January 2, 2010

Top Story –
Two Belgian bankrobbers are named the Darwin Award winners of the year after killing themselves while trying to crack open a cash machine. The pair used so much dynamite that they managed to destroy the entire bank building – and themselves with it. Wendy Northcutt, the founder of the annual awards, declared them the 2009 winners of the Darwin Awards, given to those doing the most to improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.

Top Video –
Red Rabbit

Red Rabbit from Egmont Mayer on Vimeo.
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January 29, 2010

Top Stories –

John Terry affair gagging order released –
The British High Court has lifted a press silencing order preventing the public from learning details about England Captain John Terry’s alleged affair with a team-mate’s girlfriend. The ‘super-injunction’ was originally granted by a High Court judge under human rights laws but was lifted today. Chelsea captain Terry claimed that exposing his alleged infidelity would be a breach of his right to a ‘private and family life’.
John Terry

The car in front… still won’t slow down –
Toyota is now recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe following an accelerator problem. The car maker will recall eight models including the Yaris, the Corolla (the biggest selling car ever – see list below) and the RAV4 sports utility vehicle. Last week it recalled 2.3 million cars in the US with faulty pedals.

Mais oui – the G-spot does exist –
French researchers have disagreed with English researchers at King’s College London who announced on New Years Day that the G-spot is a fallacy and does not exist. But French doctors the “G-Day” conference in Paris insist the G spot – supposedly a cluster of internal nerve endings – is far from a myth. “The English study is barking up the wrong tree,” said Sylvain Mimoun, France’s best-known gynaecologist.

Dog survives 24km trip on ice –
A dog stranded on an ice floe that had drifted 24km out to sea was rescued by the crew of a research boat off the coast of Gdynia in Poland. He is being called Baltic after the ship while a search is launched for his owners.

Top Video –
Tome Lowe – Mountain Light

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.

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January 13, 2012

January 13th 2012

Cruise ship runs aground and capsizes –
A 290m (950ft) long cruise ship, the Costa Concordia with about 4,000 passengers and crew on board runs aground and capsizes near the island of Giglio off the coast of Italy. Passengers were enjoying their first dinner on board after leaving Civitavecchia port near Rome for a Mediterranean cruise. Early reports are of 8 people being lost but helicopters are still evacuating people.
The Costa Concordia

Warner hits 5th fastest test century –
Australian left-hander batsman David Warner hits the 5th fastest test century in the first day of the test against India. He reached his second test century in just 69 balls. Faster test centuries are:
Viv Richards, West Indies v England, St John’s 1986 – 56 balls
Adam Gilchrist, Australia v England, Perth 2006 – 57 balls
Jack Gregory, Australia v South Africa, Johannesburg 1921 -67 balls
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, West Indies v Australia, Georgetown 2003 – 69 balls
David Warner, Australia v India, Perth 2012 – 69 balls
David Warner
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December 3, 2014

Top News Stories –

Google gets down with the kids –
Google reveals it is developing child-friendly versions of some of its products and is likely to include the Chrome browser and YouTube (which it bought for $1.65bn (£883m) in October 2006). The intention is to make the internet safer for under-12s.

Boris plays peacemaker –
London mayor Boris Johnson attempted to calm down an abusive passenger on a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow but the crew had to handcuff the man and strap him to his seat. The man was arrested when the plane landed.
Boris Johnson

Pope dismissing head guard –
Colonel Daniel Anrig, the commander of the 110 Swiss Guards that protect the pontiff is losing his job when his commission ends at the end of January 2015. Although no official reason has been given, Pope Francis is apparently unhappy at the officer’s strict authoritarian style.

Video of the Day –

FILM_FX L3.0 (2014) from ISART DIGITAL on Vimeo.

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December 28, 2014

Top News Stories –

Another tragedy in the skies? –
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore has gone missing with 162 people on board. It was later found to have crashed into the sea in bad weather.

And at sea –
An Italian ferry catches fire on route to Italy with 478 people on board and is being evacuated amid choppy seas and high winds. At least ten people lost their lives.

Bad idea debate –
Three rival hacking groups call a ceasefire after admitting their Christmas attack on Xbox and Playstation gamers ‘took it too far’. Lizard Squad, rival hackers from the Anonymous group, Finest Squad group, and internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom discussed the attack in a YouTube video.

Video of the Day –

Playgrounds Titles 2014 from bif on Vimeo.

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January 4, 2015

Top News Stories –

51,000-tonne ship deliberately grounded –
A car transporter ship, the Hoegh Osaka, was deliberately grounded by its captain and the pilot in the Solent after it began to list, its owners have said. The ship developed problems after it left Southampton dock and to avoid it capsizing in the shipping lane and risk the lives of the crew, it was steered onto the Bramble sand bank. The ship is now listing at more than 50 degrees and a salvage operation is expected to take several days.
Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor loses power in darts final –
Gary Anderson beats 16 time world champion Phil “The Power” Taylor in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship 7 sets to 6 at Alexandra Palace in London. Nicknamed The Flying Scotsman it is Anderson’s first World Championship.

Breaking Bad not so fictional –
Seizures of methamphetamine has risen at the US-Mexico border with a 300 percent increase in meth seizures at California ports of entry from 2009 to 2014. Meth seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s San Diego field office accounted for nearly 63 percent of all the meth seized at all ports of entry nationwide in the year ending September 30 2014.

Video of the Day –

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January 14, 2015

Top News Stories –

Space Panic Stations –
Crew members were evacuated from a US segment of the International Space Station when an ammonia leak was detected in the USA section of the craft forcing all the crew to evacuate the area. The six crew members put on breathing equipment and moved into the Russian segment after the alert at around 0900 GMT, closing the hatch to the US side behind them. NASA officials believe a computer problem is likely to have caused the false impression of leaking coolant.

Pub Landlord takes on Nigel Farage –
British comedian Al Murray will stand against UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the general election in May using his character the Pub Landlord as a front. Murray, who has formed the Free United Kingdom Party (FUKP), will stand for election in Thanet South in Kent but said “Let it be known that like many of the parliamentary hopefuls in the forthcoming election, I have no idea where South Thanet is. But did that stop Margaret Thatcher from saving the Falkland Islands? No.”

Samsung launches Tizen –
Samsung’s first smartphones powered by its Tizen operating system have gone on sale. The Z1 handsets are only available in India and cost 5,700 rupees ($92 or £60) and have faster boot times and longer-lasting battery life than many budget-priced rivals. All other Samsung phones use the Android operating system.

Yosemite’s Dawn Wall finally scaled –

Tommy Caldwell, 36, and Kevin Jorgeson, 30, become the first climbers to successfully scale Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan mountain’s without bolts or climbing tools. The men have been ‘free-climbing’ the Dawn Wall to the 3,000-foot summit for 17 days, using only ropes only to prevent falling.

