Portal:Current events/2014 July 7

• 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine
  • Minister of Defense of Ukraine Valeriy Heletey says that special forces have retaken the city of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk from armed insurgents. (Presidential administration)
  • Ukrainian forces retake Artemivsk and Druzhkivka from pro-Russian armed separatists. (BBC News)
• Operation Protective Edge
  • Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas claims responsibility for the over 80 rockets fired into southern Israel Monday evening; the Israeli Air Force carries out overnight airstrikes killing nine Palestinian militants. In response to escalating rocket fire, the Israel Defense Forces calls up 1,500 reservists as southern towns declare a state of emergency. (Haaretz)(Jerusalem Post)
• Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal)
  • Sittings of the Council of Representatives of Iraq are postponed for five weeks as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces kill an Iraqi Army general on the outskirts of Baghdad. (Reuters)

• A Russian-made Mil Mi-17 crashes in the Thạch Thất District of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi with 16 people dead. (AFP via GlobalPost), (BBC News)
• 2014 Pacific typhoon season
  • Japan braces for the impact of Typhoon Neoguri which is expected to hit Okinawa and then Kyushu on Tuesday. (Market Watch)
• A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits southern Mexico and Guatemala, causing at least three deaths. (Wall Street Journal)

• Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, says that if allegations that a German intelligence officer was working for the United States are true, it would be a "clear contradiction" of trust between allies. (AP via US News and World Report)

• An antitrust trial begins pitting the U.S. Justice Department against American Express over tactics the latter has employed in the credit card market. (Reuters)
• Judge Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania approves a preliminary settlement between the National Football League and lawyers for 4,500 former players over damages caused by concussion. (New York Times)

• Afghan presidential election, 2014
  • A preliminary count indicates that former finance minister Ashraf Ghani is favourite to win the election. (Euronews)
• Senegal's president Macky Sall appoints his close aid Mahammed Dionne as the third prime minister in Sall's time in office, following the resignation of Aminata Touré. (Al Jazeera)
• The alliance between the Israel's right-wing parties Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu is dissolved, reducing the ruling party's share of seats in the Knesset to just 20 out of 120. (Times of Israel)
• Thousands rally in Nairobi against the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta's rule.(AP)
• Europeans elect German neo-Nazi leader Udo Voigt to the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs Committee. (Jerusalem Post)

• The prehistoric bird Pelagornis sandersi is identified as the largest flying bird yet discovered. (BBC News)