The day

Thursday 31 July 2025

18 stories, biggest first.

1. 1

   NewsKyiv strikes

   Russian forces launch drones and cruise missiles on Kyiv, Ukraine, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 150 others. At least one tower block completely collapses.

2. 2

   NewsSouth Korea–United States relations

   South Korea and the United States reach a trade agreement that places a 15% tariff on U.S. imports from South Korea. South Korea also promises to invest US$350 billion into American biotech, semiconductors, and shipbuilding over an unspecified time.

3. 3

   CultureCanonisation of John Henry Newman

   Pope Leo XIV declares Saint John Henry Newman, a 19th-century Anglican convert who became a prominent English Catholic theologian, as a Doctor of the Church.

4. 4

   NewsMyanmar civil war

   The military junta of Myanmar formally ends the country's four-year-long state of emergency and declares a December 2025 election for the country's new head of government and legislative members.

5. 5

   Science

   Italy and Vatican City agree to transform a 430-hectare (1,100-acre) field in Rome to a solar farm that will power the Vatican, with the goal of turning it into the first carbon-neutral state.

6. 6

   NewsM23 campaign

   M23 rebels clash with various Mai-Mai groups in several villages in the Ufamandu group, Masisi Territory, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

7. 7

   NewsNew People's Army rebellion

   Eight alleged members of the New People's Army are killed in clashes with the Philippine Army in Las Navas, Northern Samar, Philippines.

8. 8

   Science

   U.S. president Donald Trump signs an executive order restoring the Presidential Fitness Test in all public schools nationwide.

9. 9

   News

   The death toll from the flooding in Beijing, China, increases to over 70 as the government discovers 31 elderly people who were trapped in a nursing home in Miyun district.

10. 10

    News

    Six people are killed and nine others are injured after a Mw 4.2 earthquake causes a collapse at the El Teniente copper mine near Machalí, O'Higgins Region, Chile.

11. 11

    NewsMyanmar–United States relations

    American lobbying firm DCI Group signs a $3 million-per-year agreement with Myanmar's Ministry of Information to provide public affairs services aimed at rebuilding relations with the United States, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing, despite existing U.S. sanctions on Myanmar's military leadership.

12. 12

    Politics

    The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador abolishes presidential term limits, increases presidential terms from 5 to 6 years, and moves the date of the next presidential election from 2029 to 2027.

13. 13

    News

    Heavy rain leads to flash flooding in the Guinean capital Conakry, killing at least seven people and leaving several others missing.

14. 14

    NewsTariffs in the second Trump administration

    U.S. president Donald Trump announces revised tariff rates set to start on August 1, including a new 35% tariff on Canada.

15. 15

    NewsIsrael–Slovenia relations

    The Slovenian government announces a complete ban on the import, export, and transit of arms and military equipment to and from Israel.

16. 16

    Crime

    A court in Faisalabad, Pakistan, sentences opposition leader Omar Ayub and over 200 supporters of ousted prime minister Imran Khan to over ten years in prison each for their participation in the 2023 protests.

17. 17

    Crime

    Islamic terrorist Osama Krayem is found guilty at Stockholm District Court, Sweden, of involvement in a war crime in which Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh was burned alive inside a cage in Raqqa, Syria by the Islamic State on January 3, 2015.

18. 18

    Crime

    Conor McGregor loses his appeal against a civil court in the Republic of Ireland, finding that he raped Nikita Hand.

Stories adapted from Wikipedia’s Current events portal for 31 July 2025, by Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0.