The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 NOV. 12, 2014

REUTERS/Jason Lee

US President Obama speaks at a joint news conference with Chinese President Jinping at the Apec summit, Nov. 12, 2014.

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

1. US President Obama and Chinese President Jinping reached a landmark climate deal, with the US pledging to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% by 2025 from 2005-levels and China agreeing to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030. 

2. The climate agreement signals the first time ever that China, the world’s top carbon polluter, has committed to a greenhouse gas emissions cap. 

3. Scientists are making final preparations to deploy the Philae probe from the Rosetta spacecraft and land it on a comet, marking a space history first. 

4. Japan’s Nikkei soared to a 7-year high on Wednesday on news that President Shinzo Abe is preparing to call a snap vote and potentially delay a national sales tax hike planned for October 2015. 

5. Sierra Leone will pay $5,000 (£3,140 pounds) to the family of any health worker who dies of Ebola from treating an infected patient. 

6. The European Court of Justice set a precedent in a ruling that says member states can deny certain payments to unemployed EU citizens who move there just to claim benefits. 

7. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote a blog post defending the amount of money the streaming service pays to artists, noting that Taylor Swift was on track to earn at least $6 million this year before she pulled her entire music catalogue from the service last week.

8. An icy blast of air from the Arctic has caused temperatures to drop dramatically in about two-thirds of the continental US.

9. YouTube signed a licensing deal with independent record companies, a partnership that opens the door “to introduce a long-planned subscription feature to compete with online music outlets like Spotify and Rhapsody,” The New York Times reports. 

10. Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital’ has won Business Book of the Year, which comes with a £30,000 prize. 

And finally …

The lemur who starred in the children’s show “Zaboomafoo” has died at the age of 20. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 NOV. 7, 2014

REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Executive Vice President of airbag maker Takata Corporation Yoichiro Nomura attends a news conference in Tokyo, November 6, 2014.

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

1. The FBI arrested on Thursday the alleged operator of “deep web” drug marketplace Silk Road 2.0, former SpaceX employee Blake Benthall. 

2. A former safety expert for the European Space Agency told the Financial Times that Virgin Galactic, whose spacecraft exploded killing one pilot last week, did not have enough safety precautions in place. 

3. Honda has expanded its recall of Takata-made airbags — now among nearly 8 million cars made by 10 automakers — because the airbags can explode, causing shards of metal to fly out into the passenger compartment. 

4. In light of the recall, The New York Times reports that Takata allegedly deleted results from 2004 tests showing the potential risks of its airbags. 

5. Israel has reportedly banned entry visas to citizens of the three West African nations worst hit by Ebola, — Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea — according to Haaretz.

6. US President Barack Obama wrote a secret letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in October about fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

7. The European Central Bank said on Thursday that it’s prepared for further stimulus if it’s needed. 

8. Chinese officials bought so much illegal ivory on a visit to Tanzania in 2013 that local prices doubled, a report by Britain’s Environmental Investigation Agency has revealed. 

9.  Some military officials and SEALs have sounded doubts about former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill’s claim that he was the man who shot and killed Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in 2011. 

10. Twitter is reportedly opening a new office in Hong Kong next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

And finally …

Here’s a Christmas ad that will make you cry. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

NOV. 5, 2014

REUTERS/NASA TV

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

1. Republicans swept the US Senate in the midterm elections Tuesday night.

2. US crude oil crashed to a three-year low on Tuesday.

3. Catalonia plans to ahead with an independence vote this weekend in defiance of the Spanish government. 

4. The investigation into the Virgin Galactic space plane crash centres on the pilot’s decision to prematurely unlock the craft’s moveable tail section, which set off “a chain of events that led to destruction of the ship and his death,” Reuters reports.

5. China’s reliance on coal results in 670,000 smog-related deaths each year, according to a new research study covered by The South China Morning Post. 

6. Engine giant Rolls-Royce plans to axe 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months, mainly in the aerospace division.

7. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been spotted strolling around without the aid of a walking stick.

8. European immigrants to the UK paid £20 billion more in taxes than they received, a new study suggests. 

9. Tinder’s CEO Sean Rad is stepping down into the President role.

10. Beijing is the favourite to host the 2022 Olympics, despite major concerns about holding the winter games there. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

Dina Spector

 Nov. 4, 2014

REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier

A researcher of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) checks an Ebola diagnostic test in Marcoule, November 3, 2014.

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

1.  In a tentative deal, Russia might convert Iran’s giant stockpile of uranium into fuel rods for the country’s only nuclear power plant, which would simultaneously relive Western concerns that the uranium could be used to make a nuclear weapon. 

2.  Iraq is on “high alert” for Jihadist attacks. 

3.  The former girlfriend of Rurik Jutting, the British banker suspected of killing two women in Hong Kong, claims he was suicidal
. 
4. French researchers have developed a 15-minute test for the Ebola virus, called eZyscreen, which uses a drop of blood or urine to quickly diagnose patients.

5. Taylor Swift had pulled all of her albums off Spotify, reportedly a move to boost CD sales to make the singer’s record label more attractive to potential buyers
. 
6. Venezuela announced it will raise the minimum wage by 15% starting in December to protect workers from runaway inflation.

7. The Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden has reportedly been identified and will be the subject of a Fox News documentary released later this month.

8. Canada launched its first airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq on Sunday. 


9. Germany’s Protectionist won Australia’s Melbourne Cup on Tuesday
. 
10. Bill Gates, who this year has donated $50 billion to fight Ebola and $200 million to combat malaria through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, warned that world is completely unprepared for epidemics
. 
And finally…
An Australian man jumped onto a whale as it was being eaten by sharks — and immediately regretted his decision. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

Dina Spector

Nov. 3, 2014

REUTERS/Kenneth Brown

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket explodes in mid-air during a test flight above the Mojave Desert in California Oct. 31, 2014.

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

1. Pro-Russian rebels in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk held elections on Sunday, the results of which have been declared a breach of constitutional law by the United Nations, but will be recognized by Russia.

2. German chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly warned British prime minister David Cameron that she would support a British exit from the European Union if Cameron attempted to restrict immigration within Europe.

3. Investigators of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crash are looking into the rocket’s fuel propulsion system, which used nitrous oxide rather than a traditional carbon-based fuel.

4. The latest report on climate change from the United Nations warns that failure to reduce emissions could change the climate so drastically it, “might become dangerous for people to work or play outside during the hottest times of the year,” The New York Times writes.

5. Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank has just ended what one analyst called “the mother of all IPOs.”

6.  Burkina Faso’s army pledged to install a unity government on Sunday, while taking over national television headquarters in the capital Ouagadougou.

7. China’s services sector hit a nine-month low in October.

8. A British banker has been charged with the murder of two women in Hong Kong.

9. Despite being thousands of miles from the outbreak, North Korea has imposed some of the world’s toughest measures against the Ebola virus.


10.  Wilson Kipsang, 32, from Kenya won first place in the New York City Marathon on Sunday with a time of time of 2 hours 10 minutes 59 seconds.

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOr 

REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly

An Israeli policeman aims his weapon during clashes with Palestinians inside the old city of Jerusalem Oct. 30, 2014.

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

1. The Bank of Japan unexpectedly announced Friday morning that it would ease monetary policy due to concerns about falling oil prices. 

2. Israel is reopening a holy site in Jerusalem, which was closed on Thursday for the first time in many years “after an Israeli counter-terrorism unit killed a Palestinian man suspected of trying the night before to assassinate a leading agitator for increased Jewish access to the site,” The New York Times explained. 

3. Sweden has become the largest European nation to recognize Palestine as a state. 

4.  A Human Rights Watch report released on Thursday describes a horrific incident in which ISIS militants lined up 600 Shia, Christian, and Yazidi male prisoners and executed them at point blank range. 

5. Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly come out as gay. 

6. After months of drawn-out negotiations, Russia has guaranteed it will deliver gas supplies to Ukraine through March. 

7. Andy Rubin, the Google executive who created Android, is out of the company. 

8. Doctors Without Borders warned that its “too early to draw conclusions” about the spread of Ebola following the World Health Organisation’s promising announcement that Ebola might be slowing down in Liberia. 

9. In an effort to curb climate change, Australia said it was going to pay companies to reduce emissions, a plan that has been harshly criticized as being ineffective. 

10. Beijing has banned the wearing of Halloween costumes on the subway because it might cause “panic.”

And finally…

People are upset that the mannequins at Top Shop have legs that are unrealistically thin. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 OCT. 30, 2014

REUTERS/Stringer

Rescue teams from the Sri Lankan military engage in rescue operation work at the site of a landslide at the Koslanda tea plantation in Badulla October 29, 2014.

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

1. The World Health Organization issued promising news about the state of Ebola,noting that the epidemic in Liberia “may be slowing down.”

2. A mudslide set off by monsoon rains may have been killed in hundreds in Sri Lanka.

3. NATO said on Wednesday afternoon that it has intercepted an unusually high number of Russian bomber planes over the Atlantic, Black Sea, and Baltic Sea over a 24-hour period since Tuesday.

4. OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said he expects a sharp fall in US shale output if oil prices stay low. 

5. It could take months for investigators to determine what caused a rocket built by Orbital Sciences and carrying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station to blow up seconds after launch, obliterating an estimated $200 million in an instant.

6. Fiat Chrysler plans to spin-off Ferrari, its most valuable brand. 

7. Samsung posted a 49% drop in profit, the lowest in three years as the electronics maker loses its grip on the smartphone market. 

8. Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan believes that the third installment of the government’s stimulus program, known as QE3, did not meet its goals, which he revealed after the Fed announced the program’s end on Wednesday.

9. US government officials have openly criticized Secretary of State John Kerry,comparing him to a lost astronaut in space because he often gets “out of sync with the White House in his public statements.” 

10. The San Francisco Giants won the World Series Wednesday night, beating the Kansas City Royals in Game 7. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 OCT. 27, 2014

REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Supporters of Brazil’s President and Workers’ Party presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff, react to the first results of the Brazil general elections.

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

1. Dilma Rousseff narrowly beat her rival Aécio Neves for another term as Brazil’s president. 

2. Investors have not taken the re-election news well. 

3. Twenty-five banks failed the European Central Bank’s stress test due to capital shortfalls.

4. Nine of those banks were in Italy.

5. Pro-western parties are expected to dominate Ukraine’s parliamentary elections in a show of support for new leader Petro Poroshenko.

6. Canadian authorities say Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman who killed a solider in Ottawa before opening fire in the Parliament building, made a video recording of himself before the attack. 

7. South African soccer captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead Sunday night by intruders, police say.

8. After 10 years, US and British forces officially ended military operations in the the Afghan province of Helmand, allowing Afghan’s army to take control of two camps. 

9. Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Sunday over a proposed Internet tax on data transfers.

10. Criticism of the US government’s response to Ebola has reached new heights after Kaci Hickox, a 33-year-old nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, expressed anger after being subjected to a state-imposed quarantine at New Jersey’s Newark Airport even though she did not show symptoms. 

And finally …

In the wake of Tesco’s massive profit scandal and lagging sales, new CEO Dave Lewis kicked off the company’s turnaround by taking a crew of senior execs on an overnight trip to a remote cottage, where they were ordered to shop at a local Tesco and then prepare food from the purchased groceries. “It’s been a very frenetic time and I wanted to get to know the people and talk about where the business was and where it was heading,” Lewis told The Guardian.

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 OCT. 24, 2014

New York Post/YouTube

Crews in protective suits at Bellevue Hospital

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

1. The US military said Thursday that forces in Iraq are “months away from being able to start waging any kind of sustained ground offensive against the Islamic State,” Reuters reports.

