Pope Francis - The 2010s

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 12, 2014

Top News Stories –

Star Wars character names posted by director –
The names of characters in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to be released in December 2015 have been revealed in a mocked-up set of trading cards. John Boyega will be Finn, Oscar Isaac is Poe Dameron and Daisy Ridley’s character is called Rey. Director JJ Abrams confirmed the names via some old school trading cards, in reference to when the Star Wars films were first released in the 1970s.
Oscar Issac

World’s longest ship launched –
Shanghai-based marine-shipping company China Shipping Container Lines has launched the world’s largest container ship, the “CSCL Globe”. The ship is more than 400m (1,312ft or a quarter of a mile) long, 56.8m (186ft) wide, 73m (240ft) high and 186,000 tonnes gross. The ship, which is longer than four football pitches, is making its maiden voyage from Shanghai to Europe.
The CSCL Globe

Marriage proposal fail –
A Dutchman’s attempt at a romantic wedding proposal using a mobile crane has resulted in the crane falling over and smashing into a neighbour’s roof. The man had rented a crane in the central town of Ijsselstein to descend in front of his girlfriend’s bedroom window, play her a song and ask her to marry him. Despite the disaster in which no-one was hurt, his girlfriend agreed to marry him.

Pope avoids Dalai Lama meeting –
Pope Francis will not meet the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama because of the “delicate situation” with China, according to the Vatican. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet and China describes him as a separatist. The Vatican does not want to jeopardise improving relations between itself and China.
Pope Francis

Video of the Day –

Star Wars – The Force Awakens Official Trailer –

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December 17, 2014

Top News Stories –

US and Cuba talking again –
After 53 years of diplomatic estrangement, diplomatic relationships between the US and Cuba have been re-established. The deal was aided by a personal appeal from Pope Francis, who persuaded Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, to agree to the freeing of the American aid worker Alan P. Gross. The pope, officials said, acted as a “guarantor” that both sides would live up to the terms of a deal reached in secret.
Alan P. Gross

Smelling the money –
Fragrances from stars such as Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Jay Z are outselling established fragrance brands such as Hugo Boss and Gucci in some UK stores. Britney’s perfumes outsell DKNY by three to one at UK store Superdrug, and Hugo Boss by two to one. Jay Z’s Gold is the best selling celebrity fragrance.
Britney Spears

Interview cancelled –
“The Interview” the film that is possibly the catalyst in the Sony Pictures hacking scandal has had its Christmas Day release cancelled after major cinema chains decided not to screen it in the US.

Michael Garcia resigns from FIFA –
Fifa’s independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia has quit in protest over the handling of his report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Garcia said he lost confidence in the independence of judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, an ethics committee colleague after his report was summarised.

Video of the Day –

Seat 22 — Trans-Siberian Odyssey from Stanislas Giroux on Vimeo.

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January 15, 2015

Top News Stories –

Frantic Swiss franc trading –
The Swiss franc has increased in value over the Euro by 30% from 1.20 to the euro to 0.80 in just 30 minutes before settling back at 1.03 Swiss francs to 1 euro. The frantic trading that caused this was a result of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) abandoning the cap linking the two currencies together that had been in place since September 2011. At the same time SNB reduced a key interest rate from -0.25% to -0.75%, effectively increasing the amount investors have to pay to hold Swiss deposits with no return on investment.

Google glaze over –
Google announce that they are to stop making the $1500 Google Glass smart glasses and start developing “future versions of Glass”. Google Glass was originally launched in the US in 2013.

Ginola for President? –
Former French football international and hair product model David Ginola announces he will run for the presidency of FIFA against Sepp Blatter and Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein but he will need the support of 5 football associations to enter the race. Ginola is being paid £250,000 by betting firm Paddy Power, who deny the campaign was a publicity stunt.
David Ginola

Date a Neanderthal –
A science centre in Bristol, England is to host a “Neanderthal speed dating” event and is looking for two actors to improvise “early hominids” and will supply “suitable wigs and fur”. The adult-only Valentine’s evening would give visitors a chance to think about whether they would date “homo neanderthalensis”.

Video of the Day –

Google Glass as it was meant to be.

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January 18, 2015

Top News Stories –

Pope takes Mass with 6 million people –
Pope Francis finishes his tour of the Philippines giving Mass in front of an estimated 6 million people in Rizal Park in the capital Manila. This appears to be a record attendance for a papal event eclipsing the 5 million who saw Pope John Paul II in Manila in 1995.

AB de Villers gets fastest ODI ton –
A new record for the fastest 100 in a one-day international (ODI) by South Africa batsman AB de Villiers who hit a century off 31 balls during an innings of 149 against the West Indies in Johannesburg. Including 8 fours and 10 sixes to beat the previous ODI record of 36 balls by New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson against West Indies on January 1st 2015 but doesn’t match Chris Gayle’s 100 from 30 balls in the Indian Premier League on April 23rd 2013. See List of the Day below.

Vonn’s record causes Tiger to lose a tooth –
American skier Lindsey Vonn (@lindseyvonn) has won her 63rd World Cup downhill title with a win in the super-G race in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy overtaking the record set by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell over 35 years ago. Vonn’s boyfriend is golfer Tiger Woods who surprised her by being at the podium after the event. In the media scrum to get pictures of the skier a hand-held camera knocked out one of Wood’s front teeth. She celebrated with this tweet:

Lindsey Vonn

Video of the Day –

Wetness from The Coastal Crew on Vimeo.

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January 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

Hit and miss snow fun –
New York “dodged a bullet” according to Mayor Bill de Blasio after the huge expected snowfall skirted the city. All vehicle movement apart from emergency vehicles had been banned and the subway was shut down. However in Massachusetts the Emergency Management Agency (Mema) shut down the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth “due to loss of offsite power”.

Auschwitz remembered –
70 years since the day that the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland was liberated in 1945 sees ceremonies performed at the camp and around the world.
Birkenau Gate, Auschwitz

Twitter gets video and group DM –
Twitter launch a video function so 30 second mobile video uploads can be played directly in timelines. The platform is also adding a group direct messages function. The video function uses the devices build in camera to produce Vine style clips but longer.

And Snapchat become a “news” outlet –
Snapchat is making content from the news sevices of Vice Media and CNN available to its users and DailyMail.com will offer Snapchat users 10 to 15 of its “highly addictive stories” news, showbiz and lifestyle stories selected by a special editorial team. Each edition will be available for 24 hours.

Video of the Day –

Citizens – “Lighten Up”

Citizens “Lighten Up” Cesare’s remix from Ernest Desumbila on Vimeo.

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June 18, 2015

Top News Stories –

Eton launches online lessons for China –
Eton College is going to launch online lessons for schools in China. From this autumn, the leading UK independent school is going to provide classes in leadership to Chinese students, using live online tuition. The school has formed a partnership with a technology firm to create a company called EtonX. The school, in Berkshire, says any income raised by the international project will be used for bursaries to cover pupils’ fees. Percy Harrison, director of information technology at Eton College, says the school would be able to reach a wider number of pupils, without setting up an overseas campus. [BBC]
The Eton College Coat of Arms

Star Wars: The Force Awakens second trailer sets YouTube world record –
The second trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially the most viewed film trailer on YouTube in a 24-hour period. Guinness World Records says the clip, released in April, was watched more than 30 million views in a day. The trailer sees the return of Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford again, alongside co-pilot Chewbacca. The Force Awakens, the first instalment of the franchise’s new trilogy, will be set 30 years after Return of the Jedi. [BBC Newsbeat] See Video of the Day and List of the Day

Video of the Day –

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser #2

List of the Day –

Fictional Old Etonians (from Wikipedia) –

Bertie Wooster and Psmith from the books by P.G. Wodehouse
The pirate known as Captain Hook in J. M. Barrie‘s play Peter Pan^[128]
The detective Lord Peter Wimsey^[129]
The game shot George Hysteron-Proteron^[130]
Lord Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited^[131]
MI6 Agent James Bond 007. He was expelled from Eton after some “trouble” with a maid. Bond author Ian Fleming also attended the school^[132]
Francis Urquhart is a fictional character created by Michael Dobbs.
Sir Arnold Robinson GCMG CVO MA (Oxon) is a fictional character in the 1980s British sitcom Yes Minister & its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister.
Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones films, when confronted with the possibility of having a baby, says he’ll “visit him at Eton on St Andrew’s Day. The Darcy men have been going to Eton for five generations.”
Jack Gurney, the 14th Earl of Gurney, in Peter Barnes‘s The Ruling Class and its film adaptation, a role that garnered Peter O’Toole an Oscar nomination.
Rudolph Rassendyll from The Prisoner of Zenda.^[133]
Jonathan Higgins from the television series Magnum, P.I.
Captain Arthur Hastings from the books by Agatha Christie^[134]
Rawdon Crawley, the husband of Becky Sharp, from William Makepeace Thackeray‘s Vanity Fair
According to some editions of T.H. White‘s The Once and Future King, Merlyn attended Eton and received a medal for achievement in an unspecified subject (in others he had a medal for being the best scholar at Winchester)^{[citation needed]}
Allan Quatermain from books by H. Rider Haggard
Lord Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville, from the ITV series Downton Abbey
Inspector Thomas “Tommy” Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton from the BBC series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, based on novels by Elizabeth George
Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, played by David McCallum, the chief medical examiner at NCIS, on the television show NCIS
Will Bailey, played by Joshua Malina, from the American serial drama The West Wing.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#CharlestonShooting	#CharlestonShooting	#CharlestonShooting
2	#NoTeEnvioUnWhatsAppPorque	Confederate	#Grey
3	#FelizJueves	#ReplyToASong	#Waterloo200
4	#NadaMejorQue	#LaudatoSi	#EducationFest
5	#MeRePodesSi	#TheNew10	#ReplyToASong
6	Confederate	#Blackhawksrally	Mo Farah
7	Bacca	#BadYearbookMessages	Ramadan Mubarak
8	非リア充orリア充度…	#PresCandidatesBetterThanT…	Fajr
9	#comohacerfelizaunamujer	Lizzie McGuire	Ryan Moore
10	Firmino	#AskOrange	#AskOrange

Other News Stories –

Attacks and armed conflicts

West African offensive
- The Chadian Air Force carries out airstrikes against bases of Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria to avenge twin bombings in Chad‘s capitalN’Djamena three days ago. (Al Jazeera)
- The accidental detonation of an explosive device kills 13 vigilantes and injures 53 others near the town of Monguno in northeast Nigeria. The vigilantes were assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram. (AP via News24)
- At least 38 people were killed in a suspected Boko Haram attack on two villages in Niger. (BBC)

Businesses and economy

Universal Orlando decides to close Wet ‘n Wild Orlando at the end of 2016 to be replaced by Volcano Bay, which is expected to open in 2017.(NewsMax)

