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Global Climate News

US and Canada under dangerous heatwave

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Most parts in the US has been hit by extremely hot weather, with temperatures set to peak over the weekend, as per the opinion of meteorologists.

About about 200 million people, who lives in the major cities like New York, Washington and Boston in the East Coast, and the Midwest region would be affected by the heatwave.

Some places are reportedly being closer to very high temperature of 100F (38C). The temperature is expected to be exceeding this soon. Parts of Canada are also affected by this temperature waves.

According to the new data by experts, the world experienced its hottest June on record this year, with an average temperature worldwide of 61.6F (16.4C).

In the starting of July, the US state of Alaska, part of which lies inside the Arctic Circle, registered record high temperatures.

Image courtesy: straitstimes .com / images are subject to copyright

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News

25 arrested after attacks on first LGBT march in Eastern Poland

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Polish police have arrested 25 people after homophobic attacks on a city’s first LGBT march.

The recently released videos in social media showed one woman (an LGBT activist) and several men being attacked by a group of people. The victims were taking part in the Pride march in the city of Bialystok on Saturday. Some among the attackers were found wearing football club t-shirts.

Poland is expecting the general elections on October. The LGBT rights has became a sensational topic in the country, ahead of this election, with the conservative party depicting campaigners as a threat to traditional Polish values.

Elzbieta Witek, the interior minister said, “Officers ensure security regardless of the ideas, values and beliefs proclaimed by citizens”.

The Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights has been pictured widely as a threat to traditional Polish values, by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Image courtesy: independent .ie / images are subject to copyright

News

Philip Hammond of UK to submit resignation if Boris Johnson becomes next PM

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Philip Hammond, The British Chancellor of the Exchequer declared on Sunday that he would resign if Conservative leader candidate Boris Johnson is elected as next British prime minister on Wednesday (July 24).

On BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Hammond said, “I intend to resign after Prime minister’s questions on Wednesday”.

It is expected that Hammond would be stepping down as soon as Boris Johnson, who have obtained the highest priority to be the Britain’s next prime minister, takes his charge.

Johnson will be required to obtain a “loyalty pledge” for all his future cabinet members to accept a possible No Deal Brexit on 31st October.

Hammond said to media, “I am sure I am not going to be sacked because I am going to resign before we get to that point”.

“Assuming that Boris Johnson becomes prime minister, I understand that his conditions for serving in his government would include accepting a no-deal (EU) exit on the 31st of October. That is not something I could ever sign up to”, he added.

Image courtesy: The Independent/ images are subject to copyright

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Crime News

Scandinavian tourist murder : Death penalty for three

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Three Islamic State group supporters,Abdessamad Ejjoud, Younes Ouaziyad and Rachid Afatti, have been sentenced to death for murdering two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco.

The three follow petitions on social media calling for their execution. The murder has been done since these men wanted to impress Islamic State. They confessed to the murder at a court in Salé, near Rabat.

The 25-year-old street vendor, Abdessamad Ejjoud told the court, “I beheaded one of them… I regret it”

Abdessamad Ejjoud, Younes Ouaziyad and Rachid Afatti

Maren Ueland (28) from Norway and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (24) from Denmark were found beheaded in the High Atlas mountains in December.

This will be the first in Morocco since 1993, if the executions go ahead.

Maren Ueland and Vesterager Jespersen

“The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve”, reads a letter from Jespersen’s mother.

The bodies of tourists were found on 17 December in an isolated area near Mount Toubkal, Morocco’s highest peak, and a popular destination for hikers.

Image courtesy: bbc .com / images are subject to copyright

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News Technology

Instagram to hide the number of likes to ‘remove pressure’

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Instagram is hiding the Instagram likes’ numbers in some countries to “remove pressure” of the app users, considering their mental health. The countries includes Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

A similar test move had been occurred in Canada in the month of May. The younger people are being severely affected by the social media ‘likes’, and hence may be lead to some mental stress.

Facebook, the Instagram owner is now on a try to reduce this situation by hiding the total number of likes obtained for a particular post on Instagram. Instagram is testing the new approach with users in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

In the current situation, the Instagram post shows a total number of likes gained. But when the trial is on, the users will see a user name “and others” below posts.

The new system allows the users to see the number of likes of their own post, but the followers will not be able to see the like numbers. In the same way, you won’t be able to see other’s post likes.

Image courtesy: cnet .com, giphy / images are subject to copyright

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News

US nuclear weapon locations in Europe accidentally revealed

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A document which was accidentally published by a NATO-affiliated body have exposed the the secret locations of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe. The document was quickly deleted.

The document by a Canadian senator for the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly detailed the future of the organization’s nuclear deterrence policy but accidentally exposed the open secret, reports The Washington Post.

The published document said, “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernization, arms control and allied”.

The document was published by Canadian Sen. Joseph Day on behalf of the defense and security committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

The secret information regarding the location of approximately 150 U.S. nuclear weapons scattered across Europe has been mistakenly published.

