July 20, 2018 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2018 Gaza border protests
- The Israel Defense Forces engage in a gunfight with Hamas' military wing after an Israeli soldier is killed by a Palestinian sniper; four Hamas members are killed. Israel responds to the incident with strikes on Hamas targets across Gaza. (BBC) (The New York Times)
- Three rockets are fired at Israeli communities from Gaza. Two of them are intercepted by the Iron Dome. (CNN)
Arts and culture
- Weinstein effect
- James Gunn is fired as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after the emergence of old tweets where he joked about subjects like pedophilia and rape. (Time)
Disasters and accidents
- Marine accidents in 2018
- An Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation into the collision between container ship MV Beijing Bridge and trawler FV Saxon Onward concludes both vessels saw each other in the lead-up to the collision but neither took appropriate avoiding action in time, with evasive manoeuvres by the cargo ship increasing the collision risk. (The Maritime Executive)
- Smoke from a brush fire reduces visibility and the OPP temporarily closes a 130-kilometre section of Ontario Highway 17 between Mattawa and Petawawa, the primary route of the Trans-Canada Highway through the province. (Ottawa Citizen)
Law and crime
- Impeachment of Park Geun-hye
- Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye is sentenced to an additional eight years for abusing state funds and violating election laws. (CBC)
- A man attacks people on a bus in Lübeck, Germany, prompting an evacuation of the vehicle. Six people are hurt by a knife, one is punched and two fall down; three are critically wounded. Police find a smoldering non-explosive backpack at the scene. The Iranian-born suspect is arrested. (BBC) (CBC) (RFERL)
- Hackers steal the personal data of 1.5 million Singaporeans through the national public health care system. Officials say Prime Minister Hsien Loong Lee's data is the target of the breach. (Channel NewsAsia)
- Microsoft reports that at least three United States congressional candidates have been targeted by hackers in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- 2017–18 Iranian protests
- Outside President Hassan Rouhani's office in Tehran, a group of Iranian girls severely burned in a 2012 school fire protest unequal diyah by the government toward their medical bills, which some say is an inalienable right. Their lawyer says Iran's policy of paying half diyah to women is "unfair and discriminatory". (PayvAnd)
- People's Party (Spain) leadership election, 2018
- The XIX Congress of the People's Party begins, which will elect the new party leader and successor of former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The candidates are former Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and the party's deputy secretary of communication, Pablo Casado. (Reuters)