Law and crime

Charleston church shooting
- Suspected shooter Dylann Roof is arrested at a traffic stop. Roof is suspected of killing nine people including a South Carolinian state senator.(ABC News) (ITV News)
The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish on the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel is damaged by a suspected arson attack. (i24),(Haaretz), (Times of Israel), (BBC)

Politics and elections

Hong Kong electoral reform
- The Legislative Council of Hong Kong rejects a Beijing-backed electoral reform which sparked the Occupy Central with Love and Peacemovement. (Wall Street Journal)

Religion

At the Vatican, Pope Francis‘s officials in the Roman Curia formally release the text of his most recent encyclical, “Laudato si” (Latin; meaning “Praised Be”, from the famous poem/hymn “Canticle of Brother Sun“, by Saint Francis of Assisi). The text, which had been quite anticipated by many sides on the climate change debate and been criticized by some for his involvement in the politicized and charged issue, had been previously leaked. (Reuters, via MSN, (CNN), (Vatican)

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September 6, 2015

Top News Stories –

Finland: City hands out ‘survival box’ to new students –
A Finnish city is handing out “survival packs” to new students, taking inspiration from the country’s famous baby starter boxes. The city of Lahti has packaged up a selection of essentials for new arrivals to its universities and colleges, helped by contributions from local businesses, national broadcaster Yle reports. More than 1,000 students have received one of the kits so far. And just like the parcels given to expectant mothers across the country, Lahti’s offering comes in a modest cardboard box. Among the items new students will find inside is a bus pass for trips around the city, some locally produced sheets and socks, and a pack of porridge, Yle says. Students can also tuck into the popular Nordic snack salmiakki – a sour, salty liquorice. The survival pack is meant to introduce students to the delights of Lahti while also serving as a marketing opportunity for businesses in the city. [BBC]

BBC plans North Korea broadcasts –
The BBC is to propose an expansion of the World Service – including its first radio broadcasts to North Korea [on short wave radio] – as it sets out plans for its own future. A children’s iPlayer and a pool of 100 local reporters who would share work with newspapers are also planned. Director general Tony Hall will say the aim is to turn the BBC into “an open platform for British creativity”. The BBC is laying out its plans as part of negotiations with the government ahead of charter renewal in 2016. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

MOVEment

MOVEment: Chalayan x AyaBambi and Ryan Heffington from Jacob Sutton on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#OTRAMontreal	#NewMagic8BallAnswers	#UFC191
2	妹の日記念・妹10連…	Purdue	#WALvISR
3	#جيش_قطر_يتجه_ل…	Sarah Palin	#railwayupamovie
4	#BeyonceMadeInAmerica	#RejectedPopTarts	#respectharry
5	#LoQueMasQuiero	#MyBumperSticker	#ItalianGP
6	#LoQueDariaPor	Colin Powell	#BoyzNTheHood
7	마시기	#BeyonceMadeInAmerica	Didier Drogba
8	#FelizDomingo	#IBelieveBlackLivesMatter	#MadeInAmerica
9	#UFC191	#HappyBirthdayDinahDime	PETER HITCHENS
10	#画像フォルダの16��…	Cheetah Girls	#marr

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Disasters and accidents

At least 10 people die and 8 are missing from a South Korean fishing charter that capsized Saturday night off the country’s southern coast. Coast Guard officers said three people survived by clinging to the wreckage for 10 hours. (Sydney Morning Herald) (AFP via New Delhi Television)

International Relations

European migrant crisis
- Pope Francis asks Catholic faithful in Europe to host refugee families fleeing death from war and hunger, and announces the Vatican’s two churches will welcome two families of refugees. (CNN) (NBC4 New York)

Politics and elections

Guatemalan general election, 2015
- Voters in Guatemala go to the polls for a general election. The presidential election appears headed for a runoff election. (AP)

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September 10, 2015

Top News Stories –

New human-like species discovered in S Africa –

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa. The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors. The studies which have been published in the journal Elife also indicate that these individuals were capable of ritual behaviour. The species, which has been named naledi, has been classified in the grouping, or genus,Homo, to which modern humans belong. [BBC] See List of the Day

Pope Francis emojis launched for US visit –
Pope Francis draws huge crowds wherever he goes and now his fans can share their admiration with papal emojis. A new keyboard app is being released to mark the Pope’s upcoming visit to America. You can have the Pope balancing a basketball or riding a taxi (although we suspect he’d prefer his Popemobile). They’re among 52 emojis and 14 GIFs in the app from Swyft Media, the company which created the first ginger emojis.
Pope emojis by Swyft Media

Giant Lenin ‘head’ unearthed 24 years after burial in Berlin –
The giant head of a statue of Russian revolutionary Lenin has been unearthed, 24 years after it was buried in a German forest. Workers dug up the granite structure from woodland outside Berlin, following a campaign by historians. The head was once part of a 19m (62ft) monument to the communist leader, which towered over the east of the city. It was dismantled in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the pieces were buried in a secluded forest. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

iPhone 6s – The Only Thing That’s Changed Is…

List of the Day –

Comparative table of *Homo* species
Species	Temporal range Mya	Habitat	Adult height	Adult mass	Cranial capacity (cm³)	Fossil record	Discovery / publication of name
H. habilis	2.1 – 1.5^[136]	Africa	150 cm (4 ft 11 in)	33–55 kg (73–121 lb)	510–660	Many	1960/1964
H. erectus	1.9 – 0.07^[137]	Africa, Eurasia (Java, China, India, Caucasus)	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)	60 kg (130 lb)	850 (early) – 1,100 (late)	Many^[138]	1891/1892
H. rudolfensis membership in Homo uncertain	1.9	Kenya			700	2 sites	1972/1986
H. gautengensis also classified as H. habilis	1.9 – 0.6	South Africa	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)			3 individuals^[139]	2010/2010
H. ergaster also classified as H. erectus	1.8 – 1.3^[140]	Eastern and Southern Africa			700–850	Many	1975
H. antecessor also classified as H. heidelbergensis	1.2 – 0.8	Spain	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	1,000	2 sites	1997
H. cepranensis a single fossil, possibly H. erectus	0.9 – 0.35	Italy			1,000	1 skull cap	1994/2003
H. heidelbergensis	0.6 – 0.35^[141]	Europe, Africa, China	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	1,100–1,400	Many	1908
H. neanderthalensis possibly a subspecies of H. sapiens	0.35 – 0.04^[142]	Europe, Western Asia	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)	55–70 kg (121–154 lb) (heavily built)	1,200–1,900	Many	(1829)/1864
H. rhodesiensis also classified as H. heidelbergensis	0.3 – 0.12	Zambia			1,300	Very few	1921
H. tsaichangensis possibly H. erectus	0.25 – 0.2	Taiwan				1 individual	pre-2008/2015
H. sapiens (modern humans)	0.2^[143] – present	Worldwide	150 – 190 cm (4 ft 7 in – 6 ft 3 in)	50–100 kg (110–220 lb)	950–1,800	(extant)	—/1758
H. floresiensis classification uncertain	0.10 – 0.012	Indonesia	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)	25 kg (55 lb)	400	7 individuals	2003/2004
Denisova hominin possible H. sapiens subspecies or hybrid	0.04	Russia				1 site	2010
Red Deer Cave people possible H. sapiens subspecies or hybrid	0.0145–0.0115	China				Very few	2012

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
2	#SameOldLove	Pokemon Go	#RenameAFilmLiterally
3	#FelizJueves	#HumanExperienceIn4Words	#charlotteproudman
4	#ChamuyeCuandoDije	Grace Jones	Pokemon Go
5	#CizreUnderAttack	#pitmad	#RejectedAppleProducts
6	#MeCambiaLaCara	#RejectedAppleProducts	Bonang
7	#ZaynWeAreAlwaysHere	#BieberTODAY	#HomoNaledi
8	#SemiIsBack	Bobby Jindal	Jonathan King
9	Palacio de Justicia	Aladdin	iPhone 6s
10	鬼怒川	#FallonTonight	#HumanExperienceIn4Words

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- ISIL attacks a government held air base near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor with dozens of government loyalists and ISIL militants killed. (Reuters)
Operation Martyr Yalçın
- At least 30 people have been killed in the southeastern Turkish city of Cizre following clashes between Turkish security forces and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) supporters. Locals say Cizre has been “under siege” since the militaryimposed a curfew. (BBC)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Air strikes target Houthi political leaders and military bases in Sana’a, Yemen. (Al Jazeera English Online)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- In Japan, tens of thousands are forced to evacuate due to flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Etau. So far, one person is reported as missing. (Radio NZ Online), (AP via US News and World Report), (Al Jazeera English Online),(BBC)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Denmark reopens rail services to Germany after closing rail lines and a motorway in order to stem the flow of migrants on their way to Sweden. (ITV)
- President of the United States Barack Obama directs his administration to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (Washington Post)
Russia–United States relations
- The United States expresses concern about alleged Russian military activities in Syria. (Al Jazeera English Online)
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
- The United States Senate fails to pass a resolution blocking approval of the nuclear agreement with Iran, meaning it will formally be adopted on October 19. (New York Times)

Law and crime

An indigenous Lumad child dies in an evacuation center while the Philippine Senate investigates the alleged September 1 murders of an indigenous Lumad family and the alleged rape of an indigenous Manobo girl by soldiers and militiamen of the Philippine Army. (Rappler), (Mindanao News), (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Azerbaijan jails journalist Khadija Ismayilova after a trial that many believe is politically-motivated. (Al Jazeera English Online)
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for allegedly inciting violence at anti-government rallies. (AP)
A U.S. federal jury awards nearly $17.5 million to five former migrant workers at a South Florida farm in their case of sexual harassment and abuse in their work. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, steps aside after the Democratic Unionist Party fails to get enough support to adjourn the assembly. (BBC)

Science and technology

Homo naledi
- Elife publishes a discovery by scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand announcing a new species of hominid (Homo naledi) in the Rising Star Cave in South Africa. Although the remains have yet to be properly dated, they could be three million years old. (BBC) (Al Jazeera English Online)

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September 23, 2015

Top News Stories –

Facebook launches 360 video with Star Wars exclusive –
A short, exclusive Star Wars clip is among the first 360-degree videos to be posted on Facebook. The sequence, created by Lucasfilm’s special effects team ILMxLAB, allows users to look in all directions as the camera whizzes through the sci-fi scene. When watched on a normal computer, the mouse is used to move the view. On mobile devices, a user can move the device around to alter the perspective. Other 360 videos posted include content from Discovery, GoPro, NBC and Vice.[BBC]

All About That Bass writer says he got $5,679 from 178m streams –
Kevin Kadish, who wrote All About That Bass, says he made just $5,679 (£3,700) from 178 million streams of the song. “I’ve never heard a songwriter complain about radio royalties as much as streaming royalties,” Mr Kadish said. “That was the real issue for us, like one million streams equals $90 (£59).” Mr Kadish co-wrote All About That Bass with singer Meghan Trainor. She became the first act to enter the UK top 40 based purely on streams of All About That Bass. Streaming now accounts for one-third of the US music industry’s income, which remains relatively flat, with total revenue down 0.5% to $3.17bn (£2.05bn). [BBC Newsbeat]
Meghan Trainor

