Top News Stories –

2015 was hottest year ever recorded ‘by far’ –
Blistering heat blanketed the Earth last year like never before, making 2015 by far the hottest year in modern times and raising new concerns about the accelerating pace of climate change. Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since 1880, it shattered the previous record held in 2014 by the widest margin ever observed, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62 Fahrenheit (0.90 Celsius) above the 20th century average,” said the NOAA report. “This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record.” Compared to 2014, last year was 0.29 Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius) warmer, the “largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.” [Daily Telegraph]

New evidence suggests a ninth planet lurking at the edge of the solar system –
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet lurking in the darkness of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. They are calling it “Planet Nine.” Their paper, published in the Astronomical Journal, estimates the planet’s mass as five to 10 times that of the Earth. But the authors, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, have not observed the planet directly. Instead, they have inferred its existence from the motion of recently discovered dwarf planets and other small objects in the outer solar system. Those smaller bodies have orbits that appear to be influenced by the gravity of a hidden planet – a “massive perturber.” The astronomers suggest it might have been flung into deep space long ago by the gravitational force of Jupiter or Saturn. [Washington Post]

Video of the Day –

Australia Day Lamb 2016 | Commence Operation Boomerang

List of the Day –

National Television Awards 2016, London

Talent Show

Winner: Strictly Come Dancing

Britain’s Got Talent

The Voice UK

The X Factor

Challenge Show

Winner: The Great British Bake Off

Bear Grylls: Mission Survive

MasterChef

The Apprentice

Serial drama

Winner: EastEnders

Coronation Street

Emmerdale

Hollyoaks

Comedy

Winner: Peter Kay’s Car Share

Benidorm

Birds Of A Feather

Not Going Out

Drama

Winner: Downton Abbey

Broadchurch

Casualty

Doctor Who

New drama

Winner: Doctor Foster

Humans

Ordinary Lies

Poldark

Factual entertainment

Winner: Gogglebox

DIY SOS: The Big Build

Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs

Top Gear

Live magazine show

Winner: This Morning

BBC Breakfast

Loose Women

The One Show

Drama performance

Winner: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster)

Sheridan Smith (Black Work)

David Tennant (Broadchurch)

Aidan Turner (Poldark)

Entertainment programme

Winner: I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

Celebrity Juice

The Graham Norton Show

Newcomer

Winner: Shayne Ward (Coronation Street)

Gemma Atkinson (Emmerdale)

Richard Blackwood (EastEnders)

Parry Glasspool (Hollyoaks)

Serial drama performance

Winner: Danny Dyer (EastEnders)

Alison King (Coronation Street)

Michael Parr (Emmerdale)

Rakhee Thakrar (EastEnders)

International

Winner: The Big Bang Theory

Game Of Thrones

Orange Is The New Black

Daytime

Winner: The Chase

Pointless

The Jeremy Kyle Show

The Paul O’Grady Show

TV presenter

Winner: Ant & Dec

Graham Norton

Mel & Sue

Rylan Clark

Impact/TV moment

Winner: Aiden Turner, Poldark

Special recognition award

Winner: Billy Connolly

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in North-West Pakistan
  • 2016 Charsadda university attack
    • Gunmen attack a university in Charsadda, Pakistan. At least 21 people are reportedly killed. (BBC News)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present), Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
  • Satellite images released by the Associated Press reveal the historic Saint Elijah’s Monastery near the Iraqi city of Mosul, the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq that predates Islam, has been completely razed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants. (Independent)
• A suicide bomber in Kabul targets Tolo News, killing four and wounding 20. (BBC News)

Science and technology

• NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announce that 2015 was the hottest year on record since the beginning of meteorological records in 1890. (Mashable)
• A team of astronomers at Caltech infer the existence of a potential new planet (Planet Nine) in the outer Solar System (Washington Post)

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