China - The 2010s

December 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

Eiffel Tower joins Twitter and receives a warm welcome from Statue of Liberty and Taj Mahal –
When a 126-year-old woman took to Twitter for the first time this week, the Taj Mahal and the Statue of Liberty were so impressed that they sent her tweets to congratulate her. But this was no ordinary old lady – it was the Eiffel Tower, the world’s most visited monument, taking its first steps on the wildly popular microblogging site. “Parisian since 1889, now I am sparkling on Twitter!” said one of the first tweets, in both English and French, on the official account of the 1,063 ft-high tower nicknamed La Grande Dame by its creator, Gustave Eiffel. The tower that each year attracts more than seven million visitors from across the globe, already has around 1.7 million fans on its Facebook account but until this week had kept away from Twitter. Its arrival there this week, under the username @LaTourEiffel, was quickly hailed by direct tweets from the official accounts of other world-renowned monuments. [Daily Telegraph]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes fastest to take $1bn –
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has become the fastest film to take $1bn (£674m) at the global box office. JJ Abrams’ film achieved the feat in 12 days, beating the previous record of 13 days set by Jurassic World in June.
But while Jurassic World had the benefit of record takings in China over the period, The Force Awakens has yet to open there. Star Wars also scored the biggest US Christmas Day box office takings in history with $49.3m (£33.2m). The film took $153.5m (£103.5m) in the US in its second weekend, bringing its total domestic haul to $544.6m (£367m). [BBC]

Christmas time storms, tornadoes kill at least 43 in U.S. –
Storms hit the U.S. South, Southwest and Midwest over the Christmas holiday weekend, unleashing floods and tornadoes that killed at least 43 people, flattened buildings and snarled transportation for millions during a busy travel time. The bad weather, or the threat of it, prompted the governors of Missouri and New Mexico to declare a state of emergency for their states. Flash floods killed at least 13 people in Missouri and Illinois. In Missouri, emergency workers have evacuated residents from their homes and conducted dozens of water rescues, Governor Jay Nixon said on Sunday. He said at least eight people had been killed and numerous roadways had been closed. [Reuters]

British soldiers aid evacuation in flood-hit northern England –
British soldiers helped evacuate hundreds of people from rising floodwaters in the historic city of York on Sunday, after heavy rainfall inundated towns and cities across northern England. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged more military help for the region as the army was deployed to move 300 to 400 people from their homes in York, where the River Ouse was expected to continue rising until Monday, the local council said. Some 100 soldiers were also helping emergency services in the hardest hit areas of West Yorkshire, including Leeds, police said, after the region suffered its worst flooding in 70 years. [Reuters]

Video of the Day –

The Christmas Human – Wishing you a very Christmas merry! from Andre Maat on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Google Trends 2015 –
Top Searches – Global News

1 Charlie Hebdo

2 Paris

3 Hurricane Patricia

4 Isis

5 Nepal

6 El Chapo

7 Greece

8 Baltimore Riots

9 San Bernardino

10 Hurricane Joaquin

Source: Google

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#زد_رصيدك44	Peyton Manning	#yorkfloods
2	가요대전	#DepressABeatlesSong	#RecipeWizard
3	#ANECUP	#GBvsAZ	#AndThenThereWereNone
4	#ÚltimoDomingoDoAnoSdvDTr	#MichaelIsOurSafetyPin	#BigGame8
5	#FelizDomingo	#mattylovesya	#DepressABeatlesSong
6	#TeamBernardoFordGoesToJapan	Chyna	#SAvENG
7	#MyBebeLoveDay3	#5SOSIsDeadParty	#2015bestnine
8	#حكمه_انت_ماشي_…	#PlatonicActivity	#5SOSIsDeadParty
9	#علمتني_الرياض…	#2016PopCulturePredictions	Lynton Crosby
10	#5SOSIsDeadParty	#ThinkBIGSundayWithMarsha	COBRA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Battle of Ramadi
  - The Iraqi Army declares victory over Islamic State militants as their forces retake an important government compound in Ramadi. (Reuters) (CNN)
Boko Haram insurgency
- Boko Haram militants attack the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers. At least 15 people are reportedly killed but the death toll is expected to be much higher. (AP via The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season
- Storm Eva
  - Thousands of people are evacuated from their homes as flood waters continue to rise across large parts of northern England, with York particularly badly affected. (BBC)
Tornadoes of 2015, 2015–16 North American winter, 2015–2016 El Niño event
- At least 11 people are killed as tornadoes strike Dallas, Texas, and five people die in a flash flood in Illinois. A total of 34 people have died in this week’s smörgåsbord of storms that started Wednesday. Mark Wiley of the National Weather Service says this rare run of December tornado storms in the South and Midwest, and spring-like temperatures across much of the North and East, in part to a strong El Niño. (USA Today) (AP via The Greeneville Sun)
- Missouri governor Jay Nixon declares a state of emergency as widespread flash flooding continues to impact the midwestern state. (Fox2Now)

Sports

Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps will coach the sport at Arizona State University upon his presumed retirement following the 2016 Olympics. (NPR) (The Arizona Republic)

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January 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rat on a plane: Air India flight returns to Mumbai after rodent spotted on board –
An Air India plane flying to London was forced to return to Mumbai after passengers spotted a rat on board, the airline said on Thursday. Though the rat was not found, the pilot returned to Mumbai on Wednesday keeping passenger safety in mind, Air India said in a statement. Passengers were later flown by a separate aircraft to London. The aircraft would be fumigated and checked before it is returned to service. Maintenance workers would have to make sure that the rat did not damage equipment or chew any wires and the plane is certified to be rodent-free, an airline official said. [Daily Telegraph]

China’s new two-child policy law takes effect –
Married couples in China will from Friday (Jan 1) be allowed to have two children, after concerns over an ageing population and shrinking workforce ushered in an end to the country’s controversial one-child policy. The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from Jan 1, 2016, Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend. The “one-child policy”, instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring through a system of fines for violators and even forced abortions. For years, authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom and had prevented 400 million births. [Channel News Asia]

Video of the Day –

Philips Presents: The Longest Night from T Brand Studio on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

100 Things we didn’t know last year – by the BBC (1-33)

1. It costs £300 to operate on a constipated goldfish.

Find out more

2. Traditionally, police horses in England’s Thames Valley force can be called Odin, Thor or Hercules, but not Brian.

Find out more

3. Barack Obama calls David Cameron “bro”.

Find out more (Time)

4. The first sports bra was made from two jockstraps.

Find out more

5. One in 10 of Britain’s train carriages still flush toilet waste straight on to the railway tracks.

Find out more

6. Jamaica, Colombia and Saint Lucia are the only countries in the world where a woman is more likely to be a boss than a man.

Find out more (Washington Post)

7. You don’t have to speak French to become French-language Scrabble world champion.

Find out more

8. Kolo Toure, the Ivory Coast and Liverpool defender, hasn’t touched his own dog for seven years.

Find out more (Metro)

9. An egg can be unboiled.

Find out more (Metro)

10. There are four different ways to pronounce diplodocus, and the way children say it is probably more technically correct than the academics’ preferred option.

Find out more

11. A 51-year-old software engineer named Bryan Henderson has edited Wikipedia 47,000 times to remove the ungrammatical term “comprised of”.

Find out more (Backchannel)

12. Buzz Aldrin claimed $33.31 in travel expenses connected to his trip to the moon.

Find out more (Daily Telegraph)

13. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond once played a ghost in a Bollywood soap opera.

Find out more (Buzzfeed)

14. “Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised!” is an official slogan of North Korea.

Find out more

15. Roughly 56% of average monthly earnings in Malawi are spent on mobile phone charges, compared with about 0.11% in Macau, China.

Find out more

16. Quentin Tarantino still records films from TV on VHS cassettes.

Find out more (Independent)

17. Lollipop men and ladies who “high five” pedestrians may be breaching official protocol.

Find out more

18. Squid can fly – but they tend to do it under cover of darkness.

Find out more

19. It’s possible to trick the brain into thinking it can hear Mariah Carey sing All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Find out more (New Scientist)

20. King Arthur may have been Glaswegian.

Find out more (The National)

21. A man-sized lobster lived 480 million years ago.

Find out more

22. At Hotel Football, run by ex-Manchester United players, Gary Neville is represented in the bathroom by blackcurrant-extract shampoo while brother Phil is a bar of soap.

Find out more (Financial Times)

23. Vicars and priests have the highest job satisfaction of all UK workers.

Find out more

24. Narwhals’ long tusks – an exaggerated front tooth used for courtship – are super-sensitive.

Find out more

25. There is only one concert grand piano in Gaza.

Find out more

26. Boston in Lincolnshire is one of the most neurotic places in Great Britain while Orkney is one of the least.

Find out more

27. Michael Jackson made a series of prank calls to Russell Crowe.

Find out more (Guardian)

28. Breaking Bad is the show people most often lie about having watched.

Find out more (Radio Times)

29. The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency does not permit the wearing of colanders on heads in driving licence photos, even for religious reasons.

Find out more (Daily Mirror)

30. People who swear have larger vocabularies.

Find out more (Toronto Sun)

31. The Queen likes to have her pre-lunch gin and Dubonnet in front of BBC Two’s The Daily Politics.

Find out more (Daily Mail

32. In September 1944 the New York Times explained pizza to its readers and included a rare use of its plural “pizze” – there was an earlier article but it only mentioned pizza in passing.

Find out more (New York Times)

33. There is little international trade in onions – about 90% are consumed in their country of origin.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#NesseAnoEuVou	#HowToBeSingle	#MoveToBoys2016
2	Comecei 2016	Starting 2016	Page 1 of 365
3	#زد_رصيدك49	Welcome to 2016	Starting 2016
4	#Feliz16ComDetremuraSdv	#HowWeLivinMusicVideo	#wcoc2016
5	#Em2016EuAindaNao	#MummersParade	#LondonNYE
6	#الهلال_الشباب	#FiestaBowl	#2016IsZaynsYear
7	Página 1 de 366	#NewYearsDay	#Hello2016
8	#НОЧЬШЕРЛОКА	#outbackbowl	#Hootenanny
9	#1şeydiyeceğim	#2015TweepAwards	#ResolutionsFor2016
10	#2016IsZaynsYear	Tel Aviv	Entered 2016

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A shooting takes place at a pub in Tel Aviv, Israel, leaving two dead and eight injured. The police claim to know the identity of the shooter and have launched a nationwide manhunt. (Haaretz)

Arts and culture

A new 28-foot tall statue of Jesus, dubbed “Jesus de Greatest,” is unveiled on New Year’s Day outside St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Abajah village, Nigeria’s Imo state, which is described as the tallest Jesus statue in Africa. (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

About one thousand houses in Manila’s Tondo district in the Philippines are set ablaze following New Year’s Eve firecracker festivities that left one dead and 380 others injured. (AP via CTV News)

International relations

The EU-Ukraine Free Trade deal officially comes into force, coinciding with a Russian food embargo on Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

The two-child policy takes effect in China, allowing couples in the country to have at most two children, replacing the controversial one-child policy. The change in law was announced by the ruling Communist Party on October 29 and passed the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 27, five days prior to its effect. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)

Politics and elections

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been the President of Iceland for 20 years, announces in his new-year speech that he will not seek relection for a sixth term when presidential elections will be held in June. (Visir)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 4, 2016

Top News Stories –

Sexy China TV drama busted, returns to air more sedate –
A Chinese television drama that was pulled off the air after the female characters appeared on screen showing cleavage has returned to the screen, though this time showing only the actresses’ heads, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday. The drama, “The Empress of China” also known as the “Saga of Wu Zetian”, was removed by commercial satellite station Hunan TV for “technical reasons” in late December, Xinhua said. Chinese Internet users responded by complaining about the censorship on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Several complained that they would not be able to see the hundreds of costume changes by Fan Bingbing, one of China’s most popular actresses, who plays the Empress Wu. [Reuters]

Video of the Day –

Behind Eugene • Making A Viral BuzzFeed Video

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#PrimeiraSegundaDoAnoSdvDTr	#mondaymotivation	#backtowork
2	#mondaymotivation	#NationalSpaghettiDay	#StolenOnStolen
3	#WeLoveYouSelena	#backtowork	#PennySparrow
4	#زد_رصيدك52	#TheBachelor	#mondaymotivation
5	#1DHistoryVideo	#1DHistoryVideo	#reshuffle
6	Página 4 de 366	#My4WordMotto	#My4WordMotto
7	#ALDUBNewJourney	#MusicMonday	#Deutschland83
8	#حمله_رجع_تلفو�…	#30Under30	#UKBA16
9	#あなたの薄い本で�…	#njwk10	#WarAndPeace
10	#2016DeseoQue	Zidane	BBC Three

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Two Sunni mosques are bombed in central Iraq and a muezzin is killed amid fears of renewals of sectarian strife following Saudi Arabia‘s execution of Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia. (AFP via Straits Times)
Killing of captives by ISIL
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) releases a video showing the killing of five men accused of committing espionage on the militant group for the United Kingdom. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office released a statement saying that they are examining the content of the video. (AFP via ABS-CBN News) (CBS News)
2016 Pathankot attack
- Five of the terrorists who attacked an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab are reported to have been killed; mopping-up and search operations continue. National Security Guard officials state the operations will continue until the air base is made safe. (Indian Express)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant‘s branch in Libya attacks the Libyan oil port of Sidra, which is Libya’s largest oil depot. Two members of the Petrol Facilities Guard militia, which is defending Sidra, were reportedly killed in clashes. Islamic State militants were reportedly pushed back from the port, but the group now says it controls the town of Bin Jawad, 30km west of Sidra on the road from its stronghold in Sirte. (BBC)

Business and economy

2015 Chinese stock market crash
- Trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange are suspended for the day after stock indices plummeted by 6.85% and 8.1% respectively. (CNBC)
- In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average closes 275 points down due to concerns over the Chinese economy. (NBC News)
Nokia, the telecommunications giant based in Finland, announces that it has gained control of French counterpart Alcatel-Lucent, and sets the date for formal consolidation as January 14. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Northeast India earthquake
- At least six people are killed and dozens injured from a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that struck 20 miles from the city of Imphal, the capital of the Indian state of Manipur, near the border with Myanmar. (NBC News) (The Times of India), (Ap), (AFP via Yahoo! News)

International relations

Foreign relations of Iran
- Sudan and Bahrain follow Saudi Arabia‘s lead and cut diplomatic relations with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates downgrades diplomatic ties. (BBC)
- Saudi Arabia will end all air traffic and trade links with Iran, and demands that Iran must “act like a normal country” before it would restore severed diplomatic relations. (Reuters)
- Syria‘s political opposition in-exile urges all Arab countries to sever diplomatic ties with Iran. The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition declared its support for Riyadh‘s move, calling on “all Arab and Islamic countries to take a similar step”, and criticized what it said was Iran’s support for Shia militias in Syria and Iraq. (Jerusalem Post)
European migrant crisis
- In efforts to control an influx of migrants, Denmark introduces ten days of identity checks on its southern border with Germany, while Sweden introduces similar measures on the Øresund Bridge between itself and Denmark. All three countries are subject to the Schengen Agreement on the free movement of people. (BBC)

Law and crime

The President of the United States Barack Obama announces executive orders to expand background checks for firearms and toughen regulation of firearms. (The New York Times)
New Year’s Eve Cologne sex attacks
- German police begin investigations into a gang of up to 1,000 men of North African and Arab appearance who committed sexual assaults on women in Cologne‘s main square on New Year’s Eve. (AFP via The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Marshallese general election, 2015
- Casten Nemra is elected President of the Marshall Islands by the Nitijela. Nemra narrowly defeated Alvin Jacklick by a 17-16 vote. (Marshall Islands Journal)
Former “Peking University prodigy” Li Shulei is named the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the municipality of Beijing. (SCMP)

Science and technology

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry confirms the addition of four new chemical elements to the periodic table after scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoryin Livermore, California, United States provided sufficient evidence to fill the elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, which were temporarily named ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium, respectively. (The Guardian)

Sports

In association football, La Liga powerhouse Real Madrid sack manager Rafael Benítez, replacing him with former Real and France great Zinedine Zidane. (ESPN FC)
In American football, the National Football League receives relocation applications from the San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders to relocate to Los Angeles. (ESPN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 5, 2016

