USA – A urine-based test for Zika infection has shown to be more effective than the common blood-based one for many patients, a development that could make testing for the virus easier. The test could potentially aid efforts to control Zika, which is mainly carried by mosquitoes, as it is expected to spread further into North America in the coming months. ‘The timing is excellent,’ said Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new testing guidance Tuesday, saying the virus particles can be detected at higher levels and for a longer period of time in urine than in blood. The new guidance will make it easier to test more people for the virus. Until this week, CDC officials have said the best way to detect Zika virus is to test their blood. (dailymail.co.uk)…[+]

USA   –  It is not only the Republican establishment confronting the once-unthinkable reality that Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. World leaders who previously dismissed and ridiculed the former reality TV star also are adjusting to a new normal.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who at one point called Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim foreigners entering the United States “divisive, stupid and wrong,” said Thursday at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Trump “deserves our respect” for making it through the primaries. Abe, whose country was aghast at Trump’s idea of Tokyo acquiring nuclear weapons, was unable to suppress a smirk at his host’s comments. The British leader did not offer an actual mea culpa for his earlier statements, despite a Trump adviser having called on Cameron to apologize for his initial outburst. Indeed, Cameron went on to say that his view about Trump’s comments remains. .(CNN.COM)…[+]

SAUDI ARABIA   –  Ali al-Naimi was the most powerful man in the oil business for two decades until this weekend. As the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, in control of the largest proven crude reserves in the world, al-Naimi was the de-facto leader of OPEC.

At one point he held three key positions at the same time: Minister of petroleum, chairman of Saudi Aramco and chairman of Saudi’s Supreme Petroleum Council. In a word, he called the shots, and he let other OPEC ministers know just that. The past year and a half had been particularly important, as oil prices crashed and oil-dependent countries looked to Saudi Arabia to lead the effort to support prices.  Al-Naimi pivoted the other way. No longer would Saudi Arabia cut its oil production to lift prices, he told CNNMoney outside a meeting of oil producers in December 2014. His strategy instead was to protect Saudi Arabia’s market share, even if the falling prices bruised its economy as well. .(CNN.COM)…[+]

GREECE   –  Buffeted once again by protests on the streets outside, Greece’s parliament has voted by a razor thin margin to cut pensions and increase taxes ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels yesterday.

At the meeting, Eurozone finance ministers will again debate whether to provide financial support to the beleaguered country. Late Sunday evening, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ coalition passed pension and tax reforms, which cover the majority of a €5.4 billion ($6.15B) package of austerity measures requested by creditors. A slim majority of lawmakers, 153 of 296, voted in favor of the bill. The vote session was an effort to convince Eurozone finance ministers that Greece is serious about financial reform a necessary condition for a further rescue package and, crucially Greek debt relief from the Eurozone. (CNN.COM)…[+]

USA – Three structures donated to homeless residents and once set to be dismantled or destroyed by the city of Los Angeles were returned to the man who built them Friday.

The tiny homes, which were impounded for obstructing city streets in February, were returned to Elvis Summers on the condition they be kept on private property, Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation spokesperson Elena Stern confirmed to Mashable.

“If they are put out on LA City public sidewalks or streets they will be tagged and removed again,” Stern said. Summers, who used to be homeless himself, built the tiny houses to provide free shelter for those in need.  “They paid their ticket,” Summers said, of homeless veterans kicked out of their tiny houses. “They shouldn’t be homeless.” (latimes)…[+]

SPAIN – Tourism chiefs in the Balearic Islands could ban cars from the smaller islands during the summer months as the region braces for a record number of visitors.

The islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, which have a population of 1.1 million, are expecting 13.5 million visitors this year. Officials in Ibiza and Formentera say they may have to stop tourists arriving in cars to avoid gridlock, following the example of the Italian resort island of Capri. In peak season there are as many as 20,000 cars on Formentera, which is 19km long.

Last year 65 million people visited Spain, 20 million more than the number of inhabitants. Numbers are already up on 2015 as terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Egypt have driven tourists back to European destinations. Traffic jams are not the only problem.(theguardian)…[+]

BRAZIL – Scientists struggling to unravel the mysteries of a Zika epidemic in Brazil hope they can learn from cases of women giving birth to twins in which only one child is afflicted by the microcephaly birth defect associated with the virus. Jaqueline Jessica Silva de Oliveira hoped doctors were wrong when a routine ultrasound showed that one of her unborn twins would be born with the condition, marked by stunted head size and developmental issues.

“When I found out one of them had microcephaly, the ground fell out from beneath me,” the 25-year-old said as she sat on the sofa of her home in the city of Santos. “You always hope that they will be born well, thinking that it could be a mistake by the doctor or in the ultrasound.” Her son Lucas, who she holds in her arms, was born healthy in November. His twin sister Laura, whose head is visibly much smaller, requires regular treatment by a team of neurologists and physiotherapists in nearby Sao Paulo. (Reuters)…[+]

Though Apple’s plan to develop and release an electric car has reportedly hit a few speed bumps over the past few months, the company seemingly has no intention of slowing down its car-oriented R&D anytime soon. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple is currently eyeing an 800,000-square-foot property in Silicon Valley as a testing ground for autonomous driving technologies it’s working on.(nypost.com)…[+]

Yahoo’s media unit laid off dozens of employees this spring — but some still aren’t getting the memo about controlling costs.

Financial chief Ken Goldman recently told his team to look for “red flags” on lavish spending, and insiders say that a few suspects were caught red-handed. An executive assistant to Yahoo News Editor-in-Chief Megan Liberman “was recently fired for approving her own unusual personal expenses,” according to one insider.

Liberman, known for running a tight ship, was so incensed at her underling that she “refused to attend the meeting in which [the assistant] was terminated,” the source said. Elsewhere, Yahoo Style Editor-in-Chief Joe Zee’s fiancé, Rob Younkers, has raised eyebrows by frequently joining Zee on Yahoo’s corporate jet to attend far-flung photo shoots. One insider contends that Younkers is flying on the Yahoo dime “for no business reason other than to keep Joe Zee company.”(nypost.com)…[+]

In Internet parlance, a troll is a malevolent mischief-maker, a commenter who says something politically incorrect, then sits back and enjoys the resulting furor — sometimes even fanning the flames under multiple contradictory identities.

In politics, the master troll is Donald Trump.

During the recent GOP nominating process, he gave the media the vapors by criticizing John McCain’s war record, and promising to ban all Muslims from the US and build a giant fence across the Mexican border. Each time, bien-pensant society (largely consisting of leftist politicians and fellow-traveling journalists) assured their increasingly nervous followers that this time the troll had gone too far, that Trump was finished.(nypost.com)…[+]