The Week in Pictures: June 30 – July 6, 2015

Since last week bubbled over with big news stories we take the time to look back over some of the most important of the last sevens days

In China the Beijing government took steps last week to stabilize both of its plummeting share markets which have lost nearly 30% of their value in three weeks. With an imposed ban on IPOs and major brokers and fund managers pledging to put at least 19 billion dollars of their own money into the markets, which have lost $3 trillion in value since just last month, Beijing hopes to halt the slide by use of a stabilization fund, but it remains to be seen if this will have the desired effect.

Greek voters sent a clear message to its Eurozone creditors last week as it wholly rejected their austerity package deal in a referendum called by the Syriza led government of Alexis Tsipras. Voting 61.3% against the ballot rejected further austerity measures and whilst it strengthens the position of the Greek government it places the Eurozone’s elites in a tricky position. Tsipras said there would be “no easy solutions” but since the vote the onus is upon Europe to find them or face losing Greece.

Popular web-landmark Reddit went into meltdown last week after a respected member of staff was sacked and the unpaid volunteer moderators who facilitate much of the site’s functions turned against their admins. Victoria Taylor’s leaving the company was the last straw for many who saw her as the guarantee of authenticity behind the “Ask me anything” sections of the site, and the protest spiraled from there to close down 300 subreddits. Reddit’s Ellen Pao has apologized for “letting down” users.

In sport Lewis Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the Formula One drivers championship with victory in the British Grand Prix on Sunday. Coming home ahead of teammate and rival Nico Rosberg Hamilton is now 17 points ahead with both Mercedes head and shoulders above the rest, but will Lewis take his third title in a row? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out but in the meantime lets look back at the big stories we covered over the last seven days.

1. Despite the financial crisis Greek gambling sector makes noticeable rebound in comparison to the past years.

2. PokerStars has announces the release of the brand new poker tournament, which offers incredible cash prizes to the best poker players.

3. PayPal consider buying Xoom in order to increase their revenue.

4. Lucky Australian casino player wins huge amoung of money at Royal Panda Casino’s Jack and the Beanstalk slot.

5. Cherry Casino launches many great games and is expected to continue launching the newest and best available online casino games.

6. Incredibly entertaining and rewarding games attract online casino players to Svea Casino.

7. Boyd Gaming pours USD 45m on the expansion of Delta Downs Racetrack Casino Hotel in Louisiana.

Meanwhile world renowned evolutionary biologist Simon Conway Morris last week claimed that any extraterrestrials we might encounter were likely to look a lot like us in the first place due to the principles of convergence that state evolution is a predictable pattern of development with rigid rules. This means that in his latest round of predictions he’s been able to assert that not only would aliens look much like us, but that planets that sustained them would look very similar to earth too in some respects.