The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

AUG. 11, 2014

REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

A supermoon shines over metro Manila August 11, 2014.

Good morning! Here’s what people will be chatting about on Monday.

1. An Iraqi Shi’ite coalition is close to nominating a prime minister, Iraq’s deputy speaker Haider al-Abadi said in a tweet on Monday, meaning that prime minister Nuri al-Maliki may have to give up his bid for a third term. This comes after Maliki gave a surprise television speech Sunday night filing a complaint against president Fuad Masum for violating the constitution. 

2. The second three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has taken effect in Gaza. If the truce holds, “Israel will send negotiators to Cairo on Monday for talks on a longer-term deal,” the BBC said. 

3. The streets of Ferguson, Missouri, descended into chaos Sunday night following the fatal shooting of a teenager by a police officer. Protestors smashed windows and looted stores after a candlelight vigil for  18-year-old Michael Brown, who witnesses say was unarmed when the shooting occurred. 

4. Tens of thousands of members from the Yazidi community who had escaped to the Sinjar mountains in Northwestern Iraq made their way to a Syrian refuge camp Sunday night. Thousands of Yazidis remain trapped in the mountains, where the minority group has been seeking safety from ISIS militants for several weeks. 

4. Oil-and-gas pipeline company Kinder Morgan plans to spend $44 billion to buy out all its subsidiaries in the second largest deal in the energy sector, The Financial Times said. Kinder currently managers 80,000 miles of pipeline in North America. 

5. Investigators have not ruled out criminal charges in the fatal collision Saturday night in which NASCAR champion Tony Stewart struck and killed 20-year-old drive Kevin Ward Jr. A former state and federal prosecutor told the Associated Press: ”I think even with the video, it’s going to be tough to prove that this was more than just an accident and that it was even culpable negligence, which he should’ve known or should’ve believed that by getting close to this guy, that it was going to cause the accident,” he said.

6. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has announced a $50 million investment in BuzzFeed, placing the value of the company at $850, The New York Times reported. The money will used to make “several major changes, including introducing new content sections, creating an in-house incubator for new technology and potential acquisitions, and putting far more resources toward BuzzFeed Motion Pictures,” the Times said. 

7. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey’s first presidential election by popular vote, holding onto to his 12-year reign in office. The outcome ”cements [Erdogan's] position as Turkey’s most powerful ruler since the Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was president in the 1930s,” The Wall Street Journal said. 

8. Rory McIlroy won the PGA championship in Valhalla on Sunday. The 25-year-old from Northern Ireland has secured his status as world number one with his second straight major title. 

9. Skywatchers around the world were treated to a supermoon Sunday night, when the full moon appears extra big and bright it is at the point in its orbit closest to earth. If you missed this supermoon, don’t worry, there’s another one on Sept. 9. 

10. MPs are calling for mandatory health warnings on bottles of wine, beer, and spirits to combat alcohol abuse in Brit ian and raise awareness about the dangers of excessive drinking, The Guardian reported. And advocacy group for alcohol misuse says the labels should display written warnings as well as caloric information. 

And finally…

Actors Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort of “The Fault in Our Stars” were the big winners of Sunday night’s Teen Choice Awards. Both took home an award for Choice Move Drama and shared an award for Choice Movie Chemistry.