The next big energy story

February 03, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The plunging price of oil is today's news. The plunging price of solar energy is even more newsworthy.

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defended his policy toward terrorism, as the flag at his official residence flew at half-staff Monday in a mark of mourning for two hostages killed by the Islamic State group. During a long day of parliamentary debate, Abe parried numerous questions about his handling of the hostage crisis, which came to a grisly end with news early Sunday that journalist Kenji Goto had been beheaded by the extremists.

An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced 183 people to death over the ransacking of a police station and the killing of 15 policemen after the 2013 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. The verdict was the latest in a string of mass death sentences that have sparked local and international condemnation. The charges are related to the bloody August 2013 attack of a police station in the village of Kerdassah, near Cairo.

South Korean prosecutors on Monday recommended three years in jail for the former Korean Air executive charged with endangering flight safety during a tantrum over how she was served macadamia nuts. Heather Cho, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, has pleaded not guilty to four charges. In the final day of testimony, she defended her actions as the result of devotion to work and said cabin crew in first class had erred by not following proper procedures.

The handlers of Pennsylvania's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, said Monday the furry rodent has forecast six more weeks of winter. Members of the top hat-wearing Inner Circle announced the "prediction" Monday morning. A German legend has it that if a furry rodent sees his shadow on Feb. 2, winter will last another six weeks. If not, spring comes early.

Scientists who made headlines last March by announcing that they'd found long-sought evidence about the early universe are now abandoning that claim. The original announcement caused a sensation because it appeared to show evidence that the universe ballooned rapidly a split-second after its birth, in what scientist call cosmic inflation. That idea had been widely believed, but researchers had hoped to bolster it by finding a particular trait in light left over from the very early universe. That signal is what the researchers claimed they had found in observations of the sky taken from the South Pole, in a project called BICEP2. But now, in a new paper submitted for publication, "we are effectively retracting the claim," said Brian Keating of the University of California, San Diego, a member of the BICEP2 team.

US consumer spending slipped in December, as the pace of motor vehicle sales slowed and more Americans saved their money. The Commerce Department said Monday that consumer spending fell 0.3 percent in December, compared to a 0.5 percent increase in November. Cheaper gasoline and fewer auto sales accounted for most of the decline. Energy prices tumbled 5.2 percent in December for the sixth straight monthly decline. The falling oil and gas costs caused consumer spending – before adjusting for price changes – to record the largest monthly decrease since September 2009.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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