Philippine Drug War

August 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rio Olympics 2016: Team GB beat China to finish second in medal table –
Great Britain have finished second in the medal table at the 2016 Olympics – above sporting powerhouse China. One of the event’s dominant nations, China have won more than 200 golds since returning to the Games in 1984. Britain ended the Rio Games with 27 golds from 15 sports, one ahead of China, as they finished with a total of 67 from 19 sports, beating the 65 at London 2012. Since the modern Olympic era began in 1896, no country has increased its medal tally at the summer Games immediately following one it hosted. GB have also smashed their pre-Games target of at least 48 medals, which was set by UK Sport. That means Rio 2016 is the nation’s most successful ‘away’ Games in history. China, with a population of 1.357bn to Britain’s 64.1m, have amassed more medals (70) than Team GB in Brazil, achieving notable success in table tennis, diving and weightlifting. However, GB are ahead on golds, which is what the rankings are based on. [BBC] See List of the day

List of the Day –

2016 Summer Olympics Medals Table [Wikipedia]

2016 Summer Olympics medal table
Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	46	37	38	121
2	Great Britain (GBR)	27	23	17	67
3	China (CHN)	26	18	26	70
4	Russia (RUS)	19	18	19	56
5	Germany (GER)	17	10	15	42
6	Japan (JPN)	12	8	21	41
7	France (FRA)	10	18	14	42
8	South Korea (KOR)	9	3	9	21
9	Italy (ITA)	8	12	8	28
10	Australia (AUS)	8	11	10	29
11	Netherlands (NED)	8	7	4	19
12	Hungary (HUN)	8	3	4	15
13	Brazil (BRA)	7	6	6	19
14	Spain (ESP)	7	4	6	17
15	Kenya (KEN)	6	6	1	13
16	Jamaica (JAM)	6	3	2	11
17	Croatia (CRO)	5	3	2	10
18	Cuba (CUB)	5	2	4	11
19	New Zealand (NZL)	4	9	5	18
20	Canada (CAN)	4	3	15	22
21	Uzbekistan (UZB)	4	2	7	13
22	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	3	5	9	17
23	Colombia (COL)	3	2	3	8
24	Switzerland (SUI)	3	2	2	7
25	Iran (IRI)	3	1	4	8
26	Greece (GRE)	3	1	2	6
27	Argentina (ARG)	3	1	0	4
28	Denmark (DEN)	2	6	7	15
29	Sweden (SWE)	2	6	3	11
30	South Africa (RSA)	2	6	2	10
31	Ukraine (UKR)	2	5	4	11
32	Serbia (SRB)	2	4	2	8
33	Poland (POL)	2	3	6	11
34	North Korea (PRK)	2	3	2	7
35	Belgium (BEL)	2	2	2	6
35	Thailand (THA)	2	2	2	6
37	Slovakia (SVK)	2	2	0	4
38	Georgia (GEO)	2	1	4	7
39	Azerbaijan (AZE)	1	7	10	18
40	Belarus (BLR)	1	4	4	9
41	Turkey (TUR)	1	3	4	8
42	Armenia (ARM)	1	3	0	4
43	Czech Republic (CZE)	1	2	7	10
44	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	2	5	8
45	Slovenia (SLO)	1	2	1	4
46	Indonesia (INA)	1	2	0	3
47	Romania (ROU)	1	1	3	5
48	Bahrain (BRN)	1	1	0	2
48	Vietnam (VIE)	1	1	0	2
50	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	1	0	2	3
51	Bahamas (BAH)	1	0	1	2
	Ivory Coast (CIV)	1	0	1	2
	Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA)	1	0	1	2
54	Fiji (FIJ)	1	0	0	1
	Jordan (JOR)	1	0	0	1
	Kosovo (KOS)	1	0	0	1
	Puerto Rico (PUR)	1	0	0	1
	Singapore (SIN)	1	0	0	1
	Tajikistan (TJK)	1	0	0	1
60	Malaysia (MAS)	0	4	1	5
61	Mexico (MEX)	0	3	2	5
62	Algeria (ALG)	0	2	0	2
62	Ireland (IRL)	0	2	0	2
64	Lithuania (LTU)	0	1	3	4
65	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	2	3
65	Venezuela (VEN)	0	1	2	3
67	India (IND)	0	1	1	2
67	Mongolia (MGL)	0	1	1	2
69	Burundi (BDI)	0	1	0	1
	Grenada (GRN)	0	1	0	1
	Niger (NIG)	0	1	0	1
	Philippines (PHI)	0	1	0	1
	Qatar (QAT)	0	1	0	1
74	Norway (NOR)	0	0	4	4
75	Egypt (EGY)	0	0	3	3
75	Tunisia (TUN)	0	0	3	3
77	Israel (ISR)	0	0	2	2
78	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	0	1	1
	Estonia (EST)	0	0	1	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	1	1
	Moldova (MDA)	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	0	0	1	1
	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	0	0	1	1
Total (87 NOCs)		307	307	360	974

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- An al-Shabaab suicide car bomb kills at least 20 people in the town of Galkayo in Somalia‘s semi-autonomous Puntland region. (Reuters)
Gaziantep bombing
- The death toll from the Turkish wedding bombing rises to 50 with up to 94 people injured. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is suspected of conducting the attack. (Daily Sabah)

International relations

Philippine Drug War
- Rodrigo Duterte threatens to withdraw the Philippines from its founding membership of the United Nations after the international body criticized him over alleged human rights violations. (BBC)

Law and crime

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraq hangs 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group’s massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014. (AP)
A shooter wounds at least 13 people at a house party in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls on fellow Labour Party members to remove Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming party leadership election. (Reuters) (The Observer via The Guardian)

