington DC. She was well known for championing gender equality, abortion rights, affirmative action, and other progressive causes.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Former Southern California lawyer Lonnie Loren Kocontes (62) was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for strangling his ex-wife and throwing her body off a cruise ship in the Mediterranean in 2006. Kanesaki was last seen alive the night of May 25. Her body was found floating off the coast of Paola, Italy, on May 27.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, California to date had 776,585 cases of coronavirus and 14,846 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 97,248 cases and 1,396 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,720,477 with the death toll at 198,469.
(sfist.com, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Florida legendary criminal Anibal Mustelier (70) died at the Miami Federal Detention Center. Mustelier spent 26 years eluding law enforcement agencies and “America’s Most Wanted," earning the nickname “The Ghost." While a fugitive, he beat a SunTrust Bank safe deposit box security system to steal $5 million in jewelry without a gun.
(Miami Herald, 10/5/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Chicago Andrew Freund Sr. (61), the father of 5-year-old AJ Freund, pleaded guilty to charges in connection to the Crystal Lake boy’s death and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His son’s body was found in a shallow grave in April 2019. AJ’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham (37), pleaded guilty to one count of murder and was sentenced in July to a 35-year prison term.
(Chicago Tribune, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, A Michigan court ruled that mailed ballots postmarked by Nov. 2 must be counted in the state as long as they are received by a clerk's office within two weeks after the Nov. 3 election.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that sought to block the state from sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter, a legal victory for Democrats ahead of November's election. The order was made public on Sept. 21.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that seeks to curb new sources of pollution, including sewage treatment plants, landfills and incinerators that have affected certain communities more than others.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Protesters returned to the streets of Portland, Oregon, following a dayslong pause largely due to poor air quality from wildfires on the West Coast. Police made 11 arrests as demonstrators participated in criminal activity and threw items at officers.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Bristol Myers Squibb Co's cancer immunotherapy Opdivo in combination with Exelixis Inc's Cabometyx reduced the risk of death by 40% in previously untreated patients with advanced kidney cancer.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The US Embassy in Afghanistan warned that extremists groups are planning attacks against a “variety of targets" but are taking particular aim at women.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that flooding has affected well over a million people across East Africa, another calamity threatening food security on top of a historic locust outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya demanded an international mission to document what she called "atrocities" during crackdowns on anti-government protests, but said she was ready for talks to end weeks of violence.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has ordered that the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein be stripped of the 2004 prestigious CBE honor he received for services to the British film industry.
(NBC News, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The British government targeted more areas in an attempt to suppress a sharp spike in new coronavirus infections.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said Europe's health regulator has recommended the approval its cancer treatment Zejula as a first option to keep advanced ovarian cancer at bay in women who have responded to chemotherapy.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said Around 350,000 people have taken experimental coronavirus vaccines developed by the company.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The Czech Republic reported 3,130 cases of coronavirus, a record high for a third day in a row. The country had a total of 44,155 confirmed cases and 489 deaths.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 18, The European Union agreed to buy a potential COVID-19 vaccine from Sanofi and GSK in its second such deal to secure supplies, as a deadline for joining the World Health Organization's (WHO) vaccine purchase program looms.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The European Commission presented a series of measures aimed at tackling structural racism and discrimination, acknowledging a blatant lack of diversity among the EU's institutions.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 18, Germany's federal agriculture ministry confirmed another six cases of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boars in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei (64) said he has tested positive for the new coronavirus, but he told a local radio station he feels well.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, India recorded 96,424 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 5.2 million. 1,174 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities from the disease to 84,372.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Indonesia began a 7-day suspension of exports from the seafood company PT Putri Indah into China after its frozen fish products tested positive for the coronavirus. The virus was detected on the outermost side of the package, not on the fish.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Iranian hackers, most likely employees or affiliates of the government, have been running a vast cyberespionage operation equipped with surveillance tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging systems — a capability Iran was not previously known to possess.
(NY Times, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Iran declared a coronavirus red alert due to a third wave of infections as the death toll rose by 144 to 23,952 and the total number of cases exceeded 400,000.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Israel went back into a full lockdown to try to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has steadily worsened for months as its government has been plagued by indecision and infighting.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Kosovo's awarded US President Donald Trump with one of the country's highest honors for his government's efforts on peace and reconciliation in the former war-torn region.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Morocco, despite a government ban on large gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, scores of demonstrators protested outside the Parliament to denounce Arab countries agreeing o normalize ties with Israel.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, The Dutch government announced it is holding Syria responsible under the UN Convention against Torture for “gross human rights violations," in a process that could ultimately trigger a case at the United Nations’ highest court.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Swiss drugmaker Roche got a positive recommendation from a key European panel for its immunotherapy Tecentriq mixed with Avastin against liver cancer, likely clearing the way for the cocktail's approval in the coming months.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to a resolution submitted by the European Union to launch closer UN monitoring of alleged rights violations in Belarus, despite multiple attempts by Russia to water it down.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Tropical Storm Noul made landfall in central Vietnam. One person was reported killed and at least 23 others injured.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 19, President Donald Trump urged the Republican-run Senate to consider “without delay" his upcoming nomination to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election. Supreme Court nominations used to need 60 votes for confirmation if any senator objected, but Sen, Mitch McConnell changed Senate rules in 2017 to allow the confirmation of justices with 51 votes. He did so as Democrats threatened to filibuster Trump’s first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, President Trump said he had approved a deal between TikTok and major American companies, potentially saving the Chinese-owned app from his administration’s upcoming ban. The deal would create a new US-based company, TikTok Global, in which Oracle, an American software maker, and Walmart would own 20 percent.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, US authorities intercepted an envelope addressed to the White House that contained the deadly poison ricin. The letter was addressed to President Donald Trump and appears to have been sent from Canada. Officials soon identified a woman as a suspect.
(Business Insider, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, California to date had 780,009 cases of coronavirus and 14,911 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 98,025 cases and 1,402 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,730,653 with the death toll at 198,682.
(sfist.com, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Colorado people gathered at the state Capitol in Denver to protest the filing of felony charges against several leaders of racial justice demonstrations.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Donald Kendall (99), the former boss of Pepsico (1971-1986, died in Connecticut.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_M._Kendall)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.61)
2020 Sep 19, Immunomedics Inc said its cancer drug Trodelvy, which received accelerated US regulatory approval in April, extended survival time in previously treated patients with an advanced form of breast cancer in a clinical trial.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In northern Afghanistan government air strikes reportedly killed 24 civilians. The Defense Ministry said 30 Taliban fighters were killed in the village of Sayed Ramazan, Kunduz province. An investigation was underway.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 19, Belarus police cracked down sharply in Minsk on a women’s protest march demanding the authoritarian president’s resignation, arresting more than 300 including an elderly woman who has become a symbol of the six weeks of protest that have roiled the country.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Police in London clashed with protesters at a rally against coronavirus restrictions, even as the mayor warned that it was “increasingly likely" that the British capital would soon need to introduce tighter rules to curb a sharp rise in infections. Demonstrators took the streets of London, Tel Aviv and other cities to protest coronavirus restrictions as the global death toll approached 1 million.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said its top-selling drug Tagrisso has been shown to slow the spread of a certain type of lung cancer to the brain when diagnosed at an early stage.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Ethiopia's attorney general’s office announced that top opposition figure, Jawar Mohammed and 23 other people have been charged with terrorism-related offenses, telecom fraud and other criminal activities. Jawar has been detained since the July unrest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the previous 24 hours, setting another record in daily additional infections since the start of the epidemic. The number deaths from COVID-19 was up by 26 to 31,274. The cumulative total rose to 442,194.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, A storm pounded parts of central Greece, creating flooding that killed two people, left 1 missing and forced emergency workers to rescue more than 600 people.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, The chief of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to go after everyone who had a role in a top general's January killing during a US drone strike in Iraq.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Nigeria Gracious David-West (40), a member of the Greenlanders - also known as Dey Gbam, a mafia-styled street gang that sprung out of the armed militant groups, was arrested. In October he sentenced to death in Port Harcourt for killing nine women. Authorities said he had sex with his victims before binding their arms and feet with strips of white sheets and then strangling them.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied police warnings and occupied a historic field in Bangkok to support the demands of a student-led protest movement for new elections and reform of the monarchy. This was the first of a 2-day protest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Sex workers in Thailand launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalized and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex. A current law made prostitution illegal in 1960.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 20, A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order effectively banning the Chinese social media app WeChat from operating in the US, which had been set to go into effect overnight.
(NY Times, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, Canadian national Pascale Ferrier, suspected of having mailed an envelope containing ricin to the White House, was arrested while trying to enter the United States from Canada. The suspect had been living in the United States last year and was arrested in March 2019 by the Mission, Texas, police for possession of an unlicensed weapon, resisting arrest and carrying a fake driver’s license. She was then deported back to Canada.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
020 Sep 20, In Alaska a grizzly bear mauled and killed a moose hunter in a first-of-its-kind attack in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
(Good Morning America, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 20, Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 72nd Emmy Awards from a nearly empty Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles as viewers — and the nominees — tuned in from home. Schitt's Creek and Watchmen won big at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, held without a live audience due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, California to date had 785,923 cases of coronavirus and 15,017 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 98,458 cases and 1,407 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,804,814 with the death toll at 199,509.
(sfist.com, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Bryson DeChambeau won the US Open with a 3-under-par 67, becoming only the third golfer to finish under par in the six US Opens played at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, The body of Jake Gardner (38) was found outside of a medical clinic in Oregon, where he had allegedly fled due to “great risks," such as death threats. The Nebraska bar owner was charged with manslaughter three months after shooting a Black man during protests against police violence.
(NBC News, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Texas a single-engine plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing in a pasture near Hilltop Lakes. All four people aboard the plane were killed.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 20, It was reported that an experimental Amgen Inc drug that targets a specific genetic mutation shrank tumors in 32% of advanced lung cancer patients and 7% of those with colon cancer.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, More than 100,000 protesters marched in Minsk in the sixth straight weekend of demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Videos shared by local media showed security forces pulling protesters off the streets in simultaneous marches in other cities. Police detained more than 400 protesters.
(The Week, 9/21/20)(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, The first sample of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant was collected to the south-east of London. By the beginning of November the variant accounted for 28% of new infections in London.
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.57)
2020 Sep 20, It was reported that China's ByteDance Ltd is seeking a valuation of $60 billion for TikTok as Oracle Corp (12.5%) and Walmart Inc (7.5%) take stakes in the short-video app's business to address US security concerns.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, In western Colombia six men were shot and killed at an improvised cockfighting arena in Munchique. Another four were killed in a similar attack in Narino province. Local feuds between criminal groups struggling for territorial control in rural Colombia have left more than 230 people dead this year.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 20, In Germany thousands of people marched in Berlin demanding that the government do more to help migrants stuck in Greece, many of whom have been made homeless since fires ravaged the country's largest refugee camp.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The German humanitarian group Sea-Watch condemned as politically motivated the blockade of its ship in the Sicilian port of Palermo by Italian authorities after an 11-hour inspection. This was the fifth rescue ship blocked by Italian authorities in as many months.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market, a day after the US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored. Major powers dismissed a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)(AFP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Thousands of Israelis resumed their weekly protest outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem, despite a new nationwide lockdown order aimed at curbing a raging coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Italians in seven regions headed to the polls for two days of voting shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Mexico the remains of six people were found in the shallow grave in the town of Cajeme, Sonora. Weeks later it was reported that the body of model Yessenia Estefania Alvarado (24), kidnapped on August 19, was one of the six.
(AP, 10/8/20)
2020 Sep 20, Knut Kloster (91), one of the founders of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., died.
(GlobalNewswire, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, In the Solomon Islands two men working to locate bombs left behind from WWII died after one bomb exploded at their aid project in Honiara.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 20, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in Bangkok installed a plaque symbolizing the country's transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped out and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy. The plaque was removed within 24 hours.
(AP, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 21, President Trump is expected to issue an executive order on Monday spelling out how the United States plans to punish businesses and individuals that violate sanctions on Iran.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Some of the world's biggest companies backed growing calls for governments to do more to reverse the accelerating destruction of the natural world and support broader efforts to fight climate change.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A federal judge in New York ordered the Postal Service to reverse operational changes that have slowed mail delivery in recent months and to prioritize election mail, the latest legal rebuke to Louis DeJoy’s management of the agency.
(NY Times, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, New York City police officer Baimadajie Angwang (33) was arrested after allegedly spying on China's behalf for the past six years. Angwang was born in China and has Tibetan ancestry, and received asylum in the US because he claimed he was persecuted for his ethnicity.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 21, California to date had 788,960 cases of coronavirus and 15,056 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,072 cases and 1,408 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,831,222 with the death toll at 199,766.
(sfist.com, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Florida Charles Alexander (15), a relative of Miami High football coach Corey Smith, used the coach’s own 9mm handgun to shoot him dead inside a den and then stole over $7,000 in cash belonging to the coach. Alexander was arrested on Sept. 24. The teen is the son of Lamar Alexander (41) the ex-con who last November hijacked a UPS driver, led cops on a high-speed chase and died during a televised shootout on a busy Miramar street.
(Miami Herald, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 21, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which makes the best-selling "Fallout" and "Elder Scrolls" series of games, for $7.5 billion.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.59)
2020 Sep 21, Global banks faced a fresh scandal about dirty money as they sought to limit the fallout from a cache of leaked documents showing they transferred more than $2 trillion in suspect funds over nearly two decades. The reports were based on 2,100 leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs), covering transactions between 1999 and 2017.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, The Abu Dhabi Film Commission, the Israel Film Fund and the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film and Television School said they have signed a cooperation agreement for training and production. The agreement includes plans for an annual regional film festival rotating between Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and Israel.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Australia hundreds of pilot whales were discovered beached on the shore and sand bars along the remote west coast of Tasmania state.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, Bahrain said it broke up a plot by militants backed by Iran earlier this year to launch attacks on diplomats and foreigners in the island nation home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Wildlife officials said a total of 330 elephants in Botswana are now known to have died from ingesting cyanobacteria, a toxic bacteria which can occur naturally in standing water and sometimes grow into large blooms known as blue-green algae.
(BBC, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A new study that analyzed the coronavirus outbreak in Brazil has found a link between the spread of the virus and past outbreaks of dengue fever that suggests exposure to the mosquito-transmitted illness may provide some level of immunity against COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Britain’s top medical advisers painted a grim picture of exponential growth in illness and death if nothing is done to control the second wave of coronavirus infections, laying the groundwork for the government to announce new restrictions later this week.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that Britain's government will fine people up to 10,000 pounds who refuse to self-isolate if they test positive for the coronavirus or are traced to a close conact. The rule goes into effet on Sept. 28.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended approval for Lynparza in patients with a form of prostate cancer and as a first-line maintenance treatment for a form of advanced ovarian cancer.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A Bulgarian court sentenced two men to life in prison for their involvement in the July 18, 2012, bombing of a tourist bus that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver and injured nearly 40 people. Meliad Farah, a dual Lebanese-Australian national, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a dual Lebanese-Canadian national, were sentenced in absentia as their whereabouts are unknown.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that four Cameroonian soldiers have been sentenced to 10 years for their roles in shooting dead two women and two children in 2015. The government had initially dismissed the footage as "fake news".
(BBC, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Canadian health officials warned COVID-19 infections have surged in Canada and if people do not take stringent precautions, they could balloon to exceed levels seen during the first wave of the pandemic.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 21, China reported six new COVID-19 cases, down from 12 a day earlier. The total number of confirmed infections for mainland China now stands at 85,297, while the total death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, China's ByteDance disputed "groundless rumors" about its partnership with Oracle and Walmart to establish a subsidiary that will run its operations in the United States. ByteDance emphasized that it would control 80 percent of TikTok Global.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that paleontologists in China have discovered a brand new species of burrowing dinosaur that dates back an estimated 125 million years ago. The fossils of the Changmiania liaoningensis were discovered in the Lujiatun Beds, located in northeast China in the Liaoning Province, in the oldest layers of the famous Yixian Formation. The Chinese word “Changmian" which means “eternal sleep".
(Good Morning America, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, An Egyptian officials said archaeologists have unearthed more than two dozen ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo. They were buried more than 2,500 years ago near the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Greece reported 453 new cases of COVID-19 infections, a new daily record since the start of the outbreak in the country. On the island of Lesbos 243 asylum seekers tested positive at the new camp at Kara Tepe.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, India reopened its famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, with the first visitors trickling in as authorities reported 86,961 new coronavirus infections, with no signs of a peak yet.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, An Israeli court approved the extradition of Malka Leifer, a former teacher wanted in Australia on charges of child sex abuse, potentially paving the way for her to stand trial after a six-year legal battle.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Italy preliminary results from the Interior Ministry indicated that 69% of Italians voted “yes" on a constitutional referendum to reduce the number of national lawmakers by more than a third.
(AP, 9/21/20)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.50)
2020 Sep 21, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun said that the crisis-hit country could be going to “hell" if a new government was not formed, suggesting it would require a “miracle" for that to happen at this point.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Police in Lithuania disclosed that Ahmad “Andy" Khawaja, a dual American and Lebanese citizen charged in the US with conspiring to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in donations during the 2016 US presidential election, has been jailed. His detention on Sept. 3 on an international arrest warrant was kept secret. He will remain in jail pending extradition hearings. Khawaja is married to a Lithuanian citizen and has property in the Baltic country.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Mexico's Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, aka AMLO, attacked two small monthly magazines, Nexos and Letras Libres, and singled out their editors, hector Aguilar Camin and Enrique Krauze.
(Econ., 9/26/20, p.37)
2020 Sep 21, Nigerian health workers who went on strike in mid-September for a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients returned to work, without their demands being met.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that Palestinian security forces have detained dozens of supporters of UAE-based Mohammed Dahlan, a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis acceded to the United Nations' Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
(PR Newswire, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 21, The UN week opened with a celebration of the global body's 75th birthday in the form of a virtual summit where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded -- in person -- for more multilateral diplomacy.
(AFP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 22, US President Donald Trump demanded that the United Nations hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic as he defended his own handling of COVID-19 in America where the death toll is nearing 200,000.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon used $1 billion Congress allocated for medical equipment to pay defense contractors for such things as jet engine parts, body armor, and dress uniforms.
(The Week, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, The US government executed William Emmett LeCroy (50) in Terre Haute, Indiana. The former soldier said an obsession with witchcraft led him to kill a Georgia nurse he believed had put a spell on him in 2001.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, California to date had 792,183 cases of coronavirus and 15,141 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,547 cases and 1,431 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,889,086 with the death toll at 200,641.
(sfist.com, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Federal authorities announced that Benjamin Jenkins (25) of Cobb County, Georgia, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a “prolific" sextortion scheme involving as many as 150 underage girls. A jury found Jenkins guilty of producing and distributing child pornography he coerced his victims to create for him.
(Miami Herald, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Billionaire Mike Bloomberg raised $16 billion to help Florida felons pay off fines, restitution, and court fees to help them regain their voting rights in time for the November election. Just days earlier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, won a court victory preventing felons from voting until they pay off the debts.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer declared a state of emergency and closed down much of his city's center to traffic ahead of an expected grand jury decision on whether to indict the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker.
(The Week, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Louisiana state Trooper Chris Hollingsworth died following a single-vehicle highway crash a day earlier that happened just hours after he learned he would be fired for his role last year in the in-custody death of a Black man.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Maine's Supreme Court ruled that ranked choice voting will be used for the first time in a presidential race after concluding that a GOP petition drive intended to stymie its use this November came up short.
(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 22, Hurricane Beta weakened to a tropical depression as it parked itself over the Texas coast, raising concerns of extensive flooding in Houston and areas further inland. Forecasters ran out of traditional storm names last week, forcing the use of the Greek alphabet for only the second time since the 1950s.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said he supports voting to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court, all but ensuring President Donald Trump has the backing to push his choice to confirmation over Democratic objections that it's too close to the November election.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate into November to fight a coronavirus flareup in his state, as the number of people who have died across the United States since the pandemic began passed 200,000.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Luxury apparel maker Ralph Lauren Corp said it will cut 15% of its global workforce by the end of its fiscal year in a company-wide restructuring to lower costs and move more of its business online.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, It was reported that police forces around the world have seized more than $6.5m (£5m) in cash and virtual currencies, as well as drugs and guns in a coordinated raid on dark web marketplaces.
(BBC, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro defended his administration’s record protecting the Amazon rainforest, telling the United Nations’ virtual meeting of global leaders that his country has been wrongly portrayed as an environmental villain.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain's PM Boris Johnson warned that Britons should not expect to return to a normal social or work life for at least six months, as he ordered new restrictions that his government hopes will suppress a dramatic surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain turned over to US authorities evidence against two members of an alleged terror cell known as “the Beatles," ending a drawn out legal battle to block the handover of the information.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain’s National Trust, which looks after hundreds of the country’s well-loved historic sites, detailed in a new report how dozens of its properties have links to slavery and colonialism.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, China's Pres. Xi Jinping told the UN China would "strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060".
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, China's state media agency Xinhua said Ethiopia has agreed to purchase 1.5 million coronavirus testing kits that will be manufactured at a factory in the African country that has been newly built by China's BGI Group.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, A Chinese court sentenced outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang to 18 years in prison for corruption. Zhiqiang had denounced the Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping.
(NY Times, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, China-based CanSino Biologics said Pakistan has launched Phase III clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, French firm Valneva, which has just struck a deal to supply Britain with its potential COVID-19 vaccine, said it is in very advanced talks with another possible customer.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Greece judicial authorities received instructions to pursue the prosecution of anti-mask activist with fast-tracked trials and penalties for convictions of up to a year in prison.
(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 22, Iran reported 3,712 new coronavirus infections in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily tally recorded since February, pushing its cumulative total to 429,193.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In southern Lebanon an arms cache belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group blew up in the village of Ain Cana. A security source said it was caused of a technical error.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Malta Keith Schembri, a key figure in the investigation into the murder of crusading Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was arrested on charges of accepting bribes for the sale of passports to foreigners.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The World Food Program said escalating extremist insurgency in northern Mozambique has displaced 310,000 people, creating an urgent humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte defended his drug crackdown, dismissed criticism from human rights advocates and underscored his country's claims in the South China Sea as the sometimes aggressive critic of the United Nations addressed its annual gathering of world leaders for the first time.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The Philippine health ministry reported 1,635 novel coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase in infections in two weeks, and 50 new deaths. Total confirmed infections have increased to 291,789, the highest in Southeast Asia, while deaths have reached 5,049.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Saudi Arabia said Muslims will be allowed to perform the smaller, year-round pilgrimage starting Oct. 4 as the kingdom gradually begins lifting restrictions that had been in place on Islam's holiest site for the past seven months due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Turkey American author and journalist Andre Vltchek (57) died while traveling overnight from the Turkish Black Sea coastal city of Samsun to Istanbul. Police recorded his case as a “suspicious death".
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 23, At a news conference, Pres. Donald Trump declined to endorse a peaceful transfer of power after the November election, saying, “We’re going to have to see what happens." He also repeated false allegations claiming widespread voter fraud and said he wanted to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly so the Supreme Court could resolve any election dispute.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Pres. Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Cuba in an effort to woo Florida voters. American will not be allowed to bring home cigars and rum and US travelers will be prohibited from staying at hotels and other properties owned by the Cuban government.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 23, The US Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the leader and financier of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a "Russian troll farm." The Treasury in a statement said it imposed sanctions against "the network of Kremlin-connected Russian operative" Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, US Senate Republicans released their controversial report on Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s former dealings with Ukraine in a politically-charged move to taint Biden’s campaign weeks out from Election Day. The Biden campaign immediately dismissed the report as politically-motivated nonsense.
(The Daily Beast, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, California announced its own lofty climate goal: The state plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Last year, only about 8 percent of passenger vehicles sold in the state were not gasoline-powered.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, California to date had 794,824 cases of coronavirus and 15,275 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,951 cases and 1,449 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,940,721 with the death toll at 201,882.
(sfist.com, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Art Dugoni (95), preeminent dental educator, died at his home in Palo Alto. He was the longtime dean of the Univ. of the Pacific School of Dentistry, which was renamed in his honor in 2004. The Pacific Heights school moved to South of Market in 2015.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.C11)
2020 Sep 23, Gale Sayers (77), Chicago Bears running back, died in Indiana, from complications of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. His short but brilliant career left opponents, as they used to say, clutching at air.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, It was reported that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who has steadfastly refused to require residents to wear masks, tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Protesters took to the streets in multiple cities after a grand jury in Louisville, Ky., declined to charge the two officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in March. Most protests were peaceful, but not all: In Louisville, two police officers were shot. Both are expected to survive. Shooting suspect Larynzo Johnson (26) was soon charged with wanton endangerment and the assault of a police officer.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)(The Independent, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Harold Evans (92), British-American journalist and writer, died in NYC. In his career in his native Great Britain, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title The Times for a year from 1981, before being forced out of the latter post by Rupert Murdoch. He turned the Sunday Times into a compelling, dramataic newspaper. In 1986, he founded Condé Nast Traveler. Evans wrote various books on history and journalism, such as The American Century (1998).
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.78)
2020 Sep 23, Johnson & Johnson began a huge final study to try to prove if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the virus.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Mars Inc said it was changing the name and branding of its Uncle Ben's rice products after the brand came under fire for promoting racial stereotypes.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In southern Afghanistan the Taliban launched a wave of attacks overnight on security checkpoints killing a total of 28 Afghan policemen.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 23, More pilot whales were found stranded in Australia, raising the estimated total to nearly 500, including 380 that have died, in the largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country. 88 whales were rescued and crews worked to free 20 more.
(AP, 9/23/20)(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 23, The first known direct commercial flight between Israel and Bahrain landed in the island kingdom, just a week after it signed a deal alongside the UAE to normalize relations.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus was sworn to his sixth term in office at an inaugural ceremony that was not announced in advance amid weeks of huge protests of the authoritarian leader's reelection, which the opposition says was rigged. Thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of the capital of Minsk and other cities to protest the inauguration. 364 people were detained, including 252 in Minsk. The vast majority remained in custody, awaiting court hearings.
(AP, 9/23/20)(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Brazil's government said it was adding 43 more firefighters to a small force battling blazes that have charred a Belgium-sized swath of the world's largest tropical wetlands.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Brazil recorded 33,281 additional confirmed cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Three Egyptian police officers were killed when four men, convicted on terror-related charges and awaiting their death sentences, attempted to escape from a notorious Cairo prison. Security forces killed the four convicts while they were trying to flee the heavily fortified Tora Prison complex.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The European Union announced a major overhaul of its asylum system in hopes that more countries will finally share responsibility for people landing on Europe’s shores seeking sanctuary or better lives.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Pres. Emmanuel Macron announced that France will double paid paternity leave to 28 days starting next summer and will require new fathers to take at least a week off work.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, In Germany Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was discharged from a hospital after more than a month of treatment for poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
(CBS News, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Indonesia reported 4,465 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily rise.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Israel reported 6,861 new coronavirus cases, a new record level of daily cases, shortly before government officials were to meet to discuss tightening a new nationwide lockdown.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Investigators from Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said: "Investigations had established criminal culpability on the part of public officials in the purchase and supply of Covid-19 emergency commodities at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) that led to irregular expenditure of public funds."
(BBC, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Lebanon’s Pres. Michel Aoun asked for the world's help to rebuild the capital's main port and neighborhoods that were blown away in last month’s catastrophic explosion.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Mexico's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 74,949.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In the Netherlands a friend of World War II Jewish diarist Anne Frank laid the first stone at a new memorial under construction in Amsterdam to honor all Dutch victims of the Holocaust.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In central Nigeria at least 25 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded following a collision with other vehicles on a major highway in Lokoja.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (84) made a rare address to the UN General Assembly, using the moment to highlight the foundational notions of his regime — his steadfast commitment to the Palestinians, his stature as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and his assertion that Iran is responsible for much of the region’s instability.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Sierra Leone, a West African country of 7.6 million people, has reported 2,174 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 72 deaths.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, South Korea's Defense Ministry said a South Korean official (47), who disappeared off a government ship near the disputed sea boundary with North Korea this week, may be in North Korea.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Swiss-based companies Roche and AC Immune said an experimental Alzheimer's drug failed to slow cognitive and functional decline in a trial, in a fresh setback to efforts to fight the fatal dementia-causing disease.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The United Arab Emirates reported its highest daily number of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic at 1,083 new cases. The UAE has recorded 87,530 infections and 406 deaths from COVID-19 so far.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The UN said that critical aid had been cut at 300 health centers across war-ravaged Yemen due to a lack of funding, with lifesaving food handouts also reduced.
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blasted United States sanctions in his address to the UN General Assembly, while avoiding any mention of a report accusing his government of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 24, President Donald Trump launched what aides termed a “vision" for health care heavy on unfulfilled aspirations. He signed an executive order on a range of issues, including protecting people with preexisting medical conditions from insurance discrimination. But that right is already guaranteed in the Obama-era health law his administration is asking the Supreme Court to overturn.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, A US federal judge stopped the 2020 census from finishing at month's end and suspended a year-end deadline for delivering the numbers needed to decide how many seats each state gets in Congress.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, A US State Department official said the United States has renewed a waiver for Iraq to import Iranian electricity imports, this time for 60 days.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Michael Pack, President Donald Trump's appointee as head of US government broadcasting operations, failed to appear at a House of Representatives hearing, defying a committee subpoena amid concern over editorial independence at the agency.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, The US Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania said that nine ballots had been found in a dumpster next to the elections building with seven cast for Trump and the other two resealed inside their envelopes. A day later Luzerne County Manager said a temporary independent contractor, who was assigned to sort mail at the elections bureau "incorrectly discarded into the office trash UMOVA ballots," which is an acronym for ballots from military and overseas voters.
(ABC News, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, California to date had 799,875 cases of coronavirus and 15,401 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 100,494 cases and 1,458 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,975,087 with the death toll at 202,738.
(sfist.com, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In California Christopher Michael Straub (38), a known member of a white supremacist gang, died during a shootout with police in Templeton, San Luis Obispo County.
(Insider, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 24, California-based photorealist painter Robert Bechtle (b.1932) died at a hospice in Berkeley.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.B1)
2020 Sep 24, In Indiana Christopher Vialva (40), a Black man, was executed by the federal government for a crime he committed at age 19, even though his attorney said prosecutors used inflammatory racial stereotypes during the trial 20 years ago to land her client on death row.
(NBC News, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Carol Paumgarten (76), NYC dance studio founder, died in Glen Cove, NY. She had founded the Steps on Broadway dance studio in 1979.
(SFC, 10/10/20, p.C15)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that four former senior eBay employees, who participated in an intimidation campaign aimed at silencing a Massachusetts couple who ran a newsletter criticizing the E-commerce giant, have agreed to plead guilty to cyberstalking charges.
(The Independent, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Three US states reported record one-day increases in new COVID-19 cases. Montana reported 330 new coronavirus cases, South Dakota recorded 463 new cases. Utah's governor said the state set a one-day record with 1,198 new cases.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that the Open Technology Fund (OTF) has had to stop all its operations in Belarus, and many of its activities supporting civil society in Hong Kong and Iran, because a congressionally-mandated grant of nearly $20m has been withheld by a new Trump appointee, Michael Pack.
(The Guardian, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In Belarus anti-government rallies continued this morning despite the previous night's crackdown. Hundreds of people in Minsk formed human chains of solidarity in different parts of the city and obstructed vehicle traffic by driving slowly or stopping altogether, honking in protest. Authorities detained Lyudmila Kazak, a lawyer representing Maria Kolesnikova, a top opposition activist who was jailed this month amid mass protests against the country's authoritarian president.
(AP, 9/24/20)(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Britain recorded its highest number of daily cases of COVID-19 at 6,634, reflecting a second wave of infections sweeping through the country but also a much higher level of testing than during the first wave.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Europe's top court (ECJ) issued a ruling that should ensure Germany can keep in prison Christian Brueckner, a new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished from a Portuguese resort 13 years ago.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was arrested for "unlawful assembly" related to a 2019 protest against a government ban on face masks - the latest in a series of high-profile arrests as the authorities seek to crack down on the Chinese-ruled city’s pro-democracy movement. Mr Wong was soon released, with a trial date set for September 30.
(The Telegraph, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Indonesia reported 4,634 coronavirus cases, its biggest daily rise for a second consecutive day as new clusters appeared.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 175 to 25,015, the highest in the Middle East, with the total number of identified cases spiking to 436,319.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Israel moved to further tighten its 2nd countrywide lockdown as coronavirus cases continued to soar, ordering all nonessential businesses to close and requiring people to stay within 1,000 meters of their homes. Israel is currently reporting nearly 7,000 new daily cases.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Italy allowed a rescue ship with 125 migrants aboard to dock in Sardinia to escape rough seas and said the migrants could eventually disembark in Italy before being sent to other European countries.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague said former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Salih Mustafa, an ethnic Albanian, has been arrested as part of a war crimes against humanity probe from the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 24, At least 16 migrants trying to reach Europe drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their small dinghy capsized off the coast of Libya. Libyan fishermen spotted the sinking boat and managed to pull 22 people from the water.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Amnesty International said that thousands of Europe-bound migrants who were intercepted and returned to Libyan shores this year were forcefully disappeared after being taken out of unofficial detention centers run by militias allied with the UN-supported government in the capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In Russia official daily data showed that new cases of COVID-19 have risen to 6,595, the biggest rise in over two months, and new infections in Moscow surpassed 1,000 for the first time since late June.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Russia's sovereign wealth fund and its partner Chemrar said the COVID-19 drug Avifavir will be supplied to 17 additional countries.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea shot and burned the body of a South Korean official who disappeared from a government boat earlier this week.
(NBC News, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that the International Monetary Fund has signed off on Sudan's economic reform program, a move that can eventually allow the highly-indebted African country to get debt relief and move ahead with rebuilding its battered economy as it transitions to democratic rule.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Swedish archaeologists reported finding the remains of a dog from more than 8,400 years ago at a human burial site in southern Sweden. The dog was buried with a person near the town of Solvesborg.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, A UN migration official said the number of migrants and refugees who are sleeping rough in Bosnia keeps rising because of the persistent refusal by authorities at different levels of government in the country to coordinate their work and embrace “rational" solutions.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Zimbabwe's Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa appealed at the United Nations for support to end Western sanctions, saying that they set back development goals.
(AFP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 25, A US federal appeals court handed a win to the House of Representatives, saying the Democratic-led chamber could proceed with a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's diversion of funds to pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, A US federal judge ruled that former oil industry attorney William Perry Pendley, President Donald Trump's leading steward of public lands, has been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration's practice of filling key positions without US Senate approval.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, California to date had 801,923 cases of coronavirus and 15,480 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 101,110 cases and 1,477 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,027,910 with the death toll at 203,571.
(sfist.com, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, including restaurants and bars, saying the threat of the coronavirus pandemic had eased sufficiently to allow the state to enter the final phase of its reopening.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In Kentucky Louisville police reported 24 arrests overnight on charges of unlawful assembly, failure to disperse and riot in the first degree, but no serious violence was reported. Those arrested included Kentucky state representative Attica Scott as relative calm prevailed overnight during a second night of protests.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Shawn Marshall Myers (42) of Maryland was sentenced to a year in jail for throwing parties at his home last March that violated the governor's coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.
(NBC News, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a weekend state of emergency for Portland, saying "white supremacist groups" were traveling from out of state to attend an event the Proud Boys say was organized to "end domestic terrorism".
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Christian Dunbar, the treasurer of Philadelphia, was fired after federal prosecutors charged him with embezzling money from customers at a bank where he previously worked and entering into a sham marriage to win US citizenship.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Niki Williams (46), a former Houston college admissions test administrator, pleaded guilty to taking bribes in a cheating scheme designed to inflate the scores used to determine whether prospective students got into universities.
(NBC News, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Tyler Technologies, a Texas company that sells software that cities and states use to display results on election night, was hit by ransomware. Election officials use Tyler software to aggregate and report election results in at least 20 places around the country.
(NY Times, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 25, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that he and his wife have both tested positive for the coronavirus, though he said he is showing no symptoms.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Wisconsin, one of the states where coronavirus cases are rising the fastest, reported 2,629 new infections, surpassing its previous record set a week earlier.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, A single dose of Johnson & Johnson's experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response against the novel coronavirus, according to interim results from an early-to-mid stage clinical trial released today.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, The British charity People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) said Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, has been awarded its Gold Medal for his "lifesaving bravery and devotion" after discovering 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordinance in the past seven years in Cambodia. Before Magawa, all the recipients were dogs.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Clover Biopharmaceuticals appeared to be safe and able to trigger immune responses in animal tests. Clover began an early stage human trial in Australia in June. Clover's vaccine candidate, which is partly funded by a global vaccine research coalition, uses adjuvants, ingredients that could boost immune responses, from Britain's GSK and US-based Dynavax Technologies.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Mainland China reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, compared with eight cases announced a day earlier.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Scientists reported that future moon explorers will be bombarded with two to three times more radiation than astronauts aboard the International Space Station, a health hazard that will require thick-walled shelters for protection. China’s lander on the far side of the moon is providing the first full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Egyptian police dispersed exceptionally rare, small street protests that erupted in a northeastern province and arrested 10 demonstrators.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Egyptian naval forces killed two Palestinian brothers fishing near the Gaza-Egypt maritime frontier. A third brother was receiving treatment in Egypt.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, The European Commission said it is appealing a court decision that Apple doesn't have to repay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. The Irish government said it has always been clear that Apple paid the correct amount of tax and did not get state aid. It noted the appeal could take up to two years.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In France two people were injured seriously, in a knife attack outside the former Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper. Two suspects were arrested. The lives of the wounded workers were not in danger. The chief suspect in the stabbing told investigators he carried out the attack in anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(The Telegraph, 9/25/20)(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, In France angry restaurant and bar owners in Marseilles demonstrated against a government order to close all public venues to battle a resurgence in virus infections.
(SFC, 9/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 25, The eastern German state of Brandenburg confirmed another two cases of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boars. The new discoveries bring total confirmed cases to 34 since the first one on Sept. 10, all in wild animals, with no farm pigs affected.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Greek police seized 500,000 ecstasy pills, with street value of 10 million euros, and arrested three people in Thessaloniki.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Japanese researchers have developed a blood test they say appears to serve as an early warning system for serious cases of COVID-19, and deployed 500 prototype machines to trial its effectiveness nationwide.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In Mali former Defence Minister Bah Ndaw (70) was picked by the coup leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, to head a transitional government until elections, which are expected in 18 months. Col Goita will be his vice-president.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Mexico's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 720,858, according to updated data from the health ministry, along with a reported death toll of 75,844.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, In northeastern Nigeria 18 people were left dead after an ambush on a government convoy in Borno state. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack, claiming 30 people had been killed.
(BBC, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 25, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, offered a rare apology for the killing of a South Korean official by soldiers from the North. The victim was apparently trying to defect to the North.
(NY Times, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Pakistani PM Imran Khan assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed concluding a pact with Washington against interfering in one another's elections and internal affairs, just weeks before the US hosts a divisive presidential vote. Putin proposed a cyber-truce.
(AFP, 9/25/20)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.48)
2020 Sep 25, The mayor of Moscow urged businesses to get more people to work from home as Russia's daily tally of new coronavirus cases hit its highest since June 23. Officials reported 7,212 new infections, bringing the national case total to 1,136,048.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Thailand is prosecuting Facebook, Google, and Twitter over a failure to remove what it says are illegal posts.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Turkey's police arrested Ayhan Bilgen, the mayor of Kars. Dozens of other members of Turkey's biggest Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP), including three former parliamentarians, were also rounded up.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.44)
2020 Sep 25, A Ukrainian military aircraft, carrying a crew of seven and 20 cadets of a military aviation school, crashed while coming in for landing at the airport in Chuhuiv. Two people initially survived the crash, but one later died in a hospital.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, UN diplomats said Russia and China have blocked the official release of a report by UN experts on Libya that accused its warring parties and their international backers -- including Russia -- of violating a UN arms embargo on the conflict-wracked country.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, The financial scandal that toppled Cardinal Angelo Becciu (72), one of the Vatican's most powerful officials, mounted with evidence that he directed hundreds of thousands of euros of Vatican and Italian church funds to a charity controlled by his brother. Pope Francis fired him a day earlier and yanked his rights and privileges as a cardinal.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, President Donald Trump announced that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as he aims to put a historic conservative stamp on the high court just weeks before the election. Judge Barrett’s vote record is almost uniformly conservative on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration.
(AP, 9/26/20)(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, Thousands of people packed the National Mall in downtown Washington to pray and show their support for President Donald Trump.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring California to house transgender inmates in prisons based on their gender identity — but only if the state does not have “management or security concerns." Newsom also signed a measure requiring health providers to track COVID-19 and all other communicable diseases in the LGBTQ community.
(AP, 9/26/20)(SFC, 9/28/20, p.B2)
2020 Sep 26, California to date had 807,252 cases of coronavirus and 15,586 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 101,645 cases and 1,486 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,077,329 with the death toll at 204,486.
(sfist.com, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, and Wisconsin all reported record one-day increases in coronavirus cases, as COVID-19 infections continued to surge in the Midwest and rose nationally for the second straight week.
(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, In Oregon law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly in Portland late today as hundreds of people protesting against police brutality gathered downtown. Members of the right-wing Proud Boys held a rally in Portland, raising the temperature of the city. The actual attendance was reportedly far lower than anticipated, and there were few reports of violence.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lifted a water quality warning for all but one Houston-area community. Lake Jackson remained under warning of possible contamination of its water supply by Naegleria fowleri, a deadly brain-eating microbe. The brain-eating amoeba detected in the water supply led to the death of a boy (6) earlier this month.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A10)(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 26, In Belarus hundreds of women calling for the authoritarian president to step down protested in Minsk, continuing the large demonstrations that have rocked the country since early August. Police detained 150 protesters as anti-government protests spanned 22 cities.
(AP, 9/26/20)(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 26, British PM Boris Johnson said that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations, and urged world leaders to unite against the “common foe." London police clashed with demonstrators as they broke up a protest in Trafalgar Square against COVID-19 restrictions.
(AP, 9/26/20)(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A9)
2020 Sep 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his approach to governing the Xinjiang region will continue, at the end of a 2-day Communist Party conference. Xi reportedly said "practice has proven" Beijing's "strategy" in Xinjiang is "completely correct," and he also ordered the party to consider it a political mission.
(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, China said the WHO had given it its blessing to start administering experimental vaccines to people while clinical trials were still underway.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Coronavirus cases in Colombia, which is nearly a month into a national reopening after a long quarantine, surpassed 800,000, a day after deaths from COVID-19 climbed above 25,000. The country has 806,038 confirmed cases of the virus according to the health ministry, with 25,296 reported deaths.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In western Germany hundreds of anti-coal activists staged protests against the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels at the Garzweiler strip mine, west of Cologne.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 26, The Indian health ministry reported more than 85,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Total COVID-19 infections hit 5.9 million countrywide. India said it was capping the price of liquid oxygen used to treat victims of novel coronavirus and other respiratory diseases after complaints of hoarding and shortages.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Indonesia reported 4,494 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 271,339.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani authorized the country’s provinces to impose lockdowns wherever necessary to stem a rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, It was reported that Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp will seek voluntary retirement from 500 to 600 employees, mostly in management, from mid-November to cut costs.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Moustapha Adib, Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, resigned amid a political impasse over government formation, dealing a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to break a dangerous stalemate in the crisis-hit country. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is the leader of the Shi'ite Muslim Amal Movement, said his group would stick to a French initiative after the plan was dealt a blow by Adib's to step down.
(AP, 9/26/20)(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In North Macedonia hundreds of Roma protested against police brutality in Bitola, the country's second-largest city.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Philippines' health ministry reported 2,747 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 88 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 301,256 cases and 5,284 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Poland reported 1,584 new coronavirus cases, taking the country closer to reimposing restrictions. A day earlier Poland report a record high of 1,587 infections. The country has reported 85,980 infections and 2,424 deaths in total.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Russia's daily tally of new coronavirus cases hit its highest level since June 22 at 7,523, bringing its total to 1,143,571.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Slovak government said the country's daily count of new coronavirus cases rose to 552, a fresh record high.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In northeastern Syria car bomb killed at least seven civilians in a Turkish-controlled area at the southern entrance to the city of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Ukraine registered a record 3,833 cases of new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a previous record of 3,584 new cases reported on Sept. 17.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 27, A US federal judge temporarily halted a Trump administration order that would have blocked new downloads of TikTok in the United States, granting the Chinese-owned app a reprieve.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a six-day extension for counting absentee ballots in the battleground state of Wisconsin ordered by a lower court to accommodate an expected historic surge in voting by mail due to the coronavirus crisis. For now ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Election Day, a provisional win for Republicans and President Trump. On Sept. 29 the appeals court upheld the six-day extension.
(The Week, 9/28/20)(SFC, 9/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 27, The NY Times published an investigation of Donald Trump's finances, based on thousands of pages of documents that had not previously been public. They showed that Trump paid no taxes in 11 of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017. In both 2016 and 2017, he paid only $750.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that US military suicides have increased by as much as 20% this year compared to the same period in 2019, and some incidents of violent behavior have spiked as service members struggle under COVID-19, war-zone deployments, national disasters and civil unrest.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that experts are warning of a "feral swine bomb" that could go off at any time, as the numbers of hybrid wild pigs have soared to six million and spread from 17 to 39 US states over the last three decades.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.B10)
2020 Sep 27, In California the Zogg Fire started in Shasta County and soon spread to neighboring Tehama County. By the next day 4 people were killed. On Oct. 9 PG&E said fire investigators have taken possession of equipment belonging to the company. The fire ended up covering 56,338 acres and destroyed 204 buildings. The Glass Fire began in northern California. It ended up burning 67,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties.
(AP, 10/9/20)(SSFC, 11/8/20, p.D1)(SFC, 8/14/21, p.C1)
2020 Sep 27, California to date had 809,414 cases of coronavirus and 15,607 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 102,027 cases and 1,490 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,110,781 with the death toll at 204,750.
(sfist.com, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Florida Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump's former campaign chief, was tackled to the ground by SWAT officers when he didn't obey commands and was taken into custody under state guidelines allowing for an involuntary mental illness commitment. Officers seized 10 firearms, which included two shotguns, two rifles and several handguns.
(NBC News, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that Afghanistan’s dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to leave the country of their birth to escape the insecurity and a once-thriving community of as many as 250,000 members now counts fewer than 700.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Fighting erupted anew between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, within Azerbaijan, and a top territorial official said 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Belarus detained 350 protesters as anti-government protests spanned 22 cities. About 100,000 demonstrators marched in Minsk demanding the resignation of Pres. Lukashenko.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, In southwestern China 16 people died in a coal mine in Chongqing due to high levels of carbon monoxide.
(SFC, 9/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, Indonesia reported 3,874 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 275,213, official data from the COVID-19 task force showed. The country also reported 78 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10,386.
(Reuters, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard unveiled a new ballistic missile with a range of up to 430 miles, in the latest escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington.
(The Telegraph, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, The solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur began in a nation already under a sweeping coronavirus lockdown. Israelis have been ordered to stay within 1,000 meters (yards) of their homes throughout the High Holidays, which began last week with the Jewish New Year and continue to mid-October.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In northern Lebanon gunmen in a car opened fire on an army post, triggering a shootout in which two soldiers and one gunman were killed. The shootout occurred as the army was engaged in a heavy exchange of fire with a group of militants linked to Sunni extremists.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Mali’s transitional Pres. Bah N'Daw appointed former minister of foreign affairs, Moctar Ouane, as the West African nation’s prime minister days after being sworn into office.
(AP, 9/27/20)(SFC, 9/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, In Mexico the bullet-ridden bodies of 11 people, including four women, were found at a bar near Jaral del Progreso, Guanajuato state.
(SFC, 9/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, In Nigeria militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) used a donkey strapped with explosives to ambush the convoy of the governor of north-eastern Borno state. A number of insurgents were killed in the ensuing shoot-out.
(BBC, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Romania about 19 million registered voters chose local officials, council presidents and mayors to fill more than 43,000 positions across the nation. The left-leaning Social Democrat Party, known as PSD, lost the most closely watched contest — the one for the mayor of the capital, Bucharest.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a Eurosceptic party’s attempt to restrict immigration from the EU in a referendum seen as a key test of attitudes towards foreigners.
(The Telegraph, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Yemen’s warring sides agreed to exchange more than 1,000 prisoners, marking the first phase of a prisoner-release plan reached earlier this year.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 28, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge's ruling last week allowing the head count of every US resident to continue through the end of October.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, It was reported that the recent mass layoffs at Fox News—an estimated body count of around 70, amounting to a little less than 3 percent of the cable channel’s workforce—signal what current and former employees describe as the purposeful devaluing of fact-based journalism in favor of right-wing opinion, race-baiting, and conspiracy-mongering at the top-rated, Donald Trump-friendly cable outlet.
(The Daily Beast, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Wildfires in Northern California's wine country spread quickly over the last 24 hours, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The Glass Fire, which started early yesterday in Napa County as a 20-acre brush fire, raged through Napa and Sonoma counties, tripling in size to around 56.6 square miles (146.59 square km) without any containment. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in three counties because of the Glass and Zogg fires that have claimed three lives and burned thousands of acres in the state.
(The Week, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom formally submitted a letter to the White House asking for a major disaster declaration. In mid October President Donald Trump's administration rejected California’s request for disaster relief funds aimed at cleaning up the damage from six recent wildfires among the siege of deadly and destructive blazes that have scorched the state.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Sep 28, California to date had 811,141 cases of coronavirus and 15,614 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 102,517 cases and 1,494 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,147,070 with the death toll at 205,024.
(sfist.com, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Florida US immigration agents deported Alcedis Ortiz (42) to Colombia even as he awaited trial for sexually assaulting a girl (12).
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 28, In Pennsylvania officers found Mia Green (29), a Philadelphia resident and Black transgender woman, shot in the neck in the passenger’s seat of a car driven by Abdullah lbn El-Amin Jaamia (28) when he was stopped for running a stop sign. The next day Jaamia was charged with murder and related offenses.
(NBC, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 28, The US health regulator put a hold on Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc's plans to start final trials of its coronavirus vaccine as the agency seeks more information, including details on a delivery device used to inject genetic material into cells.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, General Motors confirmed that it will repay Ohio $28 million in state tax incentives after it closed its Lordstown Assembly plant in March 2019 and failed to retain 3,700 jobs in exchange for the credits.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Seventy world leaders signed the “Leaders Pledge for Nature" and vowed to take steps to halt the catastrophic human-made decline. Non-signers included President Donald Trump, his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro and Australian PM Scott Morrison.
(https://tinyurl.com/y64tmyrf)(NBC News, 10/16/20)
2020 Sep 28, Armenia and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 59 servicemen on their side have been killed so far.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Australian biotech company Ena Respiratory said that a nasal spray it is developing to improve the human immune system to fight common cold and flu significantly reduced the growth of the coronavirus in a recent study on animals. Australia has so far reported 875 deaths and just over 27,000 coronavirus cases, far less than the numbers reported in other developed countries.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Botswana extended its state of emergency for a further six months to combat the spread of COVID-19. The country has reported 3,172 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 16 deaths.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, A British judge restored Uber’s transportation license in London, one of the ride-hailing company’s most important global markets, where regulators had threatened to ban its cars for safety concerns.
(NY Times, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc said it would start building a new car plant in China's southern city of Guangzhou with 4 billion yuan ($590 million) in financing from the local government.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, The Czech Republic reported 1,305 new cases of coronavirus and 15 related deaths. The figures brought the total number of cases to 64,597 and deaths to 606 in the country of 10.7 million people.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Germany confirmed one more case of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg. There have been 36 confirmed cases since the first one on Sept. 10.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Greek authorities said 12 crew members on the Mein Schiff 6, a Maltese-flagged cruise ship carrying more than 1,500 people on a Greek islands tour, have tested positive for coronavirus and have been isolated on board. Health inspectors the next day said that an emergency docking order for a cruise ship near Athens can now be lifted after crew members suspected of having been infected with COVID-19 tested negative.
(AP, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases. The Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall total to 6,074,703. At least 1,039 deaths were recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Iraq a Katyusha rocket attack struck a residential home killing six civilians, all women and children. Security officials believed the rocket was intended for nearby Baghdad airport. Shiite militias aligned with Iran were believed responsible.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, SoftBank's robotics arm said it will bring a food service robot developed by California-based Bear Robotics to Japan as restaurants grapple with labor shortages and a new socially distanced norm as a result of the novel coronavirus. The robot named Servi will act as a sort of waiter.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Kenya a man died outside an emergency ward of Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, after he was not treated for hours by striking staff.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Libya masked militiamen abducted some 350 migrants from the town of al-Ajaylat, around 80 km west of the capital, Tripoli. Most of the migrants managed to escape while some others were released. After two weeks at least 60 migrants, including two dozen children, remained in “appalling" conditions.
(AP, 10/10/20)
2020 Sep 28, Pakistan’s anti-graft body arrested Shahbaz Sharif, the opposition leader of the Pakistan Muslim League party, over his alleged involvement in a money laundering case after a court rejected bail for him. The move came just before planned protests next month by his party seeking to force PM Imran Khan's resignation.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, The authorities in Pakistan indicted former President Asif Ali Zardari on money-laundering charges. His supporters said the charges were part of a wider trend targeting politicians opposed to PM Imran Khan. Zardari, the widower of former PM Benazir Bhutto, served as president from 2008 to 2013.
(NY Times, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, Saudi Arabia said its security forces uncovered a “terrorist cell" with alleged ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and have detained 10 people in connection.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Zimbabwe’s schools reopened for pupils in two grades as part of a gradual process that will see all pupils return to class by early November. But many teachers did not report for work, as their union demanded that the government should first pay them a COVID-19 allowance and improve their salaries and working conditions.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, The first of three scheduled debates between Trump and Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and chaos as the Republican president repeatedly interrupted his Democratic rival with jabs that overshadowed any substantive discussion of the crises threatening the nation. Trump unleashed a torrent of fabrications and fear-mongering in a belligerent debate with Joe Biden, at one point claiming the US death toll would have been 10 times higher under the Democrat because he wanted open borders in the pandemic. Biden preached no such thing.
(AP, 9/29/20)(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 29, The White House blocked a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February, a step that would have displeased the politically powerful tourism industry in the crucial swing state of Florida.
(NY Times, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 29, The US Department of State said it is offering rewards for information on a trio of former Venezuelan officials in major drug-trafficking cases. They included Pedro Luis Martin-Oli
Return to home
2020 Jul 1, US federal prosecutors sought to seize four tankers sailing toward Venezuela with gasoline supplied by Iran. The four tankers named in a complaint filed today — the Bella, Bering, Pandi and Luna — are currently transporting to Venezuela 1.1 million barrels of gasoline obtained via risky ship-to-ship transfers.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 1, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told VP Mike Pence that the state needed an additional 500 health care workers as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to set records there.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California dramatically rolled back efforts to reopen its economy, banning indoor restaurant dining in much of the state, closing bars and stepping up enforcement of the restrictions as COVID-19 infections surge. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered 19 counties with surging coronavirus outbreaks to shut public venues in an effort to keep the pandemic from spiraling out of control.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 1, San Francisco police said they will stop releasing the mug shots of people who have been arrested unless they pose a threat to the public, as part of an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Los Angeles city leaders voted to slash the Police Department budget by $150 million, reducing the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade amid nationwide demands to shift money away from law enforcement agencies during America's reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California to date had 232,466 cases of coronavirus and 6,088 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 25,935 cases and 583 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,658,324 with the death toll at 127,681.
(sfist.com, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, A Delaware sate official said an old whipping post that was used "disproportionally on Blacks" has been removed from outside the Old Sussex County Courthouse in Georgetown. It was reportedly last used in 1952.
(https://tinyurl.com/y7ggxccy)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 1, In Virginia work crews wielding a giant crane, harnesses and power tools wrested an imposing statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal along Richmond's famed Monument Avenue.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Seattle police turned out in force at the city's “occupied" protest zone, tore down demonstrators' encampments and used bicycles to herd the protesters after the mayor ordered the area cleared following two fatal shootings in less than two weeks.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, New research was reported that damage done by the coronavirus to the membranes of red blood cells that carry oxygen may explain why many COVID-19 patients have alarmingly low oxygen levels.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The healthcare unit of US supermarket chain Kroger Co said the US Food and Drug Administration had issued emergency use authorization for its at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that Facebook has banned an extremist anti-government network loosely associated with the broader "boogaloo" movement, a slang term supporters use to refer to a second Civil War or the collapse of civilization.
(SFC, 7/1/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that some 350 elephant carcasses have been found in the Okavango Delta of Botswana over the last two months. It was unknown why the animals are dying.
(BBC, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Britain announced that it was extending residency rights for up to 3 million Hong Kongers eligible for the British National Overseas passport, stressing that it would uphold its historic duty to the former British colony after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law in the city.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In Canada a string of shootings began in Winnipeg on the Canada Day national holiday. Unrelated shootings claimed the life of one woman and saw five others injured in a series of incidents. A teen suspect (14) was arrested the following afternoon in the North Kildonian neighborhood.
(The Independent, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 1, The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 99th anniversary by saying its success in containing Covid-19 proved its superiority and that of the country's socialist system.
(South China Morning Post, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 1, Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, said it had deleted Indian PM Narendra Modi's account at the request of the Indian embassy, as tensions between the two countries continue to simmer over a border skirmish.
(The Telegraph, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, It was reported that more than 50 people have been killed in Ethiopia in unrest following the June 29 death of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular singer, sparked huge protests in the Oromia region. The death toll was soon raised to over 80. By one count the July riots left 239 people killed.
(AP, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A5)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.45)
2020 Jul 1, Germany took the helm of the EU's rotating presidency. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the European Union must prepare for the possibility that talks with Britain on their post-Brexit relationship could fail.
(AFP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, German biotech firm BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said a jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine has shown potential and was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In Hong Kong protests against a new national-security law imposed by China on Hong Kong flared up. Thousands attended the illegal protests marking the 23rd anniversary of return to Chinese rule. About 370 people were arrested including ten for violating the security law that came into force at 11 p.m. the day before.
(AP, 7/2/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 1, Israel's parliament approved a law granting the country's internal security agency limited authority to use phone surveillance to track coronavirus cases as the country struggles to contain a second outbreak.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In central Mexico gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center and opened fire in Irapuato, Guanajuato state, killing 24 people and wounding seven. Drug gangs appeared to have been involved.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Russians with children received cash payments on the final day of a vote on constitutional changes that could allow Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. State exit polls suggested the changes will be backed by over two thirds of voters. Nenets, an autonomous region on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, was the only region in Russia out of 85 to reject the proposals, with more than 55 percent voting against. Voters approved a package of constitutional amendments, one of them stipulating that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(AFP, 7/8/20)(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 1, In South Africa some protesters against Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial burned their face masks as experts note a worrying level of resistance and misinformation around testing on the continent.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Taiwan's foreign ministry said Taiwan and Somaliland have agreed to establish ties based on “friendship and a shared commitment to common values of freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law." The two countries signed a bilateral agreement in Taipei on Feb. 26. Taiwan has been providing scholarships to students from the region of 3.9 million people.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 1, Uganda opened part of its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to allow in thousands of people stuck in no-man's land for more than a month.
(BBC, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The UN Security Council demanded an “immediate cessation of hostilities" in key conflicts including Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and Congo to tackle COVID-19 in its first resolution on the new coronavirus.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, US President Donald Trump at a press briefing celebrated a government report showing the country gained 4.8 million jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1% last month. A separate report today said that 1.43 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits during the final week of June.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision blocked a lower court ruling allowing curbside voting in Alabama and waiving some absentee ballot requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A US judge ordered Iran to pay another $879.1 million over a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen, ruling again that Tehran bore responsibility.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 2, The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases, the largest daily increase any country has ever reported.
(Reuters, 72/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, High Downs (99), American TV news and game show pioneer, died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 2, California to date had 246,841 cases of coronavirus and 6,264 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 26,854 cases and 590 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,739,879 with the death toll at 128,740.
(sfist.com, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Florida shattered records when it reported over 10,000 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase in the state since the pandemic started. In June, Florida infections rose by 168% or over 95,000 new cases. The percent of tests coming back positive has skyrocketed to 15% from 4% at the end of May.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In New Jersey casinos reopened in Atlantic City following a 108-day closure due to the coronavirus. Gamblers wore facemasks and di without smoking and drinking.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 2, A New York appellate judge ruled that Simon & Schuster could release a tell-all book by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, reversing a lower court.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, US federal prosecutors in New York said Swiss-based Novartis will pay $678 million to settle a fraud suit. The pharmaceutical company admitted to using an extensive kickback program for nearly a decade to influence doctors to prescribe certain medications.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 2, Texas Governor Greg Abbott decreed that face masks must be worn in all counties with over 20 coronavirus cases, billing the measure as a requirement to avoid another economic shutdown.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire by the FBI on charges she helped procure underage sex partners for financier Jeffrey Epstein.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Jonathan Irons (40), a Missouri man serving a 50-year sentence for burglary and assault, was freed after his sentence was overturned. Maya Moore, the W.N.B.A. star, helped lead the campaign to free him.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, GlaxoSmithKline's HIV business ViiV said it is within weeks of resubmitting its request for approval of its long-acting injection Cabenuva to US drug regulators.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A British judge refused a request by Venezuela's Pres. Nicolas Maduro who sought the return of $1.8 billion in gold bars sitting in the Bank of England to help his nation fight the coronavirus pandemic. The UK has recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A4)(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 2, European law-enforcement agencies said they had infiltrated a secret global criminal chat system used to plot the murder of rival criminals, money laundering, and the selling of illegal goods.
(Business Insider, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, An anti-China protester in Hong Kong was pulled from a flight to London and arrested on suspicion of stabbing a police officer the day before.
(Business Insider, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In India the number of coronavirus infections surpassed 600,000, resulting in 17,834 deaths as authorities battled to contain the pandemic while easing lockdown rules.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Iran a fire and an explosion struck a building above Iran's underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility early today, a site that US-based analysts identified as a new centrifuge production plant. The fire appeared to have been the result of sabotage. A previously unknown group calling itself the Homeland Cheetahs, apparently a dissident group, claimed responsibility for the incident.
(AP, 7/2/20)(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Mexico posted a record daily tally of infections, as 6,741 cases carried the overall figure to 238,511.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, In northern Myanmar at least 162 people were killed in a landslide at a jade mine, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years that critics blame on the government's failure to take action against unsafe conditions.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Russia's Central Elections Commission announced early today that nearly 78 percent of voters had cast their ballot in favor of the changes to the constitution that could see Putin, 67, remain in power until 2036. The opposition and Western leaders voiced criticism over suspected poll violations.
(AFP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, It was reported that dozens of US embassy employees in Saudi Arabia became sick last month, and more than 20 others were quarantined after a birthday barbecue became a potential vector for the spread of the disease. A Sudanese driver for the top diplomats died.
