The People Controlling the World's Money

This week we see nations and businesses busying themselves as the world around them changed.

Nations at Odds

We begin this week in Greece with the continuing drama over debt with the IMF raising a red flag initially but later saying they expect Greece to make the $1.7 billion payment by 30 June as Athens continues to negotiate with creditors. Greece, however, wasn't the only country arguing over public funds this week as anti austerity marches took place in London with celebrities joining the masses. Russia didn't have a great week either with Europe extending economic sanctions by 6 months due to the crises in the Ukraine.

Outside of financial crises we saw Australia reveal this week that it would join the China lead infrastructure bank as a founding member while in the States SCOTUS upheld Obamacare after another legal battle over the wording in the law. But while disputes and economic quandaries were fought it was revealed that the NSA had been targeting the business world with security companies in particular in order to create malware that could bypass their defenses.

The Business World

The business world would be rocked further with WikiLeaks releasing more Sony emails and documents showing a deal made with Apple and settlements made. Controversy didn't end there with businessman Donald Trump entering the race to be US President and making surprising progress even after controversial statements about immigrants resulting in Univision dropping Trumps Miss USA pageant. But while some controversies boiled over others were dealt with head on as many large retailers stopped selling confederate flag related items after the tragic events in Charleston last week.

Finally we end the week with the digital world of business, in particular the new streaming music industry where new comer Tidal lost it's interim CEO just months after losing a previous CEO but it's wasn't all bad news when Apple was confronted by pop princess Taylor Swift in an open letter condemning their plans to not pay artists resulting in a turn around where Apple agreed to pay artists during the 3 month trial period.

Need to Know - Charleston Massacre

This week we saw tragic events in Charleston, South Carolina unfold when 9 people were shot while at a pray meeting in church on Wednesday night by who FBI would later identify as 21-year-old Dylann Roof. The pray group had apparently welcomed Dylann to join them before the attack. One of the survivors of the attack was a 5-year-old girl who survived by playing dead. Dylann was successfully arrested on Thursday in Shelby, N.C. after being alerted by a florist who identified the suspect based on police reports.

It's believed Dylann Roof had been "planning something like that for six months" according to his roommate and wanted to start "a civil war". Since the attack there has been wide spread condemnation with President Obama pleading for tougher gun controls as well as prays being held around the United States for the victims of the attack.

Tragic Deaths and The Law

This week we see man recovering from natural and accidental tragedies while the law takes center stage over escaped prisoners and excessive force.

Tragedies

We begin with man vs nature as South Korea announces more deaths from MERS as the virus continues to spread and entire villages are quarantined. However, even with the virus claiming more lives the WHO has not implemented any travels bans. Continuing with nature and her deadly rampage we find Napal hit with a deadly landslide claiming 21 lives.

After an earthquake on a sacred mountain in Malaysia killed 16 people news broke that tourists who posed naked were arrested and are blamed for angering tribal spirits that caused the quake. Previous tragedies still carried the weight of grieving families as 430 people that died in China when a boat capsizing were honored while the remains from the Germanwings crash were returned to family after 11 weeks.

The Law

With nature fighting back we find more worries in the form of two convicted murders on the run after escaping using power tools, the search has lead police to expand into neighbouring Vermont as house to house searches continue. On the subject of law enforcement a police officer criticized for excessive force at a Texas pool party has resigned even after the Police Chief defended his actions.

Finally we end with Oscar Pistorius who could be released from prison as early as August after just 10 months behind bars to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

Local Threats & Foreign Planets

This week in the world of technology we saw controversial surveillance acts stumble and scientists looking towards the heavens.

Security First

This week saw the infamous mass surveillance law, the Patriot Act, run into trouble when it's provisions expired. An alternative was put in place called the USA Freedom Act limiting the NSA's powers, however, it too has been criticized for barely scratching the surface of the NSA's powers. The original whistle blower that exposed the extent of the surveillance, Edward Snowden, expressed how happy he was with the Patriot Act failing saying "balance of power is beginning to shift". Staying with terrorism the FBI have accused Apple and Google of helping terrorists by providing strong encryption in their products.

Outside of the world of terrorism the US believes Chinese Hackers are behind a massive hack that stole American Corporate and Military Trade secrets. In software news a new Skype bug was discovered that causes Skype to crash with just a sequence of characters and lastly there are warnings that pictures on the internet could leave you open to hackers.

Up in the Sky

Looking towards the heavens we saw NASA and Verizon teaming up to help create a network that can keep an eye on drones in the sky and speaking of drones, someone has finally built a drone that looks like a Star Wars X-wing. Back to NASA who revealed it had created self cleaning wings that gets rid of bug guts which cause drag on aircraft but one aircraft that won't have to worry about drag is the Solar Impulse, the solar plane attempting to fly around the world without a drop of fuel, which had to land in Japan due to bad weather.

Going further into space NASA awarded Boeing with the first order for a commercial crew change flight to the International Space Station. NASA also announced that the flying saucer for taking humans to Mars is ready for testing and since we're heading to Mars scientists have said that earth organisms could survive under low pressure Martian conditions. Finally with all our travels around space the European Space Agency (ESA) is planning on cleaning up space by removing space debris and removing derelict satellites from orbit.