Top News Stories –

German carpenter invents on-off contraception switch for sperm –
A German carpenter has invented a valve which he claims will revolutionise contraception, by allowing a man to turn the flow of sperm from his testicles on and off at the flick of a switch. Clemens Bimek told Spiegel magazine the idea first came to him some 20 years ago, when he was watching a television documentary about contraception, and wondered whether it would be possible to control the flow of sperm with a simple valve. When he discovered that no one had ever filed a patent for such a device, he decided to develop his own. “Many of the doctors I consulted didn’t take me seriously. But there were some who encouraged me to go on tinkering and helped me with their expertise,” Mr Bimek said. Now the valve he has developed is to be implanted in 25 men in trials – starting this year. [Daily Telegraph]

Cricket record: Pranav Dhanawade hits 1,009 in school match –
An Indian teenager scored more than 1,000 runs in a single innings to set a new world record in school cricket. Fifteen-year-old Pranav Dhanawade broke the previous record of 628 set by Arthur Collins in 1899 on Monday. But he continued his innings in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament and reached 1,009 runs. He smashed 59 sixes and 127 fours in 395 minutes before his KC Gandhi School declared the innings at 1,465 against Arya Gurukul School on Tuesday. [BBC]
Sachin Tendulkar tweet

‘Anti-IS group’ claims BBC website attack –
A group that says it targets online activity linked to so-called Islamic State (IS) has claimed it was behind an attack on the BBC’s website. All the BBC’s websites were unavailable for several hours on New Year’s Eve after what a BBC source described as a “distributed denial of service” attack. The group, calling itself New World Hacking, said it had carried out the attack as a “test of its capabilities”. In a tweet to BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, the group said: “We are based in the US, but we strive to take down Isis [IS] affiliated websites, also Isis members. “The reason we really targeted [the] BBC is because we wanted to see our actual server power.” Earlier, New World Hacking had said: “It was only a test, we didn’t exactly plan to take it down for multiple hours. Our servers are quite strong.” [BBC]

Video of the Day –

The Wire from Elliot Lim on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#TEENWOLF5BTODAY	#NationalBirdDay	#NTA2016
2	#TercaDetremuraSdv	#ElCambioComienzaHoy	Coachella
3	#زد_رصيدك53	#TooColdTuesday	Tyga
4	#ElCambioComienzaHoy	#TEENWOLF5BTODAY	#HousingBill
5	#PSYBringBackAngYna	#BillyManziel	LCD Soundsystem
6	#NocheDeReyes	#StopGunViolence	#SilentWitness
7	#FelizMartes	#BadStarWars8Names	Troy Deeney
8	Página 5 de 366	#LArain	#WheresRey
9	#ご利益のある人ラ�…	Brian Urlacher	#pointswestlive
10	#ALosReyesLesPido	#TWUG	#FatCatTuesday

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A United States Army soldier is killed and two others wounded in a joint operation with Afghan National Security Forces in Afghanistan‘s southern Helmand Province. (Washington Post)
2016 Kaliachak riots
- Violent riots break out in Kaliachak, West Bengal, India, after political activist Kamlesh Tiwari allegedly insulted the Muslim prophet Muhammad. (Times of India)
Nimr al-Nimr
- One Shia protester is killed and a child is injured by Saudi police in Al-Awamiyah, Eastern Province. (FT)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- Islamic State militants continue to besiege the Libyan oil port of Sidra, attacking checkpoints on the road to the port, leaving seven guards dead. The National Oil Corporation (NOC) said an oil storage tank in the port was set on fire by a long-range rocket, and that the oil tank fire started just as firefighters were close to bringing under control another blaze at an oil tank that was hit during fighting in the nearby Ra’s Lanuf Refinery on Monday. (Reuters)
The Islamic State, following Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 people on Saturday, threatens to destroy the Saudi’s Tarfiya and al-Ha’ir Prisons holding Al-Qaeda and ISIL supporters. (Reuters) (Daily Mail)

Disasters and accidents

A bus catches fire in the Chinese city of Yinchuan resulting in at least 14 deaths and over 30 injured. (AP via Fox News)

Environment

2015–16 North American winter
- Droughts in the United States
  - California’s state climatologist Michael Anderson mentions that the recent El Niño-fueled storms will put a dent in the ongoing drought, but not end the conditions citing larger reservoirs that are still below normal. (USA Today)
- 2014–16 El Niño event
  - Back-to-back-to-back storms from the current El Niño, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says ties the strongest on record (1997–98), are likely to produce dangerous flooding and mudslides in the Western United States with as much as 15 inches (30cm) of rain, and about 2 feet (60cm) of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next two weeks. (UPI) (NBC News)

International relations

Syrian Civil War
- Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says the country’s recent tensions with Iran will not interfere with Syrian peace talks scheduled to begin in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month. (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
China-Taiwan Relations
- China says flights from the Chinese cities of Nanchang, Kunming, and Chongqing, will be allowed to stop at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before flying to a third destination. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou applauded this step toward normalizing relations between the two states. Taiwan’s opposition party expressed concern that Beijing is trying to interfere with the country’s January 16, 2016, presidential and legislative elections. (Reuters) (The Straits Times) (Central News Agency)

Politics and elections

Reform of the People’s Liberation Army in China:
- The Second Artillery Corps is re-organized into the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force.
- The People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force is founded, with Gao Jin as its inaugural commander and Liu Fulian as Political Commissar.
- The Ground Force is re-organized under the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force Command, under commander Li Zuocheng. (SCMP)
Former Beijing Deputy Communist Party Secretary Lu Xiwen is expelled from the Communist Party of China for “interfering with the market economy and law enforcement” and “living a luxurious lifestyle”, among other offenses. (SCMP)
United States presidential election, 2016
- On January 18, 2016, the British Parliament will debate a petition, signed by more than 560,000 people, calling for the Home Secretary to ban United States Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom because of ‘hate speech‘ that is unacceptable behavior, non-conducive to the public good. The conclusion reached by the lawmakers will not be binding on the UK government. (The Washington Post) (AP via The Washington Post)
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- The United Kingdom‘s Prime Minister David Cameron announces he will suspend collective responsibility ahead of the referendum on the country’s EU membership, allowing ministers to campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. A member of his cabinet was reportedly due to resign over the issue within 24 hours. (The Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 6, 2016

Top News Stories –

Twitter closer to allowing longer tweets of up to 10,000 characters –
Twitter is considering ditching its 140-character limit in tweets. After 24 hours of speculation it seems the the social media company is considering a new 10,000 character limit – the same as for Direct Messages. It’s the latest effort by the firm to appeal to a wider audience. Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey has said he isn’t definitely set on sticking with 140 characters. [BBC] See Top twitter Trends

Netflix extends its service to almost all the world –
Netflix has gone live in nearly every country in the world. The firm announced it had switched on its service in 130 additional countries. It said it was still trying to expand to China. The other exceptions are North Korea, Syria and Crimea, where it is banned from operating by US law. The announcement was made by the firm’s chief executive Reed Hastings at his keynote speech at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. He also confirmed that Netflix would begin offering HDR (high dynamic range) content later this year. The company’s shares jumped to about 8% over their opening price following the announcements. [BBC]

‘Star Wars: Force Awakens’ Tops ‘Avatar’ to Become No. 1 Film of All Time in North America –
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest-grossing film of all time in North America, not accounting for inflation. On Wednesday, the Disney and Lucasfilm mega-blockbuster overtook the $760.5 million earned by James Cameron’s Avatar. Force Awakens — which grossed $8 million on Tuesday for a domestic total of $758.2 million — achieved the milestone in only 20 days in release, a remarkable feat. [Hollywood Reporter]

Video of the Day –

Bei Hai / 北海‬ (animation Rob Jabbaz. music Howie Lee) from Rob Jabbaz on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

People’s Choice Television Award winners:
Favourite show: The Big Bang Theory
Favourite network comedy: The Big Bang Theory
Favourite comedic actor: Jim Parsons
Favourite comedic actress: Melissa McCarthy
Favourite network drama: Grey’s Anatomy
Favourite dramatic actor: Taylor Kinney
Favourite dramatic actress: Ellen Pompeo
Favourite cable comedy: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Favourite cable drama: Pretty Little Liars
Favourite cable actor: Kevin Hart
Favourite cable actress: Sasha Alexander

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SoyMuyFelizCuando	#kroenkecomplaints	#Twitter10k
2	#زد_رصيدك54	#Twitter10k	North Korea
3	#QuartaSnapDetremuraSdv	Rosa Parks	#newsnight
4	#ALDUBONLYYou	#WasteHisTime2016	#woofwoofwednesday
5	#NoTeLoPerdonareJamasCarmena	#1lineWed	Gemma Collins
6	#حزب_الله_يقتل_…	#Powerball	Christopher Maloney
7	#Twitter10k	Griffey	Jonathan
8	#QuandoABadBateEu	#DmMeCarter	#ZaynStayStrong
9	#SeImpusoLaConstitucion	Pierre Boulez	Megan
10	#あなたの特殊能力	#IdolPremiere	Pat McFadden

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- The Islamic State‘s Libyan branch continues attacks on Libya‘s oil ports of Sidra and Ra’s Lanuf, resulting in at least 10 security personnel deaths and 40 injured. The National Oil Corporation (NOC) reports that fires continue to rage in both Sidra and Ra’s Lanuf after oil storage tanks were hit by shells. (Al-Jazeera) (BBC)
Bahrain says it has dismantled a terrorist cell allegedly linked to Iran‘s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon‘s Hezbollah. (The National)

Arts and culture

Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes the highest-grossing film ever in the United States and Canada, overtaking Avatar. (Hollywood Reporter)

Business and economy

TransCanada, the firm that unsuccessfully applied for cross-border permission to build the Keystone XL pipeline, files a lawsuit against the United States alleging that the refusal of permission violated theNorth American Free Trade Agreement. (Reuters)

International relations

2016 North Korean nuclear test
- A 5.1 magnitude earthquake near Sungjibaegam, North Korea, is suspected to be a nuclear explosion at the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. North Korea announces it has conducted a hydrogen bomb test. They claim to have tested a miniaturized bomb. If not true it would mean that the test partially failed. (AFP via ABC News Australia) (AP) (Bloomberg) (The Guardian)
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban-Ki Moon demands that North Korea should cease any further nuclear activity. (ABC News Australia)

Law and crime

German police temporarely seal off the main entrance to the chancellery building because of a suspicious package. (Reuters) (AP via USA Today) (Al Arabia)
Texas state trooper Brian Encinia is charged with perjury in connection with the death of Sandra Bland. (AP via Fox 32)

Sport

In Major League Baseball, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Griffey was named on all but three of the 409 ballots received, surpassing Tom Seaver for the highest voting percentage in Hall history. Griffey and Piazza will be formally inducted on July 24. (NBC News)

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January 22, 2016

Top News Stories –

It Cost Google One Billion Dollars to Keep its Search Bar on iPhones –
Google’s search bar has been a fixture on Apple devices for years, something that’s always seemed counter-intuitive, what with Android being iOS’s only real competitor. According to Bloomberg, Google’s search engine is only exists there because of a $1 billion payment made to Apple in 2014. Bloomberg found the details in court proceedings from an Oracle vs Google lawsuit. Oracle has been fighting Google since 2010 over the search giant’s use of Oracle’s Java software in the development of Android. Somewhere along the way, Oracle’s lawyers got their hands on internal Google finances, which were brought up in open court, before Google’s attorneys pleaded to have the transcript redacted and sealed. According to Oracle’s lawyers — and neither confirmed nor denied by Google’s side — Google paid Apple $1 billion (that equates to around £701,000,000) in 2014 to keep its search bar on Apple devices. The two companies then have a revenue-sharing agreement to split any profits Google makes from Apple’s devices, although the breakdown is not known. [Gizmondo]

Video of the Day –

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9	#يوم_الجمعه	#ChaseTheDay	#FlashbackFriday
10	#AsAChildIUsedToThink	Jalen Rose	#10000BC

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Arts and culture

Douglas Borough Council announces that the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, at Douglas, Isle of Man, ran for the last time at the end of the 2015 season. (BBC)

Business and economy

Steve Zadesky, who has been running the electric car project for Apple Inc. for two years, will leave that company soon for personal reasons, according to the Wall Street Journal. (Wall Street Journal)

Disasters and accidents

January 2016 United States winter storm
- Millions of people in the Mid-Atlantic states brace for a winter storm. (BBC)(CNN)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- The United States government implements new restrictions to its visa waiver program which now requires, with limited exceptions, European, Japanese and Australian travelers to the United States who either have been visitors in the last five years to or are dual-citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan to obtain a travel visa. The new visa policies were mandated by legislation which was passed, in the aftermath of November 2015 Paris attacks, by Congress on the grounds of national security. (CNN), (NYT), (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

La Loche Community School shooting
- A former La Loche Community School student shot and killed two brothers at home, and two females, one a teacher, at the school in La Loche, Saskatchewan, Canada, while injuring others. A suspect has been arrested. (CBC) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Wei Hong resigns as Governor of Sichuan province in China after it was revealed that he was undergoing investigation for “breaching party discipline.” Former World Health Organization executive committee member Yin Li becomes acting governor. (SCMP)

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January 26, 2016

Top News Stories –

Australians choose alternative flag which removes the Union flag in new survey –
Australians have chosen a favourite alternative national flag amid calls to remove the Union flag from the current “outdated” design which has been flown since 1901. The preferred design, labelled the Southern Horizon, was the most popular of six options and captured 31 per cent of the vote in a survey conducted by the University of Western Sydney. The second most popular option, the Reconciliation Flag, received 28 per cent of the vote. The competition was prompted by the New Zealand government’s decision to hold a referendum on changing the flag – a process which is due to be completed in March. [Daily Telegraph]
Southern Horizon flag

Video of the Day –

What If You Only Drank Soda?

