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BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors buys a $1.4 million home in an upscale mostly white enclave in Los Angeles, residents of Topanga Canyon are 88% white and 1.8% black, Cullors founded BLM with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013 and assumed leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the summer of 2020, BLM brought in $90 million in donations last year

World

US State Department announces new guidelines encouraging engagement between US and Taiwan government officials in federal buildings or Taiwan’s de facto embassy in New York, following the Trump administration’s elimination of old hampering guidelines
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledges to work on global corporate minimum tax rate among more than 140 countries, with German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz now hoping to put an end to worldwide race to the bottom in taxation and the Biden administration wants to raise minimum corporate tax from 10.5% to 21%
Russia bewildered after US Secretary of State unveiles an export ban on defense articles and defense services to the country, despite Moscow not receiving any US arms since the lend-lease program during World War II in 1945
Denmark first European nation to tell Syrian migrants to return home after deeming Damascus and surrounding area safe, stripping 94 Syrians of residency permits and sending them to deportation camps, saying country has been clear from the start that the residence permit is temporary
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says US must pay if it wants to keep the two-decade-old troop deployment agreement, when speaking to military troops, adding that it is a shared responsibility, but the US share of responsibility does not come free
The UK will introduce a new visa for eligible Hong Kong residents at the end of January granting them the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens, 5.4 million Hong Kong residents are eligible, Britain estimates that about 300,000 will take up the visa offer over the next five years
6,500 Honduran migrants in caravans trying to cross the border into Guatemala heading north to the US, less than a week before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, whose aides have expressed concerns about growing numbers of migrants seeking to enter the country in the early days of his administration
The number of US troops in Afghanistan reduced to 2,500 in accordance with President Donald Trump’s plan presented in November, the lowest level of American forces in the country since 2001 according to Pentagon
Number of galaxies in universe far lower than previously thought, say NASA astronomers after studying data from space probe New Horizons, Milky Way has hundreds of billions of cousins rather than thousands of billions
Julian Assange denied bail by judge at Westminster Magistrates Court, citing risk of him trying to flee while US officials appeal UK judge's extradition ban, meaning Assange will continue to be held at Belmarsh high-security prison for at least two weeks

Miscellaneous

3,400-year-old golden city of Luxor discovered by archaeologists in Egypt containing stunningly preserved remains, built by 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III and abandoned by his son Akhenaten, archaeologist Salima Ikram says it’s a snapshot in time like an Egyptian version of Pompeii
Medlar fruits are quietly sneaking back into public awareness in Europe largely thanks to the efforts of enthusiasts, the fruit is harvested in December and only becomes edible when they are overripe, in medieval winters it was one of the very few sources of sugar available
Meditation is not always a harmless activity without negative side effects, sometimes leads to psychological destabilization which in turn can trigger psychotic episodes, naive enthusiasm and marketing expose sensitive individuals to serious risks
Israeli archaeologists discover pieces of biblical scroll dating back about 2,000 years, described as one of the most significant finds since the Dead Sea Scrolls, fragments include passages written in Greek from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, part of the Hebrew Bible
Blockchain certificates signifying ownership of digital artworks sell for ever higher amounts, so called NFT, Non-Fungible Tokens, is said to be new way for artists to monetize their works, skeptics warn of market manipulation and speculation bubbles, artist Beeple recently sold JPEG file for 69 million dollars through Christie's
74 year old Florida golfer drowns in pond, friends tell police he liked searching the course for lost balls
Six books by children's author Dr. Seuss will cease publication, publishing company saying books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong, discontinued titles include And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo and McElligot's Pool
Black woman glues her hair solid with Gorilla Glue and it remains so a month later even after she checked herself into a hospital, weighs legal options despite package stating "do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing", while some say racism forced her to use the product
Rod Stewart reaches plea deal to settle battery charges after thumping a security guard in the ribs and making a mock Nazi-era salute while partying on New Year's Eve 2019 at a luxury hotel in Florida wearing a gold lame jacket
85-year-old Spanish woman believed to have died from Covid-19 returns to her care home in Xove where her husband also lives nine days after family were told she had been buried following a mix-up of names, due to coronavirus protocols the family were unable to attend the funeral