(NY Times, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, Serbia reported 359 cases of the coronavirus and six deaths in the last 24 hours. In total Serbia has recorded more than 15,200 cases and nearly 290 deaths.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 2, Sweden said that Iran has agreed to compensate the families of victims who were killed when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by Iranian forces outside Tehran on January 8.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, Thailand said it would prohibit online sales of alcohol in a clampdown on underage drinking after a rise in sales during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Uganda Hussein Walugembe (29), a motorbike taxi rider, died after setting fire to himself inside a police station. Mr Walugembe had lent his motorbike to a friend, who was caught ferrying a passenger on June 29. Some riders alleged that officers had demanded a $40 (£32) bribe from Walugembe to release his vehicle.
(BBC, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN annual report said the world's mountain of discarded flat-screen TVs, cellphones and other electronic goods grew to a record high last year.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN report said there have been at least 1,324 additional violent deaths carried out in Venezuela by Pres. Maduro’s hit squads during “security operations" between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2020.
(Miami Herald, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 2, In Yemen the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels unleashed a new air campaign overnight on the war-torn country's capital and on other provinces, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi Arabia that were claimed by the rebels.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In South Dakota President Donald Trump dug deeper into America's divisions by accusing protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history" during a speech at Mount Rushmore. Trump said he will establish a “National Garden of American Heroes… a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived." Supporters, most of them maskless flouted public health guidelines that recommend not gathering in large groups.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, US prosecutors said Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a Nigerian man charged with conspiring to launder a fortune from email scams, has arrived in Chicago to face charges. UAE authorities arrested Abbas last month. Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, had showed off his wealth to 2.4 million Instagram followers. Hushpuppi, and another cyber-heist suspect Olalekan Jacob Ponle (aka Mr Woodberry) appeared in a Chicago court. They had been arrested in Dubai, where they lived, in June. Dubai police said they had been extradited to the US.
(NBC News, 7/4/20)(BBC, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 3, The US set another record with 52,300 newly reported coronavirus infections, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, In Colorado interim police chief Vanessa Wilson said the police officers who took disturbing photos at the memorial site where Elijah McClain was placed in a police chokehold and later died have all been terminated from the Aurora Police Department. McClain (23) died on August 30, 2019, days after police confronted him as he walked home from a convenience store.
(ABC News, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, California officials said the coronavirus is suspected of killing two more death row inmates at San Quentin State Prison, where about 40% of inmates are now infected.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, California to date had 250,431 cases of coronavirus and 6,312 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 27,745 cases and 595 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,793,022 with the death toll at 129,405.
(sfist.com, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In California Ari Gershman (45), a Danville doctor, was shot and killed while off-roading with his son near Downieville in Sierra County. The unnamed gunman was arrested a day later. The son escaped into the wilderness and spent 30 hours in the Tahoe National Forest before a search party found him. Police the following day arrested John Thomas Conway (40) of Honcut, a rural community in Butte County. Conway was hospitalized with a gunshot wound.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.B1)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.B2)
2020 Jul 3, In Florida Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a new overnight curfew effective immediately closing casinos, movie theaters and other entertainment venues to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order that allows local officials to issue their own mask mandates if they want, as coronavirus cases continued to increase.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, Medical technology company Becton Dickinson and Co said it received an order from the UK government for 65 million injection devices to support Britain's COVID-19 vaccination program.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Los Angeles-based company, formally known as Lucky Brand Dungarees, LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to millions of dollars in outstanding debts owed to lenders.
(Good Morning America, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 3, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi said their rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara failed to meet the main goals of a US study testing it in the most critically ill COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Zydus, part of Cadila Healthcare Ltd, said it has received approval from Indian regulators to begin human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine contender, as the novel coronavirus infections continue to surge in the world's fourth worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Australia reported a drop in new coronavirus cases, with a surge in the second most populated state Victoria appearing to have eased, although more than 10,000 people have refused to be tested in hotspot suburbs of Melbourne.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Bolivia has reported more than 32,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,000 deaths. Cases were expected to peak around the time of presidential elections planned for September.
(SFC, 7/3/20, p.A9)
2020 Jul 3, Botswana said it is investigating a staggeringly high number of elephant carcasses — 275 — found in the popular Okavango Delta area in recent weeks. A day earlier Botswana's government announced “an alarming surge of rhinoceros poaching in the Okavango Delta" in recent days.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, It was reported that distressed British satellite constellation operator OneWeb, which had entered bankruptcy protection proceedings at the end of March, has completed a sale process, with a consortium led by the UK Government as the winner. The group includes funding from India's Bharti Global.
(TechCrunch, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, China reported three new coronavirus cases in the mainland, compared with five cases a day earlier.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, It became clear that Graziano Mesina (78) had fled Corsica after the supreme court in Rome turned down an appeal against a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 3, The European Commission said it had given conditional approval for the use of antiviral remdesivir in severe COVID-19 patients following an accelerated review process, making it the region's first authorized therapy to treat the virus.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, French President Emmanuel Macron named Jean Castex, who coordinated France’s virus reopening strategy, as the country's new prime minister, replacing Edouard Philippe, who resigned earlier in the day.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, The Paris appeals court upheld a decision to end a years-long investigation into the plane crash that sparked Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, citing lack of sufficient evidence.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, German scientists began a nationwide study to gain a better overview of the actual prevalence of the new coronavirus in the country's population and test how well measures to prevent its spread are working.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, India reported another single-day record high of new coronavirus cases. The new 20,903 cases took the national total to 625,544. Another 379 deaths took that total to 18,213.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Two Israeli defence contractors said they will partner with Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 to develop technologies to help fight the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Tokyo reported 124 new cases, up from 107 the day before, partly due to increased testing among nightlife workers in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro districts.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Malian officials said armed men attacked farming villages in the central Mopti region this week, killing at least 33 people. Fulani armed groups have been targeting Dogon farmers and Dogon farmers have been responsible for attacks on Fulani villages in the region.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, The Mexican government said it has formally joined the Int'l. Labor Organization's Convention 189 on the rights of domestic workers. C189 entered into force on 5 September 2013. This makes Mexico the thirtieth member State of the ILO and the seventeenth member State in the Americas to ratify the Convention.
(https://tinyurl.com/ycwmtwkd)(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In Mexico soldiers patrolling the the border city of Nuevo Laredo came under fire from drug cartel gunmen. The military said 12 attackers were killed. In Guanajuato state armed men killed five police officers.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 3, Oman's health minister said the sultanate had witnessed a "scary" surge in cases that required boosting hospital capacity, especially intensive care units.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, In eastern Pakistan a passenger train crashed into a bus carrying Sikh pilgrims, killing 22 people.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte signed a widely opposed anti-terror law that critics fear could be used against human rights defenders to muzzle dissent. The law allows the detention of suspects for up to 24 days without charges.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 3, In the Philippines thousands of jeepneys, flamboyantly decorated jeeps that serve as cheap public transport across the country, were back on the streets of Manila, bringing relief to companies and commuters who have struggled with coronavirus curbs.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, President Vladimir Putin ordered amendments that would allow him to remain in power until 2036 to be put into the Russian Constitution after voters approved the changes during a week-long plebiscite. Other key reforms include an amendment granting former Russian presidents automatic immunity from criminal prosecution, as well as reforms enshrining a reference to "belief in God" and a statement about marriage being only the union of a man and a woman. Changes to the constitution will come into force on July 4.
(AP, 7/3/20)(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A Russian Orthodox Church panel in Yekaterinburg defrocked a coronavirus-denying monk who has defied Kremlin lockdown orders and taken control of a monastery. Father Sergiy urged his backers to come to defend the Sredneuralsk women's monastery where he has holed up since last month.
(AP, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, Serbia reported 309 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours along with 11 deaths.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, South Africa reported another record high of daily coronavirus cases with 8,728. Total cases now numbered more than 168,000.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 3, Turkey launched a trial for 20 Saudi officials accused of killing Jamal Khashoggi in October, 2018, with rights groups saying the prosecution offered the best chance for justice for the slain journalist. The next session was scheduled for November 24.
(The Telegraph, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 3, A court in Istanbul, Turkey, convicted Taner Kilic, Amnesty Int'l.'s former Turkey chairman, of membership in a terror organization and sentenced him to more than six years in prison. Three other activists were also convicted. Amnesty Int'l. condemned the ruling.
(SFC, 7/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 3, In northwestern Turkey an explosion at a fireworks factory killed four people and injured at least 97 others outside the town of Hendek, Sakarya province. A manager and two supervisors were soon detained following the explosion in northwestern Sakarya province.
(AP, 7/3/20)(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 3, Uganda so far has 900 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 847 recoveries and no deaths.
(BBC, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, President Donald Trump made remarks this evening at the second annual Salute to America July 4th event held in Washington, D.C. and claimed that a therapeutic and/or vaccine will be around “long before the end of the year".
(Good Morning America, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 4, On Arizona police fatally shot James “Jay" Garcia as he was parked in a car in a driveway in Phoenix. On July 20 Phoenix police released a nearly 12-minute video on its YouTube account summarizing the events that took place leading up to Garcia's death with 911 audio and body camera footage.
(NBC News, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 4, California to date had 251,175 cases of coronavirus and 6,318 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 27,931 cases and 596 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,809,108 with the death toll at 129,478.
(sfist.com, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Florida reported 11,445 new coronavirus cases, a single-day record, bringing the state total to more than 190,000.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 4, Texas reported a record daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, the latest sign that the virus is surging in many parts of the United States, casting a pall over Fourth of July celebrations.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Protesters in Baltimore, Maryland, pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city's Inner Harbor late today. The statue was owned by the city and dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In New York City Joey Chestnut (36) downed a record 75 hot dogs at the Nathan's Famous contest at Coney Island. In the women's division, returning champion Miki Sudo topped a field of five by devouring a record 48.5 Nathan's Famous hot dogs and buns. Nathan Handwerker opened his world renown seaside restaurant in 1916.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Portland, Oregon, Summer Taylor (24) and Diaz Love (32) were hit by a car that barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters on Interstate 5 early today. Taylor died of her injuries later in the evening. Car driver Dawit Kelete was chased down and put into custody.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Australia’s Victoria state locked down nine public housing towers and three more Melbourne suburbs after 108 new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Austria a Russian man (43) was shot dead near Vienna late today. Police soon detained a 47-year-old compatriot in what was considered a possible political assassination. The victim was an ethnic Chechen and a critic of Ramzan Kadyrov.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 4, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring masks on streets and in public transportation. He vetoed clauses requiring masks in churches, schools, shops and factories. Brazil has confirmed more than 61,500 deaths and over 1.5 million coronavirus infections, the 2nd most in the world behind the US.
(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 4, Pubs and movie theaters across England reopened as part of Britain’s biggest step toward post-outbreak normal.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed their negotiations through video conference to resolve a years-long dispute over the operation and filling of Ethiopia’s giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Egypt’s highest criminal court upheld a 15-year sentence for Ahmed Douma, one of the leading activists behind the country’s December 2011 uprising. He was one of 230 people convicted of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Egyptian police arrested Ahmed Bassam Zaki who, according to prosecutors, has confessed to assaulting at least six girls including one aged under 18 and to blackmailing the victims.
(AFP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 4, France said it is sending medics to its South American territory of French Guiana, where infections have surged as the virus swept neighboring Brazil.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, India reported its highest single-day spike, with 22,771 new confirmed cases for a total of more than 648,000, including 18,655 deaths.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, President Hassan Rouhani said Iranians who do not wear masks will be denied state services and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols will be shut for a week. The total number of cases hit 237,878 and a further 148 deaths brought the country's toll to 11,408.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides along the Kuma River. After several days of flooding at least 58 people died.
(AP, 7/4/20)(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 4, Tokyo confirmed 131 new cases, exceeding 100 for the third day in a row and hitting a new two-month high, prompting Governor Yuriko Koike to ask residents to avoid nonessential out-of-town visits.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In Libya airstrikes late today on the al-Waitya airbase in the desert southwestern of Tripoli destroyed military equipment recently brought in by Turkey, including air-defense systems. Foreign jets hit the key military base on the city’s outskirts that was recently retaken by Turkey-backed forces.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 4, In New Zealand a rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, It was reported that motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves in Katsina state are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The recent attacks in the president's home state killed more than 100 people between April and June.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Russia marked a milestone as the death toll rose above 10,000. The national coronavirus task force reported 6,632 new infections, raising the total for the outbreak to 674,515.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Somalia a bomb explosion at a restaurant in the town of Baidoa killed six people. A suicide bomb attack close to Mogadishu injured at least seven. The militant group al-Shabab said it was behind both incidents.
(BBC, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, South Africa reported another record daily high in confirmed coronavirus cases. Confirmed cases climbed to more than 177,000, with a record 9,063 reported in the most recent 24-hour period.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, Authorities in northeast Spain ordered the lockdown of El Segriá county around the city of Lleida, home to over 200,000 people, after health officials recorded a jump in 60 cases in 24 hours.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 4, The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 5, Arizona reported 3,212 new hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a record high. Confirmed cases in the state have now passed 100,000.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 5, California to date had 255,024 cases of coronavirus and 6,337 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 28,771 cases and 598 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,852,807 with the death toll at 129,718.
(sfist.com, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Florida recorded some 10,000 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to more than 200,000 people infected.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, In Atlanta about 60 to 100 demonstrators, dressed in dark clothes and many wearing masks, caused "extensive damage" to the Georgia Bureau of Public Safety headquarters, including breaking several windows and spray painting graffiti on the building.
(ABC News, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Idaho two planes collided in the air and crashed into the Coeur d'Alene Lake late today. There were a total of eight passengers and crew on the two planes.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, In Rochester, NY, a statue of Frederick Douglass was taken from Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped shuttle slaves to freedom. The statue was found at the brink of the Genesee River gorge about 50 feet (15 meters) from its pedestal.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Broadway star Nick Cordero (41) died in Los Angeles of complications from COVID-19 following a 3-month battle with the disease.
(Good Morning America, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, announced that they are cancelling the multi-state natural gas project citing delays and increasing cost uncertainties. The $8 billion project was designed to cross Virginia and West Virginia into North Carolina.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 5, Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia issued a warning, one day after a hospital reported a case of suspected bubonic plague. The warning followed four reported cases of plague in people from Inner Mongolia last November, including two of pneumonic plague, a deadlier variant of plague.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Voters in Croatia cast ballots in what is expected be a close parliamentary race that could push the latest European Union member state further to the right. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a member of the center-right pan-EU European People’s Party, won the election. HDZ must now try and form a coalition government.
(AP, 7/5/20)(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Croatia has reported around 113 deaths and some 3,100 confirmed coronavirus infections.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, The Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky oil tanker, sought by the US over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran, was hijacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. 26 of the Indian sailors on board soon made it back to India, while two remained in Tehran. On July 19 a UN agency acknowledged that ship, allegedly smuggling Iranian crude oil, is back in Iranian waters.
(AP, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 5, The Dominican Republic held persidential elections. Businessman Luis Rodolfo Abinader won 54% of the vote topping Gonzalo Castillo of Dominican Liberation party, which has governed since 2004.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 5, Ethiopian police patrolled the country's troubled Oromia region and the capital, Addis Ababa, following a week of unrest in which 166 people were killed and more than 2,000 arrested, after popular singer Hachalu Hundessa was shot dead.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In France anti-racism groups led a “de-colonial tour" of Paris to call attention to monuments and streets honoring historical figures tied to the slave trade or colonial-era abuses.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Iran confirmed that a building, damaged by fire on July 2 at the underground Natanz nuclear site, was a new centrifuge assembly center.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Iran instituted mandatory mask-wearing as fears mount over newly spiking reported deaths from the coronavirus, even as its public increasingly shrugs off the danger of the COVID-19 illness it causes. Iran recorded 2,560 new confirmed cases over the last 24 hours, with 163 new deaths. That put its death toll since the start of the outbreak at more than 11,500, out of 240,438 confirmed cases.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Israeli military aircraft struck targets in the northern Gaza Strip late today following a barrage of rocket fire into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Israel ordered thousands of people into quarantine after a contentious phone surveillance program resumed while Palestinians in the West Bank returned to life under lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus cases in both areas. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 30,000 people were notified they must enter quarantine since July 2. Israel has seen more than 29,000 cases and 330 deaths.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, In western Kenya residents of Rioma, Kisii County, stormed the local police station this evening after a police officer reportedly shot and killed a trader he accused of selling fake hand sanitizers.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 5, Thousands of Libyans in Benghazi protested against Turkey’s military intervention on the side of Tripoli-based administration.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, Mexico's confirmed COVID-19 infections topped 252,000 with more than 30,000 total deaths.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, Pakistan reported 93 more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s fatalities from COVID-19 to 4,712 since the start of its outbreak at the end of February. As many as 3,191 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, increasing the country’s overall cases to 228,474.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, South Africa for the first time recorded over 10,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases. This brought its total to more than 187,000.
(SFC, 7/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 5, Spain's PM Pedro Sanchez proclaimed that "we have defeated the virus and controlled the pandemic."
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 5, A Sudanese government delegation arrived in Central Darfur province for talks with hundreds of protesters camped outside a government building demanding better security conditions. A week-long protest camp in the town of Nitrite called for the resignation of security officials in the province and a halt to attacks by government-sanctioned armed groups.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 5, The United Arab Emirates announced a wide-ranging government shakeup aimed at creating a more flexible and modern bureaucracy to tackle challenges as the coronavirus and lower oil prices erode what was already sluggish economic growth.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 6, The Trump administration said it was releasing the names of hundreds of thousands of businesses which took money from the high-profile $660 billion pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), letting the public see for the first time how the majority of the cash was spent and whether it helped save jobs.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, President Donald Trump said that US schools must open in the fall - a decision over which he has limited power - as governors struggle with a nationwide rise in coronavirus infections and states reverse and pause attempts to reopen.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The US State Department said Mohamed Amashah (24), a dual Egyptian-American citizen medical student detained without trial in an Egyptian prison for nearly 500 days, has been freed and returned to the United States. He had been held in pre-trial detention on charges of “misusing social media" and “aiding a terrorist group".
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states can require presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, A US District Court ordered Energy Transfer LP to shut and empty the largest pipeline from the North Dakota shale oil fields within 30 days, in a big win for the Native American tribes who have fought the line's route across a crucial water supply. In August a federal appeals court reversed the order.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, The Nasdaq closed at a record high of 10,433.65 as stock climbed globally.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.C3)
2020 Jul 6, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a COVID-19 outbreak in San Quentin State Prison was his "top focus and priority," and that nearly 1,000 inmates would be released early or relocated.
(Insider, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, California to date had 273,039 cases of coronavirus and 6,450 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 30,170 cases and 609 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,934,499 with the death toll at 130,271.
(sfist.com, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Mathematician Ronald Graham (84) died at his home in San Diego. His work included developing methods for worst-case analysis in scheduling theory.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.C15)
2020 Jul 6, Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency and authorized the activation of up to 1,000 National Guard troops following a weekend of violence in Atlanta that left five people dead, including a girl (8).
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 6, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (50) announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She reported no symptoms.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, It was reported that a wave of gun violence in Chicago has killed nine children since June 20. That includes a 7-year-old girl who was struck in the forehead by a bullet when three gunmen opened fire on a Fourth of July street party.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Colin Kaepernick and the Walt Disney Company announced a production deal that will see the activist quarterback produce “scripted and unscripted stories that explore race, social injustice and the quest for equity" for the media giant’s various platforms, including ESPN.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Charlie Daniels (83), country singer, songwriter and blazing fiddler, died.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Scientists reported that fossils dug up in Madagascar, dating from 237 million years ago, were those of a pocket sized dinosaur forerunner, named Kongonaphon, that was smaller than your cellphone.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it has signed a five-year contract to make the drug substance used in Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, adding to a series of deals likely to put it at the heart of future global vaccine production.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Uber announced that it has agreed to acquire the food delivery start-up Postmates for $2.65 billion as it aims to grow its presence in on-demand food delivery while its core ride-hailing business struggles.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Britain used a new legislation drafted in the memory of a killed Russian tax adviser to sanction 25 Russian nationals linked to prosecution and mistreatment of tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky as well as 20 Saudis involved in the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
(The Telegraph, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, British online fashion retailer Boohoo said it will end relationships with any supplier found to have breached its code of conduct, following a media report about dire working conditions in one English factory. The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that workers in a factory in Leicester, central England, making clothes destined for Boohoo were being paid as little as 3.50 pounds ($4.38) an hour.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, In Cambodia the province of Siem Reap outlawed the trade of dog meat. The trade remains legal in other parts of the country. Recent reports estimated that 2-3 million dogs are killed annually in Cambodia for their meat.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 6, China joined a global arms trade treaty spurned by the United States, taking a swipe at US President Donald Trump's administration by accusing it of bullying, unilateralism and undermining efforts to combat global challenges.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Police in in northern Beijing arrested Xu Zhangrun (57), a law professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University and one of the few academics in China who have harshly criticized the ruling Communist Party, on an accusation of consorting with prostitutes. Xu published an essay in February blaming the culture of deception and censorship fostered by Xi for the spread of the coronavirus in China. Zhangrun was released on July 12.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)(AFP, 7/6/20)(The Telegraph, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 6, Egypt's Health Ministry has recorded 76,253 coronavirus infections, including 3,343 deaths. At least 10 doctors and six journalists have been arrested since the virus first hit Egypt in February.
(AP, 7/5/20)
2020 Jul 6, India reported 24,248 new cases of the coronavirus and has now confirmed over 697,000 cases including 19,693 deaths.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, Husham Al-Hashimi (47), a leading expert on the Islamic State group, was gunned down outside his home in Baghdad late today. He had recently turned his attention to Iran-backed militias in Iraq. His drive-by shooting involved two attackers on a motorcycle. A year later police arrested the shooter. He was identified as Ahmed Hamdawi al-Kinani, a police officer with the rank of first lieutenant in the Interior Ministry. In his confession, al-Kinani said he had worked with four other accomplices.
(AP, 7/7/20)(AP, 7/16/21)
2020 Jul 6, Israel launched a new spy satellite that could help monitor Iran’s nuclear activity, as Israeli officials remained evasive about recent incidents at Iranian industrial facilities that have raised suspicions of foreign sabotage.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Italian composer Ennio Morricone (91) died in Rome. His atmospheric scores for spaghetti westerns and some 500 films by a Who’s Who of international directors made him one of the world’s most versatile and influential creators of music for the modern cinema.
(NY Times, 7/6/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.74)
2020 Jul 6, Netherlands-based Mylan NV said it would launch a generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's COVID-19 antiviral remdesivir in India at 4,800 rupees ($64.31), about 80% below the price tag on the drug for wealthy nations.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Pakistan has now recorded 231,813 coronavirus infections and 4,762 deaths. Pakistan's foreign minister and health minister have recently tested positive for he virus.
(SFC, 7/7/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 6, A Russian court convicted journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva of “justifying terrorism" after she wrote an opinion article in 2018 suggesting that teenage suicide bomber Mikhail Zhlobitsky (17) was driven to the act by anger at the repression of law enforcement agencies. The court in Pskov fined her 500,000 rubles (some £5,000). The judge seized her laptop and phone.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Saudi Arabia issued guidelines for about 1,000 pilgrims who will be allowed to perform the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca later this month, an experience that will be unlike any before because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 6, In South Korea Son Jong-woo (24), the operator of the largest child pornography web site ever uncovered, walked free from prison after a court in Seoul ruled that he could not be extradited to the US to face additional charges. Son had completed his 18-month term in April but was immediately detained again after a US federal grand jury indicted him on nine charges.
(The Telegraph, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, Spanish health officials said results from the final stage of a nationwide antibody study show some 5.2% of Spain's population has been exposed to the new coronavirus, confirming findings from earlier stages.
(Reuters, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, The UN warned that COVID-19 could cause an additional half a million AIDS deaths if treatment is disrupted long term. The UN also said the pandemic was jeopardizing years of progress against HIV.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 6, In Zimbabwe at least 12 nurses were arrested when they demonstrated against their working conditions, complaining that they do not have adequate protective gear to safely treat COVID-19 patients. The country has recorded about 700 cases of coronavirus infection and 8 deaths.
(AP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, The US State Department and the UN said that the Trump administration had formally notified the UN that the United States would leave the WHO next year.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that a Washington, DC federal court has ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay $879 million in its decision after finding the Iranian defendants directed the 1996 terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia where US forces were housed.
(PR Newswire, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt announced his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to move forward with the idea to reintroduce grizzly bears to the forested mountains in and around North Cascades National Park in north central Washington state.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 7, California to date had 283,750 cases of coronavirus and 6,569 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 30,940 cases and 621 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,948,397 with the death toll at 130,430.
(sfist.com, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, San Francisco-based Sunrun, the nation's largest residential solar company, said that it is acquiring Vivint Solar, a Utah-based leading competitor. The deal would form one of the world's largest providers of solar equipment.
(SFC, 7/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that a local health department In southwestern Missouri revealed earlier this week that an overnight summer camp has seen scores of campers, counselors and staff infected with the coronavirus.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, Researchers reported that a recently discovered species of seaweed is killing large patches of coral on once-pristine reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and is rapidly spreading across one of the most remote and protected ocean environments on earth. The new species of red algae has been named Chondria tumulosa.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Washington state Mary Kay Letourneau (58), a teacher who was convicted of raping Vili Fualaau (12) in 1996, died of cancer. The case that drew international headlines. Letourneau and Fualaau married on May 20, 2005, in Woodinville, Washington, after her release from prison.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that the US government has awarded Novavax Inc $1.6 billion to cover testing and manufacturing of a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus in the United States, with the aim of delivering 100 million doses by January.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said that the US government has signed a $450 million contract with the company for its potential COVID-19 antibody cocktail.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Florida reported 7,347 new cases, with the total number of diagnosed cases now at 213,794. The state's death toll has reached 3,943.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, The New York Department of Financial Services said Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $150 million in penalties over its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as part of a consent order with regulators in New York.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, NYC police said 64 people were shot over the weekend in a surge of shootings. The city surpassed 400 shootings in the first half of the year for the first time since 2016, with 528 by the end of last month.
(NY Times, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Work crews In Richmond, Va., took down a monument to Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, the third major statue to be cleared away in less than a week as the Confederacy's former capital rushes to remove symbols of oppression in response to protests against police brutality and racism.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a police convoy in Nangarhar province killing four officers.
(SFC, 7/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 7, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro said he has tested positive for COVID-19. Sources close to the president said that Bolsonaro began exhibiting symptoms of the virus July 4.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Doctors reported that a Brazilian man infected with the AIDS virus has shown no sign of it for more than a year since he stopped HIV medicines after an intense experimental drug therapy aimed at purging hidden, dormant virus from his body.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Britain said it would resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia, halted last year after a UK court ruling over the Gulf kingdom's bombing campaign in neighboring Yemen.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Britain's GSK said that an injection of its cabotegravir drug given every two months was found to be 66% more effective in preventing HIV infections than Gilead's Truvada daily oral pills.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, UK-based Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc said that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved use of its Lysol Disinfectant Spray against COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In China a bus careered into a lake in the city of Anshun in the southwest province of Guizhou, killing 21 people. Five students heading to their university entrance exams were among those killed. It was later reported that the bus driver, upset that his home would be demolished, had been drinking at the wheel before plunging his vehicle into a reservoir.
(The Telegraph, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 7, Colombia's leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels asked the government late today to "agree a bilateral 90-day ceasefire" in response to a call from the United Nations to reduce violence and conflicts during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, Dubai allowed tourists back into the country following a COVID-19 shutdown.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.37)
2020 Jul 7, German prosecutors in the town of Zwickau seized servers that hosted thousands of sensitive police documents published as part of the BlueLeaks data dump. The publisher was not given an explanation. Prosecutors behind the seizure were acting at the request of the US government. The takedown came after DDoSecrets, the publisher that hosted the BlueLeaks files after they were obtained by an anonymous hacker, was permanently banned from Twitter.
(AFP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 7, In India 467 people have died from the coronavirus in the last day, bringing the nation's death toll to 20,160. Authorities reported a one-day increase of 22,252, bringing India's total number of coronavirus cases to 719,665.
(Good Morning America, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Iraq partially reopened its southern Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran after more than three months of closure to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling party adopted a resolution urging the government to cancel a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping following Beijing's imposition of a new national security law for Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, It was reported that all schools in Kenya will remain closed until next January because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kenya has confirmed more than 8,000 cases of coronavirus with at least 164 deaths along with a recent surge in new infections.
(BBC, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Kenyan police fired tear gas and detained scores of protesters demanding an end to police brutality. About 100 people took part in demonstrations across the capital, Nairobi.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, In Russia former journalist Ivan Safronov, who worked as an adviser to the director of Russia's state space corporation, was detained on charges of passing military secrets to a Western nation, accusations that many of his colleagues dismissed as absurd. Dozens of prominent journalists protested and were promptly detained.
(AP, 7/7/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 7, South Africa has confirmed 159,333 total cases of the coronavirus and 2,749 deaths.
(BBC, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkish authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 276 migrants to Europe on board a ship, and detained eight suspected smugglers.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, Turkey detained another 41 people, many of them soldiers, for being suspected members of the Gulen community (cemaat), an Islamist movement the Pres. Erdogan blames for an attempted 2016 coup.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.48)
2020 Jul 7, The United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings concluded that the US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani was "unlawful." Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded it was an "arbitrary killing" that violated the UN charter.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 8, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and he lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold Trump administration rules allowing some employers to decline to provide contraceptive coverage on religious or moral grounds, which could leave more than 70,000 women without cost-free birth control.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, California to date had 290,199 cases of coronavirus and 6,575 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 31,808 cases and 626 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,046,351 with the death toll at 132,195.
(sfist.com, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, TV show Glee star Naya Rivera disappeared at California's Lake Piru. A boat rental employee found her boat floating with only son Josey (4) asleep inside and alerted authorities.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 8, Police in Miami arrested the former governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, César Horacio Duarte Jáquez (b.1963), who is wanted on corruption charges in his homeland. Duarte governed the northern border state from 2010 to 2016.
(The Telegraph, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Florida announced nearly 9,000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Positive test rates reached a new daily high of 18%, up from 12%-13% two weeks ago.
(AP, 7/9/20)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Dylan Jarrell (22) of Kentucky, who bought an AR-15 rifle that authorities alleged he planned to use to open fire at his former high school in 2018, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(NBC News, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar international students from staying in the US if they take classes entirely online this fall.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Two powerful tornadoes damaged farms, left one person dead and at least one other injured in western Minnesota as severe storms moved across parts of the Midwest.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, New York-based Brooks Brothers, a 202-year-old men's retailer, filed for bankruptcy and said it is closing 51 stores across the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 8, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests "likely contributed" to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas executed its first death row inmate since it first confirmed a case of coronavirus after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his execution to go ahead. Billy Joe Wardlow (45) was sentenced to death in 1993 for a robbery and murder in which he and his girlfriend tried to rob 82-year-old Carl Cole of his truck using a .45-caliber gun.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas has recorded over 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,670 deaths.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Work crews in Virginia took down the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors statue, installed in 1894, the 6th Confederate monument to be removed in Richmond amid national protests against police brutality and symbols many see as racist icons.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 8, Biogen Inc said it has submitted an application seeking US approval of its closely-watched Alzheimer's drug, as the company aims to be the first to bring a treatment to market that can alter the course of the mind-wasting disease.
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, BlueCity listed on New York's NASDAQ at a market valley of over $600 million. BlueCity Holdings Limited is a China-based LGBTQ focused internet technology company dedicated to providing comprehensive services to diverse users around the world. Blued, launched in 2012, is china's most popular social networking site for homosexual men.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.54)
2020 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in southern Kandahar province, killing three officers. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Australia the city of Melbourne and part of its surroundings began a six-week lockdown. Victoria authorities announced 134 new cases in the past 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that Brazil must take emergency measures to protect its Indigenous communities from the novel coronavirus.
(The Conversation, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that at least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists. The men had been found shot dead under bridges, in fields and along major roads within a 5km (three-mile) radius of Djibo between November 2019 and June 2020.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, China defended the World Health Organization and lashed out at the US decision to withdraw from the UN body.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that China has imported more than 300,000 tons of West African rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) from The Gambia since President Adama Barrow came to power in 2017. The rosewood being shipped out of The Gambia to China comes from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where it is illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Hong Kong Beijing's national security office was inaugurated. Hong Kong's educational bureau announced that schools must not allow students to play, sing or broadcast the protest anthem" Glory to Hong Kong," because it contains political images.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Iran said that its deaths from the novel coronavirus had surpassed 12,000, with authorities considering reimposing restrictive measures in Tehran to contain a resurgence of the disease. Another 153 deaths had been recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,084. Total cases had risen to 248,379 with 2,691 more people testing positive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly (61) died after falling ill at a ministerial meeting. Coulibaly had only just returned from France where he had received two-months' heart treatment.
(BBC, 7/8/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 8, Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen (64), serving a five-year sentence in the United States for providing millions of dollars to the militant Hezbollah group, arrived in Beirut after his early release.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Pakistan's national carrier said it is firing 28 pilots found to have tainted licenses. 262 pilots are currently grounded in the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said 82 percent of new coronavirus cases in the West Bank were linked to weddings and funerals. Over the past few weeks more than 4,000 new cases and 15 deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that Ukraine's security service has detained a suspected Russian agent who was allegedly planning to blow up an ammonia tank in the country’s war-torn east.
(The Telegraph, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 9, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison, after balking at certain conditions of the home confinement he was granted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The United States imposed sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, including a member of the ruling Politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities that China has detained in the western part of the country.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation, a decision that state and federal officials have warned could throw Oklahoma into chaos.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a New York prosecutor can obtain President Donald Trump's financial records but prevented - at least for now - Democratic-led House of Representatives committees from getting similar documents.
(Reuters, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The US Department of Labor said another 1.3 million US workers filed for unemployment insurance last week. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the record for weekly unemployment filings was 695,000 in 1982.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, It was reported that at least 50 journalists in the US have been arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the US, while dozens of others have also been injured by rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The Ivy League placed all sports on hold until at least January, making it the first Division I conference that will not play football because of the pandemic.
(NY Times, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, More than 60,500 new COVID-19 infections were reported across the United States, setting a one-day record as Americans were told to take new precautions and the pandemic becomes increasingly politicized. infections rose in 41 of the 50 states over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, California to date had 300,319 cases of coronavirus and 6,847 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 32,636 cases and 638 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,108,141 with the death toll at 133,106.
(sfist.com, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, It was reported that at least 26 lawmakers in Mississippi have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the biggest known outbreak in any state legislature in the nation. The state has seen a rapid rise in confirmed cases in the past two weeks, with the total hitting nearly 33,600.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio grabbed a roller to paint “Black Lives Matter" in front of the namesake Manhattan tower of President Donald Trump, who tweeted last week that the street mural would be “a symbol of hate".
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Texas hit a record number of daily coronavirus fatalities, with 105 new deaths recorded.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency late today in response to protests in Salt Lake city that erupted after authorities said a fatal police shooting in May was justified.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 9, The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Republican-authored lame-duck laws that stripped power from the incoming Democratic attorney general just before he took office in 2019.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 9, Bed Bath & Beyond said it plans to close about 200 stores over the next two years as its sales slid in the first quarter. The chain reported its quarterly sales dropped 49% due to temporary store closures amid the pandemic. Online sales soared 82%.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Several large drug makers including Merck & Co Inc and Pfizer Inc unveiled a $1 billion fund to bolster struggling antibiotic companies and sustain a pipeline for new treatments.
(Reuters, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Moderna Inc said it has signed an agreement with Spain's Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi SA to scale up the manufacturing and production of its potential COVID-19 vaccine to supply markets outside the United States.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents in response to China's imposition of a tough national security law on the semi-autonomous territory.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 9, Bolivia’s interim president announced that he has been infected with the new coronavirus. Three Cabinet ministers in the administration of Bolivian leader Jeanine Áñez have also tested positive for the virus, including Health Minister Eidy Roca and Presidency Minister Yerko Nuñez, who is hospitalized. The country has 42,984 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,577 deaths, and is seeing a rebound in the number of new cases amid reports that hospitals are being overwhelmed in some regions.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Bulgaria police raided the office of Pres. Rumen Radev and detained two aides on charges of influence peddling and disclosing state secrets. Demonstrators soon took the streets accusing the chief prosecutor of ordering the raid.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 9, In CongoDRC two protesters were shot dead and a policeman was lynched in clashes over plans to name a new head to the country's election panel. Police in Kinshasa used tear gas to break up thousands of members of President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Progress (UDPS) who had marched to near the seat of parliament.
(AFP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, India's Health Ministry said that India was doing “relatively well" managing COVID-19, pointing to 13 deaths per 1 million people, compared to about 400 in the United States and 320 in Brazil. India has tallied 793,802 infections and more than 21,600 deaths, with cases doubling every three weeks.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Indonesia has confirmed more than 68,000 cases of the coronavirus, including over 3,350 deaths, the most infections and fatalities in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Israeli troops shot and killed Ibrahim Abu Yakoub (29), a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, who they said was one of two men throwing firebombs at a guard post near the village of Kifl Haris. Palestinian officials say they merely strolling through their village.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Kazakhstan the Chinese embassy flagged a "significant increase" in cases in the Kazakh cities of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent since mid-June.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, At least 300,000 Puerto Ricans have filed unemployment claims linked to the pandemic — out of a civilian labor force of 1.05 million — and many others are ineligible for aid because they are part of the island’s large informal economy. Puerto Rico in mid-June had the highest insured unemployment rate in the country, at 23 percent.
(NY Times, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Russia Sergei Furgal, the opposition governor of the Khabarovsk region, was detained. Investigators searched the homes of several Kremlin critics who have urged supporters to protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
(AP, 7/9/20)(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Serbia’s authorities banned gatherings of more than 10 people in the capital Belgrade after two nights of violent clashes between police and thousands of demonstrators protesting coronavirus lockdown measures.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Authorities in South Korea searched for Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who vanished amid sexual harassment allegations after giving his daughter a message that she described as sounding like a will. The body of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon (64) was soon discovered on a hill in northern Seoul, several hours after his daughter reported him missing.
(AP, 7/9/20)(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 9, Sudan's ruling body ratified a law banning the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, handing the movement for women’s rights in the African country a long-sought victory.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 9, The Swiss-based Int'l. Union for the Conservation of Nature updated its red list and said the lemurs of Madagascar are just one step away form extinction. North Atlantic Right Whales were also said to be nearing extinction.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 9, In northwestern Turkey a truck carrying fireworks exploded, killing three military police officers and wounded six others.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, Efforts by the United Arab Emirates to fight the coronavirus have renewed questions about mass surveillance in this US-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, In Venezuela socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello (57), the country's No. 2 leader, announced that he has been infected with the new coronavirus. The government has reported 8,010 confirmed cases and 75 deaths.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 9, The WHO said former Liberian pres. Ellen Johnson and former New Zealand PM Helen Clark will lead a new panel to give an assessment of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 10, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president's own conduct.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Goya Foods Inc, the largest Hispanic-owned US food company and a popular brand among Latino Americans, became the target of a boycott campaign on social media sparked by its CEO effusively praising President Donald Trump at the White House.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it will release more inmates to help protect the prisons from COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, California to date had 307,499 cases of coronavirus and 6,893 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 33,447 cases and 639 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,173,466 with the death toll at 133,940.
(sfist.com, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Trumpeter Eddie Gale (78) died in San Jose, Ca., after a long battle with cancer. His albums included "Ghetto Music" (1968) and "Black Rhythm Happening" (1969).
(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.C11)
2020 Jul 10, Florida reported 11,433 new cases, bringing the state's total cases to 244,151.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she is rolling back the city's reopening plans. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said the mayor had no authority to return to phase 1.
(Good Morning America, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, It was reported that more than 150 Minneapolis police officers are filing work-related disability claims after the death of George Floyd and ensuing unrest, with about three-quarters citing post-traumatic stress disorder as the reason for their planned departures.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said the state will re-implement restrictions on bars and restaurants in certain counties to prevent further spread of the coronavirus effective this midnight.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said authorities will halt indoor restaurant service, close state parks to nonresidents and suspend autumn contact sports in response to surging coronavirus infections in the state effective July 13.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, A South Dakota teenager (17) was sentenced to 55 years in prison after admitting he fatally shot a Wyoming girl last fall. Shayna Ritthaler (16) went missing Oct. 3 after being seen getting into a Jeep-like vehicle at a coffee shop in Moorcroft, Wyoming. She was found Oct. 7 in the basement of the home the boy shared with his mother east of Sturgis.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Inpe, Brazil's national space agency, published figures showing 400 square miles of deforestation in the Amazon in June. Total deforestation from January to June was 1,890 square miles, up 25% from the same period last year.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 10, China reported two new coronavirus cases in the mainland. As of today mainland China had 83,587 confirmed coronavirus cases. The death toll remained at 4,634.
(Reuters, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, China said it was suspending imports from three Ecuadorean shrimp producers after detecting coronavirus in recent shipments, prompting one of the Ecuadorean producers to accuse China of "tarnishing the reputation" of the industry.
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Smoore, China's biggest e-cigarette maker, launched its IPO in Hong Kong. It is now the world's most valuable vape firm, worth around $24 billion. This was a challenge to China's state-owned China Tobacco, which accounted for 6% of government revenues in 2019.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.53)
2020 Jul 10, In northern Egypt 11 people drowned off the coast, at a beach known for its rocky jetty and fast-moving waters. A young boy had run into the sea and began having difficulties. Ten people died in a failed attempt to rescue him.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, French bus driver Phillipe Monguillot (59) was declared brain dead following a July 5 attack by a group of unmasked passengers in Bayonne. Two men were charged with attempted murder following the attack, while another two men were charged with failing to help a person in danger.
(Insider, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, India reported 25,506 coronavirus cases, and another 475 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total fatality toll to 21,604.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Iranian state TV reported that Iran’s military chief has signed an agreement with Syria's president to reinforce Syria's air defense systems as part of a military cooperation agreement.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, An explosion rocked western Tehran early today, causing widespread power failures in two residential areas and unnerving Iranians awakened for the third consecutive week by an early-morning blast.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Italy's city of Venice opened all 78 movable sluice gates of its Experimental Electromechanical Module (MOSE), blocking the inlets to the lagoon that surrounds the city. The system was expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 10, Record-breaking rains this week in the south of Japan have killed 62 people in floods and landslides. The extreme weather is highlighting the vulnerability of nursing homes: Floodwaters killed 14 seniors in one nursing home.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Japan reported 243 new cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo as businesses have largely returned to normal.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Protesters in Mali forced the state broadcaster off air during large demonstrations in Bamako. This was the third rally in a month demanding that President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita stand down. At least one person was reported killed outside the national assembly.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, In Nepal landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rain killed at least 10 people and left 30 others missing. The death toll was soon raised to 117 with at least 47 missing.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A2)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 10, In Pakistan daily coronavirus infections dropped to 2,751 over the last 24 hours as testing decreased. Total deaths crossed the 5,000 mark.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 10, Philippine lawmakers voted to reject the license renewal of ABS-CBN Corp., the country's largest TV network founded in 1953. The network had been repeatedly threatened by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte over its critical coverage. Some network programming continued over paid cable channels.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 10, A court in Moscow ruled to jail Sergei Furgal (50), the governor of the Khabarovsk region, pending a probe on charges of his involvement in multiple murders. The Investigative Committee, the nation’s main criminal investigation agency, said he is accused of involvement in the murders of several businessmen in the region and nearby territories in 2004 and 2005.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, South Africa overnight posted another record daily high of confirmed cases, 13,674, as Africa’s most developed country is a new global hot spot with 238,339 cases overall. More than a third are in Gauteng province. Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced he had tested positive with mild symptoms.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, In Serbia 14 policemen were injured in rioting when hundreds of right-wing demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building in downtown Belgrade. 71 people have been detained after clashes during the fourth night of anti-government protests that were initially sparked by the announcement of a new coronavirus lockdown.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 10, Singapore held parliamentary elections.The Ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won 83 of Parliament's 93 seats. The opposition Workers' Party (WP) took a record 10 seats in the best performance by an opposition party since independence in 1965.
(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A7)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.29)
2020 Jul 10, A leading doctor in Syria's overcrowded opposition-held enclave said hospitals are suspending non-emergency procedures and outpatient services following the detection of the first case of coronavirus. The first case of COVID-19 was reported a day earlier in Idlib province.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum. The news sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Hagia Sophia was originally built as a Christian cathedral.
(AP, 7/10/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 10, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem.
(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that the illegal global ivory trade has decreased, but trafficking of pangolins is on the rise.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's emergencies program, said that an outbreak of pneumonia in Kazakhstan, reported to be highly lethal, was "certainly on our radar". He also said it was possible it might be COVID-19. Kazakhstan's healthcare ministry branded Chinese media reports as "fake news".
(Reuters, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 11, Former special counsel Robert Mueller sharply defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, writing in a newspaper opinion piece that the probe was of “paramount importance" and asserting that a Trump ally, Roger Stone, “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so" despite the president's decision to commute his prison sentence.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, It was reported that employees of a Five Guys restaurant in Daphne, Alabama were fired for refusing to serve a group of police officers earlier this week.
(Insider, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, It was reported that a California doctor has been charged after it was found that vulnerable drug addicts were being paid hundreds of dollars in cash to receive an experimental procedure, after which several died of overdoses. Dr. Randy Rosen faced 88 felony charges from the Los Angeles Orange County district attorney. Prosecutors have accused him of fraudulently billing insurance companies over $650 million and stealing almost $52 million in what they call an elaborate scheme.
(CBS News, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, A fire early today destroyed the rooftop and most of the interior of the Catholic church San Gabriel that was undergoing renovation to mark its upcoming 250th anniversary celebration. The San Gabriel Mission was founded in 1771.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, California to date had 318,947 cases of coronavirus and 7,026 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 34,109 cases and 641 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,242,073 with the death toll at 134,729.
(sfist.com, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Marc Angelucci (52), a men's rights lawyer, was killed in San Bernardino County, Ca. The murder was later connected to Roy Den Hollander (72), another men's rights attorney who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the day after the July 19 attack that killed a New Jersey judge’s son and wounded her husband.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Florida visitors wore colorful face masks with mouse ears as Walt Disney World opened to the public in Orlando for the first time in four months amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the state.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In southern Texas police Officers Edelmiro Garza (45) and Ismael Chavez (39) were shot and killed by Audon Ignacio Camarillo (23), who later fatally shot himself after responding to a domestic disturbance call in McAllen.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Australia, health officials in Victoria reported 216 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, down from the record 288 the previous day.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Belgium wearing a face mask to slow the spread of the coronavirus became mandatory in shops, theaters, entertainment venues and other indoor spaces.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, A new UK study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that COVID-19 antibodies may start to decline 20 to 30 days after the onset of symptoms and that detectable amounts of antibodies fell rapidly in the weeks afterward.
(Yahoo News, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 11, Bulgaria's Pres. Ruman Radev called on the center-right government to step down and the chief prosecutor to resign as the only way to ease the growing political tensions that have sparked mass protests across the country. Radev, a vocal critic of PM Boyko Borissov’s center-right government, accused it of corruption, lack of justice and suppression of the freedom of speech.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, India reported a new daily high of 27,114, its biggest daily spike as the total number of coronavirus cases passed 820,916. The death toll rose by 519 for a total of 22,123.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A11)
2020 Jul 11, Iran said that it cannot afford to shut down its sanctions-hit economy, even as the country's novel coronavirus outbreak worsens with record-high death tolls and rising infections. The Health Minsitry said 88 people had died from the respiratory disease in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 12,635. The country's caseload rose to 255,117, with 2,397 new infections recorded.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhemi launched a new campaign against corruption at the country's borders, saying millions of dollars were being lost by not properly taxing imported goods.
(AFP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in downtown Tel Aviv, protesting what is widely seen as PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to address economic woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said dozens of US Marines at two bases on the southern Japanese island have been infected with the coronavirus in what is feared to be a massive outbreak. The next day officials reported 61 cases – 38 at Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma and another 23 at Camp Hansen.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 11, In Libya Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Khalifa Hifter's forces, called for oil revenues to flow into a bank account in a foreign country with a “clear mechanism" to distribute funds fairly among Libya’s regions.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, In Mali police fired tear gas in Bamako as scattered groups came out for a second straight day of anti-government protests, defying the president's latest call for dialogue. Mali Pres. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta announced the dissolution of the constitutional court in an attempt to calm unrest that saw four people killed in street protests a day earlier.
(AP, 7/11/20)(BBC, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 11, The Philippines by this time had recorded some 50,440 cases of the coronavirus and 1,300 deaths.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 11, In Puerto Rico dozens of activists marched through the historic part of San Juan, some wearing traditional Taino clothing, as they banged on drums and blew on conch shells to demand that the US territory’s government start by removing statues including those of explorer Christopher Columbus.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In eastern Russia thousands of demonstrators in Khabarovsk demonstrated against the July 9 arrest of regional Gov. Sergei Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Party. His 2018 election marked a setback for Pres. Putin's United Russia party.
(SSFC, 7/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 11, Russia scored a victory for its ally Syria by forcing the Security Council to limit humanitarian aid deliveries to the country’s mainly rebel-held northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey, a move that Western nations say will cut a lifeline for 1.3 million people.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, In South Africa five people were killed after attackers stormed the International Pentecostal Holiness Church on the outskirts of Johannesburg, reportedly amid an argument over its leadership. At least 40 people were arrested including members of SAPS, the South African National Defence Force, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and the Department of Correctional Services.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, South Africa now has more than 250,000 confirmed cases, including more than 3,800 deaths.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, The South Korean army announced the death of former army Gen. Paik Sun-yup (99). He was celebrated as a major war hero for leading troops in several battle victories against North Korean soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 11, Turkey’s parliament passed controversial legislation amending laws governing attorneys and bar associations, despite protests from critics who say the move could limit the independence of lawyers and reduce the professional associations’ clout.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 12, A fire and explosion aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard injured at least 57 people at a base in San Diego. On July 17 the Navy announced that all fires on the ship have been extinguished. In 2022 a military judge acquitted sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays (21) of arson.
(AP, 7/13/20)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A6)(SFC, 10/1/22, p.A11)
2020 Jul 12, California to date had 319,507 cases of coronavirus and 7,030 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 34,970 cases and 643 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,271,549 with the death toll at 135,029.
(sfist.com, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Florida announced 15,299 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total in any state. This raised Florida's total to 269,811.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 12, Joanna Cole (75), author of children's books, died Sioux City, Iowa. She teamed with the illustrator Bruce Degen to create one of the most popular and enduring children’s book series of recent decades, the bizarre but educational adventures chronicled under the rubric “The Magic School Bus".
(NY Times, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 12, US actress Kelly Preston (57) died in Houston after a silent battle with breast cancer. Her husband of 28 years, John Travolta, soon confirmed the news.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Preston)
2020 Jul 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in skirmishes on their volatile border that left four Azerbaijani soldiers dead and several troops wounded on both sides.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, Australia's government said that it will offer 10,000 Hong Kong passport holders currently living in Australia a chance to apply for permanent residence once their current passport expires.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 12, China raised its national-emergency response to its 2nd highest level in the face of the worse flooding in decades. Flooding in dozens of provinces has already caused the death or disappearance of 141 people, the loss of 28,000 homes and $11.7 bn in damages.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.34)
2020 Jul 12, Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned up to vote in an unofficial primary election held by the city’s pro-democracy camp as it gears up to field candidates for an upcoming legislative poll.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd shut one of its manufacturing plants in Gujarat state after at least 17 employees at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 12, Iran reported 194 deaths from the COVID-19 disease and 2,186 new cases in the past 24 hours. In total, 257,303 cases have been reported in the country, including 12,829 deaths. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged all citizens to help stem the region's deadliest outbreak.
(AFP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised to provide speedy financial help for self-employed workers following protests over the government's failure to address economic woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 12, Deaths in Mexico from the coronavirus pandemic rose above 35,000, with the Latin American country overtaking Italy for the world's fourth-highest death total.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, Voters in Poland cast ballots in the country's razor blade-close presidential runoff between the conservative, populist incumbent President Andrzej Duda and the liberal, pro-Europe Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski in a battle that reflects deep divisions in this EU nation.
(AP, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, South Africa introduced new restrictions, including another ban on alcohol sales, to prevent drunks from taking up precious space in hospitals and to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 7/12/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.37)
2020 Jul 12, It was reported that Sudan has outlined wide-reaching reforms including allowing non-Muslims to drink alcohol, and scrapping the apostasy law and public flogging. The laws were initially approved in April but they have only now taken effect.
(BBC, 7/12/20)
2020 Jul 12, Sudanese security forces violently broke up a protest camp in the war-scarred Darfur region, killing at least protester and wounding a dozen others, including four children.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 12, In northwest Yemen an airstrike late today killed seven children and two women in Hajjah province. Saudi Arabia has frequently drawn international criticism for errant airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Trump administration escalated its actions against China by stepping squarely into one of the most sensitive regional issues dividing them and rejecting outright nearly all of Beijing’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The US Treasury said the federal government incurred a June deficit of $864 billion, its biggest monthly budget deficit in history.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, A US district judge ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana. Daniel Lewis Lee (47) had been scheduled to die today by lethal injection for the 1996 killing in Arkansas of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife and her daughter (8). The Trump administration immediately appealed to a higher court, asking that the executions move forward.
(AP, 7/13/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, The federal judge who presided over Roger Stone's criminal case ordered the government to explain the scope of President Donald Trump's order commuting Stone's prison term, saying it was unclear whether the clemency decision also impacts his term of supervised release by the US probation office.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, A US federal judge agreed to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, California's governor clamped new restrictions on businesses as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared, and the state's two largest school districts, in Los Angeles and San Diego, said children would be made to stay home in August.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, California to date had 333,356 cases of coronavirus and 7,089 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 36,150 cases and 656 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,353,348 with the death toll at 135,524.
(sfist.com, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Grant Imahara (b.1970), American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host, died in Los Angeles due to a brain aneurysm. From 2004 to 2014 Imahara was one of the presenters on the popular cable TV series "MythBusters" (2003-2018).
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.B2)
2020 Jul 13, Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins football team, announced that the name and logo of the team would be retired.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.23)
2020 Jul 13, A US federal judge in Georgia struck down a state anti-abortion law approved last year calling it unconstitutional.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, In Michigan the body of Susie Zhao (33), a professional poker player, was found burned in a parking lot at the Pontiac Lake State Recreation area. A Pontiac resident (60), wanted in connection to Zhao's death, was arrested on July 31.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2vjm75q)(ABC News, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 13, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. A federal judge in Nashville quickly blocked it.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, The Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic group founded by the business magnate George Soros, announced that it is investing $220 million in efforts to achieve racial equality in America.
(NY Times, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Semiconductor maker Analog Devices Inc said it would buy rival Maxim Integrated Products Inc for about $21 billion in the largest US deal this year, aiming to boost its market share in automotive and 5G chipmaking.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, PerkinElmer said it anticipates its second-quarter revenue will climb approximately 12%. The company said the increase was driven by better-than-expected demand for its full-suite of solutions aimed at helping support customers’ COVID-19 testing needs around the world.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE said two of their experimental coronavirus vaccines received 'fast track' designation from the US health agency, speeding up the regulatory review process.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, G7 finance ministers called for full implementation of a G20 freeze in debt service payments by all official bilateral creditors and adherence to debt data transparency standards. In a teleconference the G7 ministers also discussed domestic and international economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic and strategies to achieve a robust global recovery.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, In northern Afghanistan Taliban insurgents launched an attack on an intelligence compound in Aybak, Samangan province, killing at least 11 intelligence agency personnel. A suicide bomber and two insurgents were killed.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 13, Bangladesh officials said more than a million people have been marooned following two weeks of heavy rains, with the worst of it in the last few days.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, Brazil's government fired Lubia Vinhas, an official at the national space agency Inpe whose department is responsible for satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 13, China said it will impose sanctions on three US lawmakers and one ambassador in response to similar actions taken by the US last week against Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses against Muslims in the Xinjiang region. US Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Rep. Chris Smith and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback were targeted, as was the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Czech Republic reimposed restrictions for travel to Serbia and Montenegro after a spike of new coronavirus cases in the Balkan countries.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Prominent Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir (65), who had been jailed on charges of broadcasting false news, died of COVID-19 at a Cairo hospital. Monir had contracted the disease in pre-trial detention and was released on July 2 after falling ill in custody.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, Indonesia reported 1,282 new cases, bringing the total count to 76,981.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Iran reported 203 new coronavirus fatalities that took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak to 13,032. The overall number of cases rose to 259,652.
(AFP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Paschal Donohue (b.1974), Ireland's finance minister, took office as president of the Eurogroup, the influential club of euro-zone finance ministers.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.44)
2020 Jul 13, Israeli police and Jerusalem municipal officials scuffled with protesters demonstrating against PM Benjamin Netanyahu as officers dismantled tents set up by the demonstrator's outside the premier's residence.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Ivory Coast's vice president Daniel Kablan Duncan submitted his resignation less than a week after PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly died in Abidjan, throwing the West African country's political scene into further disarray three months before pivotal national elections.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, It was reported that a Lebanese waste management company is quarantining some 133 Syrian workers who tested positive for the coronavirus. Lebanon recorded a new daily high for infections.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The Japan Federation of Medical Worker's Unions said about a third of Japanese medical institutions are cutting summer bonuses to staff, as many hospitals and clinics face a cash crunch, having had to delay routine treatments to make room for coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Malaysia's PM Muhyiddin Yassin secured a parliamentary majority (111-109) in favor of changing the speaker of the lower house. This meant that a no-confidence vote filed in May would likely not be debated.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.29)
2020 Jul 13, In Mali a measure of calm returned to Bamako as traffic again began to circulate on two of the city's main bridges, major choke points that protesters had targeted. 11 people have died and 124 have been injured in three days of unrest.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin supported a proposal to extend the deadline for a 25.7 trillion ruble ($363 billion) package of state spending, known as the national projects, by six years until 2030 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, It was reported that Russian prosecutors have brought charges of premeditated murder against three Moscow teenage sisters for killing their abusive father. Krestina, Angelina and Maria stabbed their 57-year old father Mikhail Khachaturyan in July 2018 after enduring years of intimidation, beatings and sexual abuse.
(The Telegraph, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, In eastern Russia thousands of demonstrators in Khabarovsk demonstrated for a third straight day against the July 9 arrest of regional Gov. Sergei Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Party.
(SFC, 7/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 13, Russia reported 6,537 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall tally to 733,699, the fourth largest reported in the world.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, Somalia’s army chief survived an assassination attempt when a suicide car bomber targeted his convoy in Mogadishu. At least one person was killed by the blast.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, A statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes was decapitated overnight in Cape Town in South Africa. Rhodes, a white supremacist, led the British colonization of parts of southern Africa during the 19th Century and made a fortune from mining.
(BBC, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 13, In South Sudan two aid workers were shot dead along with four people they were helping after members of an unknown armed group attacked them in Pajut town, Jonglei state.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 13, Swiss-based Lonza Group said that China's Junshi Biosciences has licensed the contract drug manufacturer's technology to help produce a neutralizing antibody against COVID-19. The antibody, JS016, has entered clinical trials in China, with the first healthy volunteer dosed on June 8 in an early-stage safety study. Junshi Biosciences is collaborating with Eli Lilly to co-develop the antibody.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The United Nations said the ranks of the world’s hungry grew by 10 million last year and warns that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 130 million more people into chronic hunger this year.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi urged the East African country's new government to "break the cycle of violence" and start cooperating with the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 13, The World Bank said the coronavirus pandemic has triggered the Africa's first recession in 25 years.
(BBC, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 14, President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order that he said will hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/14/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 14, The Trump administration rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Indiana, the US federal government carried out its first execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection Daniel Lewis Lee (47), a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in 1996 as part of a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. His final words were: "You’re killing an innocent man." Lee’s co-defendant and the reputed ringleader, Chevie Kehoe, received a life sentence.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In the SF Bay Area council members in Berkeley approved a reform measure that calls for a committee tasked with police reforms. They include removing the police department from responding to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness and finding ways to eventually cut the police budget by half. The vote also called for the creation of a separate city department to handle the enforcement of parking and traffic laws.
(The Guardian, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, California to date had 343,199 cases of coronavirus and 7,221 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 37,494 cases and 667 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,424,204 with the death toll at 136,432.
(sfist.com, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Florida reported a record new 132 deaths bringing the COVID-19 fatality total to 4,513. Florida announced 12,624 new cases of COVID-19. Forty states have reported an upward trend test-positivity rate over the last week.
(Good Morning America, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The FBI arrested an Indiana woman (19) they say was torturing and graphically killing cats and dogs. Private citizens helped identify Krystal Cherika Scott using social media and providing the information to law enforcement.
(Insider, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Kentucky 87 people were arrested and charged with a felony after a protest on the lawn of Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The protesters were demanding that charges be filed against the officers responsible for the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
(CBS News, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Michigan David Hudson (54), from Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty to defrauding his former employer Cummins Bridgeway LLC (CBL) of more than $4.5 million.
(Autoblog, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 14, In New York City the body of Fahim Saleh (33), a technology entrepreneur who founded Nigeria's Gokada ride-hailing app, was found decapitated and dismembered in a luxury apartment with a power saw plugged in nearby. Nigerian state officials in February banned all motorcycle taxis, known locally as 'okada'. On July 16 Tyrese Devon Haspil (21), Fahim Saleh's personal assistant, was taken into custody.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)(ABC News, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 14, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said that he was ordering public schools to reopen for classroom instruction in August if they are able to maintain social distancing for students and staff and meet other conditions.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, North Carolina-based life sciences company IQVIA Holdings Inc said it would collaborate with AstraZeneca Plc to speed up clinical studies of the British drugmaker's potential COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Reta Mays (46), a former Veterans Affairs nursing assistant in West Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court to killing seven hospital patients in 2017-2018 by injecting them with unnecessary insulin, and assaulting another patient with intent to murder. In October Tentative settlements were reached in several civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the families of veterans who died at a West Virginia hospital.
(ABC News, 7/14/20)(AP, 10/10/20)
2020 Jul 14, Landos Biopharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease, announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1 study of NX-13, the Company’s novel, orally administered therapeutic candidate for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
(Global Newswire, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it has struck a $1.7 billion cancer drug pact with Blueprint Medicines, as advances in genetic testing for rare mutations drive lucrative deals for expensive treatments.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, US industrial conglomerate 3M Co said it has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a rapid antigen test for COVID-19.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, New research was published showing that the emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane are soaring to new and dangerous highs.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 14, Scientists reported that a low dose of radiation to the lungs of COVID-19 pneumonia patients can help them recover more quickly. Doctors at Emory University in Atlanta treated 10 such patients with lung radiation and compared them to 10 patients of similar ages who received usual care, without radiation. With radiation, the average time to significant improvement was three days, compared to 12 days in the control group.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Armenia and Azerbaijan forces fought with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Belarus authorities barred Valery Tsepkalo and Vikto Babariko from running in the August 9 presidential election presidential elections. Police officers detained more than 250 people after mass protests erupted against the barring.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A2)(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Britain became one of the few countries to agree to ban the Chinese technology company Huawei from making equipment for Britain’s high-speed wireless network. US officials fear China could use such equipment to spy or launch a cyberattack.
