This Week in Pictures: June 28 – July 04, 2016

There was no shortage of big news stories breaking around the world last week so we take a moment to look back on some of the most important.

In the UK the reverberations from the Brexit vote continued with the front runner to replace David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and become the next Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, apparently stabbed in the back by his colleague and friend Michael Gove who announced he’d be standing in competition. With the Labour Party leadership under siege from angry MPs there was a significant and growing vacuum in the higher echelons of British parliamentary politics last week.

In Iraq a massive bomb exploded in the capital, Baghdad, last week killing 125 people and wounding approximately 150. A truck full of explosives detonated around Midnight on Saturday in the busy Karrada district at a time many were shopping for the Eid celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the scene but was greeted with a less than enthusiastic reception by local residents. His office announced three days of official mourning. ISIS claimed responsibility.

In the USA Hollywood was saddened to learn of the death last week of celebrated director Michael Cimino who was famous both for his haunting portrayal of Vietnam and its effects on the men that fought there, and those that didn’t, in “The Deer Hunter”, which won five Oscars. He was also well known for the industry-infamous “Heaven’s Gate” a western widely derided at the time as a flop but more recently has been seen by some as a masterpiece. He died in Los Angeles at the age of 77.

In sports the sedate atmosphere of Wimbledon was rocked last week when World Number One Novak Djokovic got beaten (8-6) 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7-5) by American Sam Querrey, and then announced he’d not be playing in the Davis Cup for Serbia against Great Britain in their upcoming matches. Has the reign of Djokovic come to an end or will the big man in Tennis bounce back from this defeat? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s the big stories we covered last week.

1. GamingZion wrote a betting review for the upcoming Hot Dog Eating Contest at Independence Day.

2. GamingZion revealed the basic facts and figures behind the diving competition at Rio 2016 Olympics.

3. Paddy Power offered the possibility for online bettor to wager on the size of Donald Trump’s manhood…

4. Michael Phelps claimed that he considers the Rio 2016 Olympics to be something of a more personal importance for him.

5. Pennsylvania is now closer to being a US state where online gaming is legal, thanks to a Pennsylvania online gambling bill passed by the House Gaming Oversight Committee.

6. GamingZion listed the history and rules for some strange sports in the Olympics.

7. The Mercedes civil war may soon effect the outcome of your bet on Formula One but the team seem unable to prevent their stars getting silly.

Meanwhile the a Christian dating site in the US has been told by a court to cease blocking the attempts of LGBT people to find partners using their service. The lawsuit filed in California ruled that Spark Networks Inc must allow same-sex couples the same facility it does any other couple. The site will be required to ask the gender of the user and the gender of those the user is seeking in future. This is not the first case to be brought against dating sites for discrimination, just the latest to be won against them.