Media

Facebook freezes Nicolás Maduro's account for 30 days for repeatedly stating that carvacrol works as a miracle medication against COVID-19, Facebook's spokesman comments that they follow WHO's guidelines saying there currently is no medication to cure the virus
Donald Trump will return to social media in 2-3 months with his own platform which is going to completely redefine the game, has been having high-powered meetings with various teams and numerous companies have approached the former president, according to his advisers Jason Miller
CNN hemorrhages viewers since Donald Trump left office, dropping 49% since Inauguration Day from 3.1 million primetime viewers to 1.6 million and 58% among key demographic of adults age 25-to-54 most important to advertisers
Indian authorities threaten to jail local Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter staff if companies don't abide to government requests to remove information on protests over agricultural bills which have drawn thousands of farmers to rally in the Indian capital
Disney slaps The Muppet Show with offensive content disclaimer, warning viewers the show features stereotypes and mistreatment of people or cultures and that "these stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now", wanting it to "spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together"
Facebook blocks pages from domestic and international news organisations as well as state governments in Australia in escalation of dispute with the government over law to require it to share news revenue with news outlets, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Facebook is as arrogant as they were disappointing
Rush Limbaugh loses battle against lung cancer at age 70, was foremost star of talk radio and for three decades one of the most influential individuals in US politics
China bans BBC World News claiming it seriously violated broadcasting regulations, saying BBC’s relentless fabrication of lies of the century in reporting China runs counter to the professional ethics of journalism, comes a week after Chinese state channel was kicked off Britain's TV screens
Parler partially reappears with the help of Russian technology firm DDos-Guard, displaying a message from its chief executive John Matze saying they are working to restore functionality
Gab CEO Andrew Torba recreates President Trump’s Twitter on Gab from a backup before the account is deleted, traffic for Gab was up 753% while adding 600 000 new accounts in a single day

Politics

Japan prime minister Abe Shinzo resigns due to health concerns, recently became the longest sitting prime minister in the post world war two era, Abe has a brief stint as prime minister between 2006 and 2007 when he was also forced to resign due to chronic illness which was later claimed to have been successfully medicated
National Justice Party founded in US by members of alt-right, front man Mike "Enoch" Peinovich says in speech that freedom is a European concept and can not be upheld without European people, new party will work for rights of whites in US and the world
Ivanka Trump changes political party affiliation, registers as Republican to vote for her father in New York primary, has previously been Democrat and seen as bridge to moderates but has over time moved in a conservative direction
Orthodox Church locks horns with Montenegrin government over new anti-ecclesiastical legislation, law gives state leave to seize ecclesiastical property from churches who cannot produce ownership titles notarised before 1918, thousands march through streets of Podgorica amid clerical hymn chants decrying "[the State] ... snatching people's souls", gloves come off as President Milo Djukanovic attacks the Orthodox Church for undermining Montenegrin independence, The Church has 12 million followers in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro
Greta Thunberg throws down the gauntlet at Bristol climate rally, rain-soused teenagers bellow "The ocean is rising and so are we" and other equally stirring slogans, Greta—donning her iconic yellow mac—attacks political complacency in face of impending climate apocalypse
Sweden's foreign ministry summons Chinese ambassador with the intention of demanding immediate release and consular access to Gui Minhai, apprehended and detained by Chinese authorities in 2018 for sale of literature vilifying the Chinese state apparatus
Donald Trump's adviser and confidant Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment, found guilty on five counts of obstructing House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump retweets Tucker Carlson segment calling for pardon, request for retrial filed by Stone's legal team
Arts Council England (ACE) threaten to withold public funding for museums and arts organisations who don't implement diversity quotas, appalled ethnic non-whites should be so woefully underrepresented in arts, report unearths a number of unnerving statistics - only 6% of workforce disabled as opposed to 21% in the national labour force
EU arch-bureaucrat Josep Borrell tells Munich Security Conference the European Union must learn to embrace its oft-derided hegemonic structure by "developing an appetite for power", the EU must throw equivocation, dawdling and prudence to the winds and learn to act, a conciliatory EU won't be able to challenge U.S. dominance in global politics
Bernie Sanders says Bloomberg doesn't have enough clout with younger generations to defeat Trump, history of 'racist' policies, minimum wage law criticisms and cautious skepticism towards taxes on the wealthy tantamount to political suicide among younger voters, according to Sanders

