Top Story –
Ultimate Lock-in –
About 30 guests celebrating new year at the Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire, the highest pub in England, finally left today after heavy snow left them stranded for three days.
The Tan Hill Inn
Tag Archives: Chris Brown
May 18, 2015
Top News Stories –
Obama launches personal Twitter account –
President Barack Obama reintroduced himself to the world, albeit in 140 characters or less. “Hello, Twitter!” he wrote. “It’s Barack. Really!” Mr Obama joked that “six years in” to his presidency, “they’re finally giving me my own account”. The name of the new account is @POTUS, short for President of the United States. It immediately attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.While there has been an @BarackObama account active since 2007, it is managed by the president’s staff. The new account is meant to be Mr Obama’s personal Twitter profile. He identifies himself on it as “dad, husband, and 44th president of the United States”. [Daily Telegraph]
Simon Cowell wants trap door and fire at next leaders’ debate –
Britain’s Got Talent boss Simon Cowell has offered his services for future party leaders’ debates, saying he would “love” to produce them. “I’d do it in a heartbeat! 100%. I’d have walk-ons, music, fire… and a trap door if people didn’t like what they said,” he said. “And I’d definitely have a clap-o-meter. I am deadly serious. I really would love a chance to do that!” Last month’s seven-way party leaders’ TV debate got seven million viewers. Cowell, whose TV talent show became the highest-rated entertainment programme on television last month, was keen to get audiences more involved in the debates. [BBC]
Simon Cowell
Four-minute mile Roger Bannister stopwatch auctioned for £20,000 –
A stopwatch used to time Roger Bannister’s first sub-four-minute mile has sold for £20,000 at auction. Sir Roger, now 86, made his run at Oxford’s Iffley Road track on 6 May 1954, when he was 25. Used by timekeeper WJ Burfitt, the watch was expected to attract bids between £5,000 and £8,000. Auctioneer Graham Budd did not reveal the identity of the latest successful bidder, but said the Swiss-made watch was from “one of those remarkable, historic moments in British sporting history”. Sir Roger ran the mile in three minutes and fifty-nine seconds. [BBC]
Taylor Swift is big winner at 2015 Billboard music awards –
Taylor Swift was the big winner at this year’s Billboard music awards. Not only did the singer premiere her blockbuster video for Bad Blood – featuring the likes of Cindy Crawford, Kendrick Lamar and Lena Dunham – but the pop star also took home eight prizes including top artist, top female artist, top Billboard 200 Album, top Billboard 200 artist, top Hot 100 artist and top streaming song. [Guardian] See Video of the Day and List of The Day
Taylor Swift
Video of the Day –
Taylor Swift – Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar
List of the day –
Billboard Music Awards 2015 nominees and winners
TOP ARTIST
Ariana Grande
One Direction
Katy Perry
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift — WINNER
TOP COUNTRY ARTIST
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Florida Georgia Line — WINNER
Brantley Gilbert
Blake Shelton
BILLBOARD CHART ACHIEVEMENT AWARD PRESENTED BY SAMSUNG GALAXY (FAN-VOTED)
Iggy Azalea
Taylor Swift — WINNER
Meghan Trainor
TOP TOURING ARTIST
Lady Gaga
One Direction — WINNER
Katy Perry
The Rolling Stones
Justin Timberlake
TOP FEMALE ARTIST
Iggy Azalea
Ariana Grande
Katy Perry
Taylor Swift — WINNER
Meghan Trainor
TOP RADIO SONG
John Legend, “All of Me” — WINNER
MAGIC!, “Rude”
Nico & Vinz, “Am I Wrong”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Pharrell Williams, “Happy
TOP MALE ARTIST
Drake
Pharrell Williams
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith — WINNER
Justin Timberlake
TOP RAP SONG
Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, “Fancy” — WINNER
Iggy Azalea feat. Rita Ora, “Black Widow”
Big Sean feat. E-40, “I Don’t F— With You”
Nicki Minaj, “Anaconda”
Bobby Shmurda, “Hot Boy”
TOP BILLBOARD 200 ALBUM
Maroon 5, V
Pentatonix, That’s Christmas to Me
Ed Sheeran, x
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour
Taylor Swift, 1989 — WINNER
TOP DUO/GROUP
5 Seconds of Summer
Florida Georgia Line
MAGIC!
Maroon 5
One Direction — WINNER
TOP NEW ARTIST
5 Seconds of Summer
Iggy Azalea
Hozier
Sam Smith — WINNER
Meghan Trainor
TOP BILLBOARD 200 ARTIST
One Direction
Pentatonix
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift — WINNER
TOP HOT 100 ARTIST
Iggy Azalea
Ariana Grande
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift — WINNER
Meghan Trainor
TOP DIGITAL SONGS ARTIST
Iggy Azalea
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift — WINNER
Meghan Trainor
TOP RADIO SONGS ARTIST
John Legend
Maroon 5
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith — WINNER
Taylor Swift
TOP SOCIAL ARTIST
Justin Bieber — WINNER
Miley Cyrus
Selena Gomez
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
TOP STREAMING ARTIST
Iggy Azalea — WINNER
Ariana Grande
Nicki Minaj
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor
TOP R&B ARTIST
Beyoncé
Chris Brown
John Legend
Trey Songz
Pharrell Williams — WINNER
TOP RAP ARTIST
Iggy Azalea — WINNER
J. Cole
Drake
Nicki Minaj
Rae Sremmurd
TOP ROCK ARTIST
Bastille
Coldplay
Fall Out Boy
Hozier — WINNER
Lorde
TOP LATIN ARTIST
J Balvin
Juan Gabriel
Enrique Iglesias
Prince Royce
Romeo Santos — WINNER
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC ARTIST
Avicii
Clean Bandit
Disclosure
Calvin Harris — WINNER
Lindsey Stirling
TOP CHRISTIAN ARTIST
Casting Crowns
Hillsong United — WINNER
Lecrae
MercyMe
Newsboys
TOP SOUNDTRACK
The Fault in Our Stars
Fifty Shades of Grey
Frozen — WINNER
Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix: Vol. 1
Into the Woods
TOP R&B ALBUM
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Chris Brown, X
Michael Jackson, Xscape
John Legend, Love in the Future
Pharrell Williams, G I R L — WINNER
TOP RAP ALBUM
J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive — WINNER
Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint
Iggy Azalea, The New Classic
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP 2
TOP COUNTRY ALBUM
Jason Aldean, Old Boots, New Dirt — WINNER
Garth Brooks, Man Against Machine
Luke Bryan, Crash My Party
Brantley Gilbert, Just As I Am
Miranda Lambert, Platinum
TOP ROCK ALBUM
AC/DC, Rock or Bust
The Black Keys, Turn Blue
Coldplay, Ghost Stories — WINNER
Hozier, Hozier
Lorde, Pure Heroine
TOP LATIN ALBUM
Juan Gabriel, Los Dúo
Enrique Iglesias, Sex and Love — WINNER
Romeo Santos, Formula: Vol. 2
Santana, Corazon
Marc Anthony, 3.0
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC ALBUM
Avicii, True
Disclosure, Settle
Calvin Harris, Motion
Skrillex, Recess
Lindsey Stirling, Shatter Me — WINNER
TOP CHRISTIAN ALBUM
Lecrae, Anomaly — WINNER
Casting Crowns, Thrive
MercyMe, Welcome to the New
NEEDTOBREATHE, Rivers in the Wasteland
Chris Tomlin, Love Ran Red
TOP HOT 100 SONG
Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
John Legend, “All of Me”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass” — WINNER
TOP DIGITAL SONG
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk!”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass” — WINNER
Pharrell Williams, “Happy
TOP STREAMING SONG (AUDIO)
Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
Hozier, “Take Me to Church”
John Legend, “All of Me” — WINNER
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Tove Lo, “Habits (Stay High)”
TOP STREAMING SONG (VIDEO)
Idina Menzel, “Let It Go”
Bobby Shmurda, “Hot Boy”
Taylor Swift, “Blank Space”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off” — WINNER
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”
TOP R&B SONG
Chris Brown feat. Lil Wayne, French Montana, Too $hort & Tyga, “Loyal”
Jason Derulo feat. 2 Chainz, “Talk Dirty”
Jeremih feat. YG, “Don’t Tell ‘Em”
John Legend, “All of Me”
Pharrell Williams, “Happy” — WINNER
TOP COUNTRY SONG
Jason Aldean, “Burnin’ It Down” — WINNER
Luke Bryan, “Play It Again”
Sam Hunt, “Leave the Night On”
Florida Georgia Line feat. Luke Bryan, “This Is How We Roll”
Florida Georgia Line, “Dirt”
TOP ROCK SONG
Bastille, “Pompeii”
Coldplay, “A Sky Full of Stars”
Fall Out Boy, “Centuries”
Hozier, “Take Me to Church” — WINNER
Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun”
TOP LATIN SONG
J Balvin feat. Farruko, “6 AM”
Enrique Iglesias feat. Descemer Bueno & Gente de Zona, “Bailando” — WINNER
Romeo Santos, “Eres Mía”
Romeo Santos feat. Drake, “Odio”
Romeo Santos, “Propuesta Indecente”
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONG
Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne, “Rather Be”
Disclosure feat. Sam Smith, “Latch”
DJ Snake & Lil Jon, “Turn Down For What” — WINNER
Ariana Grande feat. Zedd, “Break Free”
Calvin Harris, “Summer”
TOP CHRISTIAN SONG
Francesca Battistelli, “He Knows My Name”
Hillsong United, “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)”
MercyMe, “Greater”
Newsboys, “We Believe”
Carrie Underwood, “Something in the Water” — WINNER
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- The Saudi Arabia-led airstrikes against the Houthi rebels resume after a five-day ceasefire. (BBC)
- Simultaneous explosions occur at local offices of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party headquarters in the southern Turkish cities of Adanaand Mersin. (RT)
- Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- The Governor of Iraq‘s Anbar Governorate estimates that 500 people lost their lives and 8000 people fled as ISIS captured the strategically important city of Ramadi. (Al-Arabiya)
- Business and economy
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 end at record levels. (CNBC)
- Disasters and accidents
- Amtrak resumes train services between New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, following a fatal train derailment on May 12.(AP viaHuffington Post)
- At least 52 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar, Antioquia. (AFP via Yahoo News)
- International relations
- The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, assures South Korea of “ironclad” American security commitments on a visit to Seoul while accusing North Korea of a litany of crimes. (AP)
- The Philippines says that it is willing to accept 3,000 Rohingya refugees after an accusation by a newspaper was made. Last week Indonesiaturned away boats carrying over 1,000 Rohingya refugees. (Rappler)
- Law and crime
- Scott Driscoll, a former member of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of Queensland, has been committed to stand trial on fraud charges. (Courier Mail)
- President of the United States Barack Obama bans the provision of some military-type equipment to local police departments and restricts access to other types of equipment following recent tensions between police and minority communities. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Former Australian tennis player Bob Hewitt is jailed for six years in South Africa for raping underaged girls. (BBC)
- Victorino Chua, a nurse at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, is found guilty for the murder of two patients following the 2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident. (BBC News)
- The District Attorney for Manhattan says he intends to retry a murder case in the disappearance of Etan Patz which ended in a mistrial. (NBC News)
- Politics
- 2015 Burundian unrest
- After a failed coup d’état the President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, fires three Ministers, including the Minister of Defence. (The Washington Times)
- 2015 Macedonian protests
- In the ongoing protests in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, tens of thousands of people rallied in support of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.(BBC News).
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June 5, 2015
Top News Stories –
Southampton footballers set new world record for longest match –
A new world record for the longest football match has been set at St Mary’s, the home of Southampton FC, after a 102 hour-long charity game. The 36 players, from the Testlands Support Project, a Southampton charity, played on until 00:30 BST on Friday to break the previous record, of 101 hours. The players took turns to take breaks to eat, get physiotherapy and sleep. They began the 11-a-side match at 18:30 on Sunday, scoring over 1,600 goals. The Reds went on to beat the Whites 910-725. [BBC]
Surprising pop star facts revealed by YouTube –
YouTube reveals statistics, usually only visible to those behind the scenes, showing some bizarre trends about the world’s biggest stars. They show that Taylor Swift is twice as popular in Bangkok in Thailand than New York, for example. Or that One Direction are huge in Quezon City, the Philippines, as well as Mexico City. The Artist Insights service was unveiled on Wednesday. Google says it means musicians will be able to see the cities where they have the largest number of fans. The records go back to September 2014 and include original versions of the artist’s videos as well as fan shares and re-uploads. [BBC Newsbeat] See List of the Day
Taylor Swift
‘Female Viagra’ to boost women’s libido one step closer –
The development of a pill to boost women’s libido is one step closer after an American panel recommended the approval of the female equivalent of Viagra. A panel of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers has voted in favour of recommending flibanserin, a daily pill nicknamed the “female Viagra”. The recommendation will be seen as a major coup for campaigners who have fought for women’s sex drives to receive the same level of medical attention as men’s. The decision will now be passed to the FDA itself, which will rule on whether the pill will be officially approved for public use later this year. [Daily Telegraph]
Video of the Day –
Trick Meter from Simeon Duncombe on Vimeo.
