News Highlights From July 2020

For everyone who missed out to check on the main news highlights from the month of July, here is the quick recap about the latest happenings in the entire month.

News

In the month of July, Ivanka Trump made the headlines after tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans. She faced backlash for the same and the tweet made by Donald Trump’s daughter included Goya’s slogan, “If it’s Goya, it has to be good,” in both English and in Spanish. She also posted the image to her Facebook and Instagram pages. In a statement, the White House defended Ivanka’s tweet. “Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration — one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community”, White House communications aide Carolina Hurley said.

Another piece of news was about Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s secret marriage ceremony which was attended by the Queen. Their marriage was earlier called off due to the coronavirus pandemic, but later they got hitched in a surprise secret ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The pair exchanged vows at a private ceremony in front of close friends and family, including theQueen and Prince Philip. It is also believed to be the first family gathering that the Queen and Prince Philip have attended since lockdown.

In the last week of July, Storm Hanna hit the headlines as it became the category 1 hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season. Hanna, the first hurricane of the season in the Atlantic, had sustained winds of 75 mph around 7 a.m. CT (8 a.m. ET), and its center was about 100 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi.

It is forecast to make landfall along the Texas coast, likely somewhere between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, in the afternoon or early evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

Hollywood

In the start of July, Gigi Hadid made the headlines about her news of pregnancy. She surprisingly revealed the world that she is expecting a child with Zayn Malik. an Instagram live with activist Sophia Roe, a fan asked her how she managed to keep her bump under wraps. Gigi responded saying this angle and really baggy clothes make an optical illusion. She revealed it is a different story from the side. Gigi wished the fan good luck when even she said she is pregnant.

The Instagram live with chef and welfare advocate Sophia Roe was to educate her fans to be better allies for black people during this time. They discussed a variety of issues related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Zayn and Gigi first started dating in 2015. They broke up in March 2018 though they reconciled later that year itself. The couple broke up again in January 2019 but reconciled earlier this year.

Another piece of news was about Ryan Adam’s public apology to his ex-wife Mandy Moore. He posted an apology after being accused of misconduct and psychological abuse one-and-a-half years later. Ryan apologized in an open letter and apologized for his behavior towards multiple women. Mandy was asked whether she thinks Ryan has changed after he apologized.

Mandy responded saying that she feels as if she has already said enough about the topic.  ‘You know, it’s challenging because I feel like in many ways, I’ve said all I want to say about him and that situation,’ she explained.

She continued expressing her curiosity on his public apology instead of a private one. Moore clarified that she is speaking for herself and she is not looking for an apology. But she finds it curious that Ryan would do an interview about it rather than addressing it privately.

For all the Batman lovers, director Matt Reeves revealed that the Batman TV spin-off is in the works. HBO Max has lined up another new series in addition to its massive streaming library. It is a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ forthcoming Batman movie. The series will be an expansion of the world of Batman. It will be set in Gotham city and will be a police procedural set. The series is yet to be named but sources say that it is referred to as Gotham Central or GCPD. The casting of the show is also not confirmed.

One of the biggest news earlier this month was about Kim Kardashian. She broke her silence on Kanye West’s bipolar episode. Kardashian took to her Instagram to finally respond after Kanye West’s chaotic rally and Twitter rant. She wrote a heartfelt note addressing the media and their family and friends.

Kim said her family is powerless in this situation and further defended Kanye’s words. She called her husband ‘brilliant but complicated’ and assured that his words sometimes do not align with his intentions.

The rapper went on a Twitter rant and claimed that he has been trying to get divorced from Kim after she met Meek Mill for discussing prison reform. The rapper went on a rant that Kim went over the line when she met Meek Mill. He even claimed that Kim went to talk about prison reform and also blasted on mother-in-law Kris Jenner.

Bollywood

The entire year has been a nightmare for Bollywood with many shocking deaths. On July 3, ace choreographer Saroj Khan left the world at the age of 71 due to a cardiac arrest. She was admitted to Guru Nanak Hospital of Mumbai last month. The choreographer was facing breathing issues. She was in the hospital since June 17 but had not contracted the coronavirus. However, her son had confirmed that she was recovering.

In other news, B-Town’s established actor, Ayushmann Khurrana brought a plush home along with brother Aparshakti Khurrana for the whole family in Panchkula. The actor was spotted at the Tehsil office along with his wife Tahira Kashyap as they went to register the place in their names. It is believed that the house has costed a whopping amount of 9 crores.

In the mid-July, Sara Ali Khan revealed that her driver had been tested positive with coronavirus. The actress took to social media to inform everyone about the same. In her statement, she wrote, “I would like to inform you that our driver has tested positive for COVID- 19. The BMC was promptly alerted about it and he has been moved to a quarantine centre.”

Not just this, Bollywood’s megastar Amitabh Bachchan and son Abhishek Bachchan were also tested positive with coronavirus earlier this month. A day after the news broke out, it was revealed that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya were also tested positive with coronavirus. However, recently the mother-daughter duo returned home after being tested negative.

Television

Indian television actress Additi Gupta came in the limelight when she was contracted with coronavirus earlier this month. The Ishqbaaaz actress has told Telly Chakkar, “The moment I lost my smelling sense I quarantined myself and got tested. The reports came out positive and I chose to quarantine myself at home since I was an asymptomatic. It’s been 7 to 8 days that I have confined myself in a room.”

Besides this, celebrity couple Rajeev Sen and Charu Asopa were in the news for their troubled marriage. It has been more than a year to the marriage of Rajeev Seen and Charu Asopa. But just after a few months of their marriage, the couple had started facing issues in their relationship. Rajeev had given his statement after which the actress has hit back at him questioning his behaviour. Charu told TOI, “No one is brainwashing me. I am mature enough to make my own decisions — something that I have always done. Main hamesha se apne decisions khud leti aayi hoon. Maybe, he was brainwashed into deleting our pictures from his social media handles.”

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy Krista Wernoff has decided to include the storyline of COVID-19 epidemic. The show is not going to shy away from the on-going pandemic. Grey’s Anatomy, TV’s longest-running medical drama will incorporate the coronavirus pandemic in its 17th season.

Technology

The ban of Chinese app TikTok saw the rise of its alternative app named Trell in Indian market. The Indian app broke all of its records by garnering as many as 12 million (1.2 crores) downloads in just five days.  The app also trended in Free Lifestyle Apps category on the Google Play Store and is claimed to have received 500K uploads in a single day with 220K new content creators. Trell allows users to create 3 to 5-minute videos in English and a total of 7 Indian languages including Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. 

On the other hand, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, hit the news with his big move to make Earth a safer place. He said that natural disasters like floods or earthquakes can be detected prior to when they make any damage to mankind. As any natural disaster can’t be controlled but at least people would be made aware of the situation. It recently conducted an experiment using its subsea fibre optic cables, which showed that it could be useful for earthquake and tsunami warning systems.

Apple, the top smartphone company started to assemble the current generation of iPhone units — the iPhone 11 lineup — in its plant near the southern city of Chennai. A small batch of locally manufactured iPhone 11 units has already shipped to retail stores, but the production yield is currently limited, the person said, requesting anonymity as matters are private. Apple, in general, has ambitions to scale up its local production efforts in India, the person said.

Want to read the News Highlights since January? Check out this post.