The week in pictures: June 30- July 07, 2015

With numerous massive news stories hitting the headlines last week we spend a few moments going over some of the most important

Beijing took steps last week to halt the sliding share prices in its two major trading markets. With the Shanghai Composite Index having lost 30% of its value in the last three weeks the government has banned IPOs and set up a stabilization fund, 19 billion dollars of which was pledged by senior brokers, fund managers and mutual funds who will invest in the local market. With more than 3 trillion dollars already wiped off value Beijing has to hope this will stop the rot, but it may well not.

61.3% of Greek voters rejected the package of austerity measures that were to be imposed by the nation’s Eurozone creditors in a referendum held on Sunday. In the first such vote since the mid-1970s the government of Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party gained support for its position of not acquiescing to the continued fiscal hardship set upon it from Brussels. The vote marks a turning point in negotiations between the Euro Elite and Greece, with a compete breakdown of the process and a Greek exit still likely.

Website Reddit faced a massive backlash to its sacking of Victoria Taylor last week with 300 of its subreddits closed down by unpaid moderators protesting at the decision. With Mz. Taylor viewed by many as trustworthy, and the rest of the Reddit employee roster being seen as disinterested corporate scum, the site’s chief executive Ellen Pao has already apologized for letting down users and promised to find a solution to fix the problem, but it is a promise few of the regulars believe she can keep.

In sport the FIFA scandal continued to rumble on with two leading officials with Croatia’s leading football club, Dinamo Zagreb, arrested on suspicion of tax evasion, bribery, corruption and numerous other offenses. Some 1.8 million dollars is said to have been defrauded from the state by the detained. Will this be a pattern repeated across the world as FIFA’s slide into infamy continues? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s the big stories we covered last week.

1. Lionel Messi helped Argentina with three assists in their 6–1 win over Paraguay.

Argentina defeated Paraguay (Photo: ca2015)

2. Lewis Hamilton complained about the trophies in Formula One ahead of the 2015 British Grand Prix.

Hamilton is working for better…looking rewards (Photo: Thisisf1)

3. The United States and Japan were preparing their third showdown against each other in Canada before the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.

USA is the world champion (Photo: FIFA)

4. With Argentina and Chile to fight for the title, everything was ready for a remarkable Copa America showdown before the final.

Now we know who won… Congrats, Chile! (Photo: ca2015)

5. Russell Wilson mentioned that if he had the opportunity, he would play baseball while he continues his NFL career.

Russell Wilson, great at two great American sports (Photo: sportsblog)

6. Chile won their first ever Copa America title after defeating Argentina on penalties in Santiago de Chile.

When everybody was waiting for the final (Photo: ca2015)

7. Roger Federer demonstrated his skills after Caroline Wozniacki accused the organizers with sexism in the second week of the Wimbledon Championships.

Roger Federer (Photo: The Guardian)

Meanwhile Hollywood’s portrayal of aliens as being humanoid has gained some well respected backing from evolutionary biologist Simon Conway Morris who last week claimed it was likely any extraterrestrials would look very similar to humans as the principles convergence gave rise to the same evolutionary development as man has enjoyed here on Earth. With isolated evolutionary structures coming to resemble themselves so it is now thought that the same variety of life will have reached domination on other planets as it has here.