Top Twitter Trends –

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- A suicide bomb attack on a Syrian Army (SAA) checkpoint in the city of Homs kills at least 22 people, including around a dozen soldiers. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attack. (AFP via Daily Mail) (Reuters Canada)
- Second Battle of Al-Shaykh Maskin
  - The Syrian Army, backed by Hezbollah militiamen and Russian airstrikes, retakes full control of the strategic town of Al-Shaykh Maskin in Syria‘s southern Daraa Governorate, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A U.S. drone strike kills at least 6 ISIL militants in Afghanistan‘s Nangarhar Province, according to the Afghan defense ministry. (The New Indian Express)
- An Afghan police officer, allegedly tied to Taliban, poisons and kills ten of his colleagues in Urozgan province. (AL Jazeera)

Business and economy

French taxidrivers, air traffic controllers and school teachers go on strike over working conditions and competition from non-traditional services such as Uber. (AP via ABC News America)

Disasters and accidents

January 2016 United States blizzard
- The death toll from the blizzard rises to 38. (AP via ABC News America)
Malaysian authorities find 13 bodies washed up on Johor beach believed to be Indonesian migrants. (Reuters via Channel News Asia)

Health

Zika virus outbreak in the Americas (2015–present)
- Virologists find the Zika virus in Australian tourists returning from South America. (ABC News Australia)

International relations

Moldova–Romania relations
- Romania offers neighboring Moldova a $65 million (60 million euros) loan to help stave off economic collapse and keep the former Soviet Republic on a pro-European course, provided the Moldovan government implements major reforms. Government funds were needed to cover more than $1 billion that “disappeared” from three Moldovan banks in November 2014. In the frigid capital Chișinău, 15,000 people from both the pro-European and pro-Russian sides of the political divide, protested on Sunday against the current government and demanded new elections. Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who took office last week, is the country’s sixth PM in a year. (AP) (Reuters) (The New York Times)

Law and crime

The Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak is cleared of corruption by the Attorney-General of Malaysia Apandi Ali after returning US$607 million worth of donations to his personal account from the Saudi Royal Family. (Channel News Asia)
Authorities in the People’s Republic of China say that Wang Baoan is under suspicion for “serious violation of discipline” (a phrase usually associated with corruption charges) as the head of that country’s powerful National Bureau of Statistics. (BBC)
Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
- U.S. federal authorities arrest militia leader Ammon Bundy and several of his followers following an exchange of gunfire at a traffic stop on U.S. Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon. One person, LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona and spokesman for the militia, was killed in the shootout. (CNN), (Oregon Live)
Homelessness in Seattle
- Two people are killed and three others are hospitalized, two with life-threatening injuries, following a shooting in the “The Jungle” homeless encampment in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington. Police are searching for two suspects. (NBC News) (seattlepi.com)
Terrorism in the United States
- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, man who is alleged to have been planning a machine gun mass shooting at a local Masonic Temple. (The Washington Post)(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) (FBI)

Politics and elections

Marshall Islands President Casten Nemra is defeated in a vote of no confidence. Nemra had just been elected President in early January 2016. A successor is expected to be selected soon. (Radio New Zealand International)

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February 12, 2016

Top News Stories –

Sir Richard Branson ‘attacked’ by stingray and door on holiday –
Sir Richard Branson had a holiday to remember, for all the wrong reasons, after he was injured by a stingray and then a bullet-proof glass door. The Virgin billionaire said he had been “in the wars” in the Cayman Islands, admitting his holiday “didn’t quite go to plan”. “We were surrounded by stingray, as well as stunning coral reefs and tropical fish,” he wrote in a blog post. “But the rays were feeding all around, and they mistook yours truly for their food. Suddenly I felt a painful sensation on my wrist – they have one heck of a painful kiss! Rays are actually part of the shark family, so I’ve now been kissed by a shark. Getting stung by a ray is meant to bring seven years good luck but it didn’t bring much for Branson who then had an unfortunate run-in with a glass door. “As my anniversary was coming up, I popped into a local jewellery shop to look for a gift for Joan [his wife]. I strolled purposefully into the shop, not noticing there was a glass door in my way. Crash!” he explained. “I hit the glass head first and I got this painful cut above my left eye. It was bullet-proof glass! We quickly set up a makeshift operating theatre, where I was given three stitches. [Daily Telegraph]
Richard Branson tweet

Indonesia wants gay-themed emojis removed –

Indonesia wants social networking sites to remove any emojis representing same-sex couples, it’s reported. One popular messaging app, Line, has already dropped all LGBT-themed emojis, after saying it had received complaints from users. Now the Indonesian government is asking major players like Facebook and WhatsApp to follow suit and remove the icons for users within the country, the Republika newspaper reports. “No social media may show items that smack of LGBT. Because we have our own rules, like religious values and norms, which they must respect,” information ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu is quoted as saying. Homosexuality is legal in Indonesia, but prevailing conservative attitudes in the Muslim-majority country make open discussion of sexuality controversial. Mr Cawidu did not specify what would happen if companies refused to remove the emojis. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

The Speed of Life

Top Twitter Trends –

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Northern Mali conflict
- An attack by suspected Islamist militants on a MINUSMA base in the town of Kidal, northern Mali, kills at least five United Nations peacekeepers and injures 30 others. (AFP via Al Arabiya) (Reuters)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- A Libyan Air Force MiG-23 is shot down over the city of Benghazi as it conducted airstrikes on Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries positions in the coastal city. A Tobruk-based military source said the pilot survived having parachuted to safety, but his whereabouts were not immediately clear. (AFP via Yahoo News)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- At least five policemen are killed in an attack on a police station in Aden. (Daily Times)

Business and economy

Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the British national newspaper, The Independent, announces that as of March 2016, the 29-year-old paper will only publish online with print editions coming to an end. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Taiwan earthquake
- The death toll from the earthquake rises to 94 with 550 people injured, and at least 30 more missing and believed buried in the apartment complex rubble in Tainan. (CNN)

International relations

Syrian Civil War
- John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, says that a meeting of 17 ministers in Munich has agreed to a ceasefire within a week and delivery of humanitarian assistance beginning immediately.(Reuters via ABC News)
East–West Schism
- Pope Francis meets with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Havana, Cuba. It is the first time that the heads of the Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church have ever met. (CNN)
North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The discontinuance of electricity and water into the Kaesong area impacts area residents who lose their steady supply of water. The public received about 60 percent of the 17,000 tons of water South Korea pumped north each day. (AP via Fox News)
- China has announced it will back a United Nations resolution to make North Korea “pay the necessary price” for the recent rocket launch. (Reuters)
- The United States deploys an additional Patriot missile battery to South Korea in response to North Korea‘s recent rocket launch. (The Japan Times)

Law and crime

Pakistan arrests 97 people allegedly involved in terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who were allegedly plotting a variety of attacks including a plan to get Daniel Pearl‘s killer out of prison. (Reuters via Channel News Asia)
Two people are killed on the campus of Independence High School in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The campus is on lockdown, but there is no active shooter situation any longer. (The Arizona Republic)

Politics and elections

Stuart Robert, Australia’s Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and for Human Services, resigns for breaching ministerial standards during his 2014 business trip to China while Assistant Minister for Defence. (AP)
South Sudanese Civil War
- Salva Kiir, the President of South Sudan, appoints rebel leader Riek Machar as Vice President in a bid to end a two year civil war. (Bloomberg)
2016 United States presidential election
- Jim Gilmore suspends his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. (The Guardian)

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March 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Chinese city brings in penalty points for dog owners –
A city in eastern China is tackling negligent dog owners with a new driving licence-style system. The pilot scheme, which started this month, gives pooches in the city of Shaoxing a licence pre-loaded with 12 points which are then gradually docked for breaking the rules, Qianjiang Evening News reports. Taking a dog into a public place such as a school or restaurant will cost an owner three points, while “failing to take effective measures” to stop a badly behaving dog results in six points being docked. A microchip under the dog’s skin will hold data on the penalties incurred. The biggest penalties are reserved for owners who use their pets to cause deliberate wounding, and those who abandon or abuse their animals – they’ll lose all 12 points and be banned from reapplying for an ownership licence. “Like drink-driving and other bad behaviour, dog owners will be blacklisted, and won’t be able to raise dogs again,” says city official Zhang Zhuoming. The paper says Shaoxing has experienced problems with both stray and domestic dogs, with more than 7,000 dog biting incidents registered last year. [BBC]

Pigeons track air pollution in London with tiny backpacks –
A small flock of pigeons have been given tiny backpacks to monitor air pollution in London. The project was dreamt up by Plume Labs, a company focused on the environmental problem, and the marketing agency DigitasLBi. The rucksacks are fitted to the birds using small fabric vests, and the sensors inside are able to measure nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels. Only 10 birds are in flight at any one time, so the amount of data being collected is pretty small. However, it’s still a creative way of analysing the air that millions breathe in every day in the capital. [Endgadget]

Video of the Day –

X-Men: Apocalypse | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- 2016 Peshawar bus bombing
  - A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54. (AP via CBS)
Boko Haram insurgency
- 2016 Maiduguri suicide bombings
  - Two female suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18. (AP via New York Times) (Newsweek)

Disasters and accidents

The Washington Metro, a commuter rail system which transports nearly 1 million passengers across the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area per day, shuts down to allow for an emergency inspection of 600 electrical cables, following two fires occurring over the past 14 months. Officials say the system is scheduled to resume service by the following morning, though individual Metro lines or stations could remain closed indefinitely if problems are identified. (The Washington Post) (The Washington Times) (CBS News)

Health and medicine

Zika virus outbreak
- Cuban officials announce they have detected the first case of the Zika virus transmitted inside the country: a 21-year-old Havana woman who had not traveled abroad. Cuba has reported a handful of travel-associated Zika cases, all believed imported from Venezuela. (Medical Xpress) (Outbreak News Today)

International relations

North Korea–United States relations
- North Korea sentences American Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, studying at the University of Virginia, to 15 years hard labor for removing a political poster from a hotel. (The Guardian) (The Washington Post)
- President Barack Obama orders new sanctions against North Korea in response to ‘illicit’ nuclear, missile tests. (AP)
Syrian Civil War, Syrian peace process
- The delegation of the government of Syria rules out starting any direct talks with the opposition delegation as U.N. sponsored peace talks enter a third day in Geneva. (BBC)
- Kurdish officials say they plan to declare a federal region in northern Syria after being excluded from peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict. The move will combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas into a federal system in what is set to alarm neighboring Turkey. (USA Today)
Turkey–United Kingdom relations
- Turkey deports British academic Chris Stephenson, a computer science lecturer at Bilgi University in Istanbul, who is charged with making terrorism propaganda. The UK Foreign Office said it was providing assistance; there has been no comment from Turkish officials. (AP)

Law and crime

The travel ban for former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is lifted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Musharraf is currently facing treason charges in Pakistan. (Reuters)
PKK rebellion (2015–present)
- Authorities in Turkey arrest three academics on charges of “terrorist propaganda” after they called for an end to security operations in the country’s Kurdish-majority southeast. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Attacks on humanitarian workers
- The U.S. military disciplines more than a dozen personnel for mistakes that led to the bombing of a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) hospital that killed 42 people in Afghanistan last October. No criminal charges are pending. The partially redacted investigation report is expected to be made public shortly. (AP)

Politics and elections

Republican Party presidential debates and forums, 2016
- Donald Trump announces he will skip the Fox News GOP presidential debate between the three remaining candidates on March 21, saying he thinks “we had enough of debates.” (Newsmax)
- Ohio Governor John Kasich says he will also skip the debate if Donald Trump follows through on his vow not to attend. (The Hill)
- Fox News cancels the Republican debate scheduled for Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Utah Republican Party has received more than 50,000 ticket requests. Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox is upset Trump, “…is snubbing the state of Utah.” According to Deseret News, Trump is in fourth place in Utah polls. (The Salt Lake Tribune) (Deseret News)
2016 Republican Party presidential primaries:
- Senior GOP rules committee member Curly Haugland says that “We (RCN committee members) choose the nominee, not the voters”. (Washington Post)
United States presidential election, 2016
- In the Missouri Primary, media outlets have held off calling yesterday’s races due to the extremely close results. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton lead in their party’s vote, but by just two-tenths of 1 percent ahead of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, respectively. Missouri law states a recount may be requested if the margin is less than half a percentage point. Either Cruz or Sanders or both can request a recount. These results are unofficial, until they’re certified by the Missouri Secretary of State, which reportedly could take up to four weeks. Trump leads by about 1,700 votes and Clinton’s edge is about 1,500. The state also needs to count the remaining absentee and provisional ballots; the deadline for overseas ballots is noon Friday. (The Hill) (CNN)
Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates
- President Barack Obama nominates Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States. (BBC) (CNN)
Brazil‘s ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes Cabinet post as chief of staff to Brazil’s current president, Dilma Rousseff, thereby gaining legal shield. Only the Brazilian Supreme Court can try presidential Cabinet members for crimes. (New York Times) (UPI)
- Protests erupt outside the presidential palace in Brasília, and on São Paulo’s main Avenue Paulista. on news of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s appointment as President Rousseff’s chief of staff. Federal Judge Sérgio Moro says taped conversations between the two show Lula and Rousseff, apparently, trying to influence the investigation. (Reuters)

Science and technology

Scientists release a small flock of pigeons, dubbed “The Pigeon Air Patrol”, carrying tiny backpacks to monitor London‘s air quality during a period of moderate to high pollution. The backpacks contain sensors used to measure nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels. (Engadget) (The Guardian)

Sport

The PGA of America announces it is discontinuing the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, a special postseason event among the year’s winners of the four major championships of regular men’s golf. This year, it was set to be held at Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, California. The 2015 event was cancelled after the PGA decided to move the exhibition contest from the same Trump Club, and they couldn’t find a replacement course golf course with suitable dates. (AP) (PGA) (ESPN)

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April 8, 2016

Top News Stories –

Springsteen cancels North Carolina concert over bathroom bill –
Rock star Bruce Springsteen on Friday canceled a concert scheduled for this weekend in North Carolina to protest a new state law restricting bathroom use by transgender individuals, as country music stars decried similar legislation proposed in Tennessee. Springsteen said in an online statement that the North Carolina law was “an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.” Tickets for the concert that was to be presented on Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina, would be refunded, according to Springsteen’s website. PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) cited the discriminatory nature of the law when it canceled on Tuesday a new operations center that was to employ 400 workers in Charlotte. [Reuters] In March Springsteen signed a late note for a schoolboy who came to one of his concerts
Bruce Springsteen

SpaceX reusable rocket lands on ocean platform –
The US aerospace company SpaceX has successfully landed a resusable rocket on an ocean platform, after four previous attempts failed. Mission controllers cheered as the Falcon 9 rocket remained upright on the platform off Florida. It was returning from delivering an inflatable habitat into space for Nasa. The inflatable room will attach to the International Space Station (ISS) for a two-year test and become the first such habitat to for humans in orbit. It is due to reach the ISS around 09:00 GMT on Sunday along with other freight aboard the Dragon capsule. Built by Nevada company Bigelow Aerospace, the habitat is intended to pave the way towards the use of such rooms for long space trips, including to Mars. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

SpaceX lands rocket at sea, makes history –

	Worldwide	USA	UK (London)
1	#SextaDetremuraSdv	#FlashbackFriday	#FridayFeeling
2	#سعادتي_هي	Josh Pastner	#AskZac
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7	#AmaneciConGanasDe	Sanders Over the Edge	#SLFLLondon2
8	#ALDUBProblemaNiLola	Vatican	Danny DeVito
9	#FridayFeeling	#FridayFeeling	#LadiesDay
10	#جسر_الملك_سلمان	#lovesick7days	#IAMW16

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sinai insurgency
- At least seven people are killed, including five Egyptian Army soldiers, a military officer and a civilian woman in two separate blasts in Egypt‘s Sinai Peninsula. ISIL’s Sinai branch claimed responsibility for the attacks on several websites. (Reuters)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Hīt offensive (2016)
  - The Iraqi Army recaptures the western town of Hīt, Al Anbar Governorate, after driving out hundreds of ISIL militants. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Damascus offensive (April 2016)
  - ISIL militants reportedly execute 175 workers who were captured earlier this week at a cement factory situated to the east of Damascus. (RT) (Daily Mail)
2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes
- An ethnic Armenian soldier dies in overnight clashes. (News Armenia)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis issues Amoris Laetitia or the Joy of Love, a document on the Roman Catholic approach to love, sex, marriage and family life. (AP)
- In the 256-page document, the Pope encourages the clergy to embrace sinners as well as saints, opens the door a bit for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and stresses that Catholics, with their own informed consciences guided by the light of the Gospel, address tricky moral questions in their life, and not only be guided by dogmatic rules from above. Francis also asserts the right to a natural deathwithout aggressive treatment; firmly rejects the death penalty; and reiterates the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. (AP²) (The Washington Post) (Vatican)
North Carolina bathroom bill
- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band cancels their Sunday night concert in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the state’s controversial “bathroom bill.” (Rolling Stone)

Business and economics

Both Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and Marriott International shareholders approve Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood, which will create the world’s largest hotelier. The deal has cleared the pre-merger antitrust reviews in the United States and Canada; approvals from the European Union and China is pending. Last week, Anbang Insurance Group topped Marriott’s bid, then withdrew their offer three days later. (Reuters) (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

At least 50 people are reportedly injured following a head-on collision between two commuter trains in San José, Costa Rica. (WRAL)
Three people are killed, and there was one survivor, following the crash of a small plane headed to Angoon in Southeast Alaska, United States. (KTUU-TV)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korean defectors
- A group of 13 North Koreans working at a restaurant in an unidentified country defect en masse to South Korea, according to Seoul‘s Ministry of Unification. (USA Today)
Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations
- King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announces, during his trip to Cairo, that a bridge crossing the Red Sea will be built, linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says the bridge will be named after the Saudi monarch. A Saudi–Egypt Causeway project has been in the works for years. (BBC)
Syria–United States relations
- Syria releases American freelance photographer Kevin Patrick Dawes who was kidnapped in 2012. (Washington Post)
NATO–Russia relations
- NATO announces it will hold a meeting of the NATO–Russia Council at the ambassadorial level at NATO headquarters in Brussels in the next two weeks after a two-year break since NATO cut all practical cooperation with Russia in 2014. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Egypt–Italy relations, Murder of Giulio Regeni
- Italy recalls its ambassador to Egypt for consultations in protest over the lack of progress in a probe into the fate of murdered Cambridge University student Giulio Regeni. “We want only one thing, the truth about what happened to Giulio,” Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Friday. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
China-Russia relations
- Russia postpones a transfer of missile engines to China. There is concern the technology could be passed on to a third country, such as North Korea. China is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary, informal partnership between 34 countries to prevent proliferation of missile delivery systems that could carry weapons of mass destruction. (UPI)
Bangladesh–United States relations
- U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemns Wednesday’s “barbaric murder” of Nazimuddin Samad, and says federal officials are considering granting refuge to a select number ofBangladeshi writers who are under “imminent danger” because of their critical views of radical Islamists. (UPI)

