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: Financial Times
July 20, 2012
Top News Stories –
12 people shot dead at Batman premiere in Denver, Colorado –
A masked gunman, 24, has shot dead 12 people and wounded more than 50 others at a Batman film premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in the US, police said. Eyewitnesses reported that a baby was shot at point blank range and some of the victims were children as a single masked gunman went on a rampage. It was not clear whether the baby, who local reports said was three-months-old, was killed in the attack. Police said the gunman is from Aurora but gave further no details. They were searching his home after he suggested there my be incendiary devices there. The gunman, who was quickly arrested, was reportedly wearing body armour and a gas mask and used tear gas in the assault inside the cinema. [Daily Telegraph]
Sacha Baron Cohen settles slander suit over grocer portrayed as terrorist in film –
A Palestinian grocer portrayed as a terrorist in the movie Bruno has settled his slander suit against film star Sacha Baron Cohen and David Letterman, his lawyer said. In the 2009 comedy, Baron Cohen plays an Austrian fashion journalist aiming to make peace in the Middle East. He interviews Abu Aita, who’s labelled in a caption as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. Baron Cohen discussed Bruno’s encounter with a “terrorist” on Letterman’s show on CBS. [Daily Telegraph]
Sacha Baron Cohen
Video of the Day –
The Dark Knight Rises – Official Trailer #3
Other News Stories –
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian uprising (2011–present):
- Major General Hisham Ikhtiyar, the head of Syrian national security, dies of wounds he received from a bombing in the capital Damascus on July 18. (BBC)
- Thousands of people flee the country. (Financial Times)
- Fighting continues in Damascus and other cities. (Al Jazeera)
- The United Nations Security Council extends the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria for 30 days. (Al Jazeera)
- A gunman opens fire at a movie premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing at least 12 people and injuring 59 others. (BBC) (CNN)
- Bomb and shooting attacks kill two people and wound four in southern Thailand. (Naharnet)
- At least 13 people are killed in clashes in Duékoué and a camp for displaced people in Ivory Coast. (IOL)
- Amnesty International says Muslim Rohingyas in western Burma have been subject to attacks and arbitrary arrests. (BBC)
- Arts and culture
- The Olympic Torch arrives in London for the final stages of the UK-wide relay ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics. (BBC)
- Business and economy
- Disasters and accidents
- 21 people were killed and 29 others were injured in bus accident in the Mexican state of Nayarit. (Fox News)
- Law and crime
- The custody of three anti-Putin protesters from the Pussy Riot group is extended for another six months before their trial begins. (RIA Novosti) (AP via Google News)
- David Burgess, already serving life imprisonment on two counts of murder, is given a fresh life sentence after being convicted of the 1966 murder of Yolande Waddington, a nanny from Berkshire, England. (BBC)
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July 1, 2015
Top News Stories –
Katy Perry plans to buy former convent scuppered by nuns –
Katy Perry’s plans to buy a former convent in Los Angeles are being held up by a group of nuns. The sisters, who used to live on the site in the San Gabriel Mountains, say they’ve already sold it to a local restaurateur, Dana Hollister. But the local archbishop says the convent isn’t theirs to sell and has started legal action to stop it. Perry, the daughter of two Pentecostal preachers, reportedly met with the nuns in May to plead her case. “I found Katy Perry and I found her videos and… if it’s all right to say, I wasn’t happy with any of it,” Sister Rita Callanan told the Los Angeles Times. [BBC Newsbeat]
Katy Perry
Hottest July day ever recorded in UK –
The UK has seen the hottest July day on record, with temperatures hitting 36.7C (98F). The Met Office said the reading had been registered at Heathrow – breaking the previous record set in 2006. 38.5C (101.3F) is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK in Faversham, Kent in August 2003. A level 3 “heatwave action” heat-health alert has been declared for all parts of England. [BBC] See Top Twitter Trends
Billy Joel Bests Elton John, Sets New Record at MSG –
Billy Joel set a record for most performances by a single artist at Madison Square Garden with his 65th show Wednesday night, besting Elton John. “I didn’t know I’d be here 65 times, amazing,” Joel said. “I want to thank you very much for making this possible.” A banner rose to the top of the stage in honor of Joel’s 65th show. Actor-comedian Kevin James came onstage to help the veteran musician celebrate. [Elton] John, 68, previously had the MSG record with 64 performances. Joel sang John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” as yellow lights beamed from the stage.
