M.I.A.

Maya is the third studio album by British recording artist M.I.A. (pictured), released on 7 July 2010 on her own label, N.E.E.T. Recordings, through XL Recordings and Interscope Records. Songwriting and production for the album were primarily handled by M.I.A., Blaqstarr and Rusko in Los Angeles. The album centres on the theme of information politics. Elements of industrial music were incorporated into M.I.A.'s sound for the first time. In the album's first week of release, it entered the UK Albums Chart at number 21, becoming M.I.A.'s highest-charting album in the UK. It also became her highest-charting album in the US, reaching number nine on the Billboard 200, and debuted in the top 10 in Finland, Norway, Greece and Canada. M.I.A. promoted the album by performing at music festivals in the US and Europe and by releasing a series of tracks online, including "XXXO", "It Takes a Muscle" and "Born Free". (This article is part of a featured topic: M.I.A. albums.)

Pratt's 1867 Pterotype

• ... that John Jonathon Pratt, known as the grandfather of the typewriter (1867 model pictured), invented several common typewriter features before Remington or Hammond machines entered the market?
• ... that rights of nature are legally recognized in twelve countries?
• ... that as of June 11, 2020, the Navajo Nation had a larger per-capita rate of infection from COVID-19 than any U.S. state?
• ... that the Thailand-based Diablos outlaw motorcycle club fought the Hells Angels in a gun battle in Australia?
• ... that in 1557, Cardinal Giovanni Ricci sold Palazzo Sacchetti in Rome for 25,000 scudi to his friend Tommaso Marino in a fictitious sale?
• ... that railway sabotage during World War II was one of the most common forms of resistance against German occupation?
• ... that Robert Plunkett resigned as the first president of Georgetown College in 1793 because he preferred a rural life of ministry?
• ... that the "lost manuscript" of The Ickabog was featured on the dress worn by J. K. Rowling at her 50th birthday party?

Presidential edition of the Russian constitution

• Floods in Kyushu, Japan, kill 44 people.
• The Russian electorate votes to amend the Russian constitution (pictured).
• European police agencies infiltrate EncroChat, an alleged criminal chat system, leading to the arrest of more than 800 people.
• More than 170 people are killed in a landslide at a jade mine in Hpakant, Myanmar.

July 7

Northern fur seal

• 1456 – Joan of Arc was declared innocent of heresy in a retrial twenty-five years after her death.
• 1798 – Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its treaties with France, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War, fought entirely at sea.
• 1911 – Four countries signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention, which banned the open-water hunting of seals (example pictured).
• 1963 – The police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis.
• 2012 – The equivalent of five months' rain fell overnight in parts of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, causing flash floods that killed 171 people.