Video of the Day –

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March 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

America’s longest-serving innocent prisoner receives $1m for 39 years in jail –
An Ohio man freed last year after spending 39 years in jail for a murder he did not commit will receive more than $1 million from the state for his wrongful imprisonment. Ricky Jackson, the longest-held US prisoner to be cleared of a crime, will receive just over $1 million (£680,000) following an order from an Ohio Court of Claims judge on Thursday. The 39 years Mr Jackson spent in jail was the longest time a prisoner had been held before being exonerated. [Daily Telegraph]

‘Breathtaking’ solar eclipse witnessed by millions –
Millions of people in the UK and northern Europe have glimpsed the best solar eclipse in years. A great swathe of the Earth’s surface was plunged into darkness as the Moon came between us and the Sun. From an aeroplane above the Faroe Islands, a BBC camera crew captured startling footage of the event reaching totality at 09:41 GMT. The deep shadow formed first in the North Atlantic and then swept up into the Arctic, ending at the North Pole. See video of the day [BBC]

Martin Guptill hits highest World Cup score in New Zealand victory –
New Zealand’s Martin Guptill smashed the highest score in World Cup history with 237 not out against West Indies to send his team into the semi-finals. The 28-year-old’s 163-ball innings featured 11 sixes and 24 fours and beat the 215 made by West Indies’ Chris Gayle earlier in the tournament. Guptill hit 137 from his last 52 balls to help his side post 393-6. Trent Boult then took four early wickets as New Zealand bowled out the Windies for 250 to seal a 143-run win. [BBC]
Martin Guptill

Video of the Day –

UK Solar Eclipse [Daily Telegraph]

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March 28, 2015

Top News Stories –

Zoella turns 25 and Lady Gaga hits 29 –
Zoe Sugg gets a surprise cake party for her 25th birthday and tops the UK Twitter trend chart with #HappyBirthdayZoe. She shares her birthday with Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better known as Lady Gaga who is 29 today.

Zoella birthday party
Lady Gaga

Eiffel Tower goes dark in symbolic move for Earth Hour
The Eiffel Tower has gone dark briefly to mark Earth Hour, the campaign to raise awareness about climate change.The five-minute dark-out on Saturday night was a symbolic gesture in the City of Light. Cities around the world also marked the event, with other landmarks like the Kremlin and the Empire State Building going dark.France has been preparing for months to host an international climate conference in Paris at the end of the year, pressing nations to set attainable goals for reducing greenhouse gases and mobilizing international finances to fight climate change. [Daily Mail]

Andreas Lubitz planned spectacular gesture that would go down in history, claims ex-girlfriend –
Airbus crash pilot Andreas Lubitz had been planning a spectacular gesture to make everyone “remember” who he was, it has been claimed. An ex-girlfriend of the Germanwings pilot who crashed his plane in the French Alps, killing all 149 others on board, described him as “tormented” and able to hide secrets. Maria, 26 (not her real name), told Bild newspaper that when she heard about the crash she remembered that he had said he was going do something “that would change the system” and “make everyone remember” him. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Southpaw Trailer

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April 2, 2015

Top News Stories –

Al-Shabab Islamist militants attack on Kenya university –
The death toll in the attack by al-Shabab Islamist militants on a university in north-eastern Kenya has risen to 147, Kenyan government officials say. They added that the operation to secure the the Garissa University College campus was now over, with all four attackers killed.
The evacuation of surviving students is now under way. An overnight curfew is being implemented in parts of the country. [BBC]

Oxford v Cambridge: RNLI rescue Oxford women’s boat crew –
Oxford University’s women’s boat crew have been rescued by an RNLI lifeboat in choppy waters in the Thames during training for the Boat Race.
The eight rowers and cox were discovered by the Chiswick RNLI crew while it was out on exercise. RNLI helmsman Ian Owen said: “We’ve rescued quite a number of rowers, but it is the first time I’ve been involved in helping such a prestigious team.” [BBC]

US sailor rescued after 66 days lost at sea –
The U.S. Coast Guard says a man missing in the Atlantic Ocean for the past two months survived by drinking rain water and eating raw fish. He was found off Cape Hatteras this afternoon. The Coast Guard says a German tanker ship spotted Louis Jordan and his 35-foot sailboat approximately 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras around 1:30 p.m. The 37-year-old Jordan was reported missing by his father on January 29th. Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss from the Coast Guard in Miami tells WITN that Jordan had been surviving off of raw fish and rain water. [WITN]

Video of the Day –

The stunts on Fast and Furious 7 –

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April 15, 2015

Top News Stories –

Gisele Bundchen Shares Throwback Photo in Honor of Last Runway Show –
The 34-year-old model will hang up her catwalking shoes after she struts her stuff during São Paulo Fashion Week tonight, walking for Brazilian street label Colcci, a brand she has represented since 2005. Before she takes the runway for the last time, Bündchen shared a sweet throwback photo to her Instagram account from her very first show. [Celebuzz.com]
Gisele Bunchen (Instagram – giseleofficial)

Unpaid spaceport workers appeal to Vladimir Putin with giant graffiti –
Construction workers at a £9 billion cosmodrome in eastern Russian have resorted to extreme measures to appeal to Vladimir Putin after going four months without pay. Employees of TMK at the Vostochny spaceport were so exasperated at failing to receive their money that they painted a message to the Russian president in huge white letters on top of their construction huts. The giant letters read, “Dear Putin, V.V.”, “Save the workers”, “Four months without pay” and “We want to work”. [Daily Telegraph]

Record dive rescues $50m wartime silver from ocean floor –
A British-led team has recovered a $50m (£34m; €47m) trove of silver coins that has lain on the seabed since the steamship carrying them from Bombay to England was sunk in 1942. The SS City of Cairo was torpedoed 772km (480 miles) south of St Helena by a German U-boat and sank to 5,150m. The 100 tonnes of coins, recovered in the deepest salvage operation in history, belonged to HM Treasury. The coins have now been melted down in the UK and sold, with the undisclosed sum divided between the treasury – which technically owns the coins – and the salvagers, who take a percentage of the sale. The salvage was completed in September 2013, but DOS has only now been given permission by the Ministry of Transport to announce it. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

HDD and Floppy Music: Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit –

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June 24, 2015

Top News Stories –

Canada helicopter sex chat heard by Winnipeg public –
Canadian police have apologised after an explicit conversation was inadvertently broadcast from one of its helicopters. Whilst on patrol over Winnipeg, the chopper’s crew accidentally turned on its loudspeaker allowing members of the public below to hear them. Those listening say they heard pilots swearing and discussing oral sex. The officers were unaware that the loudspeaker was on due to the noise from the helicopter’s engine. Winnipeg Police Service say some of the “conversation was inappropriate” and have promised an internal review. [BBC]

5 Seconds of Summer fans go wild for ‘Doge Family’ hashtag after band change their Twitter profiles –
5SOS have changed their Twitter names and profile and the most bizarre hashtag is now trending. Fans have been tweeting #DogeFamily after the stars put up a photograph of a dog as their main images and changed their names, leaving us all asking: “WHAT IS GOING ON?!?” Well, we did some digging and found that ‘Doge’ is a internet meme based upon pictures of a Shiba Inus, and a slang word for dog. [Daily Mirror] See Top Twitter Trends below.
@SOS Twitter

An end to email shame? Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ comes to the masses –
“Today we’re adding ‘Undo Send’ as a formal setting in Gmail on the web,”explained Google in a blog post as the change went live. The feature, which can prevent massive social embarrassment and help avoid long chats with the HR department about what you just mistakenly sent to a colleague, is to be a standard part of Google’s webmail. It can be turned on from within Gmail’s settings menu and enables people to set a “cancellation period” of five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds after sending any email, during which they can call it back. The feature has been available in Gmail’s experimental Labs settings for some time, and was recently added to the company’s Inbox mobile email app – so many of Gmail’s more tech-savvy users will have set it up already. [The Guardian]

Reddit celebrates its 10th birthday with a ton of wacky stats –
It’s been 10 years since Reddit first launched – basically an eternity in Web time – and it’s celebrating its birthday by looking back at its history, as well as some statistics on where the platform is today. In the ten years since its inception, Reddit has garnered over 16 billion upvotes, compared to ‘just’ 2.6 billion downvotes. It’s kind of nice to know that in a platform often infamous for its trolls, more feedback has been positive than negative. There have also been 190 millions posts, 64 percent of which are links. On these posts, there have been 1.7 billion comments, of which 0.36 percent have mentioned cats. That’s over 6 million cat comments. [The Next Web] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

Lexus has created a real, rideable hoverboard

List of the Day –

Statistics from the first 10 years of Reddit [Reddit]

10 years, 0 months, 0 days
- (ok, fine, technically it’s 9 years, 11 months, 30 days, 22 hours, and 16 minutes at time of posting this at 10 am PDT)
- (also 5,258,776 minutes, 87,646 hours, 3651 days, or 521 weeks)
16,063,942,290 upvotes
- (and 2,563,574,752 downvotes)
1,715,454,785 comments
- (.36% of which mention cats)
334,626,161 monthly page views per Reddit engineer
- (also 7,637,686 unique monthly visitors per engineer, at 30 engineers—we’re hiring more!)
190,227,552 posts
- (36% self posts vs link)
36,136,190 user accounts
- (26,222 of which include some variation of “pm me” or “don’t pm me” requests)
$29,559,467.54 spent on 877,218 presents for RedditGifts exchanges
- (in 201 gift exchanges)
1,867,184 months of Reddit Gold purchased
- (804,952 of which you’ve gifted to someone)
853,824 subreddits created
- (9,601 of which were active yesterday)
213,078 lines of code total
- (1,081,873 lines of code added and 868,795 removed in 10,128 commits since Jan. 23, 2007, the second complete rewrite of Reddit)
and 1 genderless, raceless, time-traveling alien from the future named Snoo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	Cristiano Araújo	Bobby Jindal	#LARRYISCOMINGBACK
2	#LARRYISCOMINGBACK	#dogefamily	Buckingham Palace
3	#dogefamily	Rick Ross	#dogefamily
4	Titanic	#1Dfragrance	#NationalUpcyclingDay
5	#MasterChefBR	#WatchNewStitchesVideo	Dapper Laughs
6	#1Dfragrance	Scott Storch	Firmino
7	たま駅長	#RegretfulSubjectLines	#saveILF
8	#FelizMiercoles	#WeLoveYouCarter	Frank Gehry
9	#MaskotaMaltrataAnimales	#LiberalsNextBan	#ToughEnough
10	#SosReFracaSi	Kevin Love	#FirminoLFC

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram
- Over 42 people are shot dead by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in two attacks on villages in Nigeria‘s Borno state. (AFP via Dawn)
Xinjiang Conflict
- A police checkpoint on the outskirts of Kashgar in Xinjiang is attacked by ethnic Uighurs, with at least 18 killed according to U.S. government’sRadio Free Asia. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Pakistani heat wave
- The death toll from the heat wave reaches nears 800 in Sindh province with 744 people dead in the city of Karachi alone. (BBC)

Health

Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
- The government of South Korea announces that it will provide maximum financial aid to hospitals and clinics affected by the MERS outbreak.(Yonhap)

International relations

The People’s Republic of China claims that the Golden Triangle regions of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are the source of most of its imports ofheroin and methamphetamine. The region has been known for drug cultivation for centuries. (AP via ABC News America)
The President of France François Hollande warns that France “will not tolerate” acts that threaten its security following claims by Wikileaks that theUnited States spied on him and his two predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac between 2006 and 2012. (BBC)
Israel revokes permits for 500 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers following the murder of an Israeli man in the West Bank. (AFP via France 24)
Trans-Pacific Partnership
- The United States Senate approves a motion giving President Barack Obama fast track authority to complete trade negotiations with 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. (CNBC)

Law and crime

A Dutch court orders the Netherlands to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 25% by 2020. (BBC)
Boston Marathon bombing
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is formally sentenced to death in a federal court. He confirms his guilt and apologizes to the victims. (CNN)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, announces that he will be a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2016 Presidential election.(New York Times)
The United States House of Representatives votes 247-180 to allow states to opt out of Barack Obama‘s carbon emissions reduction if the state governor believes compliance would increase electricity bills too much or have an adverse effect on reliability of supply. (AP)

Sports

In ice hockey:
- The National Hockey League announces that it has formally opened the process of expanding the league and will begin evaluating bids from interested parties. The most widely speculated expansion markets include Las Vegas, Seattle, Quebec City, and a second team in the Toronto area. (ESPN)
- Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price wins the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, the Vezina Trophy as the league’s most outstanding goaltender, and the Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player as chosen by fellow players. Price becomes the first player to win both the Hart and Vezina Trophies in the same season since José Théodore, also of the Canadiens, in 2002. (AP via ESPN)

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July 14, 2015

Top News Stories –

Large Hadron Collider discovers new particle – the pentaquark –
A new kind of particle, called the pentaquark, was discovered by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider yesterday [July 13, 2015]. Physicists had theorised the existence of the pentaquark since the 1960s, but had never been able to prove it until its detection by the world’s most powerful particle smasher at Cern. The discovery of the pentaquark comes after the LHC was used in 2012 to prove the existence of another particle, the Higgs Boson, which confers mass. Large Hadron Collider spokesman Guy Wilkinson said the pentaquark represented a way to combine quarks – the sub-atomic particles that make up protons and neutrons. [Daily Telegraph]
The CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider

Deal Reached on Iran Nuclear Program –
Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions. The deal culminates 20 months of negotiations on an agreement that President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency. Whether it portends a new relationship between the United States and Iran — after decades of coups, hostage-taking, terrorism and sanctions — remains a bigger question. Mr. Obama, in an early morning appearance at the White House that was broadcast live in Iran, began what promised to be an arduous effort to sell the deal to Congress and the American public, saying the agreement is “not built on trust — it is built on verification.” [NY Times]

New Horizons: Spacecraft survives Pluto encounter –
A signal received from the New Horizons spacecraft shows that it survived its historic encounter with Pluto. Data in its first call home since Tuesday’s flyby suggest the spacecraft experienced no upsets as it hurtled past the icy world at 14km/s (31,000mph). The signal came through a giant dish in Madrid, Spain – part of a Nasa network of communications antennas. The message took four hours 25 minutes to traverse 4.7 billion km of space. [BBC]
Pluto by the New Horzons spacecraft – from NASA

Raheem Sterling: Manchester City sign Liverpool winger in £49m deal –
Manchester City have signed Liverpool and England forward Raheem Sterling for a fee that could reach £49m. City will pay an initial £44m for the 20-year-old, making him the most expensive English player ever. Sterling had asked to leave Anfield and was the subject of two bids from City in June, both of which were rejected. City boss Manuel Pellegrini described Sterling, who has signed a five-year deal, as “one of the best attacking players in world football”. Sterling, who is only behind Gareth Bale on the list of most expensive British players, will wear the number seven shirt. [BBC] See List of the Day
Raheem Sterling

Video of the Day –

Great white shark beaches and is saved in Cape Cod

List of the Day –

Highest transfer fees for Football (soccer) players (as of 14 July 2015)