Billy Joel
Video of the Day –
Steve Jobs – Official Trailer
List of the Day –
Billy Joel studio albums
- Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
- Piano Man (1973)
- Streetlife Serenade (1974)
- Turnstiles (1976)
- The Stranger (1977)
- 52nd Street (1978)
- Glass Houses (1980)
- The Nylon Curtain (1982)
- An Innocent Man (1983)
- The Bridge (1986)
- Storm Front (1989)
- River of Dreams (1993)
- Fantasies & Delusions (2001)
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Shells fired by Houthi forces have killed at least 18 people near the southern port city of Aden, meanwhile United Nations officials have warned that a deadly dengue fever outbreak is rapidly gaining pace in the war-torn country. (Reuters)
- Sinai insurgency
- Militants launch attacks on Egyptian Armed Forces checkpoints in North Sinai, leaving dozens of security personnel and insurgents killed. TheIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the assaults. (Times of India)(AP)
- Egypt‘s security forces kill nine ‘terrorists’ during a raid in a Western Cairo suburb. The group were among “the most dangerous terrorists” wanted in Egypt according to Giza deputy security director Magdy Abd El-Aal. It has also been reported that Nasser El-Hafi, a former MP and a leading lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood was among those killed. (Ahram)
- Arts and culture
- The Episcopal Church in the United States adopts its liturgy for same sex marriages. (General Convention), (NBC News)
- Business and economy
- Greek government-debt crisis
- Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund in the 71-year history of the IMF, unwinding decades of precedent and affecting consequences for the fund’s future rescues. (Financial Times) (IMF)
- The Prime Minister of Greece Alex Tsipras has written to creditors claiming he will accept a bailout but with conditions. (Daily Telegraph)
- Moody’s Investors Service downgrades Greek bonds further to caa3 saying that it expects the country to default further without further support from official creditors. (Reuters)
- The World Bank urges the People’s Republic of China to undertake financial reforms to keep economic growth on track. (AP)
- The United Kingdom Airports Commission issues its report recommending a new runway at Heathrow. (BBC), (ITV)
- Disasters and accidents
- 2015 Indonesia Hercules C-130 crash
- The death toll from yesterday’s crash in the Indonesian city of Medan rises to 141. (The Guardian)
- International relations
- The Russian gas company Gazprom suspends shipments of gas to Ukraine following a payment dispute. (BBC)
- The United States and Cuba officially announce that embassies will be reopened in each other’s countries for the first time since 1961. (BBC)
- Politics and elections
- Thousands of people are expected at a pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong on a holiday to mark the transfer from British to Chinese rule.(AP)
- Burundian legislative election, 2015
- The President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza claims victory for his National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy coalition despite the fact that opposition parties did not contest the election. (African Media Agency via Mail and Guardian)
- The Constitutional Court of Russia rules that it is constitutional to hold the 2016 legislative election in September rather than early December. (AP via Fox News)
- Science and technology
- The black hole in the Milky Way galaxy‘s V404 Cygni system wakes up (becomes energized, with a flow of gamma rays and very brief intense flashes of light) after 26 years, as determined by a telescope and other instruments. (MSN)
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July 21, 2015
Top News Stories –
Toshiba chief executive resigns over scandal –
Toshiba’s chief executive and president Hisao Tanaka has resigned after the company said it had overstated its profits for the past six years.
He will be succeeded by chairman Masashi Muromachi, with vice-chairman Norio Sasaki also stepping down.
On Monday, an independent panel appointed by Toshiba said the firm had overstated its operating profit by a total of 151.8bn yen ($1.22bn, £780m).
The overstatement was roughly triple an initial estimate by Toshiba. [BBC]
Nasa releases amazing high-resolution picture of sunlit Earth from one million miles away –
Nasa has released the first image taken from its new deep space satellite DSCOVR. If Carl Sagan was impressed with the Pale Blue Dot, he would have been equally blown away by this incredible image (launch high-resolution version) of Earth taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). While the image taken by Voyager in 1990 from 3.7 billion miles away showed our planet as just one pixel, the new picture reveals Earth at incredible detail from one million miles. It was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and generated by stitching together three separate photographs. It shows North America, the Gulf of Mexico and down into South America. At the top right it is just possible to make out the western coasts of Europe. [Daily Telegraph]
©NASA, 2015
Khloe Kardashian to Host ‘Hybrid’ Talk Show on FYI Channel –
The FYI channel says Khloe Kardashian will host and produce a “hybrid” talk series titled “Kocktails With Khloe.” Kardashian will be joined in the kitchen and at the dinner table by celebrity guests and friends for conversation, cooking and party games, FYI said Tuesday. She’s been part of her family’s TV empire in shows including “Keeping up With the Kardashians” and “Khloe and Lamar,” which featured NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom and Kardashian were married, but she filed for divorce in 2013. “Kocktails With Khloe” is set to debut in late 2015. [NY Times]
Khloe Kardashian
Video of the Day –
Chop My Money from Theo Anthony on Vimeo.
A day in the life of three street kids in the Eastern Congo.