(NY Times, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Britain and France moved to make face coverings compulsory in more places as both countries try to get their economies going while at the same time seeking to prevent further coronavirus outbreaks.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 31, A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde approved the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government. His legal team planned to appeal. In 2021 it was reported that Saab was carrying a letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accrediting him to Iran's supreme leader.
(AP, 8/4/20)(AP, 1/21/21)
2020 Jul 14, In Egypt a ruptured crude oil pipeline set off a monstrous blaze on a desert highway, injuring at least 17 people.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Ethiopia entered its third week without internet service for almost everyone after days of deadly unrest, as the government said it’s trying to prevent speech that could further inflame ethnic tensions.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Hong Kong reported over 200 new coronavirus cases in the last week, following nearly a month without a single case. For at least the next week, Hong Kong is closing bars, gyms, playgrounds, pools and entertainment venues, including Hong Kong Disneyland.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus said it had started human studies for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, as infections continue to surge in the world's third worst-hit nation.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, India reported 906,752 cases of the coronavirus with 28,498 new infections, the third highest total in the world behind Brazil and the United States.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Indian officials reported six more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 77 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 14, Iranian state TV reported that authorities have executed two men convicted of a 2010 bombing at a military parade in northwestern Iran that killed 12 spectators. The country's judiciary said that Iran last week executed Reza Asgari, a former employee of the defense ministry who was convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, In Iran a judicial spokesman confirmed three young men were on death row after being convicted of violent offences related to protesting. Iranians rallied around the Farsi-language hashtag “don’t execute" to demand clemency.
(The Telegraph, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 14, Mexico reported 7,051 new infections and 836 additional deaths, as it proposed to the United States extending a ban on non-essential travel by land over their shared border for another 30 days.
(Reuters, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, It was reported that a human-like robot designed to look and act like a female clerk has started providing services to the public at a government office in Perm, Siberia.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, Russia confirmed 6,248 new coronavirus infections bringing the country's official number of cases to 739,947. Over the past 24 hours, 175 people have died bringing the total death toll to 11,614.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The UN's top court (ICJ) backed Qatar in a bitter row with four Middle East nations that imposed an air blockade against Doha after accusing it of backing radical Islamists and Iran. The acrimonious standoff erupted three years ago pitting Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 15, The Trump administration imposed sanctions on companies connected to a Russian businessman who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and suspected of helping finance the covert social media campaign aimed at American voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that US Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a "different mindset" to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, US Customs placed a detention order on imports of products made by subsidiaries of the world's largest medical glove maker, Malaysia's Top Glove Corp Bhd, an action taken against firms suspected of using forced labor.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, US authorities alleged in a lawsuit that former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh used bribery proceeds and stolen government funds to buy a mansion in a suburb of Washington, DC, as they sought to seize the property. Jammeh reportedly acquired at least 281 properties during his time in office and operated more than 100 private bank accounts directly or through companies or foundations in which he has shares or an interest.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, The US military accused Russian mercenaries fighting on the side of eastern Libya forces of planting land mines and improvised explosive devices in and around the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A US judge halted the execution of Wesley Ira Purkey (68), a man said to be suffering from dementia, who had been set to die by lethal injection in the federal government’s second execution after a 17-year hiatus. Purkey, convicted of a gruesome 1998 kidnapping and killing, was scheduled for execution this evening at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A federal judge in California late today blocked a rollback by the Trump administration of a rule on slashing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas operations on federal and tribal lands.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, California to date had 353,412 cases of coronavirus and 7,341 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 38,374 cases and 674 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,491,935 with the death toll at 137,277.
(sfist.com, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Fast-food staffers across Illinois and California filed complaints with city officials, walked from their jobs and staged strikes against quick service giants McDonald's and Burger King, demanding better treatment and proper workplace protections from the raging pandemic.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order late today, which outright banned cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Atlanta teenager Julian Conley (19), suspected in the killing an 8-year-old girl near the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed by police last month, surrendered. Secoriea Turner, was shot to death while riding in a car with her mother and a friend on July 4. Conley's attorney said his client witnessed the shooting, but did not open fire himself.
(AP, 7/16/20)(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 15, A US judge sentenced former Honolulu police officer John Rabago (44), to four years in prison for forcing a homeless man to lick a public urinal, telling him to imagine someone doing that to his two young daughters.
(NBC News, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, weeks after attending a campaign rally for President Trump in Tulsa.
(Yahoo News, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that federal agents have seized more than 20 vehicles and the money from 10 bank accounts belonging to married US Army veterans in Texas, saying the pair used personal information stolen from soldiers to defraud the military out of as much as $11 million. Kevin Pelayo and Cristine Fredericks allegedly used a transportation reimbursement program for federal employees to swindle the Army out of $2.3 million to $11.3 million.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, Texas reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths with 10,791 new cases and 110 new fatalities. Texas has now 282,365 confirmed cases and 3,432 fatalities statewide.
(Good Morning America, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, BD Corp. said the US government will buy Becton, Dickinson and Co's COVID-19 testing devices and kits, as it ramps up its testing for the virus that has been spreading at an alarming rate.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Peacock, a US TV video streaming service, was launched by NBCUniversal, a part of the cable provider Comcast.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.52)
2020 Jul 15, Tweets promising bitcoin rewards hit some of the platform's largest accounts this afternoon, rolling through some of the largest and most influential Twitter accounts. Big companies were hit as were major political and politics-adjacent figures. Twitter put out a statement promising to investigate and "fix it," and locked down the accounts of those impacted and restricted all verified accounts.
(Good Morning America, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body that coordinates regulation for the Group of 20 major economies, warned global financial system remains vulnerable to further liquidity stresses and a potential "sudden and sharp" market repricing as economies continue to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic. FSB chair Randal Quarles is also vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, which has taken a raft of measures to keep cheap money flowing and prop up ailing companies.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A global review of published studies found that the death rate for COVID-19 intensive care patients has dropped by about one-third since the start of the pandemic, due at least in part to better hospital care.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Bulgaria thousands of mostly young people took to the streets for a seventh day to protest against the government, accusing it of corruption, authoritarian rule and dependence on criminal groups. PM Boyko Borissov's center-right government faced a vote of no-confidence brought by the left-wing opposition.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said China is facing outbreaks of a debilitating virus in cattle that causes a condition called 'lumpy skin disease', following an incident on a farm in the eastern province of Zhejiang this week. Taiwan also reported its first case of the disease this month on Kinmen Island. The disease does not affect people and is thought to be spread by flies or mosquitoes.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Colombia Mario Paciolla (33), a UN volunteer from Naples, was found dead at his home in San Vicente de Caguán, a town in the southern jungle long used as a strategic rearguard for rebel groups and drug traffickers.
(The Guardian, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 15, The European Union executive urged member states to launch earlier and broader vaccination campaigns against flu this year to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and COVID-19 outbreaks in the autumn.
(Reuters, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, A European court overruled a 2016 decision that ordered Apple to pay $14.9 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 15, France's new PM Jean Castex laid out $110 billion in new spending to rescue the virus-battered economy from its worst crisis since World War II.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that death threats in Guatemala have driven two anti-corruption prosecutors from the country in the past year, and their unit’s leader has a protective order from a regional human rights commission because he is constantly harassed and threatened.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Indonesia the death toll from a flash flood in South Sulawesi province rose to 21 with two people missing. The flooding began July 13 triggered by heavy rains that caused three rivers to overflow.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a plan to distribute hundreds of dollars in grants to every Israeli in order to stimulate the country's sagging economy, days after thousands of people took to the streets to protest his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Jordan's high court dissolved the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
(https://tinyurl.com/y45fes8u)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 15, Mongolia's health ministry said a boy (15) has died of bubonic plague after eating an infected marmot in Gobi-Altai province.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra reshuffled his cabinet, sacked the health minister and brought in Pedro Cateriano as prime minister as coronavirus cases passed 350,000 with at least 13,000 deaths.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.24)
2020 Jul 15, An airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition killed at least 10 civilians, including six children and two women, in the mountainous northern Yemeni province of Jawf.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, International scientists released a study that found the greenhouse effect multiplied the chance of the Siberia region’s prolonged heat by at least 600 times, and maybe tens of thousands of times. They found that without climate change the type of prolonged heat that hit Siberia would happen once in 80,000 years, “effectively impossible without human influence".
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, In Tunisia PM Elyes Fakhfakh (b.1972) resigned over allegations of conflict of interest.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elyes_Fakhfakh)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.41)
2020 Jul 15, The United Nations Security Council heard that up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May.
(NBC News, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that the United Nations has asked the Nicolas Maduro regime to dismantle criminal gangs running gold mines in Venezuela's Amazon region. Nearly 150 people are reported to have died in or around the gold mines from March 2016 to 2020. Venezuelan human rights and environmental groups have said that legal and illegal mining are rapidly decimating Venezuela's Amazon. A UN report on Venezuela cited documented cases of executions, torture and forced disappearances. Among the atrocities cited is the execution of 38 young men by Pres. Nicolas Maduro’s hit squads.
(The Independent, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that coronavirus cases in Venezuela have jumped in recent weeks and two top lieutenants of President Nicolas Maduro have tested positive, triggering warnings from health workers that the pandemic may overwhelm the country's already battered healthcare system.
(AP, 7/15/20)
2020 Jul 15, Zimbabwe postponed the reopening of schools citing rising numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19. New cases numbered 1,064 along with 20 deaths.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 16, The United States carried out its second federal execution in three days following a hiatus of nearly two decades, killing by lethal injection Wesley Ira Purkey, a Kansas man, whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed. Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was sentenced to be executed for kidnapping and killing Jennifer Long (16), before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He was also convicted in a state court in Kansas of using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, A US Pentagon report said Turkey sent between 3,500 and 3,800 paid Syrian fighters to Libya over the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 16, The US CDC reported that nearly 71,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year. Fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids accounted for 36,500 overdose deaths.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 16, California reported its largest two-day total of confirmed cases, nearly 20,000, along with 258 deaths over 48 hours. Military doctors, nurses and other health care specialists were being deployed to eight hospitals facing staffing shortages amid a record-breaking case numbers. California to date had 358,468 cases of coronavirus and 7,414 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 39,217 cases and 680 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,560,364 with the death toll at 138,201.
(AP, 7/16/20)(sfist.com, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, The Republican National Committee said it is sharply restricting attendance on three of the four nights of its convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month, as it looks for ways to move forward with the event while coronavirus cases are spiking in the state.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Florida reported the largest one-day increase in deaths from the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began and its second-largest increase in cases ever. Florida announced 13,965 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state and the center of the latest outbreak to over 315,775. Deaths rose by 156 to a total of 4,782.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to block the city from enforcing its mandate to wear a mask in public and other rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 16, Texas reported 10,000 new cases for the third straight day and 129 additional deaths. In Houston, an 86-person Army medical team worked to take over a wing of United Memorial Medical Center.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that countries around the world are reimposing lockdowns to curb the resurgence of the coronavirus. More than 13 million cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 578,000 deaths.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 16, Clashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on their shared border, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting. Armenia said four of its troops were killed on July 14.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Brazil's federal health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Shamima Begum, a UK woman who as a teenager ran away to join the Islamic State group, won the right to return to Britain to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds. She is one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria in 2015.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Officials in the English city of Bristol removed a statue of Jen Reid, a Black Lives Matter activist, that was installed on a pedestal once occupied by a monument to a 17th-century slave trader. It was erected before dawn a day earlier without the approval of city authorities.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said China's economy returned to growth in the second quarter following a coronavirus contraction, with President Xi Jinping promising continued expansion ahead and urging foreign companies to be a part of it.
(AFP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, In CongoDRC at least 40 people disappeared after members of the armed group known as Ngumino attacked the village of Kipupu while they were being pursued by the Mai Mai rebel group. Fighting that followed between the armed groups in villages in South Kivu province killed at least 43 people.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 16, A ruling by the EU Court of Justice saw the "EU-US privacy shield" invalidated due to concerns over the privacy of Europeans, with the court suggesting US surveillance laws were too far-reaching.
(The Telegraph, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Indian officials reported 16 more deaths in Assam state due to floods and mudslides. This brought the total death toll to 93 from more than two weeks of heavy rains.
(SFC, 7/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 16, Iran's police dispersed protesters in Khuzestan province angry over the Islamic Republic's anemic economy amid a US sanctions campaign, and internet access to the wider region was disrupted as demonstrators shared videos of the rally.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Israel's Health Ministry reported 1,898 new cases of the virus. The country has registered more than 44,500 total cases. At least 380 Israelis have died of COVID-19.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, The Rijksmuseum Boerhaave museum in the Dutch city of Leiden finally opened an exhibition on contagious diseases through the ages after a long delay caused by the disease currently sweeping the world — COVID-19.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, North Macedonia's pro-Western Social Democrats said they were ready to start complicated power-sharing negotiations after winning a narrow election victory in a poll held up for months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Former PM Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats declared victory after receiving 36% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted. Authorities announced 94 new infections and eight deaths, raising the confirmed death toll to 401.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Russia plans to produce 30 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine domestically this year, with the potential to manufacture a further 170 million abroad. The first human trial of the vaccine, a month-long test on 38 people, ended this week. A 100-person Phase II trial wraps up on August 3.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Sudan said River Nile water levels have dropped as a reservoir behind Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance dam has filled up, hitting out at "any unilateral actions taken by any party." Both Sudan and Egypt are downstream, and fear the large dam will greatly reduce their access to water.
(BBC, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, Swiss drugmaker Novartis's Sandoz division said it will not profit from 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19 for the pandemic's duration.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that Tiwakorn Vithiton (45) has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital after posting a photo online showing himself wearing a shirt with the motto "I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy." The country's lese majeste law carries a punishment of 3-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 16, The United Arab Emirates said Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi using up to 15,000 volunteers. The human trial is a partnership between Sinopharm's China National Biotec Group (CNBG), Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a Middle Eastern subsidiary of UK cigarette filter maker Essentra has agreed to pay a fine of more than half a million pounds to US authorities to settle criminal allegations that it breached sanctions on North Korea. The UAE-based entity, called Essentra FZE, has been fined $665,000.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The Pentagon banned displays of the Confederate flag on military installations, in a carefully worded policy that doesn't mention the word ban or that specific flag.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US Justice Department filed a series of lawsuits seeking to recover at least $104 million in funds allegedly embezzled by former officials in Kuwait's Ministry of Defense. Three unnamed individuals, who were high-level officials in Kuwait's Ministry of Defense, opened six unauthorized bank accounts between 2009 and 2016 and used the accounts to facilitate the transfer of more than $100 million in Kuwaiti public funds to California bank accounts connected to convicted felon Victorino Noval (58).
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, US Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87) said she is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of cancer, but has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said a ban on evictions would be extended until Oct. 31 to ensure people wouldn't lose their homes if they contracted COVID-19.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an order requiring people to wear masks in public throughout the state, effective as of July 20. COVID-19 cases have surged in the state since restrictions were lifted in May.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, California to date had 367,367 cases of coronavirus and 7,526 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 40,068 cases and 697 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,634,807 with the death toll at 139,076.
(sfist.com, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Georgia Congressman John Lewis (80), a civil rights icon and the last of the Big Six civil rights activists led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The Rev. C.T. Vivian (95), an early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal campaigns in the civil rights movement and spent decades after advocating for justice and equality, died in Atlanta, Ga.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US Attorney’s office in Chicago announced that ComEd is paying a $200 million criminal fine as part of a federal investigation into a “years-long bribery scheme" involving jobs, contracts and payments to allies of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
(Chicago Tribune, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, In Florida three friends were found brutally murdered at a local lake. In the moments before he died, one of the victims was able to call his father and report the attack. No one has been arrested in the triple murder.
(ABC News, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, The US government executed Dustin Lee Honken (52), a convicted murderer, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Honken was a dealer in illegal methamphetamine when he and his girlfriend murdered five people in Iowa in 1993.
(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler demanded that President Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents he deployed to the city after some detained people on streets far from federal property they were sent to protect. Democratic members of Oregon's congressional delegation said they will demand a federal investigation into the deployment of federal officers in Portland, where local leaders say their presence outside federal buildings has inflamed tensions during nightly protests and led to violent confrontations and questionable arrests in recent weeks.
(AP, 7/17/20)(NBC News, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, It was reported that of the 1,798 inmates at the Federal Correctional Institute at Seagoville, Texas, at least 1,072 have contracted the coronavirus virus. Ten staff members have also tested positive and four have recovered.
(NBC News, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, In Texas the body of Pvt. Mejhor Morta (26) in the vicinity of Stillhjouse Hollow Lake, near the Fort Hood army base. The was third soldier from Fort Hood to be found dead this month in the area.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 17, Taliban officials said they have put Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob (30), the son of the movement's feared founder, in charge of their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating team. The shake-up, one of the most significant in years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Authorities in Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne meanwhile warned that its lockdown could become even tougher after a record 423 new cases were registered there.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, It was reported that British ministers are making plans to distribute millions of free coronavirus antibody tests after a version backed by the UK government passed its first major trials. The fingerprick tests, which can tell within 20 minutes if a person has ever been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6% accurate in secret human trials held in June.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, In China flights were curtailed and public transport shut down in Urumqi, the capital of the far-western Xinjiang region, after five new infections were detected. The city also reported eight new asymptomatic cases, taking Xinjiang's tally to six infections and 11 asymptomatic patients.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Egypt reported a total of 86,474 COVID-19 cases and 4,188 deaths, including 68 today. 703 new coronavirus cases marked the lowest figure since late May.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, EU leaders met face to face to try to rescue Europe's economy from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, India became the third country to record one million coronavirus cases, joining Brazil and the United States. A surge of 34,956 cases in the last 24 hours took the confirmed total to 1,003,832. A record 687 deaths took that total to 25,602.
(AFP, 7/17/20)(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, Israel announced sweeping new restrictions in response to a new surge in coronavirus cases, including weekend closures of many businesses and limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery. Israel has recorded over 56,000 cases, but just 430 deaths.
(AP, 7/17/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.35)
2020 Jul 17, Tokyo confirmed 293 coronavirus cases, a single-day record for a 2nd straight day.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 17, A video began circulating on social media that appeared to be a show of power by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups. The release of the video coincided with a visit by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to the group’s heartland.
(The Independent, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, Mexico's Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he is putting the army in charge of customs operations at borders and seaports to combat corruption and the massive smuggling of drugs and prescursor chemicals.
(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 17, Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex, landed in Mexico City to face corruption charges after being extradited from Spain. He was immediately hospitalized for anemia and poor health.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 17, Police in North Macedonia found 55 migrants in two separate incidents. All the migrants will be deported back to Greece, where they came from.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 17, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (44) was barred from leaving Moscow as police carried out a new raid on his offices. Navalny said he was questioned by investigators as part of a new probe into suspected slander over comments he made on social media.
(AFP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Russian drugmaker R-Pharm said it has signed a deal with AstraZeneca for it to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the British pharmaceuticals giant and Oxford University.
(Reuters, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 17, Seyfi Dursunoglu (b.1932, also known by his stage name Huysuz Virjin (Grumpy Virgin), died. He was a Turkish performing artist, comedian, singer, TV presenter and drag artist. From the 1970s until the 2000s and was a well-known entertainment figure with his programs in Turkey's television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfi_Dursuno%C4%9Flu)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.42)
2020 Jul 18, The US Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for pooled COVID-19 testing. Quest Diagnostics will now be able to group up to four samples together and will only test them individually if the batch comes back positive.
(The Week, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 18, California to date had 375,686 cases of coronavirus and 7,620 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 40,893 cases and 700 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,676,942 with the death toll at 139,748.
(sfist.com, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Oregon protesters broke into the Portland Police Association building, set it on fire and started dumpster fires late today, as demonstrations that have been taking place since the death of George Floyd intensified for another night. Navy veteran Christopher David (53), a peaceful protester, was hit with a baton five times by one of the militarized federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump. Another officer, wearing green military camouflage, a helmet and gas mask, sprayed David full in the face with what appears to be pepper gas. Video of the incident went viral. Federal authorities had assembled a force of 114 federal officers to protect US government buildings in Portland, in response to ongoing protests, unrest and violence there, as part of a mission dubbed “Operation Diligent Valor".
(AP, 7/19/20)(AP, 7/20/20)(Politico, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 18, A federal appeals court overruled a judge's decision allowing the Texas Republican Party to hold an in-person convention in Houston, marking a big win for the nation's fourth-largest city in an ongoing battle with the state GOP.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Texas three people were killed and 9 injured when a vehicle driven by Ivan Robles (28) crossed a center line and crashed into members of the Thin Blue Line law Enforcement Motorcycle Club.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 18, In Bangladesh, confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 200,000 but experts say the number is much higher as the country lacks adequate labs for testing.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Britain has registered more than 45,300 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll in Europe. But the government said it will halt issuing daily updates to that toll while authorities investigate the way the statistics are compiled.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Canada's Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said that Ottawa has denied the Toronto Blue Jays' request to play at the Rogers Centre, their home stadium, during the shortened 60-game Major League Baseball season. The Canadian government does not believe it will be safe for the team to travel back and forth to play teams based in the United States.
(The Week, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Canada a glacier tour bus rolled down a steep embankment in Alberta killing three passengers and injuring several of 24 others.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 18, Chile had 321,205 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 7,186 deaths. As a share its population this was among the highest in the world.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.25)
2020 Jul 18, In France thousands of protesters marched through a Paris suburb to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Adama Traoré, a Black man in police custody whose case has mobilized broad anger against police brutality and racial injustice in France. The protest was also about broader anti-government grievances. Climate activists co-organized this year’s protest.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In France an arson attack badly damaged the 15th-century Gothic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes. On July 26 authorities detained and charged a repentant church volunteer after he told investigators that he was responsible for the arson attack. The 39-year-old Rwandan had been tasked with the job of locking up the cathedral.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 18, In India, a surge of 34,884 new coronavirus cases was reported as local governments continue to re-impose focused lockdowns in several parts of the country.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Iran’s Pres. Hassan Rouhani estimated as many as 25 million Iranians could have been infected with the coronavirus since the outbreak's beginning, and urged the public to take the pandemic seriously. Health officials have reported 2,166 new cases and 188 deaths in the last 24 hours. Iran has recorded more than 270,000 confirmed cases and at least 13,979 deaths.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, Mexico's Health Ministry posted a record for new coronavirus cases reported on a single day, with 7,615 more confirmed cases, bringing its overall tally of infections to 338,913.
(Reuters, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, In Russia tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the Far East in a rare show of defiance against the Kremlin as they protested the arrest of a popular governor. The protests in Khabarovsk, a city of some 600,000 people, began a week ago following the sudden arrest of popular governor Sergei Furgal in a murder probe.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 18, South Africa's 337,000 cases of coronavirus made up roughly half of all confirmed infections on the African continent and its struggles are a sign of trouble to come for nations with fewer health care resources.
(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 19, President Donald Trump pledged that the coronavirus was coming under control.
(Reuters, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Arizona's totals for the coronavirus rose to 2,761 deaths and more than 143, 600 infections.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, California to date had 383,059 cases of coronavirus and 7,704 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 41,383 cases and 700 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,752,257 with the death toll at 140,395.
(sfist.com, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, The state of Florida now has over 350,000 cases of coronavirus with another 12,478 reported today. Officials reported another 87 deaths, bringing the statewide total to 5,089.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Kentucky reported 979 new coronavirus cases reported, for a total of 23,161. A 30-day statewide mask mandate went into effect on July 10.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned citizens that there is a "statewide epidemic" of COVID-19. Louisiana has had 91,706 cases of COVID-19 and 3,433 deaths, according to the most recent state data.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, A gunman shot the son of a federal judge at her home in New Jersey. Esther Salas, was home at the time of the shooting at her residence in North Brunswick, N.J., but was not injured. Her son, Daniel Anderl, a college student, died in the shooting and her husband, Mark Anderl, was injured. On July 20 self-described "anti-feminist" lawyer Roy Den Hollander, was found dead. He has been identified as the "primary subject" suspected in the fatal shooting of Anderl.
(NY Times, 7/20/20)(The Week, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 19, South Carolina reported its highest number of daily new cases with 2,335 confirmed and 1 probable case of COVID-19. The state also recorded 19 additional deaths, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 1,138.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Texas reported 93 new COVID-19 fatalities, the first time in five days the number of deaths has been below 100. The state has reported 3,928 total fatalities during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, In China the emergency response level for Beijing was lowered to Level II, after two weeks of no new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 19, Acrimonious European Union talks over an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund entered a third day Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that the summit of 27 leaders could still end without a deal.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, It was reported that more than 6,500 coronavirus cases have been recorded in French Guiana. Officials feared the number of infections is estimated to be much higher.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, In Honduras five black indigenous men were abducted from their homes by heavily armed gunmen in police uniforms. Among those abducted was Alberth Snider Centeno Thomas (27), president of the community board and a semi-professional footballer. He had previously reported threats linked to his role defending territorial rights. The abduction of the five Garifuna men come just weeks after the murder of Antonio Bernárdez (71), a Garifuna leader from the Punta Piedra community.
(The Guardian, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 19, Hong Kong tightened coronavirus restrictions, with non-essential civil servants told to work from home from this week. The global financial hub reported more than 100 cases of the coronavirus, a record number, bringing the city's total to 1,777 including 12 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, India, which has now confirmed more than 1 million coronavirus infections, reported a 24-hour record of 38,902 new cases.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Iran's state TV reported that the execution of three young men who participated in a November protest has been suspended after the country’s Supreme Court decided to review their case.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, It was reported that automotive sensor developer Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd said it will begin a pilot project in Israel for its COVID-19 symptom detection technology.
(Reuters, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, South Africa reported more than 350,800 cases of the coronavirus, ranking it fifth in the world and accounting for half the infections in Africa.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 19, Syrians headed to polling stations in government-held parts of the war-torn country to elect a new parliament amid strict health measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Some 167 seats are allocated for Pres. Assad’s ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party, guaranteeing it a solid majority.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, In northern Syria an explosion rocked a rebel-held area across the border from Turkey late today, killing at least five people and wounding dozens. Anadolu news reported another blast earlier today that wounded 13 people, including children, in the town of Afrin.
(AP, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 19, Zimbabwe police said more than 105,000 people have been arrested since March for violating regulations aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 7/19/20)
2020 Jul 20, President Trump defended his administration's deployment of federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Oregon, to target protesters, and threatened to send agents to more cities.
(The Week, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, A US federal appeals panel said that Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla was properly convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions in a case that strained relations with Turkey. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and has since returned to Turkey.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, California to date had 395,884 cases of coronavirus and 7,716 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 42,520 cases and 708 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,816,427 with the death toll at 140,879.
(sfist.com, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Former Fox News employee Jennifer Eckhart filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against Fox News and former network anchor Ed Henry, accusing him of raping her.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The charred body of a man who has not yet been identified was found in Max It Pawn, nearly two months after it was set alight on 28 May, following three days of Black Lives Matter protests.
(The Independent, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Oregon protesters outside Portland's US courthouse set a fire in the building's entryway early today in yet another night of conflict with federal agents who repeatedly tear gassed the demonstrators to drive them away.
(AFP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Pennsylvania Nathan Joseph Quidetto (20), angry over a botched drug deal, fired several shots into a residence in Derry where he mistakenly thought someone involved in the deal lived, killing Tracy Marie Squib (52), who was asleep in her bed. Quidetto was arrested on July 22.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 20, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said several new COVID-19 outbreaks have been identified at churches in West Virginia's Grant, Logan, and Wood counties.
(Good Morning America, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that rich Americans produce nearly 25% more heat-trapping gases than poorer people at home, according to a comprehensive study of US residential carbon footprints.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Chevron will take over Houston-based Noble Energy for $5 billion and assume Noble's debt. The total enterprise value of the deal was put at $13 billion.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 20, Whole Foods Market Inc, owned by Amazon, was sued by employees who accused the upscale grocery retailer of disciplining and retaliating against workers who wear "Black Lives Matter" face masks on the job, including one who said she was fired.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Uber Technologies Inc has quietly launched a service to give public health officials quick access to data on drivers and riders presumed to have come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Australia's New South Wales state reported 20 new infections, the highest in three months. Authorities here have been unable to trace some of the clusters and state authorities have urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and public transport.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The British government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and blocked arms sales to the former British territory following China's imposition of a new national security law.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 20, Britain said it had agreed in principle to buy 60 million doses of the Valneva vaccine, with an option to purchase 40 million more if it proved safe, effective and suitable. France's Valneva is aiming for clinical trials of the vaccine to start in November or December this year. The vaccine uses an adjuvant, or booster, by Dynavax.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Synairgen shares rose almost sixfold after the British drugmaker said its medicine helped reduce the risk of severe cases in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, but some experts have cautioned against too much optimism in the market.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, A University of Toronto-led study, published in Nature Climate Change, said polar bears could be starved into extinction by 2100 as the Arctic sea ice continues to shrink at alarming rates, making it hard for the bears to hunt for food.
(Good Morning America, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 20, Researchers said a COVID-19 vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc and China's military research unit has shown to be safe and induced immune response in most of the recipients. Some participants in the first CanSino clinical trial in March said in social media posts that researchers on the project claimed they had been injected Feb. 29, before regulators gave the study the go-ahead.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)(AP, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Indian police have arrested 14 people on suspicion of selling locally made doses of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir at five times the maximum retail price as a surge of novel coronavirus cases boosts demand for the antiviral drug. India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 1.11 million with more than 27,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Egypt’s parliament authorized the deployment of troops outside the country, a move that could escalate the spiraling war in Libya after the president threatened military action against Turkish-backed forces in the oil-rich country.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Human Rights Watch said the coronavirus has infected people inside several Egyptian prisons and killed at least 14 detainees, as authorities seek to stifle news of the spread of the virus behind bars.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, France began requiring face masks in supermarkets, shopping malls, banks, stores and indoor markets to curb signs that the coronavirus is making inroads again.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that global wealth managers are examining whether their clients in Hong Kong have ties to the city's pro-democracy movement, in an attempt to avoid getting caught in the crosshairs of China's new national security law, according to six people with knowledge of the matter.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, India reported more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus, a record daily high, raising the country's total to 1,118,043 including 27,497 deaths.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, Iran executed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, a former translator convicted of spying for the US and Israel. The judiciary said he helped to locate a top Iranian general killed later by the Americans. Majd was arrested about two years ago and was not directly involved in the killing of General Qasem Soleimani.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In Iraq Hella Mewis, a German woman well known in Iraq’s art scene and an ardent supporter of mass anti-government protests, was kidnapped outside the Baghdad arts center where she worked.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 20, An Israeli court acquitted a soldier and a prison guard in the 2015 killing of Habtom Zerhom (29), an Eritrean man, who was shot and beaten to death by a mob in the aftermath of a terror attack after being mistaken for an assailant.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co said it aims to boost production capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to produce enough for 30 million people annually by the end of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Dutch electrical equipment maker Philips said a recent surge in orders for scanners and other medical equipment should enable group sales and margins to rebound over the next six months from a slump in the second quarter.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, In North Carolina the body of Keonna Graham (23) was found in a hotel room in Shallotte. The following day suspect Michael Todd Hill (52), the winner of a $10 million lottery in 2017, was arrested in Southport.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Norway's Adevinta has won the auction to buy the bulk of eBay's classified ads unit for nearly $9 billion, with the US e-commerce firm planning to keep a minority stake.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin appointed lawmaker Mikhail Degtyaryov as acting governor to the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, where tens of thousands have been protesting against the arrest of the popular incumbent on charges of involvement in multiple murders.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, The Syrian military said the country’s air defenses responded to Israeli air raids in south Damascus, saying they wounded seven soldiers and caused material damage. Israeli airstrikes on military posts south of Damascus reportedly killed five foreign fighters and wounded several others.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 20, A United Arab Emirates spacecraft began its journey to Mars following blastoff from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. The probe, named Amal (Hope), is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 20, The Vatican said that in very exceptional circumstances and with special permission, lay Catholics can be allowed to perform marriage rites.
(AP, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, It was reported that Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono, who recently exposed alleged government corruption involving coronavirus supplies, has been charged with inciting public violence. Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume has also been arrested in Harare on the same charges. In September Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono was granted bail after being held in jail for more than a month on charges of inciting violence.
(BBC, 7/20/20)(The Telegraph, 9/2/20)
2020 Jul 21, President Donald Trump delivered his first virus briefing after a three-month hiatus and warned the pandemic would “get worse before it gets better." The global tally of people infected with the coronavirus neared 15 million.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum declaring that people living in the country illegally should be ignored for congressional apportionment in 2021.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.26)
2020 Jul 21, The White House announced the award of $75 million by the National Science Foundation for new institutes at three US universities to boost quantum information research.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, The US Justice Department announced an indictment charging two Chinese nationals — both in China — with hacking governments, dissidents, human rights activists and private companies, including those engaged in COVID-19 vaccine research. A grand jury indictment charged Li Xiaoyu (34) and Dong Jiazhi (33) with conducting a hacking campaign lasting more than 10 years.
(NBC News, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Adham Amin Hassoun (58), a man convicted of terrorism-related crimes, was deported from the US after a legal battle to hold him indefinitely stalled. In 2007, he was convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country along with Jose Padilla, who is still imprisoned. Hassoun had completed his sentence in 2018 and was then detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Patriot Act because authorities could not find a destination.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 21, California to date had 407,344 cases of coronavirus and 7,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 43,505 cases and 720 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,891,813 with the death toll at 141,883.
(sfist.com, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Chicago 15 people were shot, one person was being questioned and multiple suspects were being sought after gunfire erupted outside a funeral home on the city's South Side as the federal government moved forward on plans to deploy more agents to the city where violence is spiking.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, Larry Householder, the powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House, and four associates were arrested in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, US medical device maker Becton Dickinson and Co said it has received additional orders from the United States and Canada governments for 177 million syringes and needles for COVID-19 vaccination programs.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden outlined a sweeping plan aimed at breathing life into the coronavirus-battered U.S. economy by investing $775 billion in caregiving programs for children, the elderly and the disabled.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, It was reported that Biogen is seeking to layer its $750,000 spinal muscular atrophy drug on top of $2.1 million-per-patient Novartis gene therapy Zolgensma.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Britain Kevan Jones, a member of the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee ((ISC), published his report into Russian interference in British politics.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.36)
2020 Jul 21, Bulgaria’s center-right government survived the fifth no-confidence vote called by the Socialist opposition over its alleged failure to curb widespread graft. The protesters gathered in front of parliament and voiced dissatisfaction with what they call a corrupt model of governance in which influential media moguls and oligarchs support PM Boyko Borissov in return for state-sponsored favors.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, In Egypt an Islamic militant attack in northern Sinai killed two government troops and wounded four others. Armed forces, backed by airpower, reportedly killed 18 suspected Islamic militants and destroyed four vehicles, including three car bombs.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed said his country, Egypt and Sudan have reached a “major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement" on a massive dam project that has led to sharp regional tensions and led some to fear military conflict.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, EU leaders reached a deal early today on a huge stimulus plan for coronavirus-ravaged economies. The $2.1 trillion budget agreement, which came at the end of a five-day summit in Brussels, included a $857.33 billion recovery fund to help lift the continent out of its worst recession since World War II.
(The Week, 7/21/20)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.39)
2020 Jul 21, German biotech company CureVac said Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has taken an undisclosed stake in the firm as part of a $126 million financing round, the latest high-profile investor to come onboard ahead of a potential stock market listing.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Hong Kong reported 61 new coronavirus cases, including 58 that were locally transmitted, adding to a slew of new cases which have hit the global financial hub over the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Iran reported a new single-day record death toll of 229 from the novel coronavirus, after weeks of rising numbers in the Middle East's worst-hit country. This raised the overall toll to 14,634. The country's caseload rose to 278,827, with 2,625 more people testing positive for the disease in the past day.
(AFP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhemi met Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran during his first trip abroad since taking office. They had discussed expanding trade ties, fighting the novel coronavirus and efforts to ensure regional stability.
(AFP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Mexico reported 5,172 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to almost 350,000 . Daily deaths fell to 301 for a total of 39,500.
(SFC, 7/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 21, First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov told Argumenty i Fakty newspaper that Russia’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus is ready.
(Good Morning America, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, South Korea's SK Bioscience said it has agreed to manufacture AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine to help the British company build global supplies of the vaccine that has shown promise against the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, It was reported that Catalonia leads Spain's 19 regions with 9,600 new reported COVID-19 cases since May 10 and its growth rate has more than doubled in the past three weeks.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 21, Uganda recorded its first coronavirus death. The country's first case was confirmed on March 22 and since then confirmed cases have risen to more than 1,000. Only a few thousand daily tests were being performed.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 21, In northwestern Ukraine an armed man seized a long-distance bus and took people in it hostage launching an hours-long standoff with police. Maksim Krivosh (44), a Ukrainian born in Russia, seized the bus with 13 people. Krivosh released the hostages shortly after Pres. Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to watch “Earthlings," a 2005 American documentary exposing humanity’s cruel exploitation of animals.
(AP, 7/21/20)(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 21, The World Health Organization said it is facing a “serious funding gap" to battle the new outbreak of Ebola in remote corners of northern Equateur province amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Already there have been 20 confirmed deaths since the outbreak was declared on June 1.
(AP, 7/21/20)
2020 Jul 22, President Donald Trump announced he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order" mantle.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump was the country's “first" racist president. Biden also suggested that Trump is using race “as a wedge" to distract from his mishandling of the pandemic.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 22, The United States said that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property" and the private information of Americans.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was proposing the first US emissions standards for commercial aircraft. The proposed regulation seeks to align the United States with the 2016 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that the US and UK have agreed to end an "anomaly" that allowed Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat accused of running over British teenager Harry Dunn last year, to claim diplomatic immunity.
(ABC News, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that the United States Secret Service and United States Department of State is offering up to $2 million for information leading to the arrests or convictions of Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko, both Ukrainian nationals. The two allegedly hacked into the SEC system in 2016 that companies use to make their filings public known as Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, or EDGAR.
(ABC News, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Kim Kardashian said that her rapper husband Kanye West suffers from bipolar disorder and asked for compassion and empathy as he and his family try to manage his illness.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, California reported more than 12,800 new infections, a one-day record. California to date had 407,344 cases of coronavirus and 7,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 44,737 cases and 729 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,970,906 with the death toll at 143,190.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)(sfist.com, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Atlanta-based online lender Kabbage Inc said that it will offer checking accounts for small businesses, making it the latest financial technology startup to expand its offering to a broader suite of banking services.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Minnesota Washington County Attorney Pete Orput announced that Derek Chauvin and his estranged wife, Kellie Chauvin, have been accused of fraudulently filing tax returns from 2014 to 2019 and not filing individual income tax returns on time from 2016 to 2019. On May 25, Chauvin was filmed with his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.
(The Week, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Oregon Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, was tear-gassed by US government agents late today as he stood at a fence erected to protect a federal courthouse during another night of protests against the presence of the agents sent by Pres. Donald Trump to quell the city's ongoing unrest.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, More than 35,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in Utah, and over 250 people have died. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested. Officials said the Salt Lake City area is bucking a surge after the county issued a mandate a month ago for people to wear masks.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Joan Feynman (93), American astrophysicist, died in Ventura, Ca. She made important contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields; sun-Earth relations; and magnetospheric physics.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Feynman)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.86)
2020 Jul 22, In western Afghanistan a government air strike killed at least 14 people in Herat province, where hundreds of people had gathered to welcome home a freed Taliban fighter. The government promised an investigation.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, Australia recorded 502 new cases of the coronavirus, including 484 in Victoria state, where face were made compulsory as of July 23.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 22, Bolivia has reported nearly 2,300 confirmed deaths from COVID-19, although the real number is believed to be higher. Police in the major cities have recovered the bodies of hundreds of suspected victims of the coronavirus from homes, vehicles and, in some instances, the streets. The government says the peak of the outbreak is not expected until August.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Britain’s opposition Labour Party agreed to pay substantial damages to seven whistleblowers who sued for defamation after they voiced concerns last year of anti-Semitism within the party.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Ethiopia said the first-year target for filling the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) on the River Nile has been reached. The announcement came a day after Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agreed to resume talks over the dam, following a virtual summit.
(BBC, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, In Hungary Szabolcs Dull, the editor of independent news site Index.hu, was fired. last month Index moved its "independence barometer" to "in danger" from "independent" after it was confronted by management to reorganize its newsroom.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said its version of anti-flu drug favipiravir showed promise in a late-stage study of 150 patients with mild to moderate coronavirus infection.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Madagascar reported a record 614 new coronavirus cases in the last day, bringing the total to 8,162 and 69 deaths. President Andry Rajoelina has been promoting a herbal drink to treat the virus.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 22, Scientists reported on artifacts found in a mountain cave in the state of Zacatecas in north-central Mexico. Limestone tools found at the site spanned from 31,000 to 12,500 years old, said archaeologist Ciprian Ardelean of Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas in Mexico, lead author of one of two studies published in the journal Nature.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that violence against women has surged in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s president has downplayed the problem and slashed the budgets of agencies charged with addressing women’s issues. Figures released this week show that crimes such as femicides climbed 7.7% in the first half of 2020, when compared with the same period last year.
(The Guardian, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Long-haul carrier Qatar Airways said it has launched international arbitration seeking at least $5 billion from four boycotting Arab countries for blocking its flights from their airspace and their markets.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Romania said its number of coronavirus infections rose by a record 1,030 new cases in a day. Romania has confirmed 40,163 cases since the pandemic reached it in late February and 2,101 people have died.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Russian activist and ethnographer Yuri Dmitriyev was sentenced to 3½ years in prison on charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. Rights activists called this a politically driven fabrication. Dmitriyev had discovered a mass grave in the late 1990s full of skulls with holes in them and worked relentlessly to research and document Stalin-era purges in the Karelia region.
(SFC, 7/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, Sudan’s PM Abdalla Hamdok announced the appointment of civilian governors for the country’s 18 provinces, another key step forward in a fragile transition to democracy over a year after the military ousted long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, Turkish and Russian delegations met in Ankara to discuss the war in Libya and agreed to press ahead with efforts for a lasting cease-fire in the North African country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 22, UN agencies warned that food shortages will rise sharply in parts of war-torn Yemen in the next six months, mainly because of the overall economic decline and the pandemic that has ripped through the Arab world’s poorest country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 23, President Donald Trump scrapped plans for a four-night Republican National Convention celebration in Florida that had been set to draw more than 10,000 people to a pandemic hot spot to mark his renomination.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The Trump administration said that it is revoking an Obama-era housing regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs, a move that fair housing advocates have decried as an election year stunt designed to manipulate the fears of white voters.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, US and British officials claimed that a July 15 test of an anti-satellite weapon signaled a continuing Russian effort to develop technologies that could threaten space assets of the United States and its allies.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's outrage over a lawmaker’s verbal assault broadened into an extraordinary moment on the House floor as she and other Democrats assailed a sexist culture of “accepting violence and violent language against women" whose adherents include President Donald Trump. This came a day after she rejected an offer of contrition from Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., for his language during this week's Capitol steps confrontation.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The US Department of Justice announced that Alabama prisons have a pattern of using excessive force against male inmates, as it again accused the state of keeping prisoners in unconstitutional conditions.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A federal judge ordered the release of Michael Cohen to home confinement, agreeing with his lawyers that he was wrongly sent back to prison after making public statements critical of President Donald Trump.
(Today, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A US judge authorized the release of new records from a 2015 civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate who is facing criminal charges that she lured girls for the late financier to sexually abuse.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, The US baseball season officially began, four months late because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.22)
2020 Jul 23, California to date had 428,980 cases of coronavirus and 8,187 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 45,857 cases and 740 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,027,741 with the death toll at 144,072.
(sfist.com, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Florida recorded 173 new coronavirus deaths, a daily high that pushed its toll from the pandemic to more than 5,500. Deaths inside nursing homes have also been on the rise, averaging about 40 per day in the last week after those numbers had dropped in mid-June to lower than 20 deaths per day.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a police accountability bill into law that included a ban on neck restraints, choke holds and so-called warrior-style training.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 23, A federal judge specifically blocked US agents from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers at protests in Oregon's largest city where President Donald Trump is testing the limits of federal power.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Texas set one-day records for increases in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the state, forcing one county to store bodies in refrigerated trucks and prompting a top health official there to call for new stay-at-home orders.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Australia rejected Beijing's territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United Nations, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating row.
(AFP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, Bahrain, with a population of 1.6 million, has reported more than 37,000 cases of the coronavirus and 130 deaths. The government put the asymptomatic figure at 68%, mostly among healthy and young foreign laborers.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Britain and the EU broke up their latest round of post-Brexit trade negotiations by ruling out a quick deal but voicing hope for agreement in the coming months.
(AFP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, London-based Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), a firm backed by the UK government, said it has purchased a vaccine manufacturing facility from healthcare company Benchmark Holdings for 16 million pounds ($20.36 million) in cash, as the country ramps up efforts to produce potential coronavirus vaccines.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In northern Egypt four members of a family drowned at al-Safa beach off the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that a hospital in the southern French city of Lyon is testing patients with a new machine that enables them to breathe into a tube to see whether they have COVID-19 in a matter of seconds.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Emmanuel Farhi (b.1978), French economist and professor of economics at Harvard University, died. His most cited work was on safe assets, written in 2008 with Ricardo Caballero of MIT.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Farhi)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.60)
2020 Jul 23, A German court found Bruno Day (93), a former Nazi SS camp guard, guilty of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder and one case of accessory to attempted murder — equal to the number of people believed to have been killed at Stutthof concentration camp during his service there. Dey was 17, and later 18, at the time of his alleged crimes which were consequently heard in juvenile court in Hamburg. He was given a two-year juvenile sentence, which has been suspended.
(NBC News, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Germany 11 men were convicted of rape at the end of a year-long trial over a gang assault on an 18-year-old woman in October 2018. The case, in which most of the defendants were Syrian, added to tensions in Germany over migration.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Hong Kong reported 118 new coronavirus cases, a daily record, including 111 locally transmitted cases, adding to a deluge of new infections that have hit the global financial hub in the past two weeks. Total confirmed cases now numbered 2,250, including 14 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 23, Indonesian authorities in Bali arrested Marcus Beam, an American fugitive accused of investment fraud. Police said Beam had been making and selling sex videos in Bali to support his living expenses there.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5woy5nm)
2020 Jul 23, Baghdad International Airport reopened for scheduled commercial flights after months of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit Iraq especially hard in recent weeks. The country has recorded 102,226 coronavirus infections and 4,122 deaths. Today's tally was 2,361 new cases.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Tokyo announced a record 366 new daily coronavirus cases . Tokyo now has 10,420 confirmed cases including 327 deaths.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that five aid workers abducted last month in north-east Nigeria's Borno State have been killed. Pres. Muhammadu Buhari blamed Boko Haram and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In northwester Pakistan a bombing wounded at least 20 people in the town of Parachinar, a majority Shiite town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 23, Qatar, with a population of 2.8 million people, has reported more than 107,000 cases of the coronavirus and 163 deaths. Nearly 60% of those testing positive, mostly among healthy and young foreign laborers, showed little or no symptoms at all.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Romania the number of coronavirus infections rose by a record amount for a second consecutive day. Romania announced 1,112 new cases, taking confirmed cases to 41,275. Some 2,126 people have died.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a wide-ranging investigation into claims that unscrupulous officials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country’s 57 million people. South Africa now has more than 434,000 confirmed virus cases.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 23, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) announced a record increase of 572 coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours. South Africa witnessed some 17,000 extra deaths from natural causes or 59% more than would normally be expected between early May and mid-July, scientists said, suggesting many more people are dying of COVID-19 than shown in official figures.
(AFP, 7/23/20) (Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Regional authorities across Spain introduced fresh coronavirus restrictions aimed at stamping out a surge in infections that continues to defy efforts at containment and is damaging tourism. Health ministry data showed 2,615 new cases across the country, compared with a daily average of just 132 in June.
(Reuters, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, A Sudanese paramilitary group attacked civilians in the war-scarred region of South Darfur, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 more.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 23, It was reported that a mass grave has been discovered in Sudan containing 28 bodies, thought to be the remains of army officers executed for carrying out a coup attempt in 1990 against former President Omar al-Bashir.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, Sudan’s protest leaders announced that they oppose the government’s economic reform plan to slash fuel subsidies and float the Sudanese currency, raising the specter of unrest as the country makes a fragile transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 23, In Uganda, at least 12 people have allegedly been killed by security officers enforcing measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus, while the country has only just confirmed its first death from Covid-19.
(BBC, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 24, US President Donald Trump signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill re-election battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, President Donald Trump said the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, fellow Republican James Inhofe, will not change the names of military bases after Congress passed legislation to rename posts that honor leaders of the Confederate armies who fought against US forces.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The Trump administration said it will allow the sale of advanced armed military drones bypassing part of an international weapons export control agreement that the US helped forge more than three decades ago.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, US prosecutors unveiled charges against 18 Portland, Oregon protesters ranging from assaulting police to arson and trespassing, a day after the Trump administration expanded the deployment of tactical police to Seattle. A US District judge denied the Oregon attorney general's request for a temporary restraining order to rein in the activities of federal agents responding to protests and unrest in Portland.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(Politico, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, It was reported that Goldman Sachs has reached a $3.9bn (£3bn) settlement with the Malaysian government for its role in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB corruption scheme.
(BBC, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In California the parents of Thaddeus Sran, a missing 2-year-old boy with special needs, were arrested after police found the remains of a toddler on farmland outside Madera. The child was reported missing by his parents on July 15.
(NBC News, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In California Chinese researcher Juan Tang (37), accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so she could work in the US, was booked into a Sacramento County jail and was expected to appear in federal court July 26.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, California to date had 434,016 cases of coronavirus and 8,232 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 47,077 cases and 758 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,103,371 with the death toll at 145,261.
(sfist.com, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Ann Syrdal (74), psychologist and computer science researcher, died at her home in San Jose, Ca. She helped develop synthetic voices that sounded like women and laid the groundwork for such modern digital assistants as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.
(NY Times, 8/21/20)
2020 Jul 24, Colorado teenager Alec McKinney (17), who opened fire at a Denver-area high school on May 7, 2019, in what has been described as an ambush attack, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
(NBC News, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Legendary television host Regis Philbin (88) died in Connecticut. He became a household name in the 1980s cohosting "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee" and later padded an impressive resume by hosting "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (1999-2002).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Philbin)
2020 Jul 24, In Chicago two statues of Christopher Columbus that stood in local parks were taken down early today at the direction of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a week after protesters trying to topple one of the monuments to the Italian explorer clashed with police.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Louisiana New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered bars closed and banned restaurants from selling alcoholic drinks to take away. That came after more than 2,000 new cases were reported for the surrounding state of Louisiana, including 103 in New Orleans.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's mandate for face-covering for anyone five years or older went into effect. The state reported 9 deaths and 396 new coronavirus cases bringing the case total to more than 16,100.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 24, Virginia removed overnight the busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials from its iconic state capitol. These included a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the same spot where he stood to assume command of the state's armed forces in the Civil War nearly 160 years ago.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews of the southern state of Victoria announced five deaths and 357 new cases. Victoria, where the death toll has risen to 61, earlier closed its border with neighboring New South Wales.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Belarus opposition candidate Valery Tsepkalo, who planned to challenge longtime authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko in next month's presidential election, said he has fled the country. Tsepkalo said that he moved to Russia with his two children after unnamed sources in the Belarus's Interior Ministry and the State Security Committee (the KGB) warned him about a looming arrest and plans to strip him of his parental rights and take his children away.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said the US FDA has approved its drug Breztri Aerosphere to treat patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, A panel of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended approving GlaxoSmithKline's experimental treatment for a common form of blood cancer, days after a similar nod from a US Food and Drug Administration panel.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, China ordered the closing of the US Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, in rapid retaliation for the closing of its consulate in Houston.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, It was reported that animal tests of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers show it triggers an immune response against the novel coronavirus, offering some promise as it goes into early-stage human trials. ARCoV is a messenger RNA vaccine which uses technology similar to candidates being developed by Moderna and BioNtech and Pfizer.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, El Salvador arrested its former defense minister David Munguia Paye for his involvement in a government pact with the country's principle gangs in 2012.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, Europe's Airbus said it would increase loan repayments to France and Spain in a "final" bid to reverse US tariffs and jog the United States into settling a 16-year-old dispute over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, France's visiting foreign minister pledged €15 million, about $17 million, in aid to Lebanon's schools, struggling under the weight of the country's economic crisis.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The German cruise ship “Mein Schiff 2" set sail in the North Sea for the first time since the industry was shut down months ago, using strict precautions to keep passengers and crew as safe as possible. The ship sailed off with 1,200 passengers on board compared to its normal 2,900 capacity.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 24, German authorities arrested a German woman (Nurten J.), who allegedly joined the Islamic State group in Syria, upon her return to the country. She is accused of membership in a foreign terrorist group, war crimes against property and other crimes. The fate of her children was not known.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Hungary more than 80 Index staff members resigned from the the country's main news site following the firing earlier this week of editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 24, India-based Cipla Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to sell anti-viral drug favipiravir to treat COVID-19. India reported over 49,310 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus with 740 new deaths, marking the biggest daily surge in cases. Total cases now numbered 1,287,945, the 3rd highest in the world behind the US and Brazil.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 24, In Iraq Hella Mewis, a German arts curator kidnapped in Baghdad on July 21, was freed by Iraqi security forces.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Israeli police used water cannons to disperse protesters in central Jerusalem and arrested at least 55 of them as clashes broke out overnight after thousands staged a protest against PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Immigration New Zealand confirmed that Behrouz Boochani (37) had been given the status, which allows him to legally stay in the country and gives him a path to citizenship. The journalist had fled Iran and then exposed Australia's degrading treatment of asylum-seekers while being held against his will for six years.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Russia dismissed US and British claims that it tested an anti-satellite weapon in space and declared that the accusations served to justify Washington's own plans to deploy weapons in orbit. Russia's Defense Ministry previously stated that the July 15 event involved “a small space vehicle" that “inspected one of the national satellites from a close distance using special equipment".
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Russia groups of Azerbaijanis beat up Armenians in Moscow early today and later assailed Armenian-owned stores. Azerbaijanis and Armenians have engaged in a series of fights and violent rampages in Moscow, venting their anger over recent cross-border clashes between the two ex-Soviet nations.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 24, South African police officers used water cannon to disperse protesters marching outside Parliament over the plight of the hospitality industry during the coronavirus pandemic. A day earlier confirmed cases in South Africa of the coronavirus surpassed 400,000.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, In South Africa 68 inmates escaped from the Malmesbury Prison in the Western Cape. After all escapees were rearrested following a 2-day manhunt.
(BBC, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 24, Spain has reported over 900 new daily infections for the last two days as authorities warn that the country that lost over 28,000 lives before getting its outbreak under control could be facing the start of a second major outbreak. Catalonia became the latest region to crack down on nightlife, trying to tamp down on new infection clusters.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Swiss-based Novartis's sickle cell disease treatment Adakveo appeared set for European approval after a key committee gave its backing to the drug that booked $36 million in first-half US sales.
(Reuters, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, Thailand officials said prosecutors have dropped all charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, who was accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a Sept. 3, 2012, car crash. Prosecutors cited the fact the family members (of the police officer) have been compensated" by Vorayuth's family.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 24, The UN weather agency warned that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia's Arctic coast.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that nearly 100 workers at OBI Seafoods in Seward, Alaska, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Three days earlier 85 crew members of a factory fishing vessel docked in the Aleutian Islands tested positive.
(SFC, 7/25/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 25, Protesters in Oakland, California, set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station, broke windows, spray-painted graffiti, shot fireworks and pointed lasers at officers after a peaceful demonstration turned to unrest.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, California to date had 441,602 cases of coronavirus and 8,345 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 47,685 cases and 760 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,154,361 with the death toll at 146,143.
(sfist.com, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, The Florida Department of Health reported an additional 12,199 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to 414,511. Florida has recorded 5,894 total deaths, with an increase of 126, and 23,730 hospitalizations, with an increase of 505.
(Good Morning America, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Bread for the World, a nonpartisan Christian organization that seeks to end hunger said, it asked for and received the resignation of Florida Rep. Ted Yoho from its board of directors following what it called his “verbal attack" on New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Kentucky hundreds of armed, predominantly Black, activists demanded justice for Breonna Taylor during peaceful demonstrations in Louisville that drew counter-protesters from a white militia group.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Tennessee actor John Saxon (83), whose good looks won him not only legions of female fans but also a wide array of roles, died at his home in Murfreesboro. Saxon appeared in nearly 200 roles in the movies and on television in a career that stretched over seven decades since he made his big screen debut in 1954 in uncredited roles in “It Should Happen to You" and George Cukor’s “A Star Is Born".
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Hurricane Hanna, the first of the 2020 Atlantic cyclone season, made landfall twice in Texas as a Category 1 storm within the span of little over an hour. Forecasters the next day downgraded Hanna to a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Texas Garrett Foster (28) was fatally shot late today at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin. Early reports suggested the victim was carrying a rifle when he approached a vehicle and was shot by its driver. The driver called 911 to report the incident and was later taken into custody and released. Police didn’t immediately identify the driver.
(Insider, 7/26/20)(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Utah three people including a 9-month-old were killed and multiple people injured after a small airplane crashed in West Jordan, a Salt Lake City suburb.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an executive order mandating that anyone arriving after nonessential travel must self-quarantine for 14 days.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 25, In Seattle, police declared a riot this afternoon following large demonstrations and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear crowds. Authorities made more than 40 arrests said 21 officers suffered mostly minor injuries.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that he had tested negative for the new coronavirus, based on a fourth test since he said July 7 that he had the virus.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that British rap artist Wiley (41) is facing a police investigation after a string of anti-Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him. Wiley, whose real name is Richard Cowie, released a number one single in Britain in 2012 and had several other top 10 hits. He received a UK government honor for his contribution to music in 2018.
(Reuters, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, Peter Green (73), British blues guitarist, died on Canvey Island, England. He helped form Fleetwood Mac, which made its debut at the British Blues and Jazz Festival in 1967.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_(musician))
2020 Jul 25, France's interior minister vowed to fight “hateful ideology" after far-right extremists posted photos of a protest outside the offices of Sira Sylla, a Black lawmaker.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, French health authorities said the closely watched “R" gauge is now up to 1.3, suggesting that infected people are contaminating 1.3 other people on average.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, India recorded nearly 49,000 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to more than 1.3 million. 757 deaths in the last 24 hours riased that total to 31,358.
(SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 25, Jordanian authorities raided the offices of the national teachers' union. It was ordered to close for two years and its board members were arrested. The board members were released after a month in detention.
(https://tinyurl.com/y4lnndqq)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 25, In Kenya two people were killed at Soko Ng'ombe market in eastern Garissa county, during a protest against the arrest of a man suspected of murder. Two police officers were soon arrested in connection with the shooting. According to Amnesty International, Kenyan officers have killed 21 people since March for failing to comply with coronavirus prevention measures such as curfews and mask-wearing.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, Azimzhan Askarov (69), an ethnic Uzbek rights activist and human rights defender in Kyrgyzstan, died in a prison clinic. He was serving a life term on charges of involvement in ethnic violence that were widely criticized as trumped-up. He had documented violence and looting during the June 2010 violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad tat left 470 people killed.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, The Japanese ship MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and its crew was evacuated. The large bulk carrier later began leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters. The ship was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4,000 tons of fuel aboard. On August 7 PM Pravind Jugnauth declared a state of emergency. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines later said the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals. In 2021 Captain Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar admitted to drinking moderately during a birthday party onboard before the ship ran aground. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
(AP, 8/8/20)(AP, 12/18/20)(BBC, 12/21/21)(BBC, 12/27/21)
2020 Jul 25, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting to implement a "maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert" to contain the coronavirus. North Korea blamed the case on a defector returning from the south.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that after a brief lull due to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea is carrying out large-scale smuggling operations off the coast of China in violation of UN sanctions, importing oil and selling coal and sand to keep its economy afloat.
(NBC News, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Russia tens of thousands of people marched across the Far East city of Khabarovsk on the border with China to protest the arrest of the regional governor on murder charges, continuing a two-week wave of protests that has challenged the Kremlin.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, South Korea reported more than 100 new coronavirus cases for the first time in four months. The 113 new cases included 36 workers returning from Iraq and 32 crew members of a Russian freighter.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 25, In Sudan unidentified gunmen killed more than 60 people in the Darfur region, and another 20 the day before. Several villages were burned, and markets and shops looted.
(BBC, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 25, It was reported that The Church of Sweden has more female than male priests for the first time, according to numbers released this month, a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960. The Lutheran institution was the official Swedish state church until 2000. It now has some 5.8 million members, representing some 57.7% of the country's population.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Jul 26, California to date had 449,382 cases of coronavirus and 8,431 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 48,360 cases and 762 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,212,057 with the death toll at 146,732.
(sfist.com, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Total COVID-19 cases in Florida rose by 9,300 to 423,855, just one place behind California, which now leads the country with 448,497 cases. New York is in third place with 415,827 cases.
(Reuters, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, ProPublica posted a database of York City police disciplinary records. The searchable database contains 12,056 complaints against 3,996 active NYPD officers. ProPublica said it isn't obligated to comply with Judge Katherine Polk Failla's temporary restraining order because it is not a party to a union lawsuit challenging the release of such records.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Minnesota reported its largest one-day rise in coronavirus cases with more than 860 cases.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 26, In Oregon authorities declared a riot early today in Portland, where protesters breached a fence surrounding the city's federal courthouse building where US agents have been stationed. Multiple arrests were made, but it wasn't immediately clear how many.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Australia suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 10 fatalities and a rise in new infections despite an intense lockdown effort.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Britain's government said passengers arriving from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks, after a surge in cases in the Mediterranean country, with health officials pointing to nightlife as a possible culprit.
(AFP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 26, Olivia de Havilland (104), golden age Hollywood actress, died in Paris. She won Oscars for "To Each His Own" (1946) and "The Heiress" (1950). She was the sister of actress Joan De Haviland, aka Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013. Olivia's other films included "Captain Blood" (1935, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and "Lady In a Cage" (1964).
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A1)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.74)
2020 Jul 26, Israeli police said they arrested more than a dozen Israelis in country-wide protests the previous night that drew thousands of people in a growing and persistent show of force against PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, An Israeli military drone crashed in southern Lebanon as regional tensions ran high.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Malaysian authorities searched for two dozen Rohingya refugees who were feared drowned after jumping off their boat neat the resort island of Langkawi. Only one of 25 refugees made it to shore.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 26, A light aircraft carrying 500kg of cocaine, worth an estimated £45 million crashed in Papua, New Guinea. The pilot, an Australian, soon surrendered to his country’s consulate in Papua. Five other men, allegedly linked to a Melbourne-based crime syndicate, were also later arrested.
(The Telegraph, 8/2/20)
2020 Jul 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Russian navy will get 40 new ships and vessels this year, as he attended a naval parade in St. Petersburg. He also said the Navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater nuclear drones, which the defence ministry said were in their final phase of testing.
(AP, 7/26/20)(Reuters, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said “certain initiatives" have been made to buy a fleet of fighter-bombers, accusing the US and other Western countries of arming Serbia’s NATO neighbors and its breakaway former province of Kosovo.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, Serbian authorities reported 467 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours. The country has confirmed 23, 730 cases and 534 deaths.
