Northern Iraq. French Rafale fighter-bombers carry out their first bombing raids on IS targets.

Northern Iraq. The Iraqi army and Shiite militias, supported by American bombings, lift the siege of the city of Amerli and liberate the Turkmen population threatened by Sunni jihadists.

Two satellites from Europe’s Galileo constellation were mistakenly launched into highly elliptical orbits. The problem, acknowledged by Arianespace and for which it apologized to the EU, appears to have occurred after the FREGAT-MT upper stage separated from the Soyuz R-7 rocket.

According to NATO, the first Russian armored vehicles and soldiers without insignia have crossed the Ukrainian border.

Cambodia. Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, and Khieu Samphan, president of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia’s former name under the Khmer Rouge), were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Port of Gioia Tauro. A good use of chemistry (one of many): to dissolve chemical weapons (residues that, in this case, are then incinerated in Great Britain and Germany). The storage of 280 containers full of Syrian chemical weapons begins aboard the US naval vessel Cape Ray. The ship will eliminate approximately 700 tons of chemical weapons in 90 days, transported by four Norwegian and Danish naval vessels from Syria to Italy. The Cape Ray then moves out to sea and deactivates them through a hydrolysis process (dissolving them in water, adding reagents such as sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite), transforming them into 6 million liters of liquid. The vessel has a titanium thermal propulsion system with an 8,320-liter capacity and the potential to dispose of 25 tons of aggressive chemicals per day. The decomposition products after hydrolysis, which are far less toxic, will be transferred to Germany and Great Britain for incineration.

In his speech proclaiming the caliphate, al-Baghdadi indicated the objective of conquering Rome.

The kidnapping and killing of three young Israelis provoked a violent Israeli military reaction, with bombings of Hamas targets and the subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip, which in turn caused hundreds of Palestinian casualties, and rocket fire into Israel by Hamas, some of which was intercepted by the anti-missile shield.

European Elections. In almost all of Europe, anti-European and populist parties are winning successes and sometimes even majorities (as in France and the United Kingdom). The exception is Italy, where Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party wins 40.7%, and Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement stops at half that number.

While Putin flies to Sochi for the Olympics closing ceremony, the Defense Minister begins mobilizing the army in an anti-Ukrainian guise. Paratroopers from the elite 76th Pskov Division are sent to support the special forces already stationed in Sevastopol, Crimea, and 150,000 soldiers are transferred to western Russia for an impromptu exercise on the border with Ukraine. Three days later, the military will take control of government offices in Sevastopol.

Ukraine. Parliament removes President Yanukovych, who is then stopped at the airport while attempting to flee to Russia. His sumptuous residence (featuring a personal zoo, a collection of vintage cars, a lake with a galleon, and personalized gold bars) is overrun by crowds of onlookers. Parliament also calls for early elections on May 25th. Yulia Tymoshenko is freed, arriving in Kiev’s Independence Square in a wheelchair and praising the heroes of the revolution.

The European spacecraft Rosetta awakens from a slumber lasting several years. Everything is going according to plan, and the probe can continue its journey toward comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe awakens from a 31-month deep sleep. Immediately afterward, the spacecraft’s star trackers, instruments needed to reconstruct the probe’s position in space and its attitude, begin to warm up for about six hours. Rosetta will send a signal to Earth to announce its awakening. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko awaits, and it will reach it on August 6, 2014. The mission is led by Andrea Accomazzo, a friend of our association Il COSMo, for which he came to give a lecture at the Marconi Foundation for the 50th anniversary of Apollo XVII.

Fifteen percent of the world’s population over 15 years of age is illiterate. The figure was 44% in 1980.

Central African Republic. France, supported by a UN resolution, begins deploying 1,200 troops, adding to the 6,000 permanent troops in the country, to counter the increase in violence in recent months, following the civil war between Islamic and Christian militias. The Muslim Seleka gangs kill men, women, and children. Their opponents, the Christian self-defense groups, the “anti-balakas” (anti-machete) militias, generally kill only men, even those as young as 5 or 6 years old. The Seleka are Chadians, Darfuri Landsknechts, and Central Africans and are initially supported by President Michael Djotodia, who in reality controls only the northern part of the country (the Muslim prefectures of Vaga and Bamingui, with only 4% of the population, almost all of whom are illiterate), the diamond mines, and the oil fields.

Vodaphone is selling its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless in the United States to Verizon Communications for $130 billion.

United States. Oil production in the United States reaches and exceeds 7.57 million barrels per day, thus surpassing the previous peak dating back to December 1989. All of this is made possible thanks to shale gas technologies.

India. A submarine accident in port kills all 18 sailors on board. India had just launched its first aircraft carrier (a decommissioned former Russian aircraft carrier) and its first nuclear-powered submarine built with Indian technology.

Egypt. The army opened fire on pro-Morsi (Muslim Brotherhood) protesters in a Cairo square. Approximately six hundred people died.

Luca Parmitano’s “Volare” mission lasted five months aboard the ISS space station.

Gorham Cave, Gibraltar. Archaeologist Clyve Finlayson, an expert on Neanderthal sites, finds an incredible double mark (a sort of X with other marks that make it look like a hashtag #) in the rock at one of these sites. He calls another expert, Francesco d’Errico, from the University of Bordeaux. He finds him on vacation in his native Liguria. Francesco tells him that it’s impossible for him to travel because he’s on vacation. A week later, he’s there, staring at the hashtag. They conduct a detailed physical and chemical analysis, concluding that the graffiti dates back 40,000 years, indicating cognitive abilities comparable to those of humans and superior to what was believed for Neanderthals.

Pakistan. An American drone strike kills the Taliban’s second-in-command, Wali ur Rehman, along with five other extremists, in the Miranshah area of North Waziristan. Rehman had organized the suicide attack on the CIA’s Chapman base in Khost on December 30, 2009. Seven American agents were killed, including the station’s director, Jennifer Matthews. The attack was carried out by a Jordanian double agent trusted by the Americans (Matthews even had a cake baked in his honor).

London. Ingrid Loyau-Kenneth, 48, a mother of two, steps off the bus and sees the two Muslim youths who hung, maced, and beheaded the British soldier. She speaks with one of them for several minutes, as evidenced by a video taken by other passersby (who kept their distance) and by herself. The youth, among other things, says he wants to start a war in London against the murderers of Muslims. She replies: “There are only a few of you against all of us. You will lose.” She then turns to the other youth, trying to convince him to hand over the machete. The two youths are arrested shortly thereafter by police in a firefight.