Directed by Theo Anthony
Produced by Allen Amani
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and human rights organizations say that YPG fighters have captured one juvenile prison and a power station in the south of Hasaka, a Syrian province mostly controlled by ISIL. (kurdpress)
- Business and economy
- Greek government-debt crisis timeline
- The government of Greece submits more legislation to the Hellenic Parliament required by its creditors to start a bailout package. (Reuters)
- Hisao Tanaka stands down as the CEO of Japanese company Toshiba following a $1.2 billion accounting scandal. (Financial Times)
- International relations
- The Philippines announces plans to increase its defense budget by 25% amid ongoing tension in the South China Sea. (AFP via Straits Times)
- Law and crime
- Authorities in Waller County, Texas announce that the death of activist Sandra Bland in police custody will be treated as a murder investigation.(CNN)
- Politics and elections
- Burundian presidential election, 2015
- Voters in Burundi go to the polls for a presidential election amidst gunfire and violence with President Pierre Nkurunziza seeking a third term and opposition parties boycotting the election. At least two people have been killed in election violence. (BBC), (Reuters via SABC)
- United States presidential election, 2016
- The Governor of Ohio John Kasich becomes the 16th person to seek the nomination of the Republican Party. (NBC News)
- Sports
- The National Hockey League announces that it has received formal applications for expansion teams from ownership groups in Las Vegas andQuebec City. If granted, the expansion teams would begin play in the 2017–18 season. (CBC)
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July 23, 2015
Top News Stories –
‘Earth 2.0’ found in Nasa Kepler telescope haul –
A haul of planets from Nasa’s Kepler telescope includes a world sharing many characteristics with Earth. Kepler-452b orbits at a very similar distance from its star, though its radius is 60% larger. Mission scientists said they believed it was the most Earth-like planet yet. Such worlds are of interest to astronomers because they might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on their surface – and might therefore be hospitable to life. Nasa’s science chief John Grunsfeld called the new world “Earth 2.0” and the “closest so far” to our home. It is around 1,400 light years away from Earth. [BBC]
Taylor Swift apologises to Nicki Minaj –
Taylor Swift has apologised to Nicki Minaj following their Twitter row over the MTV VMA nominations. The singer’s admitted she misunderstood Nicki’s initial tweets, which attacked the music industry for favouring white females. “I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, then misspoke, I’m sorry, Nicki,” Taylor wrote. Nicki has accepted her apology by tweeting back: “That means so much Taylor, thank you.” It all started after Nicki voiced her disappointment at Anaconda not getting a nomination for video of the year. [BBC Newsbeat]
Nicki Minaj
Sony Pictures buys rights to make an emoji movie –
Sony Pictures Animation has bought the rights to turn emoji icons into a movie. The studio plans to create an animated feature film about the smiley, winky and unhappy characters used in texts and on social media. At this stage, it’s not clear how it will turn the static yellow round faces into a Hollywood blockbuster. Commentators claim the success of The Lego Movie showed that any subject matter can be turned into a hit. Emojis were developed in Japan in the late 1990s as smiley-faced emoticons. [BBC Newsbeat]
Video of the Day –
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Official Trailer – “We March Together”
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Turkey scrambles fighter jets and Turkish tanks open fire on ISIS positions along the Syrian border following an exchange of fire which left one Turkish soldier dead and two injured. The clashes are the first direct combat between the Turkish military and ISIS forces. (Telegraph)
- Turkey agrees to allow the United States access to İncirlik Air Base, near the city of Adana (in close proximity to the Syrian border) for the US-led coalition forces’ air strikes against ISIS. (Today’s Zaman)
- China’s People’s Liberation Army conducts a series of military exercises simulating an attack on Taiwan’s Presidential Office Building. (Focus Taiwan) (Quartz) (Wall Street Journal)
- Business and economy
- Greek government-debt crisis timeline
- A majority in the Greek parliament votes to approve a second bailout reform package. (Euronews)
- Pearson PLC agrees to sell Financial Times Group to Nikkei Inc. for £844 million. (BBC)
- Disasters and accidents
- Law and crime
- Broken Arrow killings
- Five people are killed and a girl is wounded in a stabbing at a home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, U.S. Two teenage suspects are arrested.(CNN)
- 2015 Lafayette shooting
- Seven people are wounded, and three are dead (including the shooter) after a 58 year-old gunman opens fire at the Grand 16 Movie Theater in Lafayette, Louisiana during a showing of Trainwreck. (NBC)[(CNN)
- Science and technology
- NASA scientists announce the discovery of Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth sized exoplanet discovered orbiting the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. (NASA), (BBC)
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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
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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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December 3, 2015
Top News Stories –
Oscar Pistorius verdict changed to murder –
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of murder after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict. He killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after shooting her four times through a locked toilet door. He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail. Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder. [BBC] Pistorius started community service in November 2015
Oscar Pistorius competing
UK Trading Standards officers seize 15,000 unsafe hoverboards –
More than 15,000 unsafe hoverboards – otherwise known as self-balancing scooters – have been seized at ports and airports around the UK. Trading Standards officers said the boards were in danger of overheating, exploding or catching fire. The London Fire Brigade said at least three house fires were caused by such devices over 10 days in October. Many have plugs without fuses, faulty cables or chargers that can burst into flames, according to Trading Standards. It said that 88% of the hoverboards it seized around the UK were found to be defective. [BBC]
Black Friday breaks record with 185K gun background checks –
More Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns on Black Friday than any day on record, according to data released by the FBI this week. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 185,345 requests on Nov. 27, one of the largest retail sales days in the country. “This was an approximate 5% increase over the 175,754 received on Black Friday 2014,” wrote Stephen Fischer, the FBI’s chief of multimedia productions. “The previous high for receipts were the 177,170 received on 12/21/2012.” [USA Today]
Video of the Day –
The First Hope from Jeremy David White on Vimeo.
