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 ChancellorAngela 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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