Opinion

Helen Buyniski: New York Times warns against critical thinking to stop your attention being captured by evil conspiracy theorists, urging its readers to keep picking up their deeply-held beliefs from approved sources without thinking too deeply about their implications and spending no more than 90 seconds on fact-checks – in Google's top search results
Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Political exploitation of Covid-19 frighteningly successful, the state kills and makes ill more people than it saves with protective measures, at the same time local leaders are given opportunities to challenge central power and the critical importance of decentralized decision making is demonstrated
Ricardo Duchesne: White men are the most resented group because they are responsible for almost 100% of the greatest achievements in all fields of human endeavor in all of history, created all fields of academic study, were the foremost thinkers, artists, statesmen and explorers
Peter Hitchens: The lockdown and destruction of statues show the pillars of freedom and civilization are rotten as police chiefs and political leaders kneel like conquered slaves to the new gods of woke, and while the Left controls every lever of power, ignorant armies seek the final abolition of Britain as we face nothing less than a regime change
Norman Lewis: British media has united into an undifferentiated authoritarian mob demanding tough draconian action by the government, from restricting movement to shutting down the economy, and have become an indispensable part of the government’s propaganda bullhorn and surveillance
Bryan Caplan: 15.8% probability that Bernie Sanders is secretly a communist according to my calculation using Bayes' theorem, crypto-communism should be considered a serious risk as indicated in history by Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela and Ho Chi Minh
Alexander von Schönburg: A subdued Germany once known for innovation and its industry is trapped in an EU obsessed with regulation and welfare, while looking fearfully and enviously at a confident Britain with a powerful economy and a strong leader in Boris Johnson moving towards a brighter future than the union they are leaving behind
Doug Casey: Civilisationer går under för att teknik och etik utvecklas i olika takt, moral utvecklas extremt långsamt eller inte alls medan ingenjörskonst utvecklas mycket snabbt och gör att skadliga idéer kan spridas ögonblickligen
Vicky Spratt: Baleful that the likes of Laurence Fox should publically boast about pruning 'woke women' from their social life, emblematic of the resurgent reactionary sentiment which prompted the murder of Jo Cox and the ousting of Meghan Markle
Jeff Deist: The left-wing college professor is not just a trope, surveys show virtually all tenured scholars are of a left-wing persuaion, think twice before enrolling

Europe

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has died, was married to Queen Elizabeth II for more than 70 years and became the longest-serving consort in British history
Ursula Von der Leyen left without a seat during summit in Turkey as her colleague Charles Michel and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grab the only two available chairs, leaving her to perch on a nearby sofa for two and a half hours of talks on Turkey's relations with EU
TV host and singer Slavi Trifonov's party There is Such a People and two other anti-establishment parties win a total of over 31% of the vote in Sunday's general election, leaving Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's party GERB with a forecasted 25.2% pleading for a coalition government focused on bringing EU cash to the country
European Commission's scientific expert arm to deem nuclear power a green investment, saying there's no science-based evidence that nuclear energy does more harm than other electricity production technologies, part of EU's assessment of which economic activities can be labelled as sustainable
EU plans to ban export of 19 million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses due to be shipped to the UK, saying everything is on the table to protect its citizens, while Britain warns Brussels the world is watching and a ban would damage bloc's reputation
CDU takes major hit in crucial German state elections ahead of general election in September following recent scandals and the mishandling of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, drops four percentage points in Baden-Württemberg and 5.8 points in Rhineland-Palatinate
Russian police detain several liberal opposition activists and local deputies in Moscow at summit, stating it was staged by the foreign NGO Open Russia, which is linked to exiled former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and whose activities have been deemed undesirable in the country
Vatican reports being almost out of financial reserves, will soon be unable to cover budget deficit with accumulated donations, urges faithful to send more money to Holy See which for years have been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption
Swiss vote to ban facial coverings in binding referendum on Sunday by a 51.2-48.8% margin, dubbed by many the burqa ban, chairman of the referendum committee Walter Wobmann says Swiss tradition is that you show your face, comes after a vote to ban new minarets in 2009
15,000 people in Vienna protest government’s Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday calling for the resignation of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, with speeches from leaders of the Freedom Party of Austria and some participants being arrested by the police, in the latest of a string of protests in the country