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Military intervention against ISIL, Operation Tidal Wave II
- The United Kingdom‘s Royal Air Force bombs Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-controlled oil wells in eastern Syria. At least four Tornado GR4 fighter jets, operating out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, were involved in raids. The Ministry of Defence said initial analysis “indicates that the strikes were successful”. (Sky News)
- 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- Russian president Vladimir Putin addresses on Russian national television the shootdown of one of their jets in Syria by the Turkish Air Force. He goes on to say that “if anyone thinks Russia’s reaction will be limited to trade sanctions, they are deeply mistaken”. (BBC)
- Iraqi Civil War (2014-present), American-led intervention in Iraq
- In the wake of Washington’s pledge of additional Special Operations troops to Iraq, several members of Iraq’s ruling alliance state that only the Iraqi Parliament can authorize the action, and political associates of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi report such a troop expansion would be unacceptable. Several members of Iraqi militias have also decried a deployment of more U.S. troops. (Reuters)
- Arts and culture
- Israel’s Holocaust and Remembrance Center posthumously adds U.S. Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds to the list of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions in 1945 at a Nazi prisoner of war camp. (NPR) (Yad Vashem)
- Harvard Law School officials are reviewing the use of the school’s seal that includes three bushels of wheat, which also appears on Isaac Royall’s family coat of arms. Royall, a slaveholder whose father was known to be a cruel owner, left part of his estate to help found the law school. (MSNBC) (Boston Globe)
- International relations
- European migrant crisis
- EU ministers discuss suspending the Schengen passport-free travel zone for two years, on the basis that the migrant crisis has exposed “serious deficiencies” at the Greek border that endanger the overall area. (Financial Times) (BBC)
- The Swedish government wants to be able to close the Øresund Bridge connecting Sweden to Denmark if the country’s record refugee influx continues. (Local)
- Germany‘s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) says Saudi Arabia is at risk of becoming a major destabilizing influence in the Arab world due to the diplomatic stance of some senior members of the House of Saud. (The Telegraph)
- Iran–Russia relations
- Russia begins deliveries of its S-300 air defense systems to Iran. (Reuters)
- Law and crime
- Trial of Oscar Pistorius
- South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is convicted of the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on appeal and faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. (NBC News)
- 2015 FIFA corruption case
- U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announces criminal corruption charges against 16 FIFA officials in an indictment that expands Justice’s May filing that indicted 14 officials associated with FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and related sports marketing companies. At U.S. authorities request, Swiss police arrest two South American FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) officials at the five-star Baur au Lac hotel in Zürich, on suspicion of accepting “millions of dollars” in bribes. In addition, eight of the defendants indicted in May have pleaded guilty. (CNN) (New York Daily News)
- Upper Big Branch Mine disaster
- Donald Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Company, is convicted of violating safety standards that led to the deaths of 29 Upper Big Branch mine workers in Montcoal, West Virginia in 2010. He is acquitted of making false statements anddeceiving regulators. Blankenship, who faces up to one year in prison and a fine of $250,000, is the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. (The New Yorker) (NPR) (Christian Science Monitor) (The New York Times)
- Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces that all combat roles in the U.S. military will be opened to women. (CNN)
- Politics and elections
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December 16, 2015
Top News Stories –
Amazon tells customers: Get rid of your exploding hoverboards –
Customers who bought hoverboards as Christmas gifts have been urged to “dispose” of them and accept refunds after three of Britain’s biggest retailers suspended sales. In an email seen by The Telegraph, internet giant Amazon has asked customers to take the self-balancing, two-wheeled scooters to a local recycling point for electronic equipment. Estimates suggest around 500,000 people in Britain have bought hoverboards as Christmas gifts. A further million are considering it, according to the watchdog Electrical Safety First. More than 15,000 of 17,000 self-balancing scooters analysed at borders since October 15 have been deemed unsafe and detained. [Daily Telegraph]
Germany: Star Wars-themed service at Berlin church –
A church in Berlin has announced it will hold a special pre-Christmas service devoted to Star Wars. Excitement is building in Germany ahead of the release of the franchise’s latest installment, The Force Awakens, on Thursday. But the Zion Church, located in the capital’s central Mitte district, is taking inspiration for its Sunday morning service from one of the classics – Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Those attending the event will be shown scenes from the 1983 film, and there’s also the promise of organ music inspired by the score, the local church district says on its website.
