Top News Stories –

Facebook to update Trending Topics –
Facebook has announced changes to the way it runs its Trending Topics feed, following an internal investigation. There will be more training for staff and the feed will no longer rely on a list of news organisations, including the BBC, Washington Post and Buzzfeed News, to validate subjects. The feed, which lists popular headlines along with a brief description, has been accused of political bias. However, Facebook’s report found no evidence of this. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said the investigation analysed 3,000 reviewer decisions following allegations that conservative issues were being suppressed. [BBC]

Google’s Paris HQ raided in tax probe –
French finance officials have raided the Paris offices of US internet giant Google as part of a tax fraud investigation. Reports say about 100 tax officials entered Google’s offices in central Paris early in the morning. Police sources confirmed the raid. Google said: “We comply with French law and are co-operating fully with the authorities to answer their questions.” Google is accused of owing €1.6bn ($1.8bn; £1.3bn) in unpaid taxes. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Chewbacca Mom Takes James Corden to Work

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
  • Jaish-e-Mohammed operations chief is killed in a gun battle with police. (ABC News)
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
  • At least six Turkish soldiers are killed and four others are wounded in a PKK attack in Turkey‘s eastern Van Province. (Daily Sabah)
• Syrian civil war
  • New satellite imagery from Stratfor appears to reveal the destruction of four Russian attack helicopters and 20 lorries at the Tiyas military airbase after a reported attack which was conducted last week by the ISIL. (BBC)
  • U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish forces, launch an operation to capture Al-Raqqah, the de-facto capital of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The force is reported to be more than 50,000 strong. (Reuters)
• War in Donbass
  • Seven Ukrainian servicemen are killed in suspected attacks by pro-Russian rebels. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto rejects an unsolicited $62 billion takeover bid by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, saying the price was too low but adding that it remained “open to further talks.” (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Eleven people are dead and many are missing after a jade mine collapses in the Myanmar town of Hpakant. (AFP via New Straits Times)
• EgyptAir Flight 804
  • Reports claim that an Egyptian forensic official says that body parts recovered from EgyptAir flight 804 indicate that the crash was caused by an explosion. (Daily Mail)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • Greek authorities begin operations to clear the Idomeni refugee camp on the border with Macedonia. (AP via ABC News)

Law and crime

• A court in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania finds that there is enough evidence to hold entertainer Bill Cosby on felony indecent assault charges in relation to the case of Andrea Constand v. William H. Cosby, Jr.. (CNN)
• Google‘s offices in central Paris are raided by French finance officials as part of a tax fraud investigation. Google is accused of owing €1.6bn ($1.8bn; £1.3bn) in unpaid taxes. (BBC)
• Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States, advises that the US government will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof accused of conducting the 2015 Charleston massacre. (Post and Courier)

Politics and elections

• Iran‘s Assembly of Experts new session is opened which elects Ahmad Jannati as its chairman. (Mehr)
• The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally approves his ally Binali Yıldırım as the Prime Minister. (AP via ABC News America)

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