North America

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors buys a $1.4 million home in an upscale mostly white enclave in Los Angeles, residents of Topanga Canyon are 88% white and 1.8% black, Cullors founded BLM with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013 and assumed leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the summer of 2020, BLM brought in $90 million in donations last year
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues executive order banning government-issued vaccine passports statewide, saying vaccinations against Covid-19 cannot be government-mandated and state residents’ choice to not receive one should not prevent them from going about their lives
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa fatally shoots ten people at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, officers arrive within minutes and shoot the suspect in the leg, no motive for the shooting has been publicly released
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues order forbidding local authorities penalizing residents not wearing masks and removing restrictions on businesses in counties without a high number of hospitalizations as of March 10
Texas Justice of the Peace Tomas Ramirez and three women arrested on 150 counts of voter fraud in the 2018 Medina County Primary Election, involves allegations of vote harvesting at assisted living centers, Ramirez was elected justice of the peace in 2018 and was suspended after his arrest
US House of Representatives passes USD 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, including a new metro station near Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district and a minimum-wage increase from USD 7.25 to USD 15, with only 9% going toward fighting the virus according to Republicans
While Florida ensured restaurants been able to operate at minimum half-capacity and businesses haven't been fined for defying Covid-19 orders they have yielded very similar development in number of infections and deaths as California, which has implemented stringent rules including lockdowns
Donald Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial on charge of inciting storming of the Capitol, as a majority of senators found him guilty in a 57-43 vote, ten votes short of the supermajority needed for a conviction
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gathers lawmakers for a session aimed to create space for members to talk about their lived experience of the Capitol Hill riot last month, after Ocasio-Cortez claimed she suffered a near death experience although her office was in a building two blocks away
Joe Biden sworn in as 46th president of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Latin America

At least 79 inmates die in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as two rival gangs were trying to gain criminal leadership within the detention centres and an escape attempt, with 800 police offices helping to regain control of the facilities
Young Venezuelans have turned to selling online sexual content of themselves on OnlyFans to avoid joining the exodus of five million migrants who have already left the socialist country, most subscribers are foreigners paying in USD, Venezuela has the world's highest inflation levels and a constantly depreciating currency
32-year-old Mexican doctor goes into convulsions within 30 minutes of being injected with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, remains in intensive care after suffering from encephalomyelitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, has a history of allergic reactions
Jair Bolsonaro more popular than ever to surprise of critics of his attitude toward pandemic, Brazil president has downplayed risks, encouraged people to face the virus in manly fashion and said that wearing face masks is for faires
91% of seats in Venezuelan legislature claimed by government allies after opposition boycotts election, the US and EU has disavowed elections as manipulated by Maduro regime
Argentina’s government is considering a one-off tax on the super-rich, the tax would start at 2% and rise depending on wealth starting at a fortune of 2.7 million USD affecting about 12 000 people
The Cuban government has turned 72 state-run shops into "dollar stores", shelves, unlike many regular supermarkets dealing in local currency, are well stocked with basic food and hygiene products but must be paid for in USD, the government denies the new stores are part of a "dollarisation" process turning the USD into the official currency as has happened in Panama, Ecuador and El Salvador
Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for covid-19, is said to have mild fever and receiving treatment including hydroxychloroquine and azitromycin
London court rules British government recognizes Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president in case to decide which leader controls USD 2 billion worth of Venezuelan central bank gold stored in Bank of England, Nicolas Maduro’s lawyers say they will appeal judgement
Argentina miss already delayed bond payments after missing payments on USD 503 million on Friday in country’s ninth sovereign default, source says ongoing talks between Argentina and its creditors are making substantial progress

