Breaking World News
Last of ‘too silky’ woolly mammoths blighted by bad mutations
“Woolly mammoths were in the grip of a mutational meltdown before dying out, scientists have revealed, adding that the last surviving population of the hairy giants might have had silky, soft coats, a poor sense of smell and even heartburn…” (The Guardian)
Snapchat shares soar 44% to value loss-making company at $28bn
“Snap Inc, the company behind disappearing messaging app Snapchat, has gone public with stocks soaring 44% on their first day of trading and valuing the company at $28bn…” (The Guardian)
Collapse of the American party system
“The US presidential election of 2016 was a shock. The Democratic Party found itself in disarray when Hillary Clinton lost. Barak Obama, speaking in the days before he left office, analysed the Democrats’ problem as a failure of organisation. He was partially right: Hillary had been a poor choice; she repelled younger voters and independents, who stayed home on election day, and had little party apparatus beyond her own campaign staff…” (Le Monde diplomatique)
Losing a war one bad metaphor at a time
“America’s war in Afghanistan is now in its 16th year, the longest foreign war in our history. The phrase “no end in sight” barely covers the situation. Prospects of victory — if victory is defined as eliminating that country as a haven for Islamist terrorists while creating a representative government in Kabul — are arguably more tenuous today than at any point since the U.S. military invaded in 2001 and routed the Taliban…” (Le Monde diplomatique)
No room in India for intolerant Indians: President Pranab Mukherjee
“NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing debate over the freedom of expression in the wake of violent clashes in Delhi University’s Ramjas College+ , President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said that “there must be space for legitimate criticism and dissent…” (The Times of India)
‘Dangerous’ flyers to be kept off skies
“NEW DELHI: Misbehaving on a plane or doing anything that endangers flight safety and fellow passengers could soon mean getting debarred from taking to the skies again for some time…” (The Times of India)
Scientists Have Grown the World’s First Artificial Embryo, and It’s Nuts
“In a world-first experiment, scientists have managed to grow a functional, artificial embryo from scratch, using two types of stem cells to build life in a Petri dish…” (Science Alert)
The True Story of a Man Who Survived Without Any Food for 382 Days
“…Yet the limits on how long people can go without eating are complicated; without water people are unlikely to last a week, but the amount of time starvation takes can vary drastically. Take the story of Angus Barbieri – for 382 days, ending 11 July 1966, the then-27-year-old Scotsman ate nothing…” (Science Alert)
Photo: By Flying Puffin (Mammut Uploaded by FunkMonk) CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
