With so much going on in the world last week perhaps we should take a moment to glance back at some of the important news stories of the last seven days
Last week saw amazing results announced from the trials in Guinea of a experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus. In a trial encompassing over 4,000 people the drug was reported to be 100% effective amongst the 2,014 people who received it immediately and only 16 cases were found amongst those 2,380 who gained a delayed vaccination. Sponsored by the World Health Organization and both the Canadian and Norwegian governments the trial will now continue and expand within the west African country.
Investigations into the killing of Cecil the Lion continued last week with the government of Zimbabwe lodging a petition with the White House in the US to have Walter Palmer, the dentist that killed the animal just outside the Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, extradited back to the African nation to stand trial. The White House has a month to respond. For his part Walter Palmer did apologize, but only to his patients, and has said that he will assist the authorities in their investigation into the lion’s death.
After the withdrawal of Stockholm, Krakow and Oslo, the only two cities interested in hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, China’s Beijing and Kazakhstan’s Almaty, battled it out for final selection last week with the Chinese capital coming away with the honor despite having already hosted a Summer games and not actually having any snow. The European cities withdrew citing a lack of public interest and the vast costs of hosting the event as being prohibitive. Despite human rights concerns China is seen as a safe pair of hands.
In sport a IAAF report leaked to the Sunday Times and ARD/WDR (a German broadcaster) shows that the extent of cheating in athletics is far wider than has been made public with dubious and suspicious test results that call into question nearly every winner and medalist in the top flight of athletics over the last decade and a half. Question is will the IAAF do anything about it or continue to cover up the cheating? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s the headlines from the last seven days.
1. Formula One prepared to end a sad week at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
2. Celtic were favourites against Azeri outfit FK Quarabag before the first leg of their Champions League qualifiers.
3. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sued the NFL after the organization upheld the four-game suspension in the Deflategate scandal.
4. Chelsea and Arsenal prepared to kick off the 2015-16 season with a spicy London derby in the Community Shield.
5. Michel Platini was considered as favorite to win the next FIFA election after he revealed that he will run for the presidency.
6. Arsene Wenger refused to shake hands with Jose Mourinho after Arsenal won the Community Shield match against Chelsea.
7. A widespread doping practice was suspected in athletics after the investigation of the leaked IAAF medical data was published.
Meanwhile just outside the small east Texan town of Marietta a man had to be airlifted to hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning after suffering bullet wounds sustained when the rounds he himself had fired ricocheted back off the armadillo he was targeting. In the second such incident this year the man was hit in the jaw by one of his own rounds and had to have it wired shut, it is not known at this time if the Armadillo survived the encounter. Armadillos are seen as pests in many southern US states.
With so much going on in the world last week perhaps we should take a moment to glance back at some of the important news stories of the last seven days
Last week saw amazing results announced from the trials in Guinea of a experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus. In a trial encompassing over 4,000 people the drug was reported to be 100% effective amongst the 2,014 people who received it immediately and only 16 cases were found amongst those 2,380 who gained a delayed vaccination. Sponsored by the World Health Organization and both the Canadian and Norwegian governments the trial will now continue and expand within the west African country.
Investigations into the killing of Cecil the Lion continued last week with the government of Zimbabwe lodging a petition with the White House in the US to have Walter Palmer, the dentist that killed the animal just outside the Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, extradited back to the African nation to stand trial. The White House has a month to respond. For his part Walter Palmer did apologize, but only to his patients, and has said that he will assist the authorities in their investigation into the lion’s death.
After the withdrawal of Stockholm, Krakow and Oslo, the only two cities interested in hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, China’s Beijing and Kazakhstan’s Almaty, battled it out for final selection last week with the Chinese capital coming away with the honor despite having already hosted a Summer games and not actually having any snow. The European cities withdrew citing a lack of public interest and the vast costs of hosting the event as being prohibitive. Despite human rights concerns China is seen as a safe pair of hands.
In sport a IAAF report leaked to the Sunday Times and ARD/WDR (a German broadcaster) shows that the extent of cheating in athletics is far wider than has been made public with dubious and suspicious test results that call into question nearly every winner and medalist in the top flight of athletics over the last decade and a half. Question is will the IAAF do anything about it or continue to cover up the cheating? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s the headlines from the last seven days.
1. Formula One prepared to end a sad week at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
2. Celtic were favourites against Azeri outfit FK Quarabag before the first leg of their Champions League qualifiers.
3. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sued the NFL after the organization upheld the four-game suspension in the Deflategate scandal.
4. Chelsea and Arsenal prepared to kick off the 2015-16 season with a spicy London derby in the Community Shield.
5. Michel Platini was considered as favorite to win the next FIFA election after he revealed that he will run for the presidency.
6. Arsene Wenger refused to shake hands with Jose Mourinho after Arsenal won the Community Shield match against Chelsea.
7. A widespread doping practice was suspected in athletics after the investigation of the leaked IAAF medical data was published.
Meanwhile just outside the small east Texan town of Marietta a man had to be airlifted to hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning after suffering bullet wounds sustained when the rounds he himself had fired ricocheted back off the armadillo he was targeting. In the second such incident this year the man was hit in the jaw by one of his own rounds and had to have it wired shut, it is not known at this time if the Armadillo survived the encounter. Armadillos are seen as pests in many southern US states.
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.
2. Lewis Hamilton complained about the trophies in Formula One ahead of the 2015 British Grand Prix.
3. The United States and Japan were preparing their third showdown against each other in Canada before the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.
4. With Argentina and Chile to fight for the title, everything was ready for a remarkable Copa America showdown before the final.
5. Russell Wilson mentioned that if he had the opportunity, he would play baseball while he continues his NFL career.
6. Chile won their first ever Copa America title after defeating Argentina on penalties in Santiago de Chile.
7. Roger Federer demonstrated his skills after Caroline Wozniacki accused the organizers with sexism in the second week of the Wimbledon Championships.
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.
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.
2. Lewis Hamilton complained about the trophies in Formula One ahead of the 2015 British Grand Prix.
3. The United States and Japan were preparing their third showdown against each other in Canada before the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.
4. With Argentina and Chile to fight for the title, everything was ready for a remarkable Copa America showdown before the final.
5. Russell Wilson mentioned that if he had the opportunity, he would play baseball while he continues his NFL career.
6. Chile won their first ever Copa America title after defeating Argentina on penalties in Santiago de Chile.
7. Roger Federer demonstrated his skills after Caroline Wozniacki accused the organizers with sexism in the second week of the Wimbledon Championships.
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.