Law and crime

At least two people are reported dead following a shooting at Lackland Air Force Base, in the U.S. state of Texas. (CNBC)
Aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks
- Mohamed Abrini, wanted in connection with the 2015 Paris attacks, is arrested in Belgium. (Reuters via Ynet)
Panama Papers
- El Salvador officials seize documents and equipment during a raid of the local offices of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Attorney General Douglas Melendez says authorities interviewed seven employees, and confiscated 20 computers and some documents. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

The French occupy movement known as Nuit debout enters its ninth day, “March 40,” spreading across dozens of French cities and to Belgium, Germany, and Spain. (The Guardian)
Djiboutian presidential election, 2016
- Voters in Djibouti go to the polls for the first round of voting in a presidential election with current President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh winning a fourth term in office. (BBC), (AFP via Daily Mail)
A Myanmar court releases 69 jailed student activists in the first wave of amnesty for the country’s political prisoners, with more releases expected. This comes after State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi vowed to push for the release of all the political prisoners in Myanmar. (Al Jazeera)
The Prime Minister of Madagascar Jean Ravelonarivo and his cabinet resign from office with no explanation given. (The Guardian)
Macedonian opposition leader Zoran Zaev pledges to boycott the early Macedonian parliamentary elections, saying it is due to a lack of government reforms. (Business Insider)
LGBT rights in the United States
- A group of United States mayors forms “Mayors Against Discrimination” in the wake of recent discriminatory laws enacted in North Carolina and Mississippi against LBGT individuals. The founding members are city leaders from Honolulu, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, Sante Fe, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. (AP) (Huffington Post) (Mayor Edward Murray)
United States presidential election, 2016
- The Colorado Republican Party continues choosing its delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Ted Cruz has swept all of the delegates available so far. The process which began last Saturday (April 2, 2016) will conclude tomorrow. (Washington Post)

Science and technology

SpaceX CRS-8
- SpaceX launches a NASA cargo run to the International Space Station, and in a spaceflight first, successfully lands its reusable main-stage booster on an autonomous spaceport drone ship. (The Verge)(Reuters)

Sport

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says they will not open up a formal investigation into the doping scandals that were reported by the World Anti-Doping Agency last November, where it documented Russian athletes systematically taking banned performance-enhancing drugs with state support. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

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April 12, 2016

Top News Stories –

Prof Hawking backs interstellar travel project –
Stephen Hawking is backing a project to send tiny spacecraft to another star system within a generation. They would travel trillions of miles; far further than any previous craft.
A $100m (£70m) research programme to develop the computer chip-sized “starships” was launched by the billionaire Yuri Milner, supported by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “If we are to survive as a species we must ultimately spread out to the stars,” he said. “Astronomers believe that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet orbiting one of the stars [in] the Alpha Centauri system. But we will know more in the next two decades from ground based and space based telescopes. “Technological developments in the last two decades and the future make it possible in principle within a generation.” [BBC]
Stephen Hawking in 1999

Entertainer and producer David Gest found dead –
Entertainer, producer and reality television star David Gest has died in a London hotel aged 62, a statement from his friend says. Gest, who is a former husband of singer Liza Minnelli, died at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf. His friend and ex-bodyguard Imad Handi confirmed the news in a statement. American Gest was best known in the UK for his appearances on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Big Brother. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

ShapeShifter from CHRLX on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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#MiMejorMomento	#SocialTools16
#متي_كانت_اخر_ض…	Rachel Dolezal
Bertín Osborne	Stairway to Heaven

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The Taliban announces its annual spring offensive to be named “Operation Omari“. (Voice of America)
PKK rebellion (2015–present)
- A car bomb attack on a Turkish gendarmerie in the town of Hani kills at least two people and injures 50. (Reuters)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- A Russian Air Force Mi-28 attack helicopter crashes near the Syrian city of Homs, killing two pilots. (BBC)
Operation Barkhane
- A French Army soldier is killed and three others are injured after their convoy hit a landmine in northern Mali. (AP via ABC News)
War in Somalia
- U.S. officials say unmanned airstrikes in southern Somalia killed about a dozen suspected militants from the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab on Monday and Tuesday. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

A painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes, believed to be from Italian painter Caravaggio, is discovered in an attic in the French city of Toulouse. (The Guardian)

Business and economics

Reuters reports that it has seen a draft memorandum generated by the International Monetary Fund that describes the debt owed by Greece to its European partners as “highly unsustainable.” (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A massive fire occurs in a textile factory in the Mumbai suburb of Bhiwandi in India‘s Maharashtra state. Fifty people are feared trapped. (IBN Live)
A Pakistani police officer accidentally detonates a grenade in an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, injuring himself and a court assistant. The officer was attempting to demonstrate a grenade detonator to a judge and said the grenade was defused before pulling the pin. (The Guardian)

International relations

Cross-Strait relations
- Taiwan accuses China of “extrajudicial abduction” after 45 Taiwanese acquitted of fraud in Kenya were forcibly deported to China. (BBC News) (The New York Times) (Los Angeles Times) (Voice of America)
North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korean defectors
- North Korea accuses South Korea of kidnapping its citizens and demands their immediate return after Seoul‘s Ministry of Unification said 13 of them had defected to South Korea from China, where they worked in a Pyongyang-operated restaurant. China says that the 13 people, a male manager and 12 young female employees, had legitimate passports and had freely exited China. (The Straits Times)
Iran–Italy relations
- During a visit to Iran, Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi signs various bilateral agreements to enhance relations between the two countries, including plans for cooperation between the Italian electricity and gas company Enel and the National Iranian Oil Company. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Bolivia–Russia relations
- Russia and Bolivia meet to discuss how Russian defense firms can help the South American nation’s long-term rearmament plan. (UPI)

Law and crime

Australian 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown and her crew are reportedly facing kidnapping charges in Lebanon following a bungled child recovery attempt. (Courier Mail)
2016 Brussels bombings
- Belgium federal prosecutors say two more men have been charged with terrorist offenses linked to last month’s Brussels bombing. Also, three people connected to the last year’s Paris attacks are in custody. (Reuters)
North Carolina House Bill 2
- North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signs Executive Order 73 that addresses some, but not all, troublesome provisions in House Bill 2 that caused businesses, traveling recording stars, etc., to stay clear of the state. The order does expand the state’s anti-discrimination employment policy to include LBGT protection, but reiterates that people use the marked facility consistent with “… their biological sex.” The American Civil Liberties Union says the order, “… fall(s) far short of correcting the damage done … (and that)… transgender people are still explicitly targeted by being forced to use the wrong restroom.” Equality North Carolina says, “… the order doubles down on the Governor’s support for some of the most problematic provisions of HB2.” (NPR) (WSOC) (WNCN)
Panama Papers
- Authorities in Panama raid law firm Mossack Fonseca, the source of the data leaked about offshore companies. (AFP via The Rappler)
Bad Aibling rail accident
- A German train controller, who was operating the tracks where two trains collided on February 9 near the town of Bad Aibling, Bavaria, is arrested on possible manslaughter charges. Prosecutors say the controller had been playing a game on his mobile phone, which led to his making signalling errors. The crash resulted in 11 deaths and 85 injuries, 24 serious. (UPI)

Politics and elections

Hundreds of people take to the streets of Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir after Indian Army soldiers shot dead at least two people during a protest against an alleged case of sexual harrasment by an army soldier against a young woman. (Al Jazeera)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Paul Ryan, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, rules out seeking or accepting the Republican Party nomination in 2016. (Fox News)
Brazil impeachment process, 2016
- President Dilma Rousseff, speaking with teachers and students, says Vice President Michel Temer and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha are jointly plotting her downfall. The two men are in line to succeed her if she is impeached. (AP via The Washington Post)
- In a 13-minute audio tape he released Monday, Vice President Temer outlines his administration in the event that President Rousseff is impeached. Temer says he unintentionally sent the tape to lawmakers through an instant messenger app. (Bloomberg) (AP via The Washington Post)

Science and technology

A British brain scan study of Lysergic acid diethylamide shows LSD may be useful in treating mental disorders such as major depressive disorder. (BBC)(Nature)
British cosmologist Stephen Hawking and Russian venture capitalist and physicist Yuri Milner announce ” Breaktrough Starshot,” a $100 million effort to plan a trip to the sun’s closest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, via developing nanotechnology that would put the craft within the star system roughly 20 years after leaving Earth. (UPI)

Sport

In rugby union, Allister Coetzee is named as the new coach of the South Africa national rugby team. (IOL)

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April 13, 2016

Top News Stories –

Russian warplanes ‘aggressively’ pass US missile destroyer –
Two Russian planes flew close to a US guided missile destroyer almost a dozen times, American officials have said. The Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes, in international waters in the Baltic Sea, had no visible weaponry and the ship took no action. One official called the events on Monday and Tuesday “one of the most aggressive acts in recent memory”. The commander of the missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, described the flights as a “simulated attack”. The passes were “unsafe, potentially provocative” and “could have caused an accident,” officials said in a release. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

French Horn Rebellion – Foolin’ Around (Official Video) from Ariel Fisher on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA
#DiaDoBeijo	#MambaDay
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#الشعب_ضد_الغا�…	Supporting Bernie Sanders
#CaravanaDelPueblo	#MyAdviceToTrump
#شي_حلو_من_خمس_�…	#WHScienceFair
#SDVQuartaComChalanco	Hump Day

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Donbass
- The Ukrainian Army says eight of its soldiers were wounded in fighting against Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country during the previous 24 hours. A military spokesman said there had been 29 shelling incidents around Mariupol. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Moro Conflict
- Battle of Tipo-Tipo
  - ISIL claims responsibility for clashes between militants linked to the group and the Philippine Army that claimed 23 lives. (Reuters via Trust)

Business and economics

Peabody Energy, the largest privately-owned producer of coal in the world headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, files for bankruptcy court protection due to high debts and a drop in world prices. (Reuters)(ABC News Australia)

Disasters and accidents

At least 15 people are killed and 20 injured following a road accident in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad. (Samaa)
2016 Myanmar earthquake
- A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Myanmar 396 kilometers (246 miles) north of the capital, Naypyidaw, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (AP via CBS News)
The government of Malawi declares a state of emergency across the country over worsening food shortages caused by a severe drought that is affecting much of Southern Africa with about 2.8 million Malawians, or 20% of the population, facing food insecurity. (Al Jazeera)
2014–16 El Niño event
- Indian officials report, with 24 deaths today, the heatwave in the eastern state of Odisha has killed 135 people. Temperatures of 105.5 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded yesterday at 19 locations across the state. Meteorologists say the heat, an after-effect of El Niño, has delayed the traditional April rains. (UPI)
A Britten-Norman Islander light aircraft crashes in the Papua New Guinea town of Kiunga resulting in the deaths of all twelve people on board. (ABC News Australia)

Health

Zika virus outbreak (2015–present)
- The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that the Zika virus causes birth defects like microcephaly. (Fox News)

International relations

Russia–United States relations, Cold War II
- Two unarmed Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 jets flew simulated attacks on United States Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, according to a U.S. official, who described it as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory. A Russian Kamov Ka-27 naval helicopter also made seven passes around the USS Donald Cook, taking pictures of the warship. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Recognition of same-sex unions in China
- A judge rules against a gay couple in China’s first same-sex marriage case. (AP)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- Three people arrested yesterday in connection with last year’s attacks in Paris are released without charge. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News)
LGBT rights in the United States
- Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signs an anti-discrimination order protecting the rights of gay and transgender people that rescinds one his immediate predecessor, Bobby Jindal, signed that sought to limit same-sex marriage rights and the ability of transgender people to choose which public restrooms they may use. (Reuters via Huffington Post)

Politics and elections

South Korean legislative election, 2016
- Voters in South Korea go to the polls for a legislative election with the ruling Saenuri Party losing seats in a surprise setback. (AP) (Bloomberg)
- The opposition Minjoo Party of Korea wins the most seats in the Parliament. (BBC)
Syrian parliamentary election, 2016
- Voters in mostly government controlled areas of Syria will head to the polls to elect 250 members to the People’s Council of Syria. (RT) (TeleSUR)
2015–16 protests in Brazil
- The Progressive Party announces it is leaving President Dilma Rousseff’s coalition government and that its 47 politicians would support her impeachment. (Al Jazeera)
Papua conflict
- Massive demonstrations in support of the Free Papua Movement take place in various cities in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. The demonstrations voice support for the Liberation Movement to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. (Radio New Zealand)
A number of people were injured in clashes between police and several thousand protestors in Skopje, Macedonia, with demonstrators breaking into President Gjorge Ivanov‘s offices. (RT)

Sport

The World Anti-Doping Agency advises that WADA-accredited laboratories are currently conducting studies on meldonium excretion rates since existing data is lacking. Meldonium became a banned substance on January 1, 2016. A large number of athletes, including grand-slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova, had taken the medication in the past, and have tested positive this year. The new data will address how long meldonium stays in the body and determine if athletes were provided a reasonable amount of time to adhere to the new restrictions prior to testing. The drug was used by many Soviet-bloc athletes since the 80s. (Reuters) (WADA)
2015-16 NBA season
- In basketball, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors team sets a new NBA record for regular season wins with 73 wins this season. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls previously held the record with 72. (Washington Post)
- Kobe Bryant plays his last game in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers. He sets a new points record for a final match scoring 60 against the Utah Jazz. (Washington Post)

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April 14, 2016

Top News Stories –

US basketball star Kobe Bryant shines in final game –
One of basketball’s biggest stars, Kobe Bryant, has retired from the sport after a career spanning two decades with a stunning final performance. He scored 60 points to help the LA Lakers make a dramatic comeback against the Utah Jazz in Los Angeles. Bryant, 37, spent his entire career with the Lakers, winning five NBA titles and recording the third highest total number of points in the sport. Tickets for his final match changed hands for up to $27,500 (£19,315). Bryant scored 23 points in the fourth quarter to help his team overcome a 15-point deficit to win the game. [BBC]
Kobe Bryant

Video of the Day –

French Horn Rebellion – Foolin’ Around (Official Video) from Ariel Fisher on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA
#QuintaComOClubeSDV	#DemocraticWhores
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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Taliban militants kill eight people, including a police commander, in an ambush in northern Afghanistan. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A Palestinian wielding an ax attacks an Israeli soldier near Hebron and is shot dead while two 12-year-old Palestinians in Jerusalem are arrested by Israeli Police with three knives concealed in their coats on suspicion of planning to carry out a stabbing attack. (The Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

Authorities in Ukraine recover four Dutch Golden Age paintings stolen from a museum in the Netherlands a decade ago. (AP via Seattle Times)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Kumamoto earthquake
- A magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes near Kumamoto, Japan, collapsing several buildings killing at least four people and injuring 400. However, no tsunami warning was issued and local nuclear power plants reported no problems. (Reuters), (CNN), (Japan Today)
At least 18 people are killed after a 80-tonne crane collapses on a temporary structure during a thunderstorm in the city of Dongguan, China. (The Times of India)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- North Korea deploys one or two intermediate-range ballistic missiles on its east coast, possibly preparing for launch on or around Friday, the anniversary of the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. (Euronews via Reuters)

Law and crime

The People’s Republic of China announces that it will prosecute 357 people for the illegal sale of vaccines. (BBC)
The U.S. company Microsoft has sued the United States, alleging that it has been prevented from disclosing warrants to the company’s customers in violation of the company’s constitutional rights. (NYT)

