Top News Stories –

1 second lie-in tonight –
At 11:59:59pm today, the clock struck 11:59:60pm a ‘leap second’ to compensate for the slowing of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. The last time the world added a leap second, in 2012, major websites including Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp and LinkedIn were not being programmed to deal with an unexpected extra second and crashed. To avoid this Google have added fractions of a second to programmes over the last year, a technique known as a “leap smear”. Scientists at the the International Earth Rotation Service and Paris Observatory say this allows “Earth time” to catch up to “atomic time” and will be the 26th leap second since 1972. [BBC] See Top Twitter Trends

Hollywood couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner to divorce –
Hollywood couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner say they have made “the difficult decision to divorce”. The couple have been married since 2005 and have three children between the ages of three and nine. In a statement they said: “We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children”. [BBC]
Ben Affleck

Apple Music Makes Debut With D.J. Carrying the Flag –
“Into the unknown we go,” the D. J. Zane Lowe said just after noon on Tuesday, as he began his first show on Beats 1, the Internet radio station that is a big feature of Apple’s new music service. As Apple Music opened on Tuesday — most listeners found it as part of an update of Apple’s mobile operating system — much of the attention turned to Beats 1, a live radio feed that in some ways functions as marketing for the entire service. Led by Mr. Lowe, who was born in New Zealand and became a top announcer on the BBC station Radio 1, Beats 1 is in some ways an old-fashioned radio station, with D. J.s, promotional recordings — “carts,” as they are in industry parlance, after the tape cartridges they used to fit on — and teases about new songs.
Zane Lowe tweet [@zanelowe]

Donna Karan Steps Down as Head of Iconic Brand –
In a major shift for American fashion, Donna Karan, the 66-year-old founder and chief designer of Donna Karan International, a brand that defined the way American working women dressed for decades, announced on Tuesday that she was leaving the helm of the house that bears her name. Ms. Karan will remain as an adviser to Donna Karan International, but devote more time to her Urban Zen line, which centers on wellness and artisanal goods, and its foundation. [NY Times]

Video of the Day –

Asking Siri 0 divided by 0 [See Top Twitter Trends – “Siri”]

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
  • Some 1,200 people escape from a Yemeni prison including al Qaeda members. (AP via TVNZ)

Business and economy

• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
  • Seven out of 57 countries defer joining the China-dominated bank. While most of them cite temporary procedural constraints at home, political reasons are involved with the case of the Philippines amid a territorial dispute with China in South China Sea. (The Wall Steet Journal), (The Philippine Star)
• Greek government-debt crisis
  • The Greek bailout program by the European Union ends today with Greece failing to make a payment to the International Monetary Fund.(AP), (AP) (AFP via The Australian)
• British reinsurance broker the Willis Group announces a merger with American company Towers Watson to create an $18 billion company. (FT)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Indonesian military plane crash
  • A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people onboard crashes in a residential area in the Indonesian city of Medan, resulting in at least 116 deaths. (AP), (BBC) (NBC News)
• A man self-immolates aboard a Nozomi Shinkansen train running from Tokyo to Osaka; the man and another passenger die. Eleven others were reported injured. (NHK World)

Health

• The Governor of California Jerry Brown signs a law making all children get vaccinations before being allowed to go to school or day care. (SFgate)

Law and crime

• The Supreme Court of the Philippines asks the government to respond to a petition seeking to repeal a law banning same-sex marriage in the country. (Rappler)

Politics and elections

• United States presidential election, 2016:
  • New Jersey governor Chris Christie formally announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. (CNN)

Science and technology

• A leap second is added to the clock for the first time in 3 years. (BBC)

Sports

• The United States defeats Germany 2-0 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to reach the Final of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource