This Week in Pictures: February 07 – February 13, 2017

The world was awash with big news stories last week and you may have missed some so lets take a moment to look back at some of the most important headlines from around the world.

In the United States the beleaguered Donald Trump presidency hosted an official visit from the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe last week. Amid fears for Trump’s inexperience of diplomacy the trip went well with the pair spending time together playing golf at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida which has already been termed “Winter White House” by wags in the media. The pair also discussed new foreign policy stances of the US especially as they pertained to North Korea.

In North Korea leader Kim Jong-un “expressed great satisfaction” after a successful ballistic missile test was carried out last week, timed to coincide with the US visit of Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan a keen regional rival of the closed off dictatorship. Launched from Panghyon the missile flew east across the country and out into the Sea of Japan where it splashed down having reached a range of some 500km and attained an altitude of some 550km. The missile test was then widely condemned.

In Germany the parliament voted by a large margin to elect the Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier following Joachim Gauck stepping down from the post. The 61 year old has served under Chancellor Angela Merkel as both Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister and said, after his election with 931 of 1,253 votes, “This country for many in the world has become an anchor of hope. We give others courage, not because everything is good, but because we have shown that it can be better.”

In sports the United States Tennis Association was forced to make an embarrassed apology following a Fed Cup tournament in Hawaii at which the wrong National Anthem was played before the match between Andrea Petkovic and Alison Riske. It was still the German anthem, but the German anthem from the 1930s containing very unsavory lyrics and ghastly connotations. Ms Petkovic called it “an absolute outrage and affront”. Will it happen again? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s a look at some of the big stories we covered over the last seven days.

1. We analyzed the French gambling market and the monopoly of the French Lottery.

2. Youtube Stars Craig Dougles and Dylan Rigby got fined by the UK Gambling Committee for supporting illegal gambling activities.

3. After going through the European groups, GamingZion also took a look at the chances of the South American World Cup Qualifications.

4. We look at the 21 st century team scamming US casinos using iphones and the internet and hope they’ll be around to save us from the rise of the robots.

5. Jim Wheeler introduced a bill that proposes to lower the minimum legal age for gambling in Las Vegas to 18.

6. Vladimir Putin was about to be re-elected in 2018, and he was number one favourite even though he had rivals…

7. Rafa Nadal said he would be happy to replace Florentino Pérez as the President of Real Madrid.

Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic the El Nacional newspaper was left red-faced after a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu was accompanied by a picture pertaining to be of US president Donald Trump but was actually of Alec Baldwin in his hugely popular guise as Donald Trump from the hit US television comedy show Saturday Night Live. In a statement the newspaper apologized “to its readers and anyone who felt affected by the publication” – by which they mean the massively thin skinned Trump.
Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic the El Nacional newspaper was left red-faced after a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu was accompanied by a picture pertaining to be of US president Donald Trump but was actually of Alec Baldwin in his hugely popular guise as Donald Trump from the hit US television comedy show Saturday Night Live. In a statement the newspaper apologized “to its readers and anyone who felt affected by the publication” – by which they mean the massively thin skinned Trump.