Kittel wins stage four
Kittel wins stage four of the race and becomes the first rider in close to 40 years to win three of the four stages. Kittel won by a wheel’s length barely beating Norway’s Alexander Kristoff. Kittel acknowledges the race is easier for him with Cavendish gone. Kittel says:
It’s never easy … (I was) lucky just enough at the finish line.
Defense rests
The defense in the Pistorius case rests. The judge orders closing arguments to commence on August 7, 2014. This date will allow time for the lawyers to read through a transcript of the trial that is over 4000 pages long, covering 39 days of trial.
Holds off deporting kids
Obama holds off on seeking legal changes needed to speed the deportation of immigrant children, as he asks Congress for billions in emergency funding for the problem at the US-Mexico border. An administration official tells Fox News they are still seeking the expanded legal authority to expedite the removal process of the immigrants.
We already sent a letter to the Congressional Leadership last week on our desire for expanded authorities and we are still seeking those authorities and have made clear we will work with Congress to get those authorities.
Kansas Fiber expansion
Overland Park, Kansas, approves an agreement to bring Google Fiber to the city. The service delivers Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (that’s 100 times faster than most U.S. connections), allowing an entire album of music to download in under six seconds, or an entire movie to be downloaded in 38 seconds. Google Fiber came to Kansas City in 2012, and a limited amount of surrounding cities also have the service in place. The other two US cities with the service are Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah. The service costs $70 a month, or $120 with TV service.
UN Goodwill Ambassador
UN Women, the UN’s gender-equality entity, names Watson the new Goodwill Ambassador. Watson will work on the organization’s women’s-empowerment campaign, HeForShe, and is the first to be appointed under the leadership of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Under Secretary-General and executive director of U.N. Women. Mlambo-Ngcuka believes that Watson’s “intellect and passion” embodies the values of U.N. Women, and that her experience promoting girls’ education in countries such as Bangladesh and Zambia, will help spread the organization’s mission.
Women’s rights are something so inextricably linked with who I am, so deeply personal and rooted in my life that I can’t imagine an opportunity more exciting. I still have so much to learn, but as I progress I hope to bring more of my individual knowledge, experience and awareness to this role.
Oculus Connect 2014 announced
Oculus VR announces Oculus Connect, a conference aimed at teaching developers about Oculus technology. The event is set for September 19-20, 2014 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles:
Attendees will be the first to learn about upcoming Oculus technology, with sessions and workshops led by Oculus engineers and industry pioneers. Developers at the event will also have opportunities to receive design and engineering feedback directly from the Oculus team in hands-on labs.
Judge allows transfer
A judge rules that Hernandez can transfer to another jail to allow for easier access to his lawyers. He will leave the Bristol County facility in southern Massachusetts and be moved to a county facility closer to Boston, Massachusetts, where the alleged murders took place.
Donetsk bridges blown up
Explosions blow up three bridges leading into Donetsk. Although it is not clear who caused the explosions, they are being blamed on Russian rebels, as they attempt to hold on to one of the last major cities under their control. After being driven out of Sloviansk by the Ukranian Army, the rebels fled to Donetsk where they had previously declared their independence as Donetsk’s People’s Republic. Reuters is reporting bursts of gunfire in many of the neighborhoods in the center of Donetsk, and is saying people are fearful of warfare breaking out between the army and the rebels.
Kittel wins stage three
Marcel Kittel wins stage three of the race. The course for this stage, 96 miles long (155km), spanned from Cambridge to London, and 197 riders participated in this stage. The race now moves to France for stage four.
Finalist cities chosen
The International Olympic Committee confirms that Oslo, Almaty and Beijing are the three official candidates to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. IOC President Thomas Bach:
The IOC Executive board has selected the cities of Oslo, Almaty and Beijing as candidate cities for the Olympic Winter Games 2022…The IOC is very happy to see three very different approaches with regard to the organisation of the games. This gives the IOC a choice between three diverse bids, with different legacy plans, with different approaches, with different budgets.
