This Week in Pictures: January 10 – January 16, 2017

With so many big news stories breaking around the world last week we take a moment to look back and review some of the most important.

In the United States the Golden Globes were the big draw for the Hollywood glitterati last week and among the numerous worthy winners, including the hit musical La La Land with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, it was perhaps the speech from Meryl Streep that stood out as she lambasted the President Elect, Donald Trump, for his behavior during the campaign for the White House. Mr Trump’s inauguration is scheduled to go ahead regardless of Mz Streep’s feelings on the 20th of January 2017.

In the United States President Elect Donald Trump was besieged at his first press conference in 5 months following unsubstantiated reports that Russian intelligence services had compromising evidence against him. Calling CNN, who along with Buzzfeed had publicized the story most, “Fake News” the President Elect derided the reports of the report many think may just be a distraction from his choice of cabinet members who have faced congressional scrutiny this week, much of it unreported.

In the Switzerland ahead of the Davos conference of political and business leaders the charity Oxfam released figures on the weekend that showed the top 8 richest men in the world own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the planet. This is a correction from the figure of 72 richest last year following a reassessment of the poverty in China and India. Worth a collective $426 billion the eight include Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison. The Davos conference lasts until Jan. 20th.

In sports the English Premier League saw a clash of titans last week as the power house that is Manchester United under Jose Mourinho came up against the precision of Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp. In the end the result was 1-1 draw but the game left both teams asking questions of themselves so the question is who’ll sort themselves out in time for the next match up? 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 last week.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo Wins Player of the Year 2016 Award, Barca Protest as a Whole. Ouch!

2.
Online gambling in Massachusetts to get legalized in 2017? What will be the first site to get licensed?

3. After more than 25 years, justice will be done for all 96 people dead in the Hillsborough tragedy.

4. One of the most perfect couples out there procreates. How would they name the baby? Btw, you can totally bet on it.

5. Stars get the awards and the fans get the money! Fancy Chance the Rapper or The Chainsmokers? You can bet on either to win a Grammy. For real!

6. The bookies have released Cheltenham Gold Cup betting odds already so lets take a look at the early wagers available on this race.

7. Real friends turn into family, fake friends turn into enemies. I guess it’s pretty clear what kind of friendship Chris Brown and Soulja had…

Meanwhile in a creepy coincidence, or part of a massive conspiracy (depending on your point of view) viewers of the network C-Span who were watching the debates on the floor of the House of Representatives were surprised to find the broadcast suddenly change to that of the Russian news network RT. The unscheduled change only lasted for ten minutes and hacking, the buzzword of 2017 already, has been strenuously denied with a “routing issue” being blamed for the replacement.