Nights Out with Beauties & Beasts

This week saw a contrast between Beauties and Beasts as the sporting, celebrity and fashion world's collided at two big night's out.

The Beasts

We begin with what was touted as the fight of the century between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao but turned out to just be the match up of the century with a rather boring end to an expensive and over hyped event. But where there's hype there will be celebrities and so they descended turning the local airports into a parking lot for private jets as the rich and famous arrived to watch the fight. Bets were made with Diddy and Mark Wahlberg making an outrageous $250,000 bet before the fight. The night kicked off with Jamie Foxx performing the national anthem which was of questionable quality for a fight of equally questionable quality.

Since the fight there has been some controversy with Manny admitting to a shoulder injury and undergoing surgery this week however since admitting to the injury he has been hit with a lawsuit and could face fines from boxing organizations.

The Beauties

It wasn't all blood, sweat and tears this week with the Met Gala taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with every beautiful celebrity you can imagine clamoring for the spotlight. We begin with couples in the lime light on the red carpet as Chrissy Teigen and John Legend made their entrance followed by George and Amal Clooney close behind and newly engaged couple Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs also making an appearance.

However the night was focused on a few celebs who shone brighter with 45-year-old Jennifer Lopez gaining attention while revealing a naked hip and Jennifer Lawrence looking gorgeous in Dior along with Selena Gomez who also garnered attention in a white Vera Wang dress. However not all celebrities fared well gaining attention because of questionable choices in wardrobe with Beyoncé leaving little to the imagination with a see-through dress followed by a battle for best meme between Rihanna's dress compared to a pizza and omelets and ending with Sarah Jessica Parker and her outrageous headpiece compared to multiple cartoon characters.

Tragedy Shakes the World

After a terrible end last week it seems we are doomed to endure more after a massive earthquake hit Nepal and violence broke out in Baltimore over police brutality.

Earthquake in Nepal

A 7.8 earthquake struck in the Gorkha district of Nepal on Saturday, 25 April causing widespread damage throughout the region including affecting climbers on Mt. Everest. Following the quake nearly 2000 bodies were found with fears of landslides  in the future, the UN estimated that nearly 8 million people were affected by the earthquake with the death toll passing 4000 early in the week, a day later 6.7 magnitude tremor hit leaving fears for those still trapped on Mt. Everest. On Mt. Everest hundreds of climbers were stuck with at least 10 people killed on the mountain, a video of the earthquake and avalanche filmed by German climbers captured the moment of impact.

As the death toll rose over the following days Nepal grappled with a humanitarian disaster with many hospitals overwhelmed. As search efforts carried on people were being found trapped under rubble days later with one man was found trapped in a room for 80 hours with 3 dead bodies and a baby being pulled from the rubble after 22 hours but even with the best efforts anger grew due to the slow pace of support and help with victims in remote areas struggling to find aid.

Protests in Baltimore

While some struggled with mother nature the other side of the world was thrust into chaos with protests turning to riots after Freddie Gray died in police custody on 19 April after falling into a coma, later reports would claim Freddy had slammed his head against the police van causing the fatal injury. While the initial protests were peaceful they soon deteriorated with shops being looted and other casualties of the protests including a senior citizen home which was burnt down along with police cars being vandalized. Arrests were made outside the Camden Yards baseball stadium while those inside were asked not to leave while other games in the area were played in empty stadiums. As protests grew a state of emergency was declared with curfews introduced and the national guard called in, as temper flared and protestors defied the curfews the police fired gas canisters into the crowds echoing the events of Ferguson mere months earlier.

In other parts of the US protestors took to the streets outside the Chicago police headquarters to protest police brutality along with protests in Philadelphia and Cincinnati and more. While the approach used to tackle rioters was considered a disaster Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defending their actions but while politician's argued and protestors and police fought unlikely figures stood out including Vietnam veteran Robert Valentine who stood between the two waring parties and a mother who became famous for her tough love approach slapping her son for joining the protestors. As the incidents and protests continue to grow and spread across the US it is clear that the current approach isn't working.

Accidents and Natural Disasters

The week wasn't particularly pleasant with misfortune playing a large role in many tragedies.

Accidents

We begin the week with the world looking on as it was feared nearly 700 people had drowned off the coast of Libya after a human smuggling vessel sunk with the only progress being the captain and his crew being arrested. The EU held an emergency meeting regarding the tragedy however the outcome has been criticized as been inadequate. Elsewhere in the world 7 people were reported dead and 17 trapped in a flooded coal mine in China.

