Top News Stories –

Pope Francis releases first ‘pop-rock’ album –
His wise homilies and moving speeches already attract worshippers in their millions. Now Pope Francis will be hoping his popularity translates into record sales after his first pop-rock album was released in Italy on Friday. Wake Up!, an 11-track Vatican-approved album, features many of the most moving addresses of Pope Francis’s papacy laid over rap, pop-rock and Latin rhythms. An online extract from the record, which was released at the end of September, has already been listened to a billion times, according to distributors. Speaking at the record’s launch at the Vatican, Father Giulio Neroni, the Italian priest who produced the album, said: “Pope Francis doesn’t sing as such. But his voice does sing and play, not to the cardinals, but to the people, the faithful.” [Daily Telegraph]
Pope Francis

Mysterious billion-dollar car company takes on Tesla –
Faraday Future, the startup backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, has big dreams of taking on Tesla Motors Inc, starting with a $1 billion investment in a new US factory that will build electric cars starting in 2017. Nick Sampson, a former Tesla director who is Faraday’s senior vice president of research and development, said Faraday plans to introduce its first electric car in two years and quickly follow with several other models. Faraday is based in Gardena, California, where it has been developing its first model with 400 employees. Jia Yueting is founder and chairman of Leshi Television, a popular Chinese online video site. [Daily Telegraph]

Warcraft film trailer is shown to fans for the first time –
Finally, the new Warcraft movie trailer’s out – and it looks awesome. Fans got the chance to see it at the Blizzcon gaming convention in California on Friday. Director Duncan Jones hopes it appeals to people who don’t play MMO (massively multiplayer online) games like the one its based on, World of Warcraft. The film’s based on the blockbuster video game series, World of Warcraft, which has won millions of fans all over the world since its launch in 2004. The teaser clip shows the world of Azeroth descended into darkness, pitting sworn enemies – the humans and the orcs – against each other in an epic battle. It opens in cinemas on 3 June next year in the UK. [BBC Newsbeat] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Warcraft – Official Trailer

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • Israeli forces shoot and kill a 72-year-old woman in Halhul, a town near Hebron. The soldiers say she attempted to wound them with her car. Her son denies this, saying his mother was on her way to lunch with her sister. Later, three Israelis are shot and wounded, one seriously, in two incidents in Hebron. (Al Jazeera English) (The Guardian) (Haaretz)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors conclusively identify mustard gas as the toxic agent used in the battle between Islamic State (IS) insurgents and a anti-Assad rebel group in the Syrian town of Mare’ in the northern Alleppo province on August 21, 2015. This is the first confirmation of its use by non-state actors in Syria’s four-year-old conflict. (Christian Science Monitor) (Washington Post)
  • The Ajnad al-Sham and other rebel forces recapture the village of Atshan and surrounding areas in Hama province, consolidating significant advances made the day before at the expense of pro-government forces. (Fox News) (Reuters)

Art and culture

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) new policy states those in a same-sex marriage are to be considered apostates, and children living in a same-sex household may not be blessed as babies, or baptized until they are 18. (Washington Post) (AP)

Business and economics

• India has cancelled Greenpeace India’s license to operate and gave the group 30 days to close down, citing financial fraud and falsification of data, the environment watchdog said on Friday. (NDTV) (Reuters)
• U.S. job growth for October 2015 saw the biggest gains since December 2014, fueling hopes that the Federal Reserve Board will increase near-zero interest rates at its December meeting. (Reuters)
• U.S. President Barack Obama announces that the State Department has rejected TransCanada‘s application to complete the Keystone XL pipeline. (New York Times) (NPR) (Al Jazeera English)

Disasters and accidents

• Kogalymavia Flight 9268
  • Russia has ordered the suspension of all flights to Egypt following indications that the crash near Sharm el-Sheikh was caused by a bomb.(BBC)
• Minas Gerais dam disaster
  • Thursday’s flooding and devastating mudslides at the BHP-Vale mine in Minas Gerais involved two dams, not one as initially reported. Brazilian officials report the mud flow is eight kilometers (five miles) long and 2.5 meters deep. Those rescued – and emergency services – are being decontaminated; mining spoils being treated as toxic. There is no official information on the number of casualties or the cause of the incident. The company that runs the mine says it detected seismic activity right before the breach. Both BHP and Vale shares declined over five percent. Brazilian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation. (Mashable) (Bloomberg) (CCTV)

Health and medicine

• Researchers at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania‘s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) successfully use a 3-D printer (specifically, a fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer) to produce hair-like strands, inspired by the use of a hot glue gun to produce gossamer strands. Also, using certain materials (like collagens, alginates, and fibrins), with a 3-D printer and special bioprinting techniques, another team at CMU produced human coronary arteries and small, embryonic-like human hearts. (MSN), (CMU), (CMU)
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a new, all-in-one pill to treat HIV patients that includes a new version of the drug tenofovir, which researchers think will help reduce side effects from the multi-drug regimens used for HIV. (UPI)

International relations

• Indonesia–Philippines relations
  • Indonesia and the Philippines discuss their borders after the Indonesian Navy sinks four Filipino fishing vessels off the coast of the Philippines triggering a diplomatic dispute. (Business World)
• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
  • U.S. officials say the U.S. Navy deliberately avoided military drills or other actions that could have further inflamed tensions with Beijing during the USS Lassen’s patrol in the South China Sea last week. For instance, the Lassen turned off its fire-control radars while transiting within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. On its part, the Chinese destroyer following the Lassen was, “very cordial the entire time … before and after the Spratly Islands transit,” said the Lassen’s commanding officer, Commander Robert Francis. (Reuters) (New York Post)
• European migrant crisis
  • Reuters reports the Obama Administration will be opening new screening centers for Syrian refugees in Iraq and Lebanon to speed up the process for getting vetted individuals to the United States. (Reuters)
• Turkey–United States relations
  • The U.S Air Force deploys six F-15C fighter jets to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to help defend Turkish airspace against potential intruders. (AP)
• Egypt–United States relations
  • Egypt receives the final four of its order of 20 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters, according to the Defense Ministry. The United States had delayed delivery following the 2013 coup d’état. (UPI)
• Japan–United States relations
  • Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga says he “cannot comply with the recommendation” from Tokyo’s Land Minister Keiichi Ishii, and will not retract his revocation of a U.S. military base relocation permit. (UPI)

Politics and elections

• The U.S. House passes the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 370-58. In addition to funding the U.S. military, the bill contains provisions for sweeping personnel reforms. The previous version of the bill was vetoed by President Barack Obama. Some sources expect swift passage by the U.S. Senate while other sources are not so optimistic. (Defense News) (The Hill)

Science and technology

• The United States Federal Communications Commission rejects privacy advocacy group Consumer Watchdog’s petition to make it illegal for Internet companies like Google, Facebook and ad providers to ignore “Do Not Track” browser settings. (NBC News)

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