According to the document, the U.S. nuclear weapons are being stored in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The report noted, “These bombs are stored at six U.S. and European bases – Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Buchel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey”.

The director for disarmament and threat-reduction policy at the Arms Control Association, Kingston Reif told that it was no surprise to potentially discover the location of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.

Image courtesy: independent .co .uk / images are subject to copyright

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News

The ‘Breastfeeding policy’ of KLM airlines makes a severe outcry

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KLM, the dutch airlines have made a turbulence recently on Twitter regarding their ‘Breastfeeding policy’, that provoked many people.

The airlines told a customer it might ask mothers to cover themselves while breastfeeding. This policy of the airlines has sparked a backlash on Twitter, with many people criticising the policy.

Reports said that a lady named Shelby Angel, who was travelling on a KLM flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam last month had been asked to cover herself up while breastfeeding her baby. A flight attendant gave her a blanket and warned her to cover up if she planned to breastfeed her baby.

Shelby Angel said in her Facebook post, “Before we even took off, I was approached by a flight attendant carrying a blanket. She told me (and I quote) ‘if you want to continue doing the breastfeeding, you need to cover yourself”.

Angel said that she denied the flight attendant’s words telling that her baby will not be comfortable with a blanket while breastfeeding.

This Twitter post of the KLM airlines has provoked many people. The Twitter users asked other airlines, such as British Airways and EasyJet, about their breastfeeding policies.

Image courtesy: moneycrashers .com / images are subject to copyright

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News Technology

Libra – The cryptocurrency of Facebook attacked at Senate hearing

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Facebook’s cryptocurrency – Libra will let you buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees, has come under further attack at a US hearing.

The politicians said that the company is “delusional” and non-trusted. They said that they do not trust Facebook to operate a global cryptocurrency.

Facebook executive David Marcus has been questioned by the Senate Banking Committee over FB’s intention to launch its Libra digital currency.

Senator Sherrod Brown said that the company had showed “through scandal after scandal that it doesn’t deserve our trust”.

Facebook executive David Marcus at the Senate Banking Committee hearing

Before launching a new business model, the tech giant had been advised to clean up its house. Last moth, the company had announced its plan to launch a digital currency, probably by next year.

But, initially, the company had to get the Washington lawmakers on its side. But, several criticisms came soon after the company had revealed its plan to launch Libra, even from President, Donald Trump.

Trump’s last week tweet said that he is not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.

Facebook said that Libra won’t be an investment vehicle and that the company and its partners have no plans to act like a central bank.

Former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in an interview that, “We don’t actually have a regulatory framework that sufficiently addresses the cash market for digital assets that aren’t securities, like bitcoin. We don’t have a comprehensive way of looking at it”.

Image courtesy: france24 .com, wsj .com / images are subject to copyright

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Health News Technology

Rare Conjoined twins successfully separated in London

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Safa and Marwa, the rare conjoined twins from Pakistan were successfully separated in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. The twins were born by caesarian section in early January 2017 in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The two year old twins had undergone three major operations to separate their heads at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.


Safa and Marwa

They had their first operation at the age of just 19 months in October 2018.

This was a very rare case where the girls were craniopagus twins, with their skulls and blood vessels fused together. Craniopagus twins are those who will be fused at the cranium.

According to Britain’s National Health Service, one in every 2.5 million births produces conjoined twins and only 5% of them are fused at the head.

The hospital had previously separated craniopagus twins in 2006 and 2011, which was all successful.

The technology of virtual reality and 3D printing had been used in the surgery, for creating an exact model of the girls’ anatomy. This helped the doctors to view the complex structure of their skulls as well as the positioning of their brains and blood vessels.

Four major operations with a total time of 55 hours had been done in this medical case with about 100 medical staff included. Reports said that all the amount was funded by a private donor.

The girls were discharged from the hospital and sent with their mother Zainab and their grandfather Mohammad Sadat Hussain.

Image courtesy: itv .com, rte .ie, euronews .com / images are subject to copyright

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Entertainment Video

Make way for the “Lion King” who will hit the Movie screens soon

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The Lion King – directed and produced by Jon Favreau is an American photo-realistic computer-animated musical drama film, which is waiting to hit the big screens on this 19th of July.

The movie, is expected to be an adventure fantasy thriller. The screenplay is written by Jeff Nathanson, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The music is done by Hans Zimmer.

The movie reviews so far praises its fabulous visual effects and vocal performances. Besides that, the movie is being criticized to be highly derivative of the original and lack of emoting in the animated lion characters relative to the original.

The voice casting of the movie is as follows: Donald Glover as Simba, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, Billy Eichner as Timon, John Kani as Rafiki, John Oliver as Zazu, Beyonce Knowles-Carter as Nala and James Earl Jones as Mufasa.

The movie journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes King Mufasa, his father, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But the arrival of this new cub king was not liked by someone in the kingdom. The movie, is expected to be welcomed by all the ones, despite the age!

WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER HERE !!

Image / video courtesy: disney.in, YouTube / images and videos are subject to copyright