ISIS CLAIMS BAGHDAD ATTACK
ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack in Baghdad that killed at least 76 people and wounded 212 this morning. A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside the popular Jamila food market in Sadr City, a predominantly Shia neighborhood. It represents one of the biggest acts of violence in the capital since Haider al-Abadi became prime minister a year ago, Reuter reports.
CHINA EXPLOSIONS KILL 44 AND COUNTING
Photo: Xinhua/ZUMA
Two massive explosions today at an industrial warehouse in the Chinese port city of Tianjin have killed 44 people, including 12 firefighters. Another 520 people have been hospitalized, 66 of them in critical condition, China’s official news agency Xinhua reports.
- The cause of the two deadly blasts, which happened some 30 seconds apart, is still unclear. The facility was described as being a storage and distribution center for hazardous and flammable goods.
- The explosions caused a huge fireball, followed by a rain of debris, while the detonation was felt for miles around. Watch this collection of footage from the explosion to get an idea of the blasts’ magnitude.
- The accident has disrupted the coming and going of chemical and oil tankers in and out of the port, trading and shipping sources told Reuters.
JIMMY CARTER ANNOUNCES CANCER DIAGNOSIS
Former President Jimmy Carter, 90, announced in a statement yesterday that he has been diagnosed with a spreading cancer discovered during liver surgery and that he would be adjusting his schedule to accommodate a treatment regimen. The 39th U.S. president has enjoyed the longest post-presidency in American history, The New York Times notes, maintaining an active private and public life that includes leading a Sunday school class in Plains, Ga., and remaining engaged at the Carter Center, a prominent human rights organization he co-founded. Though Carter didn’t elaborate on the type of cancer, his family has an extensive family history of pancreatic cancer, from which his father and three siblings all died. “Jimmy, you’re as resilient as they come, and along with the rest of America, we are rooting for you,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.
VERBATIM
“Donors have looked at her as the answer to Hillary, but I think a lot more donors will now see her as the answer to Donald Trump,” Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway told The New York Times in an article today about the growing emergence of GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the crowded Republican field.
EXTRA!
Today’s front page of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published a dramatic image of an airlift rescue scene after a rubber dinghy sank in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian navy rescued 52 migrants, who were taken to Lampedusa island, but almost as many passengers who had been on board remain unaccounted for. Read more in our Extra! feature.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Spanglish: Is it a dialect? Ghetto talk? Whatever else it may be, Spanglish is now the brazen, no-nonsense fruit of two languages and cultures coexisting in the United States, Eduardo Marceles reports for El Espectador. “Spanglish emerged from Hispanics’ need to communicate with the Anglo-Saxon culture around them before they had fully learned English,” he writes. “They began a mix-and-match approach to get their meaning across. Some knowledge of both languages is needed, of course. In this idiom, English words are borrowed and Hispanicized to aid the flow of conversation. That has effectively meant additions — some of them charming — to the Spanish language.”
Read the full article, Spanglish, The Muy Popular U.S. Street Lingo.
ON THIS DAY
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Let Bobby Clarke’s smile make your day! This, and more, in today’s 57-second shot of history.
SWEDEN DROPS PARTS OF ASSANGE CASE
Swedish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into two sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange based on Sweden’s statute of limitations, AFP reports. But Assange, who has been holed up in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012, is not out of the woods yet, Swedish daily Aftonbladet notes. The whistleblower still faces a more serious rape allegation, which will not expire until 2020.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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HAWAII DIVE
Grab your ukulele and check out this live stream of deep water exploration off the coast of Hawaii, courtesy of IFLScience.