Video of the Day –

The Angry Birds Movie – Official Teaser Trailer

List of the Day –

List of most streamed songs in the United Kingdom – [from Wikipedia]

Song title	Artist	Released	Streams (millions)
“Radioactive“	Imagine Dragons	October 2012	19.7+
“Pompeii“	Bastille	February 2013	32.0+
“Let Her Go“	Passenger	February 2013	21.7+
“Get Lucky“	Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams	April 2013	24.5+
“Counting Stars“	OneRepublic	June 2013	19.7+
“Blurred Lines“	Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams	May 2013	20.7+
“Wake Me Up!“	Avicii	July 2013	21.4+
“All of Me“	John Legend	August 2013	38.7+
“Happy“	Pharrell Williams	November 2013	40.0+
“Timber“	Pitbull featuring Kesha	December 2013	21.0+
“Rather Be“	Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne	January 2014	41.0+
“Take Me to Church“	Hozier	January 2014	50.8
“Waves“	Mr Probz	February 2014	32.1+
“Stay with Me“	Sam Smith	April 2014	29.1+
“Thinking Out Loud“	Ed Sheeran	June 2014	60.1
“Uptown Funk“	Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars	December 2014	60.0
“Love Me like You Do“	Ellie Goulding	February 2015	30.0
“Cheerleader“	OMI	April 2015	40.0
“See You Again“	Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth	April 2015	29.5

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#NoQuieroEnamorartePero	#LameApocalypses	Happy Diwali
2	#MessageToSelf	#AvengersAgeOfUltron	#MOBOAwards2014
3	#ReContraDaPara	#OttawaShooting	Lille
4	Happy Diwali	Halloween	Harry Roberts
5	Nathan Cirillo	Diwali in India	Age of Ultron
6	#NothingBeatsFIRST	#SheNeverLeft	Balotelli
7	#AngGustoKoLangNaman	Between Two Ferns	Alvin Stardust
8	#AklımdaykenSöyleyeyim	#AgeofUltron	#AgeofUltron
9	Diwali in India	#ICryAtRavesWhen	#OttawaShooting
10	Between Two Ferns	Avengers 2	MOBOs

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Colombian conflict (1964–present)
- The President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of FARC Timoleón Jiménez will announce a deal on justice for crimes committed in the fifty-year-long conflict. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
- Pope Francis makes his first ever visit to the U.S. and becomes the third Pope to visit the White House. He was received in an official welcome ceremony by President and Mrs. Obama and is scheduled to meet with a bishops’ conference of the United States and hold mass and canonize Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, near the Catholic University of America. (AP via MSN), (The New York Times), (Washington Post), (CNN)

Business and economy

Volkswagen emissions violations
- Martin Winterkorn resigns as the CEO of Volkswagen as a result of an emissions cheating scandal. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Two trains collide in Central Jakarta, Indonesia. (Tempo)

Law and crime

Egypt pardons al-Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who have been recently sentenced to three years in prison. (BBC)
European migrant crisis
- Slovakia mounts a legal challenge to mandatory quotas decided in a European Union ministerial summit yesterday. (BBC)

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September 24, 2015

Top News Stories –

Hajj Stampede Near Mecca Leaves Over 700 Dead –
In streaming ribbons of white, great masses of Muslim pilgrims made their way between cities of air-conditioned tents toward the next stop on their holy tour of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Then something went disastrously wrong, trapping the crowds in narrow streets and touching off a mass panic and crushing stampede that left the asphalt covered with lost sandals, crumpled wheelchairs and piles of white-robed bodies. It was the deadliest accident during the hajj pilgrimage in a quarter-century, with at least 717 pilgrims from around the world killed and more than 850 injured. [NY Times]

Russian billionaire hands two ‘stolen’ Picassos to French authorities –
A Russian billionaire has handed in to French authorities two Picassos, valued at £20 million, that the artist’s stepdaughter claims were stolen from her. Dmitri Rybolovlev, who owns Monaco football club, insists he acquired the portraits of Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Picasso, in good faith from Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier. In a statement, Mr Rybolovlev’s family trust said it was handing over “Tête de femme. Profil” [Head of a Woman. Profile] and “Espagnole à l’éventail” [Spanish Woman with a Fan] as they “possess immeasurable aesthetic and sentimental value” for Catherine Hutin-Blay, Jacqueline’s daughter. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Lenny’s Garage from Peter Crosby on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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6	#MessageToSelf	#MakeAMoviePG	#artRAVELondon
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9	#HappyKrystalDay	#MarysvilleShooting	#LifeStory
10	Here Comes Honey Boo Boo	Run The Jewels 2	#AskNigelFarage

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- At least 29 people are killed in a bombing of a mosque in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during prayers for Eid al-Adha. (CNN)
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
- The government of Armenia claims that Azerbaijani forces shelled Tavush Province resulting in three deaths. (AFP via France 24)
Arab–Israeli conflict
- Israel’s security cabinet issues a three-year temporary order that sets a four-year minimum sentence for adult stone- and firebomb-throwers. In addition, new rules of engagement allow police to open fire when the life of a third party is under threat. (NBC News), (Haaretz), (Newsweek)
2015 Burkinabé coup d’état
- The coup is reversed. Interim President Michel Kafando and interim Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida are reinstalled, and government soldiers are returned to their stations. Coup leader Gen. Gilbert Diendéré apologizes for the coup and the week-long unrest that killed at least 10 people. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suggests that elections, originally scheduled for Oct. 11, be held Nov. 22, and that candidate eligibility rules be more inclusive. (AP via Washington Post),(Reuters), (Big News Network)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
- Pope Francis becomes the first Pope ever to address a Joint Session of the United States Congress. Afterwards, he greets onlookers at the National Mall. He addresses many issues: abortion and the sanctity of life, the importance of the family and of marriage, climate change, immigration and the refugee crises caused by global unrest, proper business conduct, and worldwide abolition of capital punishment. (AP via MSN), (CNN), (Washington Post), (Time), (Vatican)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Hajj stampede
- At least 719 people are dead and 863 people injured in a stampede near Mecca during the Hajj pilgramage in Saudi Arabia. (BBC), (The New York Times), (Washington Post)
At least four people are killed and 12 critically injured after a charter bus, a Ride the Ducks tour vehicle, and two smaller vehicles crash on the Aurora Bridge in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington. (King 5)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Ten thousand migrants enter Hungary, mostly from Croatia, despite efforts by the Hungarian government and military to stop them. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Croatia and Serbia restrict cross-border traffic. (Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia)
Luhansk People’s Republic officials in Donetsk told U.N. agencies and several other international NGOs to leave the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Despite the Minsk Protocol and Minsk II peace agreements low intensity fighting and shelling continued non-stop in the region for over a year. There are fears that full-scale war will start because the breakaway regions plan on holding local elecion without approval from the Ukrainian government. (AP via ABC News)

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September 28, 2015

Top News Stories –

‘Supermoon’ coincides with lunar eclipse –
People around the world have observed a rare celestial event, as a lunar eclipse coincided with a so-called “supermoon”. A supermoon occurs when the Moon is in the closest part of its orbit to Earth, meaning it appears larger in the sky. The eclipse – which made the Moon appear red – has been visible in North America, South America, West Africa and Western Europe. This phenomenon was last observed in 1982 and will not be back before 2033. [BBC]
The supermoon on September 28, 2015

Record number of guns found in U.S. airport searches –
U.S. airport security agents discovered a record 67 firearms in luggage passengers intended to carry on to airplanes during one week in September, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Of the 67 firearms found during the week ended Sept. 17, 56 were loaded and 26 had a round in the chamber, the TSA reported. The tally set a new weekly record. The prior record was 65 firearms found during a week in May 2013, TSA said. Nationwide, TSA officers have found more than 2,000 firearms at airport security checkpoints so far this year. [Reuters]

Martian salt streaks ‘painted by liquid water’ –
Scientists think they can now tie dark streaks seen on the surface of Mars to periodic flows of liquid water. Data from a Nasa satellite shows the features, which appear on slopes, to be associated with salt deposits. Crucially, such salts could alter the freezing and vaporisation points of water in Mars’s sparse air, keeping it in a fluid state long enough to move. Luju Ojha and colleagues report the findings in the journal Nature Geoscience. There are implications for the existence of life on the planet today, because any liquid water raises the possibility that microbes could also be present. And for future astronauts on Mars, the identification of water supplies near the surface would make it easier for them to “live off the land”. [BBC]
Kaiser Gullies

Mount Everest to be declared off-limits to inexperienced climbers, says Nepal –
Nepalese officials say they will introduce regulations banning inexperienced climbers from attempting Mount Everest in an attempt to improve safety and maintain the “glory” of the summit. Permits to climb Everest will only be given to those who can prove they have already scaled mountains that are higher than 6,500 metres, officials said. Disabled, old and very young people also face bans. The permits cost thousands of dollars and are a key source of revenue for Nepal. It is unclear how the demand for “proof of competence” might be enforced. [Guardian] An earthquake hit the region on May 12, 2015 killing 18 climbers and guides on the mountain.

Video of the Day –

PilotPriest | The Last Goodbye from FatCat Films on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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4	Marte	#MarsAnnouncement	Ben Arfa
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9	#ALDUBThisMustBeLove	#Ask5SOSVevo	#labconf15
10	#QuieroUnMundoDonde	Grace Jones	Arctic

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The Taliban seize control of the provincial capital of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Locals say militants have raised their flag above the city’s main square. (Sky News), (The News Hub)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- An Arab Coalition air-strike on a wedding party in Wahijah, a village near the Red Sea port city of Mocha in southern Yemen, reportedly leaves at least 38 people dead. (BBC)
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- ISIL claims responsibility for the killing of an Italian man in Dhaka. If verified, it would be Islamic State’s first attack in Bangladesh. (AP)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
- Pope Francis returns to Rome after finishing his trip to Cuba and the United States. (CNN)

Business and economy

Royal Dutch Shell halts its drilling program for oil and gas off the coast of Alaska citing high costs and a challenging regulatory environment. (Bloomberg)
Sahaviriya Steel Industries closes the Teesside Steelworks in the Redcar and Cleveland borough in northern England resulting in the loss of 1,700 jobs. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Taiwan prepares for the impact of Typhoon Dujuan tonight, with thousands of people evacuated from outlying islands ahead of this. (AFP via France 24)

Politics and elections

Pro-Serbian opposition from the Democratic Front holds a mass protest rally in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, demanding the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. (The News Hub)
Catalonian parliamentary election, 2015
- Separatists won a clear majority of seats in Catalonia’s parliament (72 out of 135) in this weekend’s election that saw a record turnout of 78 percent. The winners will seek to unilaterally declare independence within 18 months. Spain’s constitution does not allow any region to break away. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vows to fight the separatist plan. (BBC), (AP via U.S. News & World Report)

