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Valentino Rossi accuses rivals of colluding to deny him the world title –
MotoGP’s most controversial season ended in bitter acrimony on Sunday as Valentino Rossi accused rivals of colluding to deny him the world title. The Italian legend launched his tirade after narrowly missing out on the championship despite scything through the field from the back of the grid – and no one was spared his vitriol. The 36-year-old had to start from the back of the field as punishment for his alleged kick on Márquez in the penultimate round in Malaysia. Rossi said the new champion, Jorge Lorenzo, did not deserve the title, and that fellow Spaniard Marc Márquez had acted like a “bodyguard” to prevent him from taking a seventh championship. [Daily Telegraph]
Valentino Rossi

Prime Minister’s celebrity trainer launches ‘Netflix for Fitness’ –
Celebrity personal fitness coach Matt Roberts, known for training Amanda Holden, Naomi Campbell and David Cameron, is launching his own online fitness channel. The UK Prime Minister’s personal trainer, Matt Roberts, is launching a new online workout channel, with the bold aim of becoming the “Netflix for Fitness”. Known as Body.Network, the channel will offer live and on-demand classes with Mr Roberts himself, as well as trainers from global yoga chain Yogasphere, the England Rugby team’s sports nutritionist Matt Lovell, and health and fitness gym The Third Space. Mr Roberts trains a number of high-profile personalities such as Prime Minister David Cameron and wife Samantha, Amanda Holden, Naomi Campbell, James Corden, Michael McIntyre, Tom Ford and Mel C. [Daily Telegraph]

Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station –
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died. Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training. It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space. They were made for Mr Lindgren by McCallum Bagpipes at the company’s factory in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. Kenny Macleod, who works at McCallum Bagpipes, told BBC Scotland the 42-year-old astronaut had got in touch two years ago to say he was going to the space station and wanted to play the pipes while he was there. In the video, Mr Lindgren is seen to give the pipes a punch before he starts playing. Mr Macleod said it was normal for pipers to massage the bag to get the air flowing, “but not quite as vigorously as that”. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015 – #ManOnTheMoon

List of the Day –

Moto GP 2015 final standings by race [from Wikipedia]

Pos	Rider	Bike	QAT	AME	ARG	ESP	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	Pts
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	4	4	5	1	1	1	1	3	4	2	1	4	Ret	1	3	2	2	1	330
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1	3	1	3	2	3	2	1	3	3	3	1	5	3	2	4	3	4	325
3	Marc Márquez	Honda	5	1	Ret	2	4	Ret	Ret	2	1	1	2	Ret	1	Ret	4	1	Ret	2	242
4	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	6				16	4	3	8	2	4	5	5	9	2	1	5	1	3	206
5	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	3	5	4	6	5	2	4	4	5	5	4	8	7	4	Ret	3	Ret	Ret	188
6	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	8	6	6	8	6	5	5	7	6	6	7	7	2	8	7	10	4	6	181
7	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2	2	2	9	3	Ret	Ret	12	Ret	9	6	3	8	5	5	13	Ret	7	162
8	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	7	7	3	4	Ret	Ret	Ret	6	7	8	Ret	Ret	11	7	6	7	5	9	125
9	Pol Espargaró	Yamaha	9	Ret	8	5	7	6	Ret	5	8	7	8	Ret	Ret	9	Ret	8	9	5	114
10	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	12	10	11	12	10	9	9	11	9	10	10	2	6	Ret	Ret	12	6	10	113
11	Aleix Espargaró	Suzuki	11	8	7	7	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	10	14	9	9	10	6	11	9	7	8	105
12	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	14	9	10	11	9	7	6	10	11	11	Ret	11	14	11	Ret	6	8	11	97
13	Scott Redding	Honda	13	Ret	9	13	Ret	11	7	13	Ret	13	12	6	3	12	10	11	11	15	84
14	Yonny Hernández	Ducati	10	Ret	Ret	10	8	10	Ret	14	12	12	11	Ret	Ret	10	14	17	12	13	56
15	Héctor Barberá	Ducati	15	12	13	14	13	13	16	Ret	13	15	16	13	18	16	9	16	13	16	33