Escape from captors
The 62 women and girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria last month escape from Boko Haram militants. The women were able to escape when their captors left the camp to attack military and police in Damboa. Bukar Kyari, a local vigilante fighting Boko Haram in Maiduguri, says:
The women seized that rare opportunity to escape when they realized they were alone in the camp. But we still have five women, including a nursing mother, missing.
This group is believed to still be holding 200 missing schoolgirls that were abducted 80 days ago in Chibok.
Cavendish out of race
As a result of the crash on the first day of the race, Cavendish dislocated his shoulder and is out of the race. In a Twitter post, his team, Omega Pharma-QuickStep (OPQS), confirms that the MRI scan shows torn ligaments and an AC-joint dislocation. Cavedish says:
Normally I bounce well but when I was on the floor I knew something was wrong. My shoulder was sticking out the way it shouldn’t. I had some optimism that it would just be swelling but this morning was worse. I’m gutted.
Nibali wins second stage
Nibali of Italy wins the second stage of the race through the Yorkshire countryside and receives his first yellow jersey.
It was a fabulous day for me, I led a good action. It was difficult. There was a lot of headwind … I had the luck to attack at the right moment.
Russian separatists regroup at rally
Russian separatists regroup in the city of Donetsk after being driven out of Sloviansk by rebels. In front of a crowd of thousands, they are vowing to renew their fight against the government in Kiev. Pavel Gubarev, the self-described governor of the Donetsk People’s Republic, tells the crowd:
We will begin a real partisan war around the whole perimeter of Donetsk. We will drown these wretches in blood.
Lawyers criticize broadcast
Pistorius’ lawyer, Brian Webber, criticizes Australia’s Channel Seven for showing a video of Pistorius re-enacting the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
iPhone 6 made by 10,000 robots
Foxconn announces at a shareholder meeting that it plans to use 10,000 top-of-the-line manufacturing robots to meet the demand for the iPhone 6. A Foxconn financial report explains that this is done in an effort to cut labor costs:
To remain cost competitive, we have been continuously controlling manufacturing overhead to attain better operating leverage and improving efficiency and yield rate through automation using robot arms and industrial engineering methods like production cell management.
Fights anti-obesity softening
The First Lady is fighting a House Republican effort to soften a central part of her anti-childhood obesity campaign. She says she’s ready “to fight until the bitter end.” She mocks the GOP in an opinion column in The New York Times:
Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches? You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense. Yet we’re seeing the same thing happening again with these new efforts to lower nutrition standards in our schools.
Race starts in Yorkshire
Thousands of spectators line the streets in Yorkshire, England to watch the start of the race. 198 riders will participate in this year’s race. The Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge, along with Prince Harry, attend. Kate and some of the lead riders cut the ribbon, signifying the start of the race. Yorkshire is hosting the first stage of the 101st Tour de France, and the cyclists will wind through many towns and villages along the 190km route. The race will go through the Yorkshire Dales to Harrogate on July 5, 2014, and then from York to Sheffield, through the Peak District, on July 6, 2014.
Reclaims Sloviansk
After a night of fighting, President Poroshenko and a rebel spokesperson report the Ukranian flag is now flying over Sloviansk. The city had been under rebel control since April 12, 2014. The military reports it destroyed a tank and four other armored vehicles during the overnight battle. A spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council:
Sloviansk is under siege. Now an operation is going on to neutralize small groups hiding in buildings where peaceful citizens are living.
Indian nurses arrive home
After being trapped for more than a week in Tikrit, an area that had been seized by Sunni militant forces, the group of 46 nurses arrives home to India. It is not yet clear if they were abducted or trapped and unable to leave the area. One of the nurses says:
They didn’t do anything, they didn’t disturb us and they didn’t harm anyone. They didn’t touch even. They talked nicely.