Portal:Current events/2020 July 26

• Syrian civil war
  • A bombing at an outdoor market in Ras al-Ayn, al-Hasakah, Syria, kills at least eight people and injures 19 others. Turkey, which occupies the border town, blames Kurdish insurgents for the attack. (AP)
• Afghan peace process
  • The Taliban accuse the government of re-capturing freed Taliban prisoners, a claim Kabul denies as "incorrect". A Taliban spokesman tells the government to "bear responsibility for the consequences", as fears grow that some of the prisoners are returning to the battlefield. As part of the peace process, the government has freed around 5,000 prisoners. (CNA)
• War in Donbass
  • The government of Ukraine concludes a ceasefire deal with rebel forces, which will begin at midnight. The conflict in Eastern Ukraine has been going on since 2014, and has killed over 14,000 people. (AP)

• 2020 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Hurricane Hanna
    • Hurricane Hanna weakens to a tropical depression after making landfall in southern Texas and northern Mexico. (CNN)
• Two adults and a baby are killed when a Piper PA-32 crashes in West Jordan, Utah. Four other people are injured, three critically. (CNN)
• Malaysia launches a search and rescue operation as 24 Rohingya are feared dead off the coast of Langkawi. According to the authorities, the people tried to swim to the coast when their boats could not make it to land. (Reuters)
• At least 15 people are dead and 21 others injured in a bus accident near Phong Nha, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. Some local officials said that the driver had possibly lost control when making a turn. (VnExpress)

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
      • Da Nang becomes Vietnam's first province or centrally governed city to reinstate social distancing measures after two new local infection COVID-19 cases with unknown source of transmission. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea
      • North Korea declares a state of emergency after its first case of COVID-19 is confirmed. The government claims the patient defected to South Korea then returned to North Korea. (The Daily Beast)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • Australia reports its deadliest day since COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, with 10 new deaths in the last 24 hours; all of them in Victoria, which also reports its highest one day increase of new deaths. (The Age)

• George Floyd protests in Australia
  • The Supreme Court of New South Wales grants the New South Wales Police permission to block a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney that is due to be held on July 28. The Supreme Court ruled that the rally is a prohibited public assembly, but police agreed to a stay stopping the order taking effect until 10am on July 27 pending the lodging of any appeal. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• French police arrest a 39-year-old Rwandan refugee who is charged with arson after he admitted setting fires inside Nantes Cathedral on July 18, which destroyed the 17th-century grand organ and stained-glass windows. (BBC News)

• 2020 Thai protests
  • An event called "Let's run, Hamtaro" is organised at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok. It was initially an online activism, later spread via Twitter, and eventually gathered around 3,000 people. The event consisted of running around the monument whilst singing a jingle from Hamtaro, a famous Japanese cartoon, with some amendments to the lyrics as a satire to political corruption. The well-known lyrics from Hamtaro; "the most yummy things of all are... sunflower seeds!", was amended into a satire "the most yummy things of all are... citizens' taxes!". (Thairath) (Reuters)

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on association football, 2020 V.League 1
  • The Vietnamese national football league becomes the first in the world to be postponed for a second time due to COVID-19. (VnExpress)