In an extraordinary few days, even by the febrile standards of this White House, Donald Trump sacked Reince Priebus as chief of staff. His defenestration came after Anthony Scaramucci, the new head of communications, gave an expletive-laden account of why he thought Mr Priebus was behind a number of recent leaks. Mr Trump replaced Mr Priebus with John Kelly, who had run the Department of Homeland Security. His first move was to deploy his well-honed military discipline and fire Mr Scaramucci. He had held his job for ten days. See article.

Preceding the White House drama, the push in the Senate to pass a “skinny” bill on health-care reform failed, when three Republicans, including John McCain, joined Democrats in voting against the measure. See blog.

Mr Trump signed a bill that imposes sanctions on Russia over its meddling in last year’s election, but which also limits the president’s power to tamper with Congress’s decision. He described the legislation as “seriously flawed”. Russia retaliated by vowing to expel 755 American diplomats. See article.

The International Olympic Committee announced that it had agreed to a deal that will award the summer Olympics in 2028 to Los Angeles. The deal means that the Olympics in 2024 will be held in Paris, which Los Angeles was competing against to host that year. The 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles are seen as the most successful ever, even though the Soviet Union and many east European countries boycotted them.

The Senate confirmed Christopher Wray as the new director of the FBI.

Passing the buck

Andreas Georgiou, a former head of national statistics in Greece, was convicted of a “breach of duty” by an appeals court for sharing the full extent of the country’s budget deficit with the European statistics agency in 2009. Mr Georgiou was acquitted of the same charge last December. He has faced various accusations of swelling the deficit figures to benefit foreign creditors. His supporters say he is a scapegoat for the Greek debt crisis.

Turkey’s biggest trial following last year’s failed attempt to overthrow the government got under way. Nearly 490 suspects are accused of orchestrating the plot from an air base outside Ankara. Most face life in prison if found guilty. Seven defendants are being tried in absentia, including Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in America who is accused of masterminding the coup attempt.

Relations between France and Italy were at a low ebb following France’s decision to nationalise the STX France shipyards, thus cancelling a deal with an Italian state-owned firm. The French and Italian economy ministers met and gave themselves until the end of September to resolve the row.

In trepidation

In Kenya the official in charge of electronic voting was found murdered ahead of elections on August 8th. A post-mortem report said he had been tortured. The murder raised fears of vote-rigging and post-election violence. In 2007, around 1,400 people were killed after a disputed election. See article.

Hundreds of people were said to have fled Awamiya, a small town in eastern Saudi Arabia, following clashes between the security forces and alleged armed Shia militants.

China opened its first overseas military base, a port facility in Djibouti. From there, it will supply ships taking part in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in Yemen and Somalia, it said. See article.

A chaotic turn from democracy

Venezuela’s government claimed that 8m voters turned out to elect representatives to a constituent assembly, which will have near absolute power. A leaked official document reckoned only 3.7m turned out. Many of those who did vote feared losing government largesse if they did not. The voting machines were said to have been tampered with. The opposition boycotted the vote; ten people died in protests against it. America imposed sanctions on the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. See article.

The lower house of Brazil’s congress voted not to refer charges against the country’s president, Michel Temer, for trial by the supreme court. The chief prosecutor had alleged that Mr Temer agreed to use his influence with the antitrust authority on behalf of the boss of a meatpacking firm in return for bribes. Mr Temer denies wrongdoing.

Brazil began deploying troops in Rio de Janeiro to fight crime. They are to conduct operations against gangs that engage in drug-trafficking and looting cargo. More than 90 policemen have been killed in the state this year.

Keeping it in the family

Pakistan’s national assembly elected Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister following Nawaz Sharif s resignation. Mr Sharif was disqualified from office by the Supreme Court for failing to declare all sources of income. Mr Abbasi is not expected to last long in the job. Mr Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, is to contest a by-election in September that will give him a seat in the parliament with the intent of becoming prime minister. See article.

Rex Tillerson, America’s secretary of state, told North Korea “we’re not your enemy” after it conducted a second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. But Mr Tillerson also warned the regime that it was “presenting an unacceptable threat” and America would respond. The latest missile landed in the sea 370km from Japan’s coast. See article.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shia mosque in the Afghan city of Herat which killed at least 33 people. It also said it had carried out an earlier assault on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul in which two people died.

After a six-week election campaign marred by violence and several days of coalition-building talks, the ruling People’s National Congress party was returned to power in Papua New Guinea.

The foreign ministers of China and India were due to meet to ease tensions over a stand-off in an area close to their shared border with Bhutan. In a lengthy statement, China accused India of sending troops 80 metres into its territory. Altercations over precise borders occasionally flare up in the “trijunction” region of the Himalayas. Troops usually do not carry weapons there, and have sometimes resorted to jostling each other to get the opposing side to retreat.