Rank	Player	From	To	Fee (M £)	Fee (M €)	Year
1	Gareth Bale	Tottenham Hotspur	Real Madrid	£85.3	€100	2013
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Real Madrid	£80	€94.4	2009
3	Luis Suárez	Liverpool	Barcelona	£75	€94	2014
4	James Rodríguez	AS Monaco	Real Madrid	£63	€79.5	2014
T-5	Ángel Di María	Real Madrid	Manchester United	£59.7	€75	2014
T-5	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	Real Madrid	£46	€75	2001
7	Raheem Sterling	Liverpool	Manchester City	£49	€69.5	2015
8 ¹	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Inter	Barcelona	£59	€69	2009
9	Kaká	Milan	Real Madrid	£56	€65	2009
10	Edinson Cavani	Napoli	Paris Saint-Germain	£55	€64	2013

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#HarryBeCareful	#HarryBeCareful	#TodaysKidsWillNeverKnow
2	#IranDeal	#IranDeal	#ApplePay
3	#NadaMasLindoQue	#TodaysKidsWillNeverKnow	#IranDeal
4	Joan Sebastian	#BastilleDay	#BastilleDay
5	의정부고	#GrowingUpBlack	#mecca_live
6	Honeymoon	Ty Lawson	Carl Froch
7	#HRDerby	#OhNoLouis	Mhairi Black
8	印刷部数	Honeymoon	#1GottaGo
9	#amanhecernaglobo	#RidiculousExcusesToStayHome	#HarryBeCareful
10	#PlutoFlyby	#PlannedParenthood	Suicide Squad

Other News Stories –

Disasters and accidents

At least 27 people are killed in a stampede at the Godavari Maha Pushkaram Hindu festival in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. (NY Times)
A Russian Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber crashes about 80 km (50 mi) from Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, killing two of the seven crew members. (The Daily Mail)
A helicopter belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) with four people on board (two crew members, a patient, and a person accompanying the patient) crashes in the Persian Gulf. (Tasnim)
Two people are dead and six are missing due to flash flooding in Kentucky. (NBC News), (Fox News)

International relations

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The Google Maps website removes the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal bitterly disputed by China and the Philippines from its maps service, following an outcry from Filipinos. (The Economic Times)
Negotiation of a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran
- A nuclear deal is reached in Vienna between Iran and P5+1. This Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if signed by the entities involved, will cut off Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon whilst allowing for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, inspections, and the lifting of sanctions.(BBC) (CNN) (NY Times)

Law and crime

North Korea announces a criminal amnesty in honor of the 70th anniversary of independence from Japanese rule. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

Science and technology

NASA‘s New Horizons spacecraft completes a historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons. Measurements, along with many high-quality photos and reams of data, were taken, including conclusive information regarding the diameter of Pluto and its moons.(Gizmodo)(CNN) (official NASA page)
Scientists at Northumbria University in northeast England develop a computerized statistical model of the Sun‘s solar cycle (a measurement of the number of sunspots and solar flares, in this case between 1976 and 2008, and their intensity and activity). While preliminary, and not yet peer-reviewed, the data predicts irregularities in the cycle: the Northern Hemisphere could experience a slight lowering in temperatures in the 2030s.(CNN) (Washington Post)
An article published in Science suggests that recent climate change would still cause a 6-meter (20-feet) sea-level rise even if greenhouse gasemissions were reduced today. (Times of Malta), (Science)
Scientists at CERN‘s Large Hadron Collider announce discovery of the pentaquark. (BBC) (ABC News)

Sport

A panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India recommends that two Indian Premier League cricket teams, the Chennai Super Kings andRajasthan Royals be suspended for two years due to a corruption scandal. (BBC)
2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
- In baseball, the American League defeats the National League 6-3 to win home-field advantage in the 2015 World Series. (Sports Illustrated via Twitter)

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November 3, 2015

November 2, 2015

Top News Stories –

Qantas crew don All Blacks jerseys after World Cup defeat –
Australian airline Qantas has settled its wager with Air New Zealand after Australia’s Rugby World Cup defeat. The crew of Monday’s Sydney to Auckland flight wore All Blacks jerseys, honouring a bet born on Twitter. The wager was inspired by some social media sparring – an earlier suggestion was for the losing airline to repaint its fleet in opposition colours. The Kiwis became the first team to defend the Rugby World Cup on Saturday, defeating the Wallabies 34-17. [BBC]
Qantas on Twitter

NASA reveals that Antarctica is actually gaining more ice than it is losing –
NASA scientists have shattered the conventional wisdom that Antarctica’s ice surface is shrinking and revealed that the amount of ice is in fact growing. Though accepting that glaciers are still shrinking because of man-made global warming, the new study published in the Journal of Glaciologysuggests that recent gains more than offset losses elsewhere. The findings challenges previous research including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2013 study, which concluded that the sea is rising by 0.27 millimeters annually because of melting in Antarctica. [Daily Telegraph]

Guinness goes vegan: Stout agrees to stop using animal bladders in brewing process for first time in 256 years –
The famous Irish stout is to become vegan friendly for the first time in its 256-year history, as the company halts the use of fish bladders in its brewing filters. The new system is due to be installed sometime in 2016. A Guinness spokesman said: “While isinglass is a very effective means of clarification and has been used for many years, we expect to stop using it as the new filtration asset is introduced.” The news follows a longstanding campaign and several online petitions from beer-loving vegans, with many highlighting the fact Guinness and other breweries are not required to state the use of isinglass on the bottle. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

KINGKILLS from KingKIlls on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#IllShowYou	#mondaymotivation	#mondaymotivation
2	松来さん	#JebCanFixIt	PC Dave Phillips
3	#ميول_والدك_في_…	#MusicMonday	Stone Roses
4	Star Trek	Star Trek	#IllShowYou
5	Morgan	#HeadachesIn5Words	Tristram Hunt
6	George Boole	#OpKKK	#TeenageDesperate
7	#BuSeçiminSonucu	Vernon Davis	#equality4mentalhealth
8	#اشياء_تحب_ريح�…	Black Canyon City	#foggy
9	#AntesDeMorirQuisiera	#Royals	#TUBill
10	#ALDUBTheRing	Julius Randle	Remi Garde

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 Nepal fuel crisis
- Nepali police shoot dead an Indian citizen at a border checkpoint as they attempt to clear protesters whose blockade has crippled Nepal’s fuel supplies and badly damaged relations between the neighboring countries. (Reuters)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- At least 15 Somalia army soldiers are killed in an Al-Shabaab ambush near the town of Wanlaweyn in the Lower Shebelle region. (AP)

Arts and culture

New Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announces knights and dames will no longer be part of the nation’s honors system. He said Queen Elizabeth signed off on the decision. (Time) (Reuters)
In the United States, the hacking group Anonymous starts releasing names and information about alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white-supremacist terrorist group originally founded after the Civil War by former Confederate soldiers. Prominent individuals listed deny the allegations. The group says they also infiltrated KKK-affiliated websites, and warned of more action culminating on November 24, the anniversary of the Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict. (The Hill)(USA Today) (Anonymous)