Asia

China sends twelve fighter aircrafts into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Wedenesday in stepped-up show of force around the island, Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu says they will fight a war if needed and defend themselves to the very last day
Suspected suicide bombing wounding fourteen people outside Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Palm Sunday, with the congregation inside the church at the time the two suspects blew themselves up
At least 114 people killed by Myanmar military junta on Saturday in crackdowns on the protests across the country, with children among the dead, the junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing says the military will protect the people and strive for democracy
All ethnic armed organizations will be removed from Myanmar's list of terrorist groups, says committee representing Myanmar's elected lawmakers who are presently unseated by military coup, arrests and charges against organizations fighting for national equity and self-determination to be declared illegitimate
Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, Minister for public security Sarath Weerasekera said the burqa is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently and the islamic schools were flouting national education policy
A Beijing divorce court has ordered a man to compensate his wife with 50 000 yuan for the housework she did during their marriage, the ruling was made according to the new civil code in the country, which came into effect this year, the presiding judge said housework constitutes intangible property value
Aung San Suu Kyi to appear in court on Wednesday over charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios, brought against her by the new Myanmar military junta, according to her lawyer
More than 100 people injured after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck northeastern Japan late Saturday night, causing blackouts, water cuts and bullet train suspensions, with Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures worst hit
Tibetan activist Tashi Wangchuk released after five years in Chinese prison, according to tweet by his Chinese lawyer, Wangchuk was arrested in 2016 after giving an interview about his work protecting Tibetan language and culture, was tortured and suffered degrading treatment during the early days of his detention
China is building border walls with Vietnam and Myanmar to curb the smuggling of goods, drugs and people, China is also accused of trying to keep people in as Vietnam is increasingly becoming an attractive destination for Chinese workers as manufacturing companies originally based in China relocate to Vietnam

MIDDLE EAST

Egypt prepares move to new capital this summer, the unnamed New Administrative Capital is located 45 km from the Nile on virgin land, designed to operate with smart technology and expected to house at least 6 million residents when finished
Iraqi security forces kills ISIS terrorist commander Abu Yaser al-Issawi, who claimed to be the leader of the group in Iraq and its deputy caliph, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi
Saudi Arabia officially bans Turkish products, the Saudi government has been reported to contact individual businesses and order them not to trade with Turkish companies or buy any products made in Turkey, it has also launched a campaign to discourage its citizens from travelling to Turkey
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab set to announce the resignation of his government after the explosion in Beirut which killed at least 163 people and has stirred public outrage and spurred a string of ministers to step down
At least 10 dead and hundreds wounded in a massive explosion at Beirut's port, General Abbas Ibrahim said it appears the explosion was caused by highly explosive material confiscated years ago stored in a warehouse
Southern Yemen separatists Southern Transitional Council announces having seized government facilities and military bases on the main island of Socotra, Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi condemns the action as a full-fledged coup, Socotra governor Ramzi Mahroos accuses coalition leaders Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of turning a blind eye
Benjamin Netanyahu corruption trial where he faces bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges in three cases opens on Sunday, becoming first serving Israeli prime minister to face criminal prosecution
Egyptian military in North Sinai kills 21 jihadi terrorists planning attacks later in May, the Armed Forces says 126 terrorists have been killed earlier this month in 22 raids and 12 operations in Central and North Sinai
19 Iranian sailors killed and 15 wounded when Iranian frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes support ship Konarak with a missile during an exercise in the Gulf of Oman
UAE-backed Yemeni separatists Southern Transitional Council declare state of emergency and say they will self-govern southern provinces, the Saudi-backed government says the move violates the November Riyadh agreement where the respective sides were to join a new national cabinet and place all forces under governmental control

