The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 AUG. 28, 2014

NOAA

Good morning! Here’s what people will be talking about Thursday:

1. The conflict in eastern Ukraine is heating up with new reports that pro-Russian rebels are moving into the southeastern Ukrainian town of Novoazovsk. Two seperate militia members told Reuters that military equipment is also being sent across the border. 

2. Australian officials may have a fresh break in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. A failed satellite phone call made by the airline ground staff to the Flight 370 after it disappeared may show that the plane “turned south earlier than previously thought,” the Wall Street Journal reports. 

3. Hurricane Cristobal has been blamed for at least seven deaths, including a New Jersey teenager who got stuck in a rip current generated by the storm, The Weather Channel reports.The hurricane moved over Bermuda on Wednesday, but is not expected to strike the U.S.

4. Time Warner Cable said a massive outage to internet service in the U.S. on Wednesday was caused by an “erroneous configuration” during “overnight network maintenance activity in which we were managing IP addresses.”

5. Samsung has released the first smartwatch, called the Gear S, that can make calls without a cell phone nearby. The announcement comes right after LG unveiled its new G Watch R smartwatch. 

6. There’s a fierce bidding war between Telefonica and Telecom Italia over Brazilian internet provider GVT. Spain’s Telefonica increased its early August bid for GVT to $9.83 billion within in minutes of Telecom Italia’s $9.25 billion offer. 

7. A crew member for the popular T.V. show “Cops” was shot and killed while filming an armed robbery in Omaha. “We are deeply saddened and shocked by this tragedy and our main concern is helping his family in any way we can,” the show’s production company said in a statement. 

8. JPMorgan and at least four other U.S. banks were victims of cyberattaks this month, four people familiar with an ongoing investigation told The New York Times. “The hackers infiltrated the networks of the banks, siphoning off gigabytes of data, including checking and savings account information, in what security experts described as a sophisticated cyberattack,” The Times said. 

 9. Emmanuel Macron has officially been named France’s new economy minister, taking over for Arnuard Montebourg who was forced out after making critical remarks about the country’s economic policies. 

10. British PM David Cameron is expected to make another attempt to convince voters in the Scottish independence referendum that separating from the UK will be bad for Scotland’s economy. Speaking from Glasgow, Cameron will make the argument that “Scotland’s financial services could lose 90% of their business if voters endorsed independence,” The Guardian said. 

And finally…

California scientists say they have seen “sailing stones” in action for the first time solving the mystery of how these heavy rocks move across a dry lake in Death Valley without human or animal intervention.