7: Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? Germany has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diver suspected of planting the explosives that did the job back in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The suspect remains at-large, but the warrant marks the first significant development in solving the long running mystery of who was behind the attack.
13: The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency after detecting a surge of mpox, formerly called monkeypox, in 13 African countries. This is the second time in three years that the W.H.O. has designated mpox a global health emergency. The last time, in 2022, the disease affected nearly 100,000 people, primarily gay and bisexual men, in 116 countries. But experts warn that this strain could be deadlier, with women and children under 15 most at risk.
400: Around 400 food-insecure people may have received sweets containing "potentially lethal levels of methamphetamine" in food parcels distributed by an anti-poverty charity in Auckland, New Zealand. Some of the candies were found to contain 120-300 times the commonly consumed dose of meth, giving each a street value of around $601. Police are still investigating the incident and have not confirmed whether it was accidental or a targeted operation.
35: In July, the volume of dry goods shipped through the Panama canal was down 35 percent compared to a year earlier. The number of ships carrying liquified natural gas fell by half during the same period. The data show that the canal – which handles about 5% of global maritime trade – is struggling to recover cargo volumes lost after a historic drought last year limited shipping traffic. Larger questions about the canal’s future loom as climate change drives down local rainfall and demands for safe drinking water grow.
2.9:US inflation fell to 2.9% in July, the lowest since March of 2021, indicating that the Fed is succeeding in quelling price pressures and bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its next meeting. This is good news for Harris’ presidential bid, since the economy – and inflation in particular – the top issue for the majority of voters.