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August 22, 2016

Top News Stories –

Windows 10 update stops webcams working –
A Windows 10 update has stopped many popular webcams from working. The update, released earlier this month, stops many cameras being used for Skype or to broadcast and stream footage. The cause seems to be a change in the way Windows 10 handles video so it can be used by more than one program at a time. Microsoft said it was working on a fix but has not given any date for when the patch will be available. Soon after Windows Update 1607 was distributed in early August, many people started reporting webcam problems to Microsoft via its support site. The trouble affected both webcams connected via USB cables or on the same network and meant either that footage could not be streamed, or that images froze after a while. The problems even affected webcams working with Skype and Lync – both companies owned by Microsoft. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Never celebrate too early (Compilation)

Other News Stories –

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Mindulle is forecast to make landfall near the Japanese capital Tokyo with flights and train services being cancelled. It arrives one day after Typhoon Kompasu. (Bloomberg), (CNN)
At least 40 people are killed and hundreds of thousands are evacuated due to flooding caused by days of heavy rain in central and eastern India. (ABC News)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations
- South Korea and the United States start annual military drills despite North Korea‘s threats of nuclear attacks. (AP)
Iran–Russia relations
- Iran confirms that Russia will stop using its Hamadan Airbase to launch attacks in Syria, saying Russia’s use of Hamadan Airbase was “temporary, based on a Russian request,” and that Russian operations are “finished for now”. Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan earlier criticized Russia’s announcement of its use of the base in Iran, saying “There has been a kind of showing-off and inconsiderate attitude behind the announcement of this news.” (The Washington Post)

Law and crime

Ahmad al-Mahdi pleads guilty at the start of his trial before the International Criminal Court for the war crime of destroying cultural sites in Timbuktu. (BBC News)
Philippine Drug War
- The death toll estimates for the crackdown on recreational drugs in the Philippines reaches 1,800 amid a senate investigation of the killings. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte fires thousands of former president Benigno Aquino III appointees from the government. (Time magazine)
French presidential election, 2017, The Republicans (France) presidential primary, 2016
- Former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy officially declares his candidacy for president in 2017. (The Guardian)

Science and technology

Microsoft acknowledges that a Windows 10 update has stopped millions of webcams from working. (BBC)

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August 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

Virgin challenges Jeremy Corbyn train footage –
Virgin Trains has questioned footage showing Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor of a “ram-packed” service. In a film shown on The Guardian, the Labour leader said he was experiencing a problem “many passengers face every day” on the London to Newcastle train. But Virgin said CCTV showed Mr Corbyn and his team walking past available seating before starting filming. It says the crew helped him to a carriage where seats were available and he sat for the rest of his journey. On one level, this is a story that appears trivial – about whether a politician could find a seat on a train. But it is fast developing into a political row between the leader of the opposition and one of Britain’s biggest rail firms. [BBC]
Jeremy_Corbyn

Video of the Day –

“DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION” — A Bad Lip Reading

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram insurgency
- In a raid on Boko Haram Islamists’ northeast heartland, Nigeria’s air force kills senior militants and possibly fatally wounds their leader, Abubakar Shekau. (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A U.S. service member becomes the first U.S. military combat casualty in Afghanistan since January 2016 when he is killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on patrol near the city of Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan‘s southern Helmand Province. Another American service member and six Afghan soldiers were also injured in the blast. (NBC News)
August 2016 Thailand bombings
- Two bombs explode at the Southern Hotel in Pattani killing one person and injuring 30. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

Philippine officials believe they may have recovered biggest natural giant clam pearl in the world — weighing 34kg. Officials are awaiting confirmation from gemologists that the find is indeed the world’s largest pearl. If confirmed, it will beat the current record holder, the Pearl of Lao Tzu, which weighs 6.4kg. (BBC)

Business and economy

Former presenter Andrea Tantaros sues Fox News by accusing the network of being a “sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult.” (The Washington Post)
New U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly rose in July, reaching their highest level in nearly nine years as demand increased broadly. (Reuters)

Health

2015–16 Zika virus epidemic
- The first infection outside Miami in Florida is discovered in Pinellas County. (Fox News)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korea–United States relations
- In response to the annual military drills, North Korea threatens to destroy Seoul and Washington, D.C. through nuclear weapons if provoked. Both South Korea and the United States insist the drills are for defense. (News.com.au)
- According to South Korean officials, North Korea has laid landmines on the northern side of the so-called Bridge of No Return near the village of Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to block potential defection by its own soldiers. (Yonhap) (Reuters)
Turkey–United States relations, Turkish government – Gülen Movement conflict
- The United States Department of State says Turkey has formally requested the extradition of Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen and is now considering the merits of the request. (Sky News)

Law and crime

2015 Bangkok bombing
- A Thai military court commences the trial of two Uighurs from the People’s Republic of China with the bombing of a popular shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people. (AP via Star Tribune)
Philippine Drug War
- The Philippine human rights commission says that the International Criminal Court may have jurisdiction over the mass killings. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
The New York Times reports its Moscow bureau was targeted this month by hackers, believed to be Russian. While there is no evidence that the hackers were successful, the FBI is investigating. (Reuters)(AP via The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Melania Trump plans to sue The Daily Mail and Politico after the publications allege that she worked as an escort. (CNN)

Sports

2016 Summer Paralympics
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds a ban of Russian athletes from next month’s Paralympics over its state-sponsored doping program. (BBC)(CNN)

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The 2010s

The story of a decade

Tag Archives: Philippine Drug War

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