Science and technology

NASA states that it has found the best evidence yet of the existence of liquid water on Mars. The water is not pure but highly poisonous containing various dissolved salts that on Earth only an extremophile microbe might survive within. (News Limited viaDaily Telegraph), (NASA), (CNBC)
The Indian Space Research Organization successfully launches its first dedicated-astronomical research satellite, Astrosat. (Times of India)

Sports

The Government of Nepal bans inexperienced mountaineers, as well as people with disabilities, from attempting to climb Mount Everest. (The Guardian)

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September 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

Eight of Iran’s women’s football team ‘are men’ –
Eight of Iran’s women’s football team are actually men awaiting sex change operations, it has been claimed. The country’s football association was accused of being “unethical” for knowingly fielding eight men in its women’s team. Mojtabi Sharifi, an official close to the Iranian league, told an Iranian news website: “[Eight players] have been playing with Iran’s female team without completing sex change operations.” On Wednesday, authorities reportedly ordered gender testing of the entire national squad and leading league players. The names of the players thought to be male were not revealed. [Daily Telegraph]

Electricity from the air – Drayson’s big idea –
Free energy from the air. It sounds like a fantasy but that is what the entrepreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson has just unveiled at London’s Royal Institution. He claims that a technology called Freevolt can be the power source for the “internet of things”, allowing low energy devices from wearables to sensors to operate without being plugged in. The technology involves harvesting radio frequency energy from existing wireless and broadcast networks, from 4G to digital television. Lord Drayson says it’s a world first: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment.” The technology was demonstrated in the lecture theatre at the Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday worked on electromagnetism in the 19th Century. Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker. [BBC]
Lord Drayson

Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in fatal car crash: prosecutors –
Former Olympic champion and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in connection with a crash in Malibu earlier this year that killed a 69-year-old woman, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Wednesday. Based on the facts in the case, prosecutors lacked evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jenner’s conduct was unreasonable, according to documents provided by Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Jenner, 65, was driving a Cadillac Escalade along Pacific Coast Highway and towing a trailer carrying a dune buggy when she slammed into two other cars, according to authorities. During the crash, a white Lexus being driven by 69-year-old Kim Howe was shoved by Jenner’s sport-utility vehicle across a center divider and into oncoming traffic, where it was struck head-on by a Hummer. [Reuters]

Video of the Day –

Why Is There a Magnet Inside My Dog?

Top Twitter Trends –

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9	Bino	#RuinAnAnimatedMovie	#RaceRiotsUSA
10	iOS 9.0.2	Hump Day	Tom Watson

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
- The upper chamber of the Russian parliament approves a law allowing the use of the Russian Armed Forces outside its borders, following a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin. (The News Hub)
- Russia begins airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria following a request from President Bashar al-Assad. A U.S. official said the air attack struck near the Syrian city of Homs, where the official said ISIS currently does not have a major presence.(NPR), (ABC News), (Washington Post)
- The Western-backed Syrian rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, says one of its ‘leading officers’ has been killed in a Russian airstrike in the central Homs Governorate. (AP)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present), Battle of Kunduz
- The U.S.-led coalition dispatches American troops to Kunduz to help Afghan forces combat Taliban militants. (The Washington Post)
2006 Mumbai train bombings
- An Indian court sentences five suspected Islamic militants to death and seven others to life imprisonment for bombing attacks nine years ago on seven Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded more than 800. (AP via ABC News),(Reuters), (BBC)
At least six people are killed and dozens injured in explosions at 15 locations in Liucheng County in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The explosives were reportedly concealed inside express delivery packages. Chinese officials have identified a suspect, but the motive is not yet known. (South China Morning Post), (UPI)
2015 Hajj stampede
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns Saudi Arabia of “harsh” measures if the Kingdom fails to promptly repatriate the bodies of more than 200 Iranian pilgrims killed in last week’s Hajj stampede. (AP via Denver Post), (Reuters)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- An Iranian fishing boat loaded with weapons, including rockets and anti-tank shells, is intercepted and seized in the Arabian Sea, 150 miles southeast of the Omani Port of Salalah, by Arab coalition forces. Saudi Arabia has previously accused Iran of supplying weapons to Houthi militants in Yemen. (BBC)

Arts and culture

The Dalai Lama, following his routine check-up at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, cancels his U.S. speaking engagements in October after doctors advised him to rest. The 80-year-old Tibetan Buddhist leader is scheduled to return home to Dharamsala, India, Saturday. (The Times of India), (Radio Free Asia)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Effects of global warming on oceans
- A hurricane warning is in place in The Bahamas as Tropical Storm Joaquin approaches the islands. Joaquin (max. winds 70 mph) will pass over ocean with temperatures near 86°F (30°C) – the warmest since record keeping began in 1880, and is forecast to become a hurricane today. Joaquin is expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible over San Salvador and Rum Cay. The storm is predicted to accelerate and be several hundred miles off the North Carolina coast Sunday morning. (National Hurricane Center), (UPI), (Reuters)
- Tropical Storm Joaquin strengthens to a Category 1 hurricane (75 mph winds) as it nears The Bahamas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says additional strengthening is expected over the next two days. (USA Today), (NHC)
- With maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, Joaquin is upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane. It is expected to pass The Bahamas Thursday, bringing tropical-storm-force winds, storm surges, coastal flooding and 5-10 inches of rain. While the European forecast model suggests Joaquin will avoid the U.S. East Coast, the American model predicts it will ram into Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina this weekend. (NBC News), (NHC)
- Governor Terry McAuliffe declares a state of emergency as Virginia prepares for potentially dangerous flooding from a separate Nor’easter storm system and the possible landfall of Hurricane Joaquin. (Virginia), (Inside Northern Va.)
- Hurricane Joaquin reaches maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and becomes a Category 3 hurricane. The storm, with additional strengthening expected, should linger over the The Bahamas through October 2 before heading toward the U.S. (ABC News), (NHC)
An earthquake strikes the Dutch province of Groningen, damaging some buildings. (NL Times)

International relations

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, states that Palestine will no longer abide by the Oslo accords and claims that Israel has not been complying with them. (CNN)
The black, white, red, and green flag of the State of Palestine is raised above the grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the first time. (Newsweek), (The Guardian)

Law and crime

The American state of Georgia executes Kelly Gissendaner for her role in the murder of her husband despite several appeals and a plea for clemency by Pope Francis. (AP via News 12), (Daily Mail)
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issues a 37-day stay of Richard Glossip’s execution that was scheduled for today to allow the American state time to address questions about chemicals and protocol. Pope Francis, who spent last week in the U.S., askedArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, to intercede with the governor and request she commute Glossip’s sentence. (CNN), (Reuters)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 6, 2015

Top News Stories –

Pope Francis releases first ‘pop-rock’ album –
His wise homilies and moving speeches already attract worshippers in their millions. Now Pope Francis will be hoping his popularity translates into record sales after his first pop-rock album was released in Italy on Friday. Wake Up!, an 11-track Vatican-approved album, features many of the most moving addresses of Pope Francis’s papacy laid over rap, pop-rock and Latin rhythms. An online extract from the record, which was released at the end of September, has already been listened to a billion times, according to distributors. Speaking at the record’s launch at the Vatican, Father Giulio Neroni, the Italian priest who produced the album, said: “Pope Francis doesn’t sing as such. But his voice does sing and play, not to the cardinals, but to the people, the faithful.” [Daily Telegraph]
Pope Francis

Mysterious billion-dollar car company takes on Tesla –
Faraday Future, the startup backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, has big dreams of taking on Tesla Motors Inc, starting with a $1 billion investment in a new US factory that will build electric cars starting in 2017. Nick Sampson, a former Tesla director who is Faraday’s senior vice president of research and development, said Faraday plans to introduce its first electric car in two years and quickly follow with several other models. Faraday is based in Gardena, California, where it has been developing its first model with 400 employees. Jia Yueting is founder and chairman of Leshi Television, a popular Chinese online video site. [Daily Telegraph]

Warcraft film trailer is shown to fans for the first time –
Finally, the new Warcraft movie trailer’s out – and it looks awesome. Fans got the chance to see it at the Blizzcon gaming convention in California on Friday. Director Duncan Jones hopes it appeals to people who don’t play MMO (massively multiplayer online) games like the one its based on, World of Warcraft. The film’s based on the blockbuster video game series, World of Warcraft, which has won millions of fans all over the world since its launch in 2004. The teaser clip shows the world of Azeroth descended into darkness, pitting sworn enemies – the humans and the orcs – against each other in an epic battle. It opens in cinemas on 3 June next year in the UK. [BBC Newsbeat] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Warcraft – Official Trailer

Top Twitter Trends –

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8	#1DHistory	#7DaysUntilMITAM	#FlavorAFilm
9	#OneWeekUntilPURPOSE	Coldplay	#1DHistory
10	Hayırlı Cumalar	Warcraft	#firstdates

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- Israeli forces shoot and kill a 72-year-old woman in Halhul, a town near Hebron. The soldiers say she attempted to wound them with her car. Her son denies this, saying his mother was on her way to lunch with her sister. Later, three Israelis are shot and wounded, one seriously, in two incidents in Hebron. (Al Jazeera English) (The Guardian) (Haaretz)
Syrian Civil War
- Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors conclusively identify mustard gas as the toxic agent used in the battle between Islamic State (IS) insurgents and a anti-Assad rebel group in the Syrian town of Mare’ in the northern Alleppo province on August 21, 2015. This is the first confirmation of its use by non-state actors in Syria’s four-year-old conflict. (Christian Science Monitor) (Washington Post)
- The Ajnad al-Sham and other rebel forces recapture the village of Atshan and surrounding areas in Hama province, consolidating significant advances made the day before at the expense of pro-government forces. (Fox News) (Reuters)

Art and culture

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) new policy states those in a same-sex marriage are to be considered apostates, and children living in a same-sex household may not be blessed as babies, or baptized until they are 18. (Washington Post) (AP)

Business and economics

India has cancelled Greenpeace India’s license to operate and gave the group 30 days to close down, citing financial fraud and falsification of data, the environment watchdog said on Friday. (NDTV) (Reuters)
U.S. job growth for October 2015 saw the biggest gains since December 2014, fueling hopes that the Federal Reserve Board will increase near-zero interest rates at its December meeting. (Reuters)
U.S. President Barack Obama announces that the State Department has rejected TransCanada‘s application to complete the Keystone XL pipeline. (New York Times) (NPR) (Al Jazeera English)