(SFC, 7/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 26, In northern Syria a bomb exploded this morning in a vegetable market in the Ras al-Ayn border town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters. 8 people were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 26, A UN report, released earlier this week, says more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 27, Pres. Donald Trump the United States has awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. Last week, Fujifilm Diosynth, a drug ingredient subsidiary of the Japanese firm, said it would make bulk drug substances for Novavax Inc.'s virus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major US cities appealed to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want their presence.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Governor Gavin Newsom said nearly 200 federal healthcare workers have been deployed to California's Central Valley agricultural breadbasket, where hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases as new infection rates soar.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, California to date had 463,155 cases of coronavirus and 8,544 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 49,224 cases and 765 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,286,663 with the death toll at 147,588.
(sfist.com, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Miami, Florida, David T. Hines (29) was charged in federal court for fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans and then using the money to buy himself a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan, among other things.
(Business Insider, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Portland, Oregon, US agents declared an “unlawful assembly," and just after 1 a.m., confronted protesters on the street and worked for hours to clear the area. Several people were seen being detained, but it was not immediately clear how many may were arrested.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it signed a $174 million agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and manufacture the British drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Moderna Inc said it had started a late-stage trial to test the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, the first such study under the Trump administration's program to speed development of measures against the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Remington Arms Co filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years as the US gunmaker faced financial troubles partly because some retailers placed restrictions on gun sales after school shootings.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Belgium's PM Sophie Wilmes unveiled a set of drastic social distancing measures aimed at avoiding a new general lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. From July 29 contacts outside family circles will be limited to the same five people over the next four weeks. Confirmed cases rose 71% from July 17-23 compared to the previous 7 days, with 47% of the cases detected in Antwerp province. Belgium has reported more than 66,000 cases and 9,821 deaths.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, UK-based clinical diagnostics company Novacyt announced more new products to test for the presence of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said that Farxiga, which is used for the most common form of diabetes, helped to improve renal function or reduced the risk of death compared with a placebo in diabetic and non-diabetic patients in a study.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, The Czech government announced an overhaul of its much-criticized system of tracking and isolating contacts of people with COVID-19 as it battles a spike in new infections. The Czech Republic has reported 15,324 cases of the new coronavirus since March, with 371 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Egyptian authorities released Adel Sabri, editor of the Masr al-Arabia independent news website, after more than two years in pre-trial detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, India's chemicals minister outlined plans to boost local manufacturing in the bulk drugs and medical device industries to reduce India's reliance on imports, particularly from China.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Indonesia two women were publicly caned in Aceh province for offering prostitution online, a violation of Shariah law.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 27, Indonesia announced that its confirmed cases of coronavirus have surpassed 100,000, the highest in Southeast Asia.
(SFC, 7/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that 2 anti-government protesters were killed and 21 were injured in Baghdad in new clashes between demonstrators and Iraqi security forces. Iraq's Health Ministry has reported 110,032 cases, including 4,362 deaths.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Israeli forces exchanged fire with Hezbollah militants along the volatile Israeli-Lebanese frontier, as Israeli civilians living in the area were ordered to remain indoors amid the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies in nearly a year.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Israeli settlers tried to burn down a mosque overnight near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Settlers attacked the mosque after midnight, spray painting anti-Palestinian slogans in Hebrew and then hurling fire bombs inside that burned part of the structure.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli medical imaging analytics company, said it has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for its mammography technology.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, Libyan authorities shot dead three Sudanese migrants in a western coastal town who tried to escape after they were intercepted by the coast guard in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to shore.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 27, Russia-based Biotech group Biocad said it discussing producing in China a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Russia's Vector state virology institute. The potential vaccine - based on the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) - is expected to enter clinical trials in mid-August.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, South Africa said it had agreed to a $4.3 billion loan from the IMF for COVID-19 related help.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Jul 27, It was reported that flash floods have ravaged swaths of war-torn Yemen, leaving dozens dead and destroying thousands of homes. A hotel marooned in muddied water in the capital, Sanaa, collapsed late today, killing four people and injuring three.
(AP, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 27, In Zimbabwe seven babies were stillborn at Harare Central Hospital night after urgent treatment was delayed because of staffing issues. Nurses are on strike nationwide because of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other concerns, and the maternity wards were overwhelmed.
(BBC, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Pres. Donald Trump issued a stout defense of hydroxychloroquine, a disproved use of a malaria drug, as a treatment for the coronavirus, hours after social media companies moved to take down videos promoting its use as potentially harmful misinformation.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The Trump administration said that it will reject new applications and shorten renewal periods for an Obama-era program that shields young people from deportation, taking a defiant stance after the US Supreme Court refused to let it be scrapped completely.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, US Attorney General William Barr testified to Congress about the protests following George Floyd's death and denounced violence that has emerged across the country. Barr stressed that Operation Legend was aimed at "predatory violence like murder and shootings" and was distinct from the controversial deployment of unidentified federal agents to counter protesters in Portland, Oregon. Barr also said he doesn’t believe that systemic racism in policing exists in the United States, despite being presented with data suggesting that it does.
(NBC News, 7/28/20)(Reuters, 7/29/20)(Yahoo News, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The US federal government announced that it would lend $765 million to the Eastman Kodak Company, known for making cameras and film, to help it start producing pharmaceutical ingredients.
(The Week, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, The US-based Recorded Future reported that the Vatican and the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong have been the targets of alleged Chinese state-backed hackers ahead of September talks on renewal of a landmark 2018 deal that helped thaw diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Arkansas reported a new one-day high in deaths from the coronavirus. 20 more deaths brought the state's total fatto 428.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 28, California to date had 468,425 cases of coronavirus and 8,627 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 50,144 cases and 775 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,342,498 with the death toll at 149,085.
(sfist.com, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Diana E.H. Russell (81), a leading feminist activist and scholar who popularized the term “femicide" to refer to the misogynist killing of women, and to distinguish these killings from other forms of homicide, died at a medical facility in Oakland, Calif.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul 28, Florida reported 191 new fatalities due to the coronavirus. Cases in the state have jumped by 9,230, bringing the total to over 441,900.
(Good Morning America, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Louisiana's Xavier Univ. announced that its has received a $20 million donation from MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Howard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Hampton University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and Tuskegee University were all recipients of the generous donation. To date, she has collectively donated a massive $1.7 billion.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A4)(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 28, Minneapolis police say they've identified the man who helped spark weeks of violence after the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports — and protesting racism and police brutality was not his intent. Police said this man was a member of the Hell's Angels biker gang intent on sparking this sort of violence.
(The Week, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that federal agents have left Seattle following complaints from local officials that their presence was increasing tensions with people protesting racial injustice.
(The Week, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 28, Television journalist and founding president of Cable News Network (CNN), Reese Schonfeld (88), died in Manhattan. He and media entrepreneur Ted Turner started CNN in 1980.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Scientists reported that they have succeeded in reviving microbes retrieved from sediment deep under the seafloor in the heart of the South Pacific that had survived in a dormant state for 101.5 million years in research illustrating the resiliency of life on Earth.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Australia said it was sending a medical team to help Papua New Guinea fight an outbreak of coronavirus after the neighboring country experienced a rise in infections. There were 62 confirmed virus cases as of late today, up from just eight infections 11 days ago.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, It was reported that the UK government has given the green light for the export of British tear gas and rubber bullets to the US despite the continuing use of force against protesters – and warnings from the United Nations.
(The Independent, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Canada granted conditional approval to Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral treatment remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, making it the first approved treatment for the fast-spreading illness in the country. Canada has reported fewer than 9,000 coronavirus deaths among its 38 million people.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)(Econ., 8/1/20, p.25)
2020 Jul 28, China reported 57 new coronavirus cases in its northwestern Xinjiang region. China's death toll remains at 4,634 among 83,959 cases.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 28, An Egyptian court sentenced several women to two years in prison for posting "indecent" dance videos on TikTok.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 28, In southern France scientists and technicians began assembling huge parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source. World leaders involved in the project appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Gisèle Halimi (93), a prominent French lawyer, activist and author who championed feminist causes and human rights efforts for decades, died. She founded a feminist group with Simone de Beauvoir and played a key role in the decriminalization of abortion in France.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Jul 28, In Germany the number of daily new coronavirus cases almost doubled to 633. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) linked the increase to increased social contact at parties and in the workplace and urged people not to flout social distancing rules.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Iran reported 235 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, a record toll for a single day. This took the overall toll to 16,147.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Ireland's Central Bank fined the country's largest lender, Bank of Ireland, 1.7 million euros for regulatory breaches that caused loss to a client at its private banking arm and also for misleading the regulator.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, A court in Malaysia convicted former prime minister Najib Razak of seven charges of abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering related to the IMDB sovereign wealth scandal. Razak had co-founded and chaired the fund from which $4.5 billion disappeared between 2009 and 2015.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.31)
2020 Jul 28, New Zealand said that it will follow the lead of its intelligence allies by suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, following China's recent passing of a new security law for the semi-autonomous territory.
(SFC, 7/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 28, North Korea introduced tougher prevention measures against the novel coronavirus, after it locked down the border town of Kaesong to tackle what could be its first publicly confirmed case of the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Authorities in Peru said more than 900 women and girls have gone missing and are feared to be dead in Peru since the country’s coronavirus lockdown started.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Russia reported 5,395 new COVID-19 cases and 150 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours. Russia's total case count now stood at 823,515 with 13,504 coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Turkey said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean that abruptly raised military tensions with neighboring Greece.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN human rights office reported that scores of North Korean women who had traveled abroad in a desperate search for work were abused by security officials and police through beatings, detention in unsanitary conditions, undernourishment and invasive body searches after being sent back home. The women spoke to UN human rights officials after eventually fleeing North Korea following their detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN said that the unprecedented social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will see nearly seven million more children experience stunting as a result of malnutrition.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, Vietnam locked down the central city of Da Nang, its third-largest city, for two weeks after 22 cases of COVID-19 were found linked to a hospital.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview released today that he didn’t discuss the intelligence about potential Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they spoke by phone last week. Trump dismissed reports that Russia has been paying the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and said he'd not raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin.
(NBC News, 7/29/20)(AFP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, US President Donald Trump defended his push to use a coronavirus relief package to fund a new FBI headquarters near his Washington hotel despite opposition from fellow Republicans, citing his background as a real estate developer.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Spurred on by President Donald Trump's demand to pull troops out of Germany, defense leaders said the US will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe. The Pentagon plan will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete. About 24,000 US troops will remain in Germany.
(AP, 7/29/20)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, The US Justice Department said it would send dozens of law enforcement officers to Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit to fight violent crime, expanding the deployment of federal agents to major cities under a program promoted by President Donald Trump.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The US Department of Homeland Security and Oregon Governor Kate Brown said federal troops will begin a phased withdrawal from downtown Portland, ceding some security functions to Oregon state troopers and local law enforcement after two months of protests.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The US State Department imposed sanctions on President Bashar Assad's eldest son, Hafez, keeping up pressure on the Syrian leader and his inner circle. Separately, the US Treasury Department announced it had imposed sanctions on prominent Syrian businessman Wassim al-Qattan and nine entities for “enriching the Syrian regime through construction of luxury real estate".
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol officials issued broad new mask requirements after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (66), often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one.
(AP, 7/29/20)(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, US Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham testified that he wasn’t informed ahead of time about President Donald Trump's order seeking to exclude people in the US illegally from the process of redrawing congressional districts.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, New US rules went into effect expanding requirements for US exporters to obtain licenses for goods intended for military purposes, including for weapon development, military aircraft or surveillance operations. The rules banned exports to any entities in any relationship with China's People's Liberation Army, labelling them as potential military end users.
(South China Morning Post, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 29, The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.3 million diagnosed cases and over 150,000 deaths.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, California to date had 479,204 cases of coronavirus and 8,793 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 51,403 cases and 789 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,403,935 with the death toll at 150,159.
(sfist.com, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a second successive day, with 217 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida also reported 9,446 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 451,000.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Louisiana reported 69 more coronavirus deaths for a statewide total of 3,769.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, In Boston Manuel Henriquez (57), the ex-CEO of Palo Alto-based Hercules Capital, was sentenced to six months in prison for paying about $450,000 in bribes to boost his two daughters' entrance exam scores and get one of them into Georgetown Univ. as a bogus tennis recruit. His wife was already locked up a federal prison in Dublin, Ca.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Jul 29, Connie Culp (57), the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the US, died at the Cleveland Clinic, almost a dozen years after her groundbreaking operation. She died of complications from an infection unrelated to her transplant.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Virginia Karla Elizabeth Dominguez Gonzalez in Alexandria was found shot to death. In December, Gonzalez had testified that Ibrahim Bouaichi (33) was violent and not consensual during an October incident inside her apartment. Bouaichi went free on April 9 due to the risks of COVID-19 and reportedly killed Gonzalez. On August 5 he was chased down by the FBI and was found with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound when the officers went to the vehicle. He was then hospitalized and in grave condition.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul 29, Moderna Inc plans to price its experimental coronavirus vaccine in a way that ensures broad access, adding that it did not intend to conduct late-stage trials of the vaccine outside the United States.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Australian biotechnology company Vaxine Pty Ltd said it expects to start Phase II trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the next few weeks after "positive" results from the first stage human study.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Belarusian authorities detained dozens of Russian private military contractors accused of planning to destabilize Belarus amid an election campaign. 32 members of Russia's Wagner private military company were detained overnight at a sanitarium outside Minsk by a SWAT team from the Belarusian State Security Committee.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Britain said it has signed a deal for up to 60 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), its latest such arrangement as the race to tame the pandemic heats up.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Bulgaria tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country for a third consecutive week to demand the resignation of the government of PM Boyko Borissov and chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. Pres. Rumen Radev backed the protesters.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, Amnesty Int'l. said Egypt has executed seven people convicted of killing a police officer in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, after a trial that was “marred by serious allegations of torture." The defendants were accused of killing the officer and the attempted killing of another person during a fight in November 2013.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The European Union's executive said it had agreed to buy a limited supply of the COVID-19 medicine remdesivir from US drugmaker Gilead to address the short-term needs of European patients, and hoped to be able to order more later.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The European Union said it has made available up to 45 million euros ($53 million) to increase the collection of plasma from COVID-19 survivors for the treatment of people who contract the disease.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Berlin's Tegel airport began large scale coronavirus testing, as airports across Germany prepared for the advent of free, compulsory testing for many passengers from next week.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Guatemala's government has reported more than 47,000 confirmed infections and more 1,800 deaths nationwide. Local hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of COVID-19 victims who have never been identified, and one hospital is creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes, their relatives will come looking for them.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Hong Kong detained four students, ages 16 to 21, for "inciting secession" on social media. They included Tony Chung, former leader of Studentlocalism, a protest group that had called for Hong Kong's independence from China.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.33)
2020 Jul 29, Hong Kong reported 118 new coronavirus cases, including 113 that were locally transmitted, as strict new measures including a restriction of gatherings to two people and a ban on restaurant dining, took effect.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Italian lawmakers approved the extension of a state of emergency for the coronavirus through October 15. Italy counted 289 new cases and six more deaths bringing its pandemic total to 246,776 and the death toll to 35,129.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance led by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it has completed test supplies of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, but pending regulator approval will likely prevent clinical trials from meeting a July start date.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Jordanian anti-riot police clashed with protesting teachers in the capital Amman, with several demonstrators being beaten with clubs and arrested.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The International Rescue Committee urged Libyan authorities to release over 200 Europe-bound migrant children intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to detention centers in the conflict-stricken country this year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Pakistan Tahir Ahmad Nasim (47), facing charges of blasphemy, was shot dead in court as he awaited the start of his hearing. His attacker (24) was arrested. Nasim was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community that many mainstream Islamic schools consider to hold blasphemous beliefs.
(The Telegraph, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, The Philippines said it had slaughtered nearly 39,000 chickens in a poultry farm north of the capital Manila to curb a bird flu outbreak, more than four months after detecting H5N6 infections in a nearby province.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, A top Russian official has said the country's coronavirus vaccine is nearing the end of clinical trials and is likely to get approval in mid-August – potentially making it the world's first approved vaccine against the disease.
(The Telegraph, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Turkey's parliament adopted a law designed to force social-media giants to comply with Turkish requests to remove content.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.40)
2020 Jul 29, A Singapore court fined the nephew of PM Lee Hsien Loong for criticizing the judiciary in a Facebook post two years ago amid a deepening family feud.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, South Korea's Green Cross Corp said it has sought regulatory approval for Phase II trials of an experimental COVID-19 blood plasma treatment drug.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Spain reported 1,153 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily number in almost three months. Spain has officially recorded 282,641 cases and 28,441 deaths.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 29, Swiss-based Roche said its attempt to retool its rheumatoid arthritis drug Actemra/RoActemra to treat patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19-related pneumonia has failed in a late-stage trial.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Thailand's PM Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered a public probe into the dropping of criminal charges against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, a Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 29, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation jumped 10% in Bolivia in 2019, the final year of President Evo Morales' government, partly because of reduced eradication efforts amid rising social and political conflicts.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN said more than 100 civilians including women and children were killed by ground fighting, explosive remnants and airstrikes in Libya between April and June, an increase of 65% from the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, In Venezuela the new Iranian Megasis supermarket, in the east of Caracas, was launched amid a tightening of the coronavirus quarantine. The inauguration was attended only by Venezuelan government officials, Iranian diplomatic personnel and businessmen.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, Vietnam confirmed four new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 450, with no deaths.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 29, Yemeni separatists said they would give up their dreams of self-administration over southern Yemen to pursue a Riyadh agreement. Saudi Arabia declared early today that it had proposed a plan to “accelerate" implementation of a deal which calls for the creation of a new government within 30 days and the appointment of a new governor and security director for Aden.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 30, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover rode an Atlas V rocket as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. The rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Arizona reported a record increase with 172 COVID-19 fatalities, bringing that state's death toll to 3,626.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, It was reported that California has conditionally approved the $40 million sale of Seton Medical Center in Daly City and its Moss Beach facility to AHMC Healthcare, a for profit company based in southern California, from Verity Health, a nonprofit that filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
(SFC, 7/30/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 30, In southern California 15 Marines and one Navy sailor were aboard an assault amphibious vehicle that began taking on water. One Marine died, two others were injured and 8 were reported missing. Search efforts were called off on July 23. On August 7 it was reported that the bodies of the 8 missing were recovered following salvage operations.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A4)(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 30, In southern California a federal grand jury returned a 34-count indictment against Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar (61), alleging he accepted bribes, concealed income, evaded taxes and lied to investigators.
(NBC News, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The police chief of Vallejo, California, said he is opening an inquiry into allegations that officers bent their badges to mark on-duty killings.
(The Guardian, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, California to date had 488,857 cases of coronavirus and 8,965 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 52,267 cases and 803 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,487,072 with the death toll at 151,826.
(sfist.com, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a third day in a row, with 252 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida, California, and Texas, the three most populous US states, all set one-day records for fatalities.
(AP, 7/30/20)(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (61) was ousted from his role as speaker in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, following his arrest in what prosecutors called the “largest bribery scheme" in state history. Also arrested and charged were the speaker's adviser Jeffrey Longstreth (44); former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges (48); and prominent lobbyists Neil Clark (67), and Juan Cespedes (40).
(NBC News, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Herman Cain (74), a television host and former US Republican presidential candidate, died in Georgia after contracting COVID-19.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, In Michigan a man who swung a long sword and threw a dagger at Detroit police officers was killed in a clash with cops.
(Miami Herald, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, St. Louis County’s prosecutor announced that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, In Oregon the first nightly protest in downtown Portland after a deal was struck for the withdrawal of federal agents guarding a courthouse was largely peaceful and ended early the next day without any major confrontations between state police and demonstrators.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases, setting up a conflict with Republican legislative leaders and some conservatives who oppose such a requirement and successfully sued to kill the governor's "safer at home" order.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine candidate was effective in protecting rhesus macaques from the virus 13 weeks after the last vaccination.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Johnson & Johnson, the third Western biopharmaceutical company to begin a new trial of its Covid-19 vaccine this week, said it would test its vaccine in a single-dose format. A new study showed that the vaccine protected monkeys from infection.
(Dow Jones, 7/30/20)(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 30, In Afghanistan a suicide bombing in eastern Logar province late today killed at least nine people and wounded 40. The Taliban denied involvement.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Jul 30, Much of Canada's remaining intact ice shelf began broking apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming. The 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country's last intact ice shelf until the end of this month.
(AP, 8/7/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.32)
2020 Jul 30, China's health authority said it has asked local authorities to carry out regular coronavirus tests at wholesale markets, part of an all-out effort to control the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The Czech Republic reported that cases of the new coronavirus have surpassed 16,000 as a recent spike in infections continues. The health ministry recorded 278 cases nationwide a day earlier, the second highest daily rise in July.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, It was reported that Egypt’s president has approved new legal amendments that further exclude any serious competitors from elections and give the military greater control over civilian affairs. The amendments were published earlier this week in the country’s official gazette.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The European Union prolonged sanctions against dozens of North Korean officials and agencies for a year over Pyongyang’s continued efforts to develop nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The European Union slapped sanctions on six people and three organizations, including Russia’s military intelligence agency, accusing them of responsibility for several cyber-attacks that threatened EU interests. The EU imposed travel and financial sanctions on a department of Russia’s military intelligence service and on firms from North Korea and China over their suspected participation in major cyberattacks across the world.
(AP, 7/30/20)(The Telegraph, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Hong Kong's government disqualified 12 opposition pro-democracy figures from running in elections. The decision was internationally condemned.
(South China Morning Post, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Hong Kong reported 149 new coronavirus cases, a daily record, including 145 that were locally transmitted, with authorities warning the global financial hub faces a critical period as it tries to contain the outbreak.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, The Philippines reported nearly 4,000 new coronavirus cases, a record daily jump in infections for the fourth time this month, just as President Rodrigo Duterte prepared to announce a major shift in his government's COVID-19 response.
(Reuters, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Tropical Storm Isaias battered Puerto Rico as it continued on a forecast track toward the US East Coast, unleashing small landslides and causing widespread flooding and power outages on an island still recovering from previous hurricanes and earthquakes.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, A Moscow court sentenced former US Marine Trevor Reed to nine years in prison for assaulting and endangering the lives of two police officers in 2019.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 30, In Saudi Arabia masked pilgrims arrived at Mount Arafat, a desert hill near Islam’s holiest site, to pray and repent on the most important day of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage in Mecca. The number of hajj pilgrims this year was limited to anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000. All of this year's pilgrims are either residents or citizens of Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, South Africa's health ministry said there were 11,046 new cases of COVID-19 reported across the country. That brings the national total to 482,169, including 7,812 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, A Spanish court found American Victor Stemberger (77) guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced him to seven years in prison, rejecting his defense that he was duped.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, In northeastern Syria a car bomb exploded at checkpoint manned by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters, killing and wounding several people.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 30, Former Taiwan Pres. Lee Teng-hui (97) died in Taipei. He took over as president in 1988 following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo and continued as Taiwan's first native president until 2000.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.B3)
2020 Jul 30, Veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson said two of the six former Citgo Petroleum Corp executives detained in Venezuela were moved to house arrest. Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Toledo were among six executives arrested in 2017 on charges of embezzlement that the US government and their lawyers say are baseless.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 30, Yemen's Huthi rebels freed six members of the Baha'i faith whose years of imprisonment had raised international concern.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 31, President Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to ban the TikTok app in the US through executive authority before heading to Florida. TikTok has an estimated 65 million to 80 million users in the United States. It was said that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 31, The US Supreme Court declined by a 5-4 vote to halt the Trump administration's construction of portions of the border wall with Mexico following a recent lower court ruling that the administration improperly diverted money to the project.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv, Israel, for more than $67 million to US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The sale helped to cement Pres. Trump's controversial decision to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem in 2018 and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
(AP, 12/29/20)
2020 Jul 31, A US federal appeals court ruled vacated the death penalty of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but said he will remain in prison for the rest of his life. However, the court ordered a retrial over the sentence for Tsarnaev's crimes, where a new set of jurors can again decide if he should be sentenced to death.
(Business Insider, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, The US FDA said a salmonella outbreak has infected nearly 400 people in more than 30 states and was likely linked to red onions coming from Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, Ca. The company said it was recalling all varieties of onions that could have come in contact with the contaminated red onions.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 31, In Alaska 7 people, including state lawmaker Rep. Gary Knopp (67), died when two small airplanes collided in midair near the airport in Soldotna, a small community on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, California to date had 500,293 cases of coronavirus and 9,169 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 53,205 cases and 811 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,556,232 with the death toll at 153,268.
(sfist.com, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Officials in southern California said at least 45 fraternity members at the University of Southern California have tested positive for COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Florida Graham Clark (17) of Tampa was arrested "for being the mastermind behind" a July 15 Twitter hack that saw high-profile accounts, including those belonging to former President Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, taken over to promote a Bitcoin scam, which involved asking followers to send money to a Bitcoin address while claiming double that amount would be returned. The DoJ announced charges against two alleged co-conspirators, Mason Sheppard (19) and Nima Fazeli (22), of Orlando, Florida, who goes by the hacker name “Rolex". Sheppard, from Bognor Regis (UK), faces three charges in connection with the apparent cyber scam targeting around 130 accounts on the social media site. A Massachusetts teenager (16) was also soon linked to the Twitter hack.
(The Week, 7/31/20)(The Independent, 8/1/20)(SFC, 9/3/20, p.C2)
2020 Jul 31, Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a fourth day in a row, with 257 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Florida also reported 9,007 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 470,000.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, West Virginia confirmed 182 coronavirus cases, its highest daily count since the outbreak began.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 31, Twitter Inc said it has permanently suspended the account of David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, as the social media company tries to curb the spread of hateful content on its website.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur announced they will supply 100 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine to the United States as governments buy up supplies in hopes something will work.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have agreed to supply Japan with 120 million doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine in the first half of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Britain's PM Boris Johnson put some planned measures to ease the UK's lockdown on hold, just hours before they were due to take effect, saying the number of new coronavirus cases in the country is on the rise for the first time since May.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, British PM Boris Johnson named 36 new members to Parliament’s unelected House of Lords, including his brother, a slew of prominent Brexit supporters and a Russia-born newspaper owner whose father was a KGB agent.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, British film director Sir Alan Parker (b.1944) died in London following a long illness. His films included "Fame" (1980), Mississippi Burning" (1988), "The Commitments" (1991), and "Angela's Ashes" (1999).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Parker)(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Jul 31, A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde approved the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government. His legal team planned to appeal.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Jul 31, China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) said it would establish a joint venture company to develop wafer production units in Beijing to bump up its semiconductor output and reduce costs.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng Motors has raised an additional $300 million from investors including Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Cuba Eusebio Leal (77), the historian of Havana and longtime leader of the city's renewal, died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebio_Leal)(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.C11)
2020 Jul 31, The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Luxembourg had 240.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population over the last 14 days, much higher than any other country in the European Economic Area. Luxembourg said its large number of COVID-19 cases reflects its unrivalled level of testing.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Ahead of the announcement a group of 22 lawmakers issued a statement accusing the government of using the outbreak as an excuse to delay the vote.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Indian police said that at least 21 people have died in Punjab state over the last three days after drinking tainted alcohol. The death toll was later raised to at least 69. Local media put the number at 86. Police soon arrested more than two dozen people on suspicion of selling tainted alcohol.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A2)(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, In India monsoon floods have swamped large parts of densely populated Bihar state and displaced more than 300,000 people, exacerbating the risk of the coronavirus and stymieing the state's response to the pandemic. The floods have killed at least 24 people in the state. Bihar has so far recorded 48,197 coronavirus cases including 282 deaths.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, India recorded 55,079 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking its total to 1,638,871. The death toll rose by 779 taking that total to 35,747.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that after a decade of campaigning, Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido has won a court ruling that awarded $12m (£9.2m) to the Owino Uhuru community poisoned by lead pollution from a nearby factory.
(BBC, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, A military court in eastern Libya sentenced local photojournalist Ismail Bouzreeba al-Zway (39) to 15 years in prison on vague terrorism-related charges, prompting an outcry from human rights groups. He was first scooped up by security agents while covering a local news event in his hometown of Ajdabiya, east Libya, in 2018.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, It was reported that demonstrators in northern Mexico have burned several government vehicles, blocked railway tracks and set afire a government office and highway toll booths to protest water payments to the US under a 1944 treaty. Farmers in Chihuahua want the water for their own crops.
(SFC, 7/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 31, Mexican health officials reported 688 new deaths, pushing the country’s confirmed total to over 46,600. Mexico now has the third most COVID-19 deaths in the world, behind Brazil and the United States.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Northern Ireland launched the United Kingdom's first COVID-19 tracing app, and the first one that can also trace users in another country, Ireland, who have been in contact with someone suffering from the disease. NearForm launched a similar app in Ireland on July 8, and cases can now be traced across the island's open border by two separate health services.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The University Hospital of North Norway said three members of the crew of Norwegian cruise vessel Roald Amundsen have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The vessel had close to 200 passengers on board when it arrived at the Arctic port of Tromsoe.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Romania said its number of coronavirus infections rose by 1,295 new cases on the day taking the cumulative total to 50,886 cases. 2,343 people have died. The country is under a state of alert that is due to end in two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In Saudi Arabia small groups of pilgrims, masked and physically distancing, made their way toward the massive multi-story Jamarat Complex in the Saudi valley area of Mina. There, the pilgrims cast pebbles at three large columns. It is here where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, out of submitting to God’s will. Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Slovakia reported its first coronavirus death since the middle of May, bringing its toll to 29, one of the lowest in Europe. A day earlier the country detected 27 new cases. 2,292 cases have been found since March.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, In northern Sudan a speeding truck trying to overtake a car crashed into a passenger bus on a highway, killing 13 people and injuring 15.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, The Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE's far western desert near the border with Saudi Arabia reached what scientists called its “first criticality." That's when the nuclear chain reaction within the reactor is self-sustaining. This is the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, Vietnam reported its first-ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days with no local cases. Vietnam reported 37 more novel coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 546. More than 100 new cases have been confirmed in the past week, more than half of them patients at a hospital in Da Nang.
(AP, 7/31/20)(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul 31, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, predicted the effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt for decades to come.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Jul 31, Award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga (61), a nominee for this year's Booker Prize, was among scores arrested in Harare during an anti-government protest. The government had warned that participation in today's demonstration would be regarded as insurrection.
(AP, 7/31/20)
2020 Jul, US federal officials found an incomplete tunnel intended for smuggling that ran from San Luis, Arizona, to a Mexican neighborhood. It had a ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, a rail system and extensive reinforcement. Authorities later said it was the most sophisticated tunnel in US history.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Jul, Unemployment in Barbados was estimated at close to 40% as COVID-19 kept tourists from visiting.
(Econ., 7/25/20, p.23)
2020 Jul, Cuba's government announced that it would allow private restaurants to buy wholesale for the first time. Ministers also announced that private businesspeople could sign contracts to import and export goods through dozens of state-run companies with import/export licenses.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Jul, In Ethiopia at least three broadcasters linked to the opposition, only one of which had aired calls for violence, were closed this month.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.46)
2020 Jul, The French firm oil firm Total secured $15 billion in loans for its liquified natural gas operations in Mozambique. This was the biggest project finance deal in African history.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.33)
2020 Jul, In Iran a provincial court in Shiraz sentenced wrestler Navid Afkari (27) to death for the 2018 death of Hassan Torkaman, a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz, following an anti-government protest over economic problems. His brothers Vahid Afkari and Habib Afkari were sentenced to 54 and 27 years in prison, respectively. All three were construction workers. A video, later circulated on social media, claimed the three men confessed to the killing under torture.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Jul, Tunisia ended its ban on foreign names.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.47)
2020 Aug 1, California to date had 503,191 cases of coronavirus and 9,268 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 54,311 cases and 831 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,603,204 with the death toll at 153,986.
(sfist.com, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Florida reported 179 coronavirus deaths, raising that total to more than 7,000.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, More than a thousand people showed up in downtown Portland early today to peacefully protest, about three days after the announcement that the presence of US agents there would be reduced. The Portland Police Bureau declared an unlawful assembly late today when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon's largest city and threw bottles towards officers.
(AP, 8/1/20)(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Hurricane Isaias snapped trees and knocked out power as it blew through the Bahamas and headed toward the Florida coast.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, American actor and singer Wilford Brimley (85) died in Utah. He is best known for his roles in the Oscar-winning movie "Cocoon" (1985) and "The Firm" (1993).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilford_Brimley)(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken bid farewell to the three men left behind as their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked and headed toward a Sunday afternoon descent by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Facebook announced that it has obeyed a Brazilian judge's order for a worldwide block on the accounts of 12 of President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters who are under investigation for allegedly running a fake news network.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, London police arrested a Conservative Party lawmaker after a former parliamentary aide accused him of rape and sexual assault while they were in a relationship. The man was not named and was soon released on bail.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, Cambodian authorities arrested Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, for incitement to commit felony. The longtime government critic had complained about farmers' land being infringed upon by neighboring Vietnam.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 1, France began testing travelers from 16 countries where the coronavirus is circulating widely. They must now undergo virus tests upon arrival at French airports and ports unless they present proof of a negative test done within 72 hours of their departure. Those who test positive must quarantine for 14 days.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In Germany an estimated 17 thousand protested coronavirus restrictions in a Berlin demonstration that insisted “the end of the pandemic" has arrived — a declaration that comes just as authorities are voicing increasing concerns about an uptick in new infections. The country’s death toll was just over 9,150 people out of more than 210,670 confirmed virus cases.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, Police in Erfurt said three Guineans were assaulted by a group of 10 to 12 Germans shortly after 3 a.m. near a meeting point for the far-right scene in a housing estate. Twelve suspected perpetrators were detained.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload close to 1.7 million.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In India a huge crane collapsed during load testing at the Hindustan Shipyard in Andhra Pradesh state, killing at least 11 workers.
(SSFC, 8/2/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 1, Iran said it has detained Jamshid Sharmahd, the leader of Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a little-known California-based opposition group, for allegedly planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people and wounded over 200 others. Sharmahd had been in Dubai, trying to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company.
(AP, 8/1/20)(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 1, According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the Nigerian city of Onitsha is the most polluted in the world.
(Econ., 8/1/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 1, It was reported that Peruvian authorities are investigating whether the country failed to count 27,253 deaths caused by the coronavirus. Peru had only listed 19,021 victims because international standards required both a death certificate listing coronavirus and a positive test for the disease to be included in official statistics.
(SFC, 8/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 1, In Russia thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Far East city of Khabarovsk to protest the arrest of their governor, keeping up a three-week wave of opposition that has challenged the Kremlin. Smaller demonstrations took place in at least 10 other cities and 55 people were detained in those protests.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, South Africa announced 10,107 new cases, bringing the tally to 503,290, along with 8,153 deaths.
(BBC, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 1, In South Korea prosecutors arrested Lee Man-hee (89), the leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious sect linked to more than 5,200 of the country's approximately 14,300 confirmed cases. He has denied charges of hiding members and underreporting gatherings to avoid broader quarantines. Mr Lee is also suspected of embezzling about 5.6 billion won (£3.6 million) in church funds, including about five billion won that he allegedly used to build a retreat.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 1, In Vietnam a third person died of coronavirus complications in Da Nang. Twelve additional cases were confirmed, all linked to Da Nang.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 2, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour back to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A7)
2020 Aug 2, California to date had 509,396 cases of coronavirus and 9,369 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 55,097 cases and 836 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,649,669 with the death toll at 154,744.
(sfist.com, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Chicago Darrell Johnson (39) was arrested for the death of a 9-year-old boy who was fatally shot while playing in front of his home. The boy was one of 105 homicide victims in July. Johnson was soon charged with first-degree murder.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, Nevada lawmakers passed a bill allowing the state to mail active voters ballots ahead of the November election, joining seven states that plan automatic mail balloting. Gov. Steve Sisolak was expected to sign the bill. Pres. Trump the next morning called the bill "an illegal late night coup."
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 2, South Dakota health officials reported 88 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one new death. The state death toll is now 135 with total cases at 8,955.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 2, American classical pianist Leon Fleisher (92) died in Maryland. In 1964, he lost the use of his right hand due to a neurological condition eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia, forcing him to focus on the repertoire for the left hand.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Fleisher)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 2, In Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews of the southern state of Victoria announced a 8 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew on Melbourne, a city of 5 million people. Schools statewide are to return to home-based teaching and day care centers were closed. Andrews said there were seven deaths and 671 new cases over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, China reported 49 new confirmed cases, up from the previous day’s 45.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Ethiopia tens of thousands flooded the streets of Addis Ababa in a government-backed rally to celebrate the first stage of the filling of the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 2, Guyana's Elections Commission declared that Irfaan Ali, an opposition candidate, was the winner of the March 2 elections.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.27)
2020 Aug 2, Hong Kong reported 125 new infections as authorities tried to find the source of its latest outbreak.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, India reported 54,735 new coronavirus cases, down from the previous day's record 57,118. The country's total rose to 1.75 million.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Iran imposed symbolic sanctions on Richard Goldberg, a hawkish former expert with the White House National Security Council, because of his role in what it called “US economic terrorism against interests of the Islamic Republic and its citizens".
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, The Israeli military reportedly intercepted a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip late today in a rare attack punctuating months of relative calm.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Mexican police in Guanajuato state arrested Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, aka el Marro, the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima gang, along with five other suspects allegedly holding a kidnapped businesswoman.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 2, In the Philippines coronavirus infections surged past 100,000 in a troubling milestone after medical groups declared that the country was waging “a losing battle" against the virus and asked the president to reimpose a lockdown in the capital. The Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 103,185, including more than 2,000 deaths.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, South Korea reported 30 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to 14,366 with 301 deaths, but said only eight were acquired in the country.
(AP, 8/2/20)
2020 Aug 2, Former Spanish monarch Juan Carlos (82), who served as king for almost four decades, left Spain for an unspecified destination amid a growing financial scandal. Juan Carlos is the target of official investigations in Spain and Switzerland, into possible financial wrongdoing.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, In Sweden a girl (12) was shot late today at a parking lot in the municipality of Botkyrka that is a popular hangout for teenagers. Investigators think the gunfire that killed her was intended for two men with ties to a criminal gang.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 2, Yemen’s Houthi rebels reportedly shot down a US-made drone over the country's northern border with Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Pres. Donald Trump said he has fired Jeff Lyash, the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and criticized the federally owned corporation for hiring foreign workers. Rep. Sen. Lamar Alexander said the White house was spreading misinformation about the TVA.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.C3)
2020 Aug 3, President Donald Trump said that the US government should get a cut from a potential Microsoft purchase of TikTok, a Chinese-owned video app.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for an American company to purchase Chinese-owned video app TikTok in order to protect users' data, saying "a safe way must be found for TikTok to continue".
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A US judge voided parts of a Trump administration rule that, according to New York's attorney general, illegally restricted paid sick leave for workers affected by the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The US Census Bureau said that the door-knocking and ability for households to respond either online, by phone or by mail to the questionnaire will stop at the end of September instead of the end of October so that it can meet an end-of-the-year deadline to turn in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, In southern California evacuation orders remained in place for thousands of people after a wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles exploded in size and forced crews to battle flames in triple-digit heat. The Apple Fire in Riverside County was 5% contained. The blaze began as two adjacent fires were reported on July 23 in Cherry Valley.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, California to date had 519,737 cases of coronavirus and 9,499 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 56,161 cases and 843 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,710,282 with the death toll at 155,331.
(sfist.com, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $22.1 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries won another contract, valued at $289 million, to build 17 more miles of border wall in Laredo, Texas. US Sen. Kevin Cramer, has championed the company to Pres. Donald Trump. The Republican senator has received donations from the company.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company is launching a late-stage study of its monoclonal antibody technology, and has employed a unique mobile treatment van to travel door to door to deliver this promising therapy to the residents and staff of America's long-term care facilities. Top scientists have said that a treatment called monoclonal antibodies might offer some protection from (coronavirus) infection until we get a vaccine capable of delivering longer-term immunity. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. also announced the start of its own late-stage trial in July, and has received funding from Operation Warp Speed.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said that the COVID-19 antibody drug combination it is developing both prevented and treated the disease in rhesus macaques and hamsters, adding to hope that it might work for people.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Afghan forces retook a prison in the country’s east, following an hours-long gunbattle a day after the Jalalabad facility was targeted by Islamic State militants in an attack that killed 29 people. The prison is believed to hold hundreds of IS members. Some of the 1,500 prisoners there escaped during the fighting. About 1,000 prisoners who earlier escaped had been found by security forces across the city. It wasn’t immediately clear if any prisoners were still at large.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Albanian prosecutors seized vast assets belonging to Ylli Ndroqi, also known as Xhemal Pasmaciu, a businessman and a media mogul suspected of building his empire with profits from drug trafficking. Ndroqi was seen going to a police station, but has not been detained.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, In Bolivia supporters of former President Evo Morales began blocking roads across the country to protest against the 2nd postponement of a general election because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next few weeks at least 30 people died because of oxygen shortages. Protesters said they are letting oxygen trucks and ambulances pass. Bolivia has reported 95,071 coronavirus cases and 3,827 deaths.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.30)
2020 Aug 3, John Hume (83), the visionary politician who won a Nobel Peace Prize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland, died in Northern Ireland. The Catholic leader of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party, Hume was seen as the principal architect of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace agreement.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hume)(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, France-based healthcare company Sanofi Aventis said it has been placed under formal investigation on charges of manslaughter over Depakine, which is an epilepsy drug that caused birth malfunctions and slow neurological development when taken during pregnancy. Depakine, which lost its patent in 1998, is prescribed in more than 100 countries.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Hong Kong reported 80 new coronavirus cases, dropping below 100 infections for the first time in 12 days, as a team of Chinese officials began preparations for widespread testing in the global financial hub, which has seen a resurgence in cases.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, India reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1.8 million - the third highest in the world. With 771 new deaths, the COVID-19 disease has now killed 38,135 people.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Indian drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd said it will supply millions of doses of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, including that being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, under a deal with the UK government.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that the number of people who have died with COVID-19 in Iran is far higher than the government has publicly admitted, according to figures leaked to BBC Persian. These figures say 42,000 people had died with the virus as of July 20. The official figure the same day was 14,405. Likewise, the cumulative count of infections was 451,024 that day, according to the leaked figures, compared to a public count of 278,827.
(Business Insider, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The Israeli military said it thwarted an infiltration attempt from Syria early today staged by four suspected militants it accused of trying to plant explosives. Later today Israeli jets struck several Syrian military targets, including intelligence-collection systems, observation posts, antiaircraft artillery facilities, and command and control centers, in response to the militant attack.
(AP, 8/3/20)(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 3, In Italy the city of Genoa inaugurated the new Genoa San Giorgio bridge, designed by Renzo Piano and built in a record 15 months following its collapse on Aug. 14, 2018.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 3, Lebanon's foreign minister resigned amid a severe economic and financial crisis gripping the Arab country, warning that a lack of vision and a will to make changes is risking turning Lebanon into a “failed state." Nassif Hitti was the first Cabinet minister to step down from his post amid the crisis, which poses as the most significant threat to the country since a devastating 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, It was reported that authorities in the Netherlands and Spain have killed more than 1 million minks at breeding farms following outbreaks of coronavirus in the animals.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 3, In North Korea an apparent gas leak caused a deadly blast. As many as 15 people died in the explosion and resulting fire at a house in Hyesan, Yanggang Province.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 3, Norway's Hurtigruten cruise ship line halted all trips and apologized for procedural errors after an outbreak of the coronavirus on the MS Roald Amundsen ship infected at least 5 passengers and 36 crew.
(SFC, 8/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 3, Portugal reported no coronavirus-related deaths from a day earlier for the first time since mid-March, when a lockdown was put in place, and the lowest number of new infections in almost three months. Portugal's total confirmed cases rose by 106 to 51,569. The death toll remained unchanged at 1,738.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said that at least 150,000 packs of Avifavir, an anti-viral drug Russian authorities have approved to treat COVID-19, would be sent to Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay. The drug will also be supplied to South Africa.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Officials issued a "serious" crisis warning in South Korea after a weekend of heavy rainfall caused floodwaters to overtake cities across the region. In Seoul the Han River spilled into the streets. At least 12 people have been reported killed and another 13 missing due to the heavy rainfall.
(AccuWeather, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 3, Spain said it aims to roll out a COVID-19 contact-tracing app across the country in September after a pilot showed it could detect almost twice as many potential infections as human trackers during a simulated outbreak on a tiny island. Spain used a new system developed by Google and Apple which holds data on individual devices to ensure privacy.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A Tanzanian small-scale miner, who became an overnight millionaire in June for selling two rough Tanzanite stones valued at $3.4m (£2.6m), has sold another gem for $2m. The third discovery by Saniniu Laizer weighed 6.3kg (14lb).
(BBC, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, A confidential new UN report warned that several countries believe North Korea has likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its nuclear devices.
(The Telegraph, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The World Health Organization said an advance team looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the UN health agency is preparing the deployment of a larger group of experts to the suspected outbreak zone.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Vietnam reported 21 more novel coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 642. All of the new cases are linked to Danang.
(Reuters, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said Zimbabwe's military and police are continuing to arrest scores of opposition members and activists after authorities thwarted an anti-government protest last week. Human rights groups accused the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of clamping down on dissent under the guise of enforcing anti-COVID-19 lockdown rules.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 4, President Donald Trump signed legislation that will devote nearly $3 billion a year to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands following its overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In an abrupt reversal, President Donald Trump encouraged voters in the critical swing state of Florida to vote by mail after months of criticizing the practice, and only days after threatening to sue Nevada over a new vote-by-mail law.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a call to action to warn of a potential outbreak between the end of this summer and winter of Acute flaccid myelitis, a rare, but potentially lethal disease that affects young children, where seeking medical attention right away could make all the difference.
(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain along the US East Coast after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it smashed boats together and caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people. One person in Maryland, one in Connecticut, one in New York and two others in North Carolina died as a result of the storm.
(AP, 8/4/20)(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Self-driving-car engineer Anthony Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a federal judge in San Francisco, after pleading guilty to one count of trade secret theft in May. In 2021 Donald Trump pardoned Levandowski in the final hours of his administration.
(Business Insider, 8/4/20)(SFC, 1/21/21, p.C1)
2020 Aug 4, California to date had 523,564 cases of coronavirus and 9,615 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 56,887 cases and 856 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,765,170 with the death toll at 156,668.
(sfist.com, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Drew Drechsel, known as “The Real Life Ninja" on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior," was arrested at his home in Saint Cloud, Florida. He is accused of manufacturing child porn, enticing a minor to travel for sex and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor.
(Miami Herald, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Chicago rapper Carlton Weekly (26) was killed in a triple shooting in the city's upscale community of Gold Coast. Weekly had performed as FBG Duck and rapped about gun violence. His last video, "Dead Bitches," was released in July.
(AP, 8/5/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.71)
2020 Aug 4, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said that he is setting a statewide order for people to wear masks in public amid a recent surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, In Missouri Cori Bush (44), a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer's fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Missouri became the 38th state to approve the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare as voters approved the measure in a referendum conducted concurrently with the state’s primary.
(Yahoo News, 8/5/20)(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, Frances Allen, American computer scientist and researcher, died at a nursing home in Schenectady, NY. She helped create the fundamental ideas that allow practically anyone to build fast, efficient and useful software for computers, smartphones and websites
(NY Times, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 4, Medical device maker Abiomed Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted its left-sided heart pumps emergency use authorization to help patients suffering from COVID-19-related heart and lung failures.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Veru Inc., an oncology and urology biopharmaceutical company with a focus on developing novel medicines for the management of prostate cancer, announced that it has confirmed in an in vitro study that VERU-111 has anti-inflammatory action against the key cytokines involved in the cytokine storm triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
(Global Newswire, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Argentina reached a deal with creditors as the country recorded 166 COVID-19 deaths, a daily record.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.26)
2020 Aug 4, The government of Brazil said an eighth minister in President Jair Bolsonaro's Cabinet has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Brazil has confirmed more than 2.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began. The official death toll has risen to 94,665, with 51,603 new cases and 1,154 deaths in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Indonesia said it will have capacity to produce 250 million doses a year of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 pending trials on humans, as the country seeks to halt a wave of infections that has shown no sign of relent. Indonesia has confirmed 115,056 cases of COVID-19 and 5,388 deaths since its first infections in March.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Iran confirmed over 2,700 new COVID-19 infections, its highest single-day count in more than a month, as the health ministry called for those without masks to be fined. The latest count takes the total cases identified in Iran since late February to 314,786. Another 212 people died from the virus during the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 17,617.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Dozens of Lebanese protesters tried to storm the Ministry of Energy, angered by prolonged power cuts as the country grapples with a crippling economic crisis. The highly-indebted government is facing a rapid inflation, soaring unemployment and poverty, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In Lebanon an explosion in Beirut killed at least 160 people and injured some 6,000 others. The blast appears to have been caused by the ignition of a stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, that had been stored at the port since 2013 when it was seized from the MV Rhosus, a Russian-owned cargo ship. 640 historic buildings were damaged. Deaths due to the blast later reached 215.
(AP, 8/5/20)(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A2)(AP, 8/7/20)(AP, 8/9/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.35)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.46)(SSFC, 9/26/21, p.A17)
2020 Aug 4, The chemical tanker Etienne rescued a group of 27 would-be refugees at the request of Maltese authorities as the migrants’ fishing boat sank. Malta, however, refused to let the migrants disembark and the Etienne has been stuck in international waters 17 miles off the small European Union island nation as food and water supplies are running low.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Aug 4, Dutch health authorities said new confirmed coronavirus cases nearly doubled in the Netherlands over the past week to 2,588.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, A Pakistani court sparked outrage by ruling a 14-year-old Christian girl was legally married to a Muslim man who allegedly abducted her at gunpoint. The Lahore High Court ruled that Maira Shahbaz had willingly converted to Islam and married Mohamad Nakash.
(The Telegraph, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Philippine police deployed road blocks to enforce a tough new lockdown on about 28 million people in the capital Manila and nearby provinces as the Southeast Asian country reported the region's biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases. The health ministry reported 6,352 new cases. Total infections rose to 112,593 with rising to roughly 2,100.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Taiwan said it provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus, as the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies. Taiwan has reported 476 cases of the new coronavirus, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, Turkey reported 1,083 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths bringing the total infections to nearly 235,000 and deaths to 5,765.
(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The UN International Labor Organization welcomed a global agreement to combat the worst forms of child labor as the first time all of its member states have ratified a convention — in a process that lasted 21 years.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, In Venezuela the Nicolás Maduro regime promoted Interior Minister Néstor Reverol to General in Chief, even though the officer is charged by federal prosecutors in New York with accepting large bribes in exchange for protecting drug shipments to the United States.
(Miami Herald, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Zimbabwe's Pres. Mnangagwa called the main opposition party "Terrorist," and vowed to "flush out" his opponents as anger with his government grows over alleged corruption and economic mismanagement.
(BBC, 8/4/20)(SFC, 8/5/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 5, It was reported that President Donald Trump's reelection campaign and the national Republican Party have sued Nevada to block a new law that will send a mail-in ballot to every registered voter ahead of November's election.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, The US State Department announced its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program with bounties of up to $10 million for information that helps it catch state hackers trying to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. State-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have already been detected trying to interfere with the 2020 election.
(Business Insider, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 5, The United States imposed sanctions on Kuda Tagwirei, a business associate of Zimbabwe's Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa, in signs of the international community’s growing frustration with Mnangagwa’s administration. Over the last few days, in response to a particularly brutal, public, widespread, and on-going clampdown by security forces, the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter has gone viral, globally.
(AP, 8/6/20)(BBC, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 5, Arizona officials said 517 inmates at the state prison in Tucson have tested positive this week for the coronavirus. The state has 180,500 confirmed cases and more than 3,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 5, In Los Angeles Grammy Award-winning producer Detail, whose real name is Noel Fisher, was arrested in a sexual assault investigation. Detail has worked with the likes of Beyoncé and Lil Wayne.
(Entertainment Weekly, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, California to date had 528,567 cases of coronavirus and 9,707 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 57,708 cases and 866 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,816,509 with the death toll at 157,854.
(sfist.com, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Colorado a house fire killed five family members, including an infant and a 2-year-old. The victims were members of Denver's Senegalese community. Police later said fire appeared to be deliberately set by three unknown individuals wearing dark hoodies and full-face masks who fled the area in a dark colored 4-door sedan. On Jan. 27, 2021, three teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of murder and arson stemming from the house fire.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A4)(NBC News, 8/19/20)(Reuters, 1/27/21)
2020 Aug 5, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order granting convicted felons the right to vote after they complete their sentences, ending Iowa’s place as the only remaining state to broadly deny voting rights to felons.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 4, Missouri became the 38th state to approve expanding Medicaid health care coverage to thousands more low-income adults in a vote paired with primary elections.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 5, Luis Archuleta (77), convicted of shooting Denver police Officer Daril Cinquanta in the stomach in 1971, was arrested in New Mexico. Archuleta, also known as Larry Pusateri, was convicted in 1973. He escaped from a Colorado state prison facility the next year.
(NBC News, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 5, In New York City journalist Pete Hamill (85) died. The columnist, editor and author personified the great New York City newspaper wars of a bygone era.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, It was reported that Johnson & Johnson has agreed to supply 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the United States for more than $1 billion. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, is still in the first and second phases of clinical trials.
(Good Morning America, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Instagram, a unit of Facebook, launched Reels, a TikTok look-alike.
(Econ., 8/8/20, p.52)
2020 Aug 5, Moderna Inc said smaller volume agreements for its experimental coronavirus vaccine have been priced in the range of $32 to $37 per dose, higher than the price set by the US deal for Pfizer Inc's vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Abu Dhabi state news said the emirate's defence and security entity Tawazun is to build a satellite assembly, integration and testing center with Airbus in the United Arab Emirates' oasis city of Al Ain.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Australia the streets of Melbourne’s usually vibrant downtown were draining of signs of life on the eve of Australia’s toughest-ever pandemic restrictions coming into force. Victoria set a new daily record of 725 coronavirus cases. Elsewhere in Australia, only 14 new infections were found.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Britain's all-party home affairs committee said the Government’s “inexplicable" decision to lift restrictions on some one million people who arrived in the UK between March 13 and lockdown on March 23 contributed to the pace and scale of the Covid-19 outbreak in Britain.
(The Telegraph, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok said it updated its content policies to curb misinformation on its platform ahead of the presidential election in the United States.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Egypt and Sudan suspended talks with Ethiopia after it proposed linking a deal on its newly constructed reservoir and giant hydroelectric dam to a broader agreement about the Blue Nile waters that would replace a colonial-era accord with Britain. Negotiations had just resumed through online conferencing on August 3.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, India's PM Narendra Modi set the ceremonial cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu devotees had destroyed the mosque in 1992.
(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 5, The Israeli military said it was establishing a coronavirus task force aimed at cutting the chain of infection in the country. Since reopening the economy in May new cases have spiked to record highs, with upwards of 2,000 infections a day.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, In Mozambique insurgents another assault on the port of Mocimoa da Praia. They killed more than 50 soldiers and sank a small naval ship.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 5, Relatives of a top Palestinian official rampaged through Ramallah late today, firing into the air and at government buildings after family member Khalil al-Sheikh was killed in a personal quarrel with a Palestinian security officer. Al-Sheikh was the brother of Hussein al-Sheikh, one of the most powerful men in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Officials in Scotland ordered bars, cafes and restaurants in the city of Aberdeen to close, re-imposing anti-virus restrictions after a cluster of 54 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the area was linked to a single bar.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Dr. Hawa Abdi (73), human rights activist and a rescuer of Somalia's refugees, died in Mogadishu.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 5, Sri Lanka held parliamentary elections. The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) secured a landslide victory. The United National Party was reduced to one member in the 225-seat parliament, down from 106.
(AP, 8/9/20)(Econ., 8/5/20, p.36)
2020 Aug 5, The UN reported that more than 1,300 people were killed in the first half of 2020 by armed groups in DR Congo, three times more than in the same period in 2019.
(AFP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 5, Vietnam's health ministry reported an additional 41 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's total to 713 infections, with 8 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, President Trump signed executive orders barring transactions with TikTok and WeChat, two popular Chinese social media networks. The orders, which cited national security concerns, take effect in 45 days. Tencent, the owner of WeChat, is a Hong Kong-listed firm with close ties to China's Communist Party.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 6, President Trump said during a campaign visit to Ohio that Joe Biden is "following the radical left agenda: take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God." “He’s against God, he’s against guns."
(Yahoo News, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The US government sent text messages to cellphones in Russia and Iran offering up to $10 million for information about people trying to attack American voting systems.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, California to date had 537,410 cases of coronavirus and 9,965 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 58,769 cases and 881 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,870,367 with the death toll at 159,864.
(sfist.com, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence official publicly, filed a lawsuit in a US federal court, accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of sending a team of agents to Canada to kill him in October 2018.
(NY Times, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, Brent Scowcroft (95), who played a prominent role in American foreign policy as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, died in Virginia. He was a Republican voice against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A study, published in Nature, found that a drug-resistant strain of the parasites that cause malaria were able to resist treatment by artemisinin - a frontline drug in the fight against the disease. Researchers warned that this "would pose a major public health threat" in Africa.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, It was reported that Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 1 million, but global health experts say the true toll is likely several times higher. More than 22,000 people in Africa have died of COVID-19 and infections were surging.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products will produce the company's potential COVID-19 vaccine in mainland China.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, In China the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court sentenced Xu Weihong, a Canadian citizen, to death on drug charges. Accomplice Wen Guanxiong was given a life sentence.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 6, Egypt and Greece signed a maritime deal that sets the sea boundary between the two countries and demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights. The deal is a response to a similar agreement between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based government last year that has spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut following the August 4 blast that killed more than 130 people. Macron promised that French aid would be given out with transparency.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Germany's health minister announced that Germany will require people arriving from countries deemed high risk, such as the United States, to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Guinea's ruling party asked Pres. Alpha Conde (82) to run for a third term in elections set for October.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.44)
2020 Aug 6, India recorded is biggest single-day death toll of 904 as new infections surged by 56,282 to nearly 2 million.
(SFC, 8/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 6, Ivory Coast Pres. Alassane Ouattara agreed to contest elections in October. Opposition parties held that he has hit his term limit.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 6, Lebanese authorities arrested 16 people over the massive explosion at Beirut's port that killed at least 149 people.
(The Week, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A lone survivor was rescued off the coast of Mauritania. 27 people reportedly died after the engines on their migrant vessel failed, leaving them stranded near Nouadhibou.
(AFP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 6, A surge in coronavirus cases in the Netherlands continued, rising to 601 cases in the past 24 hours from 427 cases a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, It was reported that North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries.
(The Telegraph, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Poland's Pres. Andrzej Duda was sworn in for a second term as president. It was reported that LGBT people are choosing to leave Poland amid rising homophobia promoted by Duda and other right-wing populist politicians in power.
(AP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, Poland reported a record 726 coronavirus infections, as it announced renewed local restrictions to counter the spike in cases. The health ministry said restrictions would return in 19 counties worst affected by the pandemic. Poland has reported a total of 49,515 coronavirus cases and 1,774 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said almost 150 people were extrajudicially killed by Malian and Burkinabe security forces in Mali between April and June. The quarterly MINUSMA report also found 50 extrajudicial killings in late May by Burkina Faso troops in the village of Boulkessi, and settlements close to the nation's Mali border. More than 1,700 people were killed by armed groups in the first half of this year, up from about 300 in the whole of 2018.
(AFP, 8/6/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said seasonal torrential rains have wreaked havoc on houses and infrastructure across Sudan, affecting more than 50,000 people.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, Airstrikes in northern Yemen killed as many as nine children, making it the third such attack with significant child deaths in that rebel-controlled region this month.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, US treasury department head Steven Mnuchin said the US has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials, in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, A US federal judge granted the government's request to immediately end the Paramount Decrees, a set of antitrust rules from the late 1940s and early 1950s that ended Hollywood's monopoly on producing, distributing and exhibiting movies.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the USPS faces a "dire" financial position even as it posted a slightly narrower third-quarter loss amid soaring package demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Officials in Anchorage, Alaska, won a key ruling in favor of a ban on indoor restaurant dining after a standoff over COVID-19 restrictions moved to court.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The California insurance commissioner's office said it has settled a case with drugmaker AbbVie. The company will pay $24 million to settle allegations of $1.2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims related to prescriptions of the arthritis drug Humira.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 7, California to date had 543,657 cases of coronavirus and 10,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,018 cases and 899 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,926,063 with the death toll at 160,980.
(sfist.com, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, In Florida the Broward State Attorney’s Office said it is dropping the armed robbery case against Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar (28), but will prosecute New York Giants cornerback Deandre Baker (22) for stealing jewelry and money from people, at gunpoint, nearly 3 months ago at a house party in Miramar.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The Crow Tribe in Montana ordered its members to lock down for two weeks beginning today as tribal leaders moved to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on yet another reservation in the country.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that all school districts in his state, once the epicenter of the nation's COVID-19 crisis, could open for in-person learning in the fall based on their current low infection rates of the virus.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Portland's nightly protests turned violent again even after the city's mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets. A police officer hit by a rock early today suffered what was described as a serious injury. The overnight protest was in a residential neighborhood 6 miles away from the federal courthouse.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Thousands of bikers poured into the small South Dakota city of Sturgis as the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally rumbled to life despite fears it could lead to a massive coronavirus outbreak. Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the seven-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Dalia Samoudi (23), a Palestinian woman, died after being shot in the chest by an apparent stray bullet during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Cincinnati-based Meridian Bioscience Inc. (VIVO) reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $27.5 million.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pfizer Inc said it has signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Bulgarian police removed dozens of tent camps that had blocked key city intersections across the country as part of antigovernment protests.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 7, China sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. The court said he had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs. Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review.
(Politico, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Israeli operatives, at the behest of the United States, assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, al Qaeda's second-highest leader, in Tehran according to a NY Times report in November. Iran at this time identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese history professor, and his daughter. Intelligence officials later said those were aliases. Al-Masri was a mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on American embassies in multiple African countries. Iran denied the NY Times report.
(NY Times, 11/14/20)
2020 Aug 7, In North Korea a train carrying goods arrived in the "totally blocked" city of Kaesong, following the discovery there of the country's first suspected coronavirus case.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pakistan recorded 782 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 17 deaths. In total Pakistan has reported 282,642 confirmed cases and 6,052 deaths.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said local biotech firm Genexine Inc has received regulatory approval for a Phase I human clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus treatment drug.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Spain reported 1,895 new coronavirus infections in the past day, mainly in the regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Aragon. Spain has seen a total of 314,362 cases of COVID-19 and recorded 28,503 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Moderna to secure early access to the COVID-19 vaccine the US biotech company is developing.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the United States.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 8, President Trump signed four executive orders on economic aid as stimulus talks stalled. Their impact may be limited, and legal challenges are expected. Trump extended supplemental unemployment benefits, but at a reduced rate of $400 per week from the previous $600. He also claimed authority to defer payroll taxes from august 1 to the end of the year.