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Yemeni Civil War (2015)
  • Houthi forces regain several positions across southern Yemen after launching a fresh offensive against loyalist and coalition forces. In Lahij province, which borders Aden, Houthi forces are now positioned on a hill overlooking the strategic Al Anad Air Base, which houses Sudanese forces. The Houthis also retook the Damt District in the Dhale province after besieging it for hours, at least 16 people were killed in the clashes. (AFP via Yahoo)
• At least nine people are killed after gunmen attack a bar in Burundi‘s capital, Bujumbura. (Voice of America)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Two suicide bomb attacks in Ngouboua, a remote village near Lake Chad, kill three people, including the bombers, and injure four others, according to Chadian Communication Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari. (Shanghai Daily) (UPI)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Syrian state news reports clashes between Syrian regime troops and the Islamic State in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province result in the deaths of 58 militants. (UPI) (Zee News)

Arts and Culture

• United States presidential election, 2016
  • GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump hosts Saturday Night Live. According to NBC the show attained a 6.6 household rating, giving Saturday Night Live its best overnight ratings since January 2012 when Charles Barkley was the host. (NBC)(Entertainment Weekly) (AP)
• In the United States, University of Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel tweets his support for the 30 black football players who, because of racial tensions on campus, are boycotting team activities until the president of the University of Missouri System,Tim Wolfe, is removed. Pinkel and athletics director Mack Rhoades issue a statement that the Tigers will not resume football activities until Missouri student Jonathan Butler ends his hunger strike against Wolfe. (NBC Sports) (KTIC Radio) (AFP via Global Post) (KCSTAR via Sacramento Bee)
• John Lennon‘s guitar sells for over $2.5 million (BBC)
• The Detroit Free Press reports, following this week’s election, Hamtramck, Michigan, will apparently be the first city in the United States to be governed by Muslims, three of Bangladeshi descent and one Yemeni. Community leader Bill Meyer, who is not Muslim, said, the influx of Muslims to Hamtramck has “helped bring stability, security and sobriety while lessening the amount of drugs and crime in the city.” (Detroit Free Press) (Christian Science Monitor) (New Civil Rights Movement)

Disasters and accidents

• A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying crude oil derails in Wisconsin; some of the 10 derailed cars are leaking oil. This is the second consecutive day for a freight train crash in the state. Yesterday, a BNSF Railway train wreck spilled thousands of gallons of ethanol. No injuries were reported in either accident. (AP via Houston Chronicle) (WBAY)

Health and medicine

• A 1-year-old from London with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had undergone myriads of, unsuccessful, treatments since she was 14 weeks old, is in remission thanks to gene-editing technology, used for just the second time, that allowed her to receivemodified immune cells from another person. (Chicago Tribune) (Bangkok Post) (Nature)

International relations

• United States–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuela says a U.S. Coast Guard intelligence plane violated its airspace on November 6. (Reuters via Yahoo)
• European migrant crisis
  • Spain’s interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz says the first of more than 1,400 refugees from Syria and Eritrea are being welcomed for resettlement in new homes across the country. (AP)

Law and crime

• Hossam Bahgat, an investigative reporter for the independent Egyptian news website Mada Masr is detained and is interrogated on charges of publishing false news that could harm the nation. (Middle East Eye) (NPR)
• Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announces over $800 million in grants available to various agencies across the country for law enforcement-related initiative such as testing of potentially expired rape kits, the funding of an international center devoted to monitoring cyber attacks, and a program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice dedicated to training prosecutors. The grants are funded from criminal penalties paid by several international banks accused of violating sanctions. (New York Times)

Politics and elections

• Croatian parliamentary election, 2015
  • Early official results show the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the country’s largest opposition party, has a slim lead over Prime Minister Zoran Milanović’s ruling Social Democrats (SDP) in today’s elections. With 32 percent counted, the HDZ, has 61 of parliament’s 151 seats and the SDP is second with 53. The third place Most (Bridge of Independent Lists) party is likely to have the balance of power in the parliament. (Wall Street Journal) (Bloomberg), (The Guardian)
• Myanmar general election, 2015
  • Voters in Myanmar head to the polls with the National League for Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, expected to win a majority of seats in Parliament and the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party conceding defeat on Monday. Early indication is an 80 percent turnout of the more than 30 million people eligible to vote. (Los Angeles Times) (Ahmedabad Mirror), [
• Bihar, India, Legislative Assembly election, 2015
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP Party concedes defeat to the grand alliance of Bihar sitting chief minister Nitish Kumar in the fifth and final phase of the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. (NPR) (FirstPost.com)

Science and technology

• Mysterious lights from an unidentified flying object spook people in Arizona, California, and Nevada. It was later confirmed as a test flight of a UGM-133 Trident II missile. (BBC)
• According to a new World Bank report, climate change could drive more than 100 million people into poverty by 2030 largely due to difficulties producing crops. (Time) (CNBC) (World Bank Report)

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