Disasters and accidents

Kogalymavia Flight 9268
- Russia has ordered the suspension of all flights to Egypt following indications that the crash near Sharm el-Sheikh was caused by a bomb.(BBC)
Minas Gerais dam disaster
- Thursday’s flooding and devastating mudslides at the BHP-Vale mine in Minas Gerais involved two dams, not one as initially reported. Brazilian officials report the mud flow is eight kilometers (five miles) long and 2.5 meters deep. Those rescued – and emergency services – are being decontaminated; mining spoils being treated as toxic. There is no official information on the number of casualties or the cause of the incident. The company that runs the mine says it detected seismic activity right before the breach. Both BHP and Vale shares declined over five percent. Brazilian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation. (Mashable) (Bloomberg) (CCTV)

Health and medicine

Researchers at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania‘s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) successfully use a 3-D printer (specifically, a fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer) to produce hair-like strands, inspired by the use of a hot glue gun to produce gossamer strands. Also, using certain materials (like collagens, alginates, and fibrins), with a 3-D printer and special bioprinting techniques, another team at CMU produced human coronary arteries and small, embryonic-like human hearts. (MSN), (CMU), (CMU)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a new, all-in-one pill to treat HIV patients that includes a new version of the drug tenofovir, which researchers think will help reduce side effects from the multi-drug regimens used for HIV. (UPI)

International relations

Indonesia–Philippines relations
- Indonesia and the Philippines discuss their borders after the Indonesian Navy sinks four Filipino fishing vessels off the coast of the Philippines triggering a diplomatic dispute. (Business World)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
- U.S. officials say the U.S. Navy deliberately avoided military drills or other actions that could have further inflamed tensions with Beijing during the USS Lassen’s patrol in the South China Sea last week. For instance, the Lassen turned off its fire-control radars while transiting within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. On its part, the Chinese destroyer following the Lassen was, “very cordial the entire time … before and after the Spratly Islands transit,” said the Lassen’s commanding officer, Commander Robert Francis. (Reuters) (New York Post)
European migrant crisis
- Reuters reports the Obama Administration will be opening new screening centers for Syrian refugees in Iraq and Lebanon to speed up the process for getting vetted individuals to the United States. (Reuters)
Turkey–United States relations
- The U.S Air Force deploys six F-15C fighter jets to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to help defend Turkish airspace against potential intruders. (AP)
Egypt–United States relations
- Egypt receives the final four of its order of 20 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters, according to the Defense Ministry. The United States had delayed delivery following the 2013 coup d’état. (UPI)
Japan–United States relations
- Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga says he “cannot comply with the recommendation” from Tokyo’s Land Minister Keiichi Ishii, and will not retract his revocation of a U.S. military base relocation permit. (UPI)

Politics and elections

The U.S. House passes the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 370-58. In addition to funding the U.S. military, the bill contains provisions for sweeping personnel reforms. The previous version of the bill was vetoed by President Barack Obama. Some sources expect swift passage by the U.S. Senate while other sources are not so optimistic. (Defense News) (The Hill)

Science and technology

The United States Federal Communications Commission rejects privacy advocacy group Consumer Watchdog’s petition to make it illegal for Internet companies like Google, Facebook and ad providers to ignore “Do Not Track” browser settings. (NBC News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 25, 2015

Top News Stories –

Adele’s album 25 breaks US record previously held by *NSYNC –
It’s not that much of a surprise, it was widely predicted, but Adele’s new album is doing quite well (understatement.) It’s broken the record for first week album sales in the US, selling 2.4 million copies since Friday.
The record was previously held by boy band *NSYNC and their second album, No Strings Attached, from 2000. Adele won’t be making the album available on music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music for now.
It takes a powerful artist to still do well despite not being on the big streaming services. Taylor Swift did it last year, withdrawing her material from Spotify. [BBC Newsbeat]
Adele

The condom challenge is the latest bizarre trend sweeping the internet –
It’s been at least a few weeks since the last ridiculous internet trend, so let us introduce the condom challenge. In apparent homage to the long-forgotten Ice Bucket Challenge, the new trend involves people filling up condoms with water and dropping it on the head of a friend, significant other or loved one. Videos of people dropping condoms full of water have been flooding social media feeds in recent weeks. [Daily Telegraph]
Condom Challenge

Queen asks judges to decide if DNA evidence can ‘uncover affair’ in Scottish hereditary title dispute –
Accountant Murray Pringle, 74, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Simon Pringle, 56, a businessman who lives near Hastings, East Sussex, both lay claim to the baronetcy of Pringle of Stichill. The Queen has asked senior judges to make a decision on the dispute under a piece of legislation dating back more than 150 years. The men are both members of a Scottish family fighting over the rights to the baronetcy. Seven judges are now analysing evidence at a hearing of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The hearing was expected to finish on Wednesday but judges, who are all Supreme Court justices, are not expected to publish a ruling until next year. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Happy Place from sharp & jenkins on Vimeo.

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9	#WelcomeToMexico1D	Happy Thanksgiving Eve	Roma
10	Civil War	#8MonthsWithoutZayn	#ThanksgivingClapBack

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
- Insurgents attack an Indian Army base in northern Kashmir. At least three attackers are killed. (NDTV) (Reuters)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, says Russia will deploy its S-400 defense missile system at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria‘s Latakia Governorate. (RT)
- Several trucks are left burning at a rebel-run border crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border after a Russian airstrike hit what was reported to be an aid convoy in the town of Azaz. At least seven people are reportedly killed. (Reuters) (Daily Sabah)
Balochistan conflict
- Unidentified gunmen abduct 22 passengers from a coach in Kandasool near the city of Pasni. (Daily Times)
Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claim responsibility for yesterday’s attack on Tunisia‘s presidential guard in Tunis that killed 14 people. (AP)
Germany will deploy up to 650 troops to Mali as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). (The Daily Star)
Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- The United Arab Emirates has recruited several hundred Central and South American mercenaries to fight the Houthis in Yemen. (New York Times)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- The French Senate votes 325-0 to extend the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (AP)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Several American personnel are suspended after an official report finds that human error was to blame for an airstrike on a Doctors without Borders hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz in October that killed 30 people. No criminal charges were filed.(CNN)

Arts and culture

An 18th-century pink Indian diamond worth at least $5 million and a Cartier diamond tiara are discovered in the jewelry recovered from Imelda Marcos. (The Guardian)
The Gambia bans female genital mutilation with President Yahya Jammeh saying it is not required in Islam. (BBC)

Business and economics

The new 20 euro note, the third in the Europa series, enters into circulation today. The European Central Bank says the banknote has a “refreshed look and more vibrant colours,” and includes a new kind of security feature: a “portrait window” near the top of the hologram stripe which becomes transparent when seen against the light. (Sofia Globe)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 Australian bushfire season
- A bushfire burns out of control near the South Australian town of Wasleys with authorities warning of significant risk to lives and property. Two deaths have been confirmed with another person feared dead, (ABC News Australia), (ABC News)

Health and medicine

Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to North America
- A one-year old baby girl with an apparently incurable illness, who was kissed by Pope Francis during his visit to Philadelphia in September, gets MRI results showing her brain tumor has shrunk significantly. Some friends and family call it the “Miracle onMarket Street.” (NBC News) (Philadephia Daily News

International relations

Russia–Ukraine gas disputes
- Russia‘s Gazprom halts gas supplies to Ukraine until the Ukrainian government pays in advance for future supplies to replenish the current supplies of gas that it has used up; Ukraine says it has stopped buying from Gazprom because it can get cheaper gas from Europe. Roughly 15% of the gas used in Europe travels through Ukraine, and a previous cut-off of gas supplies in 2009 caused serious disruptions in shipments to EU countries at the height of winter. (Sky News) (BBC)
Ukraine bans all Russian planes from using its airspace. (BBC)
Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis makes his first official visit to Africa. (Reuters)
- Francis encourages Kenyans to work for peace and forgiveness amid a wave of extremist violence on the continent which has threatened to disrupt his trip. His six-day pilgrimage will also take him to Uganda and the Central African Republic. (AP via The Salt Lake Tribune)
The Associated Press reports that Russia’s crackdown on Muslims is fueling their exodus to ISIS. For example, Russia’s southernmost republic of Dagestan keeps devout Muslims under surveillance, routinely raids their homes, and hauls them to police stations to give DNA samples and fingerprints. Regional police say nearly a third of the estimated 3,000 Russians who are believed to have gone to fight alongside IS militants in Syria are from Dagestan. The AP added, “Few efforts are made by Russian authorities to stop young men from leaving.” (AP)
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions Syrian businessman George Haswani who “serves as a middleman” for oil purchases by the Syrian government from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. His company, an engineering and construction firm, is also sanctioned. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Former world cruiserweight boxing champion O’Neil Bell is shot to death in a robbery in the American city of Atlanta, Georgia. (Daily Mail)
Sergey Mironov, leader of the Russian opposition party, A Just Russia, submits a bill to the State Duma on holding to account anyone who denies that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces was a “genocide”. (Reuters)
General Motors ignition switch scandal
- U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rules General Motors Co., and its outside law firm King & Spalding, do not have to turn over lawyer-client documents from previously settled ignition switch lawsuits to plaintiffs’ lawyers in pending cases. (The Detriot News)

Sports

Ukrainian marathon runner Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko is given a four-year ban for a doping offence. (AP)
Former U.S National Football League star, Frank Gifford, who died last August at age 84, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to head injuries commonly found in football, Gifford’s family announced. (CNN)(New York Times)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 26, 2015

Top News Stories –

Pirate needs 200,000 video views to avoid being sued –
A convicted software pirate has been handed an unusual punishment. The man, named only as Jakub F, will be spared having to pay hefty damages – as long as a film denouncing piracy he was made to produce gets 200,000 views.
He came to the out-of-court settlement with a host of firms whose software he pirated after being convicted by a Czech court. In return, they agreed not to sue him. The 30-year-old was also given a three-year suspended sentence. The criminal court decided that any financial penalty would have to be decided either in civil proceedings or out of court. The firms, which included Microsoft, HBO Europe, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox, estimated that the financial damage amounted to thousands of pounds, with Microsoft alone valuing its losses at 5.7m Czech Crowns (£148,000). [BBC] The video had received over 212,000 views by today. See Video of the Day

Asteroid mining made legal after passing of ‘historic’ space bill in US –
Business opportunities in space could soon be about to open up for adventurous entrepreneurs after US Congress signed off on a bill to legalise space mining. While some websites are already offering investors the chance to step onto the intergalactic property ladder with a plot on the moon from £16.75, asteroid mining is predicted to become a trillion-dollar industry over the next few decades. Private companies in the US can now legally extract materials from the moon, asteroids and other celestial bodies after a commercial space act was approved by Congress. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

SDÍLENÍM TO ZAČALO, SDÍLENÍM TO MŮŽE SKONČIT

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10	#MeReSobranLasGanasDe	Chip Kelly	#VampsAlbumOutTomorrow