(NY Times, 8/9/20)(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A8)
2020 Aug 8, California to date had 555,544 cases of coronavirus and 10,329 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,834 cases and 909 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,003,600 with the death toll at 162,422.
(sfist.com, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Portland, Oregon, a fire inside a police union building late today led authorities to declare a riot and force protesters away from the offices as violent demonstrations continued in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Texas a pair of Fort Hood soldiers were among those arrested at the conclusion of a two-day child prostitution sting. Nine men arrested also included a third US service member.
(Miami Herald, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 8, Brazil surpassed a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections with the new coronavirus.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Britain’s military said it has been asked by the government to help prevent people from reaching the UK from France in small boats, after a surge in the number of vessels making the dangerous journey.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Health care workers rallied in British cities demanding hefty pay raises for their hard work during the pandemic.
(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 8, China reported 31 new coronavirus cases, mainly in the western Xinjiang region, where an outbreak has infected 750 people.
(SSFC, 8/9/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 8, In northeastern Czech Republic at least 11 people were killed and 10 others injured in an apartment building fire in the town of Bohumin.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Konrad Steffen (69), a renowned researcher who helped warn the world that climate change was melting Greenland’s massive ice sheet, died there in an ice crevasse accident.
(NY Times, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 8, Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that an unknown gunman has killed two Lebanese nationals on the streets of Tehran. The assailant, riding a motorcycle, shot dead Maryam Dawood (27) and her father Habib Dawood, a history professor.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Israel thousands of demonstrators thronged the streets near the official residence of PM Benjamin Netanyahu in central Jerusalem, in a renewed show of strength as weeks of protests against the Israeli leader showed no signs of slowing.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, Italy’s health minister announced that women in Italy can now use the abortion pill on an outpatient basis rather than be hospitalized to terminate a pregnancy.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Lebanon security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators n Beirut amid mounting fury over the massive explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Mexico officials in Guanajuato state confirmed that the bodies of seven men wee found with multiple gunshot wounds on the side of a road outside Jerecuaro. The state has seen more than 9,000 killings since a turf war began in 2017 between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the rival Jalisco cartel.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 8, Police in North Macedonia found 94 migrants packed into a truck in the country’s southeast. The truck driver fled from the scene.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 8, Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia's Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies showed little sign of dying down. Protesters demanded that regional governor Sergei Furgal be either released or tried in Khabarovsk.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, In Poland demonstrators turned out in Warsaw and other Polish cities to protest anti-LGBT attitudes promoted by the government as well as the detention of pro-LGBT protesters.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 8, A suicide car bomber attacked a military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least eight people and injuring 14 others.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 9, A US Border Patrol agent assigned to Tucson, Arizona, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking after he was found with thousands of pills and substances that tested positive for cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.
(Business Insider, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, A salmonella outbreak linked to onions has expanded to 43 states and Canada, prompting a recall from a producer in California and various grocery chains.
(NY Times, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, California to date had 559,963 cases of coronavirus and 10,374 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 61,951 cases and 911 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,040,904 with the death toll at 162,912.
(sfist.com, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Police in Louisville, Kentucky, banned protesters from demonstrating in the streets, after more than 70 nights of consecutive protests over the police killing of local Black woman Breonna Taylor. A handful of people were taken into custody for disorderly conduct and obstructing the roadway late today after the new restrictions went into place.
(Insider, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Washington, DC, a dispute that erupted into gun fire during a large outdoor party early today left one person dead and some 20 others injured.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, The most powerful earthquake to hit North Carolina in more than 100 years shook much of the state early today, rattling homes, businesses and residents. the 5.1-magnitude temblor was the largest earthquake to hit the state since 1916, when a magnitude 5.5 quake occurred near Skyland.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, A traditional Afghan council concluded with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan's warring sides.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Belarus held a presidential election. Opposition supporters suspected that election officials will manipulate results to give President Alexander Lukashenko (65) a sixth term in office. The opposition has coalesced around one candidate: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger. A government exit poll said Aleksandr Lukashenko had won almost 80 percent of the vote. That triggered protests against the repressive regime, and a heavy police response.
(AP, 8/9/20)(NY Times, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Egypt a car crash left at least nine people dead and seven others injured north of Cairo when a microbus collided with a small truck on a highway in the Nile Delta town of Banha.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), torn apart by internal strife, endorsed an extension of a UN arms embargo on Iran, just two months before it is set to expire.
(Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC)
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, India recorded nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, raising its total to 2,153,010. The Indian Medical Association said 196 doctors have died of COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 9, Namibia has seen a steady uptick of new coronavirus infections and has now reported 2,949 cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths since the start of the outbreak. The government planned for the first time to auction its 60% share of the country's annual horse mackerel and hake output to the highest bidder by the end of October, as it scrambles to raise funds for equipment and medicines to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 9, In Niger gunmen attacked a group of aid workers, killing six French citizens and two guides at a giraffe park in the Koure region. On Sept. 17 the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 8/9/20)(SFC, 9/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 9, In Pakistan troops with boats rushed to evacuate people in Sindh province as three days of heavy monsoon rains killed at least 58 people across the country.
(SFC, 8/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 9, Puerto Rico was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots as officials called on the president of the US territory’s elections commission to resign.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time after his party secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that cemented his family's hold on power. Rajapaksa took oath before his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 9, Yemen's Houthi rebels said that floods have swept through rebel-held parts of the country since mid-July amid heavy seasonal rains, leaving more than 130 dead and damaging more than 260 homes.
(AP, 8/9/20)
2020 Aug 10, The US Federal Reserve announced how much each large bank that underwent its 2020 stress tests will have to hold in additional capital.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Environmental Protection Agency approved a new chemical for use in repelling mosquitos, ticks, and other disease-bearing insects. The newly approved chemical, nootkatone, is a nontoxic oil found in Alaskan yellow cedars (Cupressus nootkatensis) and grapefruits, and it is so aromatic and safe for humans it is used in foods and perfumes.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, A rare storm packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it moved through Chicago and into Indiana and Michigan. The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois. Iowa state's agriculture department later estimated that the severe windstorm destroyed or seriously damaged more than 57 million bushels of commercial grain storage capacity in Iowa and a similar amount on farms.
(AP, 8/10/20)(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 10, A California judge ordered ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers in the state as employees eligible for benefits, rather than independent contractors.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, California to date had 571,539 cases of coronavirus and 10,451 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 63,636 cases and 913 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,079,941 with the death toll at 163,331.
(sfist.com, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Chicago more than 100 people were arrested following a night of looting and unrest that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in the city's upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city. Prosecutors later charged 42 people with felonies in connection with the looting.
(AP, 8/10/20)(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 10, In Maryland a gas explosion blew out windows and blasted doors off their hinges in three two-story rowhomes in Northwest Baltimore, killing one woman and injuring at least six other people.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, It was reported that at least five horses have been killed around Pearland, Texas, since late May. Police believe the horses were killed for their meat.
(MH, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Portland, Oregon, demonstrators took to the streets again late today and police broke up a protest outside a police precinct substation after they said protesters shined strobe lights at officers and hurled eggs and water bottles at them.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Washington state Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement late today after the City Council voted to slash the $400-million police budget by nearly $4 million.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Gilead Sciences Inc said it has filed a marketing application with the US Food and Drug Administration for its experimental COVID-19 drug remdesivir.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, McDonald's filed a lawsuit accusing former CEO Steve Easterbrook of lying, concealing evidence, and fraud linked to a sexual relationship with a subordinate while he was running the company.
(The Week, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Omeros Corp said its experimental treatment helped six patients, with acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by COVID-19, recover and get discharged from the hospital, sending the drug developer's shares up 60%.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Bahrain said Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Bahrain, after launching similar trials in the United Arab Emirates last month.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that the protesters who challenge the official vote results extending his 26-year rule will face a tough crackdown, deriding the opposition as “sheep" manipulated by foreign masters. Election officials said that Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80% of the vote, while opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya got 10%. Protester Alexander Taraikovsky (34), died in the Minsk under disputed circumstances. Mobile phone internet went offline after protesters clashed with police a day earlier.
(AP, 8/10/20)(Reuters, 8/11/20)(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 10, Bhutan ordered its first nationwide lockdown after a returning resident tested positive for coronavirus after being discharged from quarantine and coming into close contact with people in the capital Thimphu.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, A Royal Air Force surveillance plane flew over the English Channel as the British government sought to curb the number of people crossing from France in small boats. An inflatable dinghy carrying about 20 people was met by a UK Border Force boat and escorted to the port of Dover.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, China announced unspecified sanctions against 11 US politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing. The number of Americans named by the ministry exactly equals the number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the US last week over the crackdown.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Cuba reported a record 93 cases of the new coronavirus as a surge of the disease in the Havana area threatened to stall the re-opening of the country after a partial lockdown beginning in March. Cuba has reported just under 3,000 cases and 88 deaths to date.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Denmark said it has seen a new spread of COVID-19 infections in the past week with the reproduction rate rising to 1.4. In the past week infections have been confirmed in 67 out of Denmark's 98 municipalities.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Greek government imposed a midnight closing time on bars, cafes, clubs and restaurants from August 11 to August 23 to help stem increasing coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 10, The Hong Kong police arrested Jimmy Lai (72), a pro-democracy media tycoon and high-profile critic of the Chinese Communist Party, on charges of violating a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing. the Hong Kong Police Force said seven men between the ages of 39 and 72 were arrested on suspicion of breaching the security law. Two of Lai's sons were among those arrested.
(NY Times, 8/10/20)(The Week, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Iran shut down the Jahane Sanat newspaper after it published remarks by an expert who said the official figures on coronavirus cases and deaths in the country account for only 5% of the real toll, allegations rejected by the Health Ministry.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, Lebanon’s Cabinet resigned over last week's devastating blast at the Beirut port, a decision that was made under pressure as several ministers quit or expressed their intention to step down. PM Diab's Cabinet now assumes a caretaker role until a new government is formed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Nigeria musician Sharif-Aminu (22) was sentenced in northern state of Kano to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad. Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad. An appeal was allowed.
(AP, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Philippines reported 6,958 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily case increase in the Southeast Asian country, taking its tally of cases to 136,638. A Health Ministry bulletin also reported 24 more fatalities, bringing the country's coronavirus death toll to 2,293.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 10, In Somalia at least 20 people were killed in a shoot-out between jailed militant Islamists and security officers at a prison in Mogadishu during an attempted prison escape.
(BBC, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 10, Sri Lanka began reopening schools. Health authorities said the COVID-19 outbreak has been under control.
(SFC, 8/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 10, Trinidad and Tobago re-elected Keith Rawley (b.1949) as prime minister.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rowley)
2020 Aug 10, Turkey vowed to press ahead with searching for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, saying it plans to issue new exploration licenses for the area despite an escalating dispute with Greece over drilling rights. Greece slammed the announcement.
(AP, 8/11/20)(SFC, 8/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 10, Vietnam's health ministry reported six more coronavirus infections and two additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 847, with 13 fatalities.
(Reuters, 8/10/20)
2020 Aug 11, Joe Biden selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. She is the first Black woman, and the first person of Indian descent, to be nominated for national office by a major party.
(NY Times, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, The Big Ten and the Pac-12, two major college sports conferences whose schools include Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon, called off their football seasons for the fall.
(NY Times, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Mark Grenon, self-styled archbishop in a Florida-based church, was arrested in Colombia along with one of his sons. Grenon had marketed "Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS), a form of toxic bleach associated with seven deaths in the US. In recent years advocates of MMS have established a significant presence in Latin America.
(Business Insider, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, UCSF researchers reported that they have developed synthetic antibodies. dubbed AeroNabs, that neutralize the coronavirus.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A1)
2020 Aug 11, California to date had 576,427 cases of coronavirus and 10,500 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 65,140 cases and 929 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,116,751 with the death toll at 164,137.
(sfist.com, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, American singer and actor Trini Lopez (83), known for his cover of "If I Had a Hammer," died in Palm Springs, Ca.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trini_Lopez)
2020 Aug 11, Sumner Redstone (97), the billionaire entrepreneur who built a media empire encompassing CBS and Viacom, died in Los Angeles.
(NY Times, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Florida recorded a record high single-day death toll with 277 of the nation's 1,282 deaths..
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, The US state of Georgia recorded a record high single-day death toll with 122 of the nation's 1,282 deaths.
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc said the first group of participants had been dosed in an early-stage trial testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and that results from the trial were expected in the fourth quarter.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Moderna Inc said there was a possibility it was not the first company to make breakthroughs claimed in its patent applications, including those for its experimental coronavirus vaccine, according to a recent regulatory filing.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the top opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential vote, said she has left for Lithuania and called on her supporters to end demonstrations. Her husband has been at a Belarusian jail since his arrest in May.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, A British appeals court ruled that the use of facial recognition technology violated human rights and data protection laws. Civil rights campaigner Ed Bridges had his face scanned while shopping in 2017 and again as he attended a peaceful anti-arms protest in 2018.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 11, China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd launched a late-stage human trial that will involve as many as 1,620 patients in Indonesia for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that it is developing with Indonesian state-owned peer Bio Farma.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Egyptians started two days of voting for the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament that was revived as part of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum last year. The vote is mostly a symbolic exercise. The 300-seat Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, has no legislative powers and will have mainly an advisory role.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Egypt reopened Gaza’s main passenger crossing point for the first time in months for thousands of Palestinians who have been stranded on both sides of the border due to the coronavirus crisis.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, German biotech firm BioNTech, which is working with US pharma giant Pfizer on a novel vaccine, reiterated it aimed to file for emergency authorization or approval as early as October, if ongoing trials succeed.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Greece asked the EU to hold an emergency meeting of the group's foreign ministers to press for sanctions against Turkey amid a new and dangerous tussle with its regional foe over energy and sea rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
(The Telegraph, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Hong Kong supporters of the Apple Daily newspaper lined up to buy an expanded print run in a bid to help the paper survive, a day after police raided its headquarters and detained up to ten people including founder Jimmy Lai.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 11, India reported 53,601 new cases of the coronavirus as its total neared 2.3 million. 871 new deaths were reported raising total fatalities to 45,257.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, Iran's judiciary reported that two Iranians have been sentenced to 10-year prison terms on charges of spying for Israel, Germany and Britain. They were identified as Masoud Mosaheb, the co-chairman of the Iran-Austrian Friendship Society, and Shahram Shirkhani.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Nasrin Sotoudeh (57), prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, began a hunger strike seeking better prison conditions and the release of political prisoners amid the pandemic. Sotoudeh, a mother of two, was arrested in 2018 on charges of collusion and propaganda against the system and eventually was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Iraq's military said a Turkish drone strike killed two senior Iraqi security officials north of Irbil, marking the first time that Turkey's operation to root out Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north produced fatalities among high-ranking Iraqi personnel.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Italy's new cases of the coronavirus increased by 412. Sicily reported 89 cases after 64 migrants tested positive at a screening center.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, Lebanon's health ministry said 307 more people tested positive raising total registered cases to 7,121. Seven new deaths raised that total to 87.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 11, In Mexico at least 13 people died when a bus overturned on a highway outside Mexico City.
(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 11, In Mozambique insurgents took the port of Mocimoa da Praia.
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 11, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announced that she had ordered a new lockdown after the confirmation of four new COVID-19 cases, the country's first in 102 days.
(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Dozens of Palestinians protested outside the German diplomatic office in the West Bank, seeking to draw attention to Israel's arrest of a leading coordinator of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel. Mahmoud Nawajaa was arrested on July 30 and remains in Israeli custody. He has not been charged.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Russia claimed it has developed the world's first vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus, as the pandemic marked another bleak milestone with 20 million infections globally. The new vaccine was dubbed "Sputnik V" after the Soviet satellite. Scientists in Russia and other countries warned that Russia's claim to have registered the first coronavirus vaccine was not the breakthrough that President Vladimir Putin claimed. They noted that the vaccine had not gone through final-stage, Phase 3 trials, which are expected to take months and are the only way to be sure an experimental drug is safe and effective.
(AP, 8/11/20)(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said it received Indian regulatory approval to test its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients in an early-stage human trial.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, Spain’s ministry reported 805 people nationwide hospitalized with the coronavirus over the past seven days. Half of the 64 people who died over the previous week were from Aragón, the region surrounding Zaragoza.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 11, Sudanese authorities imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the eastern city of Port Sudan after tribal clashes earlier this week killed more than a dozen people and wounded more than 40 others.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the World Food Program would be sending 50,000 tons of wheat flour to Beirut to stabilize Lebanon's wheat supply.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, The UN reported that more than 70 people were killed and dozens injured during weekend clashes between South Sudan’s army and armed civilians in north-central Tonj.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, The FBI arrested Aníbal Jover, the former president of Puerto Rico’s Association of Certified Public Accountants. He became the seventh person arrested in connection with an ongoing federal fraud probe involving Puerto Rico's former education secretary Julia Keleher.
(NBC News, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, UNICEF USA announced its first major program supporting children in the United States. The agency will be investing $1 million this year on an initiative to help US cities become more child-friendly.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, In southern California a fire broke out in dense forest land north of Los Angeles. About 100 rural homes were evacuated in the Lake Hughes area of the Angeles National Forest.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, California to date had 590,606 cases of coronavirus and 10,736 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 66,482 cases and 940 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,191,689 with the death toll at 165,909.
(sfist.com, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that understaffing and inadequate supervision of staff and patients plagued campuses of the nonprofit Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health organization, where at least 41 intellectually disabled children have reported sexual assaults over the past quarter-century.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice halted visits to nursing homes and said that virus outbreaks were currently at 28 nursing homes statewide.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 12, Hundreds of women rallied across Belarus’ capital to protest a brutal police crackdown that left hundreds injured and thousands detained while challenging election results extending the 26-year rule of the country’s authoritarian leader. More than 300 CEOs of IT companies and investors signed a letter demanding a new election as well as an end to state-sponsored violence. Otherwise, they claimed, they'll head elsewhere.
(AP, 8/12/20)(The Week, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Britain reported a total of 1,009 new cases of COVID-19, taking the cumulative number of cases in the country to 313,798.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Germany's leading infectious disease institute said a first vaccine against the coronavirus could be available as early as autumn but warned that it may take longer to control the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Germany recorded the biggest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in more than three months, with the health minister warning of outbreaks in nearly all parts of the country due to holiday returnees and party-goers. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 1,226 to 218,519. Deaths remained relatively low, edging up by six to a total of 9,207.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Greek and Turkish frigates collided in the eastern Mediterranean raising tensions between the two countries over disputed waters.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.49)
2020 Aug 12, Greece announced 262 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily number since the outbreak began. Total confirmed cases reached 6,177 with 216 deaths.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 12, In southern India at least three people were killed in Bengaluru when police clashed with hundreds of Muslims during a protest over a Facebook post considered offensive to Islam. The person responsible for the post was arrested and a law prohibiting gatherings was imposed on the city.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, Indonesia's capital Jakarta extended its social restrictions to stem surging coronavirus transmission as the country reported 2,098 new cases. Indonesia has reported 132,816 coronavirus infections and 5,968 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 12, Israel said it foiled a cyberattack targeting its defense industry by the Lazarus Group, a shadowy entity that the US has linked to North Korea.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth said authorities have finished pumping out the fuel oil from the Japanese-owned ship that has caused a huge oil spill off the island's coast. The fuel was transferred to shore by helicopter and to another ship owned by Nagashiki Shipping.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, It was reported that a court in Nigeria has fined three men $52,000 (£40,000) each for hijacking a ship in March and securing a ransom of $200,000 for the release of its crew.
(BBC, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Police in North Macedonia discovered 148 migrants crammed into trucks in two separate operations. Two men have been arrested.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, In Scotland a driver was among 3 people killed this morning when a ScotRail train derailed in Aberdeenshire. An investigation later revealed that the train had struck a pile of washed-out rock and gravel before derailing.
(AP, 8/12/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, Sudan's PM Abdalla Hamdok said that troops have been deployed to Port Sudan to help contain fighting that over the past three days has left at least 25 people dead and scores more wounded. The fighting erupted earlier this week between the Beni Amer tribe and the displaced Nuba tribe.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, Ukraine recorded a record daily jump of 1,592 coronavirus cases. The total number of cases rose to 86,140, including 1,992 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 12, A Zimbabwean magistrate ordered prison authorities to unchain journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, accused of mobilizing anti-government protests, but then ruled that his testimony of poor prison conditions must be heard in private.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump said his team was rejecting Democrats' bid to include funds for the US Postal Service and to shore up election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, as he vowed to block money to facilitate mail-in voting. Trump acknowledged that his position would starve the agency of money Democrats say it needs to process an anticipated surge in mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump, PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates, agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE. The Abraham accords required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/13/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.23)
2020 Aug 13, President Donald Trump gave credence to a false and racist conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice president, fueling an online misinformation campaign that parallels the one he used to power his rise into politics.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Trump administration formally weakened a major climate change regulation, effectively freeing oil and gas companies from the need to detect and repair methane leaks.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 13, The US Justice Department accused Yale University of violating federal civil rights law by discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants.
(NY Times, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, US federal law enforcement officials said that they had conducted the “largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency" connected to terrorism. Three forfeiture complaints involved the Al-Qassam Brigades, better known as the military wing of Hamas, in addition to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
(NBC News, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, A federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld the constitutionality of the all-male military draft system, citing a 1981 US Supreme Court decision.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that the US has seized the cargo of four vessels, called Luna, Pandi, Bering and Bella, on the high seas in recent days and that they are now en route to Houston. US prosecutors filed a lawsuit last month to seize the gasoline aboard the four tankers that Iran is trying to ship to Venezuela.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 13, A US-based think-tank said satellite imagery suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have damaged pump houses connected to the country's main nuclear facility.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The US Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling that relaxes voting restrictions in Rhode Island during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Michael Cohen, Pres. Trump's one-time lawyer and fixer, released the foreward of his upcoming jailhouse tell-all in which he promised stories involving the president. The memoir will be titled: "Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump." The governemnt has tried to stop the publication. It was set for release on Sept. 8.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A5)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A9)
2020 Aug 13, Steven Donziger, the American lawyer who spent more than two decades suing Chevron Corp over pollution in the Ecuadorian rain forest, was disbarred in New York by a state appeals court. Nine years ago, Donziger had won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuador court, but was unable to enforce it after a US judge found it had been obtained through fraud.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, California to date had 601,975 cases of coronavirus and 10,981 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 67,778 cases and 947 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,244,238 with the death toll at 167,029.
(sfist.com, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Georgia's state Gov. Brian kemp said he's dropping a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta in a dispute over the city's requirement to wear marks in public and other restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Nevada recorded 602 new cases of the coronavirus to bring its total to 58,650. The death toll grew 34 to 1,030.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, In Portland, Oregon, a crowd of several hundred anti-racism protesters, some of whom had set a fire and launched fireworks around the US courthouse, mostly dispersed early today after police declared the gathering a riot and fired tear gas at them.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Maryland-based Novavax Inc said South Korea's SK bioscience would manufacture a component of the US drug developer's experimental coronavirus vaccine in a bid to boost its supply.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Dallas resident Collin Garrett Hayden (28), a male stripper accused of drug-dealing and being a white supremacist, was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison.
(Miami Herald, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, Crowds of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets and thousands of workers rallied outside industrial plants to denounce a police crackdown on demonstrations over a disputed election that extended the 26-year rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Nearly 7,000 people have been detained and hundreds injured in a harsh clampdown by police on demonstrators protesting the official results.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that at least 782 American guns have been discovered by British police since 2017.
(NY Times, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Chinese city of Shenzhen's government identified a Brazilian meat plant owned by Aurora, the country's third largest processor of chicken and pork, as the source of chicken wings that tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Authorities in the Chinese city of Xian separately reported that the outer packaging of shrimp imported from Ecuador also tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, ShanghaiPRIDE, one of China's longest running gay pride groups, said it was cancelling all activities and events for the foreseeable future, citing the need to protect the "safety" of its people and prompting a chorus of regret on social media.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 13, Researchers said a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) appeared to be safe and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and mid-stage trials.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on the mainland, up from 19 on the previous day. China's total number of cases now stands at 84,786. The official death toll is unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, In Egypt Essam el-Erian (66), senior leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, died of a heart attack in a Cairo prison where he had been serving a 25-year sentence.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, German biotech firm CureVac BV raised $213.3 million in its initial public offering in New York, setting the stage for the first stock market debut of a company developing a potential vaccine to combat the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Greek authorities quarantined the country's third largest migrant camp on the Aegean Sea island of Chios until August 25 after an asylum-seeker and a staff member were diagnosed with COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Iran recorded 174 deaths from coronavirus and 2,625 new cases to take its death toll to more than 19,000 and total cases to 336,324.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel's Defense Ministry said it has conducted a successful test of the Arrow-2 interceptor, the country’s advanced missile defense system against long-range ballistic attacks.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early today in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons from the Palestinian territory into Israel.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel charged five members of its border security force with stealing from Palestinians who were crossing illegally into Israel from the West Bank.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Israel's largest medical center said a newly developed saliva test aims to determine in less than a second whether or not you are infected with the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, In the Ivory Coast opposition and civil society groups demonstrated in Abidjan against Pres. Alassane Ouattara's decision to run for a third term in October.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 13, Lithuania designated the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group as a terrorist organization and issued a 10-year ban on all individuals related to the Iran-backed group from entering the Baltic nation’s territory.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Mozambique said its troops are fighting to regain control of the key port of Mocimboa da Praia, following multiple reports that it had fallen to Islamist militants a day earlier. Dozens of soldiers were reported killed, and a patrol boat sunk. The army said it has killed about 60 militants.
(BBC, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, South Korea confirmed plans to start building its first aircraft carrier next year as tensions grow in the Indo-Pacific region between the US and China and the question of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions remains unresolved.
(The Telegraph, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, Spain now leads Europe with 44,400 new coronavirus cases confirmed over the past 14 days. New daily cases reached nearly 3,000.
(AP, 8/13/20)(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Spain's regional government of Andalusia said 12 out of 19 people suffering from meningitis in the southern province of Seville have tested positive for Nile fever, with the remaining seven samples still pending results. Greece has reported 10 cases of Nile fever and one death so far this summer.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, The UN reported that at least eight children under the age of five have died in recent days from health problems linked to the dire conditions in a camp in northern Syria housing tens of thousands of female supporters of the Islamic State group and their children.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 13, It was reported that an oil spill in Venezuela has coated a stretch of the country's Caribbean coastline. Fishermen and locals living around Morrocoy National Park began reporting oil washing ashore last week.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 13, Vietnam's health ministry reported 25 more coronavirus infections and three additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 905, with 20 fatalities.
(Reuters, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 14, President Trump, via executive order, officially called on Chinese company ByteDance to divest itself of the US operations of the popular video-sharing app, TikTok. The president's order allows 90 days for the transaction to be completed.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the appointments of two top homeland security officials in the administration of President Donald Trump did not follow processes outlined in federal law. The GAO referred the issue to the inspector general for the US Department of Homeland Security.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, US authorities gave wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Prosecutors said radical Islamic cleric Abdullah al-Faisal (56) has been extradited from Jamaica to New York City on charges he recruited followers and fighters for the Islamic State through fiery online lectures and militant propaganda.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers said that the union's executive council had endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, warning "the very survival" of the US Postal Service is at stake.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, said he has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2xsf2r6)(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 14, Former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma (67) was arrested for allegedly conspiring with a relative, also a former CIA officer, to provide classified information to Beijing. Both had top secret clearance while working for the US government and multiple Chinese intelligence officials. The co-conspirator, now 85, is also a naturalized US citizen who was born in Shanghai.
(The Telegraph, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 14, Arizona's greater Phoenix's J.O. Combs Unified School District, that ignored state safety guidelines and voted to begin in-person learning on Aug. 17, canceled classes after staff said it was unsafe to return and called in sick.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the US Constitution's protection of the right to bear firearms. A stay issued by a lower court judge remained in place.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, California electrical providers instituted rolling blackouts late today for the first time since 2001 amid a potentially record-breaking heat wave that is expected to affect many states in the West through August 20.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, California to date had 604,609 cases of coronavirus and 11,028 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 69,503 cases and 958 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,289,323 with the death toll at 167,948.
(sfist.com, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The Florida High School Athletics Association voted to begin sports throughout in the Sunshine State on Aug. 24.
(Good Morning America, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Florida reported more than 6,200 new coronavirus cases and 200 deaths.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, Former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson (84), known as “Big Jim" during a long career (1976-1991), died. He was the state's longest-serving chief executive.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said NJ will mail a ballot to every voter in the state for November's elections, as well as hold in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, In Angola José Filomeno dos Santos (42), son of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, was jailed for five years for fraud from when he was head of the oil-rich country's Sovereign Wealth Fund.
(BBC, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Authorities in Belarus freed at least 2,000 of about 7,000 people who had been pulled off the streets by riot police in the days following a disputed election. Graphic descriptions of savage beatings and other abuse by police brought tens of thousands into the streets of Minsk in the biggest challenge in his tenure.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Britain extended lockdown restrictions on regions of northwest England, saying there was no evidence that the COVID-19 infection rate in the area had fallen.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Julian Bream (b.1933), British champion of the classical guitar and lute, died in England.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Bream)(Econ., 8/22/20, p.74)
2020 Aug 14, The head of China's banking and insurance regulator said China's peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platforms still have more than 800 billion yuan ($115 billion) unpaid to investors and their numbers have shrunk to just 29 across the country.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that the EU has agreed to buy at least 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine in its first such advance purchase deal, which could weaken plans led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for a global approach.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, India reported 1,007 coronavirus deaths bringing tis total to 48,040. Confirmed cases rose by 64,553.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 14, Israeli aircraft and tanks hit several militant sites in the Gaza Strip late today, responding to explosive-laden incendiary balloons launched across the frontier into Israeli territory.
(AP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that cases of the coronavirus have quadrupled in the past month in Madagascar, with more than 13,000 infections and 162 deaths, which has spread to all but one of its 22 regions. President Andry Rajoelina continued to stand by an herbal concoction called Covid-Organics, which was launched to great fanfare in April.
(BBC, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, In Nepal a landslide buried dozens of homes killing 11 people in the village of Lidi near the border with China.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, In the Netherlands rioters clashed overnight with police during a 2nd night of unrest in a low-income neighborhood of The Hague after authorities acted to stop residents from opening fire hydrants to cool off amid a weeklong heat wave.
(SFC, 8/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 14, North Korea said it had lifted a three-week lockdown that was imposed on a border city after a defector believed to be carrying the coronavirus sneaked back into the country.
(AFP, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank rallied against an agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel and the UAE announced a day earlier that they will normalize diplomatic ties.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The Philippines imposed a temporary ban on poultry meat imports from Brazil after two cities in China found traces of the new coronavirus in cargoes of imported frozen food, including chicken wings from the South American country.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, More than a quarter of South Korea’s medical clinics closed for a one-day strike in protest at government plans to train new doctors, as the country reported the highest number of domestic coronavirus cases since the end of March.
(Reuters, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, It was reported that Spanish police in Catalonia have broken up a gang of poachers believed to have captured 10,000 protected finches in two years, amassing an estimated €150,000 by illegally selling the animals as caged songbirds.
(The Telegraph, 8/14/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN Security Council voted to reject the United States' effort to extend a global arms embargo on Iran.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN launched an appeal to raise $565 million to help Lebanon recover from this month's devastating port blast that killed 171 people.
(AFP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops issued a letter highlighting corruption, poverty and human rights abuses and called for an urgent resolution to the country's economic and political challenges. The government dismissed the charges.
(BBC, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sealed a defense cooperation deal with Polish officials that will pave the way to redeploy American troops from Germany to Poland.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the SalivaDirect COVID-19 diagnostic test developed by the Yale School of Public Health in partnership with the National Basketball Association.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, The US Food and Drug Administration approved Roche's Enspryng for the central nervous system disorder neuromyelitis optica, putting the Swiss drugmaker head-to-head with Alexion's Soliris in a costly treatment area.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, In California the explosive Loyalton Fire north of Lake Tahoe has burned through about 20,000 acres and is only 5 percent contained. It formed into a rare phenomenon known as a fire tornado, which the National Weather Service called "extremely dangerous fire behavior."
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, California to date had 619,243 cases of coronavirus and 11,217 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 70,556 cases and 964 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,357,396 with the death toll at 169,432.
(sfist.com, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, In Chicago a downtown march began peacefully, but a separate demonstration broke off resulting in two dozen arrests, 17 injured police officers and at least two injured protesters.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, In Michigan two men and two women were found dead from gunshot wounds in a house in Sumpter Township, a Wayne County suburb of Detroit. Suspect Raymond Lee Bailey (37) turned himself in the next day.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, A Nebraska school district said it had canceled classes after staff members tested positive for the new coronavirus, the latest state to see instruction disrupted after resuming in-person learning.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York had its lowest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 17. He confirmed 734 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 424,901 confirmed cases in New York State, with the highest concentration in New York City. Five deaths a day earlier brought that total to 25,244.
(Good Morning America, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested four people overnight and dispersed a protest that was heading toward the offices of the police union.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A8)
2020 Aug 15, Algeria started reopening its mosques, cafes, beaches and parks for the first time in five months. The country has reported more than 37,000 infections and 1,350 deaths.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that prosecutors in Angola have ordered the closure of places of worship belonging to one of Brazil's biggest churches, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), accusing it of corruption.
(BBC, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Australia's Victoria state reported 4 more deaths COVID-19 deaths and 303 newly confirmed cases over the last 24 hours in a positive trend downward.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, Belarus' embattled President Alexander Lukashenko appealed to his long-time ally Russian President Vladimir Putin as protesters continue to call for his resignation following his recent disputed election victory, which the opposition alleges he rigged. Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus gathered at the spot in the capital where a protester died in clashes with police, calling for authoritarian Lukashenko to resign after 26 years in power.
(The Week, 8/15/20)(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Thousands of British tourists beat a hasty retreat from France, packing out planes, trains and ferries to return to the UK by the early hours of this morning to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine at home.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that workers in the Chinese town of Pyawbwe earn about $1.20 a day untangling hair from Bangladesh and India.
(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 15, In Colombia eight people, all aged between 17 and 26, were killed in a massacre at a barbecue in the small town of Samaniego late today. Two other killings in Nariño province in the past seven days left at least four others dead. Colombia has seen 33 massacres this year and 45 human rights defenders have been killed in the same period.
(The Guardian, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that the Greek government has secretly expelled more than 1,000 refugees from Europe’s borders in recent months, sailing many of them to the edge of Greek territorial waters and then abandoning them in inflatable and sometimes overburdened life rafts.
(NY Times, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The prime ministers of India and Nepal spoke over the phone to try to ease bilateral tensions that have existed since a border dispute erupted between the two countries in May.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that 16,347 migrants reached Italian shores in small boats without help over the last year, while 5,271 were rescued at sea, most of those by charity boats.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, North Macedonia police found 80 migrants during a routine check in the central part of the country and arrested a truck driver for suspected migrant smuggling.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 15, Officials said grounded Japanese ship that leaked tons of oil near protected areas off the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has split apart, with remaining fuel spreading into the turquoise waters.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute said more than 1,040 immigration officers have been referred to the internal affairs office or forced to quit after they were caught demanding bribes and other acts of corruption.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported that nearly 1,500 acres of rice fields in North Korea were flooded and about 730 singe-story homes and 179 housing blocks destroyed as of early August. This has prompted leader Kim Jong Un to tap into his private grain reserves to feed victims.
(Business Insider, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, The Philippine health ministry reported 4,351 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 159 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 157,918 infections and 2,600 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 15, Russia's health ministry reported the production start of the first batch of its new vaccine for COVID-19. Russian pharmaceutical company Petrovax confirmed it was running a trial for a COVID-19 candidate vaccine from China-based CanSino Biologics Inc.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 15, South Korea reported 166 newly confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest daily jump in five months.
(SSFC, 8/16/20, p.A11)
2020 Aug 15, Turkey's coronavirus count rose to its highest daily level since June, with total deaths nearing 6,000. There were 1,256 new cases and 21 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing total cases above 278,000.
(Reuters, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 16, Congressional Democrats called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a donor to Republican President Donald Trump, and US Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an Aug. 24 committee hearing.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, More than 100 demonstrators converged outside the North Carolina mansion of postmaster general Louis DeJoy, protesting the cutbacks, delays and other changes to the USPS that have created fears for mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, California to date had 624,007 cases of coronavirus and 11,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 71,869 cases and 970 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,401,167 with the death toll at 170,019.
(sfist.com, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A monitoring station in Death Valley measured a temperature of 54.4 degrees (130 degrees F).
(Econ., 8/29/20, p.17)
2020 Aug 16, In Ohio at least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around Cincinnati overnight.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, A riot was declared in Portland, Oregon, as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early today, continuing a nightly ritual in the city.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Belarus thousands of people gathered in a square near the main government building for a rally to support President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition supporters whose protests have convulsed the country for a week held a major march in Minsk.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, China's health authority said new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 fell to a one-month low as a cluster in the western region of Xinjiang receded. Mainland China had 84,827 confirmed coronavirus cases, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Luis Rodolfo Abinader (53) was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, India reported 944 new coronavirus deaths pushing total fatalities to near 50,000.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 16, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the UAE proves that Israel doesn't need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians in order to achieve peace and normalization with Arab states. Telephone service between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began working.
(AP, 8/16/20)(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's offshore fishing zone following a night of cross-border fighting with Palestinian militants, the most intense escalation of hostilities in recent months.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Lebanon registered 439 new virus cases and six fatalities. The new infections bring to 8,881 the total number of cases, where COVID-19 has killed some 103 people. An August 4 explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed around 180 people and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, New Zealand reported 13 new infections, bringing the country's number of active cases up to 69. Most of the cases were from community transmission and are linked to a cluster in Auckland, which is under a new lockdown.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Thousands of Puerto Ricans got a second chance to vote for the first time, a week after delayed and missing ballots marred the original primaries in a blow to the US territory’s democracy. Gov. Wanda Vázquez acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the US territory's governor last year amid political turmoil.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to offer Minsk military assistance if necessary to quell anti-government protests in Belarus.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Somali special forces ended a siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that was stormed by armed al-Shabab militants. At least 12 people were killed at the beachside Elite Hotel, in addition to five militants.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 16, South Korea reported 279 new confirmed infections, the highest 24-hour jump since early March.
(The Week, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, Authorities said flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan for weeks, leaving at least 60 people dead and destroying thousands of homes since late July. More than 185,000 people in all but one of its 18 provinces have been affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
(AP, 8/16/20)
2020 Aug 16, In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement's strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed.
(AP, 8/16/20)(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 17, President Donald Trump denied trying to undermine the Postal Service's ability to handle a flood of mail-in ballots ahead of the November US election, as Democrats prepared to move against changes his administration has set in motion.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Trump administration issued final approval to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge that has been off-limits to drilling for decades.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The US Department of Commerce (DOC) prohibited anyone from selling chips to China's Huawei telecoms company, if they were produced with American technology. The new rule took effect on August 20.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.54)
2020 Aug 17, US Democrats opened their presidential nominating convention with a virtual program that spanned the ideological gamut, featuring speeches from the left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and two former Republican governors. Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of President Donald Trump during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, declaring him “in over his head" and warning that the nation's mounting crises would only get worse if he's reelected over Joe Biden.
(NY Times, 8/18/20)(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new regulation that would roll back health care protections for transgender people.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, It was reported that US intelligence has assessed that Iran paid the bounties to the Haqqani network, for the Bagram attack on 11 December, which killed two civilians and injured more than 70 others, including two Americans.
(The Guardian, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Amer Fakhoury (57), an American who was jailed for months in Lebanon and later released over decades-old murder and torture charges that he denied, died in Boston.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, FBI agents arrested Puerto Rico Rep. María Milagros Charbonier, one of Puerto Rico's most conservative and religious legislators, and three other people. No further details were immediately available.
(NBC News, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, California to date had 632,929 cases of coronavirus and 11,331 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 72,833 cases and 975 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,435,908 with the death toll at 170,453.
(sfist.com, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the first big university to move in-person classes online after new coronavirus outbreaks. Just one week into the semester, 177 students had tested positive, and hundreds of others were in quarantine because of possible exposure.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 17, In Texas Fort Hood Sgt. Elder Fernandes was last seen when his staff sergeant dropped him off at his home in Killeen. He was the 3rd Fort Hood soldier to go missing this year. His body was found on August 25 near railroad tracks in Temple.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A7)(NBC News, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 17, US drug developer Novavax Inc said that it is starting a mid-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, as the country experiences a surge in coronavirus cases. South Africa is fifth worst affected country with 583,653 coronavirus cases and 11,677 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko warned protesters that he will not give in to their demands for a new presidential election—unless they assassinate him. Workers heckled and jeered Lukashenko as he visited a factory and strikes grew across Belarus, raising the pressure on the authoritarian leader to step down after 26 years in power.
(The Daily Beast, 8/17/20)(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The Central Party School in Beijing, where Cai Xia (67) taught for 15 years until 2012, announced that she had been expelled from the Communist Party after she denounced both the party and Xi in recent speeches and essays. She had described Mr. Xi's scrapping of the two-term limit as something the Central Committee had been forced to swallow. She moved to the US last year.
(NY Times, 8/18/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 17, It was reported that prosecutors in El Salvador have filed charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal conspiracy against ex-Pres. Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who has fled to Nicaragua.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 17, France-based Sanofi's said is buying US-based Principia Biopharma Inc $3.7 billion. The acquisition gives Sanofi Principia's pipeline in autoimmune diseases.
(Reuters, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Iran seized a United Arab Emirates vessel and summoned the UAE envoy after two of its fishermen were shot dead in an incident in the Gulf.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 17, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian (60) who is deaf and couldn't hear their commands to stop at a West Bank checkpoint.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, The head of Lebanon's customs authority was formally arrested after being questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the state-run National News Agency reported.
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, A Taliban spokesman said a militant faction in Pakistan that split years ago from the Pakistani Taliban has returned and rejoined the insurgents. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, was formed in 2014 by Umar Khalid Khurasani when it split from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
(AP, 8/17/20)
2020 Aug 17, Syrian media said US forces clashed with Syrian troops in the northeast, killing at least one Syrian soldier and wounding two others. Americans “came under small arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of a checkpoint" and returned fire in self-defense. In 2022 Sgt. 1st Class Robert Nicoson, a paratrooper who was accused of leading a patrol into an unnecessary gunfight before ordering troops to delete videos of the incident, was acquitted of all charges.
(AP, 8/17/20)(The Fayetteville Observer, 1/9/22)
2020 Aug 18, President Donald Trump said that he will pardon Susan B. Anthony, a women's suffrage leader arrested for voting in 1872 in violation of laws permitting only men to vote.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation concluded that Trump campaign's interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave" counterintelligence threat as it detailed how associates of the Republican candidate had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin's help. Trump immediately denounced the 1,300-page report as “a hoax."
(AP, 8/18/20)(The Daily Beast, 10/5/20)
2020 Aug 18, Several Democratic state attorneys general said they will announce legal action against President Donald Trump's administration over Postal Service changes that may affect mail-in voting in the November US presidential election.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he would suspend cost-cutting measures and operational changes at the Postal Service until after the November election.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, On Wall Street the S&P 500 index closed at an all-time high at 3389.78. The Nasdaq composite index also made a record close at 11,210.84.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 18, Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for the presidency on the second night of their national convention, in a virtual roll call vote.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, The US government sued Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, accusing the firm of causing the submission of false claims to Medicare by using kickbacks to boost sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, The United States and Russia concluded two days of arms control talks with the two sides still at odds over the US demand to include China in any new treaty.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to wildfires in California, as the state battled the effects of a sweltering heat wave, rolling blackouts and the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, California to date had 636,833 cases of coronavirus and 11,390 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 74,020 cases and 987 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,480,487 with the death toll at 171,679.
(sfist.com, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, An independent inquiry reported that for-profit nursing homes in Connecticut had significantly more cases and deaths from COVID-19 than non-profit ones, shedding new light on the shortfalls of the state's pandemic response.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, US prosecutors alleged that New York attorney Jason Kurland (46), the self-dubbed “Lottery Lawyer," was actually stealing tens of millions of dollars from his clients with the help of three other individuals—including a mafia member—to fund their extravagant lifestyles. The indictment charged Kurland with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6bhxl7z)(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 18, In Oregon protesters lit fires, threw rocks and smashed windows at county government offices in Portland, prompting police to declare a riot, after weeks of mostly peaceful anti-racism demonstrations.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, South Dakota transportation officials said that this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew more than 460,000 vehicles during the 10-day event. The South Dakota Department of Health issued a warning that one person who spent several hours at a bar on Main Street in Sturgis has tested positive for COVID-19 and may have spread it to others. The city plans to conduct mass COVID-19 testing in an effort to catch outbreaks.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Vanda Pharmaceuticals said COVID-19 patients with pneumonia improved faster when treated with the company's experimental therapy than those on placebo, citing an interim analysis of data from a late-stage study.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In Belarus more factories joined a growing strike turning up pressure on Pres. Alexander Lukashenko to resign.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 18, Sinopharm chairman Liu Jingzhen said a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by the unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group could cost no more than 1,000 yuan ($144.27) for two shots.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, It was reported that Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor as the sheikhdom tries to claw its way out of an economic depression worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, France's labor ministry announced that face masks will be required in enclosed shared office spaces starting Sept. 1, citing an "upsurge" in COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned there could be no further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions while the country grapples with a surge in new infections. Germany has recorded a total of 225,404 coronavirus cases and 9,236 fatalities.
(AFP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, German authorities arrested a Syrian national (Khaled A.) on suspicion he was a member of two militant groups that fought against the government of President Bashar Assad during the early stages of the conflict in Syria.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In Germany Sarmad D., an Iraqi man (30), drove his car into motorcycles along a stretch of Berlin highway. Six people were injured, three of them severely in what officials soon called a terror attack.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Ireland's health minister warned that the country is at a "tipping point" in the face of rising coronavirus cases, as the cabinet reintroduced some restrictions on public meetings.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, The Special Tribunal for Lebanon based in the Hague found one of the four members of the Iran-backed militia and political party Hezbollah guilty of the 2005 car bomb assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. Only Salim Ayyash was found guilty of assassination by truck bomb. The other defendants, Hussein Oneissi, Assad Sabra, and Hassan Merhi were acquitted of a barrage of charges including conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and international homicide with explosives. A fifth man, Mustafa Badreddine was killed in Syria in 2016, after which charges against him were dropped.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Rumors of a coup d'etat and of the arrest of Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta drew hundreds of anti-government protesters into the streets of the capital, Bamako. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali resigned after the country’s military mutinied, arresting him and other government officials. The West African nation has been gripped by unrest for weeks, driven by charges that Keïta stole an election in March.
(The Telegraph, 8/18/20)(NY Times, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 18, Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, the Indian captain of a ship that spilled about 1,000 metric tons of oil into the Indian Ocean, endangering world-renowned coral reefs and lagoons in Mauritius, was arrested alongside the chief officer of the ship, Tilak Ratna Suboda, a Sri Lankan.
(NY Times, 8/19/20)(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 18, The Norwegian Refugee Council said that a record one million people are displaced by violence in Burkina Faso amid the COVID-19 outbreak. More than 450,000 people were newly displaced in 2020, with 184 attacks against civilians recorded according to new figures by the Burkinabe Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Oman's sultan named foreign and finance ministers for the first time, putting officials in positions long wielded by his late predecessor. Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said also issued 28 decrees renaming and reorganizing ministries in a nation he took over in January.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, It was reported that Pakistan's drug regulator has greenlit the country's first Phase 3 clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is being developed by China's CanSino Biologics (CanSino) and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology.
(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, Gaza's sole power plant shut down, leaving the territory's 2 million residents with only around four hours of electricity a day after Israel cut off fuel supplies in response to incendiary balloons launched by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, In the Philippines a mild coronavirus lockdown was eased in Jakarta and four outlying provinces to further reopen the country's battered economy. The Philippines has reported more than 164,000 cases including 2,681 deaths.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 18, In Somalia two soldiers were executed after being convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy who died from the bleeding.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, South Africans were again are allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes as the government relaxed lockdown restrictions introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, A senior UN official warned that war-torn Yemen is sliding toward famine as the coronavirus spreads and its economy implodes — all amid a funding crisis that is forcing the United Nations to make deeper aid cuts, including stopping treatment for 250,000 severely malnourished children.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 18, A Zimbabwean magistrate barred Beatrice Mtetwa, a top human rights lawyer, from representing jailed journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and ordered that Mtetwa be prosecuted for comments she posted on a Facebook page run by an American filmmaker.
(AP, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Pres. Donald Trump's re-election campaign and Republican Party groups are suing a third Iowa county, seeking to invalidate thousands of absentee ballot request forms that have been returned by voters.
(SFC, 8/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, US Attorney General William Barr announced that 1,485 people had been arrested in Operation Legend, an initiative in which the Trump administration sent more than 1,000 federal law enforcement officers to assist local law enforcement agencies in nine cities with rising crime rates.
(The Week, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, A US government directive was announced giving pharmacists in all states permission to give childhood vaccinations.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering a document related to the 2017 secret surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 19, Senator Kamala Harris of California accepted the nomination to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president, embracing the historic nature of her candidacy and name-checking a lineage of trailblazing Black women.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In California thousands of people were under orders to evacuate in regions surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area as nearly 40 wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave now in its second week. Smoke blanketed the city of San Francisco. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that there were 367 wildfires burning in the state, many apparently started by some 11,000 dry lightning strikes that recently hit Northern and Central California. A pilot on a water dropping mission in western Fresno County died this morning when his helicopter crashed about an hour from New Coalinga Municipal Airport. A Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker died while assisting first responders at a fire in the Vacaville area.
(AP, 8/19/20)(The Week, 8/20/20)(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In California the SQF Complex or Sequoia Complex, a complex of two lightning wildfires, began burning in Sequoia National Forest and adjacent areas. The fire continued to Jan. 5 and covered 174,178 acres. The Castle Fire was later estimated to have killed between 7,500 and 10,600 mature sequoias. 10% to 14% of the total sequoia population was lost.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQF_Complex)(SFC, 9/17/21, p.C4)
2020 Aug 19, California to date had 641,838 cases of coronavirus and 11,558 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 75,273 cases and 1,005 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,523,826 with the death toll at 172,945.
(sfist.com, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Michigan will pay $600 million to compensate Flint residents whose health was damaged by lead-tainted drinking water after the city heeded state regulators’ advice not to treat it properly.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that the emergency approval of blood plasma as a potential COVID-19 treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration has now been put on hold.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $6.5 billion to add muscle to its portfolio of drugs for hard-to-treat autoimmune diseases.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Afghanistan bomb attacks in Kabul and in the north killed at least five people and wounded 15.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged EU leaders to reject the results of the presidential election which sparked massive protests and saw strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In southern China flooding and landslides from heavy seasonal rains and Typhoon Higos left at least five people missing in Yunnan province.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, France's national public health agency reported that there were 3,776 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 225,043.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, Germany's public health institute reported that there were 1,510 new cases in the past 24 hours, making the national total 226,914.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Honduras supporters of opposition parties, Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH) and Libertad y Refundacion (LIBRE), and of the Indignants Movement, demonstrated on a bridge with a Honduran flag reading "Where is the money" hanging from it, against the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, India's health ministry recorded 1,092 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide toll to 52,889. More than 2.7 million people in India have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
(Good Morning America, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Iran surpassed 20,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, the highest death toll for any Middle East country so far in the pandemic. Iran reported over 350,200 confirmed cases, with 20,125 deaths.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, In Iraq activist Reham Yacoub was gunned down in the southern province of Basra by unidentified gunmen, marking the second such killing in the span of a week.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, At least 45 migrants and refugees, including five children, died in a shipwreck off the coast of Zwara, Libya. They were among more than 80 people on board a vessel whose engine exploded.
(BBC, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The soldiers in Mali who led the coup that has toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita promised to hold fresh elections to return the country to civilian rule, amid swift condemnation of their putsch across Africa and the international community. The soldiers identified themselves as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, It was reported that Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company, has directly accused former President Enrique Peña Nieto and his treasury secretary of directing a scheme of kickbacks and embezzlement directly from the president’s office. Lozoya himself faced corruption charges.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un acknowledged the hardships faced by his population during the first meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s central body in eight months.
(The Telegraph, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, Norway's Foreign Ministry expelled a Russian diplomat linked to the case of a man jailed on accusation of spying for Russia. The suspected spy was arrested on Aug.15.
(SFC, 8/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 19, Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip rallied against the US-brokered deal to normalize ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The Spanish Ministry of Health reported that there were 3,715 new coronavirus cases within the last day.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 19, Sweden reported that COVID-19 claimed about 4,500 lives in the period to the end of June, a number which has now risen to 5,800.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, UAE authorities said that its Barakah nuclear power plant has been connected to the country's power grid.
(AP, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 19, The United Arab Emirates recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 infections in over a month, a day after the health minister warned cases may rise. The UAE saw 435 infections and one death in the past 24 hours. The UAE has recorded 65,341 total infections and 367 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/19/20)
2020 Aug 20, Pres. Donald Trump praised adherents of the false conspiracy theory QAnon, which alleges that the president is waging a covert war against a “deep state" cabal of Satan-worshiping Democrats involved in pedophilia and child sex trafficking. Facebook took its most sweeping actions yet, removing nearly 800 QAnon-affiliated groups from its site and restricting others.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, President Trump vowed to send law enforcement to polling places during the 2020 presidential election as he continues to make baseless claims about voter fraud and mail-in ballots.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Trump administration submitted a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Iran of failing to comply with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and calling for restoring UN sanctions against Tehran, including an arms embargo.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, A US federal judge ruled that Pres. Donald Trump cannot block a prosecutor's subpoena for eight years of his tax returns. Trump quickly appealed the decision and filed an emergency motion to delay turning over his tax returns.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall." Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors" in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. Bannon was arrested on a yacht owned by his friend Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire, off Westbrook, Connecticut. Guo by all accounts made his money in real estate and securities. He portrays himself in interviews and court records as an exiled whistleblower.
(AP, 8/20/20)(NBC News, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Democratic National Convention capped off four days of remote speeches, video montages and roll-call votes with a final address from the party’s presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
(NY Times, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, Seventy-three former Republican national security officials released a letter endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and calling President Trump unfit for the White House.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, It was reported that at least 4,800 chicks shipped to Maine farmers through the US Postal Service have arrived dead in recent weeks after rapid cuts hit the federal mail carrier's operations.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In California hundreds of wildfires fueled by strong winds, dry conditions and lightning strikes have burned more than 300,000 acres across the state. The death toll from the wildfires rose to at least five
(AP, 8/20/20)(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, An appeals court gave Uber and Lyft a last-minute reprieve from a California law requiring them to reclassify their drivers in the state as employees entitled to benefits.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, California to date had 652,094 cases of coronavirus and 11,795 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 76,330 cases and 1,013 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,571,102 with the death toll at 174,178.
(sfist.com, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In New Mexico a mystery started with the discovery of a large number of dead birds at the US Army White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument. Dead migratory birds were also being found in Colorado, Texas and Mexico.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5fgjb6w)
2020 Aug 20, Airbnb, the short-term home rental company said no more parties and events in homes listed on its platform, as it tries to enforce strict social-distancing norms to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Kansas City Chiefs said that after speaking with "a group of local leaders from diverse American Indian backgrounds and experiences," the team has decided to prohibit fans from donning headdresses or Native American-themed face paint at Arrowhead Stadium home games.
(The Week, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Heron Systems, a Maryland-based AI company, won the the final round in DARPA's AlphaDogfight trials.
(https://tinyurl.com/y2tjkhve)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.71)
2020 Aug 20, In Oregon about 100 people blocked traffic in Portland, vandalized an immigration building, set fires to dumpsters, and threw rocks and glass bottles at police late today. Police arrested three people.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the world, began reopening more than 100 of its locations in the United States for the first time in more than five months.
(Good Morning America, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, American Airlines Group Inc said it plans to suspend flights to 15 US airports in October as travel demand remains low as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, It was reported that hundreds of Belarus employees of state television have gone on strike amid a rising tide of protests, calling for the resignation of Pres. Lukashenko after a vote the opposition saw as rigged. The state television workers were joined by journalists from the leading daily Zvyazda, who put out a statement demanding an end to censorship.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In London Hashem Abedi, the brother of the suicide bomber who set off the May 17, 2017, explosion at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, A new study reported that the Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019 and that the enormous ice melt could cover California in more than 4 feet of water.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 20, India reported 69,652 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, its highest daily increase yet. There were also an additional 977 coronavirus-related fatalities recorded within the last day, bringing the national total to 53,866.
(SFC, 8/120/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 20, In southern India a large fire at a government-run hydroelectric plant killed 9 workers in Telangana state.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 20, Iran unveiled two missiles it said had a bigger range than before, naming them after commanders killed in January by a US strike in Iraq.
(AFP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, In Iran the Muharram ceremonies began bringing millions of Muslims together to mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.40)
2020 Aug 20, Human rights monitors sounded the alarm over a recent spike in assassinations targeting civil rights activists in Iraq's south.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Lebanon’s Health Ministry tallied a record 605 confirmed new cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the total registered cases since late February to 10,952. The pandemic has killed 113 people in the country.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 20, Moroccan law enforcement stopped migrants from attempting to cross to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Around 300 migrants attempted to jump over a series of fences. One African man died and 11 other people sustained minor injuries.
(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny collapsed in an airplane bathroom. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, was in intensive care at a Siberian hospital today after suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman called poisoning.
(NY Times, 8/20/20)(AP, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Spain reported 3,349 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, down from 3,715 reported the previous day and bringing the cumulative total to 370,867. The health ministry said 122 people had died from the coronavirus over the past seven days.
(Reuters, 8/20/20)
2020 Aug 20, Thailand police arrested nine pro-democracy activists, including two rappers, in a crackdown on growing protests calling for PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and his administration to resign.
(SFC, 8/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 21, The Trump administration dismissed near universal opposition to its demand to restore all UN sanctions on Iran, declaring that a 30-day countdown for the “snapback" of penalties eased under the 2015 nuclear deal had begun.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 election would be delivered on time, despite concerns that cost-cutting measures could result in widespread delays and millions of uncounted ballots. DeJoy earlier this week suspended all mail service changes until after the election, but said today he did not plan on returning decommissioned sorting machines to service before Nov. 3. The Postal Service had planned to remove 671 mail sorting machines nationwide, including 502 delivery barcode sorting machines capable of processing 35,000 pieces of mail per hour, by Sept. 30. As of Aug. 16 it had already decommissioned 95% of its target.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, On Wall Street the S&P 500 closed at 3397.16, another all-time high.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 21, Six states led by Pennsylvania sued the US Postal Service and the new postmaster general, saying service changes in recent weeks have harmed the ability of states to conduct free and fair elections.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Firefighters and aircraft from 10 states began arriving in California to help weary crews battling some of the largest blazes in state history as weekend weather threatened to renew the advance of flames that have killed six people and incinerated hundreds of homes. Two Bay Area clusters, the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex, became respectively the second- and third-largest wildfires in recent state history by size. The CZU Lightning Complex burned in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to a series of murders and rapes in California during the 1970s and 1980s.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, California to date had 659,768 cases of coronavirus and 11,988 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 77,556 cases and 1,031 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,623,727 with the death toll at 175,406.
(sfist.com, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Iowa City Michael Ray Stepanek (45) drove his car through a crowd of racial justice demonstrators, striking several people. Police arrested Stepanek after video of the incident circulated on social media. In December a judge granted Stepanek a deferred judgement. A felony charge of willful injury resulting in bodily injury against Stepanek will be dismissed and expunged as long as he does not commit a crime during a three-year term of probation.
(https://tinyurl.com/y66zjqqv)(SSFC, 1/10/21, p.A5)
2020 Aug 21, In Louisiana police officers followed Trayford Pellerin (31) on foot as he left a convenience store late today where he had created a disturbance with a knife in Lafayette. Stun guns failed to stop him, and the officers shot Pellerin as he tried to enter another convenience store, still with the knife. A night of violence erupted the next day after police shot and killed the Black man.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, The US Attorney's Office in New Orleans indicted 11 individuals in connection with a scam to create crashes between cars and 18-wheelers and cash in on insurance payments.
(Benzinga, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Boston a federal judge accepted plea deals from actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli in a video sentencing hearing. Loughlin will serve two months in prison and her husband will serve five months after the couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the college admissions scandal.
(CBS News, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In South Dakota the city of Sturgis began testing all city employees along with some first responders following the massive annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. At least 15 cases in Minnesota have been linked to the rally.
(Good Morning America, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Texas a dredging vessel in the port of Corpus Christi hit a natural gas pipeline sparking an explosion that sent six people to the hospital and left four others missing. The bodies of two missing crew members of a dredging boat were found the next day. Two other crew members of the dredging vessel Waymon L Boyd remained missing.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A4)(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Virginia Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins (45), a former Army Green Beret living, was arrested, charged with divulging military secrets about his unit's activities in former Soviet republics during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence. Prosecutors say the espionage took place from 1996 to 2011.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Belarus's state publishing house stopped printing top independent newspapers the Narodnaya Volya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing equipment malfunction. Authorities threatened demonstrators with criminal charges in a bid to stop protests.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Britain's AstraZeneca has received regulatory approval to conduct part of a Phase III trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in Russia.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Cyprus thousands of motorcyclists staged simultaneous rides through cities and towns to protest a police decree that they claim infringes on their constitutional right to unfettered mobility. Police say a ban on large-displacement motorcycles from some city streets during the predawn hours on certain days is needed to combat noise pollution that has gotten out of hand because of illegally modified motorcycles.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Czech authorities recorded 506 new coronavirus cases, the highest number of new infections in one day since the outbreak began there. Czechia has so far reported 21,551 confirmed cases of the virus, with 411 deaths, including 19 over the past week.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Iran has offered to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit two controversial nuclear sites as part of its diplomatic charm offensive to have the international arms embargo against Tehran lifted.
(The Telegraph, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Iraq protesters torched parliament offices in the oil-rich south following days of inaction by the government after two activists were assassinated.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Kenya's police teargassed protesters holding a peaceful demonstration against alleged corruption including the theft of supplies for the fight against COVID-19.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Lebanon began a two-week partial lockdown and nighttime curfew after coronavirus cases increased sharply following an explosion in Beirut that killed and injured thousands of people.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Libya's warring rival administrations announced in separate statements that they would cease all hostilities and organize nationwide elections soon, an understanding swiftly welcomed by the United Nations.
(AFP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Mexico the famous “floating gardens" of Xochimilco in Mexico City reopened to visitors after a five-month lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, In Mexico independent journalist Juan Nelcio Espinoza was arrested while covering a confrontation in the city of Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. Espinoza was later taken to a hospital by police where he was pronounced dead. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights soon called for an investigation.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 21, Pakistan issued sweeping financial sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban and other groups, just as the Taliban is in the midst of US-led peace process in the neighboring country. The orders were issued as part of Pakistan's efforts to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 21, Palestinian militants fired 12 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight, nine of which were intercepted. Israel responded with three airstrikes on targets linked to the territory's militant Hamas rulers. There were no reports of casualties.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, Poland reported 903 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began. The country has reported 60,281 cases in all, and 1,938 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The chief doctor at the Siberian hospital where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being treated said that Navalny would remain there until his condition stabilized. Navalny's wife made a direct appeal to President Vladimir Putin to allow her husband to be evacuated to Germany, as Russian doctors denied he had been poisoned.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)(AFP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, South Korea reported 324 new cases of the coronavirus. The recent surge of infections now appears to be spreading nationwide.
