Frida Garza

Spanish officials have dropped tax fraud charges against FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi,  according to Spain’s El País newspaper (link in Spanish). Barcelona’s economic crimes prosecutor is still seeking a 1.5 year prison sentence and 1 million euro ($1,120,695 USD) fine for Messi’s father, Jorge Horacio Messi, after determining that he was the sole person responsible for tax fraud involving his son’s finances.

In the days after a 26-year-old shot and killed nine people and injured several others at an Oregon community college, US politicians were divided between those who blamed the gun lobby and those who saw it as an opportunity to speak out about the country’s failing mental health system. President Barack Obama called the response, including his own remarks, a depressing political “routine.”

This post has been updated with the final death tally.

Authorities along the eastern US coast braced for the potential arrival of Hurricane Joaquin, which has strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” category four storm. Meteorological prediction models are divided about whether Joaquin will make landfall, but even the best case scenario is expected to result in heavy rains, high winds, and possible flooding.

Two cartel leaders and a man suspected for the murder of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer are among the 13 alleged drug traffickers that were extradited yesterday (Sept. 30) from Mexico to the United States. The narcos had been held in Mexico’s maximum security prison, Altiplano, in Mexico City—the same one Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman” escaped from in July.

The United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia both serve on the United Nations’ human rights council (HRC), an influential watchdog group for abuses around the world, but the two nations may have achieved that status by unlawful means. Leaked documents obtained by the Australian (paywall) show that the UK and Saudi Arabia exchanged money and votes to get each other elected to the HRC in 2013.

A series of bombings today in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou killed at least seven people and left more than 50 injured, reports the Associated Press via the Guardian.

A few months ago, German publishing house Axel Springer narrowly failed in its attempt to buy the Financial Times, the august pink-sheeted UK newspaper that dates back to 1888. Instead, it is splashing out a huge sum to buy one of financial journalism’s newer players: Business Insider, the quick-fire business news site founded by former stock analyst Henry Blodget in 2009.

Today, the discussion around immigration and population growth in the United States revolves around people from Latin America, but it won’t forever: Asians are expected to become the largest immigrant group in the US by 2055, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center, and will constitute nearly 40% of the foreign-born population by 2065.

China’s announcement of a cap-and-trade program to limit its emissions is yet another sign that the world’s governments are finally getting serious about addressing climate change. And some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel-dependent companies are eager to help.

At least 717 people were killed and 863 were injured this morning in a stampede during the yearly Islamic pilgrimage, or hajj, to the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Those numbers have been climbing steadily over the past few hours—the latest numbers were confirmed by Saudi civil defense officials, and also by state-run television stations citing Saudi civil defense officials, according to CNN.

On Sept. 10, a US federal appeals court came down hard against the Environmental Protection Agency for approving the use of a pesticide called sulfoxaflur without reviewing enough evidence to know whether or not it is harmful to bees.

Last year, the Silicon Valley real estate company Sand Hill bought up a failed shopping mall. Now, it wants to turn the 50-acre property into an urban center with the world’s largest green roof. The project is ambitious: build a mixed-use town center complete with an orchard, vineyard, playground, 3.8 miles of walking trails, and a 30-acre rooftop park to top it all.

The freedom of speech crisis in Bangladesh continues. The Guardian reported today, Sept. 23, that a deadly Islamic militant group has released a list of secular blogger, writers, and activists that it threatens to attack. This comes after several murders this year of Bangladeshi writers who were vocal critics of Islam.

An Apple Watch helped save Paul Houle’s life—and it got him a summer job with Apple.

A new study by researchers at the Harvard Business School found that women and men see job promotions as equally attainable, but women are more likely to anticipate negative outcomes as a result of moving up in the workplace. The study hypothesized that the difference in male and female preferences for achieving high-level positions would help explain the dearth of women at the top of the corporate ladder.

As Chinese president Xi Jinping starts his visit to the United States today, the husband of American businesswoman Phan Phan-Gillis is going public with the news that his wife has been detained by Chinese authorities for the last six months for allegedly threatening Chinese national security.

SodaStream, an Israeli company that makes machines for carbonating water at home, is offering jobs to 1,000 Syrian refugees. According to the Israeli news site i24 News, the company announced that it would employee 1,000 people—or up to 200 families—in the southern Israeli town of Rahat, where its newly opened factory is located.

Carly Fiorina is holding her own against Donald Trump after an impressive performance during last week’s Republican debate.

The Syrian refugee who made headlines last week after getting tripped by a Hungarian camerawoman got a warm welcome in Madrid on Sept. 17. The 52-year-old father has been offered a job to work with Spain’s national soccer coaching school CENAFE, after members of the school learned that the refugee had coached back in Syria.

The pay gap between men and women in the US is more stubborn than it might seem. According to a new income and poverty report from the US Census Bureau, the gender wage gap reached an all-time low in 2014 of 21%. That’s the smallest gap between American men’s and women’s pay since 1960, when the Census Bureau began collecting data on full-time, year-round workers.

When it comes to building a strong community, knowing how rich or poor your neighbors are doesn’t really help. That’s the finding of research published in the science journal Nature this month by social scientists from the Yale Institute for Network Science.

In the US, when a police officer reads a person being arrested their Miranda rights (“You have the right to remain silent…” ), that person’s right to an attorney is usually assumed to be part of the deal. This weekend, (Sept. 13) John Oliver debunked that assumption during his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, arguing that free legal representation in the US isn’t always free.

Love at first sight can happen anywhere—even a dusty, wind-whipped Nevada desert.