2. A doctor who traveled to the Ebola-stricken country of Guinea and then returned to New York has been place in isolation after testing positive for Ebola. 

3. Canadian authorities said the gunman who killed a solider at Ottawa’s war memorial before being shot dead in the Parliament building was not identified as a threat, “despite his criminal record in three cities, embrace of extremist ideas and intent to travel to Syria,” The New York Times reports.

4. The 58-year-old guard credited with killing the man who opened fire in Canada’s parliament on Wednesday morning recieved a hero’s welcome when he returned to work the following day.

5. North Korea has banned tourists from entering the country over concerns about the spread of Ebola. 

6. The UK has been ordered to pay an extra €2.1 billion to the EU budget by December “because the UK economy is doing better relative to other European economies,” The Guardian writes.

7. Venezuela has placed fingerprint scanners in grocery stores to ration food as shortages of basic goods, like cooking oil and milk, worsen. 

8. Following a four-day plenary meeting, China’s Communist Party unveiled a blueprint for legal reforms as part of its push to stamp out government corruption. 

9. The European Central Bank will release stress test results for 130 eurozone banks on Sunday, with many banks are expected to fail. 

10. Chinese housing prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in September, continuing the country’s real estate decline.  

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 OCT. 23, 2014

NIAID / Flickr

Ebola virus.

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

1. Much of downtown Ottawa was on lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman, identified as Canadian Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, shot and killed a soldier at the National War Memorial on Parliament Hill. 

2. Russian prosecutors have detained four Moscow airport workers, which officials say might be responsible for the plane crash that killed the CEO of French oil giant Total, 63-year-old Christophe de Margerie. 

3. The World Health Organization updated its Ebola figures, warning that the virus could infect 10,000 people in West Africa by early December, while a total of 4,877 people have died from Ebola so far. 

4. The National Institutes of Health has begun early human testing of an Ebola vaccine, called VSV-ZEBOV. 

5. Tesco, the world’s second-largest retailer, confirmed on Thursday that its first half pre-tax profit had been overstated by £263 million and announced that chairman Sir Richard Broadbent would step down. 

6. US-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria have killed 553 people over the last month, with most of the dead being members of the terrorist group. 

7. Swedish forces are still hunting for what it believes are mysterious foreign vessels illegally operating in its waters. 

8. Britain’s National Health System says it needs an extra £8 billion a year after warning of a £30 billion annual shortfall that would develop by 2020. 

9. Apple said the company will open 25 stores in China within the next two years. 

10. Scientists have unraveled the oldest DNA ever, which comes from the femur of a man who died around 45,000 years ago.

And finally…

Mark Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin. 

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.  

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOR

 OCT. 21, 2014

REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

The gloved hands of an army nurse are seen during a demonstration of an isolation chamber for the treatment of infectious disease patients, at the Germany army medical centre, Bundeswehr Clinc, in Koblenz Oct. 16, 2014.

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

1. The CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, died in a plane crash in Moscow. He was 63.  

2. Legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died at the age of 82 after battling cancer. 

3. Turkey said it would facilitate the passage of Iraqi Kurdish to the Syrian town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds in the fight against Islamic State militants. 

4. The Ukrainian Army allegedly fired cluster munitions, weapons that can scatter hundreds of smaller bombs when fired, in Donetsk city in early October, according to The New York Times. “If confirmed, the use of cluster bombs by the pro-Western government could complicate efforts to reunite the country, as residents of the east have grown increasingly bitter over the Ukrainian Army’s tactics to oust pro-Russian rebels,” The Times writes. 

5. China’s economy grew last quarter at its slowest pace in nearly six years, although the results were slightly better than analysts were expecting. 

6. In an interview with foreign media, Hong Kong’s leader Leung Chun-ying said that free elections would allow poor people to dominate politics, Reuters reports. The statement comes shortly before talks are due to take place between student pro-democracy protestors and government officials.  

