Wednesday, June 13th, 2022 

Inflation rises to 9.2 percent in the United States, the highest level in 40 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   

The euro’s value against the U.S. dollar falls below parity for the first time in 20 years. (Reuters) 

The Bank of Canada raises its benchmark interest rate from 1.5 to 2.5 percent, the single largest increase since 1998 amid surging inflation. (CBC) 

The European Union allows Russia to resume the transit of sanctioned goods by rail to its exclave of Kaliningrad following Russian threats against Lithuania. However, the transit of military equipment through Lithuanian territory remains prohibited, according to the European Commission. 

Heavy Russian shelling is reported in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, with at least one person killed and five others injured in the largely evacuated town. (The Guardian) 

North Korea recognizes the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, becoming the third nation to do so, after Russia and Syria. (Reuters) 

As a response, Ukraine suspends diplomatic relations with North Korea (MFA Ukraine) 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife are prevented from fleeing the country to Dubai by airport staff at Bandaranaike International Airport amid nationwide protests. G. Rajapaksa has not given his official resignation yet. (CNN) 

Rajapaksa subsequently flees the country on a military aircraft to the Maldives, formally ending his rule of Sri Lanka. His brother, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, also flees the country. (BBC News) 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirms that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country to the Maldives and declares a state of emergency and a curfew as the military fire tear gas at the protesters. (Al Jazeera)

Protesters storm the Prime Minister’s office in Colombo, demanding his immediate resignation. (Reuters) 

A 20-year-old woman who is a campaigner for women’s rights in Sudan appeals to the High Court to overturn her death sentence by stoning for adultery, the first case in nearly a decade. (The Guardian) 

Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt are eliminated from the race in the first round of voting. (BBC News) 

A three-year-long independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation finds that over 1,000 children in Telford, Shropshire, England, were sexually exploited beginning in the 1980s. Teachers and youth workers were discouraged from reporting child sexual abuse and police were nervous that investigating the abusers would inflame racial tensions. (Reuters)

Protesters in Panama continue blocking streets and railways, mainly in Chiriquí and Veraguas Provinces, rejecting the concession by president Laurentino Cortizo of freezing fuel prices. (TeleMetro) 

Tuesday,  July 12th, 2022 

NASA releases the first full-color image taken by James Webb Space Telescope, showing a segment of a galaxy clusterfuck 4.6 billion light-years away from Earth. (The Verge) 

The Russian-appointed military-civilian administration leader of Velykyi Burluk in Kharkiv Oblast, Yevgeny Yunakov, is assassinated in a car bombing. (Reuters) 

A massive explosion occurs in the city of Nova Kakhovka after Ukrainian forces destroy a Russian arms depot. Russian news agency TASS claims that a market, hospital, and civilian housing were also damaged, and multiple civilians were killed. (Ukrayinska Pravda) 

Ukrainian Ground Forces recapture the town of Ivanivka in Kherson Oblast after launching a counter-offensive against Russian forces. (Reuters) 

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claims that Iran is preparing to provide Russia with hundreds of drones along with the required training in their use. (The Washington Post) 

Leaked military reports indicate that a UK Special Air Service unit unlawfully killed 54 people in one six-month tour. Furthermore, former Director Special Forces Mark Carleton-Smith failed to pass on evidence to a murder inquiry relating to the matter. (BBC)

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife are prevented from fleeing the country to Dubai by airport staff at Bandaranaike International Airport amid nationwide protests. (CNN) 

The Colombian Army launches an airstrike on FARC dissidents’ camp in the Caquetá Department, killing 10 people. Iván Mordisco, one of the group’s leader, was at the scene during the strike; his fate is unknown. (BBC News) 

Two people are killed and 4 others are injured after a 3 car pileup caused by a pack of boars north of Thessaloniki, Greece. (AP) 

Sir Mo Farah, British Olympic gold medalist runner, reveals that he was trafficked to Britain at the age of nine. 

Monday,  July 11th, 2022 

Russian president Vladimir Putin signs a decree extending a fast-track process to obtain Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians, which previously only applied to those living in the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. (Reuters) 

Lawmakers in Russia propose to extend the anti-“gay propaganda” bill to all people regardless of age. (Al Jazeera) 

Lithuania expands sanctions on the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to include cement, concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals. (Reuters) 

A Russian court lifts the suspension for the CPC pipeline and instead fines its operators 200,000 rubles (3,300 USD) for oil spills. The oil pipeline, one of the world’s largest, is the route for nearly all of Kazakhstan’s oil exports of 1.3 million barrels per day, which represents about 1% of global oil supply. (Reuters) 

The Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is suspended for the first of 10 days of scheduled annual maintenance. (Reuters) 

Macau closes all of its casinos, causing shares to fall, as the gaming city hub fights an outbreak of COVID-19. (Straits Times) 

The Biden administration announces that the United States will purchase 3.2 million doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine once approved. (The New York Times) 

New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet announces that the Australian Aboriginal Flag will be flown permanently above the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is widely regarded as an iconic Australian landmark. The flag will be flown on top of the bridge’s arches alongside the national flag, replacing the flag of New South Wales, after the state government discarded plans to accommodate all three flags. (CNN) 

The French government survives a no confidence vote tabled by the left-wing NUPES coalition. The no confidence vote received only 146 yes votes out of the 289 needed. (Le Monde) 

The End