August 5, 2015 (Wednesday)
Disasters and accidents
- 2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Soudelor (Hanna) strengthens to the strongest storm of 2015; it is expected to be equivalent to a Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane when it hits Taiwan. (The Independent) (Free District)
- Malaysian Airlines Flight 370:
- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirms that the plane debris recovered from Reunion Island on July 29 is from Flight 370. This is the first direct evidence that the missing March 2014 flight crashed. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says that the search for MH370 will continue. (BBC), (Reuters via MSN), (Nine News - Australia)
- Examination of the debris is being carried out, under the direction of a judge, at the Balma, France, aeronautical test facility in the Toulouse area to identify everything they can from the metal: damage, barnacles, etc. (UPI), (Deutsche Welle), (Reuters via MSN)
- The Italian Corps of the Port Captaincies – Coast Guard and Irish Navy rescue 367 people as a boat carrying migrants founders off the coast of Libya with 25 people dying. (AP)
- The Gold King Mine waste water spill releases 3 million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado. (Newsweek)
Health and medicine
- Researchers based at the University of Helsinki, using data from Statistics Finland, suggests that fathers live longest when having children around the age of 25 to 30, rather than prior. (The Chicago Tribune)
- The death toll from an outbreak of legionnaires disease in New York City rises to eight with 97 people sick. (NBC New York)
International relations
- The Government of Cambodia claims that the Royal Thai Army has killed five Cambodians since January. (The Bangkok Post)
Law and crime
- Police claim that a triple murder in Pensacola, Florida is linked to witchcraft and the blue moon. (The Washington Post)
Politics and elections
- The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down a state law in Texas that had required that voters show identification before casting ballots. (Reuters)