List of the Day –
Taylor Swift’s YouTube fanbase by country (September 2014 – June 5, 2015) – Data from YouTube Artist Insights
1
United States
678,418,914 total views
2
United Kingdom
204,980,705 total views
3
Mexico
190,668,351 total views
4
Philippines
158,830,256 total views
5
Brazil
145,212,778 total views
6
Thailand
116,673,111 total views
7
Canada
100,100,885 total views
8
Japan
77,336,118 total views
9
France
67,362,320 total views
10
Republic of Indonesia
66,044,140 total views
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- A bomb explodes in a marketplace in Yola, Nigeria, killing 31 and injuring dozens of others. (AP), (CNN)
- Two people are killed and more than a hundred injured as bombs explode at rallies held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party two days ahead of the general election in Diyarbakir. (AP)
- Business and economy
- Nestlé temporarily removes its Maggi noodles product from the shelves in India following a health scare. (Economic Times)
- Disasters and accidents
- Sinking of the Dong Fang Zhi Xing
- The death toll from the sinking of the ship on the Yangtze River rises to 82 with officials giving up hope of finding more survivors. Only 15 out of over 450 people on the boat were rescued. (Sky News Australia)
- Two bodies have been removed from Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu following the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Malaysia‘s Sabah province Friday morning. Previously-stranded climbers, reported at 137, have descended to the Laban Rata resthouse. (The Star) (CNN) (Asia Straits Times) (The Rakyat Post)
- 2015 Accra explosion
- The death toll from an explosion at a gasoline station on Wednesday in the Ghanaian capital Accra rises to over 200. (Zee News)
- Health
- 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in South Korea
- Four people have now died of MERS in South Korea with five new cases reported. (AFP via Bangkok Post)
- International relations
- Benigno Aquino, the President of the Philippines, says that his government will start discussions with Japan about allowing Japan Self-Defense Forces to refuel at Filipino bases allowing the extension of operations into the South China Sea. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
- Law and crime
- Eight out of the ten allegedly involved in shooting Pakistani schoolgirl and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai have been secretly set free.(BBC)
- Prosecutors in the state of Minnesota file criminal charges against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse allegations by a priest. (New York Times)
- Politics and elections
- Romania‘s National Anticorruption Directorate announces that it is investigating the Prime Minister Victor Ponta for alleged money laundering, forgery and corruption. Ponta denies the allegations and is refusing to stand down. (CNN)
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July 25, 2015
Top News Stories –
Parking attendant ‘mistakenly gives away’ Grandmaster Flash’s car –
Hip-hop pioneer says he returned to garage to find his customised Dodge Charger had been given to someone “dressed like him”. When you leave your customised muscle car with a valet parking service in New York, you assume it is in safe hands.Particularly if you are a hip-hop superstar. But when Grandmaster Flash returned to the garage in Manhattan where he had left his Dodge Charger for two hours he was told by the attendant that his “whip” – slang for souped-up car – had been given to someone else. To make matters worse, he had left thousands of dollars of vintage vinyl in the car. [Daily Telegraph]
Has Kim Kardashian just fixed Twitter? –
Reality TV star wants to be able to edit misspelled tweets and Twitter co-founder says ‘great idea’. It is easily one of the most annoying things about Twitter: the inability to edit tweets that contain mistakes, spelling errors or just came out sounding a bit wrong. Instead, Twitter users have the delete the tweet, and repost a new version, which leads to all kinds of problems if the earlier tweet had been retweeted, and on it goes. But hopefully not for long. Enter Kim Kardashian, the reality TV star and unofficial queen of Twitter, who uses the site daily to communicate with her 33.8 million followers and promote herself. On Friday, Kardashian turned her attention to the workings of the site, asking why it wasn’t possible to simply edit tweets. Not long afterwards, she got a reply from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which suggests a fix for the problem isn’t far off. [Daily Telegraph]
Kim Kardashian Twitter fix with Jack Dorsey
Kim Kardashian
Video of the Day –
Otherwise Engaged from Jack Sidey on Vimeo.
