North Korea brags about the H-bomb. The Saudis worry about the “economic bomb. And a cricketer crassly calls a reporter da bomb. It’s Wednesday, and here are the five things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TEST
You dropped a bomb on me: That was no earthquake in North Korea. That was Pyongyang carrying out yet another nuclear test – claiming it was the mighty hydrogen bomb this time. If Kim Jong Un really pulled it off, it’s a game changer. It’ll be a first for NK and a huge jump in their military capabilities. And it’s a very real threat to world security. We won’t know for sure for a few days if Kim’s bluffing. But if it was attention he was seeking, he sure got it.
HYDROGEN BOMB
‘H’ is for WHOA!: North Korea’s nuclear test was a surprise in itself, but the fact that it was a hydrogen bomb was the real shocker. Remember the atomic bombs that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Well, H-bombs are hundreds of times more powerful. Only a few countries have it, and none are as secretive and unpredictable as this Communist regime. We’re sure you have a ton of questions, so here are answers to the 7 key ones.
GUN CONTROL
Weeping in the White House: “No Drama Obama.” “Too cool for school.” Not exactly terms of endearment for the President, who’s sometimes criticized for not showing enough emotion. Well, he was in full heart-on-his-sleeve mode yesterday as he announced his new executive actions to curb gun violence. Obama started talking about the young victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School when he had to pause to wipe away tears. One guess who wasn’t impressed.
CAMPAIGN 2016
Cruzin’ for a bruisin’: He’s not asking for a copy of a birth certificate this time (like he did with President Obama), but Donald Trump is raising presidential eligibility questions again. This time, it’s about rival Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mom. That’s enough to satisfy the “natural-born citizen” clause in the Constitution. But apparently not enough for the Donald. Cruz responded by tweeting out a clip of Fonzie jumping the shark. Then he probably looked around for a mic he could drop.
SAN BERNARDINO TERROR ATTACK
Fill in the blanks: Authorities have a pretty good idea what Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik did on December 2 — the day they killed 14 people at a holiday party in San Bernardino. But they can’t for the life of them account for an 18-minute gap after the shooting. So, they’re crowd sourcing for answers. This is important: The feds want to know if the pair contacted anyone during that time.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
Quote of the day: “Don’t blush, baby”
West Indian cricket player Chris Gayle to a female Australian sports reporter on live TV (this is, after he asked her out for a drink). That’ll be $10,000, please.
Character study
Twitter’s looking into raising its character limit to 10,000, So you’ll have even more room to rail about your slacktivist causes.
Petrol pain
Boom! goes the economy – and not in a good way. Falling gas prices has meant the good times are a-fading in Saudi Arabia which has had to hike up prices of gas, water and electricity. It’s Newton’s Third Law, people.
It figures
The so-called science behind Lumosity’s brain games is crap, so says the FTC, which slapped the company with a $2 million fine.
AND FINALLY …
Imma let you finish but …
Kanye’s acappella version of “Gold Digger” during a recent “audition.” surprised the “American Idol” judges. We’re surprised the show’s still on the air.