Israel strikes Hezbollah ammunition depot after the Lebanese group hit a kibbutz in a drone attack — 21 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 32 media reports (LINK)

Pope Francis accepts the resignation of a Colombian bishop mentioned in a book on sexual abuse — 21 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 26 media reports (LINK)

Tadej Pogacar seals Tour de France with historic Stage 21 Win: only 6th rider to complete the Giro-Tour double: Biniam Girmay of Eritrea wins the green (sprinting) jersey after Stage 12 win as first African rider to take a victory — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

— This year’s Tour culminated with a 33.7-kilometre trek from Monaco to Nice, an uncommon finishing point due to the impending Paris Olympics. It was the first time Le Tour had finished outside of Paris since 1905.

'I've lived everyone's dream': Mark Cavendish hints at snap retirement after last ever Tour de France stage — 22 July 2024 (LINK)

— If this was to be the 39-year-old's swansong, he departs as the most successful sprinter in the sport's history with 165 wins.

Vienna named the world's most liveable city (again) in 2024 with Europe dominating the top 3: Zurich 3rd, Geneva 5th — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

Donald Trump wastes no time fundraising off Joe Biden's exit from 2024 White House bid; "He just quit the race in complete disgrace!" — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

Israel responds to Houthi drone attack with airstrikes in Yemen, officials say — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

NATO to open an office in Geneva — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

— Elected officials from the Socialist Party and The Swiss People's Party (UDC/SVP) have been critical of the move. They argue that hosting a military organisation is at odds with Switzerland's status as a neutral nation.

Myanmar's civil war has seen a devastating increase in attacks on schools, researchers say — 20 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 26 media reports (LINK)

Long-awaited Chinese policy update presents no major shift: from developing advanced industries to improving the business environment — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

— The document also reiterated that markets will play a decisive role in resource allocation, that the government will work on legislation to improve conditions for the private sector, and flagged fiscal and financial reforms. Other policy targets included boosting affordable housing, improving job opportunities for young people and the standard of living for the elderly.

— Challenges have led some economists to urge Beijing to shift focus to boosting consumer demand and away from a debt-fuelled, investment-led model that funnels resources into manufacturing and infrastructure at the expense of households.

US Secret Service says it previously denied Trump requests for additional resources, New York Times reports — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

No evidence to support claims that extra security requests were denied ahead of Trump’s rally — 21 July 2024 (LINK)

Trump shooter flew drone over venue hours before attempted assassination, NBC source says — 20 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 24 media reports (LINK)

Missouri woman who served 43 years in prison is free after her murder conviction was overturned and judge threatened to hold the attorney general's office in contempt if they continued to fight against her release seeking to force her to serve additional years for decades-old prison assault cases — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

Startup develops method to safely recycle 99% of used solar panels: 'A small mine of precious elements' — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

I'm a microbiologist, and research shows these are likely to be the cleanest stalls in public bathrooms: the end stalls — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

Researchers discover surprising link between dishwashers and chronic illnesses: harmful effects of an ingredient in commercial rinse agents on the gastrointestinal tract — 20 July 2024 (LINK)

ICJ says Israel's settlement policy in occupied territories violates international law — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 14 media reports (LINK)

— The "transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel's maintenance of their presence" is "contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention", a panel of 15 judges from around the world said. It also said Israel's use of natural resources was "inconsistent" with its obligations under international law as an occupying power. The court added that Israel's practices and policies violate Palestinians' right to self-determination.

Britain to resume funding to UNRWA — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 31 media reports (LINK)

UN approves more transparent procedures for people and entities to get off its sanctions lists — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 20 media reports (LINK)

— The first change in 18 years, it authorizes a new "focal point" to directly engage with those seeking to get off sanctions lists and gather information from a variety of sources to share with the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions, which makes the decisions on delisting, she said. And it requires the reason for the committee's decision to be given to the petitioner.

— The resolution, co-sponsored by Malta and the United States, also authorizes the establishment of a new informal working group by the Security Council to examine ways to improve the effectiveness of U.N. sanctions.

— The U.S. complained of "a growing tendency to prematurely lift sanctions, when the threats that prompted their imposition in the first place still persist." The U.S. and its allies including South Korea and Japan have vehemently opposed Russian and Chinese proposals to ease sanctions on North Korea, which violates U.N. sanctions regularly with its ballistic missile tests and nuclear developments.

Bangladesh imposes nationwide curfew as deadly protests over government jobs escalate — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 47 media reports (LINK)

IOM: 40 migrants dead after boat catches fire off Haiti — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 49 media reports (LINK)

Ukrainian nationalist ex-MP shot dead in Lviv street — 19 July 2024 (LINK)

Botanists vote to remove racist Caffra reference (an Arabic word for “infidel” that is used as a racial slur against Black people) from more than 200 plants’ scientific names: replacement is afra as a nod to Africa — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 13 media reports (LINK)

— The move by the International Botanical Congress, agreed to at a meeting in Madrid, marks the first time that researchers have voted to eliminate offensive species names, Nature reported. The measure passed with 351 researchers voting in favor and 205 opposed.