Written and Directed by Alicia MacDonald @AliciaMacDonald
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- The Saudi-led military coalition announces that a 5-day humanitarian ceasefire has been agreed to, set to begin just before midnight Sunday.(Wall Street Journal)
- Two suicide bombings at a swimming pool in northern Iraq killed at least 12 people. (Reuters)
- Arts and culture
- Chris Brown leaves the Philippines after he is prevented from leaving for four days due to a financial dispute between Brown and the Christian sect Iglesia ni Cristo. (The New York Times)
- Disasters and accidents
- A large fire 12 miles (19 kilometres) west of the French city of Bordeaux ravages more than 350 hectares (860 acres) of forest. (The Daily Star)
- Politics and election
- The Tunisian parliament approved a new anti-terror law that allows the death penalty for terrorists. (Reuters)
- Sports
- Dutch cyclist Niek Kimmann wins his first UCI BMX Supercross series world title, while Venezuelan Stefany Hernandez finished first at the elite women’s race. (British Cycling)
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November 20, 2015
Top News Stories –
Indian Railways holds disabled recruitment drive on top floor – with no lifts –
A bid to recruit more disabled employees to work on India’s railways has ended in farce after test centres were set up on the top floors of buildings with no lifts or ramps. Many candidates who arrived at recruitment offices across India on Thursday either had to be carried or drag themselves up the stairs to their designated computers. Some were forced to abandon their applications entirely. [Daily Telegraph]
Vengeful surfer vows to eat the shark that bit him –
Don’t get on the wrong side of Allen Engelman – he has exacted the ultimate revenge on a shark that bit him. The Florida surfer was bitten by a shark, so the next day went out on a vengeful hunt. He killed a shark which he believes to be the same one that bit him. Not only did he kill it, but he now vows to eat it in order to punish the animal for the bite inflicted upon him. The surfer received 15 stitches, and from then on he was hell-bent on revenge. Him and his five-year-old son went back to the beach the following day and caught a shark with the same markings as the one which bit him. [Daily Telegraph]
New York follows UK in banning ‘hoverboards’ in public places –
New York has become the latest city to ban self-balancing scooters, known as “hoverboards”, warning that anyone caught riding them in public places could face a fine of up to $500. The two-wheeled electric vehicles, which use gyroscope technology to keep the rider upright, have exploded in popularity over the last few months – with celebrities including Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Lily Allen and Jamie Foxx all spotted riding them. However, according to the the New York City Police Department, hoverboards are prohibited by New York state law since they are considered “motor vehicles that cannot be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles”. [Daily Telegraph] October 21 2015 was the Back to the Future Day that featured real hoverboards
Video of the Day –
Blue Hue
Blue Hue
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Military intervention against ISIL
- Cyprus offers France the use of its airbase facilities to bomb the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. Cypriot airbases are being used by British and Canadian air forces. (The Guardian)
- Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Russian warships launch cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant positions in Syria‘s eastern Deir ez-Zor. Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, reported over 600 terrorists were killed in the strikes. Video footage also emerged of Russian ground crew servicemen writing the words “For Paris” on bombs to be dropped on ISIL targets in a show of solidarity with France in the wake of the November 13 terror attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris. (RT)(Sky News)
- 2015 Bamako hotel attack
- Ten gunmen storm the five-star Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako, taking 170 hostages with at least 27 people killed. The grenade-toting assailants free captives who are able to recite the Quran. The hotel is “often used” by Air Francestaff. (France 24), (NBC News), (The New York Daily News), (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- Mali security forces launch an assault on the gunmen and all surviving hostages are freed. (UPI) (BBC)
- Mali declares a 10-day state of emergency following the attack. (i24 News)
- African militant jihadist organization Al-Murabitoun and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claim responsibility. (CNN) (Reuters).
