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Rugby World Cup 2015 Opening Day celebrated with Google Doodle –
Google has marked the start of the 2015 Rugby World Cup with a special doodle. In the doodle, the “G” of Google is transformed into an animated rugby player running through the rain with a rugby ball under his arm.
According to Matt Cruickshank, who designed the doodle, it is intended to celebrate “the girth and gracefulness of the 2015 World Cup players”. “Having grown up playing rugby in England, I can still feel the muddy squelch in my boots lining up on the pitch for lessons,” he said. “After a few concepts I concentrated on the vice like grip of an arm around the ball and how this could be used as a ‘G’. I even added rain for the full effect.” [Daily Telegraph]

Obama to nominate first openly gay service secretary to lead the Army –
President Obama, in a historic first for the Pentagon, has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. Fanning, 47, has been a specialist on national security issues for more than two decades and has played a key role overseeing some of the Pentagon’s biggest shipbuilding and fighter jet programs. Fanning’s nomination, which must go to the Senate for confirmation, reflects a major shift for the Pentagon, which only four years ago prevented openly gay troops from serving in the military. The policy didn’t extend to civilian leaders, such as Fanning. [Washington Post]
Eric Fanning

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Israel deploys an extra 800 Israeli police officers as Palestinians call for a “day of rage” protests in Jerusalem over entry restrictions to Al-Aqsa mosque. A police vehicle in Jerusalem was attacked with assault rifle fire. (Jerusalem Post), (Al Jazeera America)
• 2015 Camp Badaber attack
  • Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed following a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar. (The Express Tribune), (Reuters via SBS)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Russia moves its first tactical fighter jets to Syria, according to American sources. (CNN)
  • The United States Secretary of State John Kerry agrees to begin military to military talks with Russia concerning Russia’s military activities in Syria. (The New York Times)
  • At least 26 people are killed following Syrian Arab Air Force air-raids on the Islamic State-held central Syrian city of Palmyra according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • Shells fired by Yemeni forces across the border from Yemen kill at least three people and wound 28 others in the Jizan region. (Daily Star)

Business and economy

• European communications company Altice announces plans to buy US cable television company Cablevision for $17.7 billion. (NPR via KVCR)
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency orders Volkswagen to fix nearly 500,000 VW and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009-2015 that include software that circumvents EPA emissions standards. (AP via Fox News), (EPA)
• In India, about 2.3 million people respond to the state of Uttar Pradesh’s announcement of 368 low-level government jobs openings that pay 16,000 rupees ($240) a month. At least 255 of the applicants had a doctorate and over 200,000 had master’s degrees. (AP)

Health

• A national alert is issued in the United Kingdom about a strain of gonorrhea that is highly drug resistant after 15 cases are reported in northern England. (AAP via SBS)
• Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
  • Ebola virus cases in the United States
    • United States authorities announce mandatory Ebola screening will end for travelers from Liberia to five U.S. airports, effective September 21, 2015. Screening of travelers from Sierra Leone and Guinea will continue. (USA Today)

International relations

• The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moves to enact legislation allowing the Japan Self-Defense Forces to serve overseas. Yesterday, fist-fights erupted in the parliament over this legislation. (Reuters)
• European migrant crisis
  • Croatia closes seven out of eight border crossings with Serbia. Zoran Milanović, the Prime Minister, says that his country “will move migrants on”. (BBC), (BBC)
• Cuba–United States relations
  • The United States departments of Commerce and Treasury announce removal of a series of restrictions on Americans traveling to and doing business with Cuba effective September 21, 2015. The U.S. economic embargo, itself, remains in place untilCongress acts. (USA Today), (Reuters)
• A Venezuelan Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKK crashes near the Colombian border after an illicit aircraft, probably linked to illicit drugs, enters Venezuelan airspace. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Law and Crime

• Baby Doe, a toddler who was found washed ashore Deer Island in Massachusetts in a trash bag, is identified as Bella Bond. (CNN)
• Phoenix freeway shootings
  • Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey states that 21-year-old Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. is ballistically linked to four incidents and arrested in Glendale, Arizona after a SWAT raid. Merritt was previously charged twice in 2013, the first for failing to stop at the scene of a damaged vehicle, and the second for assault and criminal damage. Police state that he is known to hold anti-government and anti-police views. He is charged with four counts each of aggravated assault, criminal damage, disorderly conduct, discharging a firearm within city limits, carrying out a drive-by shooting, and intentional acts of terrorism; and his bail is set at $1 million. (ABC15), (KOB), (HEAVY), (ABC News), (Q13FOX), (AZ Central), (CNN), (Yahoo News), (NBC News)

Politics and elections

• The President of the United States nominates Eric Fanning as the first openly LGBT Secretary of the Army. (Washington Post)

Sports

• In football, Jérôme Valcke steps aside as Secretary General of FIFA while his alleged involvement in a ticketing scandal is investigated. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• In rugby union, the opening ceremony of the 2015 Rugby World Cup is held at Twickenham. (The Guardian)

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