— Botanists also agreed to create a special committee to review new species names and reject those seen as derogatory, such as those that honor despots or enslavers. The committee will only look at species named after 2026 and will not, to the disappointment of some researchers, review existing names.

3,000 US flights are canceled as global computer outage wreaks havoc on businesses, 911 systems and government agencies — 19 July 2024 (LINK)

Nielsen: Trump convention speech on 18 July attracted an average of 25.4 million viewers. Fox News achieved a record for convention coverage: 10 million viewers, the highest for cable news on a single night — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 9 media reports (LINK)

Trump ends longest speech in convention history (93 minutes) with kiss from Melania: introduced by Hulk Hogan, ex-president mentions Biden only twice — (LINK)

— Throughout the speech, Trump peddled many of his oft-repeated arguments, including the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen and that the world is on the brink of "World War III".

CNN Fact check: Trump makes more than 20 false claims in RNC acceptance speech — 19 July 2024 (LINK)

— Many of the false claims were ones Trump has made before, some of them for years. They spanned a wide variety of topics, including the economy, immigration, crime, foreign policy and elections. Some of them were wild lies, others smaller exaggerations. Some were in his prepared text (like the absurd claim that he left the Biden administration a world at peace), while he ad-libbed others (such as his usual lies that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election and that the US is experiencing the worst inflation it has ever had).

Winklevoss Twins Donate $1 Million in Bitcoin to Unseat Elizabeth Warren — 19 July 2024 (LINK)

Russia sentences US journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in maximum security prison — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 11 media reports (LINK)

— Gershkovich, 32, was arrested on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S. Gershkovich was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War.

IOM: 40 migrants dead after boat catches fire off Haiti — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 49 media reports (LINK)

South Korea restarts blaring propaganda broadcasts to retaliate against North’s trash balloon flying — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 56 media reports (LINK)

Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines and broadcasters — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 255 media reports (LINK)

CrowdStrike says source of IT outage 'identified' and 'fix deployed': massive IT outage was caused by "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" and not by a cyberattack — 19 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 76 media reports (LINK)

Eurovision 2025 host city: Basel or Geneva — 19 July 2024 (LINK)

Amnesty condemns Israel's 'mass incommunicado detention and torture' of Palestinians — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

Dubai princess announces shocking divorce on Instagram: 'You are occupied with other companions' — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

— The princess' post sent shockwaves across the UAE, with many claiming that the message must have been the result of Mahra 's account being hacked — despite the fact that the post remains active. Mahra married her husband last May and the couple welcomed a daughter just two months ago. Her mother, Greek national Zoe Grigorakos, is separated from the Dubai ruler. The princess, who has nearly half a million followers on Instagram, has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights in the UAE.

Nigeria more than doubles the minimum wage for government workers to $44 after strikes and negotiations — 18 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 14 media reports (LINK)

South Korean FA files complaint to FIFA after Como player’s alleged racist remark directed at Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Hwang Hee-chan during a recent preseason match in Spain sparks outrage — 18 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: media reports (LINK)

Rogue waves can strike without warning. These scientists found a way to predict them: a computer system that can use measurements from buoys to correctly predict 73% of abnormally large waves five minutes before they occur — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

National Review → Switzerland's ghoulish 'suicide pod' prepares to debut — — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

— The Sarco device, short for sarcophagus, is a sealed capsule which enables the person inside to press a button that rapidly replaces the oxygen inside the pod with nitrogen gas, resulting in death by hypoxia.

— "Philip Nitschke, the infamous euthanasia advocate and Sarco's inventor, noted that the release of nitrogen gas in the sealed capsule is an irreversible process that first leads to a sense of euphoria, then several minutes of unconsciousness, followed soon after by death."

— The suicide pod has already been banned in two Swiss cantons. The highly mobile and cheap-to-use killing device which requires a payment of just 18 Swiss francs.

