Portal:Current events/2015 October 29
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October 29, 2015 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
- The death toll from a rocket attack on a camp containing members of an Iranian opposition group next to Baghdad International Airport rises to 23. (Jerusalem Post)
Art and culture
- Adele's "Hello" beats Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" as the fastest video on Vevo to reach 100 million views and is also certified as the official Vevo Record holder. (The Daily Mail)
- Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cyber crime, wins the European Union's prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The Sakharov award ceremony will be held in Strasbourg, France on December 16, 2015 while the laureate remains imprisoned. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (EU)
Business and economics
- The largest lender in Europe’s most robust economy, Deutsche Bank AG, will cut 35k jobs in an effort to counter falling profits. (WSJ)
- Sony announces $278.2 million in net profits for the quarter ending Sept. 30, beating market expectations. (WSJ)
- Google announces that Project Loon – to provide wireless access to four billion unconnected people around the globe in rural and remote areas via Internet-beaming helium balloons in the stratosphere – will be tested in Indonesia in 2016. Currently, one in three Indonesians are connected to the web, mostly via slow connections, in this 17,508-island archipelago of over 250 million people (and about 319 million mobile phones). The company, which also tested Loon-delivered internet in Chile, New Mexico (U.S.), and Sri Lanka, hopes to deliver LTE-speed to more than 100 million unconnected Indonesians in five years. (ZDNET) (AFP via Khmer Times) (AP via Chicago Tribune) (Google)
Disasters and accidents
- European migrant crisis
- An extensive search is underway in the northeastern Aegean Sea off the Greek island of Lesbos for at least 34 people missing from a boat that sank yesterday. Some 242 people were rescued but eight died, five children, two men and a woman. (Reuters) (AP via Kathimerini)
- Britain's Ministry of Defence says the Royal Navy has rescued 541 people this week as they scoured the Mediterranean Sea in operations to counter refugee smugglers. The HMS Enterprise, a survey vessel, rescued 439 migrants, and HMS Richmond, a Type 23 frigate, rescued 102 migrants. The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Norwegian support ship Fiem Pilote. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
- A series of blasts at an ammunition depot in Svatove, Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine leaves four dead and eight injured. (Kyiv Post) (Interfax)
- An engine burst into flames on a Dynamic International Airways Boeing 767 passenger jet bound for Caracas, Venezuela, while taxiing for takeoff at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Florida, U.S.). A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman said 15 people were taken to the hospital after the fire. There were 110 people, including crew, on board. (Reuters) (AP via Lompoc Record)
International Relations
- Amnesty International accuses Australian border protection officials of illegally paying people smugglers and endangering lives in a bid to prevent boats of asylum seekers from reaching the country via Operation Sovereign Borders. Australia's government rejects Amnesty's report and denies any wrongdoing.(Sky News via Fox News) (International Business Times)(AI)
- Saudi Arabia–United Kingdom relations
- British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says 74-year old Karl Andree, who was facing 350 lashes in Saudi Arabia after being caught with homemade wine in his car, will be released within a week. (Sky News) (The Telegraph)
- South Sudanese Civil War
- A long-awaited report released by an African Union investigative team led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo describes atrocities and the discovery of mass graves in South Sudan, citing government forces and their allies as responsible parties. (Al Jazeera America)
- The European Union narrowly votes (285–281) to recommend that its 28 member nations drop criminal charges against Edward Snowden and protect him from U.S. extradition and to recognize him as a defender of human rights because of his revelations regarding U.S. and British spying. (UPI) (Foreign Policy)
- Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
- As a result of talks between U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and Chinese Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy Admiral Wu Shengli about a U.S. warship's transit with 12 nautical miles of China's man-made islands in the South China Sea, the United States and China agree to maintain dialogue and follow Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea protocols, according to a U.S. official. (Reuters) (The International News)
- Lockheed Martin vice president of air and missile defense Mike Trotsky tells the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that the United States and South Korea are holding both formal and informal discussions on THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System) deployment. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the U.S. Department of Defense deny the report. (UPI) (Yonhap News)
- The carrier USS Ronald Reagan, during a military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan's international waters, scrambled four fighter jets to intercept approaching Russian warplanes, according to the U.S. Navy. IHS Jane's Defence Weekly said encounters such as these were common during the Cold War, subsided with its end but picked up again under current Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters) (CNN)
Law and crime
- One-child policy
- China has decided to end its controversial one-child policy after 36 years. It is to be replaced by a new two-child policy. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera English)
- The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says a drone carrying mobile phones, drugs, and hacksaw blades crashed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester before inmates could grab the contraband. This is fourth reported drone-attempt in the United States; the others were at prisons in Ohio, Maryland, and South Carolina. (Sky News) (UPI)
Politics and elections
- The U.S. House of Representatives passes, by a vote of 266 to 167, a two-year federal budget that is both amenable to the White House and expected to pass in the Senate. (Defense News)
- Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, October 2015
- The U.S. House of Representatives elects Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as the 62nd Speaker of the House replacing John Boehner of Ohio. (New York Times)
- The Parliament of Moldova passes a no-confidence vote against pro-EU incumbent prime-minister Valeriu Streleț's cabinet amidst growing political turmoil in the country. (Seenews)
Science and technology
- Astronaut Scott Kelly sets another record; this time for the single-longest spaceflight (216 days) by an American. His ISS year long mission is a scientific research project to study the health effects of long term spaceflight. Astronaut Michael López-Alegría spent 215 consecutive days as Expedition 14 commander in 2006. Both are nowhere close to Valeri Polyakovs 437 days record. (NBC News) (NASA)
- The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announces that, earlier this month, the Antarctic ozone hole widened to one of its largest sizes on record. A colder than usual stratosphere widened the hole to a peak of 28.2 million square km (10.9 million square miles). (USA Today via WTSP) (Reuters)
Sports
- In artistic gymnastics, Simone Biles of the United States becomes the first female gymnast to win three successive all-around championships at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in Glasgow. (Reuters) (NBC News)
- In baseball, the 2015 Japan Series ends with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beating the Tokyo Yakult Swallows by 4 games to 1 for their second consecutive Japan Series. (Japan Times)