(SFC, 8/22/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 21, In Spain Nordin Benallal (41), a criminal known in Belgium as the “breakout king" after a series of audacious prison escapes, was arrested with two accomplices on suspicion of taking part in a violent kidnapping attempt.
(The Telegraph, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 21, Spain reported that the death toll in an outbreak of West Nile virus in the southern region of Andalusia has risen to two, after an 85-year old woman died in hospital.
(Reuters, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, The Turkish government formally converted Istanbul’s Church of St. Saviour in Chora, a former Byzantine church, into a mosque. The move came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition for similarly turning Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
(AP, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 22, US President Donald Trump accused members of the "deep state" at the Food and Drug Administration, without providing evidence, of working to slow testing of COVID-19 vaccines until after the November presidential election.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, The US House passed legislation that would provide $25 billion to the United States Postal Service, while also banning any operational changes to the agency like the removal of mail-sorting machines and collection boxes and reversing already-enacted measures. It was unlikely the bill will pass the Republican-controlled Senate.
(The Week, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Mary Trump revealed that she had covertly taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry in 2018 and 2019. Trump’s older sister, a former federal judge, is heard sharply criticizing her brother in a series of recordings, at one point saying of the president, “He has no principles".
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Los Angeles Igorevich Kriuchkov (26), a Russian citizen, was arrested as he headed to the airport to return home. He was accused of offering a Tesla employee $1 million to enable a ransomware attack on the electric car company's plant in Nevada.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.D2)
2020 Aug 22, Three fire complexes ravaged forest and rural areas in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They have burned 1,175 square miles (3.043 square km), destroyed almost 1,000 homes and other structures and killed five people, three of them who were found in a home in an area under an evacuation order.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, California to date had 660,967 cases of coronavirus and 12,015 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 78,218 cases and 1,033 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,656,560 with the death toll at 176,070.
(sfist.com, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Colorado dozens of armed protesters descended on the Denver Police Headquarters and damaged buildings, set fires and injured an officer. A dozen people were arrested. Protesters cited a variety of reasons.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 22, It was reported that at least 32 positive coronavirus cases and now a woman's death have been linked to an August 7 wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, Maine.
(Good Morning America, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Oregon demonstrators faced off in Portland with the two sides — one aligned with a "Back the Blue" rally and the other a Black Lives Matter counter-demonstration — reportedly largely ignoring police warnings. Ultimately, Department of Homeland Security officers deemed the gatherings unlawful and moved through the plaza, forcing the crowd to disperse.
(The Week, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Earth Overshoot Day. Scientists have designated this as the date when humans have used all the resources the planet can produce in a year. Scientists say that humans began consuming more than the Earth can provide without being replenished around 1970. The coronavirus pandemic this year pushed the date back more than three weeks.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day)(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 22, The Belarusian Association of Journalists said that more than 20 news sites had been blocked, including those of US-funded Radio Liberty and Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite TV channel focusing on Belarus.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Britain recorded 1,288 new positive cases of COVID-19, up from 1,033 a day earlier.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Zheng Zhongwei, a Chinese health official, told state media that China has been giving experimental coronavirus vaccines to groups facing high infection risks since July. A government official in Chengdu said China has approved human testing for a potential coronavirus vaccine cultivated within insect cells.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, China reported 12 cases of the new coronavirus in the mainland, down from 22 cases a day earlier. Mainland China had 84,951 confirmed coronavirus cases. The COVID-19 death toll remained at 4,634.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, The French health ministry reported 3,602 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The total coronavirus deaths in the country had risen by nine in the past 24 hours to 30,512. The total of confirmed infection cases in France now stands at 238,002.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Germany reported 2,034 new cases of the coronavirus, the first time the daily national increase has topped 2,000 since the end of April.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 22, Iran’s health minister said that at least 164 health care professionals have died while battling the coronavirus pandemic. The total death toll from COVID-19 stood at 20,502 out of nearly 356,800 confirmed cases.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Ireland reported more than 100 daily COVID-19 cases for the fourth time in eight days after the health service was notified of 156 new infections and two additional deaths.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Thousands of Israelis protested outside the prime minister’s official residence as summer-long demonstrations against Benjamin Netanyahu maintained their momentum.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, Italy's health ministry reported 1,071 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, exceeding 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since May when the government eased rigid lockdown measures.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Mali top West African officials met with the junta leaders and the deposed president in Bamako trying to negotiate a return to civilian rule after a coup this week. ECOWAS has demanded the reinstatement of Pres. Keita.
(AP, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Peru 13 people died in a stampede at a disco in Lima after a police raid to enforce the country's lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. 23 people were detained.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, In Poland a bus and a passenger van collided near the town of Gliwice, Silesia, killing all nine people in the van and injuring seven people who were traveling in the bus.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, Russia’s most prominent Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, was in a critical condition and undergoing full tests at a German hospital after an emergency medical flight from Russia with suspected poisoning.
(Washington Post, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 22, In South Africa Fredie Blom, thought to be the oldest man in the world, died in Cape Town at the age of 116.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 22, South Korea announced new measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus as officials reported 332 newly confirmed cases, marking the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 22, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged people to act on health advice on after official data showed daily COVID-19 infections had risen to a record level. The country saw 2,328 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 37 deaths of people having tested positive for the virus. Total cases rose to 102,971. The death toll has risen to 2,244.
(Reuters, 8/22/20)
2020 Aug 23, President Donald Trump announced emergency authorization to treat COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma. The authorization makes it easier for some patients to obtain the treatment but is not the same as full FDA approval.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s most influential and longest serving advisers, announced that she would be leaving the White House at the end of the month.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sharply criticized President Trump's sister and niece, a day after the Washington Post published leaked audio recordings of conversations of the two Trump relatives insulting the president.
(Yahoo News, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Jerry Falwell issued a statement to the Washington Examiner in which he said that his wife had had an affair with Giancarlo Granda and that Granda had been trying to extort money from the couple over the matter. The prominent evangelical leader, appeared to be nearing the end of his leadership at Liberty University, after Granda told Reuters he had a yearslong sexual relationship involving Falwell and his wife.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 23, It was reported that as many as 215,000 more people than usual died in the US during the first seven months of this year, suggesting the number of lives lost to COVID-19 is significantly higher than the official toll.
(SSFC, 8/23/20, p.A10)
2020 Aug 23, California to date had 668,122 cases of coronavirus and 12,153 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 79,113 cases and 1,047 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,703,561 with the death toll at 176,808.
(sfist.com, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Florida reported 2,974 new coronavirus cases, breaking the 600,000 mark. The daily total peaked on July 15 when more than 15,000 cases were reported.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 23, In Maine a 63-day strike at the Bath Iron works came to an end with ship-builders voting to return to their jobs under a new 3-year contract.
(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 23, In North Carolina protests opposing US President Donald Trump took to the streets of Charlotte for a third straight night ahead of this week's Republican National Convention.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, Portland police arrested 14 people overnight after officers were hit by rocks, bottles and paint balls, following violent clashes between rival groups of demonstrators that roiled the city's downtown area a day earlier.
(Reuters, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Wisconsin a video posted on social media appeared to show police officers shoot at Jacob Blake (29), a Black man, seven times in the back as he leaned into a vehicle. Protesters soon gathered and marchers headed to the Kenosha County Public Safety Building, which houses the police and county sheriff's departments. Blake had surgery and was paralyzed from the waist down. Video later showed that Blake was armed with a knife. In 2021 federal prosecutors said they would not file charges against Officer Rusten Sheskey.
(AP, 8/24/20)(Insider, 8/24/20)(SSFC, 10/10/21, p.A13)
2020 Aug 23, American Airlines said it is preparing to begin spraying its airplane cabins with a disinfectant proven to fight COVID-19 on surfaces for up to seven days that has been granted emergency approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency for use in Texas.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Belarus some 200,000 protesters demanding the resignation of authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko rallied in a vast square in Minsk, keeping up the massive outburst of dissent that has shaken the country since a disputed presidential election two weeks ago. Lukashenko made a dramatic show of defiance against the massive protests demanding his resignation, toting a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest as he strode off a helicopter that landed at his residence while demonstrators massed nearby.
(AP, 8/23/20)(SFC, 8/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, Chinese authorities detained 12 Hong Kong activists as they tried to reach Taiwan by speedboat.
(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 23, Hurricane Laura made landfall in the southeastern Dominican Republic and then traversed Haiti, where at least 31 people died. Four deaths were reported in the Dominican Republic.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Laura)(Econ., 8/29/20, p.24)
2020 Aug 23, Finland's PM Sanna Marin assumed the leadership of her Social Democratic Party eight months after taking the top job in the Nordic nation in December, when she became the world’s youngest serving head of government at 34. She was the only candidate running for the post and no vote was needed.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, India’s coronavirus caseload topped 3 million, with the country leading the world in new infections as the disease marched through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south. Health authorities reported 69,239 new cases and 912 deaths, bringing the total to 3,044,940.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had accepted a proposal to extend budget negotiations, preventing the government from collapsing and plunging the country into a new election.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter dismissed a cease-fire proposal by the UN-supported government as a “deception," claiming that rival militias were preparing to attack the strategic city of Sirte. Human Rights Watch later said that armed groups linked to the Tripoli-based government used heavy weapons to disperse anti-corruption rallies and of detaining, torturing and forcibly disappearing protesters from Aug 23-29.
(AP, 8/23/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 23, Libyan radio journalist Sami al-Sharif was detained by men in military uniforms affiliated with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord. Militiamen opened fire at protesters in Tripoli’s Martyrs Square, and dozens of protesters were arrested and their whereabouts were unknown.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 23, More than 50,000 Lithuanians joined hands in a human chain stretching 32 km (20 miles) from the capital of Vilnius to the Belarus border to express solidarity with their neighbor's dramatic struggle for democracy.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Madagascar a riot began at the prison in Farafagana, a city on the southeast coast. Twenty inmates were shot dead as authorities tried to stop the riot. A total of 88 inmates escaped the prison during the riot, and 31 remained on the loose.
(Good Morning America, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Mozambique the premises of two leading independent newspapers, the weekly Canal de Mozambique and the daily CanalMoz, were attacked late today with petrol bombs and burned. The Center for Democracy said the fire-bombing could be linked to a report Canal printed days earlier about bribery and the efforts of prominent Mozambicans to win control of part of the fuel retail business worth millions of dollars.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 23, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said five people have died in floods caused by heavy rain along its Black Sea coastline. A further 11 people were missing after flooding around the mountain town of Dereli in Giresun province.
(AP, 8/23/20)
2020 Aug 24, Republicans gathered to formally nominate President Donald Trump for reelection at a scaled-down convention kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, that begins a weeklong effort to convince the American people that the president deserves a second term. President Trump and Vice President Pence were officially nominated for re-election. On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Trump and his allies presented a bleak vision of the country’s future under a Biden administration.
(AP, 8/24/20)(The Week, 8/25/20)(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Twenty seven former Republican US lawmakers, including former Senator Jeff Flake, endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, the first day of the Republican National Convention, in the latest rebuke of President Donald Trump by members of his own party.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, A US military airstrike in Somalia reportedly killed six al-Shabab extremists after the al-Qaida-linked group attacked Somali forces while US forces were nearby.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 24, The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit the latest in a series of records as optimism about COVID-19 treatment boosted investor sentiment.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, The University of Alabama said that 531 cases had been identified among students, faculty and staff since classes resumed at its Tuscaloosa campus last week.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Firefighters battling three massive wildfires in Northern California got a break from the weather as humidity rose and there was no return of the onslaught of lightning strikes that ignited the infernos a week earlier. The death toll from the fires reached 7 over the weekend.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The California Supreme Court overturned Scott Peterson's 2005 death sentence in a case that attracted worldwide attention. The justices cited “significant errors" in jury selection in overturning the death penalty but welcomed prosecutors to again seek the sentence if they wish. His conviction for killing his pregnant wife will stand.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, California to date had 675,373 cases of coronavirus and 12,243 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 79,962 cases and 1,049 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,737,398 with the death toll at 177,215.
(sfist.com, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, A judge in Florida struck down the state’s requirement that public schools open their classrooms for in-person instruction.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, It was disclosed that the New York state attorney general is investigating whether Donald Trump and the Trump Organization improperly manipulated the value of the US president's assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits. Trump's son Eric has reportedly been uncooperative in the civil probe.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Wisconsin police officers deployed tear gas early today to disperse hundreds of people who took to the streets following a police shooting in Kenosha that also drew a harsh rebuke from the governor after a video posted on social media appeared to show officers shoot at Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back as he leaned into a vehicle. Protesters set several Kenosha businesses on fire early this morning. The father of Jacob Blake says his son was left paralyzed from the waist down. Wisconsin's governor called out the National Guard.
(AP, 8/24/20)(NY Times, 8/25/20)(AP, 8/25/20)(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Novavax Inc said it has begun enrolling volunteers for the second phase of an ongoing clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, with interim data expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Exxon Mobil Corp, Pfizer Inc. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. were kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, making way for Salesforce.com, Amgen Inc. and Honeywell International to enter the 124-year old equity gauge a week from today. ExxonMobil was ejected from the DJIA, having been a member since 1928.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5udfaal)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.13)
2020 Aug 24, In Australia notorious conman Peter Foster, who once assisted Cherie Blair in purchasing two properties in Bristol, was extradited to Sydney. Mr Foster was captured by two police officers disguised as joggers who tackled him on a beach in northern Queensland on August 20.
(The Telegraph, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Austria expelled a Russian diplomat for reported industrial espionage, prompting protests and a tit-for-tat response from Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Belarus police detained several leading opposition activists who have helped spearhead a wave of protests challenging the re-election of Pres. Alexander Lukashenko.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, In Germany the Charite hospital said a medical examination of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has found indications of poisoning. The clinical findings indicated poisoning by a substance from the group of active substances called cholinesterase inhibitors.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Hong Kong researchers reported that a 33-year-old man was infected a second time with the coronavirus more than four months after his first bout. This was the first documented case of so-called reinfection. The patient experienced no symptoms from his second infection, indicating his immune system may have learned how to respond.
(NY Times, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 24, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of a trove of early Islamic gold coins found during recent salvage excavations near the central city of Yavne. The collection of 425 complete gold coins mostly dated to the Abbasid period around 1,100 years ago.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Italy kicked off human trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, joining a global effort to develop a response to the virus which has shown signs of resurging in Europe.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would sell its Japanese consumer healthcare business to US buyout fund Blackstone Group, as it aims to focus on developing drugs for unmet medical needs and rare diseases.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Mali an official in talks between the military junta and ECOWAS said the junta wants to put off elections for three years in order to prepare a new constitution prior to any vote.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, In the southern Philippines Muslim militant set off a powerful explosive followed by a suicide bombing that together killed 14 people in Jolo town, Sulu province.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, It was reported that Illegal gold diggers have destroyed a 2,000-year-old archaeological site in Sudan in the eastern region of the Sahara desert. The Jabal Maragha site, which dates from the Meroitic period between 350 BC and 350 AD, is said to have either been a small settlement or a checkpoint.
(BBC, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The Swiss-based World Health Organization said some 172 countries are engaging with the COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. COVAX is co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and is designed to guarantee equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines once they are developed and authorized for use.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, In Syria a explosion early today struck a gas pipeline in a Damascus suburb, causing a huge fire and cutting off electricity throughout the country. Islamic State group militants were suspected.
(SFC, 8/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 24, Turkish rescue workers recovered the body of another victim of severe weekend floods that swept along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, raising the death toll to seven. At least nine other people remained missing.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 24, The UN counter-terrorism chief said more than 10,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain active in Iraq and Syria two years after the militant group’s defeat, and their attacks have significantly increased this year.
(AP, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 25, Eric Trump echoed falsehoods of his father, Melania Trump credited her husband with a dubious religious first, and the president's economic adviser wholly distorted the conditions Donald Trump inherited as Republicans stepped up to praise him on the 2nd night of their national convention.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn apologized for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The US Justice Department charged Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries with conspiring with rivals to raise generic-drug prices.
(The Week, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Los Angeles Daniel Silva (27), a tattoo artist who has been featured on the television reality show "Ink Master," was sentenced to 364 days in jail for a fatal car crash in May that killed his passenger, YouTuber Corey La Barrie.
(NBC News, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, California to date had 679,135 cases of coronavirus and 12,300 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 80,686 cases and 1,071 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,773,220 with the death toll at 178,326.
(sfist.com, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Kentucky police arrested 64 people in Louisville during what organizers described as a "massive demonstration" over the death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot in her home during a raid related to a drug suspect who didn't live there.
(The Week, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Oregon police in the city of Portland late today declared a gathering of hundreds of protesters outside City Hall as a riot, ordering the crowd to disperse or face arrest. About 200 demonstrators assembled downtown at Shemanski Park before marching to the City Hall, where some in the crowd broke glass doors and smashed a door switch.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana coasts as Laura strengthened into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam into land as a major storm with ferocious winds and deadly flooding.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Wisconsin two people were killed and another was injured late today as shots were fired during a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake. Gov. Tony Evers (D) declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, American Airlines said it will eliminate 19,000 jobs in October as it struggles with a sharp downturn in travel because of the pandemic.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, In Afghanistan a Taliban car bomb in the northern province of Balkh killed at least eight civilians, as well as two Afghan commandos whose unit was based nearby.
(NY Times, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Africa Regional Certification Commission announced that Africa has been declared free from wild polio. The disease is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(BBC, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Authorities in Belarus steadily cranked up the pressure on protesters pushing for the resignation of the country's authoritarian leader, jailing several opposition activists, summoning others for questioning and selectively ordering demonstrators to appear in court.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Democratic Republic of Congo said it has ended the world's largest measles outbreak that has killed more than 7,000 children since it was declared 14 months ago.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. A charge sheet named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, Iran's nuclear body said it held "constructive" talks with the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency amid tensions over a US bid to reimpose UN sanctions.
(AFP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Israel's military bombed militant positions in the Gaza Strip early today in response to incendiary balloons launched into southern Israel farmlands a day earlier.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Gaza's militant Hamas rulers imposed a territory-wide curfew after authorities detected the first local cases of the coronavirus, raising fears of a wider outbreak in the blockaded territory that is home to some 2 million Palestinians. Gaza has registered more than 100 cases and a fatality since the start of the pandemic, but until now all the infections were linked to quarantine facilities for returning travelers.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, The Kremlin brushed off allegations that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in a coma in a German hospital, was poisoned and said there have been no grounds for a criminal investigation so far because the politician's condition may have been triggered by other causes.
(AP, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a notorious ally of Vladimir Putin, said he will use Russia’s corrupt courts to destroy Alexei Navalny financially if the stricken opposition leader ever recovers from a chemical agent believed to have been slipped into his tea.
(The Daily Beast, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 25, Sweden's Public Health Agency said about 3,700 people in Sweden were told in error that they had the coronavirus due to a fault in BGI Genomics' COVID-19 testing kit from China.
(Reuters, 8/25/20)
2020 Aug 25, A Thai court issued a new arrest warrant for Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, for the 2012 death of a motorcycle policeman killed after being stuck by Yoovidhya's Ferrari. The heir's current location was not known.
(SFC, 8/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Republicans used the third night of their convention to continue warning about violence and lawlessness, trying to capitalize on the unrest in Wisconsin. Vice President Mike Pence formally accepted his party's 2020 vice presidential nomination. Pence condemned the "violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities" but did not directly mention Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot in the back by police in Kenosha, sparking ongoing protests over racial injustice.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)(Yahoo News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Two federal health officials said officials in the Trump administration told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin discouraging people without coronavirus symptoms from being tested.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The Trump administration added 24 Chinese companies to a government list that bans them from purchasing certain sensitive US products, citing their role in helping the Chinese military construct artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, The US government warned that North Korean hackers are tapping into banks around the globe to make fraudulent money transfers and cause ATMs to spit out cash.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, The Justice Department executed Lezmond Mitchell (38) at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He was the only Native American man on federal death row and was executed against the wishes of Navajo leaders. He had been sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of a grandmother, Alyce Slim, and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Tiffany Lee. Mitchell was the fourth person to be executed since the Trump administration resumed federal capital punishment last year.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The US Department of Energy said it will provide $625 million over the next five years for five newly formed quantum information research hubs as it tries to keep ahead of competing nations like China on the emerging technology.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, US professional sports seasons seemed in doubt, as athletes staged walkouts to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was partly paralyzed after a white police officer shot him in Kenosha, Wis.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, The US FDA authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesn't need any special computer equipment to get results. The 15-minute test from Abbot Laboratories will sell for $5.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 26, In Oakland, Ca., 600 to 700 people took part in the protests where “numerous fires (were) set, dozens of windows broken, (and) multiple businesses vandalized." The police Dept. said protesters threw objects at officers but none were injured. Several people were arrested.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, California to date had 683,928 cases of coronavirus and 12,461 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 81,919 cases and 1,091 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,816,968 with the death toll at 179,565.
(sfist.com, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, A chaotic night in Minneapolis began in the afternoon when police responded to a fatal shooting and began searching for a man and a woman suspected of being involved in the homicide and fled the scene on foot. A male suspect was spotted by officers outside the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. As officers approached the suspect, he produced a handgun and shot himself in the head. Unrest followed and people broke windows and stole merchandise. At least 33 people were arrested as Gov. Tim Walz mobilized the National Guard at the request of Mayor Jacob Frey.
(ABC News, 8/27/20)(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 26, Former Minnesota college student Tnuza Jamal Hassan (22), pleaded guilty in US District Court to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Hassan tried to travel to Afghanistan on Sept. 19, 2017, making it as far as Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before she was stopped because she lacked a visa.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Mississippi a drone carrying marijuana, cigarette lighters and cell phones was caught in a net above the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl. Two men were soon arrested on charges of conspiracy and smuggling.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 26, In Nebraska police investigator Luis “Mario" Herrera was shot in Lincoln as he sought to serve an arrest warrant on Felipe Vazquez (17) in the March stabbing death of Edward Varejcka (36). Herrera died on Sept. 7 and a second degree assault charge against Vazquez was raised to first degree murder.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Aug 26, Dallas-area taxicab driver Yaser Abdel Said (63), wanted for the Jan. 1, 2008, slayings of his two teenage daughters, was arrested in a small North Texas town. The teenage sisters were found shot multiple times in a cab outside a motel in Irving, a Dallas suburb.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Hurricane Laura rapidly gained strength, forecast to become a “catastrophic" Category 4 hurricane before striking Texas and Louisiana. Officials implored coastal residents to flee before it's too late.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Wisconsin authorities arrested Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white Illinois resident, and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of two protesters on August 25. Police said Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two and injuring one.
(Yahoo News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Moderna Inc said that an analysis of the early-stage data of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed it induced immune responses in older adults that were similar to younger participants.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, VBI Vaccines Inc said it expected to begin human testing of two of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine candidates at the end of the year.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Afghanistan overnight flash floods killed over 100 people and injured scores of others in Charikar, home to nearly 200,000 people and the capital of Parwan Province, just north of Kabul. The death toll soon rose to at least 150.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A3)(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Belarus' Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich was summoned for questioning and police detained dozens of demonstrators in a continuing crackdown on protests challenging the re-election of the country's authoritarian ruler. She is a member of an opposition council created to facilitate talks on a transition of power.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Authorities in Bosnia's Krajina region, which borders European Union-member Croatia, had to dispatch special police forces late today to a UN-run migrant camp near the town of Bihac to calm a protest by 1,000 migrants who live there, sparked by the alleged police beating of an unhoused migrant.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, Egypt’s election commission said it would refer to prosecutors about 54 million people who did not vote in elections earlier this month for two-thirds of the Senate, the upper and mainly powerless chamber of the country’s Parliament. Lasheen Ibrahim, the commission’s chairman, had vowed to enforce a law penalizing any boycotter with a fine of up to 500 Egyptian pounds ($32).
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that French prosecutors have opened an investigation after national television broadcast social media video showing drug dealers openly carrying assault rifles in Grenoble. The video sparked outrage as concern rose over a crime wave in French holiday towns this summer.
(The Telegraph, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Greece and Turkey vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean as the NATO allies remained locked in a tense dispute over offshore energy exploration rights.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Hong Kong police arrested 16 people on charges related to ant-government protests last year, including opposition lawmakers Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, The IAEA said Iran has agreed to allow inspectors in to two sites where the country is suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Japanese researchers said that low concentrations of ozone can neutralize coronavirus particles, potentially providing a way for hospitals to disinfect examination rooms and waiting areas.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In Jordan cartoonist Emad Hajjaj was arrested for criticizing the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that Mali has been suspended from a global body of French-speaking countries after a military junta overthrew the West African country's democratically elected president.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, It was reported that at least 13 dead dolphins have been found on the seashore in Mauritius, more than a month after the huge oil spill caused by a Japanese-owned ship.
(BBC, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Trading on New Zealand's stock exchange was halted for several hours after what appeared to be a second offshore cyber attack in as many days.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, Gaza’s Hamas rulers extended a full lockdown in the Palestinian enclave for three more days as coronavirus cases climbed following the detection this week of the first community transmissions of the virus in the densely populated, blockaded territory.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, A Palestinian man (46) fatally stabbed an Israeli man (39) near Petah Tikva. The suspect had entered Israel on a work permit and fled the scene, but was soon arrested.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 26, Scotland said it is buying 300 COVID-19 testing machines that can give results in 12 minutes, helping to locate potential outbreaks in remote locations.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Africa Nathaniel Julius (16), who had Down's syndrome, was shot dead after going out to buy biscuits in Johannesburg's Eldorado Park suburb. A day later hundreds of local residents took to the streets to protest, leading to violent clashes with police. Two police officers were soon arrested over the deadly shooting.
(BBC, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Africa well-known conservationist West Mathewson died after he was mauled by two white lions as he was taking them for a walk.
(BBC, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 26, In South Korea doctors in the greater Seoul area joined physicians in other parts of the country in a 3-day strike against government plans to boost the number of medical students. Health officials ordered the doctors of return to work.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 26, In Yemen fighting resumed overnight between the separatists and government forces in Abyan, after the separatists suspended participation in talks to implement a Saudi-brokered peace deal.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, Pres. Donald Trump delivered a triumphant, optimistic vision of America’s future as he accepted the Republican nomination for president at the White House. But he said that brighter horizon could only be secured if he defeated his Democratic foe, who currently has an advantage in most national and battleground state polls. Trump claimed accomplishments he didn't earn on the pandemic, energy and veterans at the convention finale that also heard Black Lives Matter baselessly accused of coordinating violent protests across the country. Some guests at the political event, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, needed to be escorted by police officers to safety upon leaving the White House grounds.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that Washington has blacklisted five Russian institutions it believes are developing chemical and biological weapons. Moscow called the decision “groundless" and said it will seek clarification.
(The Telegraph, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, A US District Court judge in Washington ruled that the Justice Department's new lethal injection protocol violated drug safety laws and ordered a planned execution for August 28 to be halted.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US Federal Reserve said it would focus more on keeping unemployment low in the future, even if inflation had to run slightly higher.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US government sought to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts it said were used by North Korean hackers who stole millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from two virtual exchanges, and used Chinese traders to launder their funds.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The US Marshals Service said it has found 39 missing children in Georgia over two weeks in a mission known as "Operation Not Forgotten".
(CBS News, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, The group of wildfires near Santa Cruz, Ca., has burned 125 square miles (324 square km) and destroyed more than 500 buildings. While those fires are 20% contained, firefighters have been pushed to the breaking point since lightning ignited more than 500 blazes in one night last week.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, California to date had 689,554 cases of coronavirus and 12,622 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 82,828 cases and 1,098 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,860,397 with the death toll at 180,527.
(sfist.com, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In southern California two soldiers were killed and three injured when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed on San Clemente Island.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 27, Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm early this morning near the Louisiana-Texas border. The National Hurricane Center called the expected storm surge “unsurvivable," and said that it could push 40 miles inland. Laura plowed through Louisiana, killing at least six people and ripping apart buildings.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, A large chemical fire sent a dangerous cloud over Lake Charles, Louisiana, hours after the eye of Hurricane Laura passed directly over the city.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, US prosecutors in Detroit said the former president of the United Auto Workers, Dennis Williams (67), has been charged with conspiring with other union officials to embezzle UAW funds. Williams, of Corona, California, was charged with conspiring with successor Gary Jones and others to embezzle money between 2010 and September 2019. Williams was the head of the union from June 2014 to June 2018.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In North Carolina Ronnie Long (64) was freed after the state filed a motion in federal court a day earlier seeking to vacate his 1976 conviction by an all-white jury. He was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree rape and first-degree burglary. His attorney said forensic reports implicating another suspect weren't turned over to the defense by the state and that police "perjured themselves" during Long's trial.
(NBC News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Lord & Taylor, the first US department store (1826), said it is officially closing all 38 of its remaining stores. Liquidation sales have also begun storewide and online.
(Good Morning America, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, British police said a man (45) has been arrested in London on suspicion of war crimes relating to the first and second Liberian civil wars between 1989 and 2003.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Nearly 500 Burundian refugees living in Rwanda began their journey back to their home country, the first group to return after five years in exile following deadly political violence sent many fleeing. new president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has invited all those in exile to return and build a new nation.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, The Danish government advised its citizens against traveling to France and Croatia as coronavirus thresholds passed 30 per 100,000 inhabitants. Denmark has reported 16,627 confirmed cases and 624 deaths.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that the European Commission has made a 336 million euros ($396 million) down payment to British drug maker AstraZeneca to secure at least 300 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, France-based clinical diagnostics company Novacyt, one of many healthcare companies whose shares have surged during the pandemic, launched a test to differentiate between COVID-19 and common winter diseases.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, Chancellor Angela Merkel said most of Germany will impose a minimum fine of 50 euros ($59) for breaching mask-wearing rules as coronavirus infections rise again.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, India recorded its highest single-day increase with 75,760 new coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry also reported 1,023 deaths over the last 24 hours, raising that total to 60,472.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that archeologists in Japan have dug up the remains of more than 1,500 people who were buried in a 19th century mass grave in Osaka. An epidemic of syphilis was suspected as a possible cause. The area is being excavated for a city development project.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 27, In Lebanon two people - a 13-year-old Lebanese Sunni boy and a Syrian man - were killed in the Khaldeh area south of the capital in a shootout. The deadly battle between Sunnis and Shi'ites prompted warnings of more violence as the country is pushed to breaking point by a financial meltdown and political tensions.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita returned home after being detained for 10 days by the ruling military junta that staged a coup d'etat last week.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, In New Zealand Brenton Tarrant, an Australian who last year murdered 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, was sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole.
(NY Times, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a rice-growing area devastated by Typhoon Bavi. The storm slammed into the country’s southwestern province of Hwanghae, dealing a damaging blow to its corn stalks, rice paddies and other crops, and raising fears of increased hunger among an already malnourished population. Kim Jong Un said the country was "fortunate" and had suffered only limited damage.
(AFP, 8/27/20) (The Telegraph, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed military support for embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, while urging a peaceful resolution to unrest and demonstrations that erupted after a disputed election.
(AFP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 27, South Korea reported 441 new coronavirus cases, its highest singe-day total in months.
(SFC, 8/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 27, In Turkey human rights lawyer Ebru Timtik (42) died of a hunger strike in a hospital in Istanbul. She had launched the strike in prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues. The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP/C, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, In Uganda 10 children were killed by lightning in the north-western city of Arua after sheltering in a hut during a storm.
(BBC, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that renewed clashes between forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government and their rivals, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, left five fighters dead in the strategic port city of Hodeida.
(AP, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 28, Speaking in New Hampshire Pres. Donald Trump said he was the only thing standing between “democracy and the mob," as he lashed out at protesters who accosted his supporters as they left the White House the night before.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, John Ratcliffe, head of the top US intelligence office, told lawmakers it will end in-person briefings on election security because there had been leaks from congressional committees. He said the office would send written reports instead, giving lawmakers less opportunity to press for details.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, Thousands of people gathered to march in Washington, D.C., to denounce racism, protest police brutality and commemorate the anniversary of the march in 1963 where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his "I Have a Dream" speech.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Black Lives Matter activists held their first Black National Convention. The virtual event adopted a political agenda calling for slavery reparations, universal basic income, environmental justice and legislation that entirely re-imagines criminal justice reform.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Remnants of Hurricane Laura doused Arkansas and were due to bring rain to the East Coast over the weekend.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright resigned under pressure after a recording of a man identified as him delivering a racist rant went viral.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, A federal judge in California agreed to release from jail Dr. Juan Tang, a university researcher accused of lying about her ties to China’s military and Communist Party to gain access to the US, after a Chinese emigre offered to put up $750,000 in home equity as bond.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to outlaw the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, effective January 1.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.B1)
2020 Aug 28, California to date had 693,268 cases of coronavirus and 12,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 83,666 cases and 1,110 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,910,400 with the death toll at 181,655.
(sfist.com, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Indiana Keith Nelson (45), the killer of a Kansas girl, became the fifth federal inmate put to death this year, an execution that went forward only after a higher court tossed a ruling that would have required the government to get a prescription for the drug used to kill him. In 1999 Nelson raped and strangled Pamela Butler (10) with a wire.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, Film star Chadwick Boseman (43), an actor whose work celebrated African-American pioneers and culture, died in Los Angeles after a four-year battle with colon cancer. His films included "42" (2013) in which he played Jackie Robinson; "Get on Up" (2014) and "Black Panther" (2018).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chadwick_Boseman)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.78)
2020 Aug 28, The death toll increased to 14 in Louisiana and Texas as the Gulf Coast cleaned up a day after being walloped by Hurricane Laura.
(Good Morning America, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Mississippi Barnard Lnell Morrow, a suspect in the March 14 shooting deaths of three people in Killeen, Texas, including a Fort Hood soldier, was arrested in Newton.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook should have taken down the page and event listing promoting a militia group that called for armed citizens to defend Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid ongoing protests there. The event, titled: "Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property," and the page, "Kenosha Guard," were removed after two people were killed in a shooting there on August 25.
(Business Insider, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that Walmart has joined Microsoft’s bid to purchase the popular video app TikTok. A coalition including the software company Oracle has also made a bid.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Brazil's main prosecutor's office said that Wilson Witzel, a former federal judge and the governor of Rio de Janeiro, has been removed from office for 180 days due to corruption charges.
(SFC, 8/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 28, China announced updates to export laws. ByteDance will now need Chinese government approval to sell US operations of the popular TikTok short-video app. Beijing added artificial intelligence interface technologies, including those that analyze data to make personalized content recommendations, to its list of export-control products published on the Ministry of Commerce’s website.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 28, China reported nine new confirmed cases of coronavirus, the same number as the previous day, with all of them travelling into the country from overseas.
(Reuters, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that Egyptian police have arrested Mahmoud Ezzat (76), a high-level leader in the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, at his hiding place in Cairo.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Indian lawmaker H. Vasanthakumar, from the country's main opposition party Congress, became the latest high profile figure to die from COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 28, The Israeli military struck militant targets in Gaza, including a weapons manufacturing site, after six rockets were fired from the territory.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign because of illness, just days after becoming the country’s longest-serving leader. A biography of Mr. Abe, "The Iconoclast" by Tobias Harris, was soon published.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.73)
2020 Aug 28, Namibia's President Hage Geingob announced a lift of lockdown restrictions, allowing international travel, schools to reopen and onsite alcohol consumption from September, but he extended an overnight curfew as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 28, It was reported that flooding from heavy rains in Niger has killed at least 45 people this week and forced more than 226,000 from their homes.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport announced that it will cut hundreds of jobs as it warned that air traffic likely will not return to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until 2023-25.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The Dutch government brought forward to March a ban on mink-farming that had been scheduled to take effect in 2024.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.43)
2020 Aug 28, A polar bear attacked a camping site in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands, killing a 38-year-old Dutch man before being shot and killed by onlookers. Johan Jacobus Kootte was the fifth person on Svalbard to have been killed by polar bears since 1971.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Pakistan heavy overnight rains hit parts of the country including the financial capital Karachi bringing more flooding to towns and villages and leaving at least 36 people dead.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of a Norwegian diplomat in response to a similar move by Norway last week.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, In Sweden far-right activists burned a Quran in Malmo near a predominantly migrant neighborhood, sparking riots and unrest after more than 300 people gathered to protest. Police detained about 15 people.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 28, Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) convicted Oleksandr Levkivsky, a regional forestry official, for taking a $10,000 kickback to let out public land.
(Econ., 9/26/20, p.56)
2020 Aug 28, The UN rights chief called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to swiftly investigate death threats against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and bring those responsible to justice. Death threats were made in July after he had sent out a tweet condemning the massacre of 18 people in South Kivu, the strife-torn province in eastern DR Congo where he has his clinic. Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war.
(AFP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations and its 193 member nations to step up action to increase the number of women in military and civilian positions at all levels in the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution cutting the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 15,000 to 13,000 and expanded its mandate to address US and Israeli concerns about activities of the militant group Hezbollah.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 29, California to date had 698,370 cases of coronavirus and 12,837 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 84,424 cases and 1,110 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,954,676 with the death toll at 182,665.
(sfist.com, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, In Oregon a man was fatally shot as a caravan of Mr. Trump’s supporters drove through Portland for a pro-Trump rally and clashed with counter protesters. The man who was killed was wearing a hat with a far-right insignia. Right-wing Trump supporter, Aaron “Jay" Danielson, was shot and killed after he came downtown. On August 30 antifa supporter Michael Forest Reinoehl (48), the suspected shooter of Danielson, was shot and killed near Lacey, Wa., by law enforcement agents.
(NY Times, 8/30/20)(AP, 9/3/20)(AP, 9/4/20)(NY Times, 9/4/20)
2020 Aug 29, In Wisconsin family members of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was paralyzed after a Kenosha police officer shot him in the back, led a march and rally to call for an end to police violence. A crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse in Kenosha to denounce police violence and share messages of change.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree late today establishing a 46-member council, led by his former rival in last year’s presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah. It will have final say on whether the government will sign a peace deal with the Taliban after what are expected to be protracted and uncertain negotiations with the insurgents.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Belarus officials cracked down on the news media, deporting some foreign journalists and revoking the accreditation of many local journalists.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 29, Brazil registered another 758 novel coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours and 41,350 new cases. The nation has now registered 120,262 coronavirus deaths and 3,846,153 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, In northern a two-story restaurant collapsed during a local resident's 80th birthday celebration, leaving 29 people dead in Shanxi province.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that attackers armed with knives, some knowledge of their prey and a large dose of cruelty, are going after horses and ponies in pastures across France in what may be ritual mutilations.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, France reported 5,453 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The Tour de France race began in unusual conditions.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, Berlin police broke up a mass protest against coronavirus curbs and arrested 300 after demonstrators failed to keep their distance and wear masks as instructed.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 29, India-based Reliance said it would pay 3.4 billion for most of the Future Group, founded by Kishore Biyani (b.1961).
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.55)
2020 Aug 29, India reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country's outbreak currently the world's worst. The death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550. India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Indonesian police detained dozens of men in a raid on a gay party at a hotel in Jakarta. Nine people were arrested iunder a pronography law and 47 others released.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that Lebanese security forces have arrested three Egyptian men wanted in their home country on charges of involvement in an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel six years ago. Authorities soon detained possible witnesses and some of their acquaintances, who could face separate charges under the country’s vague morality laws.
(AP, 8/30/20)(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Aug 29, Malaysia extended its pandemic movement restrictions until the end of the year. The country has recorded more than 9,000 cases with 125 deaths.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Aug 29, Thousands of people marched through the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, in protest at the authorities' handling of a massive oil spill, and the discovery of at least 40 dead dolphins. Dead fish, turtles, whales and crabs were also observed.
(BBC, 8/30/20)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.B10)
2020 Aug 29, The Philippines reported 3,637 new coronavirus infections and 94 more deaths, taking its tally to 213,131 cases and a toll of 3,419. Nearly a third of the Philippine deaths have been reported over the past 15 days.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, Ukraine registered a record 2,481 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from 2,438 in the previous day. The country has so far reported a total of 116,987 infections and 2,492 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, The United Nations voiced alarm over what it called “a dramatic turn of events" in Libya's civil war, after a power struggle between leaders of the Tripoli-based government surfaced in the wake of anti-corruption protests.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 29, It was reported that some people in Zimbabwe are calling themselves “keyboard warriors" as they take to graffiti and social media to pressure a government that promised reform but is now accused of gross human rights abuses.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 30, President Trump and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) traded harsh criticism of each other over violent clashes between anti-racism protesters and conservative counter protesters, a day after the fatal shooting of a member of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer. Patriot Prayer's founder, Joey Gibson, has held pro-Trump rallies repeatedly in Portland and other cities since 2016. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that state police will patrol the nightly protests in Portland with help from officers from neighboring communities.
(The Week, 8/31/20)(AP, 8/30/20)(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A4)
2020 Aug 30, The Trump administration blocked the scheduled removal of former Colombian paramilitary boss Salvatore Mancuso to Italy and now intends to deport him to his South American homeland, where he’s been found responsible for hundreds of war crimes.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Wildfires continue to burn from California to Minnesota, leaving millions of people to cough and wheeze through the toxic air. Sporadic power outages and the relentless heat have made life indoors almost equally intolerable.
(NY Times, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, California to date had 702,667 cases of coronavirus and 12,925 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 84,911 cases and 1,123 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 5,990,965 with the death toll at 183,005. Global confirmed cases topped 25 million.
(sfist.com, 8/30/20)(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 30, St. Louis police officer Tamarris L. Bohannon (29) died after being shot in the head by a barricaded gunman on the city's south side. A suspect (43) was taken into custody.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) urged President Trump to "reconsider" his plan to visit the city of Kenosha as protests continue over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, United Airlines announced that it was permanently eliminating a $200 fee for changing tickets for domestic travel, a move expected to put pressure on other carriers to drop the fees too.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, New coronavirus cases in Australia's state of Victoria returned to the triple digits.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Belarus tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Minsk beginning the fourth week of daily protests demanding the resignation of the country's authoritarian president after an election they call rigged gave him a sixth term in office.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said its Farxiga drug improved survival chances for patients suffering from kidney disease, underscoring the medicine's role outside its established field of diabetes.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, China's lockdown in Xinjiang province entered its 45th day. It was in response to 826 cases reported in Xinjiang since mid-July, China’s largest caseload since the initial outbreak. The Xinjiang lockdown is especially striking because of its severity, and because there hasn’t been a single new case of local transmission in over a week. China reported 17 new COVID-19 cases, up from 9 reported a day earlier.
(AP, 8/30/20)(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, France's defence minister said a senior French military officer has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing top secret documents to Russian intelligence. He was detained by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), the equivalent of MI5, 10 days ago.
(The Telegraph, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy. So far, more than 63,000 Indians have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Indonesia reported 2,858 new infections. Total number of cases now stood at 172,053, with 7,343 COVID-19 fatalities. The Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology said a more infectious mutation of the new coronavirus has been found in Indonesia. The D614G strain, which the WHO said was identified in February and has been circulating in Europe and the Americas, has also been found in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, The Israeli military struck militant targets in Gaza early today in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons out of the Hamas-run territory.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In northern Italy hurricane-force winds toppled a tree during a storm, killing two children in a tent at a campground.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Italian officials hastily chartered more ferries and put other measures into place to fight severe overcrowding at migrant centers on the tiny island of Lampedusa, where the arrival of 450 migrants on a rickety fishing boat triggered protests by islanders. A fire triggered an explosion on smuggling boat off of southern Italy, tossing 21 migrants into the sea and killing at least 3 of them.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Jordan reported 73 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah, said his group supports the formation of a government that would be able to improve economic conditions in the crisis-stricken country and undertake major reforms.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Voters in Montenegro cast ballots in tense parliamentary elections that pit the long-ruling pro-Western party against the opposition seeking closer ties with Serbia and Russia. The pro-Serb and Russian opposition groups claimed victory against the ruling pro-Western party.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, A $27 million smuggling operation got sniffed out before the MV Norma H II Voyage 818 could reach the US Virgin Islands. A K-9 agent sniffed 34 cargo boxes of vacuum-packed cash in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before leaving for St. Thomas.
(Miami Herald, 9/3/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Russia opposition activist Yegor Zhukov (22) was hospitalized after what supporters said was a vicious attack by two men outside his house in Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, South Korea reported its 17th day of triple-digit rises in coronavirus infections. The national tally rose to 19,699 cases of the new coronavirus and 323 COVID-19 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, Sudan reported that rising floodwaters have hit the capital of Khartoum hard in recent days, as weeks of heavy flooding nationwide left at least 90 people dead and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Thailand about 1,000 people, calling themselves "Thai Pakdee" (Loyal Thai), gathered in a Bangkok sports stadium to defend the country's monarchy. Anti-government demonstrations across the country have gathered momentum posing a challenge to the rule of PM Prayuth Chan-ocha.
(SFC, 8/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 30, The UN International Labor Organization said new labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles" the country's long-criticized “kafala" employment system. As of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers. The ILO also said Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country's official gazette.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 30, In Yemen the Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen's government reportedly foiled two attacks launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including an explosives-laden boat dispatched into the Red Sea near international shipping lanes.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 30, Zimbabwe's parks authorities said they are investigating the death of 11 elephants in a forest in the west of the country. The carcasses of the elephants were discovered August 28 in Pandamasue Forest.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, A US appeals court overturned the Trump administration's July 2019 rule that sought to suspend a regulation that more than doubled penalties for automakers failing to meet fuel efficiency requirements.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In southern California two deputies fatally shot a black man who scuffled with them after they tried to stop him for riding a bicycle in an unlawful manner. Dijon Kizzee (29) had dropped a bundle of clothes that included a handgun. A crowd gathered and marched to the sheriff’s station after the afternoon shooting, demanding justice. An autopsy report later said Kizzee was shot 16 times in the front and back.
(AP, 8/31/20)(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A6)(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Aug 31, California to date had 710,366 cases of coronavirus and 13,011 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 85,939 cases and 1,125 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,027,111 with the death toll at 183,499.
(sfist.com, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Tom Seaver (75), one of baseball’s greatest right-handed power pitchers, died in Calistoga, Ca. The Hall of Famer who won 311 games for four major league teams, most notably the Mets, whom he led from last place to a surprise world championship in his first three seasons.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Seaver)
2020 Aug 31, Police in Portland, Oregon, declared another riot late today after people broke windows, burglarized a business and lit a fire in an occupied apartment building. Officers reported seeing rocks and paint balloons thrown at them, and eventually made 19 arrests as they worked to disperse the crowd.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Argentina said it had restructured 99% of eligible bonds in its debt deal after almost all bondholders got on board, a major win for the country, which is mired in recession and default.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Aug 31, Belarus authorities jailed factory strike organizer Anatoly Bokun for 15 days and detained a leading opposition activist as part of a methodical effort to suppress weeks of protests against Pres. Lukashenko.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Aug 31, It was reported that British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and partner Vir Biotechnology have started testing their experimental antibody on early-stage COVID-19 patients, entering the race to find a winner in a promising class of antiviral drugs to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania slapped their own travel sanctions on 30 top officials in Belarus, including Pres. Alexander Lukashenko, in response to a brutal crackdown against protesters who say the Aug. 9 presidential election was rigged.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, An Ethiopian diplomat said his country has asked the US for clarification on a report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has approved cutting up to $130 million in aid to Ethiopia because of the country’s dispute with Egypt and Sudan over a massive dam it is building on the Blue Nile. The planned cut was reported by Foreign Policy on August 27.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Finland's health authorities launched the country's own and long-waited contact tracing smartphone app to combat the spread of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Police in Hong Kong used pepper spray and made several arrests as dozens of protesters gathered at a subway station to mark the anniversary of a violent clash last year that stirred accusations of police brutality during anti-government rallies.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, India reported 78,512 novel coronavirus infections, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day when it posted the world's biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy. Coronavirus deaths went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In India Pranab Mukherjee (b.1935), former president (2012-2017), died in New Delhi of COVID-19. He had been on a ventilator for the last three weeks.
(Econ., 9/5/20, p.32)
2020 Aug 31, An Israeli airliner made a historic first flight from Tel Aviv to the United Arab Emirates, emphasizing new diplomatic ties between the two countries.
(The Telegraph, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Israel’s military reportedly fired missiles late today on areas south of the capital Damascus killing two soldiers, wounding seven and causing material damage.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Mustapha Adib, Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, was appointed by the president to form a new government, after he secured 90 votes among the legislators in the 128-member parliament.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The World Bank said that the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month that killed and injured thousands of people has caused up to $4.6 billion in physical damage.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, One of Lebanon's most prominent philanthropists and a pioneer defender of the country's heritage, Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane (98), died from injuries she suffered in the massive Aug. 4 explosion that ripped through Beirut.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Aug 31, Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they have reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel. Under the deal, Hamas is to halt the launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease a blockade that has been tightened in recent weeks.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, In the southern Philippines gunmen blocked a group of motorcycle riders, then opened fire killing nine people, mostly farmers, before fleeing in a van in Kabacan, Cotabato province.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 31, Romania announced an easing of coronavirus restrictions. The country has confirmed more than 87,500 cases and 3,600 deaths.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 31, Rwanda police announced that Paul Rusesabagina (66), portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda" as a hero who saved the lives of more than 1,200 people from the country's 1994 genocide, has been arrested on terror charges. Police said he is suspected to be the founder, leader, sponsor and member of violent, armed, extremist terror outfits including the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD). Rusesabagina's daughter later said her father was kidnapped in Dubai.
(AP, 8/31/20)(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Aug 31, Sudan’s transitional authorities and a rebel alliance signed a peace deal following months of tortuous negotiations aimed at ending the country’s decades-long civil wars, but other powerful armed groups have thus far declined to join them.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Swiss-based Nestle said it will pay $2 billion to buy the remaining stake in Aimmune Therapeutics Inc, gaining full ownership of the first US-approved peanut allergy treatment which has struggled with a slow launch due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, Ugandan singer and opposition politician Bobi Wine said he faces “a pattern of repression and suppression" seeking to derail his bid to challenge the country's long-time president in elections next year.
(AP, 8/31/20)
2020 Aug 31, The WHO warned that the risk of further spread of the vaccine-derived polio across central Africa and the Horn of Africa was “high," noting the large-scale population movements in the region. A new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad. More than a dozen African countries are currently battling outbreaks of polio caused by the virus, including Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Zambia. Last week the UN health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Aug, Ryan Cohen, the former boss of Chewy, an online pet food store, began amassing a large stake in GameStop, a brick-and-mortar purveyor of video games. In November he urged the board to invest in e-commerce and soon joined the board. The share value of GameStop rose and became a subject on a Reddit forum that drove the share price even higher.
(Econ., 1/30/21, p.60)
2020 Aug, Afghanistan's Pres. Ashraf Ghani revealed that in the preceding six months over 12,000 soldiers, police and civilians had been killed by the Taliban.
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.33)
2020 Aug, Argentina's Pres. Alberto Fernandez signend a law expanding the country's territory by 1.7m square km.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.30)
2020 Aug, In Colombia illegal groups carried out 15 massacres this month, mainly of people they suspected of sympathizing with rivals.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.33)
2020 Aug, Egypt's transport ministry said $8.3 billion had been allocated to complete 1,000 bridges and tunnels by 2024.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.40)
2017 Aug, Myanmar government troops laid waste to more than 20 villages in Rakhine state. Two government soldiers later deserted and in 2020 confessed to participating in massacres targeting the Rohingya.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.32)
2020 Aug, Pakistani investigative journalist reported that the family of Asim Saleem Bajwa, a retired general how now heads the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, had amassed business interests worth tens of millions of dollars as he rose through the ranks. None of the holdings in question had been mentioned in the general's official declaration of assets.
(Econ., 10/31/20, p.37)
2020 Aug, In Siberia the remains of a woolly rhino, dating to the late Pleistocene era, was found at a river in the diamond-producing region of Yakutia complete with all its limbs, some of its organs, its tusk, and even its wool.
(AP, 12/30/20)
2020 Aug, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a major natural gas discovery off Turkey’s other coast, in the Black Sea. The finding was estimated at 320 billion cubic meters, and there is a strong expectation that the figure will be revised upwards as a result of additional exploratory drilling.
(Bloomberg, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Pres. Trump traveled to Kenosha, Wis., to offer support for law enforcement and to tour shops damaged by rioting. During the visit, Trump did not mention the name of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man shot by the police last week, nor did the president speak with his family.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, A US appeals court granted President Donald Trump's request to delay Manhattan's district attorney from accessing his tax returns in connection with a criminal probe of his business practices.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping nationwide order temporarily halting millions of US renters from being evicted, in a bid to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, California to date had 713,921 cases of coronavirus and 13,049 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 86,669 cases and 1,135 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,070,050 with the death toll at 184,517.
(sfist.com, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Rep. Joe Kennedy III fell short in his bid to unseat incumbent Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, ending a fractious Democratic primary by becoming the first member of the Kennedy family to lose an election in the state.
(Yahoo News, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Fabiana Pierre-Louis (40) was sworn in as the first Black female justice for the New Jersey Supreme Court.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiana_Pierre-Louis)
2020 Sep 1, The Afghan government said Afghan citizens will soon have their mothers’ names printed along with their fathers’ on their national identification cards, after years of campaigning by activists to do away with the shame associated with female names in public.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 1, In Austria a new law went into effect allowing descendants from Jewish refugees expelled from Austria under Nazi rule to apply for Austrian citizenship.
(The Week, 8/30/20)
2020 Sep 1, Authorities in Belarus detained scores of protesters as university students took to the streets of Minsk on the first day of classes to demand that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after an election the opposition has denounced as rigged.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said its Imfinzi medication has been approved in the EU to treat an aggressive form of lung cancer in previously untreated adult patients.
(Reuters, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia, dubbed the "4+1," defeated US efforts to restore international sanctions on Iran.
(AFP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam that prompted a deadly attack on the magazine’s offices in 2015. The move coincides with the start of a terrorism trial connected to the attack.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, French drugmaker Sanofi said the rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara has failed as a COVID-19 treatment, following a similar flop of a Roche product.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, A thousand police officers in Germany raided the homes of 50 people as part of a nationwide crackdown on the online sharing and distribution of child pornography. Investigators seized around 2,000 phones, computers and other devices upon which images were stored.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 1, Hong Kong began a free universal coronavirus testing program.
(SFC, 9/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 1, Hungary closed its borders to most foreigners as coronavirus cases climbed.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 1, A power grid shareholding deal was signed between Laos state-owned Electricite du Laos (EdL) and China Southern Power Grid Co. China is Laos’s biggest creditor, and the deal will bind the landlocked, mountainous country of seven million people closer to its giant neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 1, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte publicly ordered the country's top customs official to shoot to kill drug smugglers.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, A Philippine court ordered the early release, based on good conduct, of US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, convicted in the 2014 murder of a transgender Filipino Jennifer Laude. The order drew protests from her family and lawyers. On Sept. 7 Pres. Duterte pardoned Pemberton.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 1, Russia became the 4th country to surpass 1 million coronavirus infections as authorities reported 4,729 new cases. Lockdown restrictions have been lifted in the majority of the country’s regions. Russia has a total of 1,000,048 reported cases and 17,299 deaths.
(AP, 9/1/20)(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 1, Saudi Arabia said Lt. Gen. Fahad bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, its top military commander in its yearslong war in Yemen, and his son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad bin Turki, have been removed from their posts along with other officials as part of an anti-corruption investigation. The kingdom is investigating four other officials as well, all on the orders of 84-year-old King Salman.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, In Thailand a panel appointed by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said that a there was a conspiracy involving government officials, lawyers and a prosecutor to impeded the 2012 fatal hit-and-run case against Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune.
(SFC, 9/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 1, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Mahmut Ozden, the Islamic State group’s top leader in Turkey, has been detained in an "ongoing" operation.
(The Telegraph, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 1, Ukraine reported 2,088 new coronavirus cases. PM Denys Shmygal said the number of new cases in Ukraine will continue to rise in September and could reach 3,000 a day by the end of this month. The country has reported a total of 123,303 infections and 2,605 deaths from the virus.
(AP, 9/1/20)
2020 Sep 2, President Trump suggested that people in North Carolina stress-test the security of their elections systems by voting twice. Voting twice is illegal.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, President Trump ordered federal agencies in a memo released today to find ways to slash funding to Democrat-run cities roiled by protests against systemic racism in policing, including Portland, Seattle, Washington, and New York.
(The Week, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, Republican President Donald Trump's re-election campaign sued Steve Bullock, the Democratic governor of Montana, in an attempt to halt an expansion of mail-in voting in the run up to November's election.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that senior Chinese diplomats based in the US will now be required to seek permission before meeting with local government officials or visiting university campuses.
(South China Morning Post, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United States said that it will not pay some $80 million it currently owes to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York. The United States currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and $62 million for financial year 2020.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional. This came seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the US government debt will exceed the size of the economy in the 2021 federal fiscal year for the first time since WW II.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Washington DC a police officer, who has not been publicly identified, shot Deon Kay (18), an armed Black teenager, to death in the city’s Southeast section. Officers were called to the area because of a report of a man with a gun.
(NBC News, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 2, A police officer in San Leandro, California, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man wielding a baseball bat inside a Walmart. Officer Jason Fletcher shot and killed 33-year-old Steven Demarco Taylor on April 18.
(CBS News, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, California to date had 718,340 cases of coronavirus and 13,233 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 87,657 cases and 1,162 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,111,485 with the death toll at 185,669.
(sfist.com, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, A Mississippi commission voted to recommend new state flag featuring a magnolia to replace an old one seen as racist. Voters in November will make the final decision.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 2, In New Jersey Karim Elkorany (37), who worked as a telecommunications specialist in Iraq, was arrested on two counts of making false statements to the FBI. The former UN official was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting several women.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In New Jersey Princeton Univ. Pres. Christopher Eisgruber issued an open letter admitting that the school's educational system is and for decades has been racist.
(SSFC, 9/20/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 2, The family of Daniel Prude (41), a Black man from Rochester, N.Y., released graphic footage from a March incident in which officers placed a hood on him and pressed his face into the ground for two minutes. Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester. Dozens of protesters gathered in the streets of Rochester after body camera footage became public.
(NY Times, 9/3/20)(AP, 9/3/20)(The Week, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, Ford Motor Co said it is targeting the elimination of 1,400 US salaried jobs by year end as part of a multiyear $11 billion restructuring.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, United Airlines said it is preparing to furlough 16,370 workers on Oct. 1 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate the airline industry.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Australia's Victoria state extended its state of emergency for another six months as it reported 90 new coronavirus cases and six deaths over the last 24 hours.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 2, The British government re-imposed local COVID-19 restrictions on parts of the Greater Manchester area in northern England, just as they were being lifted, the latest in a series of abrupt reversals.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Belarus dozens of journalists gathered outside a police station in Minsk to protest the detention of colleagues covering a demonstration against the nation's authoritarian president and an election the opposition sees as rigged.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (77), the former schoolteacher known as Duch who became the most notorious killer during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in the 1970s, died at a hospital in Phnom Penh.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, It was reported that Congo is seeing an upsurge in cases of the plague, as the vast Central African nation also battles outbreaks of COVID-19 and Ebola. Since June, Congo has recorded at least 65 cases of the plague, including at least 10 deaths, in the eastern Ituri province.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Egypt's Interior Ministry said local police have killed at least seven suspected criminals in separate firefights in the southern province of Aswan. The ministry did not elaborate on when the shootouts took place.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, French President Emmanuel Macron met Iraqi leaders on his first visit to Baghdad where he stressed the war-scarred country must assert its "sovereignty" despite being caught up in US-Iran tensions.
(AFP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, French drugmaker Sanofi and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline said they had started a clinical trial of their protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and aimed to reach the final testing stage by December.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The German government said Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent that British authorities identified in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Israel recorded a record-high 3,000 new cases in a day as the country’s coronavirus czar is set to submit a list of more detailed recommended restrictions where infection rates have been highest.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, A livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sank during rough weather off a southern Japanese island. One Filipino crew member was rescued. The 11,947-ton Gulf Livestock 1 ship was carrying 5,800 cows west of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea when it sent a distress call early today in seas roughened by Typhoon Maysak.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The top UN official for Libya warned that the coronavirus pandemic in the war-ravaged country appears to be “spiraling out of control".
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 2, LGBT rights activist Mireya Rodríguez Lemus was found dead in her home in the Chihuahua town of Aquiles Serdan. Official identification of the body was not made until Sept. 8. She was at least the seventh rights activist killed in Mexico so far in 2020.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 2, Saudi Arabia announced that flights to and from the United Arab Emirates “from all countries" will now be able to use its airspace — a statement apparently allowing flyovers by Israel following a deal to normalize UAE-Israel relations.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Singapore health authorities said they have detected new COVID-19 clusters at foreign worker dormitories previously found to be clear of the infection, highlighting the challenge in containing the spread of the highly infectious virus. Foreign workers accounted for 94% of nearly 58,000 cases in the city-state.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.40)
2020 Sep 2, A Spanish court ordered the heirs of Gen. Francisco Franco to hand over to the state a 19th-century palace used by the late dictator as a summer retreat.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Syrian state media said air defenses opened fire late today on missiles launched by Israeli warplanes at a military airbase in the central province of Homs, shooting down some of them.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Tunisian lawmakers approved Hichem Mechichi as the country's new prime minister after pressing him for 11 hours over how he will bring the country out of an economic and social crisis that has driven a rise in migration to Europe and been worsened by the virus pandemic.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, Turkey's health ministry said the country is experiencing a second peak of the first wave of the coronavirus. More than 273,000 people have tested positive and 6,462 have died.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 2, Ukraine registered a record 2,495 new coronavirus cases and 51 related deaths in the past 24 hours. The country has so far reported a total of 125,798 infections and 2,656 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United Arab Emirates recorded over 700 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily increase in more than three months. The UAE has recorded 71,540 infections and 387 deaths from COVID-19.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 3, Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, Pres. Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask and once again encouraged his supporters to try to vote twice if they vote by mail.
(NY Times, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 3, A new report in "The Atlantic" detailed multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the US military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers" and “suckers." Trump said that the story is “totally false".
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Arkansas reported its largest single-day increase in deaths from the coronavirus. 27 new deaths brought the state's total to 841, while 615 new cases brought that total 62,112.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Los Angeles City declared a fiscal emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic paving the way to furlough aboyt 15,000 employees.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, California to date had 723,110 cases of coronavirus and 13,396 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 88,485 cases and 1,192 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,146,223 with the death toll at 186,693.
(sfist.com, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In New York seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester were suspended by the city's mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 3, Law enforcement agents near Lacey, Wa., shot and killed an antifa supporter when they went to arrest him in the fatal shooting of a right-wing activist in Portland. Officers reported that the suspect, 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl, was armed. The arrest attempt came shortly after Reinoehl gave an interview to VICE News in which he appeared to acknowledge having killed Aaron “Jay" Danielson, 39, on August 29. It was later reported that four officers had fired over 30 rounds after they cornered Reinoehl.
