Portal:Current events/2021 July 30

July 30, 2021 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- Taliban insurgency
  - 2021 Taliban offensive
    - The Taliban enters Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand Province, capturing large areas of the city, according to a provincial government spokesman, who reported heavy fighting between government forces and the Islamist group as civilians flee the city. (Reuters)
2021 Gulf of Oman incident
- A Romanian captain and a British bodyguard are killed in a suicide drone attack on a Liberian-flagged Japanese-owned oil tanker, belonging to an Israeli company, near the coast of Oman. (Al Jazeera)
Two supporters of the Zambian political-leading party Patriotic Front are stabbed to death by supporters of the opposition party National Development in the capital Lusaka, amid an increasing tension over the imminent elections. Four people are arrested. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia
    - Cambodia imposes a two-week lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand as well as a nationwide night curfew in an effort to reduce the resurgence of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant. (Anadolu Agency)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, COVID-19 vaccination in Israel
    - Israel begins the world's first third-dose vaccination campaign for people over 60 years old, with president Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal receiving a third dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. (Haaretz)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
    - Japanese health minister Norihisa Tamura says that the country has entered an "extremely frightening" stage of the pandemic as the number of cases increases in Tokyo. The government also extends the state of emergency in the capital and expands it to three surrounding prefectures and the city of Osaka from August 2 to August 31. (BBC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines
    - The National Capital Region will be placed under the strictest Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in an effort to reduce the resurgence of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant. The ECQ will be in effect from August 6 to August 20. (ABS-CBN News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
    - Vietnam reports a record 8,649 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 137,062. (Vietnam Plus)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
    - Angela Merkel's cabinet approves a plan to require travellers over the age of 12 who have not been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 to show a negative COVID-19 test result regardless of whether they are travelling by airplane, car or train. People travelling to Germany from "virus variant areas" will also require a negative test result, even if they have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. These rules will be in effect beginning on August 1. (DW)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    - Moscow abolishes a widely-flouted requirement for people to wear gloves on public transport and in shops and other public places as the number of COVID-19 cases declines. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya
    - Kenya bans all public gatherings and in-person meetings, as well as extends the nationwide curfe] to from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. (Al Jazeera)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda
    - Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni eases its second nationwide lockdown that allow some business hubs, private and public transport to reopen and operated with restricted capacity limits due to drop of positivity rate of COVID-19 in the country. (Bloomberg)
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - The United States surpasses 100,000 daily reported cases for the first time since February 11. (The New York Times)

International relations

2021 Cuban protests
- The United States places sanctions on the Cuban police force and two of its police leaders. (CNBC)
Philippines–United States relations
- Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte suspends the termination process of the Visiting Forces Agreement, a military pact between the Philippines and the United States. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Hong Kong national security law
- Twenty-four-year-old Tong Ying-kit is sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted last week for driving his motorcycle into three riot police last year. (Reuters)
- Police arrest a 40-year-old man at a mall for booing the Chinese national anthem during the ceremony for Hong Kong's first gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Police added that the man also carried a Hong Kong colonial flag and that he was arrested on grounds of the man's aim to "incite hatred and politicize sports". (Reuters)
Immigration detention in Australia
- An Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker living among the community in Australia sues the Commonwealth government in the Federal Court for detaining him in two hotel rooms for over a year. This is the latest in a growing movement of refugees suing Australia for alleged human rights abuses. (The Guardian)
2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- The European Court of Justice confirms the lifting of parliamentary immunity of MEPs and Catalan independence leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, thereby allowing Spanish courts to prosecute and extradite them to Spain. (Euronews)
Western Togoland
- Charles Komi Kudzordzi, leader of the Home Study Group Foundation, is arrested by Ghanaian national security officials for declaring parts of the Volta Region independent in 2019. (GhanaWeb)