Portal:Current events/2018 June 29
June 29, 2018 (Friday)
Business and economy
- BAE Systems is awarded a £19.6bn contract to build nine next-generation Hunter-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy with construction expected to begin in 2020. (BBC)
- Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland confirms that tariffs on C$16.6bn worth of U.S. goods will take effect on July 1, as originally planned, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. (Reuters via MSN)
- Toys "R" Us officially completes its liquidation sales, effectively ending up out of business after 70 years. (Business Insider)
Disasters and accidents
- 2018 United Kingdom wildfires
- As the Saddleworth Moor wildfire continues to burn for a sixth day, the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have requested for military assistance in fighting the fire to be extended for at least another three days. (HuffPost)
- A 22-year-old man from Bolton is arrested on suspicion of arson in relation to a large wildfire that is now burning on Winter Hill in Lancashire. The fire has now destroyed four square kilometres of moorland close to a radio transmission mast and is continuing to spread. (BBC)
- NI Water have introduced a hosepipe ban in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1995 due to the threat of drought. Elsewhere, firefighters are tackling a large wildfire in Glenshane Pass for a third day. (BBC)
- Volcanoes in Indonesia
- Ash from Mount Agung's first volcanic eruption since late-2017 results in the closure of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport until at least 7 pm local time (11:00 UTC). The ash cloud cancels 48 flights, affecting 8,334 passengers. (Reuters)
- Eighteen people were killed and 14 others injured in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a truck on a highway in central China. (IOL)
International relations
- United States–European Union relations
- The U.S. Ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., announces his resignation from that post because of U.S. President Donald Trump's comments about NATO and the European Union. He was appointed to the post in December 2015. (BBC) (Foreign Policy)
Law and crime
- Sex trafficking in the United States, Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights organization, files a legal challenge to the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), claiming it trespasses on free speech laws and hinders attempts to help victims and prosecute traffickers. (BBC)
- Cannabis in Luxembourg
- Luxembourg legalizes the use of medical cannabis for patients suffering from diseases such as cancer. (Luxembourg Times)
Politics and elections
- United Nations member states elect António Vitorino as the director general of the International Organization for Migration, becoming the first non-American to hold this position since the 1960s. (The Guardian)
Science and technology
- Unmanned spaceflights to the International Space Station
- SpaceX successfully launches Commercial Resupply Services payload CRS-15 via a Falcon 9 rocket to dock with the International Space Station. The cargo includes CIMON, a head-shaped AI robot designed by the German Aerospace Center to assist crew onboard the ISS. (NASA Spaceflight)
- A NASA study finds exoplanets Kepler-186f and Kepler-62f have stable axial tilts to allow for moderate seasons, making it more likely that the planets are habitable. (CNET)