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Spain to teach bullfighting in schools –
Spain’s education ministry has drawn up plans to create courses in bullfighting as an optional subject in state schools. For the first time, bullfighting, as well as other subjects related to the spectacle, will be available for students aged 16 and older who move into vocational training after finishing their compulsory education. The move appears to represent a final attempt to defend the activity by Spain’s conservative government before elections in December. Students who complete the course will receive a professional training certificate in “Tauromachy – bullfighting – and Auxiliary Livestock Activities” after they have learned the skills of bullfighting, the regulations applied to the event and the rules on breeding Spain’s fighting bulls. The full-time, two-year courses will be offered at a number of high schools around the country. [Daily Telegraph]

Big Ben’s clock ‘needs £40m of work’ to keep bongs sounding –
The taxpayer faces a bill of up to £40 million to keep the famous “bongs” of Big Ben sounding, according to a report. Parliament’s Great Clock is said to be so dilapidated that it could grind to a halt unless drastic repairs are carried out. A report presented to the cross-party Commons Finance Committee has set out a £29.2 million plan for fixing the issues. It would see the mechanism shut down for four months – believed to be the longest stoppage in its 156-year history. The document, seen by the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Times, said: “The clock currently has chronic problems with the bearings behind the hands and the pendulum. “Either could become acute at any time, causing the clock to stop – or worse.” [Daily Telegraph]
Cleaning Big Ben in 2007

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • The Israeli military evacuated dozens of Jewish worshippers who were surrounded by Palestinians after entering Joseph’s Tomb compound in Nablus, which was recently torched by Palestinians. The area is under full Palestinian control but Jewish prayer is permitted there when coordinated with authorities. The military said Sunday’s visit was not, and the worshippers had no permit. (AP) (New Delhi Television)
  • John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State announces Sunday that he will meet in Germany with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of increased violence between Palestinians and Israelis. (NBC)
• Turkey–ISIL conflict
  • Turkish police conduct pre-dawn raids on 17 locations in Istanbul and detain some 50 people suspected of being linked to the Islamic State group, according to Turkey’s state-run news agency. (AP)
• 2015 PKK rebellion
  • Two Turkish soldiers are killed after a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in the eastern Tunceli Province. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
    • A suspected Russian airstrike is said to have killed dozens of members of one family in Homs, Syria. (Al Jazeera)
  • American-led intervention in Syria, War on Terror
    • U.S. Military officials announce that a military airstrike in northwest Syria killed a financial manager and leader of an al Qaeda network. Sanafi al-Nasr, of Saudi Arabia, was said to have been plotting terror attacks against the West. (New York Times)

Arts and culture

• As part of the weekend celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, during the 3-week-long Ordinary General Synod on the Family, Pope Francis canonizes the parents of the Doctor of the Church, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus of Lisieux, France (Saints Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin, 1823-1894 and 1831-1877, respectively), the first married Catholic parents to be canonized at the same time. He also canonizes the religious superior general Saint María de la Purísima Salvat Romero (Mary of the Immaculate Conception), 1926-1998, and the diocesan priest and founder of a religious institute, Saint Vincenzo Grossi, 1845-1917. (Vatican) (AP via CTV) (Voice of America)

Business and economics

• Tens of thousands of junior doctors rally in London (UK) near Pall Mall to protest contract changes that will reclassify their normal working week to include Saturdays and late evenings, and the government’s threat to impose a new contract. (The Guardian)(The Guardian -blog) (Daily Mail) (iFreePress.com)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • Typhoon Koppu (Lando) makes landfall in northern Luzon in the Philippines with forecasters warning it could stay in the area for several days. Thousands of people have been evacuated or are stranded. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (Inquirer)
  • Slow-moving Koppu weakened after blowing ashore with fierce winds in the northeastern Philippines leaving at least two people dead and at least six missing, displacing 16,000 villagers, and knocking out power in entire provinces, according to authorities. (AP via NBC News) (UPI)
• At least four people are killed and a dozen injured after a small plane crashes in a residential area of the Colombian capital Bogota. (AP)
• A San Francisco-bound Southwest Airlines flight returned to Los Angeles after an apparent altercation on the plane. Eyewitness accounts indicate that the fracas may have begun after one passenger reclined her seat, and the passenger behind her allegedly “started choking her.” One passenger was removed from the flight. The airline moved the remaining passengers to a different plane to resume their journey to San Francisco. (USA Today) (NBC News)

Politics and elections

• Egyptian parliamentary election, 2015
  • Voters in Egypt go to the polls for the first round of voting in long delayed parliamentary elections. (BBC)
• Swiss federal election, 2015
  • Voters in Switzerland go to the polls for a federal election. Results show the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party, winning the election with at least 29.5% of the vote, a record election result for the nationalist party. (AP) (The Wall Street Journal)

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