didn&#039t | Common News Update

Jan232019 by adminNo Comments

Zimbabwe's president didn't get the welcome home he hoped for

World

By John Sparks, Africa correspondent, in Zimbabwe When the scarf-clad Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, touched down at Harare's scruffy-looking airport, he did not get the sort of reception that I am sure he was hoping for.He had spent a week in Europe trying to drum up investment and loans to keep his bankrupt administration afloat but he came home with little in the way of financial support.What's more, he was going have to deal with the fact that tens of thousands of Zimbabweans had been protesting a whopping 150% rise in petrol and diesel.The protests have been met by a brutal police crackdown which saw 12 people killed and dozens injured.Mr Mnangagwa's trip, which was supposed to include a stop at the Davos Economic Forum, was always going t...

Oct282018 by adminNo Comments

Stormzy claims he didn't realise stabbing was shocking

Entertainment

Grime star Stormzy claims he didn't realise how shocking being stabbed was until a trip out of his community in south London. The rapper, 25, was brought up in Thornton Heath, south London, where gang violence has taken a number of his friends.He told The Sunday Times he had not realised how unusual the frequency of stabbings were until he went to the Midlands on a project management course. He said: "It was in Tipton. We'd gone there to do the work of the people we were to manage, like welders and in the room were 17 white kids."One day we had our hard hats off. I had a scar on my head and someone goes 'what happened?', I said 'Oh, I got stabbed'."I will never forget. I was explaining 'I got stabbed here, there, there....' They had faces of horror - and that's when it ...

Apr272018 by adminNo Comments

This is what would happen if Social Security didn't exist, new report says

Finance

The Social Security program is under attack and needs to be modernized and strengthened, according to a new report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, which recommends policy to Congress. "Cuts to Social Security are not a credible solution to pay for the $ 1.9 trillion that Congressional Republicans have recently added to the deficit in passing their tax legislation," Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the committee's ranking Democrat, said in a statement to CNBC. "We must ensure that our seniors are able to retire with dignity." J.P. Freire, a spokesman for the Republicans on the Committee, said he would have a response for CNBC later. Some Democrats worry that the recent tax cuts will be used by Republicans to make the case that there's a need to reduce other social program...

Apr142018 by adminNo Comments

Facebook CEO didn't have all the answers for Congress

Technology

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg often came across as one of the smartest people in the room as he jousted with U.S. lawmakers demanding to know how and why his company peers into the lives of its 2.2 billion users. But while some questions were elementary, others left Zuckerberg unable to offer clear explanations or specific answers. A series of tough inquiries about how much personal information Facebook vacuums up on and off its social network seemed particularly vexing for Zuckerberg, who couldn't quantify it. He was vague about whether Facebook was a monopoly and whether it would offer an ad-free option, as well as about how the company could offer the same level of privacy protection to users around the world. Zuckerberg squirmed when pressed about a 2011 agreement with the Federal Trad...

Jan152018 by adminNo Comments

Australian Open: Vandeweghe gets code violation because she didn't have bananas

Sports

Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Women's tennis player Coco Vandeweghe received a code violation at the Australian Open because she refused to restart play, due to not having bananas.The No. 9 ranked player in the world lost her round of 128 match 7-6, 6-2 to Hungarian Timea Babos Sunday at Hisense Arena in Melbourne.After falling in the first set, Vandeweghe took a seat in her chair. She then had a conversation with chair umpire Fergus Murphy about why she wasn't ready to play."I'm waiting for the banana. How are they not on court? It's not my fault," she said, according to a video shot by the New York Times.The umpire then asked her to resume play."But why do I have to play under a different set of rules? But I don't have to make myself uncomfortable because it's ill prepared."Vandeweghe also called the...