Politics and elections

The Verkhovna Rada appoints Volodmyr Groysman as the Prime Minister of Ukraine, replacing Arseny Yatseniuk. (Reuters)
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir impose a curfew around the capital of Srinagar, Handwara, and neighbouring villages as protests turn violent. People began to protest last Tuesday when allegations were circulated by residents in Handwara that an Indian Army soldier tried to sexually assault a teenage schoolgirl. (Al Jazeera)
Hong Kong’s June 4th Museum, the first museum dedicated to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, is to close down. Organizers say they believe they are being targeted for political reasons. It comes at a time when concerns are growing in Hong Kong that Beijing is tightening its grip on the city. (The Guardian)
Thousands of opposition supporters rally in Harare, Zimbabwe, against President Robert Mugabe and the deteriorating economy. The rally was banned by the police, however, it went ahead after a ruling by the High Court sanctioned the protest. (BBC)

Sports

In basketball, the WNBA draft is held in Uncasville, Connecticut. The top pick is Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart, followed by her college teammates Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck. This marks the first time in any major North American sports draft that a single school produced the top three selections. (ESPN)

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May 4, 2016

Top News Stories –

Instagram hacked by 10-year-old boy –
A 10-year-old Finnish boy named Jani has been given $10,000 (£7,000) after he found a security flaw in image-sharing social network Instagram. The boy, who technically is not allowed to even join the site for another three years, discovered a bug that allowed him to delete comments made by other users. The issue was “quickly” fixed after being discovered, said Facebook, which owns Instagram. Jani was paid soon after – making him the youngest ever recipient of the firm’s “bug bounty” prize. After discovering the flaw in February, he emailed Facebook. Security engineers at the company set up a test account for Jani to prove his theory – which he did. The boy, from Helsinki, told Finnish newspaper Iltalehti he planned to use the money to buy a new bike, football equipment and computers for his brothers. Facebook told the BBC it had paid $4.3m to bug bounty recipients since 2011. [BBC]

Apple loses trademark fight over ‘iPhone’ name in China –
Apple has lost a trademark fight in China, meaning a firm which sells handbags and other leather goods can continue to use the name “IPHONE”. The Beijing Municipal High People’s Court ruled in favour of Xintong Tiandi Technology, said the official Legal Daily newspaper. Xintong Tiandi trademarked “IPHONE” for leather products in China in 2010. Apple filed a trademark bid for the name for electronic goods in 2002, but it was not approved until 2013. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

7 Tips To Wake Up Without Coffee – ASAP Science

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro conflict
- The Abu Sayyaf militant group threatens to behead a Canadian hostage, a Filipina hostage, and a Norwegian hostage. (The Guardian)
Syrian Civil War
- Dozens of people have died in heavy fighting between Syrian government and opposition forces in the western Aleppo Governorate. (Reuters)
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- Suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants launch a car bomb attack on a military installation in Turkey, killing one soldier; Turkey’s army destroyes PKK targets in air strikes and kills more than 20. (Reuters)
Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- Assailants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed with machetes hacked at least 16 civilians to death in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (FOX News) (Leadership)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Hamas says it has reached a truce with the Israeli military following hostilities today along the Gaza–Israel border. There were no casualties. (The Jerusalem Post) (Reuters)

Business and economy

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Philippine stock market continues to fall for the fifth straight day due to fears about the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. He continues to lead in opinion polls. (The Philippine Star), (Rappler)
British publisher Trinity Mirror announces that its daily newspaper, The New Day, will close after just two months since its launch, after sales fell to around 30,000 copies per day. The last edition will be printed on May 6. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
- Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the wildfire has destroyed about 1,600 structures in Fort McMurray, which is in Canada’s oil sands region. No major oil sands facilities are in the fire’s path, though twoRoyal Dutch Shell mines are closing, and a Suncor Energy facility is reducing crude production. The fire is threatening the Alberta Highway 63 bridge across the Athabasca River, the sole route south. TheCanadian Red Cross is encouraging people to donate funds rather than clothing. (Reuters) (USA Today) (Métro)
At least 13 people are killed and 53 injured after a bus skids off a bridge while travelling between India‘s Jharkhand state to Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state. (AFP via Daily Mail)

International relations

European migrant crisis, EU-Turkey relations
- The European Union proposes visa-free travel for Turkish citizens within Europe’s Schengen Area and invites member states and EU lawmakers to endorse the move by June 30. The EU says Turkey has met all but five of the 72 criteria included in the agreement in exchange for its efforts to stop asylum seekers from reaching Europe. This visa deal also needs approval from the European Parliament.(AP) (UPI)

Law and crime

North Carolina Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act
- The U.S. Justice Department notifies North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory that the state’s new law which limits restroom access for transgender people violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act, and asks for a response by May 9 whether the state will correct “these violations of Title VII.” The Governor’s statement in response does not specifically say what the state will do. (Reuters) (CNN)

Politics and elections

The Nepalese Maoist Party says that they will withdraw support from Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and form a new government. (Reuters)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Ohio Governor John Kasich suspends his campaign. He was the last Republican Party challenger to Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. (VICE)(CNN)

Science and technology

IBM allows the public to access a five-qubit quantum computer its researchers have developed in Yorktown Heights, New York. (Wired)

Sport

2015–16 UEFA Champions League
- Real Madrid beat Manchester City 1–0 to set-up a UEFA Champions League Final against city rivals Atlético Madrid on May 28, in Milan, Italy. It will be a repeat of the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final.(UEFA Champions League)

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May 6, 2016

Top News Stories –

Labour’s Sadiq Khan elected London mayor –
Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London – boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland’s elections. Mr Khan is the city’s first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614. The result bolsters leader Jeremy Corbyn after Labour was beaten into third in Scotland by the Tories and lost some English councillors.
In Scotland, the SNP said it would form a minority government after winning its third election in a row. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is celebrating what she said was an “emphatic” victory, her first as party leader, after the SNP emerged as the largest party at Holyrood with 63 seats, ahead of the Conservatives on 31 and Labour on 24. But she played down talk of another independence referendum after falling short by two seats of an overall majority. In Wales, Labour remains as the largest party, with 29 out of 60 seats, but was denied a majority as Plaid Cymru and UKIP both made notable gains. [BBC]
Sadiq_Khan

China bans ‘erotic’ banana-eating live streams –
Chinese live-streaming services have banned people filming themselves eating bananas in a “seductive” fashion. New regulations mean that live-streaming sites must monitor all their output round-the-clock to ensure nothing untoward is going on, keeping an eye out for any “erotic” banana-eating, according to New Express Daily. It’s not just fruit that’s on their radar though – the paper adds that wearing stockings and suspenders while hosting a live stream is now also forbidden. The move is the authorities’ latest attempt to clamp down on “inappropriate and erotic” online content, state-controlled CCTV reports. In April, the Ministry of Culture announced it was investigating a number of popular live-streaming platforms for allegedly hosting pornographic or violent content that “harms social morality”. Despite the government’s concerns, such sites are attracting more and more users in China. Particularly popular are webcam sessions where young women – and sometimes girls under 18 – entertain a predominantly male audience, often singing Chinese songs or chatting to their viewers. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Inside a 6ft Air Balloon – 4K – The Slow Mo Guys

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Aleppo offensive (May 2016)
  - More than 72 are killed in clashes between Al-Nusra Front and Syrian government forces in Khan Tuman south of Aleppo, Syria. (i24 News) (VOA News)

Law and crime

A man is killed, and two others are injured (a man in critical condition and a woman with non-life-threatening injuries), in the parking lot of Westfield Montgomery Mall in Potomac in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. Soon after, a woman is killed at a grocery store some miles away. Police suspect that the same shooter may be behind both crime scene incidents. Police in both Montgomery County and neighboring Prince George’s County are also examining whether this person is the same as the male involved in the fatal shooting the previous day of a woman, Gladys Tordil, who was allegedly shot (a bystander who tried to help was also wounded) by her estranged abusive husband, tentatively identified as Eulalio Tordil, 62, a former Federal Protective Service officer. (MSN) (CNN)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The supporters of presidential candidates Grace Poe and Mar Roxas post petitions and counter-petitions on Change.org urging either candidate to drop-out and give way for the other. (The Manila Standard)
- Vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo thanks supporters for the “Poe-Robredo tandem” pairing her with presidential candidate Grace Poe but insists she is loyal to her running-mate Mar Roxas.(Philippine Daily Inquirer), (GMA News)
- Mar Roxas and current President Benigno Aquino III call on political rivals Jejomar Binay, Miriam Defensor Santiago, and Grace Poe to unite and form a unity coalition in the upcoming elections. (CNN Philippines), (Channel News Asia)
- Grace Poe rejects Mar Roxas‘ offer saying she is not willing to withdraw. Jejomar Binay also rejects calls for him to withdraw. (Rappler), (The Philippine Star), (ABC News Go)
- Leni Robredo thanks a group of activist-farmers from Sumilao, Bukidnon for their support promising to continue their reforms. (Rappler)
Head of Australia’s Department of Immigration Mike Pezzullo denies that the detention centre for asylum seekers on Manus Island must be closed. He said there was no crisis that required any closure of the centre despite Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruling it to be unconstitutional and ordering the release of the detainees. (Radio New Zealand)
The Workers’ Party of Korea, the ruling party of North Korea, holds its first party congress in nearly 40 years. The meeting comes as the country is facing tougher sanctions for its recent missile launches.(BBC)
United Kingdom local elections, 2016
- London votes Sadiq Khan to succeed Boris Johnson as Mayor of London; Khan is the first Muslim to be elected to such an authoritative position. (BBC)

Science and technology

SpaceX successfully lands another Falcon 9 First stage onto a floating barge for the second time. It was carrying a Japanese communications satellite JCSAT-14, which was successfully put into geostationary orbit. (Wired)

Sports

Cameroonian footballer Patrick Ekeng of Romanian club FC Dinamo București dies after collapsing during a match. (Guardian)

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June 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

European leaders open world’s longest rail tunnel in Switzerland –
The world’s longest rail tunnel, running for 35 miles (57km) under the Swiss Alps, has officially opened. The Swiss president, Johann Schneider-Ammann, said the tunnel, which it is hoped will ease transit through the heart of the continent, would “join the people and the economies” of Europe at a time of rising nationalism and border closures. He spoke before European leaders made a ceremonial first journey through the Gotthard base tunnel. Passengers included the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president, François Hollande, and the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. While the tunnel was entirely funded by Switzerland, a non-EU member, the bloc’s transport commissioner, Violeta Bulc, hailed it as “a godsend” for the continent. It runs from Erstfeld in the central Swiss canton of Uri, to Bodio in the southern Ticino canton. [The Guardian]

Video of the Day –

Gotthard base tunnel

List of the Day –

World’s longest tunnels (in use) [Wikipedia]

Name	Location	Length	Type	Year	Comment
Delaware Aqueduct	New York state, United States	137,000 m (85.1 mi)	Water supply	1945	4.1 m wide. New York City‘s main water supply tunnel, drilled through solid rock.
Päijänne Water Tunnel	Southern Finland, Finland	120,000 m (74.6 mi)	Water supply	1982	16 m² cross section
Dahuofang Water Tunnel	Liaoning Province, China	85,320 m (53.0 mi)	Water supply	2009	8 m in diameter (50m² cross section)
Orange–Fish River Tunnel	South Africa	82,800 m (51.4 mi)	Water supply	1972	Longest continuous enclosed aqueduct in the southern hemisphere (22.5 m²cross section)
Bolmen Water Tunnel	Kronoberg/Scania, Sweden	82,000 m (51.0 mi)	Water supply	1987	8 m²
Tunel Emisor Oriente	Mexico City, Mexico	62,500 m (38.8 mi)	Waterwaste	2006-2012	Water management in Greater Mexico City. Longest waterwaste tunnel.
Guangzhou Metro Line 3	Guangzhou, China	60,400 m (37.5 mi)Excl. branch	Metro	2005-2010	Guangzhou Metro. Longest metro/rapid transit tunnel; longest railway tunnel
Beijing Subway Line 10	Beijing, China	57,100 m (35.5 mi)	Metro	2008-2012	Beijing Subway
Gotthard Base Tunnel	Lepontine Alps, Switzerland	57,091 m (35.5 mi) or 57,017 m (35.4 mi)	Railway Twin Tube	2016	The longest railway tunnel excluding urban metro lines with intermediate stations. Two tubes (East 57,091 m (35.5 mi), West 57,017 m (35.4 mi)), 8.8–9.5 m (29–31 ft) diameter, (71m² cross section)
Seikan Tunnel	Tsugaru Strait, Japan	53,850 m (33.5 mi)	Railway Single Tube	1988	74 m²

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces begin an offensive to regain control of the city of Manbij in the Aleppo Governorate from ISIL. (Reuters via Trust)
Northern Mali conflict
- Four UN peacekeepers are killed in a suspected Al-Qaeda attack in northern Mali. (News Week) (CBC)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- At least 16 people are killed and 55 injured in an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility. (Reuters) (CNN) (VOA News), (Reuters)
- The Pentagon announces the death of Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, a top Al-Shabaab commander, in an airstrike. (Washington Times) (FOX News)
Suspected Neo-Nazis attack people at a vegan cafe with slabs of meat in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Newsweek) (Miami Herald)

Business and economy

A committee of the United States House of Representatives is looking into the way the Federal Reserve Bank of New York investigated the theft of assets it was holding for the central bank of Bangladesh.(Reuters)
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund raises $3.5 billion for Uber. It is the largest single investment the company has ever received. (The New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

A gas explosion at a subway construction site near the South Korean capital Seoul kills four workers and injures ten more. (Yonhap)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- A French naval vessel detects a possible signal from the missing black box of EgyptAir Flight 804. (CNN) (The New York Times)
2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
- Residents return to Fort McMurray for the first time since May 1. A couple thousand firefighters, from as far away as South Africa, continue to battle the 5,800 square kilometer (3,603 square mile)Canadian blaze that has crossed the Alberta border into Saskatchewan. (Bloomberg)
Greg Abbott, the Governor of the US state of Texas, declares a disaster in 31 counties due to floods which have claimed several lives in recent days. (KVUE)
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 6.5 magnitude earthquake 155 km (95 miles) from the West Sumatra port city of Padang in Indonesia at a depth of about 50 km (30 miles). There are no immediate reports of damage or injury. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)

International relations

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warns Germany against recognizing the Armenian Genocide. (Reuters)
According to the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg, defense spending by European member states will grow for the first time in a decade. Stoltenberg went on to say that “we are faced with uncertainty. We are faced with more threats, more security challenges, than in a generation”. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Humanitarian aid during the Syrian Civil War
- A convoy carrying much-needed nutritional and medical aid reaches the besieged town Darayya, the first time since 2012. The only food delivered was baby milk. A 48-hour ceasefire for the town came into force today. (Reuters) (NPR) (BBC)
- The United Nations Security Council is exploring humanitarian air drops to besieged areas of Syria. (AP via The New York Times)
- Riad Hijab, coordinator of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposes a nationwide truce for the month of Ramadan which begins 6 June 2016. (Australian Associated Press via News.com.au)
The United Nations Security Council condemns North Korea’s failed ballistic missile test yesterday, as well as two other unsuccessful ones in April. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2016 UCLA shooting
- Two people are killed in a murder-suicide shooting at the University of California Los Angeles. Police report the campus is now safe. (USA Today) (LA Times) (The New York Times)
A man in Plano, Texas, stabs his girlfriend and posts her dead body to Facebook; the social media website does not remove the photograph for 36 hours. (The New York Times)
Thailand authorities discover the remains of 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer at the Tiger Temple in the Sai Yok District of Kanchanaburi Province. The Theravada Buddhist temple is being investigated for wildlife trafficking. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation is in the process of removing 137 tigers from the monks’ custody. (New York Daily News) (Bangkok Post)
German police are investigating 26 sexual assault reports from this weekend’s Schlossgrabenfest music festival near Darmstadt. In one case, three women reported being groped by groups of men Saturday. Police have detained three Pakistani immigrants, and expect more reports following this announcement. (CNN) (UPI) (The Independent)
Richard Huckle, dubbed “Britain’s worst ever paedophile” after being convicted of 71 cases of rape and other sexual offences against up to 200 children, is being sentenced at The Old Bailey in London in a hearing expected to last 3 days. Huckle is facing up to 22 life sentences once the hearing concludes.(Sky News)

