The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

OCT. 22, 2014

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know for Wednesday.

1. Islamic State militants continue to shell the Syrian town of Kobani after US aircraft drop weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to Kurdish forces there. 

2. The World Health Organization said its fast-tracking the testing of two experimental vaccines for Ebola, which could be ready for use on 20,000 health workers in Liberia by January, The Guardian reports. 

3. A televised first meeting between student leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and government officials showed little progress.  

4. A new poll showed Wednesday that Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff gained 1 percentage point on her pro-business candidate Aecio Neves, ahead of the Oct. 26 runoff to the presidential election.  

5. Traders say three major changes — stablizing energy stocks, a possible delay in US interest rate hikes, and subsiding panic over Ebola — have sent markets surging back. 

6. Swedish forces reported two new sightings of unidentified vessels in its waters. 

7. South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail for shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

8. After reporting a drop in global same-store sales of 3.3% in the last quarter, McDonald’s has unveiled a plan to get the burger chain back on top, including “going back to the basics.“

9. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes, will make $780 million by selling off its stake in Tesla.

10. Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor who oversaw the newspaper’s covers of the Watergate scandal, died on Tuesday at the age of 93.

And finally…

Sleeping lions have nabbed first place in London’s Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year 2014 competition.