The last Polish troops leave Afghanistan, thereby ending Poland's involvement in the war. Around 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan during the war, with 44 being killed in action.
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June 30, 2021 (Wednesday)
4.8 minutes to read
Armed conflicts and attacks
Business and economy
UK Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announces that due to a move towards a "much larger mix of renewables", the use of coal for electricity production will end a year earlier than planned, in October 2024.
U.S. fashion retailer Gap announces that it will be closing all of its 81 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company will continue to provide an online store for British and Irish customers.
American financial services company Robinhood is fined US$70 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for presenting misleading information to investors and failing to act on "systemic supervisory failures", making it the largest fine ever issued by the regulatory organization.
Disasters and accidents
The number of sudden deaths due to the extreme hot temperatures in British Columbia, Canada, increases to 486. The death toll represents a 195% increase of the 165 sudden deaths that would normally occur over this period. While the official cause of death for each deceased person has not yet been established, many are linked to the hot temperatures.
The deaths of 63 people in Oregon, United States, are also linked to the extreme hot temperatures that are affecting the region.
The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, warns of a "biblical" famine due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and says that the disaster already exists in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, while also warning that conditions are of "particular concern" in Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
Health and environment
Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen says that the Singapore Armed Forces will reach “herd immunity” status by mid-July after 92% of their troops have been vaccinated.
Indonesia reports a record 21,807 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2.18 million.
Laos reports its first three imported cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Thai migrant workers from Champasack.
Russia reports a record for the second consecutive day of 669 deaths from COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 135,214.
The United Kingdom reports 26,068 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the highest single-day total of cases since January 29.
The Northern Territory lockdown extends to the town of Alice Springs as cases of COVID-19 spread from the Darwin cluster.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un berates the Politburo for the country's failed COVID-19 pandemic response which resulted in an unspecified "great crisis".
Over five million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in British Columbia.
International relations
In a joint statement, UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab and his German counterpart Heiko Maas call for Germany to permanently join the United Nations Security Council, after outgoing German UN ambassador Christoph Heusgen said earlier in the day that this needs to happen in order to reflect the shifting global power balance.
Law and crime
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 222–190 to establish a committee to investigate the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol, with Liz Cheney (WY-1) and Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) being the only two Republicans to vote for the committee.
An Alabama man becomes the third member of the Oath Keepers to plead guilty for his role in the Capitol riot.
The trial of Yemeni actress and model Intisar al-Hammadi begins in Sanaa. al-Hammadi stands accused of "indecent acts" for posting photos of herself without a headscarf on social media. She was arrested in February by Houthi authorities. Human Rights Watch denounces the trial as unfair and says that al-Hammadi was subjected to physical and verbal abuse, racist insults and forced to sign documents while blindfolded and also being threatened to undergo a virginity test.
The discovery of 182 unmarked graves at the site of the Kootenay Indian Residential School near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, is announced, weeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a similar residential school.
Former American comedian Bill Cosby is released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns his conviction.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces that the U.S. passport will include an option for a third gender, and that effective immediately, applicants can indicate their gender without having to provide medical proof.
Saudi Arabian state-run news channel Al Arabiya reports that authorities seized a shipment of 4.5 million Captagon amphetamine pills, smuggled inside several orange cartons, at a port in Jeddah.
The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals sentences both Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanišić and his deputy Franko "Frenki" Simatović to 12 years in prison for providing support to Serb paramilitary groups that carried out ethnic cleansings against the Croat and Bosniak populations in the Bosnian town of Šamac during the Bosnian War. The case against the two men was the longest international war crime case in history, having started in 2003, and marks the first time that senior officials in the government of former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević were convicted for war crimes committed during the war.
On the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Sudanese coup d'état, Sudanese authorities arrest at least 200 members of deposed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party in the early morning for allegedly promoting instability.
Politics and elections
Hundreds of protestors march in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and call for the resignation of the transitional government after the government reduced bread and fuel subsidies in order to fulfill its obligations with the International Monetary Fund.
Sports
The Court of Arbitration for Sport bans Bahraini 400 m-runner Salwa Eid Naser from participating in the sport for two years, thus banning her from the Tokyo Olympics, for not taking doping tests between March 2019 and January 2020. This overturns the ruling made by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal last October, who absolved her based on a technicality.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledges help to the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Niue and Tonga to strengthen their health systems while vowing to the leaders of those nations to host a "safe and secure" 2020 Summer Olympics.
American chess player Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest Grandmaster (GM) in the world, at age 12, after defeating Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca in Budapest.
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