Sports are wonderful, and can bring people together in unexpected ways. But when so many people get together in one place, bad things also multiply.
Jay Z has been in an empire state of mind lately—last year, he acquired a champagne brand, and went to court to save the art of hip-hop sampling. Now, he has acquired his own competitor to popular music streaming sites like Spotify.
The French government, still reeling from a wave of terror attacks that began at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, has embarked on a plan to spend $490 million on new security measures, including the recruitment of 1,100 police intelligence officers to help spy on at least 3,000 people who are constantly under surveillance as suspected threats in France.
Despite the ceremony being officiated by an archbishop, Alexis Tsipras this week became the first Greek prime minister to be sworn in without taking a religious oath (pictured above). You see, Tsipras is an avowed atheist.
In 2011, Copenhagen was hit by flash floods. Six inches (15 cm) of rain soaked the Danish capital in the span of three hours, causing more than $1 billion worth of damage. Realizing that climate change will mean more, not fewer, such floods in future, the city started planning for them.
Greece’s election has sent shockwaves throughout Europe—and especially through Germany. The euro zone’s biggest economy and paymaster has reluctantly footed a big bill for bailing out Greece and other euro members, extending financial aid in return for strict and unpopular austerity measures.
“In Greece, democracy will return,” Alexis Tsipras said as he voted on Sunday in his nation’s general election. The 40-year-old leader of the radical left Syriza party is likely to be the next prime minister of what is after all the birthplace of democracy.
This coming week, Barack Obama is to cut short a trip to India to visit the new ruler of Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah last week. That the American president is so keen to abandon a fast-growing and important ally to visit the dementia-struck 79-year-old leader of an old one shows what sway the House of Saud still has over US foreign policy.
A lot of parents are worried about their children spending too much in front of the phone or tablet. Parents in Taiwan now have to do something about it.
The phrase “There’s gold in them thar hills,” sometimes misattributed to a Mark Twain character, refers to the heady days of the Californian gold rush. Those days of panning for gold are over—but perhaps they shouldn’t be.
The devastating after-effects of concussions have been felt throughout the sporting world, and now the issue has come to professional wrestling. Two ex-wrestlers are suing World Wrestling Entertainment, home of The Rock and Hulk Hogan, for ignoring concussions that gave them serious brain injuries.
It seems there is a new member of the club of Asian owners of European soccer teams. Wang Jianlin, the richest man in China, is poised to spend €40 million ($46.4 million) to buy 20% of the current Spanish champion, Atletico Madrid.
French president François Hollande has had a tough tenure. After being elected in a landslide in 2012, France’s economic malaise and Hollande’s commitment to raising taxes saw his approval ratings sink below 30% for more than a year—bottoming out at a stunningly low 12% late last year, according to one poll.
What to watch for today
In New York, $100 million gets you spectacular views of Central Park, high ceilings, rosewood floors, and Italian marble baths—but more importantly, the bragging rights of breaking a record for the first single-family home in the city’s history to change hands for such an insane amount of money.
This week, the Swiss central bank’s decision to scrap its cap on the value of the franc put a few unfortunate firms out of business—including the currency dealer, Alpari, which is the principal sponsor for Premier League soccer club West Ham United:
There are several laws known to sociologists that seem to govern, in unnervingly accurate fashion, how we live in cities here on Earth. One is Zipf’s law, which states the rank of a city is inversely proportional to the number of people who live in the city. So the biggest city in a country has 10 million people, then the second-biggest city is 10 million divided by two, the next by three, and so on.
Ched Evans once played soccer for Manchester City but now plies his trade two levels below England’s Premier League, far away from the world-famous teams and superstars. Evans is not a superstar; he is barely an average player. Few would care about him but for the fact that he is also a convicted rapist.
The new cover of Charlie Hebdo manages to be both poignant and blasphemous. Under the banner “All is forgiven,” it depicts the Prophet Mohammed holding the words “I am Charlie.” The cartoon will feature on the cover of this week’s issue, with a print run of three million, the first since the massacre at its offices last week.
World leaders are gathering in Paris to mark the murder of staff and police at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as well as those killed in the hostage situation at a kosher supermarket.
ISIL, also known as ISIS or The Islamic State, shocked the world when it swiftly occupied a huge chunk of Iraq and Syria last year and brought about a continuing series of airstrikes by a US-led international coalition.
Rupert Murdoch is tweeting again, this time on the horrific events in Paris that saw two gunmen kill 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and then two subsequent hostage situations:
On Sunday, in an unprecedented move, French president Francois Hollande will join with the rightwing opposition, unions, and human rights organizations in a national unity march in Paris (link in French) in the wake of massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this week.
New York City FC was supposed to be a new chapter for soccer in the US, and New York in particular—a powerhouse new Major League Soccer club owned by Manchester City and the New York Yankees that could give soccer in the US that glamour it’s been missing. Since it was announced last year, expectations have been raised further by NYCFC signing up Chelsea legend Frank Lampard and Spanish striker David Villa to help lead the new team.
