The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR FINANCE

 JUL. 10, 2014

REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

Children run from the Fire Bull, a man carrying a metal structure shaped as a bull’s head stuffed with fireworks, at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 8, 2014.

Hello! Here’s what people will be talking about on Thursday.

1. Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, a military campaign to stop rocket strikes from the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip, enters day three. The exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza militants continues to escalate with 14 Palestinians killed overnight. 

2. IBM is spending $3 billion on a five-year plan to improve today’s chip technology. One of the goals will be to shrink chip transistors from their current size of 22 nanometers to just 7 nanometers.

3. A freight train known as “The Beast” carrying over 1,000 young migrants derailed as it headed toward the U.S. border. No one was injured after heavy rains potentially caused the train to run off the tracks, officials said.

4. JPMorgan hired David Li, former China chairman and country head at UBS, to lead its business operations in the Asian nation. Li will start at JPMorgan in October and be based in Beijing. 

5. There may have been two different groups behind the Benghazi attacks according to newly revealed testimony from U.S. military commanders. The team behind the first, nighttime assault on a U.S. consulate is probably unrelated to the group involved in a second attack at dawn roughly 8 hours later. 

REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates his team’s win over the Netherlands after their 2014 World Cup semi-finals at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo July 9, 2014.

6. Argentina defeated the Netherlands in thefirst World Cup semifinal to finish without any goals. Argentina scored the decisive goal in a penalty shoot-out and will go on to play Germany in the final. 

7. Officials are investigating the second case of a German government worker suspected of spying for a U.S. intelligence agency. If the allegations are true, German chancellor Angela Merkel said it would be a clear breach of trust between the two countries. 

8. An American author who wrote a book called “How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona” was gored in the thigh while participating in the bull run during the annual San Fermin festival in Spain. Each year thousands of people run alongside six fighting bulls for more than half a mile to a ring where matadors will fight the bulls in the afternoon. 

9. Both candidates in the Indonesia presidential election — Jakarta governor Joko Widodo and former army general Prabowo Subianto — claim to have won. Early results show that Widodo was in the lead, but the official count won’t be in for at least another 10 days. 

10. French officials said they foiled an Islamist terrorist plot to bomb the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and a nuclear power plant. Police learned of the plans after decoding a message between an Algerian butcher living in France and top members of al-Qaeda. 

And finally…

Troubled pop star Justin Bieber must pay $80,900 in restitution after entering a no-contest plea in connection with the egging of a former neighbor’s house back in January. The Biebs was also sentenced to five days of community service and must complete anger management classes.