Top News Stories –

Juno probe enters into orbit around Jupiter –
The US space agency has successfully put a new probe in orbit around Jupiter.
The Juno satellite, which left Earth five years ago, had to fire a rocket engine to slow its approach to the planet and get caught by its gravity. A sequence of tones transmitted from the spacecraft confirmed the braking manoeuvre had gone as planned. Receipt of the radio messages prompted wild cheering at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “All stations on Juno co-ord, we have the tone for burn cut-off on Delta V,” Juno Mission Control had announced. “Roger Juno, welcome to Jupiter.” Scientists plan to use the spacecraft to sense the planet’s deep interior. They think the structure and the chemistry of its insides hold clues to how this giant world formed some four-and-a-half-billion years ago. Engineers had warned in advance that the engine firing was fraught with danger. No previous spacecraft has dared pass so close to Jupiter; its intense radiation belts can destroy unprotected electronics. One calculation even suggested the orbit insertion would have subjected Juno to a dose equivalent to a million dental X-rays. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Mission Juno – NASA

Other News Stories –

Armed attacks and conflicts

• Iraqi Civil War
  • Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, advance north towards ISIL-held Qayyarah Airfield West south of Mosul. (Reuters)
  • The United Nations reports a mortar attack on a camp for displaced Iraqis south of Baghdad kills three people, including two children, and injures 13 others, two critically. (The New York Times)
• Terrorism in Indonesia
  • A suicide bomber attacks a police station in Solo, Indonesia, killing himself and injuring a police officer. Solo is the birthplace of President Joko Widodo. (Time) (Reuters)
• Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
  • Suspected Allied Democratic Forces rebels hack nine people to death in the village of Oicha, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Reuters)
• Syrian civil war, ISIL involvement
  • A suicide bomb explosion in Kurdish-controlled Al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria kills at least 16 people, including three children and two women. ISIL claims responsibility. (Reuters)

Business and economics

• International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis
  • The Central Bank of Russia announces it will start buying the Chinese yuan in an attempt to diversify its foreign-currency reserves away from the Euro and the U.S. dollar and to become less vulnerable to Western sanctions. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Disasters and accidents

• At least seven people are killed and eight are injured after a helicopter carrying Turkish Armed Forces personnel crashes in Turkey‘s northern Giresun Province, on the Black Sea coast. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Human rights in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
  • Dozens of petty criminals and alleged drug addicts die in the Philippines within a few days after Rodrigo Duterte took the presidency. He actively encouraged extrajudicial killing of drug addicts and petty criminals before and after the election. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• Protests occur in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S., after a man, Alton Sterling is fatally shot by a police officer. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

• European migrant crisis
  • Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announces that the country will hold a referendum on October 2 where voters will get to choose whether or not to accept European Union-imposed quotas on the distribution of migrants. (BBC)
• Hillary Clinton email investigation
  • The FBI recommends, with numerous reservations about her actions, no charges be filed against Hillary Clinton over her emails. (BBC) (The New York Times)
• July 2016 Baghdad bombings
  • Iraqi Interior Minister Mohammed Salem Al-Ghabban says he has submitted his resignation. Al-Ghabban cited a lack of “coordination among security systems” demonstrated by Sunday’s bombings in Baghdad that killed over 200 people and injured at least 175 others. No report yet that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has accepted this resignation. (CNN) (The New York Times)
• Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
  • Home Secretary Theresa May gets 165 votes after the first ballot of Conservative members of parliament to select a new Leader and the next Prime Minister. Her nearest rival, Minister of State for EnergyAndrea Leadsom, picked up 66 votes. Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove won 48 votes, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Stephen Crabb got 34 votes. Former Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox is eliminated from consideration as he received just 16. Later, Crabb pulled out of the race and endorsed front-runner Theresa May. Fox also endorsed May. (Reuters) (Sky News)(Reuters²)

Science and technology

• NASA‘s Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter and enters into its orbit after a five-year flight. (BBC)
• Cybersecurity software maker Check Point reports HummingBad malware has infected at least 10 million Android devices, mostly in China and India. Check Point says a team of developers based in Beijing is behind HummingBad which gives hackers administrative-level access to infected devices. Apple devices have been hit by similar malware. (Time)

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