Africa

Guinea declared new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests came back positive after three people died and four fell ill in the southeast, in first resurgence there since the 2013-2016 outbreak which killed at least 11,300 people
Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old mass-production brewery that could produce about 22,400 litres of beer at a time in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, a mixture of grains and water was heated in the 40 earthenware pots in each of its eight sectors
More than 270 elephants have mysteriously collapsed and died in Botswana since early May, poaching has been ruled out while Covid-19 has not, the country is home to around 130,000 elephants which is a third of Africa’s total
At least 82 killed in ethnic protests in Ethiopia and military deployed in Addis Ababa after Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa was shot dead in what police called a targeted killing and prominent Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba as well as media mogul Jawar Mohammed were arrested, the Oromo who make up the country's largest ethnic group have long complained of being excluded from power
Tourism minister of Ghana invites black Americans to return to Africa, suggests they should not stay where they are not wanted but instead build new life on ancestral continent
Opposition activists in Zimbabwe say torture and sexual abuse is used by state security services to discourage protests, MDC members claim to have been arrested at roadblock and subjected to humiliating treatment for two days before being released
Libyan government forces retake eight cities west of Tripoli from militias loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar, secure the road from the Tunisian border to the Abu Grein area, more than 1,000 government soldiers killed by Haftar's forces since last April
Democratic Republic of Congo records second Ebola death in days following seven weeks without a new case, WHO reports, had been due on Sunday to mark end to outbreak, a group of angry men threw stones at team attempting to decontaminate first victim's home and trace his contacts
Chad's army says it has killed 1,000 Boko Haram terrorists and lost 52 soldiers in a 10-day old operation following an ambush by the jihadists where nearly 100 soldiers were killed
Zimbabwe’s police use water cannon to disinfect markets and exterior of a block of residential flats in highly populated areas of Harare, the country has recorded one death from nine cases of Covid-19 and went into a 21-day lockdown on Monday

Economy

Royal Dutch Shell is acquiring ubitricity the owner of the UK’s largest public electric vehicle charging network, for an undisclosed amount marking the oil giant's expansion into the fast-growing on-street EV charging market
Idaho legislators introduce House Bill 7 allowing state funds to be held in physical gold and silver to help secure state assets against the risks of inflation and financial turmoil, South Carolina and Wyoming are considering similar measures
Record sales of Christmas trees in Australia leads to tree farms closing earlier than planned, four-year production cycles cause difficulties balancing supply and demand when sales peak
Hertz pays 340 employees USD 16.2 million in retention bonuses before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with USD 19 billion in debt, has furloughed or laid off half its work force, stock price down 97% since late February
Scandinavian airline SAS signs SEK 3.3 billion three-year revolving credit facility agreement where 90% is guaranteed by the Swedish and Danish states approved by the European Commission, the company says it will further its dialogue with the Norwegian government regarding NOK 1.7 billion state guaranteed funding and that it will seek additional governmental support to ensure its providing of critical Scandinavian airline infrastructure
Boeing pulls out of Embraer merger talks, saying the Brazilian plane maker has not met conditions needed to complete USD 4.2 billion civil aerospace tie-up deal
Japan decides on USD 930 cash handout for every citizen to lessen the economic Covid-19 blow, originally planned on giving 300,000 yen to qualified households that had lost income but changed that as the payments were seen as too complicated and too small
Bill Gates resigns from boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway, states intention to focus more on philantropic efforts, remains involved in Microsoft which he founded 45 years ago and where he remains a top shareholder with 1.36% of shares
Bank of England bid to thwart Covid-19 recession drives Euro Zone banks index .SX7E 1.5% higher by kindling hope of ECB following suit, precarious 6% gain dashed as U.S. stock market opens sharply lower, British minister of finance say he will do "whatever it takes" to protect the UK economy, BoE gives UK banks provisional leave to tap capital reserves
Federal Reserve takes flak from President Trump for not cranking out the stimulus necessary to thwart looming Coronavirus downturn, insists the US take a leaf out of Europe's playbook and set the "lowest rates in the world"

