Top News Stories –

Solar Impulse completes epic flight to Hawaii –
Solar Impulse, the aeroplane that is powered only by the sun, has landed in Hawaii after making a historic 7,200km flight across the Pacific from Japan. Pilot Andre Borschberg brought the vehicle gently down on to the runway of Kalaeloa Airport at 05:55 local time (15:55 GMT; 16:55 BST). The distance covered and the time spent in the air – 118 hours – are records for manned, solar-powered flight. The duration is also an absolute record for a solo, un-refuelled journey. Mr Borschberg’s time betters that of the American adventurer Steve Fossett who spent 76 hours aloft in a single-seater jet in 2006. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Solar Impulse

Music streaming reaches a record high in 2015 –
Music streaming has reached a record high in the UK, with the number of songs played rising by 80% compared to this time last year. New figures from the British Phonographic Industry show there have been 11.5 billion streams in the first six months of 2015. That’s compared to 14.8 billion for the whole of 2014. Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk is the most streamed track of the year, with 45 million plays. [BBC Newsbeat]
Mark Ronson

BP reaches £12bn record settlement over Gulf oil spill –
British Petroleum has agreed to pay the largest settlement by a single company in US history over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. deal, which is still awaiting approval, will be worth $18.7bn (£12bn). Over 125 million gallons of oil were spilt into the Gulf after an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Solar Impulse Airplane: Landing in Hawaii

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • Turkey deploys additional troops along its border with Syria as fighting intensifies. (france24 with Reuters)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Toll of Boko Haram massacre in northeastern Nigeria rises to nearly 170.(News 24)(Naij)

• 2015 Sousse attacks
  • The United Kingdom holds a minute of silence at midday to commemorate the 38 people – including 30 Britons – killed in Tunisia a week ago.(BBC)
• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • A United States drone strike kills at least four militants in Yemen. (AFP via Frnce24)

Arts and culture

• The XV International Tchaikovsky Competition concludes with a ceremony awarding top prizes to Dmitry Masleev in piano, Yu-Chien Tseng in violin, Andrei Ionuț Ioniță in cello, as well as Yulia Matochkina and Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar in voice. (medici.tv) (Reuters)

Business and economy

• American health insurer Aetna agrees to buy competitor Humana in a $37 billion deal. (AP)
• A UBS whistle blower is assisting the government of Brazil in its investigation of currency manipulation by global banks, according to a Brazilian paper. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Six people are dead following an explosion at a chemical plant in Ulsan in South Korea. (Yonhap), (AP via ABC News America)
• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Chan-hom strengthens as it heads towards the Pacific island of Guam. (Accuweather)
• At least four people are dead and 48 injured following a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Pishan County in China‘s Xinjiang region. (BBC)
• Sinking of the Kim Nirvana
  • The death toll from yesterday’s capsizing of the M/B Nivana off the coast of the Philippines rises to 56 as murder charges are filed against the owner and crew. (AP via USA Today), (AFP via Straits Times)

Health and medicine

• Research shows that during the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, the ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test, developed by Corgenix, showed promise as a bedside rapid Ebola test, successfully detecting Ebolavirus. (Harvard), (Corgenix), (The Lancet)
• At least 29 people have died in a cholera outbreak in South Sudan. (AFP via Daily Star)

Law and crime

• Phil Walsh, the coach of the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League, is stabbed to death in his home with his son charged with murder. (ABC News Australia)
• Dutch police detain 200 young people in The Hague for not following curfew as violence continues in the Schilderswijk district for a fourth night.(AFP via Daily Star)
• Jeffrey Webb, a former Vice President of FIFA and President of CONCACAF, is reportedly charged with healthcare fraud in his native Cayman Islands. (Eurosport via Yahoo!)

Politics and elections

• Danish general election, 2015
  • Pia Kjærsgaard becomes the first woman to be elected speaker of the Danish parliament, the Folketing. (Politiko.dk/Berlingske)

Science and technology

• The U.S. Air Force‘s outgoing chief scientist, Mica Endsley, announces plans for an unmanned hypersonic flying weapon by 2023, which could travel at least up to Mach 5. (CNN)
• Solar Impulse project
  • The solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 landed in Hawaii from Japan, completing the longest leg of its circumnavigation trip starting in Abu Dhabi. (BBC)

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