Top News Stories –

Bridge cheating scandal grows as top German players admit ‘ethical violations’ –
Three weeks after a fellow bridge professional threatened to name and shame those he believed were cheating, German bridge partners Josef Piekarek & Alex Smirnov have publicly confessed to “ethical violations”. In apparent attempt to jump before they were pushed, the pair even suggested their own punishments for their behaviour, saying in a statement: “We are aware of the “whispers” circulating about our ethical conduct, and we are sorry to say there is some truth to them. We have voluntarily agreed never again to play competitive bridge together and to take two years off from playing competitive bridge.” The German Bridge Federation and the World Bridge Federation have yet to respond to the admission by Smirnov & Piekarek, [Daily Telegraph]

Apple’s iOS App Store suffers first major attack –
The company [Apple] disclosed the effort after several cyber security firms reported finding a malicious program dubbed XcodeGhost that was embedded in hundreds of legitimate apps. It is the first reported case of large numbers of malicious software programs making their way past Apple’s stringent app review process. Prior to this attack, a total of just five malicious apps had ever been found in the App Store, according to cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW.N). The hackers embedded the malicious code in these apps by convincing developers of legitimate software to use a tainted, counterfeit version of Apple’s software for creating iOS and Mac apps, which is known as Xcode, Apple said. [Reuters]

Greek elections: Alexis Tsipras emerges as clear winner in shock result –
Greece’s radical former prime minister Alexis Tsipras returned to office on Sunday night after his far-left Syriza party won a clear victory in Greece’s general election. Despite a tepid campaign that saw Mr Tsipras’s personal popularity fall sharply, preliminary results showed the 41-year-old’s far-left Syriza party had won sufficient seats to form a coalition government in the coming days. After a tight race, Syriza ran out comfortable winners, with initial projections showing them falling only five or six seats short of the 151 seats needed to govern. [Daily Telegraph] Tsipras announced he was resigning has called an early election on August 20, 2015
Alexis Tsipras winning tweet
Alexis Tsipras

Video of the Day –

Agostina Gálvez captures three Olympic gymnast hopefuls in action from NOWNESS on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Primetime Emmy Award winners [Reuters]

BEST DRAMA SERIES – “Game of Thrones”

BEST COMEDY SERIES – “Veep”

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES – Jon Hamm, “Mad Men”

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES – Viola Davis, “How To Get Away With Murder”

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES – Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES – Uzo Aduba, “Orange is the New Black”

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES – Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent”

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep”

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES – Tony Hale, “Veep”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES – Allison Janney, “Mom”

VARIETY TALK SERIES – “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES – “Inside Amy Schumer”

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM – “The Voice”

LIMITED SERIES – “Olive Kitteridge”

ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE – Richard Jenkins, “Olive Kitteridge”

ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE – Frances McDormand, “Olive Kitteridge”

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • At least 14 people are killed as rebels shell a neighborhood in western Aleppo. (AP via ABC News)
• Yemeni Civil War
  • Houthi rebels release six foreign hostages; three Americans, two Saudis, and a Briton. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• 67th Primetime Emmy Awards
  • The Emmy Awards are held in Los Angeles, California with Game of Thrones winning the Emmy for best drama series. (ABC News Australia)

Business and economy

• Volkswagen halts sales of its 4-cylinder diesel vehicles in the United States following a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency citation that their cars violated U.S. emissions standards. (Auto Guide), (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

• European migrant crisis
  • Some 26 migrants are feared missing after a dinghy carrying them sinks off the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos. The Greek Coast Guard rescued 20 people who were spotted in the water by Frontex, EU’s border agency. (RTE), (AP via WSB-TV2)
  • At least 13 migrants died when a ferry and their inflatable dinghy collided off the northwestern Turkish port of Canakkale. Twenty people were rescued while another 13 are still missing. (BBC), (i24 News)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says that the United States will accept 85,000 refugees from the world in 2016, up from this year’s 70,000 refugees, and will increase to 100,000 refugees in 2017. (Washington Post)
  • Austrian officials report 11,000 migrants crossed into the country from Hungary on Saturday, and another 7,000 are expected today. Seven trains are scheduled to transport 3,500 of these travelers to Germany. (CBS News)

Law and crime

• Apple‘s iOS App Store suffers its first major cyber attack. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Greek legislative election, September 2015
  • Voters in Greece go to the polls for the third time this year with Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) again winning a plurality in the Hellenic Parliament. (The Guardian), (The Globe and Mail via Worldwide Herald)
  • Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, whose resignation last month as prime minister mandated this snap election, says a coalition government will again be formed with the right-wing populist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party. (Sputnik Media), (The Telegraph)
• Constitution of Nepal
  • A new constitution comes into effect in Nepal establishing it as a modern secular state. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

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