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- The Turkish military releases what it says are a series of audio recordings of warnings issued to a Russian jet before it was shot down near the Syrian border. (ABC Australia)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- The Palestinian Ministry of Health says a 21 year-old man has died in clashes with Israeli Army soldiers. (AP)
Military intervention against ISIL
- British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a speech to the House of Commons says that Islamic extremists have already threatened citizens of the United Kingdom and UK military airstrikes against ISIL in Syria will serve only to make the UK safer. Cameron also says that the UK cannot outsource its security and must stand by France in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks. (BBC)
- Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Minister of Defence, calls on the United Kingdom to join France in bombing ISIL. (The Guardian)
2015 Brussels lockdown, Paris attack aftermath
- Belgian authorities reduce the threat level in Brussels from its highest level of four to three. The escalation to level four came after suspects in the ISIL attacks in Paris were linked to the city. Suspected Paris gunman, Salah Abdeslam, who lived in Brussels for several years, remains at large. (BBC)
- A suspicious powder feared to be anthrax found at a Brussels mosque, close to the European Union headquarters, is a false alarm. Testing determines it is flour. (Reuters) (Intenational Business Times)
Boko Haram
- At least 18 people are killed and over 100 homes torched after Boko Haram militants attacked a village near the commune of Bosso in Niger‘s southern Diffa Region. (AFP via Yahoo)

Disasters and accidents

At least 15 people are killed after a Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter carrying oil workers crashes in eastern Siberia near the Yenisei River. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters)
A sinkhole the size of a football field swallows a large section of beach on Australia‘s North Stradbroke Island. Local authorities have warned beach-goers to stay away from Jumpinpin beach due to fears the sinkhole could grow even larger. (The Guardian)
2015-16 Australian bushfire season
- A New South Wales Rural Fire Service firefighter dies while fighting an out of control bushfire near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley. (Daily Telegraph)
At least eleven people have died and 70 injured after two buses carrying tourism workers collide in the eastern Dominican Republic. (AP)

International relations

Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis condemns the way young people have been “radicalized in the name of religion to sow discord and fear,” during a talk in Nairobi, Kenya. (Washington Post)
- Pope Francis celebrates a historic Mass in Kenya before delivering a stern environmental warning to the world. “It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects,” the Pope said, urging nations to reach agreement over curbing fossil fuel emissions. (CNN)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21)
- France is deploying more than 10,000 personnel to provide security for the two-week UN Climate Change Conference that opens in Le Bourget in Paris on Monday, November 30, 2015. Around 150 heads of state or government are expected to attend COP21’s opening day. (Xinhua News Agency)
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2015
- Queen Elizabeth II (U.K.) arrives in Malta for the Commonwealth summit what begins tomorrow. The then-future Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh lived on the island from 1949-51. The Commonwealth is a group of 53 nations; most member states were once part of the British Empire, 16 remain Commonwealth realms. (Telegraph)
Song Tao is named head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, a key post responsible for relations with other communist parties, replacing Wang Jiarui. (SCMP)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

‘Li-fi 100 times faster than wi-fi’ –
A new method of delivering data, which uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves, has been tested in a working office. Li-fi can deliver internet access 100 times faster than traditional wi-fi, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn. Velmenni used a li-fi-enabled light bulb to transmit data at speeds of 1Gbps. Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of up to 224Gbps. It was tested in an office, to allow workers to access the internet and in an industrial space, where it provided a smart lighting solution. [BBC]

US space rocket debris found in sea off Scilly –
A large chunk of an American space rocket has been found in the sea off the Isles of Scilly. The section of the spacecraft, measuring about 10m (32ft) by 4m (13ft), was spotted on the surface between Bryher and Tresco. Coastguards believe it is from the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 which exploded after take-off in Florida in June. However many astronomers believe it is from a different mission due to the size and markings. Local boatmen towed the section to Tresco where it has now been removed from the beach. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Wild Scotland from John Duncan on Vimeo.

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10	#hommagenational	Kendrick	#AUSvNZ

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

One person is killed and several injured in clashes between police and Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldiers. (ABC News Australia)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- France holds a memorial service for the 130 victims of the attacks two weeks ago. (BBC)
2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- Turkey‘s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warns Russia not to “play with fire” and says Russia is supporting the “state terrorism” of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria that has “killed 380,000 people”. Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have been severely damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 near the Syria–Turkey border on November 24, 2015. (Sky News)
2015 Bamako hotel attack
- Malian forces arrest two men in their early 30s linked to a cell phone found at the scene of last week’s deadly hotel attack. No details are provided on what their exact role was. (CNN)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- Two Palestinian drivers drive their vehicles into groups of Israeli soldiers in two separate attacks in the occupied West bank. Both drivers are shot dead. In this current wave of violence that began in October, 19 Israelis, one U.S. citizen, and 93 Palestinians have died. (Reuters)
- The Israeli cabinet authorizes the Israeli Army to close the village of Beir Ummar near Hebron to search for suspects. (Haaretz)
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
- Pirates attack a Polish-owned cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, kidnapping its captain and four crew. Polish Foreign Minister, Witold Waszczykowski, said the as yet unidentified kidnappers have made no demands so far and Poland was currently liaising with Nigerian authorities. (Reuters)
Islamist insurgency in West Africa
- A suicide-bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in Nigeria‘s northern Kano state leaves at least 21 people dead. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Archaeologists discover four prehistoric Ichma culture tombs in the centre of the Peruvian capital Lima. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

Business and economics

China’s Shanghai index closed down 5.5%, a drop of almost 200 points in what was its largest single-day decline in three months. (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 Australian bushfire season
- At least 87 homes have been lost in the fires that started in Pinery, South Australia which also claimed two lives and hospitalised 90 with five people in a critical condition. (ABC News Australia)
Floodwaters in the North Texas area in the North Texas region of the United States claim at least three lives on Thursday and today with another person missing. (Dallas Morning News)

International relations

Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis, speaking in the Kenyan shantytown Kangemi, a sprawling slum filled with tin-roofed homes, lashes out at the elite in a neighborhood that feels largely disenfranchised. He describes injustices against the poor, such as unfair distribution of land, and lack of access to infrastructures and basic services, as “new forms of colonialism.” (CNN)
- Francis, at a Nairobi sports center, says education and jobs will prevent young people from being radicalized and heading off to join militant groups. At the Kasarani Stadium, the Pope urges attendees to resist the temptation of corruption. “It’s in all the institutions, including in the Vatican …” (USA Today)
Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, is appointed as the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. She will become the first woman to hold the position from April 2016. (NYSE Post)

Law and crime

Former Saenuri Party member of the South Korean National Assembly Cho Hyun-ryong is jailed for five years for accepting bribes. (Yonhap)
The appellate prosecutors office in the Polish city of Krakow decides not to appeal a decision against extraditing filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States to face prosecution for historic child sex offences. (Reuters)
2015 Colorado Springs shootings
- An active shooter in a Planned Parenthood facility in the American city of Colorado Springs shoots at least four members of the Colorado Springs Police Department with one officer later dying. Two civilians were also killed, and six were injured. The shooter later surrendered. (Denver Post) (Reuters) (NBC News) (CNN)

Politics

Detroit, a city in which neighborhoods are disappearing, banks aren’t lending, and property values are among the lowest in the nation, is looking to reverse these trends. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is moving aggressively to demolish structures that are beyond repair and auction (bids start at $1,000) ones that are salvageable. Some community banks are helping new buyers. (Washington Post)
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a major overhaul of China’s military to make the world’s largest army more combat ready and better equipped to project force beyond the country’s borders. Under the reorganization, all branches of the armed forces would come under a joint military command, Xi told a meeting of military officials in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Bloomberg in September reported details of the plan, which may also seek to consolidate the country’s seven military regions to as few as four. The Chinese president said the reform aimed to “build an elite combat force” and called on the officials to make “breakthroughs” on establishing the joint command by 2020, Xinhua said. (Bloomberg)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

New Zealand: Auckland aims to become trilingual city –
New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, has announced plans to encourage the entire population to speak English, Maori and a third language. The initiative, launched by the council-controlled educational organisation COMET, aims to get all of Auckland’s 1.4 million residents speaking the national language of Te Reo Maori, Radio New Zealand reports. Currently, only 2.3% of Aucklanders speak the language, the lowest rate in the country, while over 1m of the city’s residents are monolingual – usually English, the radio says. Some 377,000 residents already have two languages as a result of the city’s diverse ethnic mix, where 40% of Aucklanders were born overseas, but their languages tend to be overlooked in favour of English. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Domestic Appliances from Lewis Firth Bolton on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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1	#CyberMonday	#CyberMonday	Sam Pepper
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9	#الهلال_التعاون	Clay Helton	#PAKvENG
10	Sam Pepper	Anne of Green Gables	#TWDMidSeasonFinale

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Paris attack aftermath
- French intelligence services are reportedly operating under the theory that Paris-attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has escaped to Syria despite country-wide martial law in 3 different countries. (CNN)
Iraqi Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL, American-led intervention in Iraq
- With the support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraqi Armed Forces have launched operations to retake Ramadi from ISIL. (Military Times)
Syrian Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that at least 50 United States military instructors have deployed to northern Syria from Turkey and Iraq to train Kurdish forces ahead of an assault on ISIL‘s de-facto capital Al-Raqqah. (Deutsche Welle)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- At least three Saudi border guards are killed following clashes with Yemeni forces in the kingdom’s southern Jizan Region near the border with Yemen. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Responding to reports, the American Tribune Publishing Co. states it is not in talks to sell the company. (Chicago Tribune) (Wall Street Journal)
Canadian BlackBerry Limited announces plans to shut down operations in Pakistan at year’s end because it cannot comply with the Pakistani government’s monitoring orders which would result in a massive invasion of user privacy. (CNET)
The International Monetary Fund modifies its benchmark currency basket to include the yuan of the People’s Republic of China. The basket also includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, and the Japanese yen. (Reuters)
The United States Federal Reserve Board approves a rule prohibiting the government from extending emergency loans to “too big to fail” companies, a practice deemed essential during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. (UPI)

Health and medicine

The capitals of the world’s two most populous nations, China and India, are blanketed in hazardous, choking smog. Beijing, on the second-highest pollution alert, is closing highways, halting or suspending construction while warning residents to stay indoors. The U.S. New Delhi embassy’s monitoring station recorded an air quality index of 372, putting air pollution levels into “hazardous” territory. No action by the New Delhi government. (Hindustan Times)
A UNICEF report finds AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African teenagers and the second most common killer for adolescents across the globe. While the Asia Pacific region has seen a 31 percent drop in new HIV infections, and 28 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths, the estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the region has more than doubled since 2005. Tomorrow is World Aids Day. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)

