New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Jul 1: Moscow: Russian voters approved changes to the constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to hold power until 2036, but the weeklong plebiscite that concluded Wednesday was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.

Jul 2: Hpakant (Myanmar): At least 162 people were killed on Thursday in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, the worst in a series of deadly accidents at such sites in recent years that critics blame on the government's failure to take action against unsafe conditions.

Jul 3: Beijing: Chinese tech giant unicorn ByteDance Ltd. is anticipating a loss of over USD 6 billion after three of its apps, including the hugely popular video app TikTok, were banned by India this week, a media report here said.

Jul 4: London: Bars, pubs, restaurants, cinemas and hairdressers across England began opening up on what has been branded “Super Saturday” due to the coronavirus lockdown measures being significantly eased.

Jul 5: Berlin: The World Health Organization says it is ending a trial into whether anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helps patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

Jul 6: Dubai: Some 8 lakh Indians could be forced to leave Kuwait after a parliamentary committee approved a draft expat quota bill seeking to gradually slash the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country, according to media reports.

Jul 7: Rio de Janeiro: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he has tested positive for COVID-19 after months of downplaying the coronavirus's severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country.

Jul 8: Washington/Beijing: The US has announced new visa bans on senior Chinese officials involved in restricting access to foreigners to the sensitive region of Tibet and reaffirmed its support for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibetans, opening another point of friction amid tense relations between Washington and Beijing.

Jul 9: Washington: More than 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a historically high pace that shows that many employers are still laying people off in the face of a resurgent coronavirus.

Jul 10: Singapore: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was re-elected from his 17 Group Representation Constituency (GRC) of Ang Mo Kio, as the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) is set for a big win in the general elections held on Friday.

Jul 11: Washington: President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president's own conduct.

Jul 12: Islamabad: Pakistan has restored the bank accounts of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his four top aides, a media report said on Sunday.

Jul 13: St. Petersburg: Tensions mounted over how the United States is grappling with a resurgent coronavirus outbreak Monday, as global health officials warned that the pandemic will only intensify worldwide unless officials adopt comprehensive strategies to combat it.

Jul 14: London: Ending days of speculation, the UK government on Tuesday declared that wearing a face mask or face covering will become mandatory in shops across England from July 24 and a fine of up to 100 pounds would be imposed on those not complying with the rule as the country eases out of the coronavirus lockdown.

Jul 15: Washington: In a surprise U-turn, the Trump administration has dropped its controversial plan to deport hundreds and thousands of international students, including Indians, if their universities switch to online-only classes in this fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jul 16: Beijing: China's GDP bounced back by posting 3.2 per cent growth in the second quarter after a record 6.8 per cent slump in the first quarter due to the coronavirus crisis, avoiding a recession in the world's second biggest economy.

Jul 17: Mito (Japan): A return of stringent coronavirus restrictions in Israel, another daily record of reported cases in Japan's capital and outbreaks in remote areas such as China's Xinjiang region underscored Friday the ongoing battle to quash COVID-19 flare-ups as the world's latest hot spots pushed the confirmed global case tally toward 14 million.

Jul 18: Brussels: On a terrace overlooking sun-kissed Brussels, European Union leaders felt Saturday they were finally closing in on a deal for an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro (USD 2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund, despite tensions running high after months of battling the pandemic.

Jul 19: Peshawar: A rare life-sized statue of Buddha that was smashed into pieces with a sledgehammer by construction workers in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was nearly 1,700 years old, a senior official has said.

Jul 20: London: A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and induces a strong immune response within the body, scientists announced on Monday after the first phase of "promising" human trials against the deadly disease that has infected over 1.45 crore people and claimed more than six lakh lives across the world.

Jul 21: Washington: The Justice Department on Tuesday accused two Chinese hackers of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars of trade secrets from companies across the world and more recently targeting firms developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Jul 22: New York: The global tally of people infected with the coronavirus neared 15 million on Wednesday, while in the worst-hit pandemic hot spot of the United States, President Donald Trump warned the pandemic would “get worse before it gets better.”

Jul 23: Beijing: China successfully launched its first Mars probe on Thursday, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission, taking an ambitious step towards planetary exploration of the solar system.

Jul 24: Beijing: China on Friday ordered the US to close down its consulate in Chengdu in retaliation to Washington's decision to shut the Chinese mission in Houston, further straining the already tense bilateral ties.

Jul 25: Colombo: The Reserve Bank of India has signed necessary documents for extending a USD 400 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka to boost the island nation's draining foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian High Commission here said on Saturday.

Jul 26: Washington: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has topped 16 million.

Jul 27: Beijing/Chengdu: China on Monday said it took control of the US consulate in Chengdu after it was formally closed as per Beijing's directive in retaliation to America's move to shut down the Chinese diplomatic mission in Houston.

Jul 28: United Nations: Archana Soreng, a climate activist from India, has been named by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to his new advisory group comprising young leaders who will provide perspectives and solutions to tackle the worsening climate crisis, as the global body mobilises action as part of the COVID-19 recovery efforts.

Jul 29: London: Punjab National Bank International Limited (PNBIL) has logged a big win in a UK High Court in its pursuit of around USD 22 million in unpaid loans, setting a precedent for other enforcement cases brought by Indian banks against promoters or guarantors in English courts.

Jul 30: Washington: The US has recorded over 150,000 Covid-19 deaths, another grim milestone that comes amidst warning from a top Indian-American physician that the country has failed to arrest the spread of the deadly pandemic.

Jul 31: Beijing: China on Friday formally launched full global services of its BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to rival the widely-used American GPS and provide independent navigation structure for its increasingly modernising military. PTI

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)