Science and technology

The world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel, the 57 km (35 miles) Gotthard Base Tunnel, opens in Switzerland. (CNN) (The New York Times)

Sport

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board backs host Tokyo’s proposal to include baseball–softball, surfing, karate, sport climbing, and skateboarding in the 2020 Summer Olympics. The full IOC will vote on this in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August. (AP)

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June 29, 2016

Top News Stories –

Facebook gives friends higher priority in News Feeds –
Facebook is to give posts by users’ friends and family greater prominence in their News Feeds. The social network said its members had expressed concerns that they were missing “important updates” from the people they cared about. The move reverses a trend towards giving more space to content posted by the news media and brands. One expert said it highlighted that newspapers and broadcasters’ interests did not always match those of the firm. Facebook said that in several surveys it had carried out, users had told it they wanted to see more “friend content”, and it was altering its algorithms to accommodate this. [BBC]

Vietnam capital sets target to ban motorbikes –
Officials in Hanoi are aiming to ban motorbikes from the city centre within 10 years, it’s reported. The local government wants streets to be motorbike-free by 2025 as part of efforts to tackle congestion, the Thanh Nien News website says. The Vietnamese capital has notoriously chaotic roads, with around five million motorbikes vying for space alongside half a million cars. That situation is forecast to get worse in years to come: the authorities estimate that by 2020 there will be seven million motorbikes, and the number of cars will double. “This means the traffic situation in Hanoi will become extremely complicated in the next four to five years, so we really need a timely solution to this,” says mayor Nguyen Duc Chung. The city’s transport authority wants to reduce the number of individual vehicles and boost public transport instead, and its chairman wants the number of buses to double. Construction of a new urban rail system is already under way. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Watch NYers’ Hearts Break As They JUST Miss The Subway Train

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Istanbul airport attack
- The death toll from the attack on the Istanbul Atatürk Airport rises to 42. (CNN)
Syrian Civil War
- At least 10 people are killed and nine others are wounded following a car bomb attack in Tell Abyad, near the Syria–Turkey border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (AFP via Daily Mail)
- 2016 al-Bukamal offensive
  - New Syrian Army rebels fail to capture the border town of Al-Bukamal from ISIL militants, with an ISIL affiliated news source claiming the group killed 40 rebels and captured 15 more in a counter-attack. (Reuters)
War in Somalia
- Kenyan army forces kill five suspected Al-Shabaab militants, four during a clash at a military camp in Lamu County, and another in Malindi. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Toyota, which on Tuesday announced a recall of 1.43 million hybrids because of an airbag problem, today announces the recall of 2.87 million vehicles worldwide, produced between April 2006 and August 2015, because of a possible problem with their evaporative fuel emissions control unit. (Reuters)
The Lesedi La Rona diamond, the largest uncut diamond in the world, went on sale at an auction in Mayfair with it expected to sell at £52 million, or US$70 million. However, the diamond only managed to draw a high bid of US$61 million, falling short of the reserve price to sell it. (BBC) (CBC News)
The London FTSE index recovers from its losses after the result of the European Union membership referendum, closing at its highest level since April. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense says eight bodies from a Coast Guard plane that crashed June 16, 2016, have been found. The search continues for the ninth crew member. The CASA C-212 Aviocarwas on a search and rescue mission for the then-missing pilot of a crashed Su30-MK2 fighter jet; the pilot’s body was found on the 17th. (AP) (Tuổi Trẻ)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- Data from one of the flight recorders from EgyptAir Flight 804 shows that there was smoke on board when the Airbus A320 crashed into the water. Soot has also been found on the wreckage. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

International relations

Philippines v. China
- On his final day as President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III says he was right when he sued China over the South China Sea. (Rappler)
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- European Union leaders advise the United Kingdom that, after their EU exit, to retain access to the bloc’s lucrative single market, the UK must allow free movement for EU workers. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande reiterated that freedom of movement of EU citizens is non-negotiable. (BBC) (Reuters)

Law and crime

A prosecutor in Michigan, United States, is considering whether the words of an African grey parrot could be used to try the woman accused of killing the pet parrot’s owner. (The Guardian)
Luxembourg Leaks
- Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, two whistleblowers who revealed the Luxembourg Leaks financial scandal, are found guilty of leaking the documents and are given a 12 and nine month suspended sentence and fined €1,500 and €1,000 respectively, while Edouard Perrin, the journalist who was given the leaks, is acquitted of all charges. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Mongolian legislative election, 2016
- Voters in Mongolia go to the polls for a legislative election at a time of economic slowdown. (The Guardian)
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- The process to elect a new leader of the Conservative Party to replace outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron begins in the United Kingdom. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Stephen Crabb is the first Conservative Party politician to announce his official candidacy for leader. (BBC)
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- Prime Minister David Cameron tells the House of Commons that legal experts advise that the UK-wide Brexit result binds the entire nation, even though Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to stay in the EU. Yesterday, both Scottish and Northern Irish representatives told the European Parliament’s plenary session they will leave the UK if that is the required price to keep their homelands fully connected to Europe. (The News Letter) (New Europe)
2016 United States presidential election, 2016 Republican National Convention
- The Cleveland Board of Control approves changes to convention security rules negotiated with the ACLU, per Federal District Judge James Gwin’s June 23rd court order. (The Hill) (The Plain Dealer)
North American Leaders’ Summit aka the Three Amigos Summit
- Takes place in Ottawa, Canada as US President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. President Obama later gives a special address to the Parliament of Canada. (Toronto Star) (CBC)

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June 30, 2016

Top News Stories –

Boris Johnson rules himself out of Conservative leader race –
Ex-London mayor Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the race to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister. In a speech in London – billed as his campaign launch – Mr Johnson said he did not believe he could provide the leadership or unity needed. It comes after Justice Secretary and fellow Brexit campaigner Michael Gove’s surprise announcement on Thursday morning that he would run for leader. Home Secretary Theresa May is among the candidates. Nominations closed at noon. Also in the running are Energy minister Andrea Leadsom and former Defence Secretary Liam Fox – who campaigned to leave the EU – and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who backed Remain. The contest was sparked after David Cameron announced he would resign following the EU referendum result, which saw the UK vote by 52% to 48% to leave the EU. Mr Johnson’s unexpected – and dramatic – announcement that he would not stand for Tory leader or prime minister, positions he is long thought to have harboured ambitions for, has dramatically altered the race. Mr Gove and his team of advisors clearly did not believe Boris Johnson had the spine to fully divorce Britain from the EU. Nor did a number of Tory Mps trust Mr Johnson to deliver the promises he was making in terms of personnel and jobs. When Mr Gove made his move, hardened Brexit believers instantly went with him, sinking Boris Johnson. The irony of course is that Boris Johnson, who did so much to take Britain out of the EU, has seen his own ambitious crushed in the aftermath. It could be that the big winner from this vicious Tory drama is the woman in charge of law and order – Theresa May. [BBC]
Boris Johnson

Video of the Day –

CLIMBING THE EIFFEL TOWER + DRONE

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- An Afghan National Security Forces convoy outside Kabul was attacked in a coordinated ambush including suicide bombers and heavy machine guns resulting in over 40 deaths. (BBC)
Boko Haram insurgency
- At least 15 people are killed and 50 are wounded following two suicide bombings in Cameroon‘s Far North Region. (AP via The New York Times)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Battle of Fallujah (2016)
  - According to reports, at least 250 ISIL militants were killed during fighting in the city of Fallujah while fighting Iraqi Army forces with assistance from U.S. airstrikes. (Reuters via Euronews)
2016 Istanbul airport attack
- A Turkish official reports the three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 44 people and wounded 238 others, were Russian, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz nationals. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A 17-year-old Palestinian stabs and kills a sleeping 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom. The assailant is fatally shot by security guards. (AP via Post-Bulletin) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- At least 10 people drown off the coast of Libya when their dinghy sinks. The Italian Navy managed to rescue over 100 more people. (BBC)

International relations

Armenia–Russia relations
- Armenia’s parliament, by a 102-8 vote, ratifies an agreement to create an Armenia-Russia joint Air Defense system. (Reuters) (Armenpress)
The United Nations agrees to appoint an observer to investigate violence against LGBT people, despite opposition from various countries. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

Colombian, Italian, and U.S. police seize 11 tonnes of cocaine smuggled to various countries and arrest 33 people across Colombia and Italy after the discovery of seven laboratories in the Colombian jungle run by local organized criminal groups and ‘Ndrangheta. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- British home secretary Theresa May enters into the Tory leadership contest, saying that Article 50 of the EU Treaty should not be invoked before the end of this year, implying that formal Brexit negotiations with the EU institutions be put on hold until 2017 at the earliest. (Wall Street Journal)
- Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson rules himself out of running in the Tory leadership contest, a move believed to be influenced by Michael Gove‘s announcement earlier in the day to run for the leadership. (BBC)
Presidential transition of Rodrigo Duterte
- Rodrigo Duterte is inaugurated as President of the Philippines and Leni Robredo as Vice President. (The Manila Bulletin), (The Wall Street Journal)
Political reshuffle in the Communist Party of China
- Luo Huining leaves his position as party chief of Qinghai and becomes party chief of Shanxi province, replacing Wang Rulin. (SCMP)
- Qiang Wei leaves his post as party chief of Jiangxi; Governor Lu Xinshe becomes the new party chief of Jiangxi. (SCMP)
- Hubei governor Wang Guosheng becomes party chief of Qinghai province. (SCMP)
- Lu Wei is replaced as head of the Cyberspace Administration of China by Xu Lin. (SCMP)
Bosnia and Herzegovina officially releases its first census report since the end of the Bosnian War after multiple delays, showing that the country had lost one fifth of its population from 4.4 million to 3.5 million between then and 2013. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu dismisses 50 high-ranking Navy officers, including Baltic Fleet Commander Viktor Kravchuk and Chief of Staff Sergei Popov, following a month-long inspection that found incompetence, deficiencies in training, and misinformation regarding the state of the fleet. (UPI) (Reuters)

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July 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

Lindsay Lohan set to turn on Christmas Lights in Kettering… after her furious tweet about Northamptonshire town went viral during EU referendum vote –
She took the internet by storm when her impassioned tweets about the EU referendum went viral. And Lindsay Lohan – who was staunchly in the Remain camp – appears to have made amends with the people of Kettering after angering MP Philip Hollobone with her comments during the results night when the town voted Leave by a margin of 61 to 39 per cent. But despite disagreeing with the Brexit result, the 29-year-old actress has now pledged her support to the Northamptonshire town by accepting to turning on their Christmas lights. A furious backbench Tory slammed the US star for criticising his home town of Kettering in a series of tweets Miss Lohan sent on the night of the referendum. Philip Hollobone demanded that the actress should visit the Midlands town – while a Cabinet Minister suggested that a trip to Kettering could boost the career of the troubled A-lister. [Daily Mail]
Lindsay Lohan

Battle of the Somme: Royals at Somme centenary commemoration –
Thousands of people, including members of the Royal Family, have attended a ceremony in France to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were at the Thiepval Memorial for the event. Earlier, a UK-wide two-minute silence at 07:28 BST marked the start of the World War One battle on 1 July 1916.
More than a million men were killed or wounded on all sides at the Somme. The Battle of the Somme, one of WW1’s bloodiest, was fought in northern France and lasted five months, with the British suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone. The British and French armies fought the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front. [BBC]

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Gulshan attack
- Gunmen storm a restaurant, exchange fire with security, and take at least twenty hostages in the Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two policemen are killed. The Islamic State claims responsibility. (ABC News) (CNN) (USA Today)
War in Somalia
- At least six people are shot and killed and several people wounded by suspected Al-Shabaab militants who ambushed two buses in Mandera, Kenya, near the Somalian border. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A Palestinian woman, in what was construed to be an attempt to stab Israeli Border Police officers at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, is shot and later dies. (PNN)(The Times of Israel)
- In response to violence in the Hebron area, including the killing yesterday of a 13-year-old Jewish girl asleep in her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement by a Palestinian assailant, the Israel Defense Forcesplaces a closure on Hebron, brings additional troops to the area and announces a cut to tax funds it collects for the Palestinian Authority, saying it would deduct the amount the Palestinian leadership pays to the families of militants. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
- A 63 year old Palestinian man dies during a clash at the Qalandiya checkpoint; Palestinian sources claim his death was due to tear gas inhalation while Israeli sources say the man suffered a fatal heart attack. (Ma’an) (The Times of Israel)
- Rabbi Michael Mark is murdered and his two children badly injured when terrorists shoot at his car on the highway south of Hebron.(The Jerusalem Post) (The Times of Israel)
- Palestinian militants fire two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip; one explodes outside a preschool in the town of Sderot, causing damage to property but no injuries, and the second rocket exploded in an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. (The Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

British–American Academy Award–winning film actress Olivia de Havilland, one of the last leading movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, celebrates her 100th birthday. (CNN)
Thousands of people attend a ceremony at the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy, France, to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Four Hungarian Defence Force soldiers are killed and one is injured following an explosion at a military firing range in eastern Hungary. (Reuters)

International relations

Taiwan‘s navy mistakenly launches a supersonic Hsiung Feng III missile towards China, killing one person and injuring three in a Taiwanese fishing boat. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Russia–European Union relations, Ukrainian crisis
- The European Union extends economic sanctions on Russia until 31 January 2017 over Moscow’s continued support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Canada announces that it will deploy 1,000 soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces to Latvia to bolster one of the four NATO battalions stationed there. (The Guardian)
Israel-Palestine relations
- The report of the diplomatic Quartet to the Security Council — the United Nations, Russia, the United States, and the European Union — calls on Israel to end settlement construction and expansion policy, and calls on Palestinians to act decisively to stop incitement to violence and to clearly condemn terrorist acts. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov tells the UNSC, “The main objective of this report is not about assigning blame … (rather) it focuses on the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace.” (AP) (UN News Centre) (The Times of Israel)
Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special human rights envoy to overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, says more than 100,000 of the Muslim Rohingya minority remain in squalid camps they were forced to four years ago by violence. The government does not recognize most of these people as citizens, and has treated even long-term residents as illegal immigrants. Lee is encouraged by last March’s peaceful transition to a democratically elected and civilian-led government. (AP)
Finland–Russia relations
- Following his meeting at Finnish President Sauli Niinistö’s residence, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia would respect Finland’s choice whether to join NATO, though as part of NATO’s military infrastructure, Finnish Defence Forces would overnight be at the borders of the Russian Federation. Putin and Niinistö call for improved security in Baltic airspace where Russian and Westernaircraft have had close encounters in recent months. (Oneindia) (Reuters)

Law and crime

Crime in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
- Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte urges Filipino citizens to murder people suspected of using illegal drugs. (The Guardian)
U Gambira, a former Burmese monk and one of the most visible leaders during Myanmar’s 2007 Saffron Revolution, is released from prison after having the charges against him dropped. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Austrian presidential election, 2016
- Austria’s highest court orders a repeat of the presidential elections narrowly lost in May by right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria candidate Norbert Hofer. The margin of votes was less than 1%.(The Telegraph)
Causeway Bay Books disappearances
- Thousands of people take to the streets of Hong Kong, demanding answers over China’s alleged abduction of five booksellers in late 2015 and that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying resign from office.(The Guardian)
The new Belarusian ruble replaces the old Belarusian ruble during redenomination. (Belarus segodnya) (in Russian) (Construction.RU)
Paris, France, implements a pollution-reduction program that bans residents from driving cars built before 1997, and motorcycles built before 2000, on weekdays inside the city limits between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.(NPR)

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July 4, 2016

Top News Stories –

UKIP leader Nigel Farage stands down –
Nigel Farage says he is standing down as leader of the UK Independence Party. Mr Farage said his “political ambition has been achieved” with the UK having voted to leave the EU. He said the party was in a “pretty good place” and said he would not change his mind about quitting as he did after the 2015 general election. Leading UKIP was “tough at times” but “all worth it” said Mr Farage, who is also an MEP. He added that the UK needed a “Brexit prime minister”. Mr Farage announced his decision to stand aside in a speech in London, saying: “I want my life back, and it begins right now.” He has been leader of UKIP for most of the past eight years, standing down briefly in 2009 and being re-elected the following year. He said he would quit after failing to win his seat at last year’s general election, but stayed on after the party rejected his resignation. [BBC]
Nigel Farage

