May 23rd, 2018 - Daily News Brief

Daily News Brief

US DPRK US President Donald Trump says there’s a ‘substantial chance’ the historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be delayed. The US has concerns that Pyongyang is not willing to give up its nuclear weapons. Trump made the comments after a meeting with South Korea's leader Moon Jae-in who urged the US president not to let a rare opportunity slip away. If the summit is called off, it would be a major blow to what could possibly be the biggest diplomatic achievement of Trump’s presidency. Gaza Airstrike New Israeli air strikes have hit Gaza hours after Palestine called for Israel to be investigated by the International Criminal Court. The overnight strike hit Gaza's main port, damaging two boats that belonged to a pro-Palestinian activist group called the "International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza." The attack followed reports of a new flotilla of ships intending to set sail from Denmark to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza. No injuries were reported. Zuckerberg EU Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg sailed through a grilling by European MPs in Brussels over the massive data leak scandal. An emotionless Zuckerberg apologised to the European Parliament for his company's failure to protect user data...and for the proliferation of fake news on the social media network. However, he avoided answering numerous questions, notably around opt-outs from targeted advertising, the sharing of data between Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp, as well as Facebook’s collection of data on non-users. He did say that Facebook would double the number of people working on safety and security to more than 20,000 by the end of this year. India Nipah The rare Nipah virus has killed at least 10 people in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The disease causes convulsions, fever, and vomiting and at its most dangerous stage, it attacks the brain. Fruit bats are considered the main carrier of the virus for which there is no vaccination Medical teams dispatched to Kerala are setting up quarantine tents to contain the virus. The health ministry hopes it has tackled the outbreak early enough to keep it from spreading and killing more people in the world’s second most populous country. Philip Roth And finally, Philip Roth, a dominant force in American literature throughout the latter half of the 20th century, has died at the age of 85. A prolific essayist, novelist and critic, Roth was best known for mining the Jewish-American experience in his work. He was an atheist who swore allegiance to earthly imagination. The decorated author won almost all the top literary honors, but the coveted Nobel Literature Prize eluded him.