Older tragedies made news with robot's at the Fukushima nuclear power plant capturing images of a strange green glow and even further back to one of histories most notorious accidents one of the remnants, a deckchair from the Titanic, was sold for $190,000.

Natural Disasters

Mother nature proved a destructive force earlier in the week with Tsunami warnings raised for Japan's southern Okinawa island after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the Easter Taiwan. Another earthquake, 6.3 magnitude, was recorded between Nelson and Kaikoura in New Zealand's south island. However nature wasn't done with the Calbuco volcano erupting and sending plumes of smoke and ash into the atmosphere in southern Chile forcing evacuations of surrounding areas.

On the biological front new warnings were raised after it was discovered that Ebola, now thought to be under control, could still be spread by sex with the CDC asking previous victims to abstain from sex. Good news also followed on the Ebola front when a monkey was cured with a new experimental drug along with more good news of a clinical trial coming to an end offering a malaria vaccine. Meanwhile in Iowa 5 million hens are to be euthanized after a bird flu outbreak. We end the week with man doing as much damage to nature with the deteriorating quality of air in China under more scrutiny over the last few months as the second largest economy continues to plow ahead but it's not alone with growing economy Delhi claiming the most polluted air.

Technologies Tantalizing Tomorrow

We delve this week into the world of Technology with security threats from hackers looming large and space calling out to the brave.

Fighting on the Digital Front

We begin the week with security after numerous stories of hackers surfaced this week ranging in severity of threat. If you thought being untethered and high in the sky would keep you safe a new report claims that hackers could hack into the aircraft's system via the planes own Wi-Fi, and you thought all you had to worry about was a guy stuck in the cargo hold of the plane. While the odds of a plane being hacked are low the number is increasing as a new report claims a 23% spike in cyber crimes with another study showing data breaches have stolen nearly 29 million US health records in 4 years.

One of the most famous hack of recent memory is that of Sony Entertainment who's documents can now be found in a searchable trove on Wikileaks and more worryingly is the fact that the software used to attack Sony Entertainment can be bought on the dark web for just $30,000 in bitcoin. Speaking of business, Google faces a new antitrust lawsuit in Europe after claims that Google prioritized it's own services over that of others. In the US the new net neutrality freedom is already coming under attack by broadband companies who are taking the fight to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Future and Fun

Focusing instead on bettering mankind's future we saw the first ever donut launched into space giving us even more reason to reach space. However, attempts to get into space took another knock when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket just failed to land on the drone barge during a test flight earlier in the week. For those already in the heavens we saw footage of a space walk carried out earlier in the year on ISS while even further out in space the Curiosity rover found evidence of small amounts of water on Mars. On the topic of robots, a few of them are being used closer to home mapping radiation at the Fukushima power plant too dangerous for humans to map.

Finally we end this week where artificial intelligence is no match, natural stupidity. The week saw two puzzles fool the internet with Cheryl's Birthday math problem and a picture of a cat either walking up or down a flight of stairs, basically the blue and gold dress all over again.

Deadly Repercussions

Death hung low over the world this week with many long awaited legal decisions interrupted by a growing body count.

Race Relations Deteriorate

We begin when the dark days that led to Ferguson, Missouri taking it's place in history were relived with another black man shot and killed by a white officer. The incident unfolded in North Charleston where Officer Michael Slager pulled over Walter Scott for a traffic stop. During the stop a bystander managed to record what happened next showing Walter Scott running from Officer Slager followed by 8 shots in his direction, 3 hitting him in the back. The officer claimed Walter Scott had reached for his Taser but the video footage shows Officer Slager walking back to the initial spot, pick something up, walk back and drop it next to Walter Scott.

Needless to say the response to the latest in a long line of shootings has been swift with condemnation coming from all fronts including North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey who said all officers would wear body camera's from now on while the attorney for previous victims, Martin and Brown, questioned progress made. The bystander who shot the video has since spoken out saying that Scott was trying to get away from the Taser. Another video, this time the dashboard cam from the officers vehicle has been released showing the initial stop. Since the shooting and video release Officer Slager has been arrested and is being held without bail.

Legal Trials

One of the biggest trials in years has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts for his part in the Boston Marathon bombings, he now awaits sentencing.

Other trial's came to an end this week when blogger, Lacey Spears, was sentenced to 20 years for intentionally killing her 5-year-old son by poisoning him with salt in order to gain attention online; The judge claims Miss Spears was suffering from a rare mental condition and was spared the maximum 25 year sentence. Another case ended this week with 2 women sentenced to 8 years for their part in the death of a Mississippi black man and finally we end this week with a judge declaring that Craig Hicks, the man who killed 3 Muslim college students in North Carolina, can face the death penalty.