(AP, 9/3/20)(NY Times, 9/4/20)(SFC, 10/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Juul Labs Inc said it would make a "significant" cut to its global workforce and explore pulling out of some European and Asia-Pacific markets to save cash and weather a tumultuous period for the e-cigarette industry. The company, partly owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, is planning to lay off about 1,200 employees, more than half its workforce.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, QuantumScape, the 10-year-old Silicon Valley battery startup backed by Volkswagen, said it plans to go public through a reverse merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp with an enterprise value of $3.3 billion.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that the US is cutting aid to Ethiopia over a controversial mega dam being built on a tributary of the River Nile. The move was triggered by Ethiopia's move to start filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam before reaching agreement with Egypt and Sudan.
(BBC, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Boston-based healthtech startup Biofourmis said it has closed a $100 million series C funding round led by SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund 2, as the Japanese firm extends its bets on a sector growing through the coronavirus outbreak. Biofourmis uses a wearable biosensor to remotely monitor patients for changes in their health.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko reshuffled his top lieutenants in an apparent attempt to strengthen his rule amid weeks of protests pushing for his resignation.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Hurricane Nana made landfall in Belize, pelting a relatively sparsely populated stretch of the country's coast with heavy rain and wind, before weakening to a tropical storm while pushing across Guatemala.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, AstraZeneca Plc signed a manufacturing deal with privately held Albany Molecular Research Inc to produce millions of doses of the British drugmaker's experimental coronavirus vaccine annually.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that Lee Young-guk (57) has published the book “I was Kim Jong-il’s bodyguard." Here he claims that he began a ten-year stint in the security team of current leader Kim Jong-un’s late father in 1978, after which he became a military adviser from 1988 to 1991. Mr. Lee faced, now in Canada, faced deportation to South Korea.
(The Telegraph, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, It was reported that ethnic Mongolians are demonstrating their anger in China's Inner Mongolia province against a new bilingual education policy that they say is endangering the Mongolian language. Riot police broke up protests and parents were ordered to send children to school or else be declared ineligible for government subsidies or bank loans.
(SFC, 9/3/20, p.A2)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.35)(Econ., 1/30/21, p.34)
2020 Sep 3, The Czech Republic reported 650 new COVID-19 cases, its highest number for a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as infections gathered speed amid relaxed government restrictions. Overall cases since March rose to 25,773. The country has registered 425 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Denmark said it had registered 179 new COVID-19 infections in the past day, the highest rate since late April. Denmark has registered 626 coronavirus-related deaths since March.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Ethiopia’s government said it is “thankful" to Saudi Arabia for accepting Ethiopian migrants entering the country, but it barely commented on the squalid conditions they face in some Saudi detention centers, after a media report showed migrants crowded in bare rooms pleading for assistance.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, The French government unveiled a $118 billion recovery plan aimed at creating jobs, saving struggling businesses and yanking the country out of its worst economic slump since WWII.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, In western Germany five children were found dead in an apartment in Solingen, with local media reporting they were murdered by their mother who later tried to kill herself.
(The Telegraph, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In Jamaica PM Andrew Hollness (b.1972) won a 2nd term.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Holness)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.34)
2020 Sep 3, As Mexico struggles to pay a water debt to the United States, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he might personally appeal to President Donald Trump for clemency, or invite United Nations experts to audit water payments.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, In Nepal thousands of people clashed with riot police in Lalitpur as they defied a government coronavirus shutdown to take part in a religious festival.
(SFC, 9/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, Russia said the West should not rush to judge it over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and said there were no grounds to accuse it of the crime, as talk in the West of punishing Moscow intensified.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, A panel of judges in Slovakia acquitted businessman Marian Kocner and one co-defendant, accused of masterminding the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist who had written about him and the journalist's fiancee. A third defendant was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Within hours, prosecutors appealed the verdicts in the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, South African healthcare workers protested against poor working conditions and urged the government to end corruption in the purchase of COVID-19 personal protective equipment.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Typhoon Maysak ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, A Filipino crew member was killed aboard the tanker ship MT New Diamond when a boiler exploded in the engine room. The ship was drifting off the coast of Sri Lanka as fire fighting efforts continued. After 2 days the fire was brought under control and the tanker, carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil, was towed further out to sea. The owner of the ship later agreed to pay Sri Lanka $2.3 million for its help in extinguishing the blaze.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A6)(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 3, A Syrian opposition war monitor said airstrikes on eastern Syria, believed to have been carried out by Israeli warplanes early today, killed 16 Iranian-backed fighters.
(AP, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 3, Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days, after a man recently jailed and with no overseas travel history tested positive in a Bangkok prison during a routine check for new inmates.
(Reuters, 9/3/20)
2020 Sep 4, President Donald Trump announced that Serbia and Kosovo have agreed to normalize economic ties as part of US-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, US Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration has reached a deal with lawmakers in Congress to ensure the government is funded past Sept. 30, removing the threat of a near-term government shutdown.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United States' largest police union endorsed President Donald Trump's re-election bid, boosting the Republican's message that he is the candidate of "law and order" amid US protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ordered the Trump administration to resume issuing diversity visas for immigrants from underrepresented countries, partially reversing a pandemic-related freeze on a wide range of immigrant and temporary visas.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ruled that two American men accused of smuggling Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan while he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges can be extradited. The final decision rests with the State Department.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge temporarily barred Detroit police from the use of striking weapons, chokeholds, chemical agents and rubber bullets against demonstrators, medical support personnel and legal observers in the city's ongoing anti-racism protests. The order will be in effect for at least 14 days.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, California to date had 729,876 cases of coronavirus and 13,611 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 89,308 cases and 1,204 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,199,998 with the death toll at 187,750.
(sfist.com, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In California the fast-spreading Creek Fire began late today near the Mammoth Pool Reservoir about 50 miles south of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra National Forest. At least 63 of the more than 150 people trapped by the massive fire were rescued by military helicopter.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 4, Mail balloting in the presidential election began as North Carolina started sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters — responding to a massive spike in requests that has played out across the country as voters look for a safer way to cast ballots during the pandemic.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Mississippi dropped the charges against Curtis Flowers. He was the victim of a campaign by Doug Evans, a white local prosecutor, to convict him for a 1996 quadruple murder, despite no good evidence tying Flowers to the crime.
(NY Times, 10/15/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Oregon law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly late today and arrested 27 people after protesters marched through the streets of Portland on to a police building, where officers stood waiting outside.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Texas a San Antonio police officer and a security guard fatally shot a Black shoplifting suspect after he stabbed the officer in the face.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Disney premiered its Mulan film on Disney+ for a premium fee in countries where the service had launched. Disney had spent 5 years and $200 million on the live-action remake of its 22-year old animation. Mulan's world premiere was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 9, 2020.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan_(2020_film))
2020 Sep 4, It was reported that US drugmaker AbbVie Inc will pay $180 million in upfront payment to develop and sell Chinese biotech company I-Mab's cancer drug.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Moderna Inc said it has been asking sites that are conducting clinical trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine to focus on enrolling at-risk minorities, even if that slows down the trial speed.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, In Bangladesh an underground gas pipeline at the Baitus Jalat Jame mosque exploded during evening prayers outside Dhaka, leaving 16 Muslim worshipers dead and dozens injured with critical burns. The death toll soon rose to 33. Eight people were later arrested for alleged negligence.
(AP, 9/4/20)(SFC, 9/7/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 4, In Belarus hundreds of demonstrators rallied again in Minsk to protest the disputed reelection of the nation's authoritarian president. Police dispersed university students attempting to show solidarity with peers who were detained earlier in the week. Police entered the State Linguistics University in Minsk to disperse an action by students who were expressing solidarity with classmates detained earlier. Officers rounded up several participants.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger in Belarus’ disputed presidential election, spoke to the UN Security Council and urged the international community to impose sanctions on “the individuals that committed electoral violations and crimes against humanity" and take other measures to stop the violence against protesters.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Brazil’s health ministry to date has confirmed more than 4 million cases of the coronavirus disease and 125,000 deaths. President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed opposition to administering vaccines that are yet to be proven on Brazilian soil.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Britain appointed Australia's former prime minister Tony Abbott (62) as a trade adviser as it seeks to agree new post-Brexit deals. The appointment sparked criticism from the opposition Labour party and campaign groups due to his past use of sexist language, skepticism of man-made climate change, and opposition to same-sex marriage.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Virgin Atlantic announced 1,150 more job cuts due to the coronavirus crisis, saying its 1.2 billion pound ($1.6 billion) rescue deal alone was not enough to secure its future.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, A new investigation into companies trading in the Chinese city of Dandong, on the border with North Korea, shed a spotlight on Pyongyang’s global money laundering networks and raised fresh questions about China’s complicity in bypassing United Nations sanctions against Kim Jong-un’s regime.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized what he called “Islamic separatism" in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy".
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, German biotech firm Curevac said it had won nearly $300 million in government funding to speed up work on its prototype COVID-19 vaccine and build capacity to produce it at scale. Curevac's technology uses mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce proteins that can fight against diseases.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Hungary has registered 459 new cases of the coronavirus. The country has registered 7,381 confirmed cases and 621 deaths.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 4, India reported a daily jump of 83,341 coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3.94 million. 1,096 people died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 68,472.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The International Atomic Energy Agency reported (IAEA) that Iran continues to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium in violation of limitations set in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but has begun providing access to sites where the country was suspected of having stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, NATO demanded Russia cooperate with an international investigation into the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, as EU diplomats cast doubt over whether the bloc could impose sanctions on Moscow.
(The Telegraph, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern retained the restrictions put in place to beat the spread of the coronavirus until at least mid-September, as the country reported a new death related to the virus.
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Russian scientists have belatedly published first results from early trials into the experimental Sputnik V vaccine. Developers of the vaccine said it appeared to be safe and to prompt an antibody response in all 40 people tested in the second phase of the study within three weeks. However, the authors noted that participants were only followed for 42 days, the study sample was small and there was no placebo or control vaccine used.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, South Korea said it will extend elevated social distancing restrictions for another week after reporting 198 new coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 9/5/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 4, Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising floodwaters and heavy rainfall killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses since late July.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, Swiss-based Roche Holding AG said a therapy it co-developed with Cambridge-based Blueprint Medicines Corp was approved by the US health regulator for the treatment of patients with a type of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
(Reuters, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it has begun withdrawing troops from various camps around the country where tens of thousands of civilians sought protection during its civil war.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN said locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity. The outbreaks of African migratory locusts in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not related to the huge outbreak of billions of desert locusts that has affected East Africa for months.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Seven human rights experts affiliated with the UN raised concerns over Hong Kong’s new national security law in a letter addressed to Chinese authorities, saying the legislation limits certain fundamental freedoms.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 5, A federal judge said the US Census Bureau for now must stop following a plan that would have it winding down operations in order to finish the 2020 census at the end of September. The order stops the Census Bureau from winding down operations until a court hearing is held on Sept. 17.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Joe Biden's presidential campaign added former Democratic primary rival Pete Buttigieg, along with senior officials who served under President Barack Obama, to an expanded White House transition team.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Phoenix, Arizona, set a high-temperature record of 115 degrees for the date as emergency crews rescued several hikers at a popular recreation area in the city.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Authentic won the 146th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville. There were no fans in the stands, the first time the race was run without spectators in its long history.
(The Week, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Portland, Oregon, demonstrations against police brutality continued for the 100th consecutive day. Portland police declared a riot Saturday night after protesters hurled Molotov cocktails in the street, sparking a fire. Over 50 people were arrested.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Texas several boats sank on Lake Travis near Austin. The vessels were out on the lake for an event billed as a "Trump Boat Parade" in which boaters displayed their support for President Trump. There were no injuries or medical emergencies.
(The Week, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Albania a woman wanted in Italy for trying to recruit people to join the Islamic State group was arrested in Tirana. Lubjana Gjecaj (43) will be extradited to Italy where a court in Milan has sentenced her to three years in prison for association with terror groups.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, India’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country's vast hinterlands, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system. The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. The health ministry also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Iran opened the new school year after nearly seven months of closure. The reopening of schools came as many expressed concern over a possible increase in coronavirus infections, including medical professionals.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Thousands of Israelis again gathered outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence, calling for his resignation over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and corruption charges.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, Mali's ex-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (75), who was ousted in a coup last month, flew to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for medical treatment after suffering a minor stroke.
(BBC, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 5, It was reported that Mexico’s General Attorney’s Office has found drones and the components needed to weaponize them during a search and seizure operation, and is now pursuing terrorism charges against the fast rising Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
(The Telegraph, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Mexico said it has recorded 122,765 deaths more than would be expected during the pandemic up to August in a report on excess mortality rates, suggesting Mexico's true coronavirus toll could be much higher. Mexico has recorded 67,326 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 629,409 cases, the world's fourth highest death toll from the virus.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, In North Korea a state newspaper reported that the ruling party is calling for the punishment of officials whose failure to follow orders resulted in "dozens of casualties" during typhoons that lashed the Korean peninsula this week.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, Portugal reported 486 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily increase since the week its lockdown was lifted in May. The increase brought the cumulative total to 59,943, but just 1,838 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 5, In Senegal storm began that brought nearly a year's worth of rainfall in a single day, turning roads into rivers. At least six deaths were recorded nationwide.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 5, Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Liberation Movement-North rebel group said they have agreed to resume peace talks.
(SSFC, 9/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 6, The Washington Post reported that US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for years reimbursed workers of his New Breed Technologies company who made political contributions to Republican candidates. DeJoy sold the business in 2014. North Carolina has called for an investigation into the company.
(SFC, 9/7/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 6, The crew aboard the USS Nimitz sounded a “man overboard" alert, after being unable to find the sailor aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier during its patrol of the northern Arabian Sea.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in five counties due to wildfires. The Bobcat Fire broke out in Los Angeles County. After two weeks the fire had grown to 170 square miles and was only 17% contained.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 6, California to date had 737,382 cases of coronavirus and 13,718 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 90,662 cases and 1,216 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,274,388 with the death toll at 188,909.
(sfist.com, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Oregon a fire started outside a police precinct on Portland's north side resulted in about 15 arrests during protests late today and into Monday morning.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Belarus, despite a show of force from authorities, protesters set out to pressure President Alexander Lukashenko to step down after his disputed re-election. A massive rally in Minsk that drew an estimated 100,000 protesters. 633 people were detained for taking part in unsanctioned protests.
(The Week, 9/6/20)(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, It was reported that fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been as destructive as last year’s, but they have drawn less attention in a year overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. Enormous blazes — often intentionally set but worsened by unusually dry conditions — have also scorched 7,861 square miles, or about 10 percent, of the area known as the Pantanal from January to August, an area slightly larger than New Jersey.
(NY Times, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Britain one man was killed and at least five people were injured after a series of stabbings in Birmingham early today. Police said they are still hunting a single suspect. Zephaniah McLead (27) was arrested a day later. He was soon charged with murder and seven counts of attempted murder.
(AP, 9/6/20)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 6, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that an experimental reusable spacecraft launched into orbit two days ago has successfully returned to a designated site, marking a breakthrough that could lead to cheaper round-trips to space.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, Cyprus police said that four vessels appeared off Cyprus’ eastern and southern coast over the last two days carrying a total 123 migrants and about half of them have been permitted to disembark.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, Hong Kong demonstrators returned to the street to protest the city's Beijing-imposed national security law and the government's decision to delay Legislative Council elections for a year. About 290 people were arrested. Police tackled a 12-year old girl to the ground and arrested her on amid a protests against delayed parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/6/20)(The Telegraph, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 6, Israel's death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 1,000, as the government mulled steps for imposing new restrictions to quell a resurgence in infections. Overall, Israel has recorded nearly 130,000 cases of the virus.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Italy Willy Monteiro Duarte (21) was killed during a fight in Colleferro, a city on the outskirts of Rome. Four Italians were soon arrested, including two brothers with police records and a martial arts background. Duarte, who was born in Rome to parents from the African island nation of Cape Verde, had intervened while seeing a friend get beaten up in the fight and was then fatally beaten himself.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 6, Typhoon Haishen, the second powerful typhoon to slam Japan in a week, unleashed fierce winds and rain on southern islands, blowing off rooftops and leaving homes without power as it edged northward into an area vulnerable to flooding and mudslides.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Montenegro several thousand protesters gathered in Podgorica in a show of support for the ruling pro-Western party, which could lose power if the pro-Serb and pro-Russian groups manage to form a ruling coalition.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 6, In Tunisia a police officer was killed and another wounded in a knife attack in the coastal resort of Sousse. Three assailants were shot dead after the incident, which is being described as a terrorist attack. Tunisian authorities soon arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the deadly attack. The Islamic State group's Amaq agency claimed responsibility.
(BBC, 9/6/20)(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Republican President Donald Trump, accused by Joe Biden of putting lives at risk in his handling of the coronavirus, called his Democratic rival "stupid" and demanded an apology for what Trump called anti-vaccine rhetoric.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In southern California seven people were dead and a suspect remained at large following a shooting at a suspected illicit marijuana operation in Riverside County.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, California to date had 740,400 cases of coronavirus and 13,763 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 91,210 cases and 1,218 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,301,321 with the death toll at 189,215.
(sfist.com, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Chicago a girl (8) was killed and two adults were severely wounded after they were shot this evening while traveling in a vehicle on the city's South Side. The shooting occurred in the Canaryville neighborhood.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Oregon pro-Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed in the city of Salem. Earlier in the day vehicles waving flags for Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory and in support of police gathered at about noon at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Belarus leading opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova and two other members of an opposition council went missing, raising fears they were detained as authorities seek to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country's authoritarian leader. The next day Kolesnikova ripped up her passport to avoid being forced to move to Ukraine.
(AP, 9/7/20)(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 7, China-based Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical said it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinopharm Group to supply a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by German firm BioNTech.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Chinese and Indian troops exchanged fire along the southern coast of Pangong Lake in an area known in China as Shenpaoshan and in India as Chushul. The following day both sides accused each other of making provocative military moves and firing warning shots along their disputed border.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, Denmark said Tunisia was responsible for taking in 27 migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean by a Danish-flagged tanker that has not been able to find a European port to accept them. Tunisia rejected the claim.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Egypt a young man (26) died in police detention following his arrest over clashes in a Cairo neighborhood last week. The man's family accused the police of killing him.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 7, The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo that they could undermine their EU membership hopes by moving their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, France's interior minister said investigators have made numerous arrests since a macabre series of attacks left scores of horses mutilated or killed this year and have opened more than 150 investigations into such cases.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Berlin's Charite hospital said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been removed from a medically induced coma and is responding to speech.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Greece said it will be bolstering its military with new armament programs, a boost to military personnel and the development of the country’s defense industry. A tense stand-off with neighboring Turkey has led to concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Hungary registered 576 new coronavirus cases raising its total to 8,963 and 625 deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 7, India's coronavirus cases rose by 90,802 new cases in the last 24 hours raising its total to 4,204,614, now the 2nd highest in the world after the US. The death toll rose to 71,642 with 1,016 new deaths.
(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 7, Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia claiming to have been at sea for seven months. The UN said as many as 30 may have died during the perilous voyage. Military operations in 2017 forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee from Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine state to Bangladesh.
(AFP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, It was reported that two Nigerian men have been arrested for allegedly scamming a German state that tried to buy 2.3m euros (£2m) of personal protective equipment (PPE).
(BBC, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Typhoon Haishen to a tropical storm late today as it made landfall near the North Korean coastal city of Hamhung. In South Korea, at least two people were missing as the storm barreled through South Korea’s southern and eastern regions.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, Russia's deputy prime minister said a senior Russian delegation in Damascus is discussing the expansion of economic and trade cooperation with Syria and the two sides expect to sign an economic pact before the end of the year to circumvent US sanctions.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, A Saudi court issued final verdicts in the 2018 case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution. The court ordered a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for five men. Another individual received a 10-year sentence, and two others were ordered to serve seven years in prison.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In southern Somalia a US soldier was wounded and two Somali soldiers were killed when an al-Shabab suicide bomber tried to pass a checkpoint and attack a military compound but was stopped by the partner forces.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In South Africa protests over a hair advertisement, viewed as racially offensive, forced the closure of at least 60 outlets of a chain of drugstores of nationwide retailer Clicks. Some supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters vandalized some stores.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it had won a $6.64 billion order to provide wireless communication solutions to Verizon in the United States.
(Reuters, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 7, In Sri Lanka firefighters began battled a new blaze on the tanker ship MT New Diamond. A patch of diesel fuel was reported near the ship.
(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 7, The Uganda Communications Commission in a statement said bloggers and online news sites must seek the necessary authorization with it by Oct. 5. Some saw the move as an attack on free speech ahead of next year's election.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 7, The World Food Program said an estimated 45 million people in southern Africa are food insecure, with the number of people without access to adequate affordable and nutritious food up 10% from last year. Zimbabwe is the worst affected country, with its number of food insecure people expected to reach 8.6 million by the end of this year.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 8, US President Donald Trump, facing the possibility of a cash crunch, said he would spend "whatever it takes" of his own money to finance his 2020 presidential campaign against Democrat Joe Biden if he had to.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that the US Justice Department is asking to take over President Donald Trump's defense in a defamation lawsuit from a writer who accused him of rape, and federal lawyers asked a court to allow a move that could put the American people on the hook for any money she might be awarded. E. Jean Carroll alleged last year that Trump raped her in a New York luxury department store in the mid-1990s.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that President Donald Trump has instructed that dozens of oil refiner requests for retroactive waivers from US biofuel laws be denied amid concerns the issue could cut into his support in the Farm Belt.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, The US Treasury sanctioned two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers who are allied with Hezbollah. The next day the Shiite Amal group, headed by Lebanon's longtime Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, denounced the sanctions.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, The number of children who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States reportedly has surpassed half a million. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association said the number of child cases of COVID-19 has risen to 513,415 following a 16 percent increase from August 20 through Sept. 3. The report says that 103 children have died due to COVID-19.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 8, In California more than 14,000 firefighters battled blazes across millions of acres. So far this year the state has had 7,606 fires and 2.3 million acres burned.
(Good Morning America, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, California to date had 744,433 cases of coronavirus and 13,816 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 91,695 cases and 1,222 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,325,586 with the death toll at 189,580.
(sfist.com, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Top police leaders in Rochester, New York, announced their retirements amid nightly protests over the handling of the suffocation death of Daniel Prude, whose family filed a federal lawsuit alleging a cover-up by law enforcement.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act as wildfires continue to spread throughout the state.
(Good Morning America, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Police arrested 11 people in Portland as protests continued to take place after 100 days of demonstrations in the Oregon city against racism and police brutality.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration announced that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for a $5 million tourism ad campaign aimed at drawing people to the state, even as it emerges as one of the nation’s top hot spots for COVID-19 infections.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, In Tennessee a single-engine Piper PA-28 airplane carrying three people, crashed near Warren County Memorial Airport in McMinnville, which is northeast of Nashville. a single survivor soon died.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said that Thermo Fisher Scientific would manufacture the drug developer's experimental coronavirus vaccine, as it looks to boost the supply ahead of large trials this month.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Australian journalists Bill Birtles and Michael Smith arrived in Sidney after being rushed out of China following a 5-day diplomatic standoff. Chinese investigators had sought to question them about Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian news anchor who was detained in August for national security crimes.
(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A2)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.35)
2020 Sep 8, Britain's government admitted that it may break international law by not applying parts of its Brexit divorce deal relating to Northern Ireland, as a top legal adviser quit, reportedly over the plans.
(AFP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said it has paused global trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine after an unexplained illness in a participant, a move seen as dimming prospects for an early rollout.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, Chinese leader Xi Jinping praised China's role in battling the coronavirus pandemic and expressed support for the World Health Organization, in a repudiation of US criticism and a bid to rally domestic support for Communist Party leadership.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Nongfu Spring, China's most popular brand of bottled water, went public on Hong Kong's bourse. Zhong Shanshan (b.1954), founded the company in 1966 and became China's 2nd wealthiest person following the IPO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Shanshan)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.55)
2020 Sep 8, A major fire erupted late today and swept through the notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving thousands of people in need of emergency shelter. 36 people have tested positive at the camp for COVID-19. A 2nd fire on Sept. 10 destroyed nearly everything that had been spared in the first fire. Authorities said both fire were deliberately started.
(AP, 9/9/20)(NY Times, 9/10/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 8, Indonesia reported 200,035 cases of the coronavirus. The country has also seen by far the most fatalities among medical workers in the region, leading to concerns about the long-term impact on the nation's fragile healthcare system. 100 more deaths raised the confirmed death toll to 8,230.
(AP, 9/8/20)(SFC, 9/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 8, Iran said it is building a sophisticated new building near its underground Natanz nuclear site. The new structure is being built in the wake of a July explosion that damaged a building that housed centrifuge machines.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Iran told Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran since 2016, that she faces a "new indictment." Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of sedition and jailed for five years in September 2016. She was due for release in March 2021.
(AFP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Human rights group Fortify Rights said two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear" in villages where minority Rohingya Muslims lived.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, South Korea's Celltrion Inc said it will begin commercial production of its experimental treatment for COVID-19 this month, as it pushes ahead with clinical trials of the antibody drug.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Swiss-based Lonza said the first patient has been treated with a cell therapy made in its "Cocoon" platform, which the contract drug maker hopes catches on at medical centers aiming to boost use of personalized cancer treatments.
(Reuters, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Ukraine registered a record 57 deaths related to the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a previous record of 54 deaths registered last week. A total of 140,479 cases were registered in Ukraine as of Sept. 8, with 2,934 deaths.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said it has confirmed two coronavirus cases in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, Gasoline shortages have returned to Venezuela, sparking mile-long lines in the capital as international concerns mounted that Iran yet again may be trying to come to the South American nation's rescue.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 8, It was reported that an environmental group in Zimbabwe has applied to the country’s High Court to stop a Chinese firm from mining coal in Hwange National Park, which hosts one of Africa’s largest populations of elephants. The mining license was granted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to the Chinese firm in February, 2019, and the firm has started exploratory work in the park. Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced a ban on mining in all national parks, reversing a decision to let Chinese firms explore for coal at its famous Hwange game park with immediate effect.
(AP, 9/8/20)(BBC, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Whistle-blower Brian Murphy, former head of the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence branch, accused top officials at the Department of Homeland Security of downplaying threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Journalist Bob Woodward in his new book "Rage" said Trump told him that he had purposely minimized the risks of the coronavirus to the public, despite knowing in February that the virus was much deadlier than the flu and could be spread through the air.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The top American commander for the Middle East said the US is reducing its troop presence in Iraq this month from 5,200 to 3,000.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Amtrak Chief Executive William Flynn told Congress the US passenger railroad needs up to $4.9 billion in government funding to avoid service and job cuts, and address mounting losses.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Wildfires continued to sweep through the Pacific Northwest and California, killing at least six people. Thick smoke choked much of the state and cast an eerie orange hue across the sky. More than two dozen major fires were burning around the state, some of them among the largest ever recorded in recent California history.
(AP, 9/9/20)(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Smoke blotted out the sun in San Francisco, and ash fluttered down from the sky.
(NY Times, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, California to date had 746,312 cases of coronavirus and 13,911 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 92,377 cases and 1,234 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,359,720 with the death toll at 190,815.
(sfist.com, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 8, In Florida Sylvester Ofori, a pastor and self-proclaimed prophet, shot and killed his estranged wife, Barbara Tommey (27), outside her job at a bank near the Mall at Millenia.
(Orlando Sentinel, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 9, Henry van Ameringen, a philanthropist and heir to a family fortune in the fragrance industry, died at his home in Manhattan. He was among the first openly gay major donors to fund LGBTQ. and AIDS-related organizations, at a time before they enjoyed more mainstream support.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 9, Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, called on that state’s Legislature to make a small change to how mail-in ballots are counted that could make a huge difference in how quickly election results are reported in November.
(Yahoo News, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that J.C. Penney has reached a deal to sell its retail business to Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners, averting a liquidation.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Kool & the Gang co-founder Ronald "Khalis" Bell (68) died at his home in the US Virgin Islands.
(The Week, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, Shere Hite (77), author of the landmark 1976 book on women’s sexuality, “The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality," died in London. Her work enraged some men and Christian groups, and criticism and threats drove her to leave the US.
(NY Times, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 9, In Afghanistan at least 10 bystanders were killed in a bombing in Kabul that targeted first VP Amrullah Saleh, who survived.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 9, Belarus authorities detained lawyer Maxim Znak, one of the last two leading members of an opposition council who remained free.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 9, Brazilian lab and hospital group DASA S.A. said it has agreed to conduct clinical Phase 2 and 3 trials in Brazil for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by COVAXX, a unit of privately-owned United Biomedical Inc.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Britain's Internal Market Bill was published. It became contentious as it overrides parts of the EU's legal divorce deal, known as the Withdrawal Agreement, which came into effect on 31 January 2020.
(https://tinyurl.com/y5lnu988)(Econ., 9/12/20, p.46)
2020 Sep 9, The Czech Republic reported more than 1,000 coronavirus cases for a second day in a row, as it widened compulsory wearing of face masks in an attempt to contain the outbreak.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, In Egypt journalist Islam el-Kalhy, who reported on a young man’s death in police custody, was detained on charges of reporting fake news. Egypt is ranked among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 9, Ethiopia's northern Tigray region held elections in a show of defiance against PM Abiy Ahmed, who called the regional vote illegal but said the government would not respond with force. The Tigray Independence Party (TIP) has called for Tigray to form its own country.
(https://tinyurl.com/yyccbbt4)(SFC, 11/6/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, France fined Switzerland's Novartis and Roche 444 million euros (403.55 million pounds), after its competition authority said they used abusive practices to push costly eye injection Lucentis over a cheaper drug. Novartis must pay 385 million euros and Roche about 60 million euros, according to the decision.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, India reported 89,706 new coronavirus cases and 1,115 deaths over the last 24 hours taking total fatalities up to 73,890. Total caseload reached 4.37 million.
(SFC, 9/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that 26 scientists, most of them working at universities in Italy, have signed an open letter questioning the reliability of the data presented in the early-stage trial results of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, named "Sputnik-V".
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, In eastern Mexico Julio Valdivia (41) of the newspaper El Mundo de Veracruz was found decapitated. He had covered a confrontation between police and suspected criminals the previous day. He was the fifth journalist slain in Mexico this year.
(The Telegraph, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The leaders of the three main opposition groups in Montenegro signed a coalition agreement to form the next government and sought to alleviate fears that they would steer the small Balkan state off its pro-Western course and back toward traditional allies Serbia and Russia.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Amnesty International accused Mozambique’s government security forces of torturing suspected members of an Islamist insurgency in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province — as well as “possible extrajudicial executions", and of “discarding of a large number of corpses into apparent mass graves".
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, North Korean state media said Typhoon Maysak wrecked nearly 60 bridges and destroyed or inundated more than 2,000 houses when it hit on Sep 3.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said it had signed a deal to supply Mexican pharmaceutical firm Landsteiner Scientific with 32 million doses of the Russian-produced COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik-V".
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Serbia suspended all foreign military exercises on the eve of planned maneuvers with Russia in Belarus, citing alleged pressure from the European Union.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, Somaliland opened a "representative office" in Taipei. This followed the opening in August of a similar Taiwanese office in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital.
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.38)
2020 Sep 9, Top South African human rights lawyer George Bizos (92), who famously defended Nelson Mandela, died.
(BBC, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 9, The United Arab Emirates recorded 883 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily increase in over three months. The UAE has recorded 75,981 infections and 393 deaths from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, A new UN report said the world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, United Nations peacekeepers returned to provide protection for a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Congolese Dr. Denis Mukwege, who has faced death threats, after alarmed supporters urged the UN to reinstate the security following months without it.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls — some said to be survivors of sexual violence — as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, The Houthi administration in Yemen suspended all UN and humanitarian flights to the capital Sanaa as its Saudi-led coalition foe blocks commercial vessels in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Saudi-led coalition held 21 commercial vessels in Hodeidah port, preventing more than 500,000 tons of fuel from entering the country.
(Reuters, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 10, A federal court rejected President Trump’s order to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census, ruling that it was so clearly illegal that a lawsuit challenging the order need not go to a trial.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, The US government confirmed it will end enhanced screening of some international passengers for COVID-19 and drop requirements that travelers coming from the targeted countries arrive at 15 designated US airports, starting Sept. 14.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The Trump administration charged Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits, a Russian national, of serving as a translation manager in a Russian effort that at least since 2014 has tried to disrupt the political system in the US and other countries.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 10, The NFL football season officially began when the Kansas City Chiefs launched their Super Bowl title defense with a 34-20 win over the Houston Texans, but the rest of the league began play on Sept. 13.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 10, The death toll from West Coast wildfires rose to at least 23 as dozens of blazes continued to spread in California, Oregon, and Washington state. The August Complex fire burning in northern California became the largest fire in state history, covering 471,185 acres in the Mendocino National Forest.
(The Week, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, California to date had 751,184 cases of coronavirus and 14,089 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 92,776 cases and 1,236 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,396,047 with the death toll at 191,731.
(sfist.com, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Former New York Jets wide receiver Joshua Bellamy (31) was arrested in Florida and charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. He was accused of taking part in a $24 million fraud scheme that allegedly took loan money meant for businesses as coronavirus relief and using it on personal expenses.
(NBC News, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Texas four Houston police officers were fired after a months-long investigation of a fatal shooting found that they were "objectively unreasonable" in discharging 21 rounds at Nicolas Chavez (27), a man in distress on April 21.
(ABC News, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Microsoft announced that hackers from Russia, China, and Iran are trying to influence the 2020 presidential election. MS warned that China is growing more adept at targeting campaign workers. But contrary to Trump administration warnings, Beijing is mostly aiming at Biden campaign officials.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Century 21, a company, best known for designer goods offered at discounted prices, announced that operations at 13 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida would end after nearly 60 years.
(Good Morning America, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Jane Fraser will be the next chief executive of Citigroup, making her the first woman to lead a major US financial institution.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, A group representing some of the largest US and international apparel companies called on Washington to convince other countries to pressure China to end forced labor in its Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
(South China Morning Post, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, BP entered the offshore wind market with a $1.1 billion deal to buy 50% stakes in two US developments from Norway's Equinor, a significant step by the oil firm towards its energy transition goals.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, British actress Diana Rigg (82) died in London. She had enthralled London and New York theater audiences with her performances in classic roles for more than a half-century. She remained best known as the quintessential new woman of the 1960s on the television series “The Avengers" and found new fans later playing Lady Olenna Tyrell on “Game of Thrones".
(NY Times, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, It was reported that Chinese authorities have told major media outlets not to cover Walt Disney Co's release of "Mulan", in an order issued after controversy erupted overseas over the film's links with the Xinjiang region. The film is to open in local theatres on Sept. 11.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The Chinese and Indian foreign ministers agreed that their troops should disengage from a tense border standoff, maintain proper distance and ease tensions in the Ladakh region where the two countries in June had their deadliest clash in decades.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Violent demonstrations in Bogota, Colombia, continued into a 2nd day over the death of Javier Ordonez, a man police officers shocked with a stun gun for more than two minutes after they stopped him for allegedly violating social distancing rules by drinking publicly after 9 p.m. The violence left at least seven people dead. Mayor Claudia Lopez said 46 of the city's streets had been totally destroyed. 60 police precincts were also damaged. In 2021 an independent investigation backed by the mayor of Bogotá’s office and the United Nations said police were responsible for the deaths of 11 protesters.
(AP, 9/11/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)(The Guardian, 12/13/21)
2020 Sep 10, The Danish government appointed an envoy to “help open doors" for a new approach on migration to Europe and to “ensure that real refugees are helped faster and better in the surrounding areas".
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, The east German state of Brandenburg, where a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar, said it will impose a 15-km quarantine zone around the area where the case was discovered. The German farmers' association DBV called for a corridor free of wild boar to be created along Germany's border with Poland.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, India reported another record spike of 95,735 coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours as well as 1,172 deaths. Total infections reached 4,465,863 with 75,062 fatalities.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, Indonesia posted a record high 3,861 positive cases. Doctors in Jakarta warned the coronavirus pandemic is “not under control" with intensive care units in the city nearing full capacity. New lockdown measures were ordered amid a spike in infections. The country has recorded more than 203,000 cases of the coronavirus and 8,336 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Lebanon a huge fire broke out at the Port of Beirut, sending up a thick column of black smoke and raising new panic among traumatized residents after last month's catastrophic blast at the same site killed nearly 200 people.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Hundreds of young Libyans flooded the streets of Benghazi and other eastern cities late today, setting piles of tires ablaze, a spontaneous outburst of anger over the area’s crippling electricity shortages.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Human Rights Watch accused Libyan armed groups linked to the Tripoli-based government of using heavy weapons to disperse anti-corruption rallies last month in the capital and of detaining, torturing and forcibly disappearing protesters.
(AP, 9/10/20)
2020 Sep 10, Montenegro reported 128 new coronavirus cases, with nearly every fifth person tested found to be positive.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Moroccan authorities said police arrested five people suspected of plotting suicide bombings and being part of an extremist network linked to the Islamic State group.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, In the Netherlands a group of activists took a Congolese funeral statue from the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, saying they were recovering art looted during the colonial era. The activists were quickly arrested and the statue returned undamaged.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, Portugal reported 585 new infections, mainly in Greater Lisbon and the northern region. PM Antonio Costa said stricter measures will be adopted in Lisbon and Porto to contain a worrying rise in coronavirus cases as workers slowly return to offices and pupils gear up to go back to schools. Confirmed deaths totaled 1,852.
(Reuters, 9/10/20)(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 10, In Venezuela Matthew Heath (39), a former US Marine corporal, was arrested traveling along the Caribbean coast accused of scheming with three Venezuelans to sabotage oil refineries and other infrastructure to stir unrest.
(AP, 10/31/20)
2020 Sep 11, Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said he disagreed with President Donald Trump's assessment the United States has "rounded the corner" on the coronavirus pandemic, saying the statistics are disturbing.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In California the North Complex remained the deadliest this year, with nine confirmed deaths. A search continued for 19 people who remained unaccounted for. Berry Creek, a tiny hamlet in the Sierra Nevada foothills, was largely destroyed.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, California to date had 752,684 cases of coronavirus and 14,141 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 93,502 cases and 1,278 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,438,739 with the death toll at 192,834.
(sfist.com, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, A federal circuit court ruled that Floridians with felony convictions are only allowed to vote if they have paid off all fees and fines associated with their conviction.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Georgia Roderick Walker (26) was arrested and beaten after Clayton County sheriff’s deputies pulled over a vehicle he was riding in. A sheriff's deputy was soon fired after being captured on video repeatedly punching the Black man during a traffic stop for a broken tail light.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, Fires continued to spread across the Western US. More than 500,000 Oregon residents, over 10 percent of the state’s population, have evacuated their homes. Oregon reported at least eight fatalities from blazes that have taken a toll from one end of the state to the other.
(NY Times, 9/11/20)(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel, which agreed to temporarily suspend its plans to annex West Bank territory. US Pres. Donald Trump announced the agreement, following a three-way phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Belarus authorities detained scores of demonstrators while seeking to end more than a month of protests against the rigged re-election of Pres. Alexander Likashenko.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 11, Britain announced its first major post-Brexit trade agreement -- a deal with Japan -- as its negotiations with the European Union become increasingly fractious.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Cambodia a group of women in Phnom Penh held a small but spirited protest demanding the release of their detained husbands, as the United Nations human rights office joined two international rights groups in condemning a recent wave of arrests of dissidents and activists in the Southeast Asian nation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In CongoDRC more than 50 people were killed after landslides collapsed three artisanal gold mining wells near the city of Kamituga in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Czech Republic reported 1,382 coronavirus cases, which was over 200 more than its previous daily high and led to the return of face masks being mandatory in enclosed public spaces.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Ethiopians welcomed what many people around the world might like to see: the beginning of a new year. Following a calendar seven years behind the Gregorian one used by much of the world, Ethiopians marked the beginning of 2013.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thousands of refugees and migrants left without shelter on the Greek island of Lesbos after fires destroyed the overcrowded Moria camp held a brief protest on a road to the island's main town, demanding to be allowed to leave.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The number of new confirmed coronavirus cases spiked in parts of eastern Europe. Hungary reported 718 virus cases, 142 more than the country's previous 24-hour record.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Swami Agnivesh (Vepa Shyam Rao), champion of India's indentured laborers, died in new Delhi at age 80.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivesh)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.82)
2020 Sep 11, Israeli warplanes fired missiles on suburbs of Syria's northern city of Aleppo early today, amid increased airstrikes in recent weeks. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Italian authorities said police have arrested four men and are investigating another four on suspicion of sexually assaulting two British girls at a villa where a party was being held in the southern province of Matera.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Jamaica Toots Hibbert (77), the front man for the reggae group Toots and the Maytals, died in Kingston.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toots_and_the_Maytals)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 11, Japan suspended imports of pork and live pigs from Germany after a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar in eastern Germany.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, Latvia restricted the entry conditions applying to people coming from Estonia, bursting a travel bubble that had allowed individuals to move freely within the three-country Baltic region amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Libya’s east-based parliament convened an emergency meeting to address the eruption of rare protests over dire living conditions across the country’s east, rallies that mirror similar recent protests in the west of the divided nation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 10, In Mexico a group of women in the city of Ecatepec took over offices of the human rights commission of the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital. Shortly after midnight, police entered the building and beat the women and children with them, before taking them away in unmarked vehicles to the prosecutor’s office in a neighboring municipality. Protesters have focused their anger on the president, popularly known as Amlo, who has repeatedly downplayed the country’s human rights crisis.
(The Guardian, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 11, Morocco recorded a record 2,430 coronavirus cases and has confirmed more than 1,000 new cases every day since July - the steepest increase among its North African peers. Working conditions are so bad for some medics in Morocco handling a surging coronavirus outbreak that they have staged protests against inadequate staffing and poorly equipped facilities.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 11, Myanmar reported 115 new coronavirus cases, a day after imposing sweeping new lockdown measures in its battle on a second wave of infections. The country's tally stands at 2,265 cases and 14 deaths after infections quadrupled over the last month.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Dutch public health institute said that 1,270 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest number since mid-April and the second time this week that Dutch daily infections have topped 1,000.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, It was reported that lawmakers in Nigeria's Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14. State governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the state.
(BBC, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, In Somalia a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the southern port city of Kismayo killing two people.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 11, Spain’s Health Ministry reported 4,137 new infections in 24 hours, taking the total tally in the pandemic to over 550,000, the highest in Europe. A day earlier the country’s official death toll reached 26,699.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Sudanese officials said flash floods have killed more than 100 people this summer and inundated over 100,000 houses, threatening even a famous archaeological site near the capital of Khartoum and compounding the country's already dire economic situation.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Thai health authorities confirmed another coronavirus infection had been detected in the country, in an Uzbek professional soccer player, eight days after the virus resurfaced following a more than three-month absence.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, Turkey's Health Ministry announced 56 more deaths and 1,671 new cases, bringing the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 6,951 and cases to nearly 290,000.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 11, Ukraine registered a record daily high of 3,144 new cases of the novel coronavirus, topping a previous record of 2,836 on Sept. 5. Ukraine had 148,756 registered cases with 3,076 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 11, The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging resolution on tackling the coronavirus pandemic over objections from the United States and Israel, which protested a successful last-minute Cuban amendment that strongly urged countries to oppose any unilateral economic, financial or trade sanctions.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 12, President Trump traveled to Nevada for a campaign rally in Douglas County as he sets his sights on winning over the state he narrowly lost in 2016.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies — a female (31) and a male (24) — were shot this evening while sitting in their patrol vehicle in Compton. Both deputies were left in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds. The suspect ran away.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, Search and rescue workers found three more bodies in the rubble of a Northern California wildfire, raising the death toll in that fire to 12 and total deaths in the state's recent blazes to 22. 29 major wildfires were burning around the state.
(AP, 9/12/20)(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 12, California to date had 755,854 cases of coronavirus and 14,252 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 93,917 cases and 1,284 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,466,012 with the death toll at 193,351.
(sfist.com, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, It was reported that coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a man walking along a rural stretch of highway. He returned to the scene the next day and discovered the body. On Feb. 18, 2021, Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors. on August 26 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor traffic charges and was fined $500 for each count.
(AP, 9/14/20)(SFC, 2/20/21, p.A4)(SFC, 8/27/21, p.A11)
2020 Sep 12, The first direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in Doha, Qatar. The actual face-to-face negotiations to end the nation's nearly two-decades old conflict will start on Sept. 14.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, In Belarus about 10,000 women marched through Minsk with riot police violently detaining dozens of the marchers.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, AstraZeneca announced that it received confirmation from the United Kingdom's Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to resume clinical trials for the company's coronavirus vaccine in the UK after they were paused over safety concerns earlier this week.
(The Week, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 12, In France police stopped more than 200 people and detained over 25 in Paris as activists sought to revive the "yellow vest" movement.
(SSFC, 9/13/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 12, Greece's PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to buy 18 French Rafale fighter jets, most of the "slightly used," plus four helicopters and advanced weapons to go with them.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.51)
2020 Sep 12, India reported a record rise in new coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day after registering 97,570 new cases. The world's second most populous country now has 4.65 million confirmed cases.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Iranian state news media reported the state execution of Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestler, at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz. He was accused of fatally stabbing a water supply company employee during a 2018 antigovernment protest in Shiraz. Afkari can be heard on an audio tape smuggled from prison saying that he had been tortured until he falsely confessed.
(The Week, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem late Saturday, demanding he resign over his trial on corruption charges and what is widely seen as his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, At the Venice film festival "Nomadland", a US movie about a community of van dwellers traversing the vast American West, won the Golden Lion award for best film.
(Reuters, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, In the Ivory Coast thousands of opposition supporters gathered in the city of Yamoussoukro to support Henri Konan Bedie becoming their candidate for the Oct. 31 presidential election.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Lebanese soldiers fired rubber bullets and live rounds in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to march to the presidential palace during an anti-government demonstration.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, It was reported that Mali's new military leaders have agreed to establish an 18-month transition government until an election can take place, following last month's coup.
(BBC, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Thousands of people protested in Mauritius again over the government’s handling of an offshore oil spill that has become the Indian Ocean island nation’s worst environmental disaster in years.
(AP, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Mexico reported 5,674 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 421 additional fatalities, bringing its totals to 663,973 infections and 70,604 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/12/20)
2020 Sep 12, Puerto Rico's Gov. Wanda Vazquez reopened beaches, casinos, gyms and movie theaters across the US territory following a drop in coronavirus cases. As of the next day the island reported 539 deaths and 37,000 cases.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 13, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations and expanding the scope of a July action.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Pres. Donald Trump held an indoor campaign rally near Las Vegas for the first time since late June. Health officials blamed that June event, in Tulsa, Okla., for an increase in local virus cases.
(NY Times, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, California to date had 759,402 cases of coronavirus and 14,370 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 94,614 cases and 1,302 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,512,451 with the death toll at 193,976.
(sfist.com, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In New Jersey two people were killed and at least six others are injured following a shooting early today outside a house party near a popular housing area for Rutgers University students.
(The Independent, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Pennsylvania protests in Lancaster degenerated into rioting that damaged the city's police headquarters and produced an arson fire that blocked a downtown intersection. Ricardo Munoz (27) was shot by police earlier in the day after a reported domestic dispute. 13 people were soon arrested and accused of committing crimes during the demonstrations.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 13, Argentina recorded 9,056 confirmed COVID-19 cases testing indicated a positive rate of 50.4%, one of the highest in the world. The country has a total of 555,537 confirmed cases, the tenth-highest case load in the world, with 11,412 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Belarus tens of thousands of people reportedly took to the streets in Minsk again. Police said around 250 protesters have been arrested. More than 100,000 demonstrators calling for the authoritarian president of Belarus to resign
(The Week, 9/13/20)(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, It was reported that a vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. Nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August — an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. More than 20,000 fires were detected in the first two weeks of this month, more than burned in the whole of September in 2019.
(AP, 9/13/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.77)
2020 Sep 13, China reported 10 new coronavirus cases in the mainland. Mainland China had a total of 85,194 confirmed infections of the coronavirus. The COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Egyptian judicial officials said prosecutors have ordered four policemen to be detained pending an investigation into the death of a young man while in detention.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, An Israeli court sentence top model Bar Refaeli (35) to nine months of community service and her mother, Zipi, to 16 months in prison on tax evasion charges.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 13, The Lebanese military killed a wanted militant leader during a raid in the country's north that also left four of its troops dead. Khaled Tellawi was blamed for an attack last month that killed three men in a northern village.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 13, Mali's opposition coalition known as M5-RFP publicly objected to the junta's plan, announced a day earlier, after three days of talks on Mali's political future. ECOWAS has warned that by Sept. 15 the junta must designate a civilian leader to head a one-year transition period or else the country could face further sanctions.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, In Nepal a landslide caused by heavy rainfall swept through three villages killing at least 11 people. 15 others were believed buried.
(SFC, 9/14/20, p.A2)(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 13, In the Philippines US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton (25), convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman, was deported after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Russians cast their ballots in dozens of local elections, with nearly 160,000 candidates vying for seats in local parliaments and governors being elected in several regions. The main Kremlin party retained its dominance in regional elections across Russia, but the opposition made gains in some areas. Two allies of Alexei Navalny were elected to their city councils in Novosibirsk and Tomsk.
(The Week, 9/13/20)(AP, 9/14/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.49)
2020 Sep 13, More than 3 million Syrian students started school in government-held areas, marking the first school day amid strict measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Syria, which had a population of 23 million before its conflict began in March 2011, has registered 3,506 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as 152 deaths in government-held areas. The actual number of cases is believed to be much higher.
(AP, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 13, Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement allowing for the construction of a 1,445 km (898 miles) crude oil pipeline.
(BBC, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 14, Pres. Donald Trump visited California and blamed the wildfires ravaging the West Coast not on climate change but on the failure by Western states to properly manage their forests. West Coast fires pushed into new areas, prompting fresh evacuations in Idaho, Oregon and California. At least 27 people dead and dozens more missing.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, A federal appeals court ruled upheld a Trump administration policy that could lead to the deportation of about 400,000 immigrants who originally came to the US in emergency circumstances, like earthquakes or civil wars.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The US deported a key witness in an ongoing investigation into sexual abuse at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso. The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General had forbidden the woman's deportation, but changed course, and the woman was sent to Mexico.
(Business Insider, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 14, Alaska dentist Seth Lookhart (35), convicted on 46 counts of defrauding the federal Medicaid program, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The state requested that the court order Lookhart to pay more than $2 million in restitution for the Medicaid fraud.
(Today, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 14, California and 19 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to weaken curbs on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, saying the widespread West Coast wildfires should be a reminder of the dangers posed by climate change.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, California to date had 765,498 cases of coronavirus and 14,457 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,275 cases and 1,307 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,551,575 with the death toll at 194,443.
(sfist.com, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Amazon.com Inc said it is recruiting 100,000 more workers - the fourth hiring spree it has announced for the United States this year - to keep pace with e-commerce demand that jumped during the pandemic.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Eli Lilly and Co said its rheumatoid arthritis drug shortened the recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients also given Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral remdesivir.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc launched its add-on treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease nearly five months after Food and Drug Administration's approval, as the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its roll out in the United States.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Oracle surged 5.6% as the cloud services company said it would team up with China's ByteDance to keep TikTok operating in the United States, beating Microsoft Corp in a deal structured as a partnership rather than an outright sale.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Verizon, the country's largest phone company, said it is buying prepaid phone seller Tracfone for up to $6.9 billion, expanding its low-income customer business.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Belarus' authoritarian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko visited Russia in a bid to secure more loans and political support, as demonstrations against the extension of his 26-year rule entered their sixth week. President Vladimir Putin announced a $1.5 billion loan to Belarus when he hosted his counterpart for more than four hours of talks in Sochi.
(AP, 9/14/20)(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, A Chinese academic countered US-backed allegations that China is using forced sterilization against Muslims in Xinjiang, saying the claims were based on "fabricated facts" and "falsified data".
(South China Morning Post, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The Czech Republic reported 1,038 new cases of the coronavirus, the sixth time in the past week the daily rise was above the 1,000 level.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, The national Geologic Survey of Denmark and Greenland said that a big chunk of Greenland's ice cap, estimated at 42 square miles, has broken off in the far northeastern Arctic.
(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 14, It was reported that German carmaker Daimler AG will pay $2.2 billion to resolve a US government diesel emissions cheating investigation and claims from 250,000 US vehicle owners.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, In India a woman (19), who belonged to the Dalit community, was raped by four men in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. Her family found her naked, bleeding and paralyzed with a split tongue and a broken spine in a field outside their home. She died on Sept. 28. Four men, all from an upper caste, were arrested.
(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 14, Indonesia's capital of Jakarta began two weeks of social restrictions to curb a rise of coronavirus infections.
(SFC, 9/15/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 14, A suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria killed 10 fighters, including eight Iraqis. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike also destroyed arms depots and ambulances were seen rushing to the area.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, An Israeli court handed down three life sentences to Jewish extremist Amiram Ben-Uliel, convicted in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The constitutional council of the Ivory Coast waved through the controversial 3rd term candidacy of Pres. Alassane Ouattara.
(Econ., 10/10/20, p.41)
2020 Sep 14, Yoshihide Suga (71) was elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party, all but assuring that he will become the country's new prime minister when a parliamentary election is held later in the week.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The rival government in eastern Libya submitted its resignation after a number of protests over deteriorating living conditions and corruption. The parliament in Tobruk needs to approve the resignation of the government. The parallel government in the east of the country is not recognized by the international community.
(BBC, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Libya’s coast guard intercepted three boats, and one of them capsized. The coast guard retrieved two bodies, and survivors reported 22 others were missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, In Mozambique a video emerged showing people dressed in army uniforms beating and killing a naked woman in the restive gas-rich Cabo Delgado province. The defence ministry soon condemned the footage as "horrifying" and vowed to "ascertain their authenticity".
(BBC, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, Nigerian health workers demanding the payment of a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients went on strike only a week after doctors in Africa's most populous country staged a walk out.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 14, In the Philippines new rules cut the social distancing minimum to 30 centimeters (12 inches) on public transport, as the country saw another daily record in newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The country reported 259 new confirmed deaths, a record for the second time in three days. Total fatalities increased to 4,630, while infections have doubled in the past 35 days to 265,888.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, The head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund said Russia has recruited sufficient participants for its large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trial, known as a Phase III trial. Initial results are expected in October or November this year.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Swiss drugmaker said Novartis said its Beovu matched Regeneron's Eylea in vision clarity scores for a blindness-causing eye disease, after early safety stumbles for the medicine in another condition caused disappointing early sales.
(Reuters, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Human Rights Watch said international donors slashed their funding in June partly because of the “systemic interference" in relief operations by the Houthi rebels who hold Yemen's capital, Sanaa, as well as by the country's internationally recognized government and their southern separatists.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, Vietnam jailed four people over their roles in the death of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated truck in Britain last October.
(The Telegraph, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 14, It was reported that astronomers using powerful telescopes have detected the chemical phosphine in the toxic atmosphere of Venus that could be a signal of something living in one of the solar system’s most inhospitable environments. Reanalysis of the data substantially reduced the amount of phosphine one part per billion.
(NY Times, 9/15/20)(Econ., 2/13/21, p.67)
2020 Sep 15, The US issued a sweeping new advisory warning against travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention" and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws."
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, US export restrictions on critical mobile chips used by China's Huawei went into effect.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.57)
2020 Sep 15, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation that bars local or state officials from closing churches or other houses of worship and that bans the changing of election dates.
(SFC, 9/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 15, Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed peace agreements in Washington, heralding a new era of friendship between wealthy Gulf nations and the Jewish state.
(The Telegraph, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, FBI data disclosed that a surge in people buying guns since the coronavirus pandemic began has flooded the FBI's background check system, causing a spike in the number of delayed checks and allowing gun sales to proceed without them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, California to date had 767,240 cases of coronavirus and 14,505 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,711 cases and 1,347 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,602,981 with the death toll at 195,693.
(sfist.com, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Pfizer Inc said participants were showing mostly mild-to-moderate side effects when given either the company's experimental coronavirus vaccine or a placebo in an ongoing late-stage study.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, It was reported that the city of Louisville will pay millions to the mother of Breonna Taylor and reform police practices as part of a lawsuit settlement months after Taylor's slaying by police thrust the Black woman's name to the forefront of a national reckoning on race.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Steve Carter (90), Black playwright, died in Tomball, Texas. He was one of many to emerge from the Negro Ensemble Company in NYC in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
(SSFC, 9/20/20, p.C12)
2020 Sep 15, Becton Dickinson said it is investigating reports from US nursing homes that its rapid coronavirus testing equipment is producing false-positive results.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, US drug developer Novavax Inc said it was doubling its potential COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to two billion doses annually under an agreement with Serum Institute of India.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Sandra Mason (b.1949), the Governor-General of Barbados, opened Parliament and proposed the abolition of her job. She pronounced the words of PM Mia Motley: "Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state."
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.34)
2020 Sep 15, Momcilo Krajisnik (75), former Bosnia wartime leader (1992-1995), died in Banja Luka, the seat of the Serb-run part of Bosnia called Republika Srpska, after contracting the new coronavirus. He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the UN war crimes tribunal for persecuting and expelling non-Serbs.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 15, Former British lawmaker Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting two women a decade apart. Elphicke was convicted in July at London's Southwark Crown Court of three counts of assault against two victims.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, China successfully sent nine satellites into orbit in its first commercial launch of a rocket from a platform in the Yellow Sea.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 15, Police in France arrested Eric Danboy Bagale, a former presidential guard from the Central African Republic (CAR), for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was accused of leading a group of largely Christian militias which carried out revenge killings after the CAR's president was ousted in 2013.
(BBC, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 15, Germany agreed to take in 1,553 people from 408 families now living in Greece. Germany had already agreed to take in around 1,200 other asylumn seekers housed in Greece.
(SFC, 9/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 15, Germany's Defense Ministry said that the government has chosen arms manufacturer Haenel, which is owned by a company in Abu Dhabi, to make assault rifles for the military, sidelining long-time supplier Heckler & Koch. The contract still requires approval by Parliament.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Germany awarded $745 million in funding to biotech firms BioNTech and CureVac to speed up work on COVID-19 vaccines and expand German production capacity.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Authorities in southern Germany said they have recorded three more cases of COVID-19 in people who frequented bars visited by a 26-year-old American woman suspected of flouting quarantine rules in the Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The latest cases take the total number of recent infections there to 59, including 25 staff at a hotel resort that caters to US military personnel and at which the woman worked.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The Greek government called on the EU to jointly run new refugee camps on Greece's eastern islands as part of a planned overhaul of the EU's migration policies.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, India's coronavirus death toll crossed 80,000, swelled by 1,054 in the last 24 hours. The country reported 83,809 new coronavirus infections for its lowest daily jump in a week. At least 17 members of the Indian parliament have tested positive for the coronavirus. Total cases numbered 4.93 million.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Libya's east-based army claimed that its troops killed at least seven Islamic State militants, including foreign fighters, in an overnight raid on their hideout in the country’s south.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, It was reported that authorities in Panama have discovered a mass grave they believe contains the bodies of people tortured and killed by a religious cult. The deceased victims included a pregnant mother and her five children, and the family’s teenage neighbor.
(The Independent, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Swiss contract drug maker Lonza said it has struck a deal with California-based biopharmaceutical company Humanigen to expand manufacturing capacity for Humanigen's lenzilumab, a drug candidate in late-stage clinical trials for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Volkan Bozkir, Turkish diplomat and the new president of the UN General Assembly warned that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global cooperation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Ukraine registered a record 76 deaths related to the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a record of 72 deaths registered last week.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The UN said countries are set to miss all of the targets they set themselves a decade ago to preserve nature and save Earth's vital biodiversity.
(AFP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The World Trade Organization ruled that tariffs imposed by the United States on more than $200 billion of Chinese products in 2018 were inconsistent with global trading rules.
(Reuters, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The US Justice Department said it has charged five Chinese residents and two Malaysian businessmen in a wide-ranging hacking effort. The two Malaysian businessmen, Wong Ong Hua (46) and Ling Yang Ching (32) were charged with conspiring with two of the Chinese hackers to profit from computer intrusions targeting videogame companies in the United States, France, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Attorney General William Barr, at Hillsdale College in Michigan, called the coronavirus lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history" since slavery.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress that universal mask-wearing could bring the pandemic under control within a few months. Redfield also said vaccines might not be available for most Americans until the middle of 2021. Hours later, Pres. Donald Trump rebuked Redfield, questioning the value of masks and saying a vaccine would be available to the public more quickly.
(NY Times, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, It was reported that the US has imposed sanctions on The Gambia's former First Lady Zineb Jammeh after accusing her of corruption during her husband Yahya Jammeh's rule. She was suspected to have helped him in the illegal transfer of money, and controlled his assets abroad.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Hurricane Sally strengthened overnight and made landfall in Alabama this morning as a Category 2 storm. It weakened to a still-dangerous Category 1, with winds of 80 mph, by mid-morning. The hurricane left at least two people dead in Alabama.
(AP, 9/16/20)(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 16, If carbon emissions continue at current rates, so much mercury will leach from thawing permafrost that fish in the Yukon River could become dangerous to eat within a few decades, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, California to date had 771,841 cases of coronavirus and 14,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 95,997 cases and 1,360 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,627,276 with the death toll at 196,691.
(sfist.com, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The body of Michael Williams (44) was found ablaze in rural Iowa. He was believed to have been killed on Sept. 12. He was allegedly strangled to death, wrapped in cloth and plastic that was secured with rope and tape, and then transported to a rural area where his body was burned. On Sept. 22 four white people were charged with murder.
(Miami Herald, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 16, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that everyone in the mayor's office, including the mayor himself, will be furloughed for one week without pay beginning Oct. 1 to close a budget shortfall created by the pandemic.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Stanley Crouch (74), the fiercely iconoclastic social critic who elevated the invention of jazz into a metaphor for the indelible contributions that Black people have made to American democracy, died at a hospital in the Bronx.
(NY Times, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Hmong American Ee Lee (36) was found brutally beaten in Washington Park, Milwaukee. Lee died three days later. A group of five to seven people were caught on film at the location where the struggle happened. Other cameras captured two groups of people — totaling 11 individuals — leaving the park on bicycles after the attack.
(NextShark, 1/14/20)
2020 Sep 16, Snowflake, an American maker of database programs, went public on the NYSE. It doubled its valuation on the first day of trading from $33bn to over $70bn.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.64)
2020 Sep 16, Applied DNA Sciences said it plans to initiate clinical trial of one of its five LineaDNA vaccine candidates for veterinary use to prevent coronavirus infections in domestic cats.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Eli Lilly and Co said interim trial data showed its experimental antibody treatment reduced the need for hospitalization and emergency room visits for patients with moderate COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, A coalition of 11 state treasurers called on drugmaker Gilead Sciences to reduce the price of remdesivir, its promising treatment for some patients of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, Authorities in Bosnia arrested nine former Bosnian Serb military officers and troops who are suspected in the killing of 44 civilians during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Britain reported 3,991 new coronavirus cases up from 3,105 a day earlier.