Business and economics

China‘s government owned Comac launches the Comac C919 as part of its efforts to challenge Boeing and Airbus. (CNN)
American financial services company Visa Inc. buys European franchisee Visa Europe for $US23 billion. (AP via AL.com)
Volkswagen emissions scandal
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California’s CARB are widening the Volkswagen investigation into several more expensive VW, Porsche, and Audi automobiles with 3.0-liter diesel engines in model years 2014 through 2016. Volkswagen says it installed no defeat device software on its 3.0 litre V6 diesel cars and is cooperating with the agency to fully investigate the matter. (Reuters) (Consumer Affairs)
TransCanada Corp asks the United States Department of State to suspend its review of the Keystone XL pipeline while it negotiates with the US state of Nebraska about the route. If granted, the delay (according to Reuters) would almost certainly mean the decision on the project will be made by a future president. (The Globe and Mail) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Southeast Asian haze
- The Indonesian state of Riau extends its haze emergency by another month while four airports in Sumatra and Kalimantan remain shut. (Straits Times)
SS El Faro
- The American National Transportation Safety Board confirms that wreckage found on Saturday east of the Bahamas is the cargo ship SS El Faro that sank during Hurricane Joaquin on October 1. (NBC News)
Planes have been left stranded at airports throughout the United Kingdom as the “Great Fog” descends. Heathrow Airport said around 45 flights had been cancelled there while London City Airport was closed for several hours. Other affected airports includeManchester, Leeds Bradford, Glasgow, Belfast, Southampton and Cardiff. (BBC)
2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- At least one person is killed after Cyclone Chapala hits Yemen‘s Socotra island in the Indian Ocean with flooding reported in Hadibu, the provincial capital. The severe cyclone is expected to cause considerable damage when it makes landfall on Yemeni mainland. (BBC)
Kogalymavia Flight 9268
- U.S. intelligence analysts conclude the Russian plane was not brought down by surface-to-air missile. An American infrared satellite detected a heat flash at the same time and same place over the Sinai as the plane, but no evidence a missile was involved. Analysts believe it could have been some kind of explosion on the aircraft itself, either a fuel tank or a bomb. U.S. officials do not rule out that ISIL could have been responsible for bringing down the flight. (NBC News) (ABC News)
- The Russian Air Transportation Ministry says the flight recorders are recovered with only “minor” damage. The ministry also said charter airline Metrojet’s assertion that technical failure or human errors have been ruled out pointing to “external” reasons for the crash, is “premature and not based on any real facts.” (Voice of America) (Reuters)

International relations

A day after Sunday’s trilateral summit between China, Japan, and South Korea, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are meeting in Seoul. The two countries haven’t met in over three years. Expected topics include trade ties, North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear bombs, and long-running disputes over Japanese wartime aggression and behavior. (AP) (Nikkei Asian Review)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
- Chinese military aircraft conduct training in the South China Sea following the cruise of a U.S. Navy ship in the vicinity of the disputed Spratly Islands. (International Business Times)
- A U.S. defense official says the U.S. Navy plans to conduct patrols within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands in the South China Sea about twice a quarter to remind China and other countries of U.S. rights under international law. “That’s the right amount to make it regular but not a constant poke in the eye,” the official said. (Reuters) (Sydney Morning Herald)

Law and crime

The Vatican police arrest Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui, members of a former papal commission charged with studying financial operations of the Holy See, for allegedly leaking confidential documents to the media, a crime since 2013. (New York Times)

Science and technology

French national public television broadcaster France Télévisions fires France 2 TV channel’s weatherman Philippe Verdier, who has been suspended since mid-October. Verdier, known as “Monsieur Météo” (Mr Weather), has been promoting his recently published book, Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation), in which he throws doubt on the global warning findings of leading climate scientists and political leaders. France Télévisions said its rules, “prevent anyone using their professional status … to push forward their personal opinions.” (Irish Times) (The Guardian)

Sports

2015 Major League Baseball postseason
- The Kansas City Royals win the 2015 World Series, defeating the New York Mets 7–2 in 12 innings in Game 5 to take the best-of-seven series. (NY Times)

Politics and election

United States presidential election, 2016, Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2016
- Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig announces his decision, via a four minute YouTube video, to end his campaign for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination. (Politico) (The Atlantic) (YouTube)

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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 –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#LatinGrammys2015	#Adele25	#HappyBirthdayMichael
2	#BuenViernes	Mali	#FridayFeeling
3	#HTGAWM	Phuc Dat Bich	#Adele25
4	Corinthians	#PerfectMomentIn4Words	#Mali
5	基本給	#ThanksgivingIn5Words	Blac Chyna
6	1 in the UK	#JessicaJones	#bbcqt
7	#HappyBirthdayJaxonBieber	Woodrow Wilson	1 in the UK
8	#Mali	#HappyBirthdayMichael	Eddie Jones
9	Hayırlı Cumalar	#TDOR	Katie Hopkins
10	#DosPalabras	Tyga	Baker Street

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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November 23, 2015

Top News Stories –

Belgians tweet cat pictures during #BrusselsLockdown –
On Sunday night, as a major anti-terror police operation was under way in Brussels, authorities asked the public to not report officers’ movements online. The Belgian capital has been on lockdown since Saturday amid a search for suspected Paris attacks gunman Salah Abdeslam. On Twitter, the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown had been the term of choice for people discussing the raids. But on Sunday night, the term was overtaken by Twitter users posting pictures and videos of cats, to make sure that any leaking of operational details were drowned out. After the raids, and the arrest of 16 people across the country, authorities thanked Belgians for their co-operation:”To all the cats who helped us last night: help yourselves! #BrusselsLockdown” [BBC]
Jayce le Satirique tweet

Sepp Blatter says he was close to death after being taken to hospital earlier this month –
Sepp Blatter has said he was “close to dying” upon being hospitalised this month following a health scare. The Fifa president, who is facing a multi-year ban from football and is currently serving a 90-day provisional suspension, spent several days being treated for stress before being discharged from hospital a week and a half ago. In his first interview since his release, the 79-year-old told Swiss broadcaster RTS: “I was close to dying. I was between the angels who were singing and the devil who was lighting the fire, but it was the angels who sang. [Daily Telegraph]

Genetically modified mosquito no longer infects humans with malaria –
A mosquito has been genetically modified so that it can no longer pass on malaria to humans in a breakthrough which could save millions of lives. The insect was biologically engineered by scientists to produce antibodies that interfere with the malaria parasite’s life cycle and prevent it being transmitted. Importantly, the heritable trait was passed on to 99.5 per cent of the mosquito’s offspring, a result described as ‘astonishing’ by the scientists. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Wizard Cops

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	La Nación	#BlackFridayIn3Words	#mondaymotivation
2	#FelizLunes	#mondaymotivation	#AMAs
3	#قبيله_تحبها_و�…	Anti-Muslim Is Anti-American	#LoveSUs
4	#زد_رصيدك10	#OddThingsToFindInBed	#SurvivorSeries
5	Jon Snow	Jon Snow	Prince Charles
6	#AMAs	Prince Charles	#OddThingsToFindInBed
7	#SurvivorSeries	Amanda Blackburn	Jon Snow
8	The Weeknd	Bill Walton	The Sun
9	LACRE DO ANO EU FUI	Les Miles	#BrusselsLockdown
10	Camren e Larry	#MarathonsICouldFinish	#AskBoris

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Maguindanao massacre
- Human rights activists and families of the victims decry the lack of justice six years after the murder of around 58 people, including journalists and politicians, in Maguindanao, Mindanao. They criticize the regime of Philippines President Benigno Aquino IIIfor the lack of convictions in the trial. (ABC News), (Voice of America), (Fox News)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2015)
- A Palestinian kills a 20 year-old Israeli and wounds two women in a stabbing attack at a gas station near the town of Modi’in; the Palestinian assailant is shot and killed by an officer at the scene. (Ynet News) (Times of Israel)
- Two Palestinian teenage girls, ages 14 and 16, use scissors to stab a 70-year-old Palestinian man whom they misidentified as an Israeli, and other Israeli civilians, near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market; one of the attackers is killed and the other wounded while being subdued, and an Israeli civilian is wounded by police gunfire. (Times of Israel)