- Xinjiang conflict
- Chinese security forces have killed 28 members of a supposed terrorist group in the mainly ethnic Uyghur Xinjiang region. (BBC)
- November 2015 Paris attacks
- Officials report three people died in the Saint-Denis raid. The body of a second woman is found at the apartment where a woman and Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud were killed. (Sky News)
- The French Senate approves President François Hollande’s request to extend the state of emergency until the end of February 2016. The National Assembly passed the three-month extension yesterday. (AP) (Radio France Internationale)
- Fugitive ISIS gunman Salah Abdeslam called three friends saying he is hiding in the Brussels area and is desperately trying to get to ISIS territory in Syria. He said local ISIS members are unhappy with him since he failed to detonate his suicide vest. His brother Mohamed Abdeslam has publicly pleaded with Salah to turn himself in. (ABC News)
- A newly released ISIS video threatens attacks on the White House in the U.S., monuments in France, U.S. President Obama, French President François Hollande, and targets in Italy. (Reuters) (CNN)
- Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Two attacks on security checkpoints by ISIS militants in Yemen‘s historic Shibam town and Al Qatn District in the central Hadhramaut Governorate leave at least 15 pro-Hadi government soldiers dead. (The National)
- Art and culture
- A New York City businesswoman, who wanted to bring a “grander scale” to her yearly charitable giving, bought a toy store’s entire inventory to donate to homeless kids. (UPI)
- The world’s second-largest diamond of gem quality, Karowe AK6, is found in the Karowe mine located north of the Botswanan capital Gaborone by the Lucara Diamond Corp. The 1,111-carat diamond is second only to the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond (Star of Africa) found in South Africa in 1905. (Forbes)
- Business and economy
Britain’s National Union of Journalists announces a strike against the Financial Times, protesting the changes in pension arrangements since the acquisition of the FT by a Japanese media group, Nikkei. (BBC)
- International relations
- European migrant crisis
- Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia shut their borders to so-called economic migrants, those not coming from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq, leaving thousands stranded at Balkan border crossings. Around 500 migrants fromIran, Morocco, and Algeria gather on the border between Greece and Macedonia to protest the closure. (The Irish Independent)
- European Union ministers, in light of the attacks in Paris last week, gather in Brussels for an emergency security summit on the need to strengthen border checks on travelers. (AFP via NDTV)
- French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said some of the Paris attackers exploited Europe’s refugee crisis to “slip in” to France unnoticed. Valls warns the passport-free Schengen zone is at risk if Europe fails to “take responsibility” over border controls. (Sky News)
- North Korea–South Korea relations
- North Korea and South Korea agree to hold talks next week. (Yonhap)
- Law and crime
- Sweden‘s national security service Säpo are questioning terrorist suspect Moder Mothama Magid, a 22-year-old Iraqi, who is accused of planning to launch a terror attack on the Swedish capital Stockholm. (Local)
- The family of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust only to languish in a Russian prison, have asked authorities to officially declare him dead. (Times of Israel)
- The United States releases on parole convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, who served 30 years in federal prison. His parole, approved on July 28, 2015, is for five years during which time he has to remain in the United States. A supporter said Pollard will have a curfew and will wear a GPS unit. (The Globe and Mail) (The Globe and Mail-2)
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pollard’s lawyers, two Democratic members of Congress from New York, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, and others have requested Pollard be able to travel immediately to Israel so he can live with his family. The White House has said it has no intention of altering the conditions of Pollard’s parole. (The Globe and Mail)
- The U.S. Justice Department files criminal charges against three individuals and three companies–Black Elk, Grand Isle Shipyard and oil field services company Wood Group–in connection with a 2012 oil platform incident in the Gulf of Mexico that left three workers dead. The charges range from manslaughter to violations of the federal Clean Water Act. (UPI)
- USPlabs and S.K. Laboratory are indicted following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation finds synthetic ingredients manufactured in China were added to workout boosters and weight-loss products the firms claimed to be natural. Supplements from these companies were previously implicated in consumer illnesses and death. Several other defendants from the companies face additional charges. (Military Times)
- Politics and elections
- New Zealand flag referendum
- The first stage of the voting process to potentially select a new flag of New Zealand starts. (BBC)
- Science and technology
- NASA orders its first commercial crew mission from private company SpaceX. (The Verge)
- A jury in a Texas federal court finds for Apple Inc., in a lawsuit brought against Apple by a subsidiary of Pendrell Corporation. Pendrell has charged that Apple infringed patents on techniques that help restrict the use of web content to authorized persons, i.e.anti-piracy software. (Reuters)
- Sport
- Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who has two Olympic gold medals and 30 world records, told Sky News she is going to fight for what she believes to be her right to compete at the 2016 Olympics. She calls on the IAAF, at the world governing track and field organization’s annual meeting on 26 November, to rescind their ban on clean Russian athletes. (Sky News)
- In association football, Corinthians win their sixth Campeonato Brasileiro Série A title with four games remaining of the season. (Yahoo! via AFP)
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