(SFC, 9/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 16, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU will build its own agency for biomedical research and convene a global health summit in Italy next year in a bid to be better prepared for future pandemics.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, A top German security official said authorities in western Germany have suspended 29 police officers suspected of sharing far-right propaganda in WhatsApp groups, at least two of which were active for several years.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early today in response to rocket fire toward Israel the previous night that coincided with the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and two Arab countries at the White House.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, An Israeli court sentenced a young man to 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in the 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Israel's Betalin Therapeutics said it is preparing an initial public offering that will value the biotech firm between $150-170 million to fund trials for its diabetes treatment. Betalin is developing an artificial micro-pancreas that is implanted in the thigh of diabetics to help control the level of sugar in their blood.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Japan's parliament elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's 99th prime minister.
(The Week, 9/16/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.36)
2020 Sep 16, A senior Portuguese official said Lisbon and Rabat are negotiating a deal that would allow an agreed number of citizens from Morocco to work legally in Portugal.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, In rural Romania a stash of some 200 rare and valuable books, stolen in 2017 from a London warehouse, was discovered hidden in a concealed space under a house.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 16, It was reported that a military court in Somalia has sentenced a militant Islamist to life in prison for his role in a deadly attack last January on a US base in Kenya. Farhan Mohamud Hassan was also convicted of being a member of al-Shabab.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co Ltd said it had delivered the world's first very large container ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Singapore's Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte Ltd.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Turkey began final Phase III trials of an experimental Chinese coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine candidate being trialed was developed by Sinovac.
(Reuters, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, In north-eastern Uganda 219 prisoners broke out of a prison facility in Moroto. Seven were soon recaptured. One soldier and two inmates were killed.
(BBC, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Independent experts for the UN’s top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric shocks, genital mutilation and asphyxiation.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, US President Donald Trump announced a new round of pandemic assistance to farmers of about $13 billion at a campaign rally in Wisconsin late today, delivering aid to an important sector in a crucial battleground state.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The United States imposed sanctions on an official from Hezbollah, a movement backed by Iran and deemed a terrorist group by Washington, and two firms based in Lebanon, which is wrestling with an economic crisis. Nathan Sales, the State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, said Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, delivering testimony that puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has said he would designate it a terror group.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The US National Institutes of Health launched a clinical trial of fostamatinib, sold under the brand name Tavalisse by Rigel Pharmaceuticals and currently used to treat a blood platelet-destroying autoimmune disorder, in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Winston Groom (b.1943), author of "Forrest Gump," died in Fairhope, Alabama. His work included 16 books of fiction and nonfiction. Forrest Gump was made into a 1994 movie and won six Oscars in 1995.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Groom)(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 17, A US federal judge said the city of Berkeley, Ca., cannot require cell phone retailers to warn customers about possible radiation dangers from holding phones close to their bodies. The Berkeley ordinance had taken effect in 2016.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.B1)
2020 Sep 17, A California firefighter died while battling the El Dorado wildfire in California's San Bernardino National Forest. The fire, which officials have said was started by pyrotechnics at a gender reveal party, has burned nearly 20,000 acre.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 17, California to date had 774,194 cases of coronavirus and 14,788 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 96,563 cases and 1,384 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,670,496 with the death toll at 197,589.
(sfist.com, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it had ramped up nighttime aerial anti-mosquito spraying in high-risk areas of western Michigan after announcing it suspects that 28 horses and one human have contracted Eastern equine encephalitis in 11 counties in the state.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Missouri the shooting death of a woman in St. Louis marked the citys 195th homicide this year.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 17, New Jersey officials agreed to make the state one of the first to adopt a so-called millionaires tax to alleviate shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Gov. Philip Murphy said the tax would help make up shortfalls caused by the pandemic.
(NY Times, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper security envelope.
(https://tinyurl.com/y52v3sjg)(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 17, CVS Health Corp said it plans to add more than 2,000 new COVID-19 drive-thru test sites at select CVS Pharmacy locations across the United States.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Australia reported its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 cases in nearly three months, as states said restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus will be further relaxed.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in Belarus' disputed presidential election, said that activists are compiling a list of law enforcement officers who were allegedly involved in violence against protesters denouncing the results of the vote.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that a British COVID-19 test known as DnaNudge, that gives results in just over an hour and which requires no laboratory, was accurate in almost all cases.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Cambodia a lightning strike killed seven people, a family of four and three relatives, in Battambang province.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that police in Canada believe a sophisticated network of criminals is targeting transport trucks across the country, after seven hot tubs and C$230,000 (US$175,000) worth of beef were stolen in brazen daylight thefts.
(The Guardian, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Czech Republic reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time and tightened preventive measures after a surge in infections that is among the fastest in Europe.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, Germany’s federal agriculture ministry said one more case of African swine fever (ASF) has been confirmed in a wild boar in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, It was reported that BioNTech is buying a production site in Germany for the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Pfizer, aiming to boost output by several hundred million doses next year, and hopes to have the shot ready to file for approval in October.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Greek police began moving hundreds of migrants to an army-built camp on the island of Lesbos after a fire destroyed an overcrowded facility, leaving them homeless for days.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, India reported another record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours. 1,132 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the disease to 83,198.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The Israeli and Dubai diamond exchanges announced they had struck a deal to boost trade.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Lebanon’s largest prison grappled with an alarming coronavirus outbreak, as many inmates refused to take preventative measures or get tested under the impression that catching the virus could speed up their release as part of a rumored general amnesty. Over 200 of the 3,000 detainees at Roumieh prison have tested positive in recent days.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, The number of new coronavirus cases in the Netherlands hit a record high for the third consecutive day. The health ministry warned that test capacity was not nearly enough to deal with the wave of possible infections expected in the coming months.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, Portugal reported 770 new coronavirus infections, its biggest increase in five months. Ten deaths were also reported.
(SFC, 9/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Sep 17, South Africa, which had one of the world's earliest and strictest lockdowns, announced a further easing of anti-coronavirus measures, effective on Sept. 20. South Africa has so far reported more than 650,000 confirmed infections, with over 15,000 deaths. The number of new cases has dropped from about 12,000 per day in July to fewer than 2,000.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, South Korea said it has approved Celltrion Inc's experimental COVID-19 treatment for Phase 2/3 clinical trials, as the firm plans to seek a conditional approval of the antibody drug for an emergency use.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, In Sudan five young artists, known for their support for last year's pro-democracy uprising, were convicted and sentenced to two months in prison on charges of public disturbance and violating public safety measures by a criminal court in Khartoum.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 17, Ukraine strongly warned thousands of Hasidic Jewish pilgrims who have been stuck on its border for days that it won't allow them into the country due to coronavirus restrictions. About 2,000 people have gathered at the border with Belarus, in hope of traveling to the Ukrainian city of Uman to visit the grave of Hasidic rabbi Nachman of Breslov (d.1810).
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, A UN report said targeted killings, intimidation and sexual assaults of both men and women were committed against opposition supporters ahead of the disputed May election in Burundi. The report saw little optimism in the government of new President Evariste Ndayishimiye, saying it is “extremely concerned" that he has appointed senior officials who face international sanctions for alleged human rights abuses in the country’s 2015 political turmoil.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 17, UN food chief David Beasley called on the world's billionaires to step up to help save some 30 million people he said are at risk of dying if they don't receive help from the World Food Program.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, President Trump claimed there will be 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine ready before the end of the year.
(The Week, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that the US has deployed additional troops and armored vehicles into eastern Syria after a number of clashes with Russian forces, including a recent vehicle collision that injured four American service members.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The White House said the federal government will award an $11.6 billion aid package to Puerto Rico, focused on the territory's energy and education systems, to help the island recover from the devastation brought by 2017's Hurricane Maria.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87) died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington DC. She was well known for championing gender equality, abortion rights, affirmative action, and other progressive causes.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Former Southern California lawyer Lonnie Loren Kocontes (62) was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for strangling his ex-wife and throwing her body off a cruise ship in the Mediterranean in 2006. Kanesaki was last seen alive the night of May 25. Her body was found floating off the coast of Paola, Italy, on May 27.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, California to date had 776,585 cases of coronavirus and 14,846 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 97,248 cases and 1,396 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,720,477 with the death toll at 198,469.
(sfist.com, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Florida legendary criminal Anibal Mustelier (70) died at the Miami Federal Detention Center. Mustelier spent 26 years eluding law enforcement agencies and “America’s Most Wanted," earning the nickname “The Ghost." While a fugitive, he beat a SunTrust Bank safe deposit box security system to steal $5 million in jewelry without a gun.
(Miami Herald, 10/5/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Chicago Andrew Freund Sr. (61), the father of 5-year-old AJ Freund, pleaded guilty to charges in connection to the Crystal Lake boy’s death and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His son’s body was found in a shallow grave in April 2019. AJ’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham (37), pleaded guilty to one count of murder and was sentenced in July to a 35-year prison term.
(Chicago Tribune, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, A Michigan court ruled that mailed ballots postmarked by Nov. 2 must be counted in the state as long as they are received by a clerk's office within two weeks after the Nov. 3 election.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that sought to block the state from sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter, a legal victory for Democrats ahead of November's election. The order was made public on Sept. 21.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that seeks to curb new sources of pollution, including sewage treatment plants, landfills and incinerators that have affected certain communities more than others.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Protesters returned to the streets of Portland, Oregon, following a dayslong pause largely due to poor air quality from wildfires on the West Coast. Police made 11 arrests as demonstrators participated in criminal activity and threw items at officers.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Bristol Myers Squibb Co's cancer immunotherapy Opdivo in combination with Exelixis Inc's Cabometyx reduced the risk of death by 40% in previously untreated patients with advanced kidney cancer.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The US Embassy in Afghanistan warned that extremists groups are planning attacks against a “variety of targets" but are taking particular aim at women.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that flooding has affected well over a million people across East Africa, another calamity threatening food security on top of a historic locust outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya demanded an international mission to document what she called "atrocities" during crackdowns on anti-government protests, but said she was ready for talks to end weeks of violence.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has ordered that the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein be stripped of the 2004 prestigious CBE honor he received for services to the British film industry.
(NBC News, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The British government targeted more areas in an attempt to suppress a sharp spike in new coronavirus infections.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said Europe's health regulator has recommended the approval its cancer treatment Zejula as a first option to keep advanced ovarian cancer at bay in women who have responded to chemotherapy.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said Around 350,000 people have taken experimental coronavirus vaccines developed by the company.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The Czech Republic reported 3,130 cases of coronavirus, a record high for a third day in a row. The country had a total of 44,155 confirmed cases and 489 deaths.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 18, The European Union agreed to buy a potential COVID-19 vaccine from Sanofi and GSK in its second such deal to secure supplies, as a deadline for joining the World Health Organization's (WHO) vaccine purchase program looms.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The European Commission presented a series of measures aimed at tackling structural racism and discrimination, acknowledging a blatant lack of diversity among the EU's institutions.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 18, Germany's federal agriculture ministry confirmed another six cases of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boars in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei (64) said he has tested positive for the new coronavirus, but he told a local radio station he feels well.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, India recorded 96,424 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 5.2 million. 1,174 people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking total mortalities from the disease to 84,372.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Indonesia began a 7-day suspension of exports from the seafood company PT Putri Indah into China after its frozen fish products tested positive for the coronavirus. The virus was detected on the outermost side of the package, not on the fish.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 18, It was reported that Iranian hackers, most likely employees or affiliates of the government, have been running a vast cyberespionage operation equipped with surveillance tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging systems — a capability Iran was not previously known to possess.
(NY Times, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Iran declared a coronavirus red alert due to a third wave of infections as the death toll rose by 144 to 23,952 and the total number of cases exceeded 400,000.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Israel went back into a full lockdown to try to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has steadily worsened for months as its government has been plagued by indecision and infighting.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Kosovo's awarded US President Donald Trump with one of the country's highest honors for his government's efforts on peace and reconciliation in the former war-torn region.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, In Morocco, despite a government ban on large gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, scores of demonstrators protested outside the Parliament to denounce Arab countries agreeing o normalize ties with Israel.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 18, The Dutch government announced it is holding Syria responsible under the UN Convention against Torture for “gross human rights violations," in a process that could ultimately trigger a case at the United Nations’ highest court.
(AP, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Swiss drugmaker Roche got a positive recommendation from a key European panel for its immunotherapy Tecentriq mixed with Avastin against liver cancer, likely clearing the way for the cocktail's approval in the coming months.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to a resolution submitted by the European Union to launch closer UN monitoring of alleged rights violations in Belarus, despite multiple attempts by Russia to water it down.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 18, Tropical Storm Noul made landfall in central Vietnam. One person was reported killed and at least 23 others injured.
(SFC, 9/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 19, President Donald Trump urged the Republican-run Senate to consider “without delay" his upcoming nomination to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election. Supreme Court nominations used to need 60 votes for confirmation if any senator objected, but Sen, Mitch McConnell changed Senate rules in 2017 to allow the confirmation of justices with 51 votes. He did so as Democrats threatened to filibuster Trump’s first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, President Trump said he had approved a deal between TikTok and major American companies, potentially saving the Chinese-owned app from his administration’s upcoming ban. The deal would create a new US-based company, TikTok Global, in which Oracle, an American software maker, and Walmart would own 20 percent.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, US authorities intercepted an envelope addressed to the White House that contained the deadly poison ricin. The letter was addressed to President Donald Trump and appears to have been sent from Canada. Officials soon identified a woman as a suspect.
(Business Insider, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, California to date had 780,009 cases of coronavirus and 14,911 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 98,025 cases and 1,402 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,730,653 with the death toll at 198,682.
(sfist.com, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Colorado people gathered at the state Capitol in Denver to protest the filing of felony charges against several leaders of racial justice demonstrations.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Donald Kendall (99), the former boss of Pepsico (1971-1986, died in Connecticut.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_M._Kendall)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.61)
2020 Sep 19, Immunomedics Inc said its cancer drug Trodelvy, which received accelerated US regulatory approval in April, extended survival time in previously treated patients with an advanced form of breast cancer in a clinical trial.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In northern Afghanistan government air strikes reportedly killed 24 civilians. The Defense Ministry said 30 Taliban fighters were killed in the village of Sayed Ramazan, Kunduz province. An investigation was underway.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 19, Belarus police cracked down sharply in Minsk on a women’s protest march demanding the authoritarian president’s resignation, arresting more than 300 including an elderly woman who has become a symbol of the six weeks of protest that have roiled the country.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Police in London clashed with protesters at a rally against coronavirus restrictions, even as the mayor warned that it was “increasingly likely" that the British capital would soon need to introduce tighter rules to curb a sharp rise in infections. Demonstrators took the streets of London, Tel Aviv and other cities to protest coronavirus restrictions as the global death toll approached 1 million.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said its top-selling drug Tagrisso has been shown to slow the spread of a certain type of lung cancer to the brain when diagnosed at an early stage.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Ethiopia's attorney general’s office announced that top opposition figure, Jawar Mohammed and 23 other people have been charged with terrorism-related offenses, telecom fraud and other criminal activities. Jawar has been detained since the July unrest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the previous 24 hours, setting another record in daily additional infections since the start of the epidemic. The number deaths from COVID-19 was up by 26 to 31,274. The cumulative total rose to 442,194.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 19, A storm pounded parts of central Greece, creating flooding that killed two people, left 1 missing and forced emergency workers to rescue more than 600 people.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, The chief of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to go after everyone who had a role in a top general's January killing during a US drone strike in Iraq.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Nigeria Gracious David-West (40), a member of the Greenlanders - also known as Dey Gbam, a mafia-styled street gang that sprung out of the armed militant groups, was arrested. In October he sentenced to death in Port Harcourt for killing nine women. Authorities said he had sex with his victims before binding their arms and feet with strips of white sheets and then strangling them.
(BBC, 10/9/20)
2020 Sep 19, In Thailand thousands of demonstrators defied police warnings and occupied a historic field in Bangkok to support the demands of a student-led protest movement for new elections and reform of the monarchy. This was the first of a 2-day protest.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 19, Sex workers in Thailand launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalized and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex. A current law made prostitution illegal in 1960.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 20, A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order effectively banning the Chinese social media app WeChat from operating in the US, which had been set to go into effect overnight.
(NY Times, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, Canadian national Pascale Ferrier, suspected of having mailed an envelope containing ricin to the White House, was arrested while trying to enter the United States from Canada. The suspect had been living in the United States last year and was arrested in March 2019 by the Mission, Texas, police for possession of an unlicensed weapon, resisting arrest and carrying a fake driver’s license. She was then deported back to Canada.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
020 Sep 20, In Alaska a grizzly bear mauled and killed a moose hunter in a first-of-its-kind attack in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
(Good Morning America, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 20, Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 72nd Emmy Awards from a nearly empty Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles as viewers — and the nominees — tuned in from home. Schitt's Creek and Watchmen won big at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, held without a live audience due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 9/20/20)(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, California to date had 785,923 cases of coronavirus and 15,017 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 98,458 cases and 1,407 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,804,814 with the death toll at 199,509.
(sfist.com, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Bryson DeChambeau won the US Open with a 3-under-par 67, becoming only the third golfer to finish under par in the six US Opens played at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, The body of Jake Gardner (38) was found outside of a medical clinic in Oregon, where he had allegedly fled due to “great risks," such as death threats. The Nebraska bar owner was charged with manslaughter three months after shooting a Black man during protests against police violence.
(NBC News, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Texas a single-engine plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing in a pasture near Hilltop Lakes. All four people aboard the plane were killed.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 20, It was reported that an experimental Amgen Inc drug that targets a specific genetic mutation shrank tumors in 32% of advanced lung cancer patients and 7% of those with colon cancer.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, More than 100,000 protesters marched in Minsk in the sixth straight weekend of demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Videos shared by local media showed security forces pulling protesters off the streets in simultaneous marches in other cities. Police detained more than 400 protesters.
(The Week, 9/21/20)(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, The first sample of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant was collected to the south-east of London. By the beginning of November the variant accounted for 28% of new infections in London.
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.57)
2020 Sep 20, It was reported that China's ByteDance Ltd is seeking a valuation of $60 billion for TikTok as Oracle Corp (12.5%) and Walmart Inc (7.5%) take stakes in the short-video app's business to address US security concerns.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, In western Colombia six men were shot and killed at an improvised cockfighting arena in Munchique. Another four were killed in a similar attack in Narino province. Local feuds between criminal groups struggling for territorial control in rural Colombia have left more than 230 people dead this year.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 20, In Germany thousands of people marched in Berlin demanding that the government do more to help migrants stuck in Greece, many of whom have been made homeless since fires ravaged the country's largest refugee camp.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The German humanitarian group Sea-Watch condemned as politically motivated the blockade of its ship in the Sicilian port of Palermo by Italian authorities after an 11-hour inspection. This was the fifth rescue ship blocked by Italian authorities in as many months.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market, a day after the US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored. Major powers dismissed a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)(AFP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Thousands of Israelis resumed their weekly protest outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem, despite a new nationwide lockdown order aimed at curbing a raging coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, Italians in seven regions headed to the polls for two days of voting shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, In Mexico the remains of six people were found in the shallow grave in the town of Cajeme, Sonora. Weeks later it was reported that the body of model Yessenia Estefania Alvarado (24), kidnapped on August 19, was one of the six.
(AP, 10/8/20)
2020 Sep 20, Knut Kloster (91), one of the founders of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., died.
(GlobalNewswire, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 20, In the Solomon Islands two men working to locate bombs left behind from WWII died after one bomb exploded at their aid project in Honiara.
(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 20, In Thailand anti-government demonstrators occupying a historic field in Bangkok installed a plaque symbolizing the country's transition to democracy to replace the original one that was mysteriously ripped out and stolen three years ago, as they vowed to press on with calls for new elections and reform of the monarchy. The plaque was removed within 24 hours.
(AP, 9/20/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 21, President Trump is expected to issue an executive order on Monday spelling out how the United States plans to punish businesses and individuals that violate sanctions on Iran.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Some of the world's biggest companies backed growing calls for governments to do more to reverse the accelerating destruction of the natural world and support broader efforts to fight climate change.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A federal judge in New York ordered the Postal Service to reverse operational changes that have slowed mail delivery in recent months and to prioritize election mail, the latest legal rebuke to Louis DeJoy’s management of the agency.
(NY Times, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, New York City police officer Baimadajie Angwang (33) was arrested after allegedly spying on China's behalf for the past six years. Angwang was born in China and has Tibetan ancestry, and received asylum in the US because he claimed he was persecuted for his ethnicity.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 21, California to date had 788,960 cases of coronavirus and 15,056 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,072 cases and 1,408 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,831,222 with the death toll at 199,766.
(sfist.com, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Florida Charles Alexander (15), a relative of Miami High football coach Corey Smith, used the coach’s own 9mm handgun to shoot him dead inside a den and then stole over $7,000 in cash belonging to the coach. Alexander was arrested on Sept. 24. The teen is the son of Lamar Alexander (41) the ex-con who last November hijacked a UPS driver, led cops on a high-speed chase and died during a televised shootout on a busy Miramar street.
(Miami Herald, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 21, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which makes the best-selling "Fallout" and "Elder Scrolls" series of games, for $7.5 billion.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.59)
2020 Sep 21, Global banks faced a fresh scandal about dirty money as they sought to limit the fallout from a cache of leaked documents showing they transferred more than $2 trillion in suspect funds over nearly two decades. The reports were based on 2,100 leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs), covering transactions between 1999 and 2017.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, The Abu Dhabi Film Commission, the Israel Film Fund and the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film and Television School said they have signed a cooperation agreement for training and production. The agreement includes plans for an annual regional film festival rotating between Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and Israel.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Australia hundreds of pilot whales were discovered beached on the shore and sand bars along the remote west coast of Tasmania state.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, Bahrain said it broke up a plot by militants backed by Iran earlier this year to launch attacks on diplomats and foreigners in the island nation home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Wildlife officials said a total of 330 elephants in Botswana are now known to have died from ingesting cyanobacteria, a toxic bacteria which can occur naturally in standing water and sometimes grow into large blooms known as blue-green algae.
(BBC, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A new study that analyzed the coronavirus outbreak in Brazil has found a link between the spread of the virus and past outbreaks of dengue fever that suggests exposure to the mosquito-transmitted illness may provide some level of immunity against COVID-19.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Britain’s top medical advisers painted a grim picture of exponential growth in illness and death if nothing is done to control the second wave of coronavirus infections, laying the groundwork for the government to announce new restrictions later this week.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that Britain's government will fine people up to 10,000 pounds who refuse to self-isolate if they test positive for the coronavirus or are traced to a close conact. The rule goes into effet on Sept. 28.
(SFC, 9/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, British drugmaker AstraZeneca said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended approval for Lynparza in patients with a form of prostate cancer and as a first-line maintenance treatment for a form of advanced ovarian cancer.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, A Bulgarian court sentenced two men to life in prison for their involvement in the July 18, 2012, bombing of a tourist bus that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver and injured nearly 40 people. Meliad Farah, a dual Lebanese-Australian national, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a dual Lebanese-Canadian national, were sentenced in absentia as their whereabouts are unknown.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that four Cameroonian soldiers have been sentenced to 10 years for their roles in shooting dead two women and two children in 2015. The government had initially dismissed the footage as "fake news".
(BBC, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Canadian health officials warned COVID-19 infections have surged in Canada and if people do not take stringent precautions, they could balloon to exceed levels seen during the first wave of the pandemic.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 21, China reported six new COVID-19 cases, down from 12 a day earlier. The total number of confirmed infections for mainland China now stands at 85,297, while the total death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, China's ByteDance disputed "groundless rumors" about its partnership with Oracle and Walmart to establish a subsidiary that will run its operations in the United States. ByteDance emphasized that it would control 80 percent of TikTok Global.
(The Week, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that paleontologists in China have discovered a brand new species of burrowing dinosaur that dates back an estimated 125 million years ago. The fossils of the Changmiania liaoningensis were discovered in the Lujiatun Beds, located in northeast China in the Liaoning Province, in the oldest layers of the famous Yixian Formation. The Chinese word “Changmian" which means “eternal sleep".
(Good Morning America, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, An Egyptian officials said archaeologists have unearthed more than two dozen ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo. They were buried more than 2,500 years ago near the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Greece reported 453 new cases of COVID-19 infections, a new daily record since the start of the outbreak in the country. On the island of Lesbos 243 asylum seekers tested positive at the new camp at Kara Tepe.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 21, India reopened its famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, with the first visitors trickling in as authorities reported 86,961 new coronavirus infections, with no signs of a peak yet.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, An Israeli court approved the extradition of Malka Leifer, a former teacher wanted in Australia on charges of child sex abuse, potentially paving the way for her to stand trial after a six-year legal battle.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, In Italy preliminary results from the Interior Ministry indicated that 69% of Italians voted “yes" on a constitutional referendum to reduce the number of national lawmakers by more than a third.
(AP, 9/21/20)(Econ., 9/26/20, p.50)
2020 Sep 21, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun said that the crisis-hit country could be going to “hell" if a new government was not formed, suggesting it would require a “miracle" for that to happen at this point.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Police in Lithuania disclosed that Ahmad “Andy" Khawaja, a dual American and Lebanese citizen charged in the US with conspiring to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in donations during the 2016 US presidential election, has been jailed. His detention on Sept. 3 on an international arrest warrant was kept secret. He will remain in jail pending extradition hearings. Khawaja is married to a Lithuanian citizen and has property in the Baltic country.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, Mexico's Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, aka AMLO, attacked two small monthly magazines, Nexos and Letras Libres, and singled out their editors, hector Aguilar Camin and Enrique Krauze.
(Econ., 9/26/20, p.37)
2020 Sep 21, Nigerian health workers who went on strike in mid-September for a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients returned to work, without their demands being met.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, It was reported that Palestinian security forces have detained dozens of supporters of UAE-based Mohammed Dahlan, a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 21, The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis acceded to the United Nations' Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
(PR Newswire, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 21, The UN week opened with a celebration of the global body's 75th birthday in the form of a virtual summit where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded -- in person -- for more multilateral diplomacy.
(AFP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 22, US President Donald Trump demanded that the United Nations hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic as he defended his own handling of COVID-19 in America where the death toll is nearing 200,000.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon used $1 billion Congress allocated for medical equipment to pay defense contractors for such things as jet engine parts, body armor, and dress uniforms.
(The Week, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, The US government executed William Emmett LeCroy (50) in Terre Haute, Indiana. The former soldier said an obsession with witchcraft led him to kill a Georgia nurse he believed had put a spell on him in 2001.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, California to date had 792,183 cases of coronavirus and 15,141 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,547 cases and 1,431 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,889,086 with the death toll at 200,641.
(sfist.com, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Federal authorities announced that Benjamin Jenkins (25) of Cobb County, Georgia, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a “prolific" sextortion scheme involving as many as 150 underage girls. A jury found Jenkins guilty of producing and distributing child pornography he coerced his victims to create for him.
(Miami Herald, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Billionaire Mike Bloomberg raised $16 billion to help Florida felons pay off fines, restitution, and court fees to help them regain their voting rights in time for the November election. Just days earlier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, won a court victory preventing felons from voting until they pay off the debts.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer declared a state of emergency and closed down much of his city's center to traffic ahead of an expected grand jury decision on whether to indict the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker.
(The Week, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Louisiana state Trooper Chris Hollingsworth died following a single-vehicle highway crash a day earlier that happened just hours after he learned he would be fired for his role last year in the in-custody death of a Black man.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Maine's Supreme Court ruled that ranked choice voting will be used for the first time in a presidential race after concluding that a GOP petition drive intended to stymie its use this November came up short.
(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A8)
2020 Sep 22, Hurricane Beta weakened to a tropical depression as it parked itself over the Texas coast, raising concerns of extensive flooding in Houston and areas further inland. Forecasters ran out of traditional storm names last week, forcing the use of the Greek alphabet for only the second time since the 1950s.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said he supports voting to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court, all but ensuring President Donald Trump has the backing to push his choice to confirmation over Democratic objections that it's too close to the November election.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate into November to fight a coronavirus flareup in his state, as the number of people who have died across the United States since the pandemic began passed 200,000.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Luxury apparel maker Ralph Lauren Corp said it will cut 15% of its global workforce by the end of its fiscal year in a company-wide restructuring to lower costs and move more of its business online.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, It was reported that police forces around the world have seized more than $6.5m (£5m) in cash and virtual currencies, as well as drugs and guns in a coordinated raid on dark web marketplaces.
(BBC, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro defended his administration’s record protecting the Amazon rainforest, telling the United Nations’ virtual meeting of global leaders that his country has been wrongly portrayed as an environmental villain.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain's PM Boris Johnson warned that Britons should not expect to return to a normal social or work life for at least six months, as he ordered new restrictions that his government hopes will suppress a dramatic surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain turned over to US authorities evidence against two members of an alleged terror cell known as “the Beatles," ending a drawn out legal battle to block the handover of the information.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, Britain’s National Trust, which looks after hundreds of the country’s well-loved historic sites, detailed in a new report how dozens of its properties have links to slavery and colonialism.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, China's Pres. Xi Jinping told the UN China would "strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060".
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, China's state media agency Xinhua said Ethiopia has agreed to purchase 1.5 million coronavirus testing kits that will be manufactured at a factory in the African country that has been newly built by China's BGI Group.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 22, A Chinese court sentenced outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang to 18 years in prison for corruption. Zhiqiang had denounced the Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping.
(NY Times, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, China-based CanSino Biologics said Pakistan has launched Phase III clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, French firm Valneva, which has just struck a deal to supply Britain with its potential COVID-19 vaccine, said it is in very advanced talks with another possible customer.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Greece judicial authorities received instructions to pursue the prosecution of anti-mask activist with fast-tracked trials and penalties for convictions of up to a year in prison.
(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 22, Iran reported 3,712 new coronavirus infections in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily tally recorded since February, pushing its cumulative total to 429,193.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In southern Lebanon an arms cache belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group blew up in the village of Ain Cana. A security source said it was caused of a technical error.
(Reuters, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Malta Keith Schembri, a key figure in the investigation into the murder of crusading Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was arrested on charges of accepting bribes for the sale of passports to foreigners.
(The Telegraph, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The World Food Program said escalating extremist insurgency in northern Mozambique has displaced 310,000 people, creating an urgent humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte defended his drug crackdown, dismissed criticism from human rights advocates and underscored his country's claims in the South China Sea as the sometimes aggressive critic of the United Nations addressed its annual gathering of world leaders for the first time.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, The Philippine health ministry reported 1,635 novel coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase in infections in two weeks, and 50 new deaths. Total confirmed infections have increased to 291,789, the highest in Southeast Asia, while deaths have reached 5,049.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Saudi Arabia said Muslims will be allowed to perform the smaller, year-round pilgrimage starting Oct. 4 as the kingdom gradually begins lifting restrictions that had been in place on Islam's holiest site for the past seven months due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, In Turkey American author and journalist Andre Vltchek (57) died while traveling overnight from the Turkish Black Sea coastal city of Samsun to Istanbul. Police recorded his case as a “suspicious death".
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 23, At a news conference, Pres. Donald Trump declined to endorse a peaceful transfer of power after the November election, saying, “We’re going to have to see what happens." He also repeated false allegations claiming widespread voter fraud and said he wanted to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly so the Supreme Court could resolve any election dispute.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Pres. Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Cuba in an effort to woo Florida voters. American will not be allowed to bring home cigars and rum and US travelers will be prohibited from staying at hotels and other properties owned by the Cuban government.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 23, The US Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the leader and financier of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a "Russian troll farm." The Treasury in a statement said it imposed sanctions against "the network of Kremlin-connected Russian operative" Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, US Senate Republicans released their controversial report on Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s former dealings with Ukraine in a politically-charged move to taint Biden’s campaign weeks out from Election Day. The Biden campaign immediately dismissed the report as politically-motivated nonsense.
(The Daily Beast, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, California announced its own lofty climate goal: The state plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Last year, only about 8 percent of passenger vehicles sold in the state were not gasoline-powered.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, California to date had 794,824 cases of coronavirus and 15,275 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 99,951 cases and 1,449 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,940,721 with the death toll at 201,882.
(sfist.com, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Art Dugoni (95), preeminent dental educator, died at his home in Palo Alto. He was the longtime dean of the Univ. of the Pacific School of Dentistry, which was renamed in his honor in 2004. The Pacific Heights school moved to South of Market in 2015.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.C11)
2020 Sep 23, Gale Sayers (77), Chicago Bears running back, died in Indiana, from complications of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. His short but brilliant career left opponents, as they used to say, clutching at air.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, It was reported that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who has steadfastly refused to require residents to wear masks, tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Protesters took to the streets in multiple cities after a grand jury in Louisville, Ky., declined to charge the two officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in March. Most protests were peaceful, but not all: In Louisville, two police officers were shot. Both are expected to survive. Shooting suspect Larynzo Johnson (26) was soon charged with wanton endangerment and the assault of a police officer.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)(The Independent, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Harold Evans (92), British-American journalist and writer, died in NYC. In his career in his native Great Britain, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title The Times for a year from 1981, before being forced out of the latter post by Rupert Murdoch. He turned the Sunday Times into a compelling, dramataic newspaper. In 1986, he founded Condé Nast Traveler. Evans wrote various books on history and journalism, such as The American Century (1998).
(Econ., 10/3/20, p.78)
2020 Sep 23, Johnson & Johnson began a huge final study to try to prove if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the virus.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Mars Inc said it was changing the name and branding of its Uncle Ben's rice products after the brand came under fire for promoting racial stereotypes.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In southern Afghanistan the Taliban launched a wave of attacks overnight on security checkpoints killing a total of 28 Afghan policemen.
(SFC, 9/24/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 23, More pilot whales were found stranded in Australia, raising the estimated total to nearly 500, including 380 that have died, in the largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country. 88 whales were rescued and crews worked to free 20 more.
(AP, 9/23/20)(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 23, The first known direct commercial flight between Israel and Bahrain landed in the island kingdom, just a week after it signed a deal alongside the UAE to normalize relations.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus was sworn to his sixth term in office at an inaugural ceremony that was not announced in advance amid weeks of huge protests of the authoritarian leader's reelection, which the opposition says was rigged. Thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of the capital of Minsk and other cities to protest the inauguration. 364 people were detained, including 252 in Minsk. The vast majority remained in custody, awaiting court hearings.
(AP, 9/23/20)(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Brazil's government said it was adding 43 more firefighters to a small force battling blazes that have charred a Belgium-sized swath of the world's largest tropical wetlands.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Brazil recorded 33,281 additional confirmed cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Three Egyptian police officers were killed when four men, convicted on terror-related charges and awaiting their death sentences, attempted to escape from a notorious Cairo prison. Security forces killed the four convicts while they were trying to flee the heavily fortified Tora Prison complex.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The European Union announced a major overhaul of its asylum system in hopes that more countries will finally share responsibility for people landing on Europe’s shores seeking sanctuary or better lives.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Pres. Emmanuel Macron announced that France will double paid paternity leave to 28 days starting next summer and will require new fathers to take at least a week off work.
(NY Times, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, In Germany Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was discharged from a hospital after more than a month of treatment for poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
(CBS News, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Indonesia reported 4,465 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily rise.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Israel reported 6,861 new coronavirus cases, a new record level of daily cases, shortly before government officials were to meet to discuss tightening a new nationwide lockdown.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Investigators from Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said: "Investigations had established criminal culpability on the part of public officials in the purchase and supply of Covid-19 emergency commodities at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) that led to irregular expenditure of public funds."
(BBC, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 23, Lebanon’s Pres. Michel Aoun asked for the world's help to rebuild the capital's main port and neighborhoods that were blown away in last month’s catastrophic explosion.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Mexico's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 74,949.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In the Netherlands a friend of World War II Jewish diarist Anne Frank laid the first stone at a new memorial under construction in Amsterdam to honor all Dutch victims of the Holocaust.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, In central Nigeria at least 25 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded following a collision with other vehicles on a major highway in Lokoja.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (84) made a rare address to the UN General Assembly, using the moment to highlight the foundational notions of his regime — his steadfast commitment to the Palestinians, his stature as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and his assertion that Iran is responsible for much of the region’s instability.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Sierra Leone, a West African country of 7.6 million people, has reported 2,174 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 72 deaths.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, South Korea's Defense Ministry said a South Korean official (47), who disappeared off a government ship near the disputed sea boundary with North Korea this week, may be in North Korea.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Swiss-based companies Roche and AC Immune said an experimental Alzheimer's drug failed to slow cognitive and functional decline in a trial, in a fresh setback to efforts to fight the fatal dementia-causing disease.
(Reuters, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The United Arab Emirates reported its highest daily number of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic at 1,083 new cases. The UAE has recorded 87,530 infections and 406 deaths from COVID-19 so far.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, The UN said that critical aid had been cut at 300 health centers across war-ravaged Yemen due to a lack of funding, with lifesaving food handouts also reduced.
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blasted United States sanctions in his address to the UN General Assembly, while avoiding any mention of a report accusing his government of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 24, President Donald Trump launched what aides termed a “vision" for health care heavy on unfulfilled aspirations. He signed an executive order on a range of issues, including protecting people with preexisting medical conditions from insurance discrimination. But that right is already guaranteed in the Obama-era health law his administration is asking the Supreme Court to overturn.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, A US federal judge stopped the 2020 census from finishing at month's end and suspended a year-end deadline for delivering the numbers needed to decide how many seats each state gets in Congress.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, A US State Department official said the United States has renewed a waiver for Iraq to import Iranian electricity imports, this time for 60 days.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Michael Pack, President Donald Trump's appointee as head of US government broadcasting operations, failed to appear at a House of Representatives hearing, defying a committee subpoena amid concern over editorial independence at the agency.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, The US Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania said that nine ballots had been found in a dumpster next to the elections building with seven cast for Trump and the other two resealed inside their envelopes. A day later Luzerne County Manager said a temporary independent contractor, who was assigned to sort mail at the elections bureau "incorrectly discarded into the office trash UMOVA ballots," which is an acronym for ballots from military and overseas voters.
(ABC News, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, California to date had 799,875 cases of coronavirus and 15,401 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 100,494 cases and 1,458 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 6,975,087 with the death toll at 202,738.
(sfist.com, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In California Christopher Michael Straub (38), a known member of a white supremacist gang, died during a shootout with police in Templeton, San Luis Obispo County.
(Insider, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 24, California-based photorealist painter Robert Bechtle (b.1932) died at a hospice in Berkeley.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.B1)
2020 Sep 24, In Indiana Christopher Vialva (40), a Black man, was executed by the federal government for a crime he committed at age 19, even though his attorney said prosecutors used inflammatory racial stereotypes during the trial 20 years ago to land her client on death row.
(NBC News, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Carol Paumgarten (76), NYC dance studio founder, died in Glen Cove, NY. She had founded the Steps on Broadway dance studio in 1979.
(SFC, 10/10/20, p.C15)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that four former senior eBay employees, who participated in an intimidation campaign aimed at silencing a Massachusetts couple who ran a newsletter criticizing the E-commerce giant, have agreed to plead guilty to cyberstalking charges.
(The Independent, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Three US states reported record one-day increases in new COVID-19 cases. Montana reported 330 new coronavirus cases, South Dakota recorded 463 new cases. Utah's governor said the state set a one-day record with 1,198 new cases.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that the Open Technology Fund (OTF) has had to stop all its operations in Belarus, and many of its activities supporting civil society in Hong Kong and Iran, because a congressionally-mandated grant of nearly $20m has been withheld by a new Trump appointee, Michael Pack.
(The Guardian, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In Belarus anti-government rallies continued this morning despite the previous night's crackdown. Hundreds of people in Minsk formed human chains of solidarity in different parts of the city and obstructed vehicle traffic by driving slowly or stopping altogether, honking in protest. Authorities detained Lyudmila Kazak, a lawyer representing Maria Kolesnikova, a top opposition activist who was jailed this month amid mass protests against the country's authoritarian president.
(AP, 9/24/20)(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Britain recorded its highest number of daily cases of COVID-19 at 6,634, reflecting a second wave of infections sweeping through the country but also a much higher level of testing than during the first wave.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Europe's top court (ECJ) issued a ruling that should ensure Germany can keep in prison Christian Brueckner, a new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished from a Portuguese resort 13 years ago.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was arrested for "unlawful assembly" related to a 2019 protest against a government ban on face masks - the latest in a series of high-profile arrests as the authorities seek to crack down on the Chinese-ruled city’s pro-democracy movement. Mr Wong was soon released, with a trial date set for September 30.
(The Telegraph, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Indonesia reported 4,634 coronavirus cases, its biggest daily rise for a second consecutive day as new clusters appeared.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 175 to 25,015, the highest in the Middle East, with the total number of identified cases spiking to 436,319.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Israel moved to further tighten its 2nd countrywide lockdown as coronavirus cases continued to soar, ordering all nonessential businesses to close and requiring people to stay within 1,000 meters of their homes. Israel is currently reporting nearly 7,000 new daily cases.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Italy allowed a rescue ship with 125 migrants aboard to dock in Sardinia to escape rough seas and said the migrants could eventually disembark in Italy before being sent to other European countries.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague said former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Salih Mustafa, an ethnic Albanian, has been arrested as part of a war crimes against humanity probe from the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.
(SFC, 9/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 24, At least 16 migrants trying to reach Europe drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their small dinghy capsized off the coast of Libya. Libyan fishermen spotted the sinking boat and managed to pull 22 people from the water.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 24, Amnesty International said that thousands of Europe-bound migrants who were intercepted and returned to Libyan shores this year were forcefully disappeared after being taken out of unofficial detention centers run by militias allied with the UN-supported government in the capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, In Russia official daily data showed that new cases of COVID-19 have risen to 6,595, the biggest rise in over two months, and new infections in Moscow surpassed 1,000 for the first time since late June.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Russia's sovereign wealth fund and its partner Chemrar said the COVID-19 drug Avifavir will be supplied to 17 additional countries.
(Reuters, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea shot and burned the body of a South Korean official who disappeared from a government boat earlier this week.
(NBC News, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, It was reported that the International Monetary Fund has signed off on Sudan's economic reform program, a move that can eventually allow the highly-indebted African country to get debt relief and move ahead with rebuilding its battered economy as it transitions to democratic rule.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Swedish archaeologists reported finding the remains of a dog from more than 8,400 years ago at a human burial site in southern Sweden. The dog was buried with a person near the town of Solvesborg.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, A UN migration official said the number of migrants and refugees who are sleeping rough in Bosnia keeps rising because of the persistent refusal by authorities at different levels of government in the country to coordinate their work and embrace “rational" solutions.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 24, Zimbabwe's Pres. Emmerson Mnangagwa appealed at the United Nations for support to end Western sanctions, saying that they set back development goals.
(AFP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 25, A US federal appeals court handed a win to the House of Representatives, saying the Democratic-led chamber could proceed with a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's diversion of funds to pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, A US federal judge ruled that former oil industry attorney William Perry Pendley, President Donald Trump's leading steward of public lands, has been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration's practice of filling key positions without US Senate approval.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, California to date had 801,923 cases of coronavirus and 15,480 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 101,110 cases and 1,477 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,027,910 with the death toll at 203,571.
(sfist.com, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, including restaurants and bars, saying the threat of the coronavirus pandemic had eased sufficiently to allow the state to enter the final phase of its reopening.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In Kentucky Louisville police reported 24 arrests overnight on charges of unlawful assembly, failure to disperse and riot in the first degree, but no serious violence was reported. Those arrested included Kentucky state representative Attica Scott as relative calm prevailed overnight during a second night of protests.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Shawn Marshall Myers (42) of Maryland was sentenced to a year in jail for throwing parties at his home last March that violated the governor's coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.
(NBC News, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a weekend state of emergency for Portland, saying "white supremacist groups" were traveling from out of state to attend an event the Proud Boys say was organized to "end domestic terrorism".
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Christian Dunbar, the treasurer of Philadelphia, was fired after federal prosecutors charged him with embezzling money from customers at a bank where he previously worked and entering into a sham marriage to win US citizenship.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Niki Williams (46), a former Houston college admissions test administrator, pleaded guilty to taking bribes in a cheating scheme designed to inflate the scores used to determine whether prospective students got into universities.
(NBC News, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Tyler Technologies, a Texas company that sells software that cities and states use to display results on election night, was hit by ransomware. Election officials use Tyler software to aggregate and report election results in at least 20 places around the country.
(NY Times, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 25, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that he and his wife have both tested positive for the coronavirus, though he said he is showing no symptoms.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Wisconsin, one of the states where coronavirus cases are rising the fastest, reported 2,629 new infections, surpassing its previous record set a week earlier.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, A single dose of Johnson & Johnson's experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response against the novel coronavirus, according to interim results from an early-to-mid stage clinical trial released today.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, The British charity People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) said Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, has been awarded its Gold Medal for his "lifesaving bravery and devotion" after discovering 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordinance in the past seven years in Cambodia. Before Magawa, all the recipients were dogs.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Clover Biopharmaceuticals appeared to be safe and able to trigger immune responses in animal tests. Clover began an early stage human trial in Australia in June. Clover's vaccine candidate, which is partly funded by a global vaccine research coalition, uses adjuvants, ingredients that could boost immune responses, from Britain's GSK and US-based Dynavax Technologies.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Mainland China reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, compared with eight cases announced a day earlier.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Scientists reported that future moon explorers will be bombarded with two to three times more radiation than astronauts aboard the International Space Station, a health hazard that will require thick-walled shelters for protection. China’s lander on the far side of the moon is providing the first full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, Egyptian police dispersed exceptionally rare, small street protests that erupted in a northeastern province and arrested 10 demonstrators.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Egyptian naval forces killed two Palestinian brothers fishing near the Gaza-Egypt maritime frontier. A third brother was receiving treatment in Egypt.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, The European Commission said it is appealing a court decision that Apple doesn't have to repay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. The Irish government said it has always been clear that Apple paid the correct amount of tax and did not get state aid. It noted the appeal could take up to two years.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In France two people were injured seriously, in a knife attack outside the former Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper. Two suspects were arrested. The lives of the wounded workers were not in danger. The chief suspect in the stabbing told investigators he carried out the attack in anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(The Telegraph, 9/25/20)(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, In France angry restaurant and bar owners in Marseilles demonstrated against a government order to close all public venues to battle a resurgence in virus infections.
(SFC, 9/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 25, The eastern German state of Brandenburg confirmed another two cases of African swine fever (ASF) in wild boars. The new discoveries bring total confirmed cases to 34 since the first one on Sept. 10, all in wild animals, with no farm pigs affected.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Greek police seized 500,000 ecstasy pills, with street value of 10 million euros, and arrested three people in Thessaloniki.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Japanese researchers have developed a blood test they say appears to serve as an early warning system for serious cases of COVID-19, and deployed 500 prototype machines to trial its effectiveness nationwide.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, In Mali former Defence Minister Bah Ndaw (70) was picked by the coup leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, to head a transitional government until elections, which are expected in 18 months. Col Goita will be his vice-president.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Mexico's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 720,858, according to updated data from the health ministry, along with a reported death toll of 75,844.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, In northeastern Nigeria 18 people were left dead after an ambush on a government convoy in Borno state. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack, claiming 30 people had been killed.
(BBC, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 25, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, offered a rare apology for the killing of a South Korean official by soldiers from the North. The victim was apparently trying to defect to the North.
(NY Times, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Pakistani PM Imran Khan assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed concluding a pact with Washington against interfering in one another's elections and internal affairs, just weeks before the US hosts a divisive presidential vote. Putin proposed a cyber-truce.
(AFP, 9/25/20)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.48)
2020 Sep 25, The mayor of Moscow urged businesses to get more people to work from home as Russia's daily tally of new coronavirus cases hit its highest since June 23. Officials reported 7,212 new infections, bringing the national case total to 1,136,048.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Thailand is prosecuting Facebook, Google, and Twitter over a failure to remove what it says are illegal posts.
(BBC, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 25, Turkey's police arrested Ayhan Bilgen, the mayor of Kars. Dozens of other members of Turkey's biggest Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP), including three former parliamentarians, were also rounded up.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.44)
2020 Sep 25, A Ukrainian military aircraft, carrying a crew of seven and 20 cadets of a military aviation school, crashed while coming in for landing at the airport in Chuhuiv. Two people initially survived the crash, but one later died in a hospital.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, UN diplomats said Russia and China have blocked the official release of a report by UN experts on Libya that accused its warring parties and their international backers -- including Russia -- of violating a UN arms embargo on the conflict-wracked country.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 25, The financial scandal that toppled Cardinal Angelo Becciu (72), one of the Vatican's most powerful officials, mounted with evidence that he directed hundreds of thousands of euros of Vatican and Italian church funds to a charity controlled by his brother. Pope Francis fired him a day earlier and yanked his rights and privileges as a cardinal.
(AP, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, President Donald Trump announced that he is nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as he aims to put a historic conservative stamp on the high court just weeks before the election. Judge Barrett’s vote record is almost uniformly conservative on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration.
(AP, 9/26/20)(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, Thousands of people packed the National Mall in downtown Washington to pray and show their support for President Donald Trump.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring California to house transgender inmates in prisons based on their gender identity — but only if the state does not have “management or security concerns." Newsom also signed a measure requiring health providers to track COVID-19 and all other communicable diseases in the LGBTQ community.
(AP, 9/26/20)(SFC, 9/28/20, p.B2)
2020 Sep 26, California to date had 807,252 cases of coronavirus and 15,586 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 101,645 cases and 1,486 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,077,329 with the death toll at 204,486.
(sfist.com, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, and Wisconsin all reported record one-day increases in coronavirus cases, as COVID-19 infections continued to surge in the Midwest and rose nationally for the second straight week.
(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, In Oregon law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly in Portland late today as hundreds of people protesting against police brutality gathered downtown. Members of the right-wing Proud Boys held a rally in Portland, raising the temperature of the city. The actual attendance was reportedly far lower than anticipated, and there were few reports of violence.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lifted a water quality warning for all but one Houston-area community. Lake Jackson remained under warning of possible contamination of its water supply by Naegleria fowleri, a deadly brain-eating microbe. The brain-eating amoeba detected in the water supply led to the death of a boy (6) earlier this month.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A10)(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 26, In Belarus hundreds of women calling for the authoritarian president to step down protested in Minsk, continuing the large demonstrations that have rocked the country since early August. Police detained 150 protesters as anti-government protests spanned 22 cities.
(AP, 9/26/20)(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 26, British PM Boris Johnson said that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations, and urged world leaders to unite against the “common foe." London police clashed with demonstrators as they broke up a protest in Trafalgar Square against COVID-19 restrictions.
(AP, 9/26/20)(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A9)
2020 Sep 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his approach to governing the Xinjiang region will continue, at the end of a 2-day Communist Party conference. Xi reportedly said "practice has proven" Beijing's "strategy" in Xinjiang is "completely correct," and he also ordered the party to consider it a political mission.
(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 26, China said the WHO had given it its blessing to start administering experimental vaccines to people while clinical trials were still underway.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Coronavirus cases in Colombia, which is nearly a month into a national reopening after a long quarantine, surpassed 800,000, a day after deaths from COVID-19 climbed above 25,000. The country has 806,038 confirmed cases of the virus according to the health ministry, with 25,296 reported deaths.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In western Germany hundreds of anti-coal activists staged protests against the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels at the Garzweiler strip mine, west of Cologne.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 26, The Indian health ministry reported more than 85,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Total COVID-19 infections hit 5.9 million countrywide. India said it was capping the price of liquid oxygen used to treat victims of novel coronavirus and other respiratory diseases after complaints of hoarding and shortages.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Indonesia reported 4,494 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 271,339.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani authorized the country’s provinces to impose lockdowns wherever necessary to stem a rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, It was reported that Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp will seek voluntary retirement from 500 to 600 employees, mostly in management, from mid-November to cut costs.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Moustapha Adib, Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, resigned amid a political impasse over government formation, dealing a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to break a dangerous stalemate in the crisis-hit country. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is the leader of the Shi'ite Muslim Amal Movement, said his group would stick to a French initiative after the plan was dealt a blow by Adib's to step down.
(AP, 9/26/20)(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In North Macedonia hundreds of Roma protested against police brutality in Bitola, the country's second-largest city.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Philippines' health ministry reported 2,747 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 88 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 301,256 cases and 5,284 deaths.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Poland reported 1,584 new coronavirus cases, taking the country closer to reimposing restrictions. A day earlier Poland report a record high of 1,587 infections. The country has reported 85,980 infections and 2,424 deaths in total.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Russia's daily tally of new coronavirus cases hit its highest level since June 22 at 7,523, bringing its total to 1,143,571.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, The Slovak government said the country's daily count of new coronavirus cases rose to 552, a fresh record high.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, In northeastern Syria car bomb killed at least seven civilians in a Turkish-controlled area at the southern entrance to the city of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 26, Ukraine registered a record 3,833 cases of new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from a previous record of 3,584 new cases reported on Sept. 17.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 27, A US federal judge temporarily halted a Trump administration order that would have blocked new downloads of TikTok in the United States, granting the Chinese-owned app a reprieve.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a six-day extension for counting absentee ballots in the battleground state of Wisconsin ordered by a lower court to accommodate an expected historic surge in voting by mail due to the coronavirus crisis. For now ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Election Day, a provisional win for Republicans and President Trump. On Sept. 29 the appeals court upheld the six-day extension.
(The Week, 9/28/20)(SFC, 9/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 27, The NY Times published an investigation of Donald Trump's finances, based on thousands of pages of documents that had not previously been public. They showed that Trump paid no taxes in 11 of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017. In both 2016 and 2017, he paid only $750.
(NY Times, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that US military suicides have increased by as much as 20% this year compared to the same period in 2019, and some incidents of violent behavior have spiked as service members struggle under COVID-19, war-zone deployments, national disasters and civil unrest.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that experts are warning of a "feral swine bomb" that could go off at any time, as the numbers of hybrid wild pigs have soared to six million and spread from 17 to 39 US states over the last three decades.
(SSFC, 9/27/20, p.B10)
2020 Sep 27, In California the Zogg Fire started in Shasta County and soon spread to neighboring Tehama County. By the next day 4 people were killed. On Oct. 9 PG&E said fire investigators have taken possession of equipment belonging to the company. The fire ended up covering 56,338 acres and destroyed 204 buildings. The Glass Fire began in northern California. It ended up burning 67,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties.
(AP, 10/9/20)(SSFC, 11/8/20, p.D1)(SFC, 8/14/21, p.C1)
2020 Sep 27, California to date had 809,414 cases of coronavirus and 15,607 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 102,027 cases and 1,490 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,110,781 with the death toll at 204,750.
(sfist.com, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Florida Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump's former campaign chief, was tackled to the ground by SWAT officers when he didn't obey commands and was taken into custody under state guidelines allowing for an involuntary mental illness commitment. Officers seized 10 firearms, which included two shotguns, two rifles and several handguns.
(NBC News, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, It was reported that Afghanistan’s dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to leave the country of their birth to escape the insecurity and a once-thriving community of as many as 250,000 members now counts fewer than 700.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Fighting erupted anew between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, within Azerbaijan, and a top territorial official said 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Belarus detained 350 protesters as anti-government protests spanned 22 cities. About 100,000 demonstrators marched in Minsk demanding the resignation of Pres. Lukashenko.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, In southwestern China 16 people died in a coal mine in Chongqing due to high levels of carbon monoxide.
(SFC, 9/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, Indonesia reported 3,874 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 275,213, official data from the COVID-19 task force showed. The country also reported 78 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10,386.
(Reuters, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard unveiled a new ballistic missile with a range of up to 430 miles, in the latest escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington.
(The Telegraph, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, The solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur began in a nation already under a sweeping coronavirus lockdown. Israelis have been ordered to stay within 1,000 meters (yards) of their homes throughout the High Holidays, which began last week with the Jewish New Year and continue to mid-October.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, In northern Lebanon gunmen in a car opened fire on an army post, triggering a shootout in which two soldiers and one gunman were killed. The shootout occurred as the army was engaged in a heavy exchange of fire with a group of militants linked to Sunni extremists.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Mali’s transitional Pres. Bah N'Daw appointed former minister of foreign affairs, Moctar Ouane, as the West African nation’s prime minister days after being sworn into office.
(AP, 9/27/20)(SFC, 9/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, In Mexico the bullet-ridden bodies of 11 people, including four women, were found at a bar near Jaral del Progreso, Guanajuato state.
(SFC, 9/29/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 27, In Nigeria militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) used a donkey strapped with explosives to ambush the convoy of the governor of north-eastern Borno state. A number of insurgents were killed in the ensuing shoot-out.
(BBC, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, In Romania about 19 million registered voters chose local officials, council presidents and mayors to fill more than 43,000 positions across the nation. The left-leaning Social Democrat Party, known as PSD, lost the most closely watched contest — the one for the mayor of the capital, Bucharest.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 27, Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a Eurosceptic party’s attempt to restrict immigration from the EU in a referendum seen as a key test of attitudes towards foreigners.
(The Telegraph, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, Yemen’s warring sides agreed to exchange more than 1,000 prisoners, marking the first phase of a prisoner-release plan reached earlier this year.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 28, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge's ruling last week allowing the head count of every US resident to continue through the end of October.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, It was reported that the recent mass layoffs at Fox News—an estimated body count of around 70, amounting to a little less than 3 percent of the cable channel’s workforce—signal what current and former employees describe as the purposeful devaluing of fact-based journalism in favor of right-wing opinion, race-baiting, and conspiracy-mongering at the top-rated, Donald Trump-friendly cable outlet.
(The Daily Beast, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Wildfires in Northern California's wine country spread quickly over the last 24 hours, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The Glass Fire, which started early yesterday in Napa County as a 20-acre brush fire, raged through Napa and Sonoma counties, tripling in size to around 56.6 square miles (146.59 square km) without any containment. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in three counties because of the Glass and Zogg fires that have claimed three lives and burned thousands of acres in the state.
(The Week, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom formally submitted a letter to the White House asking for a major disaster declaration. In mid October President Donald Trump's administration rejected California’s request for disaster relief funds aimed at cleaning up the damage from six recent wildfires among the siege of deadly and destructive blazes that have scorched the state.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Sep 28, California to date had 811,141 cases of coronavirus and 15,614 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 102,517 cases and 1,494 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,147,070 with the death toll at 205,024.
(sfist.com, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Florida US immigration agents deported Alcedis Ortiz (42) to Colombia even as he awaited trial for sexually assaulting a girl (12).
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 28, In Pennsylvania officers found Mia Green (29), a Philadelphia resident and Black transgender woman, shot in the neck in the passenger’s seat of a car driven by Abdullah lbn El-Amin Jaamia (28) when he was stopped for running a stop sign. The next day Jaamia was charged with murder and related offenses.
(NBC, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 28, The US health regulator put a hold on Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc's plans to start final trials of its coronavirus vaccine as the agency seeks more information, including details on a delivery device used to inject genetic material into cells.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, General Motors confirmed that it will repay Ohio $28 million in state tax incentives after it closed its Lordstown Assembly plant in March 2019 and failed to retain 3,700 jobs in exchange for the credits.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Seventy world leaders signed the “Leaders Pledge for Nature" and vowed to take steps to halt the catastrophic human-made decline. Non-signers included President Donald Trump, his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro and Australian PM Scott Morrison.
(https://tinyurl.com/y64tmyrf)(NBC News, 10/16/20)
2020 Sep 28, Armenia and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 59 servicemen on their side have been killed so far.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Australian biotech company Ena Respiratory said that a nasal spray it is developing to improve the human immune system to fight common cold and flu significantly reduced the growth of the coronavirus in a recent study on animals. Australia has so far reported 875 deaths and just over 27,000 coronavirus cases, far less than the numbers reported in other developed countries.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Botswana extended its state of emergency for a further six months to combat the spread of COVID-19. The country has reported 3,172 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 16 deaths.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, A British judge restored Uber’s transportation license in London, one of the ride-hailing company’s most important global markets, where regulators had threatened to ban its cars for safety concerns.
(NY Times, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc said it would start building a new car plant in China's southern city of Guangzhou with 4 billion yuan ($590 million) in financing from the local government.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, The Czech Republic reported 1,305 new cases of coronavirus and 15 related deaths. The figures brought the total number of cases to 64,597 and deaths to 606 in the country of 10.7 million people.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Germany confirmed one more case of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg. There have been 36 confirmed cases since the first one on Sept. 10.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Greek authorities said 12 crew members on the Mein Schiff 6, a Maltese-flagged cruise ship carrying more than 1,500 people on a Greek islands tour, have tested positive for coronavirus and have been isolated on board. Health inspectors the next day said that an emergency docking order for a cruise ship near Athens can now be lifted after crew members suspected of having been infected with COVID-19 tested negative.
(AP, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases. The Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall total to 6,074,703. At least 1,039 deaths were recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Iraq a Katyusha rocket attack struck a residential home killing six civilians, all women and children. Security officials believed the rocket was intended for nearby Baghdad airport. Shiite militias aligned with Iran were believed responsible.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, SoftBank's robotics arm said it will bring a food service robot developed by California-based Bear Robotics to Japan as restaurants grapple with labor shortages and a new socially distanced norm as a result of the novel coronavirus. The robot named Servi will act as a sort of waiter.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Kenya a man died outside an emergency ward of Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, after he was not treated for hours by striking staff.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, In Libya masked militiamen abducted some 350 migrants from the town of al-Ajaylat, around 80 km west of the capital, Tripoli. Most of the migrants managed to escape while some others were released. After two weeks at least 60 migrants, including two dozen children, remained in “appalling" conditions.
(AP, 10/10/20)
2020 Sep 28, Pakistan’s anti-graft body arrested Shahbaz Sharif, the opposition leader of the Pakistan Muslim League party, over his alleged involvement in a money laundering case after a court rejected bail for him. The move came just before planned protests next month by his party seeking to force PM Imran Khan's resignation.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, The authorities in Pakistan indicted former President Asif Ali Zardari on money-laundering charges. His supporters said the charges were part of a wider trend targeting politicians opposed to PM Imran Khan. Zardari, the widower of former PM Benazir Bhutto, served as president from 2008 to 2013.
(NY Times, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 28, Saudi Arabia said its security forces uncovered a “terrorist cell" with alleged ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and have detained 10 people in connection.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 28, Zimbabwe’s schools reopened for pupils in two grades as part of a gradual process that will see all pupils return to class by early November. But many teachers did not report for work, as their union demanded that the government should first pay them a COVID-19 allowance and improve their salaries and working conditions.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, The first of three scheduled debates between Trump and Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and chaos as the Republican president repeatedly interrupted his Democratic rival with jabs that overshadowed any substantive discussion of the crises threatening the nation. Trump unleashed a torrent of fabrications and fear-mongering in a belligerent debate with Joe Biden, at one point claiming the US death toll would have been 10 times higher under the Democrat because he wanted open borders in the pandemic. Biden preached no such thing.
(AP, 9/29/20)(AP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 29, The White House blocked a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February, a step that would have displeased the politically powerful tourism industry in the crucial swing state of Florida.
(NY Times, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 29, The US Department of State said it is offering rewards for information on a trio of former Venezuelan officials in major drug-trafficking cases. They included Pedro Luis Martin-Oli