After a grueling four days of negotiations, European Union leaders agreed on a mammoth spending package (NYT) to give the bloc’s pandemic-ravaged economy a shot in the arm.

The leaders agreed to jointly borrow 750 billion euros ($857 billion) for an economic recovery fund (Politico) that will be disbursed in the form of grants and loans in roughly equal proportions. They also agreed on a roughly one-trillion-euro seven-year budget. The summit, one of the longest in EU history, exposed divisions within the bloc (Guardian) as a group of tight-fisted countries (Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden) pushed back against an earlier proposal to give more of the aid in the form of grants rather than loans. 

The United States announced sanctions on eleven Chinese companies for their alleged involvement in the repression of Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The companies were added to a trade blacklist (WaPo) to limit their access to U.S. technology and other products, bringing the number of Chinese entities on the list to nearly fifty.

This CFR Backgrounder looks at China’s repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
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Japan: The country’s Maritime Self-Defense Force joined a naval exercise (Japan Times) with the Australian and U.S. navies near the disputed South China Sea in a move that will likely anger China.

A U.S. carrier strike group and Indian warships conducted a cooperative exercise (Times of India) in the Indian Ocean in an apparent show of strength against China, which is currently locked in a border standoff with India.
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Afghanistan: More than a dozen Afghan security personnel were killed in suspected Taliban attacks (RFE/RL) on Monday as a wave of violence sweeps the country.

Egypt’s parliament authorized the deployment of troops (Al Jazeera) outside the country after President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi threatened military intervention in Libya. The move could bring Egypt, which backs rebel Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, into conflict with Turkey, which backs the UN-recognized Government of National Accord.
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Saudi Arabia: A dramatically scaled-down Hajj pilgrimage will begin on July 29, Saudi officials announced. Over two million people usually take part in the annual ritual centered on the holy city of Mecca, but this year only one thousand Muslim pilgrims (AFP) will be allowed to participate due to the pandemic.

Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan for nearly thirty years, went on trial in Khartoum today for leading the country’s 1989 coup (France 24). Already behind bars for corruption, Bashir could now face the death penalty, though Sudan has previously agreed to deliver him to the International Criminal Court, where he is wanted on war crimes and genocide charges.
 
This CFR timeline explains how other world leaders have faced justice.
 
African Union: Leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, and several other African countries will attend a virtual mini-summit today to discuss a controversial dam project on the Blue Nile river (Al Jazeera). Talks earlier this month ended in deadlock.

The U.S. State Department sanctioned Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, citing gross human rights violations such as torture and extrajudicial killings (DW). Kadyrov responded by saying “we accept the fight,” and a Russian lawmaker predicted Moscow would issue countermeasures.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the consequences of the coronavirus in Latin America’s indigenous communities (WHO). The region remains the epicenter of the pandemic and had reported more than seventy thousand cases among indigenous people through July 6.
 
Cuba: Government-run stores began accepting U.S. dollars as payment for certain goods amid a currency shortage and liquidity problems caused in part by the pandemic (Reuters). Cuba has not taken such a step since the 1990s.

Four Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, demanded an FBI briefing on a foreign disinformation campaign ahead of the presidential election (RFE/RL). U.S. officials previously determined that Russia interfered in the country’s 2016 election.