Video of the Day –

EDMOND from ninagantz on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Terrorism in Malaysia
- Malaysia confirms it has suffered its first bombing by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during the previous week raising fears about the spread of influence of the militant group. (The New York Times)
CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion; Philippine Drug War
- The Communist Party of the Philippines agrees to fight drug lords after its legal wing Bagong Alyansang Makabayan joins the government cabinet of Rodrigo Duterte. (GMA News) (The Philippine Star)
Syrian Civil War, Israel–Syria relations
- Israel’s military attacks two Syrian Army targets in Syrian territory from the Golan Heights after a fire from the fighting damages a security fence on the border. (Reuters)
2016 Saudi Arabia bombings
- A suspected suicide bomber detonates his belt near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, killing himself and wounding two guards. (BBC)
- A suicide bomber detonates a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, killing four security guards. (Daily Mail) (BBC) (Pakistan Today)
July 2016 Baghdad bombings
- The Baghdad Provincial Council deputy head reports the death toll has passed 200, with at least 225 more injured. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, visiting the Kerrada site, is jeered by onlookers who blame his government for not stopping ISIL-related bloodshed. (UPI)

Business and economics

United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- Standard Life Investments suspends trading in its UK property fund, in response to increased withdrawal calls since the vote, to protect the interests of all investors in the fund. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Flooding caused by torrential rain in China kills at least 180 people, mostly along the Yangtze river. (BBC)

International relations

Blockade of the Gaza Strip
- A Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip docks at the Israeli port city of Ashdod, the first warming move between the two countries since relations began to improve. Relations betweenTurkey and Israel were tense since the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid but ended last week when Turkey agreed to normalize ties in a diplomatic treaty. (The Guardian)
Russia–Turkey relations
- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says Turkey’s cooperation with Russia in combating the Islamic State in Syria does not include Russia’s use of its Incirlik Air Base, which some have interpreted from his comments yesterday. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Eight members of the Cuba men’s national volleyball team, which is supposed to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics, are arrested for aggravated group rape in Tampere, Finland, with two later being released. (BBC) (YLE)
Ling Jihua, former top aide to paramount leader Hu Jintao, is sentenced to life in prison for illegally obtaining state secrets and taking over $11 million in bribes. Ling’s misfortunes started when he was accused of trying to cover up a scandal connected to his 23-year-old son’s deadly crash in a Ferrari in 2012. (UPI)

Politics and elections

United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- Nigel Farage resigns as leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) but says he and other MEPs/MPs of the party would continue to carry out their term in the European Parliament. (BBC via Radio New Zealand)
Riots break out in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, after police attempt to disperse a protest by the city’s taxi drivers. (Reuters)
Australian federal election, 2016
- The election deadlock continues as neither Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull nor opposition leader Bill Shorten has the minimum number of Lower House seats (76) needed to form a government. Shorten leads Turnbull, 71-67, with only six seats undecided. (UPI) (Newstalk ZB)
Political reshuffle in the Communist Party of China
- Zhejiang governor Li Qiang is transferred to neighbouring Jiangsu province to serve as party chief. He is succeeded as Zhejiang governor by Xinjiang deputy party chief Che Jun. (Sina)
- Xian Hui is named acting Chairwoman of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, succeeding Liu Hui. It is the first time in the history of the People’s Republic that a woman has succeeded another woman in a provincial government leadership position. (Sina)

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July 7, 2016

Top News Stories –

Marion Bartoli: Former Wimbledon champion ‘fears for life’ over unknown virus –
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli says she “fears for her life” after contracting an unknown virus that has caused her dramatic weight loss. France’s Bartoli was barred from playing in an invitational event at Wimbledon this week after doctors expressed fears over her health. Bartoli, who insists she is not anorexic, says the virus is so rare medical experts have no name for it. “This is not life. I am just surviving,” said the 31-year-old. Bartoli says she can only eat organic salad leaves and cucumbers without skins, and has to wash with mineral water rather than tap water. [BBC]
Marion Bartoli

The final image sent by doomed Japanese Hitomi satellite –
A doomed Japanese satellite managed to capture a view of a galaxy cluster 250 million light years away just before it died, scientists have revealed. Launched in February, the Hitomi X-ray satellite began tumbling out of control in March when contact was finally lost. Just before its demise, scientists managed to extract data measuring X-ray activity in the Perseus galaxy cluster. Hitomi, which translates as the pupil of the eye in Japanese, was meant to spend years studying the formation of galaxy clusters and the warping of space and time around black holes. It cost more than a quarter of a billion dollars – the research was an international collaboration involving the American space agency Nasa, and teams in Japan and many other countries, including one at Cambridge University in the UK. Hitomi was lost thanks to a sensor incorrectly detecting a roll in the spacecraft. In trying to correct it, on-board systems sent the craft into a spin until finally the solar panels that powered it are thought to have broken off. [BBC]
Hitomi Perseus image [HITOMI COLLABORATION/JAXA, NASA, ESA, SRON, CSA]

Video of the Day –

Movie Credits from Alex Cline on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Terrorism in Bangladesh
- A group of radical Islamists hurl homemade bombs at police officers in the Kishoreganj District in central Bangladesh killing at least one officer and injuring several others. (AP via ABC News)
Colombian conflict
- The Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP, a unit of the FARC rebel group, announces its rejection of the recent ceasefire signed by its leader Timoleón Jiménez and the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos, declaring it will not lay down its arms and demobilize and will continue to fight the government. (Reuters via The Guardian)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- At least 35 people are killed and 60 others injured in an attack on a Shiite mausoleum located in north of Baghdad. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have claimed responsibility. (Fox News), (Reuters)

Business and economy

French food company Danone agrees to buy American company WhiteWave Foods for $10 billion. (The New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Taiwan and China brace for the impact of Typhoon Nepartak, the first major typhoon of 2016. Thousands of people have been evacuated in Taiwan while over 35,000 military personnel have been placed on standby to help with relief efforts. (CNN) (ABC News)
- Typhoon Nepartak is expected to make landfall on mainland China on Friday and will make flooding worse. Nearly 200 people have died in flood waters in China in the past week with 41 people missing, 1.6 million relocated and almost 50,000 houses collapsed. (The Telegraph)
At least five workers are killed after a wall collapses on them at a recycling plant in Birmingham, England. (BBC)
A section of a Taiwanese commuter train car explodes near Songshan Station, injuring at least 21 people, some of them seriously. (AP via The New York Times) (CNA)

International relations

Ukraine–United States relations
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Kiev, Ukraine, where he is expected to discuss ways of ending the conflict in the east of the country. The visit, along with his visit to Georgia yesterday, comes ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw that will take place tomorrow. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Cuba–United States relations
- The United States tentatively approves eight, of 12 that applied, airlines for flights from 10 U.S. cities to Havana as early as this fall: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines,JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Airlines. Last month, flights were approved from five U.S. cities to nine other international airports. (Reuters) (US DOT)

Law and crime

Human rights in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
- The Philippines House of Representatives seeks to investigate the rise in deaths of suspected drug dealers in the country. (GMA News)
Rape in Germany
- Germany’s parliament passes a new law saying that it is rape to have sex with a person who says “No” to the sex. Under the previous law, sex was not considered rape unless the victim fought back. The new law also classifies groping as a sex crime, makes it easier to deport migrants who commit sex offences, and makes it easier to prosecute assaults committed by a large group. (BBC)
A French court sentences two former Rwandan mayors of the town of Kabarondo to life in prison on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. During the genocide, Hutu extremists massacred over 2,000 Tutsi who sought refuge in the town. (BBC)
Vatican leaks scandal, Journalistic freedom
- In a so-called VatiLeaks case, a Vatican City Court dismisses charges of publishing confidential information against two Italian journalists stating it lacked jurisdiction in this case. Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi wrote books on the inner workings of the Vatican. The court did convict a Vatican priest to 18 months, and assessed a 10-month suspended sentence on an Italian communications expert, for conspiring to pass documents to the journalists; a fifth defendant was cleared of all charges. (AP) (The Guardian) (Catholic News)
Shooting of Philando Castile
- Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton requests a Justice Department investigation of last night’s fatal police shooting of Philando Castile (an African-American) during a traffic stop. Castile’s girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, streamed the incident live over Facebook. It showed Castile had been shot several times and was slumped against Reynolds; he died in Minneapolis’s Hennepin County Medical Center. (The New York Times) (CBS News)
- Gov. Dayton says, “Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white? I don’t think it would have. So I’m forced to confront, and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront, that this kind of racism exists.” (NPR) (Wall Street Journal)
Dallas police shooting
- Eleven police officers are shot, with five dying of gunshot wounds in Dallas, Texas during a protest against two black men killed within a day of each other. Police kill the shooter with a bomb delivered on a bomb defusing robot. (New York Post)(KTLA)(NBC DFW), (ABC News Australia)

Politics and elections

2016 Zimbabwe protests
- Zimbabwean authorities arrest dozens of protesters as anti-government protests spread across the country. (Al Jazeera)
Australian federal election, 2016
- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal/National coalition, behind Bill Shorten‘s Labor Party in the first 48 hours following Saturday’s election, is now ahead of Labor in the Lower House, 74-71 seats; 76 seats are needed to form a government. Minor parties and independents have won five seats; mail-in and absentee votes are still being counted. Turnbull is on the road today seeking support from a small handful of independent and small party lawmakers. (Reuters) (The Australian) (Daily Mail)
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- Conservative Party members of parliament vote in a second ballot to choose the next leader of the party to replace outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron. The Home Secretary Theresa May secured the highest number votes with 199, while Department of Energy and Climate Change minister Andrea Leadsom received the second highest amount, with 84. The Secretary of State for Justice Michael Govereceived just 46 votes and is eliminated from the race, meaning a run-off contest will now take place between May and Leadsom, with the result to be announced on September 9. (AP via Daily Mail)(BBC)
Hillary Clinton email scandal
- The United States Department of State reopens an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information by former Secretary of State and presumptive Democratic Party presidential nomineeHillary Clinton and her top aides. (AP via Seattle Times)

Science and technology

Scientists manage to extract one last image from the Hitomi x-ray spacecraft, which broke up last March while orbiting Earth. Before it died, the spacecraft captured an image which measured the X-ray activity of the Perseus cluster. (BBC)

Sport

Attorneys for 80-year old American pro football legend and Hall of Famer Paul Hornung, who has dementia, sue Riddell sports equipment manufacturer, stating its helmets failed to protect Hornung from brain injury. The suit says Hornung suffered multiple concussions as a player and his neurodegenerative disease has been linked to repetitive head trauma. (AP)

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July 12, 2016

Top News Stories –

Hitler house: Austria moves to stop Neo-Nazi ‘cult site’ –
Austria’s government is to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 to prevent it becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. The owner, a retired local woman, has refused repeated offers to buy the house in Braunau am Inn in the past. However, there is disagreement over what to do with the house next. The interior minister wants it demolished but others say a museum or even a supermarket would more effectively “depoliticise” it. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Vorticity (4K) from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

South Sudanese Civil War
- After five days of fighting that left 272 people dead and thousands more displaced in the capital, Juba, President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel leader and Vice-President Riek Machar declare a ceasefire.(Al Jazeera)
Iraqi Civil War
- A car bomb explodes at an outdoor market in Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and injuring 20 more. Bombings elsewhere in Iraq kill five more people. (Al Jazeera) (AP)

Arts and culture

Restoration work at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine reveals a hidden angel mosaic. (Wafa) (Daily Mail)

Business and economics

AMC Theatres is purchasing London-based Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in a deal valued at about £921 million ($1.21 billion). AMC has 385 theaters with 5,380 screens, most in the United States. Odeon & UCI has 242 theaters and 2,236 screens in the U.K. and Ireland. AMC noted its $1.1 billion (£835 million) acquisition of Columbus, Georgia’s Carmike Cinemas (276 thrs/2,954 scrs) is still in the works. (AP)(USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

Andria train collision
- 23 people are killed and 50 others are injured after two trains collide head-on near Andria in the province of Puglia, southern Italy. (BBC)

International relations

Philippines v. China
- The Permanent Court of Arbitration rules in favor of the Philippines against China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (The New York Times), (The Guardian)
- The court unanimously says that China has “no historical rights” based on the so-called “nine-dash line” map. (CNN), (BBC)
- China rejects the tribunal’s ruling, declaring it null and void. Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterates the South China Sea has been Chinese territory since “ancient times.” (AP)

Law and crime

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan revokes Azimzhan Askarov‘s life sentence and sends the case to a lower court to be reviewed. A prominent Kyrgyz political activist and recognizedprisoner of conscience of Uzbek ethnicity, Askarov was convicted in 2011 of stirring up ethnic violence in 2010 between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in southern Kyrgyzstan and sentenced to life in prison. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
2016 Zimbabwe protests
- Evan Mawarire, the most visible leader of the protests in Zimbabwe, is arrested and charged with “inciting public violence and disturbing peace.” (BBC)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorses Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton for president at a rally in New Hampshire, effectively suspending his presidential campaign. (NBC News)
2016 state of emergency in Venezuela
- Citibank notifies the Venezuelan government it will close the accounts of the Venezuelan Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela in 30 days after conducting a “periodic risk management review.” Venezuela relies on Citibank to conduct foreign currency transactions due to the country’s strict currency controls. (UPI)

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August 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Chinese drivers fashion rat-proof car ‘skirts’ –
Residents of a city in southern China have been attaching “skirts” to their cars to protect them from rats. Locals in Nanning, in the Guangxi autonomous region, came up with the unusual solution after rodents were found to be clambering inside the vehicles and gnawing through the wiring. Parked cars have been spotted around the city sporting the makeshift, wraparound shields – dubbed “car maxi skirts” in the Chinese media – some fashioned from fabric and chicken wire, others using bamboo. Many social media users are amused by the curious sight, with one person writing on the popular NetEase web portal: “I like this elevated Guangxi humour.” Some share the locals’ frustrations, but others think they’re overreacting. “Are they preparing against a large-scale rodent invasion?” one user asks. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Procrastination

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

The Russian Air Force uses an Iranian airbase near Hamadan to launch attacks against Syrian regime opponents. (BBC)
Houthi shelling kills seven in Saudi Arabia; nine Yemenis from one family die from an airstrike by the Saudi-led alliance. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

The Westfield World Trade Center opens on schedule, part of the World Trade Center Ground Zero redevelopment in New York City. (CBS NY)

Business and economy

João Havelange, President of FIFA from 1974 to 1998, dies at the age of 100. (BBC Sport)
Barnes & Noble fires CEO Ronald Boire after less than a year in the job. Executive Chairman and company founder Leonard Riggio, who is postponing his September retirement, will assume Boire’s duties.(Reuters) (USA Today)
China launches the first communication satellite that uses photon beam communication. (The New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

2016 California wildfires
- The town of Wrightwood, California, is evacuated due to threats from the Bluecut Fire burning in the Cajon Pass. (KTLA)
- The Governor of California declares a state of emergency in San Bernardino County due to the Bluecut Fire. (ABC 7)

Law and crime

California wildfires
- California authorities charge a Clearlake resident with 17 counts of arson in connection with the wildfires over the last two years. (The Los Angeles Times)
Medical marijuana
- A United States Court of Appeals rules that the Department of Justice, per the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, cannot spend money to prosecute federal marijuana cases if the defendants comply with state medical marijuana laws. (Washington Post) (Reuters)

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August 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

Olympics 2016: Usain Bolt completes sprint double –
Usain Bolt completed a Rio 2016 sprint double by winning the 200m; he has already won the 100m in Rio. Bolt’s eighth Olympic title came in a time of 19.78 seconds, and the Jamaican has one final chance to win gold in Friday’s 4x100m relay final. Bolt, the overwhelming pre-race favourite, once again dominated a 200m Olympic final. The Jamaican has now won the Olympic sprint double three times, having repeated his exploits from Beijing in 2008 and London four years ago. Bolt said he was not happy with his time and added it was unlikely he would compete in the event at the World Championships in London next year – his career swansong. “I said it would be 100m and that’s it,” he told BBC Sport. “My coach has a way of trying to convince me, but personally I believe this is my last one.” [BBC] See List of the Day