Technology

Valve will not allow Super Seducer 3: The Final Seduction to be released in any form on Steam citing it does not ship sexually explicit images of real people, the first two games remain available on Steam, the game revolves around the art of pickup artistry
Satellite ELSA-d which uses magnets to clean up space debris will launch this weekend, consists of two spacecraft developed by Japanese firm Astroscale which will perform a series of tests of the new method
Flying cars remain a dream despite enthusiast predicting breakthrough for more than a century, several manufacturers are still optimistic and New Hampshire has passed Jetson Bill which allows pilots to drive roadable aircraft to and from airports
Apple develops car and plans to start production in 2024, started designing the vehicle from scratch in 2014 and project lead is Doug Field who previously worked for Tesla, key component is unique battery technology which is said to be less expensive and increase range
Lockheed U-2 remains leading spy plane after 65 years in service and now gets 30 years extension after beating modern planes and drones in competition for development resources
Segway ends production of iconic self-balancing transportation device which was hailed as revolutionary but remained a curiosity, brand name lives on as well as thousands of patents used in e-scooters, hoverboards and other successor technologies
Texas Instruments removes support for C-based and assembly-based programs on the TI-84 Plus CE and the TI-83 Premium CE to minimize security risks and impede cheating, the development community views the decision as the end of an era
Linus Torvalds switches from Intel processors after 15 years and upgrades his main computer with a 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970x, writes that while he has not yet switched to ARM, the allmodconfig test builds are now three times faster
Elon Musk tweets Tesla will move to Texas and Nevada from California as home of Fremont plant, Alameda County says lockdown will remain while rest of state will allow manufacturers to reopen, Musk has criticized the lockdown and stay-at-home orders calling them fascist
Drones capable of measuring body temperature from 58 meters away as well as detecting sneezing, coughing, heart and breathing rates to be tested by the police in Westport, Connecticut, to provide better support for at-risk groups, police says that the drones will only be used outside individual private yards and will not use facial recognition technology

Science

Nasa’s science rover Perseverance streaks through the Martian atmosphere and lands safely on the floor of a vast crater, the six-wheeled rover being the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world will search for possible fossilized signs of microbes
Method for blocking sunlight developed by balloon test over northern Sweden although first version will not disperse darkening particles, Harvard scientist are behind project which is controversial as it may decrease interest in cutting greenhouse gas emissions
Sharing bed with dogs beneficial for length and quality of sleep say researchers who surveyed 962 American women, dogs disturb less than human bed fellows and give stronger feelings of comfort and security, cats as disruptive as humans and the least comfort inducing of the three species studied
Previously unknown whale species discovered in waters west of Mexico, US marine biologists were looking for beaked whales when they notice individuals with unusual teeth placement and unique calls, water samples taken in hope of doing DNA analysis
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus, which essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis
The Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation is a prediction of the general theory of relativity and to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy
Hundreds died or developed heart failure in Britain as result of not seeking treatment for their heart attack due to Covid-19 fears, with 5,000 fewer admissions with heart attack than expected by the end of May, according to University study published in The Lancet
22-year-old Grey parrot outperforms 21 Harvard students and 21 6- to 8-year-old children in complex version of shell game where participants needed to track locations of fluffy pom-poms hidden under cups that swapped places an increasing number of times
Magnetic north pole shifting with increasing speed from Canada toward Siberia due to changes in underground blobs of molten iron, blob under Canada split in two about 20 years ago and largest part is now shifting toward corresponding blob under Siberia
Female mosquitoes carrying the microbe Microsporidia MB are protected from being infected with malaria, 295 out of 4270 mosquitoes in Kenya tested postitive for the microbe while none were of these were infected with malaria study published in Nature Communications says, seen as potential for controlling spread of disease to humans

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