1. Munich gunman ‘had no Islamist ties’

    A German-Iranian teenager who shot nine people dead in Munich was a deranged* lone gunman obsessed with mass killings who drew no inspiration from Islamist militancy, police said on Saturday.

    The 18-year-old, born and raised locally, opened fire near a busy shopping mall on Friday evening, triggering a lockdown* in the Bavarian state capital.

    Seven of his victims were themselves teenagers, who police said he may have lured to their deaths via a hacked* Facebook account on what was the fifth anniversary of twin attacks by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik that killed 77 people.

    2. Hillary Clinton introduces Tim Kaine

    Tim Kaine called Hillary Clinton his soulmate on Saturday, in his first appearance as her vice presidential pick at Florida International University.

    Kaine showed that even though he is self-admittedly “boring,” he is a skilled and natural campaigner who can reach out to minority voters.

    The presumptive* Democratic nominee introduced Kaine as “everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not” and a “progressive who likes to get things done,” before taking a seat behind him.

    3. Indonesia rejects ruling on 1960s killing

    Officials in Jakarta on Thursday rejected the findings of an international panel of judges that declared Indonesia committed crimes against humanity in anti-communist purges* in the 1960s, when at least 500,000 people perished*.

    The international people’s tribunal formed at The Hague said on July 20 that the Indonesian state was responsible for mass crimes against members and supporters of the country’s communist party and followers of President Sukarno during the 1965-66 killings.

    Victims of the purge were killed and also suffered imprisonment*, enslavement*, torture and sexual violence, the court found.

    4. Turkey declares state of emergency

    Turkey’s president on July 20 declared a three-month state of emergency following a botched* coup attempt, declaring he would rid the military of the “virus” of subversion* and giving the government sweeping powers to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was accused of autocratic* conduct before the insurrection*, said the measure would counter threats to Turkish democracy.

    5. Brazil probes Olympics threats

    Brazil’s intelligence agency said on July 19 it was investigating all threats to next month’s Rio Olympics after a presumed* Brazilian Islamist group pledged allegiance* to Islamic State (IS) less than three weeks before the Games.

    The SITE Intelligence Group that monitors the Internet reported that a group calling itself “Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil” said on the Telegram messaging app on July 16 that it followed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and had promoted IS propaganda in Arabic, English and Portuguese.

    Brazilian authorities stepped up security measures following the truck massacre in Nice last week, planning security cordons, further roadblocks and the frisking of visitors in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics.

    6. Trump triumphs as GOP nominee

    Cementing* an extraordinary political takeover, Republicans nominated Donald Trump on July 19 as their presidential standard-bearer*, hitching* their hopes of keeping Democrat Hillary Clinton out of the White House on an unorthodox* candidate who has sown* divisions within the party and across the nation.

    While it was Trump’s night, Clinton was frequently the focus. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie energized the crowd with a full-throated* takedown* of Clinton, imploring* delegates to shout “Guilty!” as he ticked through numerous accusations of wrongdoing. (SD-Agencies)