— When Alabama in January conducted the world's first execution by means of nitrogen hypoxia, advocacy groups were quick to condemn the execution method as violent, inhumane, and degrading. United Nations experts went so far as to suggest that execution by nitrogen hypoxia could constitute a violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

UN climate talks leader says financial help for poor nations is urgent goal of negotiations — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 24 media reports — (LINK)

Al Jazeera: At least 81 killed in 24 hours of Israeli raids on Gaza — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

— "All rules of war have been broken in Gaza", with at least eight schools housing displaced Palestinians attacked by Israel in last 10 days, says UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

Mohammed Hamed Jabara, a senior commander in the military wing of the Islamic Group organization, was killed Thursday morning in an airstrike on his vehicle in the Bekaa district of southern Lebanon, Sky News Arabia reported. The Group, which positions itself as a "Sunni option for resistance against Israel," has close ties with Hezbollah and Hamas — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

Amnesty condemns Israel's 'mass incommunicado detention and torture' of Palestinians — 18 July 2024 (LINK)

Biden tests positive for COVID, cancels speaking engagement on Strip — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 385 media reports — (LINK)

US military pier for carrying aid to Gaza will be dismantled after weather and security problems — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 66 media reports — (LINK)

South Korea selected to build at least 2 new nuclear reactors in Czech Republic — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 25 media reports — (LINK)

Syrian official who oversaw prisons with widespread allegations of abuse arrested by US officials — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 53 media reports — (LINK)

Senators told Secret Service had flagged gunman as suspicious hour before Trump rally shooting — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 15 media reports — (LINK)

Elon Musk says SpaceX and X headquarters moving to Texas, blames California trans student privacy law — 17 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 156 media reports — (LINK)

— Musk changed his own residence in 2021 from California to Texas, where there is no state income tax on individuals.

Catchup: America's most trustworthy news organizations in 2024 — 17 July 2024 (LINK)

— local tv (62%), local newspapers (58%), abc, BBC, CBS (52%), New York Times (50%), MSNBC, Wall Street Journal (49%), CNN (48%), NPR, USA Today (47%), Washington Post (46%), Fox News (43%), yahoo news (40%), Huffpost (39%)

— Among this sample of companies, HuffPost is the least trusted news brand. The company is owned by Buzzfeed Inc. Fox News is the most polarizing brand listed, with an equal 43% share for "trust" and "don't trust"

Special counsel appeals dismissal of Trump classified documents case: The Florida judge who just gave Trump a pass in documents case will now be judged herself — 17 July 2024 (LINK)

6 foreign nationals, including 2 Vietnamese Americans, found dead in hotel in downtown Bangkok, with poisoning a possibility — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 162 media reports — (LINK)

Self-exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui convicted n U.S. court of defrauding followers after fleeing to US — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 62 media reports — (LINK)

— A critic of the Chinese Communist party, he was an associate of Stephen Bannon, an ex-White House chief strategist under former president Donald Trump. Guo goes by several aliases, including Miles Guo, Miles Kwok and "Brother Seven". He was named as Ho Wan Kwok when he was indicted in 2023. He has been in prison since his arrest in March 2023.

Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez guilty of taking bribes in cash and gold and acting as Egypt's foreign agent — 16 July 2024 (LINK)

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive tax-deductible donations from US and Israel — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 24 media reports — (LINK)

More than 60 children detained, beaten and tortured, and 1,000 convicted of crimes, in El Salvador in past 2 years under state of emergency, Human Rights Watch says — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 17 media reports — (LINK)

At least 72 people killed in a militia attack near Congo's capital in a conflict over land on 13 July — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 20 media reports — (LINK)

North Korea diplomat flees to South in highest ranking envoy defection since 2016 — report — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 48 media reports — (LINK)

Former White House and CIA official is indicted for acting as South Korea agent — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 31 media reports — (LINK)

Trump receives enough delegate votes to officially be Republicans' nominee, announces Vance as running mate: Donald Trump enters Republican convention hall with a bandaged ear and gets a hero's welcome — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 225 media reports — (LINK)

35 die, 230 injured in storm that brought heavy rainfall to eastern Afghanistan, Taliban says — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 32 media reports — (LINK)

Florida Judge dismisses Trump's classified documents case — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 489 media reports — (LINK)

— Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that special counsel Jack Smith's appointment violated two key provisions of the U.S. Constitution. In a 93-page ruling, Cannon wrote that Smith's prosecution of the former president "breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme — the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law."

Self-exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui convicted n U.S. court of defrauding followers after fleeing to US — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 62 media reports — (LINK)

— A critic of the Chinese Communist party, he was an associate of Stephen Bannon, an ex-White House chief strategist under former president Donald Trump. Guo goes by several aliases, including Miles Guo, Miles Kwok and "Brother Seven". He was named as Ho Wan Kwok when he was indicted in 2023. He has been in prison since his arrest in March 2023.

Provisional election results show Rwanda's Kagame cruising to victory, an outcome that was expected — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 34 media reports — (LINK)

Gambia parliament rejects bill to end ban on female genital mutilation — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 57 media reports — (LINK)

North Korea diplomat flees to South in highest ranking envoy defection since 2016 — report — 16 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 48 media reports — (LINK)

Law enforcement spotted Trump shooter nearly 30 minutes before shots fired, NBC affiliate reports — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 17 media reports — (LINK)

Special counsel Jack Smith to appeal Trump classified documents case dismissal by Judge Aileen Cannon — 15 July 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 485 media reports — (LINK)