International relations

Martyrs’ Day (United Arab Emirates) is being observed in United Arab Emirates as Commemoration Day this year on November 30, 2015, recognising the sacrifices and dedication of Emirati martyrs who have given their life in the UAE and abroad in the field of civil, military and humanitarian service. (GulfNews)
South Korea’s parliament approves a free trade pact with China after opposition lawmakers, concerned that deal that would hurt agriculture and fisheries, secured a $1.4 billion relief package for farmers. (AP via Fox News)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Around 150 world leaders attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, aiming for a global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (CNN)
Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis travels to a besieged Muslim neighborhood known as PK5 in the Central African Republic, a country wracked by sectarian violence. This visit is part of Francis’s message of peace and reconciliation. As a result of the violence over the last two years, most of the capital Bangui’s 100,000-plus Muslims have fled; now only 15,000 remain. (AP via Bastrop Daily Enterprise)
- Pope Francis tells a crowd in a mosque in Bangui that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.” (BBC)
Israel will open a diplomatic mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), the headquarters of which are located near the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Israel will be the first Irena member to open such a mission; other member nations work Irena relations from their missions to the UAE, which Israel does not have. (New York Times)
Arctic Joint Strategic Command (Russia)
- A Russian Airborne Troops spokesman says the VDV is planning to expand their military exercises into the North Pole area of the Arctic in 2016. (UPI)

Law and crime

The University of Chicago cancels classes for the day, and asks students, faculty, and non-essential staff to stay away from its main campus after being informed by the FBI of a threat of gun violence. (Reuters via The Jerusalem Post) (USA Today)
- One suspect, a student from the University of Illinois at Chicago is arrested. The University of Chicago announces classes remain canceled for the day. (Chicago Tribune)
Russian undesirable organizations law
- Russia bans two George Soros-run foundations, including the Open Society Foundations, for posing a threat to “Russian national security”. The Open Society Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation, both financed by business magnate Soros, are the latest additions to a list of “undesirable organizations”, a list the Russian government says is necessary to stop foreign governments from interfering in Russia’s internal affairs. (The Guardian)
Jury selection begins for the trial of William Porter, a Baltimore, Maryland police officer charged with manslaughter and other charges surrounding the April 19 death of Freddie Gray. Porter is the first of six officers to be tried. (CNN)

Politics and elections

Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2015
- Venezuela announces it will suspend the sale of alcoholic beverages, fireworks and weapons before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, starting Friday at 6 p.m. until next Monday at 6 p.m. Civilian permits for the possession and use of firearms and kniveswill be also be suspended for the same period. (UPI)
Burkinabé general election, 2015
- Former prime minister Roch Marc Kaboré appears on course for a commanding victory in Burkina Faso’s election, one large enough to eliminate the need for a run-off. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, with results from about 72 percent of the country counted, Kaboré has 54 percent of the vote with his closest challenger, former finance minister Zéphirin Diabré, getting 29 percent. (The Globe and Mail)
Saudi Arabia elections, 2015
- For the first time in the country’s history, Saudi Arabian women are allowed to vote and to stand for office in the December 12, 2015, elections. Candidacy filings opened yesterday. In two days, more than 900 women have signed up to run for various local government positions in the Arab nation. (UPI)

Science and technology

Researchers at North Carolina State University discover a new diamond-like, solid phase of carbon, called Q-carbon, that can be attained at room temperature. The result is a uniquely crystalline material, harder than a real diamond and likely boasting a variety of new properties, most unknown or unstudied. (UPI)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Mother Teresa to be made a saint in September –
Pope Francis has announced that Mother Teresa will be elevated to sainthood on 4 September, months after he approved a second miracle for the late nun and Nobel prize winner who was known as the “Saint of the Gutters”. The canonisation of Mother Teresa, who was hailed for her work with impoverished and dying people living in the slums of Kolkata, India, has been highly anticipated by supporters, and will be a highlight of the church’s jubilee year of mercy. More than 300,000 pilgrims went to Rome in 2003 for Teresa’s beatification – the first step towards sainthood. The Vatican said in a short statement on Friday that the Argentinian pontiff had approved the second miracle – the final hurdle to make her a saint – in which a Brazilian man was said to have been cured of multiple brain tumours in 2008 following the nun’s intercession. [Guardian]
Mother Teresa in 1986

California homeless man receives $100,000 for spotting fugitives –
A homeless man from San Francisco is to be given a reward of $100,000 (£71,000) for helping police recapture two prison inmates who had escaped. Matthew Hay-Chapman had seen photographs of the two fugitives on the news and spotted them in a stolen van. They had broken out of Orange County Jail six days earlier, sparking a state-wide manhunt. The full $150,000 (£106,000) reward was split between four people, with Mr Hay Chapman getting the largest share. Mr Hay-Chapman spotted the fugitives in the stolen van next to a market in San Francisco and alerted officers in the area. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

After Hours from Todd Martin on Vimeo.

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

American-led intervention in Syria
- A senior Iraqi intelligence official, who is also a Syrian activist leader, says Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant commander Omar al-Shishani (Omar the Chechen, real name Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili) died of wounds suffered in a March 4 U.S. airstrike near the Syrian town of Al-Shaddadah. The U.S. State Department offered up to $5 million for information on his whereabouts. Amaq news agency, which supports ISIL, says Shishani is neither dead nor hurt. (New York Times) (Chicago Tribune) (Reuters via Swiss Broadcasting Corporation)
2016 Brussels police raid
- Belgian security forces hunt gunmen linked to the November 2015 Paris attacks following a raid on a house in Brussels which left four officers wounded and one suspect dead after an exchange of gunfire. Roads have been blocked off in the Belgian capital’s southern suburb of Forest as one or more gunmen remain at large. (The Independent) (Irish Times)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Airstrikes reportedly kill at least 41 people and wound 75 others in Yemen‘s northern Hajjah Governorate. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis announces that Mother Teresa will be canonized on September 4. (The Guardian)

Business and economy

Brookfield Asset Management Inc and Qube Holdings join forces to make a A$ 9.1 billion bid for Australian freight logistics company Asciano Limited. (Bloomberg)
Linn Energy, an oil-and-gas producer with about $10 billion in debt, says a bankruptcy filing may be unavoidable. The company was founded in 2003 and had its initial public offering in 2006. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Ecuadorian Air Force Arava crash
- An Ecuadorian Air Force IAI Arava 201 crashes near Shell Mera in a mountainous part of eastern Ecuador during military exercises, killing all of the 22 soldiers on board. (BNO News) (Aviation Safety Network)
The entire Washington D.C. Metro system will shut down for 29 hours beginning at midnight Wednesday for an emergency investigation after an electric cable caught fire on Monday. (The Washington Post)(NBC4 Washington)
A fire severely damages the 16th century Wythenshawe Hall, near Manchester, England. (BBC)
A deadly fire breaks out at a rehabilitation center for addicts in Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan, a Republic of Russia, killing 12 people. An investigation was immediately launched. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Health and medicine

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues final recommendations urging doctors to try something besides an opioid when first treating pain, and if an opioid drug, such as hydrocodone oroxycodone, is the best choice, start with the lowest possible dose. (The Washington Post) (NBC News)

International relations

Burundian unrest (2015–present)
- The European Union suspends direct financial aid to Burundi after concluding that the Burundian authorities had not done enough to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict occurring in the country.(The Guardian)
Argentina–China relations
- Argentina‘s coastguard says it has sunk a Chinese fishing trawler that was operating illegally within its territorial waters. The coastguard says it rescued four of the trawler’s crew while others who abandoned ship were picked up by another Chinese vessel shadowing the pursuit. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
The parliament of the Netherlands passes a resolution calling on the government to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia, citing ongoing “violations of humanitarian law” in Yemen. (Middle East Eye)

Law and crime

Shooting of Michael Brown, Ferguson unrest
- The Ferguson, Missouri, city council, after last month voting to change the terms of the agreement, reverses course and unanimously (6-0) agrees to accept a U.S. Justice Department overhaul of its troubled police force and municipal courts. This avoided a likely expensive legal battle with the federal government which had filed suit against the city following last month’s vote. (CNN)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Voters in the U.S. states of Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands head to the polls for Republican and Democratic Party primaries that the media has dubbed “Super Tuesday 2”. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Donald Trump wins primaries in Illinois, North Carolina, Missouri and Florida while John Kasich wins in Ohio. (NY Daily News) (Decision Desk HQ), (CNN), (USA Today), (NBC News)
- Donald Trump wins the Northern Mariana Islands caucus. (Politico)
- Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primaries in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina. (Fox News), (Washington Post), (NBC News), (NBC News Live Blog)
- Marco Rubio suspends his presidential campaign following a disappointing defeat in his home state of Florida. (The New York Times)
- North Carolina’s controversial voter ID law is in effect for the first time. Voters without these new ID credentials, including voters with a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining an ID, can cast a provisional ballot. Citizens (2,567) faced this problem during early voting, including U.S. Senator Richard Burr who, because his driver’s license was stolen, was without ID. In addition, votes for congressional candidates for House seats don’t count because the state’s congressional district map was redrawn after the ballots were printed. The actual congressional primary is scheduled for June 7. (WRAL)(The Nation via Moyers & Company) (NPR) (Charlotte Observer) (The New York Times)
Nigerien general election, 2016
- The government will release opposition candidate Hama Amadou from prison due to health issues. Amadou is facing off against incumbent President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou in the second round of voting on Sunday. (Reuters)
The Myanmar Assembly of the Union, or parliament, selects Htin Kyaw as the new President. Kyaw, a confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi, will be the first civilian president in decades. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is constitutionally barred from the office. (Indian Express), (ABC News Australia)
The Obama administration announces it is cancelling plans to permit drilling for oil and gas off the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. A new plan involves 10 potential lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska. (USA Today) (The Island Free Press)

Science and technology

Andrew Wiles wins the 2016 Abel Prize for his solution to Fermat’s last theorem. (Nature)
Scientists, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences scientific journal, report that so-called fairy circles are caused by the plants themselves, which have self-organized. Michael Cramer and Nichole Barger suggested this in 2013. (The Washington Post) (PNAS) (The Atlantic)

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April 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Ecuador earthquake of 7.8 magnitude kills dozens –
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador has killed at least 77 people and injured more than 500, Vice-President Jorge Glas says. The quake, Ecuador’s largest since 1979, hit at 18:58 on Saturday (23:58 GMT) near the northern town of Muisne. Widespread severe damage is reported, with a bridge destroyed as far south as Guayaquil about 300km (190 miles) away. President Rafael Correa, who is flying back from a trip to Italy, has decreed a state of emergency. He said: “This is a very painful test. I ask the country to be calm and united… Let’s be strong; we will overcome this.” He added: “Roads and hospitals can be rebuilt; you cannot recover lost lives. That’s what hurts the most.” [BBC]

Army approves 22 women as infantry, armor officers –
The Army approved requests from 22 women to become the first female infantry and armor unit officers, opening leadership and ground combat positions previously only available to men. The Army said throughout the coming weeks 13 women will enter the armor branch and nine others will enter infantry as second lieutenants. They will be the first females to serve in the traditionally all-male front-line combat branches since the U.S. Department of Defense opened all combat roles in the U.S. Armed Forces to women. [UPI]