Business and economy

American pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan, Plc announce plans to merge to form a $220 billion company, the world’s largest drug company. (The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

An explosion at Japan’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead in Tokyo damages the ceiling and a wall of a public bathroom near the shrine’s southern entrance. No one was injured. (Japan Times) (AP via ABC News)
Seven people are feared dead after a helicopter crashes in the Indian town of Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, near the Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi. (NDTV)
A U.S. Apache helicopter crashes in South Korea‘s Gangwon Province, killing the pilot and one crew member. (Reuters)
A highway traffic accident due west of Mexico City kills 20 people and injures at least 15 others. (Reuters)
All four crew members aboard a United States military helicopter (UH-60) are killed when their chopper crashes at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. (NBC News)

International relations

The United States issues a worldwide travel alert due to heightened activity by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (aka Da’esh/ISIS), Boko Haram, al-Qa’ida and other terrorist groups through February 24, 2016. (US State Department)

Politics and elections

Hong Kong local elections, 2015
- Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement gets a boost with Umbrella Soldiers winning at least four seats in Sunday’s election although the distribution of political power over the district council seats remains broadly the same vis-a-vis the Hong Kong local elections, 2011. (Reuters) (AFP via Yahoo)

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January 12, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall announce engagement –
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress-model Jerry Hall are to get married.
They announced their engagement in the births, marriages and deaths section of the Times newspaper, which is owned by Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation company. It will be the fourth marriage for Mr Murdoch, 84, and the first for Miss Hall, 59, although she lived with singer Sir Mick Jagger for many years. The new relationship reportedly began in the summer. A spokesman said: “They have loved these past months together.” [BBC]
Rupert Murdoch
Jerry Hall

Video of the Day –

Hiérophante – Clichés (Official Music Video) from Hiérophante on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	Not Available	#FreeformLaunch	#HappyBirthdayZayn
2	Not Available	#KissAGingerDay	#KissAGingerDay
3	Not Available	#SOTU	#JuniorDoctorsStrike
4	Not Available	#HappyBirthdayZayn	#InternetABook
5	Not Available	#PleasePutMeInARoomWith	#AUSvIND
6	Not Available	The Brutalism of Ted Cruz	#CharityTuesday
7	Not Available	#JuniorDoctorsStrike	#EVEL
8	Not Available	#Twug	Jerry Hall
9	Not Available	Estambul	#PleasePutMeInARoomWith
10	Not Available	#AUSvIND	#Benidorm

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Istanbul bombing
- At least 10 people are killed and 15 injured, mostly German tourists, following an explosion in Istanbul‘s Sultanahmet Square. A Syrian suicide bomber, an ISIL member, is responsible, according to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. (Nine MSN), (BBC), (Reuters via Sky News Australia), (The New York Times) (CNN)
- Sixty alleged Islamic militants are arrested in Turkey with twenty one people arrested in the city of Sanliurfa. (ITV)
Syrian Civil War
- 2015–16 Latakia offensive
  - The Syrian Army, backed by Russian airstrikes, retakes control of the strategic town of Salma in the northern Latakia Governorate. The town had been mostly under rebel (FSA) and jihadist (Al-Nusra Front) control since 2012. (AFP via Yahoo)
- United Nations War Crimes Commission investigators are gathering information about conditions in the western town of Madaya, where an aid convoy just brought the first food and medical relief for three months. The city has been under a siege by Syrian government forces since July. Doctor Without Borders is treating 250 people with severe acute malnutrition. (Reuters) (Médecins Sans Frontières)

Business and economy

Junior doctors in the United Kingdom go on strike over a proposed new contract. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific hurricane season
- Hurricane Pali becomes the earliest hurricane on record in the central Pacific Ocean. It is currently no threat to land. (Weather Channel)
Five people are dead and 65 people are injured after trucks carrying garment workers crash in Cambodia‘s Kampong Speu Province. (Today Online)
An Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II fighter jet crashes near the southeast port city of Konarak while on a training mission, killing both the pilot and co-pilot. (RT)

International relations

Kuwait sentences two people to death for spying for Iran and Hezbollah. (Al-Arabiyah)
In accordance with a major point of a nuclear agreement reached with several world powers, Iran removed a plutonium core and filled with concrete the Arak nuclear reactor, setting the stage for the removal ofsanctions against Iran. (Washington Post)
North Korea–United States relations, North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The United States House of Representatives votes overwhelmingly in favor of legislation to tighten sanctions on North Korea in response to the North’s latest nuclear test. (The Hill)
Iran–United States relations
- Iran seizes the crew of two small United States Navy boats near Farsi Island, in the Persian Gulf, after they had allegedly entered Iranian waters. Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook, told Associated Pressthat Iran has assured the United States that the crew and vessels will be returned promptly. (AP)

Law and crime

Anti-corruption campaign in China
- Li Dongsheng, a former Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Public Security, is jailed for 15 years for corruption. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia arrests Samar Badawi, a human rights activist who received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States in 2012. Badawi is to appear in court on Wednesday, according toAmnesty International. Both her brother, Raif Badawi, publisher of the “Free Saudi Liberals” blog, and former husband, Waleed Sami Abulkhair, are currently imprisoned. (CNN) (Amnesty International)(The Guardian)

Science and technology

Windows 8 along with Internet Explorer versions 8, 9 and 10 are now officially unsupported by Microsoft. (Forbes)

Sport

The St. Louis Rams and potentially San Diego Chargers are approved for relocation to Los Angeles by a 30-2 NFL Vote. (NFL), (Los Angeles Times)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

April 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

William Shakespeare 400: Prince Charles takes to stage to speak Bard’s most famous line –
Prince Charles bravely went up against Britain’s finest actors to make his acting debut with what is possibly Shakespeare’s most famous line. The Prince of Wales became the Prince of Denmark as he joined acting royalty on stage to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, uttering: “To be or not to be. That is the question.” Charles made a shock appearance as Hamlet alongside Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant in a star-studded televised gala performance in the Bard’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. Charles, who had been watching Shakespeare Live! at the town’s riverside Royal Shakespeare Theatre show with the Duchess of Cornwall, was heard to speak from the wings, asking: “Might I have a word … ” Then followed the opening lines to what is one of Shakespeare’s best-known soliloquies: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” [Daily Mirror]

Manager at exotic pet shop paid a prostitute with a MONKEY worth $2,500 that he swiped from the store owned by his wife –
An Oregon man was arrested after he allegedly tipped a prostitute with an exotic monkey, valued at $2,500, that he took from his own pet store. Nathan Allen McClain, 36, is accused of tipping a prostitute with an exotic primate and paying her with money from the Zany Zoo Pet Store fund, which included a donation jar with money, in exchange for a sexual encounter, according to Eugene detectives. The unidentified woman, who police tracked down at a local hotel, had the Galago primate in her possession and told authorities she received it as a tip from a client, whom she identified as McClain. The woman was cooperative, and provided a statement to detectives, along with the animal. [Daily Mail]

