The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 AUG. 20, 2014

REUTERS/Ingolfur Bruun

Picture shows the growing ash plume from the Grimsvotn volcano, under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, as its eruption begins May 21, 2011

Morning. Here’s what people will be talking on Wednesday. 

1. A video posted by the ISIS militant group purportedly shows the execution of American journalist James Foley. “If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends,” the White House said. 

2. An investigation into the the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has unveiled conflicting eyewitness accounts, Thew New York Times reports. “Some witnesses say that Mr. Brown, 18, moved toward Officer Wilson, possibly in a threatening manner, when the officer shot him dead. But others say that Mr. Brown was not moving and may even have had his hands up when he was killed,” The Times said. 

2. A long-term resolution between Israel and Hamas appears long off. Fighting picked up again on Tuesday after an extended five-day ceasefire in Gaza came to an end and peace talks in Cairo collapsed.

3. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stepped down from the Microsoft board. Ballmer will focus on the LA Clippers basketball team he just bought and do some business teaching. 

4. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) posed for a mug shot on Tuesday. Perry is accused of abusing his office by threatening to cut a state-level prosecutor’s funding after she was arrested for drunken driving. After the mug shot, he went out for ice cream. 

5. Hackers stole the personal information of around 4.5 million patients from Community Health Systems using the Heartbleed bug. 

6. The potential for an Icelandic volcano to erupt could cause a headache for summer travelers. If the volcano blows, leading to ash clouds, it could be a major disruption to air travel. 

7. The international community is not doing enough to help Ebola victims in West Africa, a senior aid worker told The Guardian. “Leaders in the west are talking about their own safety and doing things like closing airlines – and not helping anyone else,” said Brice de la Vigne, the operations director of Médecins Sans Frontières. 

8. British bank Standard Chartered will pay a $300 million settlement to New York State’s financial regulator over allegations the bank failed to detect risky transactions. As part of the deal, the bank “will suspend clearing activity for high-risk Hong Kong business clients and exit certain client relationships at its branches in the United Arab Emirates. The UK bank will also not be allowed to accept new customers for dollar-clearing without prior approval by the DFS,” The Financial Times explains. 

9. Conde Nast is selling Fairchild Fashion Media, which includes the title Women’s Wear Daily, to Penske Media Corporation for less than $100 million, the Financial Times reports. 

10. Heavy rains in Japan have triggered landslides that have killed 27 people so far.

And finally…

Derek Jeter is the latest celeb/sports star to participate in the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge.” Watch him get ice bathed here. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA  SPECTOR

JUL. 18, 2014, 3:03 PM

NASA Webb Telescope

NASA’s view of the honeycomb-shaped James Webb telescope.

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

1. A Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 passengers exploded and crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing everyone on board. The flight headed from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, is believed to have been shot down by pro-Russian separatists, although there are “strong indications that those responsible may have errantly downed what they had thought was a military aircraft only to discover, to their shock, that they had struck a civilian airliner, The New York Times reports. 

2. Some of the world’s top aid experts, headed for an international conference in Melbourne, Australia, were passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed over Ukraine. It’s believed that the former president of the International AIDS Society, Joep Lange, was among those killed, Xinhuanet reports. 

3. The Israeli military launched a large-scale ground invasion in the Gaza strip after Hama militants rejected a truce brokered by Egypt. The goal of the new phase after 10 days of fighting is to “target Hamas’ tunnels that enable terrorists to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks,” The Israeli Defense Force tweeted. ”This requires precise operations,” they added.

4. The massive layoffs at Microsoft on Thursday mark one of the highest workforce cuts in the company’s nearly 40-year history. Microsoft CEO Satay Nadella said the company would cut 18,000 jobs — 14% of the workforce — over the next year. 

5. Google revenue jumped 22% in the second quarter to nearly $16 billion, which was better than the expected $15.6 billion.During the call, chief business officer Nikesh Arora also announced that he will be leaving the company to join SoftBank. 

