Top News Stories –

Eton launches online lessons for China –
Eton College is going to launch online lessons for schools in China. From this autumn, the leading UK independent school is going to provide classes in leadership to Chinese students, using live online tuition. The school has formed a partnership with a technology firm to create a company called EtonX. The school, in Berkshire, says any income raised by the international project will be used for bursaries to cover pupils’ fees. Percy Harrison, director of information technology at Eton College, says the school would be able to reach a wider number of pupils, without setting up an overseas campus. [BBC]
The Eton College Coat of Arms

Star Wars: The Force Awakens second trailer sets YouTube world record –
The second trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially the most viewed film trailer on YouTube in a 24-hour period. Guinness World Records says the clip, released in April, was watched more than 30 million views in a day. The trailer sees the return of Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford again, alongside co-pilot Chewbacca. The Force Awakens, the first instalment of the franchise’s new trilogy, will be set 30 years after Return of the Jedi. [BBC Newsbeat] See Video of the Day and List of the Day

Video of the Day –

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser #2

List of the Day –

Fictional Old Etonians (from Wikipedia) –

• Bertie Wooster and Psmith from the books by P.G. Wodehouse
• The pirate known as Captain Hook in J. M. Barrie‘s play Peter Pan^[128]
• The detective Lord Peter Wimsey^[129]
• The game shot George Hysteron-Proteron^[130]
• Lord Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited^[131]
• MI6 Agent James Bond 007. He was expelled from Eton after some “trouble” with a maid. Bond author Ian Fleming also attended the school^[132]
• Francis Urquhart is a fictional character created by Michael Dobbs.
• Sir Arnold Robinson GCMG CVO MA (Oxon) is a fictional character in the 1980s British sitcom Yes Minister & its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister.
• Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones films, when confronted with the possibility of having a baby, says he’ll “visit him at Eton on St Andrew’s Day. The Darcy men have been going to Eton for five generations.”
• Jack Gurney, the 14th Earl of Gurney, in Peter Barnes‘s The Ruling Class and its film adaptation, a role that garnered Peter O’Toole an Oscar nomination.
• Rudolph Rassendyll from The Prisoner of Zenda.^[133]
• Jonathan Higgins from the television series Magnum, P.I.
• Captain Arthur Hastings from the books by Agatha Christie^[134]
• Rawdon Crawley, the husband of Becky Sharp, from William Makepeace Thackeray‘s Vanity Fair
• According to some editions of T.H. White‘s The Once and Future King, Merlyn attended Eton and received a medal for achievement in an unspecified subject (in others he had a medal for being the best scholar at Winchester)^{[citation needed]}
• Allan Quatermain from books by H. Rider Haggard
• Lord Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville, from the ITV series Downton Abbey
• Inspector Thomas “Tommy” Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton from the BBC series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, based on novels by Elizabeth George
• Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, played by David McCallum, the chief medical examiner at NCIS, on the television show NCIS
• Will Bailey, played by Joshua Malina, from the American serial drama The West Wing.

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Other News Stories –

Attacks and armed conflicts

• West African offensive
  • The Chadian Air Force carries out airstrikes against bases of Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria to avenge twin bombings in Chad‘s capitalN’Djamena three days ago. (Al Jazeera)
  • The accidental detonation of an explosive device kills 13 vigilantes and injures 53 others near the town of Monguno in northeast Nigeria. The vigilantes were assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram. (AP via News24)
  • At least 38 people were killed in a suspected Boko Haram attack on two villages in Niger. (BBC)

Businesses and economy

• Universal Orlando decides to close Wet ‘n Wild Orlando at the end of 2016 to be replaced by Volcano Bay, which is expected to open in 2017.(NewsMax)

Law and crime

• Charleston church shooting
  • Suspected shooter Dylann Roof is arrested at a traffic stop. Roof is suspected of killing nine people including a South Carolinian state senator.(ABC News) (ITV News)
• The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish on the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel is damaged by a suspected arson attack. (i24),(Haaretz), (Times of Israel), (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Hong Kong electoral reform
  • The Legislative Council of Hong Kong rejects a Beijing-backed electoral reform which sparked the Occupy Central with Love and Peacemovement. (Wall Street Journal)

Religion

• At the Vatican, Pope Francis‘s officials in the Roman Curia formally release the text of his most recent encyclical, “Laudato si” (Latin; meaning “Praised Be”, from the famous poem/hymn “Canticle of Brother Sun“, by Saint Francis of Assisi). The text, which had been quite anticipated by many sides on the climate change debate and been criticized by some for his involvement in the politicized and charged issue, had been previously leaked. (Reuters, via MSN, (CNN), (Vatican)

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