The idea came from two young pastors-in-training, Ulrike Garve and Lucas Ludewig, who see parallels between the George Lucas films and the Bible. “In the key scene of Episode VI, Luke Skywalker is drawn onto the side of the emperor, of evil,” says Mr Ludewig, described as a theologian and Star Wars expert by the church. “Luke resists with the words: I will never belong to the dark side.” That sentiment, he says, is reminiscent of a passage from Romans: “Do not let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” [BBC]
Last round pound coin minted –
The Royal Mint is producing the final round pound coin on Wednesday. It is more than 30 years since the now familiar gold-coloured coins were first minted. The new-look replacement will be brought into circulation in 2017. [BBC]
Video of the Day –
Jimmy Fallon, The Roots & “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Cast Sing “Star Wars” Medley (A Cappella)
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2015 San Bernardino attack
- Neither Syed Rizwan Farook nor his wife Tashfeen Malik made open posts on social media regarding radical Islamic jihad or martyrdom prior to the attack, according to FBI Director James B. Comey. There were, however, direct, private messages to each other that did reflect this commitment. (Los Angeles Times)
- 2015 Chattanooga shootings
- FBI Director Comey also announces the five military shooting deaths last July in Chattanooga, Tennessee, are now officially classified as a terrorist attack. The shooter, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, was inspired and motivated by foreign terrorist propaganda. U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announces the Navy will award the Purple Heart to the four Marines and one sailor who were killed, and the one Marine who was injured. (AP via ABC News) (Los Angeles Times)
- Business and economics
- In a widely expected move, the Unites States Federal Reserve Board raised the federal funds interest rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, from the 0-.25% range to the .25-.50% range. U.S. stock markets rallied on the news.(CNNMoney) (Consumer Affairs)
- Disasters and accidents
- An Air India aircraft maintenance technician is killed at Mumbai‘s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in India after being sucked by an Air India Airbus A319‘s aircraft engine during pushback. (Press Trust of India via Business Standard) (CNN)
- International relations
- Cuba–United States relations
- The United States and Cuba reach an understanding on restoring regularly scheduled commercial flights. Currently, the only option available is charter flights. (AP via The Washington Post)
- NATO leadership signs an agreement with the Ukrainian government to assist the country’s modernization of its defense industry and capabilities. (UPI)
- Taiwan–United States relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The United States announces a deal to sell $1.83 billion worth of arms to Taiwan, which includes two decommissioned U.S. Navy frigates, Assault Amphibious Vehicles, and surface-to-air missiles. China has also expressed its disapproval over the deal, claiming it would affect their internal affairs. (BBC News) (Financial Times) (RT)
- Islamic Military Alliance
- Pakistan says it was surprised to learn of the country’s inclusion in Saudi Arabia‘s so-called “Islamic anti-terrorist alliance”, and that Pakistan was not consulted before inclusion in the alliance by the Saudis. Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry says he has asked the country’s ambassador in Riyadh to get a clarification from Saudi Arabia on the matter. Malaysia has also denied any involvement in Saudi Arabia’s military coalition to counter terrorism. (BBC) (DAWN)
- Latvia–Russia relations
- Latvia‘s State Border Guard begins the construction of a border fence that will cover almost a third of the Latvia–Russia border in an effort to keep out migrants who attempt to illegally cross the border from Russia. (Business Insider)
- Law and crime
- Japan‘s Supreme Court upholds a 19th-century law that requires married couples to have the same surname, but struck down another law that barred women from remarrying within six months of a divorce as unconstitutional. (The Guardian)
- The North Korean (DPRK) supreme court convicts and sentences South Korea-born Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim to hard labor for life for trying to overthrow the DPRK and undermine the country’s social system. Lim’s relatives said he’s traveled to North Korea more than 100 times since 1997, to help people, but not for any particular political purpose. Lim, from the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, has been in custody since February. (Reuters) (Xinhua News Agency) (The Guardian)
- A bank in Minnesota (U.S.) is robbed by the same person a second time while an Iowa television station was doing a live update on the first robbery. The robber was arrested shortly afterwards. (Associated Press)
- After the jury fails to reach a unanimous decision, a Baltimore, Maryland, judge declares a mistrial in the trial of police officer William Porter, the first officer to be charged in the death of Freddie Gray. (NBC News) (ABC News)
- About 100 men in more than 50 machine gun-mounted trucks kidnap at least 26 Qataris, including members of the royal family, from a hunting camp in Iraq near the Saudi border. (Sky News)
- Politics and elections
- Members of the U.S. Congress reach a spending deal that, once passed by both houses, will prevent a year-end government shutdown and will fund Fiscal Year 2016 federal government operations. President Barack Obama signs a separate bipartisan billthat extends government funding through Tuesday, December 22. (USA Today) (The Washington Post) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Spanish general election, 2015
- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is punched in the face by a teenager during a People’s Party campaign event in the city of Pontevedra. (The Guardian)
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January 1, 2016
Top News Stories –
Rat on a plane: Air India flight returns to Mumbai after rodent spotted on board –
An Air India plane flying to London was forced to return to Mumbai after passengers spotted a rat on board, the airline said on Thursday. Though the rat was not found, the pilot returned to Mumbai on Wednesday keeping passenger safety in mind, Air India said in a statement. Passengers were later flown by a separate aircraft to London. The aircraft would be fumigated and checked before it is returned to service. Maintenance workers would have to make sure that the rat did not damage equipment or chew any wires and the plane is certified to be rodent-free, an airline official said. [Daily Telegraph]
China’s new two-child policy law takes effect –
Married couples in China will from Friday (Jan 1) be allowed to have two children, after concerns over an ageing population and shrinking workforce ushered in an end to the country’s controversial one-child policy. The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from Jan 1, 2016, Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend. The “one-child policy”, instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring through a system of fines for violators and even forced abortions. For years, authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom and had prevented 400 million births. [Channel News Asia]
Video of the Day –
Philips Presents: The Longest Night from T Brand Studio on Vimeo.
List of the Day –
100 Things we didn’t know last year – by the BBC (1-33)
1. It costs £300 to operate on a constipated goldfish.
2. Traditionally, police horses in England’s Thames Valley force can be called Odin, Thor or Hercules, but not Brian.
3. Barack Obama calls David Cameron “bro”.
4. The first sports bra was made from two jockstraps.
5. One in 10 of Britain’s train carriages still flush toilet waste straight on to the railway tracks.
6. Jamaica, Colombia and Saint Lucia are the only countries in the world where a woman is more likely to be a boss than a man.
