Top News Stories –

Christina Estrada: Former supermodel wins £53m divorce settlement –
A former supermodel has been awarded a £53m ($69m) lump sum after a divorce battle with her billionaire ex-husband. Berkshire-based Christina Estrada, 54, had wanted £196m from Saudi businessman Sheikh Walid Juffali, 61, to meet her “needs” – including £1m a year on clothes – the High Court was told. The total settlement, which takes into account her own assets, is about £75m. Her lawyers said this makes it “by more than £50m, the largest needs award ever made by an English court”. Ms Estrada, who is is currently living at the matrimonial home bordering Windsor Great Park, had rejected an offer that, when added to her own assets, would have given her £37m to live on. Ms Estrada was cross-examined in court on her needs, which she said included:

• £40,000 a year for fur coats
• £109,000 a year for haute couture dresses
• £21,000 a year on shoes
• £60m to afford a luxury London home
• A £4.4m countryside home in Henley-on-Thames
• £495,000 for five cars – three in London and two in the US

[BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in the North Caucasus
  • At least eight unidentified militants and one security officer are killed in ongoing clashes in rural Dagestan, Russia. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • According to a Nigerian Army spokesman, a Boko Haram suicide bomber kills six people inside a mosque in the town of Damboa, Borno State. A second suicide bomber attempted to enter the same mosque but failed to gain entry and detonated his belt, killing only himself. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Airstrikes hit Darkush in Idlib Province near the Turkish border, killing at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 25 died when rebels shelled government-held areas of Aleppo. Friday is the last day of a 72-hour Syrian Army-sponsored ceasefire. (Reuters) (Reuters²)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • Five soldiers between the two rival Sudan People’s Liberation Army factions are killed in clashes in the capital Juba, with reports of heavy gunfire continuing, despite President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel leader Riek Machar having reached a peace deal back in April. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

• 2016 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Nepartak hits eastern Taiwan causing three deaths so far, 124 injuries, thousands of people to be evacuated, disrupting transport and power supplies. (Reuters) (CNN)

Health and medicine

• Zika virus epidemic
  • The death of an elderly Utah woman with a Zika virus infection in late June is the first reported Zika-related death in the continental United States. The woman had traveled to an area where Zika is spreading. The exact cause of death has not been determined; the lady had an underlying medical condition. (NBC News) (Time)

International relations

• Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistani philanthropist and Chairman of the Edhi Foundation, passes away in Karachi at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation. (Dawn News) (Pakistan Today)
• 2016 Warsaw summit
  • NATO members gather in Warsaw, Poland, for a two-day summit. Much of the focus will be on Russia and NATO’s commitments in bolstering its presence in Eastern Europe. Other issues to be discussed will include Europe’s migrant crises, ISIL extremists, and the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• South Korea–United States relations
  • American and South Korean military officials agree to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in the country to counter North Korea‘s growing threats and use of ballistic missile and nuclear tests. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• Human rights in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
  • The left-wing political party, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, which is part of the current government, asks Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to investigate the recent vigilante killings of suspected drug pushers. (GMA News)
  • Opposition senator and human rights lawyer Leila de Lima has condemned the killings and urged the Philippine Congress to investigate. (Channel News Asia)
• 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers
  • Police kill Micah X Johnson, the gunman believed responsible for the killing of five police officers and shooting of seven more in Dallas, Texas following a standoff. (Los Angeles Times)

Politics and elections

• 2016 Zimbabwe protests
  • Protests in Harare and elsewhere in the country continue despite police intimidation and pleas by President Robert Mugabe for them to stop. (Voice of America Zimbabwe)
  • President Mugabe, in a live national television broadcast from a stadium in Bindura, blames Western sanctions for his country’s inability to pay government workers on time. (AP via The Washington Post) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
  • #ThisFlag protest leader Pastor Evan Mawarire says the movement, which uses WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, will hold a two-day strike next week if demands, that include sacking corrupt ministers, payment of delayed salaries, lifting of roadblocks that residents say are used by police to extract bribes, etc., are not met. A drought has aggravated the country’s situation as have banks that have a daily withdrawal ceiling as low as $50. (Reuters via CNBC Africa) (Ventures Africa)

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