Video of the Day –

BALANCE from Tim Sessler on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA
1	#ProjectHome	#Shakespeare400
2	#شي_ودكم_ينقرض_…	#ProjectHome
3	#FelizSabado	#ReasonsToAppreciateCamila
4	#SábadoTopClubeSDV	#DiaDelLibro
5	#DiaDelLibro	#StGeorgesDay
6	#フォロワーさんと�…	#saturdaymorning
7	#TranscendAllOddsAteneo	#WorldBookDay
8	#SoyFelizCuando	#EnglishStereotypeAMovie
9	#23NisanUlusalEgemenlikBay…	#ThunderOverLouisville
10	#GetItDoneDLSU	Stone Mountain

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- The Pakistani Taliban claims the killing of a Sikh lawmaker, Soran Singh. (The New York Times)
Syrian Civil War
- ISIL claims to have shot down a Syrian Arab Air Force MiG-23, southeast of Damascus, and captured its pilot. Amaq News Agency, which supports ISIL, gave the pilot’s name as Azzam Eid, from Hama. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it was not clear whether the plane had been shot down or crashed because of mechanical failure. (Daily Mail) (Times of Israel)
- Syrian government airstrikes kill 25 people, mostly civilians, in attacks on rebel-held areas near the capital Damascus. (NY Times)
Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
- Yemeni government forces along with Popular Resistance militia kill dozens of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in clashes in southern Yemen. A drone strike kills two others further north, nearMa’rib. (Reuters)
Iraqi Civil War
- Two separate car bombs kill at least 12 people in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the blast at the security checkpoint in a northern district that killed nine and injured 28 others. Three people are killed and 11 injured at the second bombing in southern Baghdad that targeted an army convoy; no group has claimed responsibility. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

The continuing influence of English dramatist William Shakespeare is celebrated on the 400th anniversary of his death in Stratford-upon-Avon. (Time)
Spain commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of its most famous author Miguel de Cervantes. (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- Samoan authorities prepared for Severe Tropical Cyclone Amos which is forecast to make landfall later tonight. (Weather Zone)
A Russian oil tanker catches fire in the Caspian Sea, killing at least one crew member. A total of 10 crew members were evacuated from the ship, which was in the territorial waters of Turkmenistan when the fire broke out. It was unclear what caused the blaze. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
2016 Ecuador earthquake
- The death toll from the earthquake passes 650 with over 50 people missing. It is now the deadliest earthquake in South America this century. (AP via ABC News)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- North Korea is reported to have launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time. (Reuters)
Russia–United States relations
- President of Russia Vladimir Putin accuses the United States of reneging on a 16-year-old deal that called for reducing Russia’s and the United States’ stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium. He accusedWashington of trying to preserve its ability to turn some of its plutonium stockpile back into a form usable for nuclear weapons. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Syrian peace process
- Reuters reports the Friday afternoon truce between Kurdish Asayish forces and pro-Syrian government forces, declared following a three-day outbreak of violence that killed at least 26 people, is holding.(Reuters)
European migrant crisis
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans meet with Syrian refugees at a camp in the southeasternTurkish town of Nizip prior to talks with a delegation led by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu stresses the importance of implementation of European Union visa liberalization for Turkish citizens in assuring the success of Europe’s migrant readmission agreement with his country. Tusk announces that the EU will spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) this summer on projects to improve the lives of Syrian migrants. (Hürriyet Daily News) (Reuters) (Journal of Turkish Weekly)
North Korea-United States relations
- Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong says North Korea is ready to halt nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea. (AP via Time)

Law and crime

Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
- Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique is killed in the Bangladeshi city of Rajshahi in an ISIL attack. (Hindustan Times) (AFP via Yahoo!)
Böhmermann affair
- During a rally in support of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, outside the Turkish embassy in Berlin, Bruno Kramm, head of the Berlin branch of Germany’s Pirate Party, is arrested for “insulting a representative of a foreign state” by quoting a line from the comic’s satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (RT)
Panama Papers
- Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif bows to opposition demands that he ask Pakistan’s chief justice to set up an independent commission to investigate offshore accounts linked to his family. Sharif said he would accept the commission’s findings and even resign if called upon. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- European Union finance ministers approve a series of measures to tackle tax-evading methods that were exposed by the Panama Papers. (The Guardian)
United States Federal agents are combing three states for 32 cases of commercial grade explosives, about 500 pounds of 2½ to 5 inch aerial shells, stolen from a CSX train traveling from Chicago, Illinois, through Ohio that arrived in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday. (CBS News) (Detroit Free Press)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- Human rights activists, lawyers, labor rights groups and other advocates endorse Leni Robredo for vice president. (Rappler)
South Sudanese Civil War
- Rebel leader Riek Machar misses an international deadline to return to the capital Juba to take the post of Vice President. Machar was offered the position by President Salva Kiir Mayardit in the hopes of putting an end to the civil war but has repeatedly delayed his return. (Al Jazeera)
Thousands of people protest in the German city of Hanover against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal. They say the deal would drive down wages, and weaken environmental protection and labour rights. (BBC)
Darfurian status referendum, 2016
- According to the Sudanese electoral commission, more than 97% of voters in Darfur choose to remain as five states rather than form a single region. However, The vote was held amid ongoing insecurity and many of Sudan’s 2.5 million displaced people were not registered to vote, with the U.S. State Department warning that the referendum could not be considered credible “under current rules and conditions”. (BBC)
Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso names former opposition leader Clément Mouamba as prime minister. (Reuters)

Science and Technology

Solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 lands in Mountain View, California after a 62-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii. (NBC News) (BBC)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

May 8, 2016

Top News Stories –

Flight delayed after passenger becomes suspicious of equation –
An Italian economist says his flight was delayed after a fellow passenger saw him working on a differential equation and alerted the cabin crew. Guido Menzio was taken off and questioned by agents who did not identify themselves, after the woman next to him said she felt ill. He showed them what he had been writing and the flight eventually took off – more than two hours late. The University of Pennsylvania associate professor boarded the Philadelphia-Syracuse flight on Thursday on his way to Ontario, where he was due to give a lecture. Before the flight took off, the woman sitting next to him passed a note to a member of the cabin crew. She initially told them she was feeling unwell but then voiced her suspicions about Mr Menzio’s scribblings. He wrote: “It’s a bit funny. It’s a bit worrisome. “The lady just looked at me, looked at my writing of mysterious formulae, and concluded I was up to no good. “Because of that an entire flight was delayed.” [BBC]

BAFTA Awards 2016 –
TV Baftas: Double win for Wolf Hall –
Wolf Hall won two awards at this year’s Bafta Television Awards, on a night which contained several speeches that defended the independence of the BBC. Mark Rylance received the leading actor award for his role as Thomas Cromwell in the BBC Two historical drama, which also picked up the drama prize. C4’s This is England ’90 and Peter Kay’s Car Share also won two prizes. The leading actress prize went to Suranne Jones for her role in the BBC One marital drama Doctor Foster. [BBC]
Mark Rylance

Video of the Day –

TRASHONAUTS from Jack Corpening on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Bafta TV Awards 2016: Winners list – BBC News