Usain Bolt

Rio Olympics 2016: USA’s Ryan Crouser breaks 28-year record to win shot put gold –
Ryan Crouser broke a 28-year Olympic record to win gold for the United States in the men’s shot put final. Crouser, 23, threw 22.52m with his fifth throw to break East German Ulf Timmermann’s record of 22.47m set in Seoul in 1988. Joe Kovacs, the 2015 world champion, made it a USA one-two with a best throw of 21.78m, as New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh took bronze with 21.36m. Poland’s Tomasz Majewski, who won gold in 2012, finished sixth with 20.72m. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Man solves Rubik’s Cube faster than Usain Bolt can win 100 meter race

List of the Day –

Usain Bolt International competitions results [Wikipedia]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2001	World Youth Championships	Debrecen, Hungary	5th (semis)	200 metres	21.73
2002	World Junior Championships	Kingston, Jamaica	1st	200 metres	20.61 (wind: +0.9 m/s)
			2nd	4×100 metres relay	39.15 NJR
			2nd	4×400 metres relay	3:04.06 NJR
2003	World Youth Championships	Sherbrooke, Canada	1st	200 metres	20.40
	Pan American Junior Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados	1st	200 metres	20.13 WYB
	Pan American Junior Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados	2nd	4×100 metres relay	39.40
2004	CARIFTA Games	Hamilton, Bermuda	1st	200 metres	19.93 WJR
2004	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	5th (heats)	200 metres	21.05
2005	Central American and Caribbean Championships	Nassau, Bahamas	1st	200 metres	20.03
2006	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	200 metres	20.10
2006	IAAF World Cup	Athens, Greece	2nd	200 metres	19.96
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	2nd	200 metres	19.91
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	2nd	4×100 metres relay	37.89
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	100 metres	9.69 WR OR
			1st	200 metres	19.30 WR OR
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.10 WR OR
2009	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	1st	100 metres	9.58 WR
			1st	200 metres	19.19 WR
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.31 CR
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	DSQ^[260]	100 metres	—
			1st	200 metres	19.40 WL
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.04 WR
2012	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	1st	100 metres	9.63 OR
			1st	200 metres	19.32
			1st	4×100 metres relay	36.84 WR
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	1st	100 metres	9.77
			1st	200 metres	19.66
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.36
2014	Commonwealth Games	Glasgow, Scotland	1st	4×100 metres relay	37.58 GR
2015	World Relay Championships	Nassau, Bahamas	2nd	4×100 metres relay	37.68
	World Championships	Beijing, China	1st	100 metres	9.79
			1st	200 metres	19.55 WL
			1st	4 × 100 metres relay	37.36 WL
2016	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1st	100 metres	9.81
2016	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1st	200 metres	19.78

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Three bombings targeting police and military kill at least 120 people and wound 2190 in Turkey’s southeast. (BBC)

Law and crime

Eddie Bauer says malware used to access payment card data. (Reuters)
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo sentences former NFL player Darren Sharper to 18 years in prison in rape and drugging case involving as many as 160 women in several U.S. states. (BBC)
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says 220 people were executed by federal police during a confrontation on a ranch in the western state of Michoacán last year. (BBC)

Politics and elections

The Obama Administration will phase out the use of privately-owned federal prisons. The move will affect private prisons which house 220,660 federal inmates, out of a total of nearly 2,000,000. (BBC)

Science and technology

Twitter announces 2,035,000 terror-linked accounts have been suspended over the past six months amid increasing pressure on tech companies from the White House to censor extremists from groups likeISIL. (CBS News)

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August 20, 2016

Top News Stories –

Glass bridge: China opens world’s highest and longest –
The much-heralded “world’s highest and longest” glass-bottomed bridge has opened to visitors in central China. It connects two mountain cliffs in what are known as the Avatar mountains (the film was shot here) in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province. Completed in December, the 430m-long bridge cost $3.4m (£2.6m) to build and stands 300m above ground, state news agency Xinhua reported. It has been paved with 99 panes of three-layered transparent glass. And according to officials, the 6m-wide bridge – designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan – has already set world records for its architecture and construction. [BBC]

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Gaziantep bombing
- A suicide bomber targets a Kurdish wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep killing at least 22 people and wounding 94. (Reuters), (Reuters via New York Times)

2016 Citronelle, Alabama, homicide
- Six people, including an unborn baby, were killed in Citronelle, Alabama. A 27-year-old man was arrested as a suspect in the case. (CNN)

Business and economy

India announces the new governor of its central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, is Urjit Patel, formerly the RBI’s deputy governor for monetary policy. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Derrick Dearman a 27-year-old Mississippi man kills five people in the U.S. town of Citronelle, Alabama then kidnaps his pregnant ex-girlfriend from among the victims. Nearby, the Greene County, MississippiSheriff’s office takes the surrender and confession of the suspect. (Reuters)

Sports

2016 Summer Olympics
- Mo Farah of Great Britain wins the men’s 5,000 metres to go along with his earlier gold medal in the 10,000 metres. By successfully defending his golds from the 2012 Games in both events, he becomes only the second man to win these two events at consecutive Olympics, alongside Lasse Virén of Finland (1972 and 1976). (BBC)
- Matthew Centrowitz wins the men’s 1,500 metres for the first American gold in the event since 1908. (BBC)
- In men’s football, Brazil defeats Germany 5–4 on penalties after a 1–1 draw to claim their first-ever gold medal in the sport. (BBC)
- In women’s golf, Inbee Park of South Korea wins the gold medal. (BBC)

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August 21, 2016

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Rio Olympics 2016: Team GB beat China to finish second in medal table –
Great Britain have finished second in the medal table at the 2016 Olympics – above sporting powerhouse China. One of the event’s dominant nations, China have won more than 200 golds since returning to the Games in 1984. Britain ended the Rio Games with 27 golds from 15 sports, one ahead of China, as they finished with a total of 67 from 19 sports, beating the 65 at London 2012. Since the modern Olympic era began in 1896, no country has increased its medal tally at the summer Games immediately following one it hosted. GB have also smashed their pre-Games target of at least 48 medals, which was set by UK Sport. That means Rio 2016 is the nation’s most successful ‘away’ Games in history. China, with a population of 1.357bn to Britain’s 64.1m, have amassed more medals (70) than Team GB in Brazil, achieving notable success in table tennis, diving and weightlifting. However, GB are ahead on golds, which is what the rankings are based on. [BBC] See List of the day

List of the Day –

2016 Summer Olympics Medals Table [Wikipedia]

2016 Summer Olympics medal table
Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	46	37	38	121
2	Great Britain (GBR)	27	23	17	67
3	China (CHN)	26	18	26	70
4	Russia (RUS)	19	18	19	56
5	Germany (GER)	17	10	15	42
6	Japan (JPN)	12	8	21	41
7	France (FRA)	10	18	14	42
8	South Korea (KOR)	9	3	9	21
9	Italy (ITA)	8	12	8	28
10	Australia (AUS)	8	11	10	29
11	Netherlands (NED)	8	7	4	19
12	Hungary (HUN)	8	3	4	15
13	Brazil (BRA)	7	6	6	19
14	Spain (ESP)	7	4	6	17
15	Kenya (KEN)	6	6	1	13
16	Jamaica (JAM)	6	3	2	11
17	Croatia (CRO)	5	3	2	10
18	Cuba (CUB)	5	2	4	11
19	New Zealand (NZL)	4	9	5	18
20	Canada (CAN)	4	3	15	22
21	Uzbekistan (UZB)	4	2	7	13
22	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	3	5	9	17
23	Colombia (COL)	3	2	3	8
24	Switzerland (SUI)	3	2	2	7
25	Iran (IRI)	3	1	4	8
26	Greece (GRE)	3	1	2	6
27	Argentina (ARG)	3	1	0	4
28	Denmark (DEN)	2	6	7	15
29	Sweden (SWE)	2	6	3	11
30	South Africa (RSA)	2	6	2	10
31	Ukraine (UKR)	2	5	4	11
32	Serbia (SRB)	2	4	2	8
33	Poland (POL)	2	3	6	11
34	North Korea (PRK)	2	3	2	7
35	Belgium (BEL)	2	2	2	6
35	Thailand (THA)	2	2	2	6
37	Slovakia (SVK)	2	2	0	4
38	Georgia (GEO)	2	1	4	7
39	Azerbaijan (AZE)	1	7	10	18
40	Belarus (BLR)	1	4	4	9
41	Turkey (TUR)	1	3	4	8
42	Armenia (ARM)	1	3	0	4
43	Czech Republic (CZE)	1	2	7	10
44	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	2	5	8
45	Slovenia (SLO)	1	2	1	4
46	Indonesia (INA)	1	2	0	3
47	Romania (ROU)	1	1	3	5
48	Bahrain (BRN)	1	1	0	2
48	Vietnam (VIE)	1	1	0	2
50	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	1	0	2	3
51	Bahamas (BAH)	1	0	1	2
	Ivory Coast (CIV)	1	0	1	2
	Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA)	1	0	1	2
54	Fiji (FIJ)	1	0	0	1
	Jordan (JOR)	1	0	0	1
	Kosovo (KOS)	1	0	0	1
	Puerto Rico (PUR)	1	0	0	1
	Singapore (SIN)	1	0	0	1
	Tajikistan (TJK)	1	0	0	1
60	Malaysia (MAS)	0	4	1	5
61	Mexico (MEX)	0	3	2	5
62	Algeria (ALG)	0	2	0	2
62	Ireland (IRL)	0	2	0	2
64	Lithuania (LTU)	0	1	3	4
65	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	2	3
65	Venezuela (VEN)	0	1	2	3
67	India (IND)	0	1	1	2
67	Mongolia (MGL)	0	1	1	2
69	Burundi (BDI)	0	1	0	1
	Grenada (GRN)	0	1	0	1
	Niger (NIG)	0	1	0	1
	Philippines (PHI)	0	1	0	1
	Qatar (QAT)	0	1	0	1
74	Norway (NOR)	0	0	4	4
75	Egypt (EGY)	0	0	3	3
75	Tunisia (TUN)	0	0	3	3
77	Israel (ISR)	0	0	2	2
78	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	0	1	1
	Estonia (EST)	0	0	1	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	1	1
	Moldova (MDA)	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	0	0	1	1
	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	0	0	1	1
Total (87 NOCs)		307	307	360	974

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- An al-Shabaab suicide car bomb kills at least 20 people in the town of Galkayo in Somalia‘s semi-autonomous Puntland region. (Reuters)
Gaziantep bombing
- The death toll from the Turkish wedding bombing rises to 50 with up to 94 people injured. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is suspected of conducting the attack. (Daily Sabah)

International relations

Philippine Drug War
- Rodrigo Duterte threatens to withdraw the Philippines from its founding membership of the United Nations after the international body criticized him over alleged human rights violations. (BBC)

Law and crime

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraq hangs 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group’s massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014. (AP)
A shooter wounds at least 13 people at a house party in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls on fellow Labour Party members to remove Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming party leadership election. (Reuters) (The Observer via The Guardian)

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January 3, 2019

Top News Stories –

China says it has successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first ever such attempt and landing.

At 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT), the un-crewed Chang’e-4 (Chinese: 嫦娥四号; pinyin: Cháng’é Sìhào; literally: ‘Chang’e No. 4′) probe touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, state media said.

It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region’s geology, as well to conduct biological experiments.

The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration.

There have been numerous missions to the Moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972. [BBC

List of the Day –

Manned moon landings:

Mission name	Lunar lander	Lunar landing date	Lunar liftoff date	Lunar landing site	Duration on lunar surface (DD:HH:MM)	Crew	Number of EVAs	Total EVA Time (HH:MM)
Apollo 11	Eagle	20 July 1969	21 July 1969	Sea of Tranquility	0:21:31	Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin	1	2:31
Apollo 12	Intrepid	19 November 1969	21 November 1969	Ocean of Storms	1:07:31	Charles “Pete” Conrad, Alan Bean	2	7:45
Apollo 14	Antares	5 February 1971	6 February 1971	Fra Mauro	1:09:30	Alan B. Shepard, Edgar Mitchell	2	9:21
Apollo 15	Falcon	30 July 1971	2 August 1971	Hadley Rille	2:18:55	David Scott, James Irwin	3	18:33
Apollo 16	Orion	21 April 1972	24 April 1972	Descartes Highlands	2:23:02	John Young, Charles Duke	3	20:14
Apollo 17	Challenger	11 December 1972	14 December 1972	Taurus–Littrow	3:02:59	Eugene Cernan, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt	3	22:04

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian state media say that a U.S.-led coalition aerial attack killed 11 civilians in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. (EFE via La Vanguardia) (SANA)

Business and economy

Corporate acquisitions and mergers
- Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb proposes the takeover of cancer drug company Celgene for US$95 billion, including debt, the biggest biopharma deal ever. (Reuters)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 660 points following a warning from Apple on weak demand and trade relations between the United States and China. (TheStreet)

Disasters and accidents

2018 Magnitogorsk building collapse
- The death toll of an explosion caused by a gas leak that devastated a block of flats in Magnitogorsk, Russia, rises to 39. Rescuers end their search efforts at the collapse site as there are no more missing people. (The Moscow Times)
European migrant crisis
- The mayor of Naples offers to berth a NGO-operated ship with 32 migrants who were rescued on 22 December off the coast of Libya. (Reuters)
The Dutch Coast Guard says 270 containers fell off MSC Zoe in heavy seas near the German island of Borkum and floated towards the Netherlands. Treasure hunters revel on the West Frisian islands of Terschelling and Vlieland. Three containers containing hazardous materials are still missing and ships are warned for floating containers. (Reuters via NDTV) (World Maritime News)
Seven people are killed after a crash and diesel fuel spill sparked a massive fire on Interstate 75 in Gainesville, Florida, United States. (AOL News)
14th Street Tunnel shutdown
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that a complete shutdown of the 14th Street Tunnel in New York City, proposed to allow for subway repairs caused by damage from Hurricane Sandy, has been halted. Cuomo says that engineers will use a new technology from Europe to make critical repairs to the tunnel without having to close it entirely. The complete shutdown would have closed the tunnel, which is used by nearly 225,000 people each weekday, for an expected 15 months. (New York Times)

International relations

Somalia expels Nicholas Haysom, the most senior United Nations diplomat in the country, after accusing him of “acting like the country’s ruler”. (BBC)
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani demands clarification after U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that the Soviet Union was “right to be there”, referring to the 1979–1989 Soviet–Afghan War. (The Washington Post)
Mexico-United States barrier
- The Department of Homeland Security requests more American troops be deployed to the Mexico-United States border in order to add 160 miles of concertina wire alongside existing border fencing. (Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

China executes serial killer Gao Chengyong, who murdered eleven girls and women between 1988 and 2002. (BBC)
The Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika says that France today extradited Alexei Viktorovich Kuznetsov [ru], a former Finance Minister of the Moscow Region who is accused of fraud and embezzlement amounting to 14 billion Russian rubles (US$200 million). (TASS)
A man shoots three children to death and wounds a woman in Texas City, Texas, United States. The suspect has not been apprehended. (USA Today)

Politics and elections

Iran’s health minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi resigns in protest against a medical budget. His resignation was accepted by President Hassan Rouhani. (PressTV)
The 116th United States Congress, which contains a record number of women and minorities, is sworn in at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time, the first being from 2007–2011. (CBS News)
United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019
- The newly sworn U.S. House of Representatives passes a major spending bill to fund most shuttered departments and agencies through September 30 and a stop-gap measure to restart the Department of Homeland Security. The proposals will now move on to the Senate which has indicated they will not take up any spending bills that aren’t supported by President Trump. (The New York Times)

Science and technology

Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
- China National Space Administration‘s robotic lander Chang’e 4 successfully lands at the Von Kármán lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. (BBC)

Sports

Oman–United Arab Emirates relations
- Saoud al-Mohannadi, vice president of the Asian Football Confederation, is banned from traveling to the United Arab Emirates from Oman. (The New York Times)
In women’s college basketball, Baylor defeats top-ranked Connecticut 68–57, handing the Huskies their first regular-season loss since November 2014 and ending their NCAA-record regular-season winning streak at 126 games. (AP via ESPN)

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