6. New York City transit authorities said they reached a tentative deal with labor unions from the Long Island Rail Road, dodging a transit strike that would have stranded thousands of passengers over the weekend. According to Reuters, the contact provides a 17% raise over the next 6.5 years, but workers must pay healthcare benefits for the first time. 

7. Bloomberg reported on a Russian-led cyber attack on NASDAQ’s central servers that took place in 2010. The hack represents “the only time a digital weapon has been planted inside a critical U.S. system,” the Daily Beast reports. The hack, while intercepted, was an attempt to steal information for Russia’s owns stock exchanges. 

8. Many flights have been cancelled in Libya as air controllers go on strike after the terminal of Tripoli’s main airport was hit by shells of a rival militant group. 

9. German World Cup midfielder Mesut Özil has donated nearly $600,000 of his personal winnings to more than two dozen surgeries for sick children in Brazil. Özil considers the contribution “a personal thank-you for the [country's] hospitality,” The Telegraph said. 

10. Broadway icon Elaine Stritch died at the age of 89 at her home in Michigan. Stritch appeared in movies and T.V. shows but was best known for on stage performances, winning five Tony awards and three Emmys in her lifetime.

And finally…

Scientists say they expect to find alien life on another planet in the coming decades, aided by the launch of NASA’s next-generation James Webb Space Telescope.

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 JUL. 16, 2014

AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett donated a record $2.6 billion to five charities.

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

1. IBM announced it was partnering exclusively with Apple to sell iPhones and iPads to its clients. IBM will develop cloud services that are optimized for the iPhone and iPad operating system and Apple will provide hardware support for the devices.

2. The first Israeli was killed near the Gaza border after an Egypt-proposed cease-fire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militants unraveled. Hamas rejected the deal and airstrikes between the two nations have resumed, continuing a week-long battle that has also killed 200 Palestinians.

3. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said in a testimony to the Senate Banking Committee that “significant slack” remains in labor markets despite the recent strong jobs report. Yellen defended a loose monetary policy until the economy has fully recovered from the financial crisis, but was optimistic that “the economy would continue to grow if supported by the Fed’s current low interest rates,” Reuters says .

4. California is imposing tough water restrictions during the state’sthird-worst drought ever seen. Residents will be fined up to $500 a day for wasteful outdoor watering of gardens, lawns, or car washing.

5. General Motors records obtained by the New York Times appear to cast “doubt on how forthright the automaker was with regulators over a defective ignition switch that G.M. has linked to at least 13 deaths over the last decade.” The Times says, reportedly, that the company “repeatedly found a way not to answer the simple question from regulators of what led to a crash.”

6. A Japanese nuclear plant was given preliminary approval for meeting safety regulations required after the meltdowns at Fukushima. The Sendai plant in Tokyo is the first to meet these safety upgrades and is a step closer to coming back online.

7. The world’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed at least 68 people in the last week. Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest viruses, is spread through contact with blood and bodily fluids of infected people or animals.

8. At least 10 people were killed as Typhoon Rammasun tore through Manila, the capital of the Philippines. More than 370,000 people were evacuated from their homes as strong winds brought down trees and power lines, causing widespread blackouts. 

9. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett ;donated $2.8 billion in securities to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four other charities. This is most Buffett has ever donated to these charities since he began his  2007 pledge to give away nearly all his wealth through annual contributions of his stock in Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

10. Hillary Clinton said she would prefer to work in a place with “fewer corners” — presumably a reference to the White House Oval Office — in an interview on” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” Tuesday night. This came in response to the comedian’s repeated attempts to get Clinton to reveal any plans to run in the 2016 presidential election. 

And finally…

A 24-year-old British woman spent nearly $30,000 on plastic surgery, teeth whitening, spray tans, and a new wardrobe to look like celebrity Kim Kardashian. The Kimitator is now $10,000 in debt, the New York Daily News reports.