Portal:Current events/2017 August 2

Current events of August 2, 2017 (2017-08-02) (Wednesday)

Arts and culture

• Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, retires from public appearances. (ABC.net.au)

Business and economy

• Affirmative action
  • The U.S. Justice Department plans on challenging American colleges and universities on affirmative action decisions that conservative pundits claim disproportionately affect Asian and White American students. (Newsweek), (The New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• Floods in the United States
  • Several streets in Miami and Miami Beach are underwater after Tropical Depression Emily causes 4 to 7 inches of rain overnight. (CNN)
• A natural gas explosion at college prep school Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kills two staff members. Another nine people were injured, seven of whom are hospitalized, three in critical and four in serious condition. (AP) (CBS News)

Health and medicine

• Gene editing
  • Teams of United States-based researchers, composed of American, Chinese and South Korean scientists, successfully edits a piece of faulty DNA that causes a deadly form of heart disease from cells in human embryos. (BBC) (CNN) (Science News Magazine) (Scientific American)

International relations

• Immigration policy of Donald Trump
  • United States President Donald Trump, together with Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, unveils the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act of 2017 (RAISE Act), a plan that would, if passed, reduce legal immigration to the U.S. by half each year, and implement a "merit-based system" prioritizing skilled workers, instead of the current family-based chain migration system. (The Washington Post), (NPR)

Law and crime

• Impeachment in the Philippines
  • Two impeachment complaints are filed in the lower house of the Philippine Congress against Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. (ABS-CBN News) (Manila Standard)

Politics and elections

• Papua New Guinean general election, 2017
  • The parliament of Papua New Guinea re-elects Peter O'Neill as Prime Minister, ending a chaotic election campaign marred by violence, which analysts fear may continue amid widespread voter unrest. (Reuters)
• Venezuelan Constitutional Assembly election, 2017
  • At a news briefing in London, the CEO of Smartmatic, the Venezuelan-owned multinational company that provided the election system used in Sunday's election, says the number of those participating in the poll was tampered with, off by at least one million. (NPR)

Science and technology

• Large parts of Southern Asia may be uninhabitable by 2100 due to levels of humidity dangerous to humans. (National Geographic)