Find out more (Washington Post)
7. You don’t have to speak French to become French-language Scrabble world champion.
8. Kolo Toure, the Ivory Coast and Liverpool defender, hasn’t touched his own dog for seven years.
9. An egg can be unboiled.
10. There are four different ways to pronounce diplodocus, and the way children say it is probably more technically correct than the academics’ preferred option.
11. A 51-year-old software engineer named Bryan Henderson has edited Wikipedia 47,000 times to remove the ungrammatical term “comprised of”.
12. Buzz Aldrin claimed $33.31 in travel expenses connected to his trip to the moon.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)
13. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond once played a ghost in a Bollywood soap opera.
14. “Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised!” is an official slogan of North Korea.
15. Roughly 56% of average monthly earnings in Malawi are spent on mobile phone charges, compared with about 0.11% in Macau, China.
16. Quentin Tarantino still records films from TV on VHS cassettes.
17. Lollipop men and ladies who “high five” pedestrians may be breaching official protocol.
18. Squid can fly – but they tend to do it under cover of darkness.
19. It’s possible to trick the brain into thinking it can hear Mariah Carey sing All I Want For Christmas Is You.
20. King Arthur may have been Glaswegian.
21. A man-sized lobster lived 480 million years ago.
22. At Hotel Football, run by ex-Manchester United players, Gary Neville is represented in the bathroom by blackcurrant-extract shampoo while brother Phil is a bar of soap.
Find out more (Financial Times)
23. Vicars and priests have the highest job satisfaction of all UK workers.
24. Narwhals’ long tusks – an exaggerated front tooth used for courtship – are super-sensitive.
25. There is only one concert grand piano in Gaza.
26. Boston in Lincolnshire is one of the most neurotic places in Great Britain while Orkney is one of the least.
27. Michael Jackson made a series of prank calls to Russell Crowe.
28. Breaking Bad is the show people most often lie about having watched.
29. The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency does not permit the wearing of colanders on heads in driving licence photos, even for religious reasons.
30. People who swear have larger vocabularies.
31. The Queen likes to have her pre-lunch gin and Dubonnet in front of BBC Two’s The Daily Politics.
32. In September 1944 the New York Times explained pizza to its readers and included a rare use of its plural “pizze” – there was an earlier article but it only mentioned pizza in passing.
Find out more (New York Times)
33. There is little international trade in onions – about 90% are consumed in their country of origin.
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Arts and culture
- A new 28-foot tall statue of Jesus, dubbed “Jesus de Greatest,” is unveiled on New Year’s Day outside St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Abajah village, Nigeria’s Imo state, which is described as the tallest Jesus statue in Africa. (USA Today)
- Disasters and accidents
- About one thousand houses in Manila’s Tondo district in the Philippines are set ablaze following New Year’s Eve firecracker festivities that left one dead and 380 others injured. (AP via CTV News)
- International relations
- The EU-Ukraine Free Trade deal officially comes into force, coinciding with a Russian food embargo on Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Law and crime
- The two-child policy takes effect in China, allowing couples in the country to have at most two children, replacing the controversial one-child policy. The change in law was announced by the ruling Communist Party on October 29 and passed the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 27, five days prior to its effect. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)
- Politics and elections
- Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been the President of Iceland for 20 years, announces in his new-year speech that he will not seek relection for a sixth term when presidential elections will be held in June. (Visir)
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May 31, 2016
Top News Stories –
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood becomes father to twins, aged 68 –
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has become a father again at the age of 68. His wife Sally, who is 38, gave birth to twin girls late on Monday evening, Wood’s publicist confirmed. A statement said: “Ronnie & Sally Wood are delighted to announce the birth of their twins Gracie Jane (6lb) & Alice Rose (5.7lb). “The girls arrived on 30 May at 22:30 and all are doing brilliantly. The babies are perfect.” The twins are Wood’s fifth and sixth children, but the first for him and his wife, who is a theatre producer. [BBC]
Ronnie Wood in 2012
MySpace and Tumblr hit by ‘mega breach’ –
Hundreds of millions of hacked account details from social networks MySpace and Tumblr have been advertised for sale online. In both cases, the logins appear to have been stolen several years ago but only recently came to light. The incident comes the same month it emerged that a four-year-old database containing more than 167 million LinkedIn IDs had been traded online. One expert said it was “intriguing” all had emerged in such a short period. Security researcher Troy Hunt also said millions of IDs from adult dating site Fling – which had been breached in 2011 – had been offered on a hacking forum at the start of the month. [BBC]
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Giant Gator Walks Across Florida Golf Course –
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Suspect Taliban militants kill nine and kidnap 170 in an attack on three passenger buses in Kunduz, Afghanistan. (Reuters) (CNN)
- Business and economics
- In the United States, a Delaware court rules Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners underpriced their 2013 $24.9 billion buyout of Dell Inc. by about 22 percent, and may have to pay tens of millions to investors who opposed the deal. (Financial Times) (Reuters)
- Disasters and accidents
- At least 17 army personnel are killed in a fire in an ammunitions depot in the Indian town of Pulgaon, Maharashtra. (The New York Times) (NDTV) (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- A five-storey apartment block collapses in Russian city of Mezhdurechensk, killing one man and injuring three. (RT)
- Law and crime
- The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rules (12-3) a warrant is not required for police to obtain a person’s cellphone location data from wireless carriers. (Reuters)
- International relations