Prince rushed to hospital after emergency plane landing –
Prince has been rushed to hospital after his plane made an emergency landing.According to TMZ, the singer’s private jet was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Illinois.It happened just hours after he’d performed on stage in Atlanta. Prince was immediately taken from the plane in an ambulance and treated at a nearby hospital.He was released after a few hours. [BBC]
Prince in 2008

Video of the Day –

Stephen Hawking’s Starshot, explained

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- According to a police chief, at least 40 Taliban fighters are killed after launching an offensive against Afghan security forces to seize the strategic northern city of Kunduz while four security force personnel are also killed. (Al Jazeera)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- AMISOM soldiers kill four Somali civilians in the town of Bulla Marer, southwest of Mogadishu. The AU Mission said scared soldiers opened fire when the car the civilians were driving failed to stop at a roadblock. (BBC)
Moro conflict
- Philippine officials report four Indonesian sailors were kidnapped last night off the Philippines’ southernmost town of Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi, near Malaysia’s Sabah state. Seven gunmen in a blue speedboatattacked two Indonesian-flagged tugboats. Six other sailors, including one who was shot, were not taken by ISIL-linked Abu Sayyaf militants. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Syrian government airstrikes, and rockets from Islamist insurgents, hit many neighborhoods in Aleppo. Fatalities are reported on both sides of the city. This continued fighting threatens the truce and peace talks being held in Geneva, Switzerland. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura says he will meet the government delegation Monday, and will sit down with the main opposition High Negotiations Committee later in the week. (Reuters) (AFP via Thanh Niên)
Ethiopia claims that members of South Sudan‘s Murle people have killed 140 people and abducted 39 children. (BBC)
German police report an apparent deliberate explosion at a Sikh temple in Essen while a wedding was being celebrated, has injured three people, one in serious condition. Police say there is no indication this was a terrorist incident. (AP)

Arts and culture

The United States Army approves 22 soldiers requests to become the service’s first female infantry and armor unit officers. Thirteen women will enter the armor branch, and nine others will enter infantry assecond lieutenants. (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Kumamoto earthquakes
- A second earthquake hits southern Japan with a magnitude of 7.1 killing at least 32 people with the death toll from both earthquakes rising to 42. The new quake traps even more people. In Kumamoto a landslide occurs as well as a bridge collapse. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (AP) (AP via Yahoo! News)
- A new aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 hits southern Kyushu island. A Japanese spokesman says 1,500 people have been injured, 80 seriously, since Thursday. (AP) (USA Today)
- Japan‘s Mount Aso in the Kumamoto Prefecture erupts sending ash about 100 meters (300 feet) into the air. The Japan Meteorological Agency kept its alert level at 2 on a scale of 5 for Aso following the eruption. It is unclear if the eruption is related to Saturday’s Kumamoto quake. (The Japan Times)
- Saturday’s earthquake forces Sony to close its plant in the Kumamoto Prefecture. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan also stop work at several plants in the region. (UPI)
A helicopter crashes near Baltimore–Washington International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland. However, no fatalities are reported. (Reuters via Euronews)
Five people are dead and five are in hospital after taking ecstasy at an Argentine version of the Time Warp Festival featuring electronic music acts. (Reuters via Yahoo!)
The death toll rises to seven from Thursday’s building collapse in the Canary Islands’ southern coastal town of Los Cristianos on the island of Tenerife. (AP)
2016 Ecuador earthquake
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off the coast of Ecuador, near the town of Muisne. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues a tsunami alert for coastal areas of Ecuador and Colombia. At least 42 people are reported dead with deaths reported in the cities of Manta, Guayaquil and Portoviejo. (BNO News), (USGS) (Reuters via NBC News), (AP via Fox News)
- A state of emergency is declared in six provinces. (BBC)
- Later, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announces the threat has largely passed. The United States Geological Survey reports the 7.8 magnitude quake was preceded, 11 minutes earlier, by a 4.8 earthquake. Production at the 110,000 barrel-per-day Esmeraldas refinery is suspended as a precautionary measure. (The Straits Times)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Pope Francis arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos. Francis is expected to visit the Moria detention facility, where he will have lunch with some of the 3,060 men, women, and children there. (The Washington Post)
- Pope Francis offers refuge to a dozen Syrian Muslims, three families with six children, who faced deportation from Lesbos. The refugees accompanied the Pope on his return trip to Rome. (The Guardian)
Iran–European Union relations
- EU Foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini holds the highest-level talks between the EU and Iran in decades to mark a new phase in relations between the two. Both sides are keen to focus on trade, energy and the environment as possible areas of cooperation. (BBC)
The United States announces that it will transfer nine Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Saudi Arabia. (CNN) (AP)
Russia–United States relations, Cold War II
- A United States Air Force Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted and threatened by a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Thursday (April 14), according to the United States European Command (EUCOM). (Fox News)

Law and crime

General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, Mexico‘s Secretary of National Defence, apologises for an incident in which two soldiers and a policewoman torture a woman. (AFP via France 24)

Politics and elections

Iraq’s Parliament cancels its third session in a week to discuss political reforms as some MPs dispute the legitimacy of speaker Salim al-Jabouri to chair the meeting. Also, protesters gathered in the streets ofBaghdad to protest the growing political deadlock in the country. (Al Jazeera)
Macedonian parliamentary election, 2016
- As protesters continue to take to the streets of Skopje, Macedonia, lawmakers confirmed that a snap election will take place on June 5 despite the protesters being angry at President Gjorge Ivanov’sdecision to halt investigations into more than 50 public figures, including top politicians embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal. Zoran Zaev, the main opposition leader, vowed to boycott the election. (The Guardian)
Veteran President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso is sworn in for another term after a contentious election. (AFP via Daily Mail)

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June 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

BRITAIN VOTES FOR ‘BREXIT’ IN HISTORIC REFERENDUM –
Britain has voted to leave the European Union in a referendum, defying its prime minister and confounding most analysts’ expectations. The result raises questions over the future of Prime Minister David Cameron, and over the future of Scotland within the United Kingdom. The results expose a British electorate deeply divided by age, class and geographical location. Most large urban centers elected to stay part of the European Union, particularly in London, where many local authorities delivered vast majorities for the pro-EU campaign. Polls completed before the vote suggested the young were significantly more likely to back EU membership than the old, and that poorer, less-educated voters were likelier to be Brexiters. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. Wales surprised many observers by voting in favor of a “Leave” vote, with just over 850,000 Welsh voters choosing to leave the bloc, and a little more than 770,000 voting to Remain. [Newsweek] See List of the Day

Solar plane lands in Spain after three-day Atlantic crossing –
An airplane powered solely by the sun landed safely in Seville in Spain early on Thursday after an almost three-day flight across the Atlantic from New York in one of the longest legs of the first ever fuel-less flight around the world. The single-seat Solar Impulse 2 touched down shortly after 7.30 a.m. local time in Seville after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 2.30 a.m. EDT on June 20.
The flight of just over 71 hours was the 15th leg of the round-the-world journey by the plane piloted in turns by Swiss aviators Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg. [Reuters] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Solar Impulse Airplane – Leg 15 – Flight New York to Seville

List of the Day –

How the home nations voted in the EU Referendum [BBC]

England

Leave 53.4%

15,188,406 VOTES

Remain 46.6%

13,266,996 VOTES

Counting complete

Turnout: 73.0%

Northern Ireland

Leave 44.2%

349,442 VOTES

Remain 55.8%

440,437 VOTES

Counting complete

Turnout: 62.9%

Scotland

Leave 38.0%

1,018,322 VOTES

Remain 62.0%

1,661,191 VOTES

Counting complete

Turnout: 67.2%

Wales

Leave 52.5%

854,572 VOTES

Remain 47.5%

772,347 VOTES

Counting complete

Turnout: 71.7%

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram insurgency
- According to Médecins Sans Frontières, more than 1,200 people have died of starvation and illness at a refugee camp for those fleeing Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Jiangsu tornado
- A tornado, accompanied by heavy rainfall and hailstones, kills at least 98 people and injures 800 in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu (JSTV). One-hour rainfall reached 102 millimeters (about four inches) in Lianshui County. (Reuters) (China Radio International)

International relations

Holy See–Turkey relations
- Pope Francis’s visit to Armenia this weekend may stress relations with Turkey. The Pope is seeking to avoid reigniting the diplomatic dispute that arose last year when he described the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as a genocide. The Vatican prefers the Armenian phrase “Medz Yeghern,” which roughly translates as “the great evil or calamity.” (Reuters), (PanARMENIAN.Net) (NBC News)
South Sudanese Civil War
- The United Nations announces that peacekeepers in the country will be sent home over a “lack of responsiveness” during an attack on a UN-run refugee camp last February in Malakal that killed at least 40 people. (Al Jazeera)
European migration crisis
- The Italian Coast Guard rescues 4,500 migrants at sea. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The United Nations Security Council condemns North Korea’s most recent ballistic missile launches as a grave violation of the international ban, and urges all countries “to redouble their efforts” to fully implement the March sanctions. (Reuters) (AP)

Law and crime

Supreme Court of the United States
- The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 4–3 decision, upholds the University of Texas’s practice of considering race in college admissions. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself for prior work on the case as United States solicitor general. (Reuters) (AP) (The New York Times)
- The Supreme Court deadlocks (4–4) in the challenge to President Barack Obama’s executive order that set up the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans plan, which could have shielded up to five million illegal immigrants. The tie leaves in place an earlier ruling against the plan. (NBC News) (The New York Times)
2016 Summer Olympics
- The government of Kuwait sues the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for US$1.3 billion in damages over the suspension of its Olympic committee last October due to the government’s interference in sports. (Al Jazeera)
Death of Freddie Gray
- Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson is cleared of all charges for the murder of Freddie Gray, a black detainee, on April 19, 2015. (BBC)
Viernheim shooting
- An unidentified man who had been reported to have fired shots inside a theater has been shot dead by police in Viernheim, Germany. No other fatalities were reported. (BBC)

Politics and elections

United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
- Voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls to vote in a referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union. (The Telegraph), (BBC),
- Polling stations are closed, and ballots are being counted in centres around the UK with the result expected Friday morning. (BBC)
Colombian conflict
- The government of Colombia and FARC rebels sign a ceasefire deal, putting an end to 50 years of conflict in the country between the two sides. (BBC)
United States presidential election, 2016, 2016 Republican National Convention
- A federal district judge, in a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, rules Cleveland’s regulations governing protests and marches during next month’s Republican National Convention infringe on the right of free expression. Judge James Gwin orders both sides into mediation to begin negotiating new rules with another federal judge overseeing those talks. (AP)

Science and technology

Solar Impulse 2, a plane powered only by the sun, lands safely in Seville, Spain, shortly after 7.30 a.m. local time after a flight of just over 71 hours. The 15th leg of the round-the-world journey had been expected to take up to 90 hours. (Reuters) (Reuters²)

Sport

2016 NBA draft
- In basketball, the NBA draft is held with the Philadelphia 76ers choosing Australian Ben Simmons as the number one pick. (ESPN)

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