Donald Trump was charged with trying to overturn the result of America’s presidential election in 2020, not least by organising “fraudulent slates of electors” who would vote for him during the official certification process in seven states, including Georgia. Mr Trump was involved in a “conspiracy to impair, obstruct and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit”, according to the indictment brought by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Biden administration to investigate Mr Trump. These are the most serious criminal charges that the former president has been accused of so far. Mr Smith wants a “speedy trial”.

America’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch, one of the big rating agencies, from its top notch AAA score to AA+ because of a “steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters”.

The gunman who murdered 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 was sentenced to death by a federal jury. The atrocity was the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history.

Russia claimed to have stopped an attack by unmanned boats on its civilian ships and navy vessels in the Black Sea. Ukraine said it would never attack civilian ships, but didn’t deny that it might hit military ones. Russia continued to bombard Ukrainian ports and grain silos with drone strikes. Meanwhile, Moscow was hit by more drones. Buildings in the business district were targeted, including a skyscraper that houses several government ministries.

Poland sent extra troops to its border with Belarus, after accusing Russia’s closest ally of sending helicopters into its air space, which Belarus denied. The Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has engaged in a bout of sabre-rattling recently, suggesting that the Wagner mercenaries who are now in Belarus are poised to march on Warsaw.

America imposed sanctions on four senior Bosnian Serb politicians, including the Serbian member of Bosnia’s presidency, which is a three-person office. America said the four were behind a law passed by the autonomous Bosnian Serb assembly that sought to undermine the Bosnian national constitution. The constitution was negotiated during the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in 1995.

There’s just no stopping oil

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s prime minister, said his government would issue over 100 new licences to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea and that he would permit hundreds more in the future. The announcement was seen as evidence that Mr Sunak may try to weaken the Conservatives’ commitment to net-zero carbon emissions ahead of an election that is expected next year, in the belief that voters are getting tired of green policies.

Nicolás Petro, the eldest son of Gustavo Petro, the first avowedly left-wing president of Colombia, was arrested on money-laundering charges, along with his ex-wife. The pair have been the subject of investigations into alleged campaign-finance irregularities involving drug-traffickers. The president’s son denies all the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

A crackdown on gangs in El Salvador intensified. Cabañas, one of the country’s 14 departments, was surrounded by soldiers and police. Nayib Bukele, the authoritarian president, said that the blockade would continue until “all gang members” were taken from the area. Since introducing a state of emergency last year more than 71,000 gang members have been arrested, equivalent to 7% of male Salvadoreans aged 14-29.

Police raids targeting drug gangs in three Brazilian states over several days left 45 people dead.

ECOWAS, the regional bloc in west Africa, threatened to take military action if Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated as president of Niger. Mr Bazoum has been deposed in a coup. The military governments of Burkina Faso and Mali said they would consider an attack on Niger to be an attack on their own countries. France and other European countries have begun evacuating their citizens. America and Britain ordered the evacuation of some staff from their embassies

The governor of chaos

Lebanon’s central-bank governor, Riad Salameh, stepped down after 30 years in the job. Mr Salameh presided over Lebanon’s economic collapse. During his tenure the lira lost 98% of its value and inflation soared. A permanent replacement has yet to be found. The country also lacks a president and an intelligence chief.

Eleven people were killed in fighting in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. More than 2,000 people have fled the violence in Ein el-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon, the result of clashes between Fatah, the main secular Palestinian political movement led by Mahmoud Abbas, and Islamist groups.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide-bomb that killed at least 63 people in Pakistan. The attack targeted a political rally being held by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, a conservative Islamist party, in a town near the Afghan border. The party is aligned with the coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif and also supports the Afghan Taliban, ideological rivals to IS.

America held its first talks with the Taliban since the militant group regained control of Afghanistan two years ago. The talks took place in Qatar, the venue for previous negotiations. The State Department said the discussions focused on “critical interests”, such as eradicating opium crops, and on the country’s “deteriorating human rights”. The Taliban want the Americans to unfreeze Afghanistan’s central-bank reserves and lift travel bans on Taliban officials.

In India several people were killed in clashes when a Hindu religious procession passed through a heavily Muslim area 60km (37 miles) south of Delhi. The violence spilled over to Gurugram, a satellite city of Delhi, where a mosque was set on fire.

The Pheu Thai party in Thailand said it would try to form a government without the Move Forward party, a pro-democracy movement that came first in May’s election but whose candidate for prime minister has been rejected by the senate, which is stacked with supporters of the military-royal establishment. The populist Pheu Thai is linked to Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister in 2006. A vote in parliament on choosing the government has been postponed to after August 16th, when Move Forward’s appeal will be heard.

China replaced two leaders of its Rocket Force, which manages the country’s land-based nuclear arsenal. It is the biggest shake-up of the military top brass in years. No reason was given, but the move has led to speculation about corruption in the force.

Extensive flooding in Beijing killed at least 11 people. The heavy rains came as China prepares for a third typhoon in as many weeks. The storms have also hit Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, where dozens of people have died, according to officials.