Top News Stories –
Google unveils surprise restructuring under Alphabet –
Google has unveiled a surprise restructuring, creating a new parent company called Alphabet Inc. Under the rebranding, Google will retain its best-known businesses, such as search, apps, YouTube and Android. Some of the newer entities, such as the investment and research divisions, the “smart-home” unit Nest, and the drone arm will be run under Alphabet. Google founder Larry Page said it would create a simpler structure for what had become a diverse group of businesses. The name Alphabet was chosen for two reasons, Mr Page said. It represents language, “the core of how we index with Google search”, and because Alpha-bet means “investment return above benchmark, which we strive to do”. [BBC]
Tom Davies, 19, becomes ‘youngest person to cycle the world’ –
A British teenager is thought to have become the youngest person to cycle around the world. Tom Davies, 19, from Battersea, England, finished an 18,000-mile journey on Sunday raising more than £50,000 for several charities. Around 100 of his family and friends welcomed him home. During the six months he was away, he had to run away from a group of monkeys, was chased by dogs in Albania and raced an emu in Australia.
Video of the Day –
PATAGONIA 8K from Martin Heck | Timestorm Films on Vimeo.
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Two women attack the US consulate in Istanbul with automatic rifles. No fatalities are reported, and one of the attackers, wounded during the exchange of fire, is captured. The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) claim responsibility. (The News Hub) (Hürriyet Daily News)
- War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A suicide bomb blast kills at least 5 people at the entrance to the Kabul International Airport. The Taliban have claimed responsibility. (BBC)
- Two people are killed, and a third person seriously injured, during a stabbing at an Ikea store in Västerås, Sweden. (BBC News, via MSN)
- Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- Business and economy
- Google creates a new holding company called Alphabet Inc. containing Google Inc. and Calico containing Google Ventures, Google Capital, Google X and other subsidiaries. (Bloomberg)
- Disasters and accidents
- The death toll from floods in Myanmar tops 100 with more than a million people affected. (AAP via Sky News Australia)
- Politics and elections
- Tony Smith is elected as Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives replacing Bronwyn Bishop who resigned as a result of an expenses scandal. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Science
- A night parrot has been captured for the first time in over a hundred years in Australia’s outback. (The Guardian), (The Australian)
- A scientific study, part of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, examined huge blocks of space as distant as several billion light years away and concluded that the universe is “slowly dying” as more stars gradually go out faster than they are being replaced by light-emitting active ones. In cosmological terms, the demise of the universe -age calculated at approximately 13.8 billion years- is billions, perhaps trillions of years away. (The Guardian, via MSN) (CNN) (South African Times Live)
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