Murdered

An ISIS-inspired terrorist plowed into a group of seven bicyclists in Tajikistan on July 29, killing four of them. Two of the four killed were Americans, Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both 29, who had quit their jobs to embark on a biking tour of the world in July of 2017. Friends told the media that the couple wanted to meet new people and see new places, and that they had a strong belief in the goodness of human nature. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil,” Austin wrote. “I don’t buy it.” He called evil “a make-believe concept.” According to a friend, Austin had ridden a scooter across America in 2013. He nicknamed the scooter Rousseau.

Charged

Denmark has charged a woman for the first time under a new law banning full-face veils. She was arrested after police were called to a fight between her and another woman at the top of an escalator in a Copenhagen mall. One early report suggested the fight began after one woman tried to rip off the other’s face veil. Police charged both with violating the peace and asked the woman wearing a niqab to take it off. She refused, and the police fined her under the new law on face coverings.

Hinted

Social media users on the popular Chinese Sina Weibo microblog have begun speculating at a possible loosening of their government’s restrictions on birth control after the release of this year’s official zodiac stamps. The government’s design for the upcoming Year of the Pig shows a happy pig family with two parents and three piglets. Bloggers have connected the picture with a similar design from two years ago, a sketch with two babies in the happy family. That stamp was released months before the government changed its infamous one-child policy to permit families a second child. According to the BBC, many of the commentators said they would find more children to be economically unfeasible, even if it was permitted.

Sanctioned

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a statement promising sanctions for top Turkish officials responsible for the arrest and detainment of American Pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson, who had lived in Turkey for 20 years, was arrested in 2016 and charged with aiding armed terrorist organizations and stealing government secrets. If he is convicted, he could face life in prison. The Treasury Department said in its statement that these charges are not backed by sufficient facts to warrant Turkey’s treatment of the pastor. President Donald Trump has frequently voiced displeasure at Brunson’s continued imprisonment, tweeting that the pastor is a “great Christian” and should be released immediately.

Burned

The Mendocino Complex Fire has become the biggest in California history, destroying over 336,000 acres across several northern counties. It outstripped last year’s Thomas Fire, which burned 281,893 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The blaze consisted of two different fires that met around Clear Lake, growing for days and destroying 75 homes. Firefighters across California struggled to contain 16 different fires in the middle of a hot, dry summer, including an Orange County fire where the state ordered mass evacuations and a blaze that has already claimed eight casualties in Shasta County.