The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now
REUTERS/China DailyA general view shows collapsed houses after an earthquake hit Ludian county, Yunnan province August 3, 2014.Good morning! Here's what people will be taking about on Monday.
1. Israel pulled most of its ground troops from Gaza on Sunday, though "with Hamas officials vowing to continue their fight, it remains uncertain whether Israel can unilaterally end the war," the Associated Press said. The positive development comes after news that a third U.N. school housing Palestinian refugees was struck by Israeli forces.
2. Portugal announced late Sunday that it will rescue troubled lender Banco Espirito Santo under a plan that splits the bank in two and pumps €4.9 billion ($6.6 billion) into a healthy division that will be rebranded as Novo Banco, or New Bank. Current BES shareholders will be responsible for problem loans and other toxic assets that will stay in the bad part of the bank.
3. A 6.5-magnitude earthquake that struck China's southern province of Yunnan on Sunday has killed at least 367 people and injured around 1,800, the country's official news agency Xinhua reported. Nearly 12,000 residential homes were destroyed in the disaster, Xinhua said.
4. Roughly 400,000 people in Toledo, Ohio, have been told not to drink the water after tests showed high levels of toxins from algal blooms in Lake Eerie. City regulators are waiting on new sample results before before deeming the water safe to drink again as the toxin cannot be destroyed by boiling.
5. A U.S. spy plane crossed into Swedish airspace last month to avoid being detected by Russian aircraft, The New York Times reported. In a statement, The United States European Command said that U.S. officials incorrectly directed the American plane into Swedish territory but that the jet left "after Swedish air traffic controllers informed the aircraft of the mistake," The Times wrote.
6. An American missionary infected by Ebola while working in West Africa was flown from Liberia to Emory University in Atlanta where his condition seems to be improving. In response to concerns about the spread of Ebola in the U.S., the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: "He's an American citizen, and what our role is in public health is to make sure that if an American is coming home with an infectious disease we protect so it doesn't spread. That was what we did in transit and at the hospital."
7. Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are thinking about investing in instant messaging startup Perzo as an alternative to the Bloomberg terminal, Reuters first reported. According to the Financial Times: "The new chat function would compete with Bloomberg's messaging offering but would come with a much lower price tag and could also be plugged in to different systems."
8. Candlelight vigils are being held across the U.K. on Monday to mark 100 years since Britain entered the first world war. On Sunday, German president Joachim Gauck and French president François Hollande met at a monument in Hartmannswillerkopf where 12,000 unidentified soldiers from both countries are buried.
9. Following French wireless company Iliad's offer to buy T-Mobile for $15 billion, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the Paris-based company will have trouble cutting costs at the small mobile carrier to meet "its goal of generating $2 billion in additional annual operating profit." Roger Enter, an analyst at Recon Analytics in Boston, said: "T-Mobile is not bloated at all. It is cut to the bone."
10. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Bertha is unlikely to make landfall in the U.S. after it headed away from Turks & Caicos late Sunday. Earlier, the storm brought downpours and flooding to the Dominican Republic.
And finally...
A 150-pound tortoise found wandering the streets of a Los Angeles suburb was picked up by two members from the Alhambra Police Department and returned to its owners, the Associated Press reported. The tortoise is named Clark.