The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 SEP. 12, 2014

AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File

Oscar Pistorius awaits a verdict on manslaughter charges.

Good morning! Here’s what people will be chatting about on Friday:

1. The United States and the European Union have agreed to broaden sanctions against Russian over the Ukraine crisis. President Barack Obama said he would offer more details on Friday. Sources told Reuters that the U.S. “plans to sanction Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and to further limit other Russian banks’ access to U.S. capital.”

2. Olympic track star Oscar Pistorius was cleared on Thursday of murdering his girlfriend last year, but awaits a verdict fromJudge Thokozile Masipa on a manslaughter charge. 

3. Australia raised its terror threat from medium to high over the growing threat of militant groups in Iraq and Syria. In a press conference, Prime Minister Tony Abbot stressed that the country is not in imminent danger, but there is growing evidence of Australians connected to Islamist groups. 

4. T.J. Lane, a 19-year-old serving a life sentence in prison after killing three high school students in 2012, was captured early Friday Monday after escaping with two other inmates in Lima, Ohio. One of the prisoners, Clifford Opperud, is still believed to be at-large

5. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s charity will reportedly donate $9 million to help fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Reuters said. 

6. Support for Scottish independence seems to be fading after a new YouGov poll for the Times found the No vote leading by a slight margin of 4%.  

7. The CIA updated its estimate of Islamic State fighters from 10,000 to between 20,000 and 31,5000. 

8. Documents released Thursday showed that in 2008, the U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if the tech giant didn’t hand over user data as part of the an expanded surveillance program. 

9. A U.S. Ebola patient being treated in Nebraska appears to be getting better after receiving “every treatment [doctors] can think of,” Maggie Fox of NBCNews reports. 

10. Deutsche Bank released a major report stating that bonds may be the world’s last mega-bubble.