- In an interview with the German broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama says that Germany has taken too many refugees and “from a moral standpoint” refugees should “only be accommodated temporarily” — with the goal of them returning home to rebuild their countries. (NBC News)
- North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- North Korea attempts again to launch a BM25 Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of striking South Korea or Japan but is unsuccessful. (The Guardian)
- A recent Global Slavery Index report estimates the number of people born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, in debt bondage, or forced labour to be 45.8 million. India is reported to have the highest number at an estimated 18.4 million slaves, and North Korea the highest ratio, 4.4 percent of its population. (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
- Politics and elections
- Iranian legislative election, 2016
- Ali Larijani is reelected chairman of the Iranian Parliament for a one year term while Masoud Pezeshkian and Ali Motahari are elected deputy chairpersons. All three elected members were supported byList of Hope in the recent election. (Yahoo! news) (Xinhau net) (The New York Times)
- Papua conflict
- Thousands of people take to the streets of Jayapura and other towns in Papua, Indonesia, in support of the Free Papua Movement and its effort to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Indonesia responded with a large police and military presence, with reports of police firing on demonstrators in Wamena and arresting dozens across the province. (Radio New Zealand)
- Mohamed Abdelaziz, the leader of the Polisario Front which fought for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco, dies after leading the group since 1976. (Al Jazeera)
- United States presidential election, 2016
- Conservative leaders seeking an alternative to the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump are urging Tennessee attorney and National Review writer David French to enter the 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate. (The Washington Post)
- Sports
- Association football icon Pelé announces that he will sell 1,500 lots of his possessions via Julien’s Auctions, which will include his medals, trophies, jerseys, and diplomatic gifts. (BBC)
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July 6, 2016
Top News Stories –
Chilcot report: Tony Blair’s Iraq War case not justified –
Tony Blair overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, sent ill-prepared troops into battle and had “wholly inadequate” plans for the aftermath, the UK’s Iraq War inquiry has said. Chairman Sir John Chilcot said the 2003 invasion was not the “last resort” action presented to MPs and the public. There was no “imminent threat” from Saddam – and the intelligence case was “not justified”, he said. Mr Blair apologised for any mistakes made but not the decision to go to war. Sir John, the ex-civil servant who chaired the inquiry, describes the Iraq War as an intervention that went “badly wrong” with consequences still being felt to this day – and he set out lessons to be learned for future conflicts. His report, which is 2.6 million words, does not make a judgement on whether Mr Blair or his ministers were in breach of international law. [BBC]
Tony Blair in 2014
Video of the Day –
Explore Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park in Two Minutes
List of the Day –
Chilcott Report – errors in political and military decision-making in going to war in Iraq:
- UK military commanders made “over-optimistic assessments” of their capabilities which had led to “bad decisions”
- There was “little time” to properly prepare three military brigades for deployment in Iraq. The risks were neither “properly identified nor fully exposed” to ministers, resulting in “equipment shortfalls”
- Policy on the Iraq invasion was made on the basis of flawed intelligence assessments. It was not challenged, and should have been
- Mr Blair overestimated his ability to influence US decisions on Iraq; and the UK’s relationship with the US does not require unconditional support
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion
- Twenty Philippine Army soldiers are under investigation after they are suspected of mutilating the body of a New People’s Army member. The communist militant’s eyes were gouged, his tongue was cut off and his throat was slit. (GMA News)
- Yemeni Civil War
- A suicide car bomb, that targeted the Central Security headquarters in the port city of Aden, Yemen, kills at least 26 people. Following the blast, militants stormed the compound and clashed with soldiers. No group immediately claimed responsibility but it is similar to an Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant attack on the port of Al Mukalla. (AP via The New York Times) (Reuters)
- Business and economy
- The price of nickel swings wildly after Philippines environment secretary Gina Lopez announces plans to close existing mines in the country. (Financial Times) (Bloomberg)
- Business magnate and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi sells leading football club A.C. Milan to a Chinese consortium for an eventual €400 million. (BBC)
- Australian federal election, 2016
- Standard & Poor’s drops Australia’s debt outlook from stable to negative following the country’s surprisingly close election this weekend. (The Guardian)
- International relations
- International reactions to Philippines v. China
- China threatens the United States regarding the South China Sea and it will not accept a verdict in the Permanent Court of Arbitration. (ABC News Go) (Forbes)
- Law and crime
- Oscar Pistorius trial
- South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to six years imprisonment for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. (CNN)
- Politics and elections
- Iraq Inquiry
- A report about the United Kingdom‘s involvement in the Iraq War is released. The chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, said that the invasion was not a “last resort” and was based on “flawed intelligence and assessments”. The inquiry was announced on 15 June 2009 by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The final hearing was held on 2 February 2011. (The Guardian) (BBC) (BBC²)
- Hillary Clinton email controversy
- Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States, closes the investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s use of a personal email system to conduct official business without charges being laid. (CNN)
- 2016 Zimbabwe protests
- National “Stay Away” protests, organized over the Internet via the WhatsApp social messaging platform, take place in Zimbabwe, following fears of an economic collapse amid calls for President Robert Mugabe’s resignation.(BBC News)