7. Oscar Pistorius wil find out if he faces a prison term after being convicted of culpable homicide for shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

8. A new Ebola study predicts the spread of the virus, projecting that up to three infected people fly overseas every month from the three worst-hit African countries, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

9. The US Centers for Disease Control issued new guidelines to health workers for treating Ebola victims, calling for more rigorous training and mandating that no skin is exposed when protective equipment is worn and that all workers are supervised.

10. Apple beat expectations revenue, earnings, and iPhone sales but sold fewer iPads than forecast.

And finally…

Kate Middleton is due to have her second child next April.

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTO

 OCT. 20, 2014

Government of Canada

Scientists at the National Microbiology Lab prepare the experimental Ebola vaccine for shipment to the WHO.

Welcome back from the weekend! Here’s what you need to know for Monday. 

1. Two female Japanese ministers resigned on Monday. “Yuko Obuchi, trade and industry minister, resigned over allegations of improper use of political funds, and Justice Minister Midori Matsushima, 58, quit over claims she breached election laws,” Bloomberg reports. 

2. Dozens of people in Dallas who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient from Liberia who died from Ebola, have been declared risk-free of contracting the virus, The New York Times reports. 

3. The 44-year-old Spanish nurse who was the first person to contract Ebola out of West Africa has also tested negative for the virus. 

4. The Carnival Magic cruise ship carrying a Dallas Health worker who reportedly handled specimens from Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan returned to its home port of Galveston, Texas, early Sunday morning,after the lab technician tested negative for the virus. 

5. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled major economic reforms on Sunday including “a deregulation of diesel prices and a hike in natural gas prices,” CNBC reports.

6. The pro-democracy protests that have gripped Hong Kong for roughly a month are becoming “increasingly violent,” according to the South China Morning Post, especially after attempts by police to clear the main Monk Kok demonstration site.  

7. The United States airdropped weapons and medical supplies to Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobani on Sunday in an effort to help combat Islamic State militants. 

8. Lufthansa pilots announced a strike on Monday and lasting into Tuesday, leading to the cancellation of 1,450 flights. 

9. Canada is shipping 800 vials of an experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization in Geneva on Monday. 

10. Comet Siding Spring passed within 87,000 miles of Mars on Sunday, an event that won’t happen again for another one million years. 

And finally …

A team of kids from South Korea won $1 million for playing a video game. 

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

DINA SPECTOr

OCT. 17, 2014

Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann

Infection control nurse Marc Dangel (R) assists his colleague Heinz Schuhmacher to wear a protection suit during a media presentation at an isolation ward for possible Ebola patients at of the Universitaetsspital Basel hospital in Basel October 15, 2014.

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

1. A wave of deteriorating economic data in Europe has stocked fears of another financial meltdown.

2. The second Dallas nurse infected with Ebola is being transferred to a unit at the National Institutes Of Health in Maryland. 

3. Meanwhile, US lawmakers sharply criticized the response of federal health officials to Ebola in a congressional hearing on Thursday. 

4. Europe also said Thursday that it will step up efforts to contain the spread of Ebola and help the worst-hit countries in west Africa. 

5. Police cleared a main protest site in Hong Kong early Friday, although pro-democracy activists and officials remain in a standoff after three weeks of demonstrations. 

6. Kurdish fighters claim to have pushed back Islamic State militants in the Syrian town of Kobane, but have asked a US-led coalition for more airstrikes and weapons. 

7. Hurricane Gonzalo is barreling toward Bermuda as a powerful Category 4 storm. 

8. A $54 billion “tax inversion” deal under which Chicago-based AbbVie would buy Irish drug company Shire is likely to collapse. 

9. The iPhone 6 is finally available in China.  

10. Apple unveiled it’s newest iPads — the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3 — in an event on Thursday. The iPad Air 2 will start at $499 and the iPad Mini 3 will start at $399.

And finally …

The San Francisco Giants are heading to the World Series.