Hotness in the News by SociaLifeChicago is your daily intel for the morning’s hot news topics to get your day started. Make small talk, better.
“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
FRANCE
Friday evening, orchestrated terror attacks at six locations in and around Paris including Bataclan concert hall, France’s national stadium and at least two restaurants, rocked the country leaving over 100 dead and 350 injured.
The attacks comes only mere days following several ISIS targeted attacks including one that reportedly killed Jihadi John. As authorities investigate, France’s Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said that all seven attackers who participated in the attacks were dead though several people that may have been accomplices are being named as suspects of the attacks including Salah Abdeslam who apparently was stopped, questioned and released by officials right after the attack at the Framce-Belgium border. Abdelhamid Abaaoud has been named as one of the masterminds behind Friday’s massacre and his name was implicated in the foiled attack on the high-speed Thalys train between Brussels and Paris in August. Ahmad al-Mohammad blew himself up outside the stadium. Mohammed Abdelsalam though has been arrested.
Overnight France dropped 20 bombs on positions held by Islamic State and have launched multiple anti-terrorism raids. [CNN]
STARWOOD
Marriott International Inc will buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc for a reported $12.2 billion to create the world’s largest hotel chain. Starwood shareholders will receive 0.92 Marriott Class A shares and $2 in cash for each Starwood share. Some of the hotel brands under the Starwood umbrella includes: Sheraton, Aloft, W Hotels, St. Regis, Westin and Sheraton Four points. [BLOOMBERG]
SNIPPETS
The G20 summit held in Turkey took place during the Paris attacks and so talks amongst the world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron centered around stepping up intelligence sharing, cracking down on terrorist financing ad increase in border patrols..Secret service agents responded to reports of an active shooter in the Washington D.C. area of 19th and K streets due to a George Washington University alert around 3am…Washington college in Chesterton, Maryland is temporarily closing its campus due to gun threat precaution; parents of a sophomore notified the school that the student returned home and retrieved a firearm, but they have been unable to reach him… Walter McCrimmon a 44-year-old high school teacher was arrested Saturday night for operating an illegal adult strip club and promoting prostitution…Huawei unveiled two prototype removable lithium-ion batteries that can recharge in minutes, taking a dead battery to 48 percent change in about five minutes.
ENTERTAINMENT
Over the weekend the Baby2Baby fourth annual gala honored Kerry Washington…The seventh annual Governors Awards presented director Spike Lee with an honorary Oscar and during his acceptance speech he called out the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on its diversity issues though Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs five-year plan, called “A2020,” to broaden the demographics of the group’s membership, staff and governing board; Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds were also honorees.
FASHION
“One of the last luxury giant holdouts on the e-commerce front,” Dior is finally ready to at least give it a try through a holiday pop-up shoe shop with Bergdorf Goodman, going live today until through Dec. 31; They’ve enlisted social media fashion influencers to spread the word to their many followers through Instagram…Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele will be presented the International Designer Award at the upcoming 2015 British Fashion Awards…Vogue’s Grace Coddington tells us how she really feels about Instagram (she hates it) and whose idea it was for the infamous Kanye & Kim shoot.
LOOK OF THE DAY
Kerry Washington in Giambattista Valli @ Baby2Baby Gala
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