Portal:Current events/2023 June 29

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Myanmar civil war
  • The Tatmadaw carries out an air strike in the Sagaing Region, Myanmar killing at least ten civilians and injuring more than a dozen others, according to local officials and eyewitnesses. Thirteen homes are also destroyed according to officials. (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

• 2023 Canadian wildfires
  • Smoke from the 2023 Canadian wildfires
    • Smoke from the ongoing Canadian wildfires is reported to have entered the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, Vermont, South Carolina, Arkansas and even small parts of Florida and Mississippi. (CT Insider) (ABC News)
    • Smoke from the Canadian wildfires is confirmed by satellite data to have reached the United Kingdom, according to the Met Office. (BBC News)
• Seven people are killed and seven others are missing after floods, followed by a tornado, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, strike Durban. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

• Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war
  • The United Nations General Assembly approves the creation of an independent body to investigate Syrian civil war-related missing persons. (AFP via France 24)
• 2023 Chinese balloon incident
  • The United States Department of Defense says it has assessed that the Chinese balloon spotted over the United States and alleged to be a spy balloon did not collect information over the United States. (The Guardian)
• Burkina Faso bans French news channel La Chaîne Info for three months for allegedly disseminating fake news. (AFP via The Manila Times)

Law and crime

• Killing of Nahel Merzouk
  • Rioters set fires across several neighborhoods in Cayenne, French Guiana, and a government employee is killed by a stray bullet. Prefect Thierry Queffelec announces the suspension of the city's public transportation system and a temporary ban on the sale of gasoline at night. (ABC News)
  • Rioting continues for a third night across France with at least 100 people being arrested as 40,000 police officers are deployed to tackle the unrest. A town hall is set on fire in Clichy-sous-Bois, while supermarkets and other shops are looted by gangs in Nantes and Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis. (BBC News)
• Islamic scarf controversy in France
  • France's top administrative court upholds a ban on female footballers wearing Islamic headscarves. (AFP via France 24)
• Rwanda asylum plan
  • The Court of Appeal rejects the British government's plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda, deeming the plan to be unlawful. (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
• Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
  • In a 6–3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that race can no longer be considered a factor in university admissions, effectively ending affirmative action in higher learning. However, the court also rules that race considerations are still permitted for military academy admissions. (CBS News)
• Protests against Quran desecration in Sweden
  • Dozens of people storm the compound of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, after an Iraqi living in Sweden sets fire to a copy of the Quran. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• Turkmenistan inaugurates its first smart city, Arkadag, named after former president Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow. (AFP via The Manila Times)

Science and technology

• Billionaire space race
  • American spaceflight company Virgin Galactic successfully launches Galactic 01, its first private spaceflight, from Spaceport America in New Mexico, United States. (AFP via SCMP)
• The NANOGrav consortium announces detection of a cosmic gravitational wave background in the signals from pulsars. (Scientific American)