Leading actor

Winner: Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall

Idris Elba, Luther

Stephen Graham, This is England '90

Ben Whishaw, London Spy

Leading actress

Winner: Suranne Jones, Doctor Foster

Claire Foy, Wolf Hall

Ruth Madeley, Don't Take My Baby

Sheridan Smith, The C-Word

Supporting actor

Winner: Tom Courtenay, Unforgotten

Anton Lesser, Wolf Hall

Ian McKellen, The Dresser

Cyril Nri, Cucumber

Supporting actress

Winner: Chanel Cresswell, This is England '90

Michelle Gomez, Doctor Who

Lesley Manville, River

Eleanor Worthington-Cox, The Enfield Haunting

Entertainment performance

Winner: Leigh Francis, Celebrity Juice

Stephen Fry, QI

Graham Norton, The Graham Norton Show

Romesh Ranganathan, Asian Provocateur

Male performance in a comedy programme

Winner: Peter Kay, Peter Kay's Car Share

Hugh Bonneville, W1A

Toby Jones, Detectorists

Javone Prince, The Javone Prince Show

Female performance in a comedy programme

Winner: Michaela Coel, Chewing Gum

Sian Gibson, Peter Kay's Car Share

Miranda Hart, Miranda

Sharon Horgan, Catastrophe

Drama series

Winner: Wolf Hall

Humans

The Last Panthers

No Offence

Single drama

Winner: Don't Take My Baby

The C-Word

Cyberbully

The Go-Between

Mini-series

Winner: This is England '90

Doctor Foster

The Enfield Haunting

London Spy

Soap and continuing drama

Winner: EastEnders

Coronation Street

Emmerdale

Holby City

International

Winner: Transparent

The Good Wife

Narcos

Spiral

Entertainment programme

Winner: Strictly Come Dancing

Adele at the BBC

Britain's Got Talent

TFI Friday Anniversary Special

Comedy and comedy entertainment programme

Winner: Have I Got News For You

Charlie Brooker's Election Wipe

Would I Lie to You

Scripted comedy

Winner: Peter Kay's Car Share

Chewing Gum

Peep Show

People Just Do Nothing

Features

Winner: The Great British Bake Off

Back in Time for Dinner

Kevin McCloud: Escape to the Wild

Travel Man

Radio Times Audience Award

Winner: Poldark

Doctor Foster

The Great British Bake Off

Humans

Making a Murderer

Peter Kay's Car Share

Current affairs

Winner: Outbreak: The Truth about Ebola

Jihad: A British Story

Children of the Gaza War

Escape from Isis (Dispatches)

Single documentary

Winner: My Son the Jihadi

Bitter Lake

Life After Suicide

Louis Theroux: Transgender Kids

Factual series

Winner: The Murder Detectives

The Detectives

Great Ormond Street

The Tribe

Reality and constructed factual

Winner: First Dates

Gogglebox

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds

Specialist factual

Winner: Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners

Grayson Perry's Dream House

The Hunt

Rudolf Nureyev: Dance to Freedom

News coverage

Winner: Channel 4 News: Paris Massacre

BBC News at Six: Paris Attacks Special

ITV News at Ten: Refugee Crisis

Sky News: From Turkey to Greece

Sport

Winner: The Ashes (Sky Sports)

The Grand National (Channel 4)

MOTD Live: FA Cup Final (BBC One)

Six Nations: Final Day (BBC One)

Live event

Winner: Big Blue Live (BBC One)

The Sound of Music Live! (ITV)

Stargazing Live: Brit in Space, Tim Peake Special (BBC Two)

The Vote (More4)

Other News Stories -

News from Wikipedia - please support this valuable resource

May 19, 2016

Top News Stories –

Google Patents Sticky Car Hood to Trap Pedestrians in a Collision –
Google has a solution to help mitigate injuries in the event a pedestrian and a self-driving car collide: human flypaper. In a patent issued this week, the search giant describes a “system for protecting a colliding object from a secondary impact, after an initial impact with a vehicle.” The patent calls for a giant sticker to be placed on the front end of a vehicle, with a special coating over the layer that is only broken when something collides with the vehicle, exposing the adhesive and helping the colliding object to remain on the vehicle. [ABC]
Google car fly paper patent diagram

German churches to get wi-fi ‘Godspots’ –
Worshippers at Protestant churches in central Germany will soon be able to access the internet via free wi-fi hotspots – billed as “Godspots” by the church. Wi-fi is being installed at 220 churches across the Berlin and Brandenberg region, with plans to expand coverage to all 3,000 churches in the region, the RBB broadcaster reports. Among the first to get connected will be Berlin’s French Cathedral on the central Gendarmenmarkt square, and the city’s iconic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. People will be able to access the “Godspots” both inside and outside, and the church is promising a secure network with no advertising. Users will first be greeted by a home page with information about the building, community and faith-related material, but then they’ll be free to browse the wider web. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war
- Syrian government forces and allies, including Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, retake a large area southeast of Damascus, including the key town of Deir al-Asafir. (BBC) (Al Arabiya)
- Fighting between Jaysh al-Islam and rival factions led by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Ghouta, near Damascus, leaves more than 50 people dead. (Swiss Info) (Ara News)

Iraqi civil war (2014–present)
- At least three civilians are killed and 10 others wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq. (Rudaw)

Arts and culture

Oppenheimer Blue, a large and rare blue diamond, is sold for $57.6 million USD, the most expensive jewel ever sold at an auction. (Reuters) (Swiss Info)

Business and economics

German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer bids to merge with American agrochemical and agricultural firm Monsanto. (Forbes) (Bloomberg)
Google honors Asian American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama who held controversial views about racial harmony, terrorism and American power with a doodle. (Democracy Now) (The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

EgyptAir Flight 804
- EgyptAir Flight 804 between Paris and Cairo disappears with 56 passengers and 10 crew onboard. The plane was at 37,000 feet when it disappeared ten minutes before entering Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. It is later reported to have crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos. Locals reported seeing a fireball. (Reuters) (The Telegraph) (The Guardian)
2016 Silk Way Airlines Antonov An-12 crash
- An Azerbaijani cargo airplane crashes during landing in southern Afghanistan, killing seven out of its nine crew members. (Washington Post) (Daily Sabah)

Law and Crime

A unanimous opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court finds that the constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial does not guarantee a speedy sentencing hearing. (CNS)
San Francisco Police Department Chief Greg Suhr resigns from his position several hours after a black woman is shot by police in San Francisco. (ABC News)

International relations

Accession of Montenegro to NATO
- Montenegro and NATO sign an accession agreement, paving the way for the country’s future entry into the military alliance. All of NATO’s members must now ratify the agreement, with Prime Minister Milo Đukanović expecting Montenegro to join by mid 2017. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Politics and election

Decommunization in Ukraine:
- Ukraine‘s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, decides that the country’s third largest city, Dnipropetrovsk, be renamed Dnipro as part of the decommunization drive. (Kyiv Post), (Radio Free Europe)
Philippine general election, 2016
- In the Philippine general election, the Liberal Party emerges as the party with a plurality of seats in the Philippine Senate election, 2016 and Philippine House of Representatives elections, 2016. (Xinhua)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks Yisrael Beiteinu party leader and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to be Defense Minister. Current defense minister and former army chief of staffMoshe Ya’alon’s role in the future government is unclear. Leiberman is known for his hawkish and uncompromising views. (The Guardian) (Israel Hayom)

Science

A new species of horned dinosaur, Machairoceratops cronusi, thought to have lived about 77 million years ago, is discovered in southern Utah. (Huffington Post) (FOX News) (PLOS One)
Google receives a United States patent for an adhesive for its self-driving cars, so-called human flypaper, designed to minimize injuries in a pedestrian accident by holding the person to the car rather than being thrown after impact. (The Verge) (ABC News)

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