NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
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EU president: Ursula von der Leyen was confirmed as the new European Commission president Tuesday, becoming the first woman to hold one of the most prestigious positions in the European Union. The European Parliament voted 383327 with 22 abstentions to approve von der Leyen’s nomination. Von der Leyen set out her political objectives for a greener, more genderequal Europe. Pointing out that since its inception in 1958, fewer than 20% of commissioners had been women, she said: “We represent half of our population. We want our fair share.”
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Steepest street: A street in Wales has been designated the steepest in the world after a successful campaign by residents. Guinness World Records said Tuesday that the street of Ffordd Pen Llech in the seafront town of Harlech, 245 miles northwest of London, has a gradient of 37.45%, two percentage points steeper than the former title holder in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island. The Welsh campaign was led by businessman and architectural historian Gwyn Headley. He says he feels “jubilation” now that the street has been recognized. He says he feels sorry for New Zealand, but that “steeper is steeper.”
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Bali quake: An earthquake shook Bali and other Indonesian islands Tuesday, causing panic and damaging homes and injuring one person. It was the second strong earthquake in Indonesia since Sunday, when a quake in North Maluku province killed four people and damaged nearly 1,000 houses. About 3,100 people in the province are living in temporary shelters, disaster officials said. Tuesday’s magnitude 5.7 quake was centered at sea 51 miles to the southwest of Denpasar on Bali at a depth of 57 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Indonesia, with more than 260 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
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North Korea warning: North Korea on Tuesday escalated its pressure on the United States to cancel a joint military drill with South Korea scheduled for next month, warning that it could scuttle efforts to resume dialogue with Washington and even prompt the North to resume nuclear and longrange missile tests. The vaguely worded threats were contained in two separate statements from the North Korean Foreign Ministry that complained about the military drill. The North said the planned exercise undermined a mood for dialogue created when its leader, Kim Jong Un, met with President Trump at Panmunjom, a village on the interKorean border, on June 30. In the hurriedly arranged meeting, the two leaders agreed to restart workinglevel talks on the terms of denuclearizing North Korea.
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Data stealing: Bulgarian officials said Tuesday that unidentified hackers have stolen the personal details of millions of people from Bulgaria’s national revenue agency and noted a possible Russian link in the case. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called an emergency meeting of all law enforcement services to consider the potential harm to the country’s national security. Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told reporters that the hackers contacted local media using a mailbox from a Russian domain. The leak, the biggest in the Balkan country, contains names, personal data and the financial earnings of individuals and companies. According to local media, the hackers have stolen the details of some 5 million of the country’s 7 million people.