Moscow Subway Crash, Summer Winter
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Vol. 3, No. 195
Derailed: A Moscow Metro subway train derailed and crashed today, killing at least 20 people and injuring 150. The cause was not immediately evident. The crash happened 275 feet below the streets, making rescue and recovery more difficult. Authorities say the death toll may rise.
Ukraine: NATO says Russia is once again building up troops on the Ukraine border, bringing the number to about 12,000. And the government says Russian army officers are fighting alongside separatist rebels. They say they suspect a Russian missile shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane near Luhansk in the country’s east. Two crewmembers were reported to have survived while a search was on for the six other occupants.
The Ukraine military is making slow progress. Over the weekend they broke the rebels’ control of the Luhansk airport and are moving to take back the city.
The intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin are, as always, mysterious. He has called for a negotiated peace, but continues to supply arms to the pro-Russian rebels.
Ceasefire Failing: Palestinian militants rejected a peace plan proposed by Egypt and continued firing rockets into Israel today. Israel had accepted the plan, but in response to continued attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We are prepared to continue and intensify our operations to protect our people.”
Summer Vortex: An unusual summer chill has swept down from Canada into the Midwest. It’s the summer version of last winter’s Polar Vortex. The temperature is 64 in Des Moines and 68 in Dayton. A severe weather warning is in place on the East Coast from North Carolina to New Hampshire. Thunder and lightning.
Box of Chocolates: The Swiss chocolate company Lindt has agreed to buy the American drugstore chocolatier Russell Stover for $1.5 billion. Stover is America’s third largest chocolate company behind Hershey and Mars. Lindt executives claim they will raise the quality of Russell Stover, which must be insulting to the people who work there, but they do make a product that’s sold near the toothpaste.
Ms. Bishop: The Church of England voted yesterday to allow women to become Bishops. The church allowed women to become priests in 1992 and has been in internal argument ever since about women becoming Bishops. The traditionalists said it contradicts the Bible. But with shrinking congregations and dwindling interest in the priesthood, the church decided to go a little modern.
The Obit Page: Alice Coachman Davis, the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, died in Georgia at age 90. Davis had been prohibited from training at public sports facilities because she was black. She won the high jump in the 1948 London Olympics at a height of 5.51 feet, setting both a US and Olympic women’s record. Women have since jumped nearly seven feet.
The Advance Obit: Archie Andrews, the redheaded cartoon character who’s been hanging around with Betty, Veronica, and Jughead since 1941, is penciled to die tomorrow, taking a bullet to save his gay friend Kevin. In the comic book series “Life with Archie,” everyone’s grown up and mortality has entered the frame. But in the comics, Archie can probably return to being a teenager.
Oh, Waiter: Making the rounds of the Internet is a Craigslist “rant” purportedly from a Midtown Manhattan restaurant about the effects of smartphones on the food business. The item says the restaurant compared 10-year-old surveillance video to current video and found that turnover time increased from 1:05 to 1:55. The reasons: customers bumping into each other and waiters while looking at smartphones; customers failing to order while looking at smartphones; taking pictures of the food and each other; asking the waiter to take the picture; looking at the pictures; sending the food back because it got cold while fiddling with smartphones; not asking for the check while focused on the smartphone.
They might be reading this right now on their smartphones.
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