Portal:Current events/2016 August 2
August 2, 2016 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts
- Syrian Civil War
- A Syria Civil Defence volunteer search and rescue team says 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by toxic gas dropped from a helicopter on Saraqeb in rebel-held Idlib Governorate. (Reuters)
- Libyan Civil War
- A car bombing in the Al-Quwarsha area on the outskirts of Benghazi claims at least 23 lives. The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries says it is responsible. (AP via The New York Times) (The Irish Times)
Arts and culture
- Catholic bishops of Panama welcome the news that the next World Youth Day celebration is to be held in 2019 in Panama City. This location is the first diocese established in the Americas, in 1513. (Fides)
Disasters and accidents
- 2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Nida makes landfall near Hong Kong with Category 1 hurricane strength. (Weather.com)
- At least five people are killed and dozens injured when a charter bus swerved into a support pole on California Highway 99 near the town of Livingston in Merced County. The bus was headed to Pasco, Washington. (NBC News) (Los Angeles Times)
Politics and elections
- Three top staffers leave the Democratic National Committee 100 days before elections in early November as a result of the email leak. (Washington Examiner)
- Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The Chinese Supreme Court warns people caught fishing in Chinese waters could be jailed for up to a year. (Reuters)
- United States elections, 2016
- Incumbent Republican congressman Tim Huelskamp, an active Tea Party favorite with a confrontational, anti-establishment approach running for a fourth term, is defeated (56.5 - 43.5 percent) in the Kansas primary by obstetrician Roger Marshall. (AP) (McClatchy Washington Bureau via The Wichita Eagle)
- South Sudan President Salva Kiir fires six ministers allied to his long-time rival Riek Machar, replacing them with people linked to a breakaway faction of Machar's SPLM-IO party. (Reuters)