Portal:Current events/2021 June 30

June 30, 2021 (Wednesday)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland
- U.S. fashion retailer Gap announces that it will be closing all of its 81 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company will continue to provide an online store for British and Irish customers. (BBC)
UK Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announces that due to a move towards a "much larger mix of renewables", the use of coal for electricity production will end a year earlier than planned, in October 2024. (Sky News)
American financial services company Robinhood is fined US$70 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for presenting misleading information to investors and failing to act on "systemic supervisory failures", making it the largest fine ever issued by the regulatory organization. (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

2021 Western North America heat wave
- The number of sudden deaths due to the extreme hot temperatures in British Columbia, Canada, increases to 486. The death toll represents a 195% increase of the 165 sudden deaths that would normally occur over this period. While the official cause of death for each deceased person has not yet been established, many are linked to the hot temperatures. (BBC)
- The deaths of 63 people in Oregon, United States, are also linked to the extreme hot temperatures that are affecting the region. (OPB)
The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, warns of a "biblical" famine due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and says that the disaster already exists in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, while also warning that conditions are of "particular concern" in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. (Deccan Herald)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia
    - Cambodia reports a record 1,130 new cases and 27 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 50,385 and the nationwide death toll to 602. (Khmer Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia
    - Indonesia reports a record 21,807 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2.18 million. (detikHealth)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Laos
    - Laos reports its first three imported cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Thai migrant workers from Champasack. (The Laotian Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea
    - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un berate the Politburo for the country's failed COVID-19 pandemic responses which resulted to an unspecified "great crisis". (The Guardian)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
    - COVID-19 vaccination in Singapore
      - Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen says that the Singapore Armed Forces will reach “herd immunity” status by mid-July after 92% of their troops have been vaccinated. (The Strait Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
    - Thailand reports a record 53 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 2,023. (Bangkok Post)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    - Russia reports a record for the second consecutive day of 669 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 135,214. (Barron's)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    - The United Kingdom reports 26,068 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the highest single-day total of cases since January 29. (Sky News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
    - COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia
      - Over five million people in British Columbia have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. (CHEK News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
      - U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says that the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson may be effective against the Lineage B.1.617 Delta variant. (CNBC)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Nebraska
      - Nebraska will end their COVID-19 response dashboard after the state exits their state of emergency at 11:59 pm tonight. (AP)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
  - The Northern Territory lockdown extends to the town of Alice Springs as cases of COVID-19 spread from the Darwin cluster. (The Guardian)
China is declared malaria-free by the WHO, following an eradication effort that began in 1950. (DW)

International relations

In a joint statement, UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab and his German counterpart Heiko Maas call for Germany to permanently join the United Nations Security Council, after outgoing German UN ambassador Christoph Heusgen said earlier in the day that this needs to happen in order to reflect the shifting global power balance. (DW) (Reuters)

Law and crime

Aftermath of the 2021 United States Capitol attack
- January 6 commission, United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack
  - The U.S. House of Representatives votes 222–190 to establish a committee to investigate the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol, with Liz Cheney (WY-1) and Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) being the only two Republicans to vote for the committee. (NBC News)
- An Alabama man becomes the third member of the Oath Keepers to plead guilty for his role in the Capitol riot. (NBC News)
Women's rights in Yemen
- The trial of Yemeni actress and model Intisar al-Hammadi begins in Sanaa. al-Hammadi stands accused of "indecent acts" for posting photos of herself without a headscarf on social media. She was arrested in February by Houthi authorities. Human Rights Watch denounces the trial as unfair and says that al-Hammadi was subjected to physical and verbal abuse, racist insults and forced to sign documents while blindfolded and also being threatened to undergo a virginity test. (BBC)
2021 Canadian Indian residential schools gravesite discoveries
- The discovery of 182 unmarked graves at the site of the Kootenay Indian Residential School near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, is announced, weeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a similar residential school. (CTV News Vancouver)
Bill Cosby sexual assault cases
- Former American comedian Bill Cosby is released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns his conviction. (AP)
Legal affairs of Donald Trump
- A grand jury in Manhattan indicts the Trump organization, as well as its CFO Allen Weisselberg. (The New York Times)
LGBT rights in the United States
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces that the U.S. passport will include an option for a third gender, and that effective immediately, applicants can indicate their gender without having to provide medical proof. (NPR)
Saudi Arabian state-run news channel Al Arabiya reports that authorities seized a shipment of 4.5 million Captagon amphetamine pills, smuggled inside several orange cartons, at a port in Jeddah. (Al Jazeera)
The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals sentences both Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanišić and his deputy Franko "Frenki" Simatović to 12 years in prison for providing support to Serb paramilitary groups that carried out ethnic cleansings against the Croat and Bosniak populations in the Bosnian town of Šamac during the Bosnian War. The case against the two men was the longest international war crime case in history, having started in 2003, and marks the first time that senior officials in the government of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević were convicted for war crimes committed during the war. (The Guardian)
On the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Sudanese coup d'état, Sudanese authorities arrest at least 200 members of deposed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party in the early morning for allegedly promoting instability. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

President of Algeria Abdelmadjid Tebboune appoints Minister of Finance Aymen Benabderrahmane as the new Prime Minister. (Al Jazeera)
Hundreds of protestors march in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and call for the resignation of the transitional government after the government reduced bread and fuel subsidies in order to fulfill its obligations with the International Monetary Fund. (Al Jazeera)

Sports

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports, COVID-19 vaccine
- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledges help to the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Niue and Tonga to strengthen their health systems while vowing to the leaders of those nations to host a "safe and secure" 2020 Summer Olympics. (Kyodo News)
The Court of Arbitration for Sport bans Bahraini 400 m-runner Salwa Eid Naser from participating in the sport for two years, thus banning her from the Tokyo Olympics, for not taking doping tests between March 2019 and January 2020. This overturns the ruling made by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal last October, who absolved her based on a technicality. (Al Jazeera)
American chess player Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest Grandmaster (GM) in the world, at age 12, after defeating Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca in Budapest. (ESPN)