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December 12, 2017
Crypto-currency Bitcoin has hit a record high of $17,300 on the Bitstamp platform –
The decentralised currency has spiked since Chicago-based derivatives exchange Cboe Global Markets launched Bitcoin futures late on Sunday. This was the first time investors could get exposure to the bitcoin market via a large, regulated exchange. [BBC Business Live]
Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from UK
Other News Stories –
Business and economy
- Unibail-Rodamco agrees to purchase shopping mall owner Westfield Corporation for $15.7 billion. (Business Insider)
Disasters and accidents
- An explosion and fire at the Gas Connect Austria pipeline hub in Baumgarten an der March kills one person and injures 21. Service to Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy is suspended. Italy declares a state of emergency. (Reuters) (Deutsche Welle)
Law and crime
- Crime in Peru
- A 22-year-old student is found dead inside the National University of San Marcos, of Lima, and the most important and oldest of Peru. Everything seems to indicate that he had been killed. Authorities have identified a possible suspect, who is also a student at the university. (La República) (ATV) (América Televisión)
Health and environment
- Regulation of chemicals
- Reacting to a petition from more than a million EU citizens, the European Commission releases a 16-page report on glyphosate. It adopts a renewal of the approval of glyphosate for a 5-year period and plans to improve the science reviewing process. (Le Figaro and Reuters)
International relations
- Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian opposition urges Russian president Vladimir Putin to put pressure on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in order to “rescue” the Geneva peace talks and begin face-to-face bilateral talks. (The Guardian)
- Foreign relations of Rwanda, Foreign relations of France
- Rwanda steps up pressure on France to admit alleged complicity in the 1994 genocide by publishing a report by law firm Cunningham Levy Muse. (Financial Times)
Politics and elections
- Government of San Francisco
- Mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee dies of an apparent heart attack. Supervisor London Breed becomes acting Mayor. (SFGate)
- United States Senate special election in Alabama, 2017
- Voters in Alabama go to the polls to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by current United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The race is between Roy Moore (R) and Doug Jones (D). (CNN)
- The Associated Press declares Doug Jones the winner. (AP via New York Times)
Science and technology
- Climate change in the Arctic
- This year’s Arctic Report Card reveals that the plunge in sea ice extent as well as the amount of ocean surface warming is unprecedented in at least the last 1,500 years. (Mashable)
Sports
- Weinstein effect
- Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor, and Heath Evans are suspended from the NFL Network due to allegations of sexual harassment. (The Washington Post)
- EAFF E-1 Football Championship
- South Korea beats North Korea 0–1 in Tokyo. The Japanese authorities gave the North Korean players a special visa to enable their participation in the event that was formerly known as the East Asian Cup. (Sporza)
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July 24, 2019
Top News Story –
Climate crisis blamed as temperature records broken in three nations
Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have recorded their highest ever temperatures as the second extreme heatwave in as many months to be linked by scientists to the climate emergency grips the continent.
The Dutch meteorological service, KNMI, said the temperature reached 39.2C(102.5F) at the Gilze-Rijen airbase near Breda on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding the previous high of 38.6C set in August 1944.
In Belgium, the temperature in Kleine-Brogel hit 38.9C on Wednesday afternoon, fractionally higher than the previous record of 38.8C set in June 1947, and then subsequently rose to 39.9C. Forecasters said temperatures could climb further on Thursday.
Germany’s national weather service, DWD, said it believed a new all-time national high of 40.5C – 0.2C higher than the record – had been set in the town of Geilenkirchen near the Dutch and Belgian borders, but had still to confirm it.
“The most extreme heat will build from central and northern France into Belgium, the Netherlands and far western Germany into Thursday,” said Eric Leister of the forecasting group AccuWeather.
The latest heatwave, caused by an “omega block” – a high-pressure pattern that blocks and diverts the jet stream, allowing a mass of hot air to flow up from northern Africa and the Iberian peninsula – follows a similar extreme weather event last month that made it the hottest June on record.
Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from UK
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Armed attacks and conflicts
- Somali Civil War
- A suicide bomber detonates inside the office of Mogadishu‘s mayor Abdirahman Abdi Osman, killing six government officials. Osman is seriously injured in the attack and his condition is critical. (BBC)
Business and economy
- Boeing 737 MAX groundings
- Boeing reports its largest-ever quarterly loss, of US$2.9 billion, as a result of the grounding of its 737 MAX series, with the company saying that it could halt its production. (The Guardian)
Politics and elections
- Premiership of Theresa May, Premiership of Boris Johnson
- Theresa May visits Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to officially resign and recommend her replacement as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (Royal Communications)
- Greenpeace protesters block The Mall, the drive to Buckingham Palace, holding up Prime Minister-designate Boris Johnson on his way to visit the Queen. (The Guardian)
- Johnson is asked by the Queen to form a government, making him the 55th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (BBC)
- Multiple cabinet members resign on the day of Johnson’s ascension to premiership, or in the days preceding it, in response to Johnson’s politics and views on Brexit, including Philip Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, David Gauke, Sir Alan Duncan, Rory Stewart, Anne Milton, and David Lidington. (The Guardian), (Financial Times), (The Times)
- Secretary-General of the European Commission Martin Selmayr is appointed as EC representative in Austria from November 1 on. (Politico) (Deutsche Welle)
- Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is sworn in as German defence minister. (Deutsche Welle)
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