This Week in Pictures: April 18 – 24, 2017

The news headlines were a veritable parade of important news stories last week so in case you missed anything here’s a look back at the highlights.

In the UK Prime Minister Teresa May surprised just about everyone when she announced, outside No10 Downing Street, a general election last week. This would make the fourth significant nation wide vote in as many years and, despite her Conservative party being as much as 19 points ahead of the somewhat adrift Labour Party opposition lead by the inept Jeremy Corbyn, this tactical choice to call a snap election for June 8th was still seen as a large political gamble in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

In France the nation went to the polls in the first round of their Presidential Election amid tight security following a terrorist attack on the Champs-Elysees in Paris which killed one policeman and injuring two more. The two main political parties both failed to see their candidates progress with the political newcomer Emmanuel Macron and his party “En Marche!” going through to the 2nd round alongside the far-right Marine Le Pen. Macron got 24% to Le Pen’s 21% in the first round, the second is on May 7th.

In North Korea, with pressure building from its neighbors to the north in China the hardline regime in Pyongyang threatened nuclear strikes on New Zealand and Australia, declared it was ready to sink a US Carrier and said it would lay waste to South Korea should US aggression continue. Donald Trump, now 100 days in the White House, has sent naval units to the region for joint exercises with Japan and South Korea with Mike Pence, US Vice President, visiting the Korean DMZ and regional US allies last week.

In sports Romanian tennis team captain Ilie Nastase was suspended by the International Tennis Federation following his behavior in Constanta that left Johanna Konta crying. Nastase also verbally abused journalists for reporting his racist comments about Serena Williams pregnancy. Will the ITF turn the suspension into a proper ban? Will Romania ditch this racist old creep? You can find out on our daily news pages as and when it happens, but for now here’s a look at the stories we covered last week.

1. We broke down the number one most overrated football manger active today.

2. GamingZion broke down how anyone can bet on tennis online in the US, and which is the best site to do so.

3. Former NFL player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez committed suicide while in prison.

4. We took a look at how to bet on MMA inside Sweden, and broke down some major fights coming up.

5. The betting odds for the second round of the French election are discussed.

6. With Serena Williams out, we broke down the betting favorites to win the WTA French Open.

7. GamingZion took a look at the most popular forms of gambling in Ancient Roman times.

Meanwhile in Australia a 12 year old boy was stopped by police at the wheel of a vehicle he was attempting to drive the 4,000km between Port Macquarie on the east coast and Perth on the west coast. Perhaps a little embarrassing for authorities when his progress was brought to an end by police in Broken Hill the young chap had already covered some 1,300km of his planned journey and inquiries were ongoing as to how he’d both obtained a vehicle and refueled it during that portion of the trip.