Portal talk:Current events/2008 June 3

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June 3

June 3, 2008 (Tuesday)

Antonio Pettigrew hands back the gold medal he won as part of the United States Olympic 400 metre relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney following an admission that he used EPO and human growth hormone between 1997 and 2003. Michael Johnson, another member of the team, returns his gold medal on the grounds that it was "tainted". (AP via Forbes) (AP via CNN)
China National Petroleum Corporation signs an agreement to produce oil in Niger. (BBC News)
General Motors announces it will close 4 pickup truck and sport utility vehicle factories in Janesville, Wisconsin, Oshawa, Ontario, Moraine, Ohio, and Toluca, Mexico, eliminating 10,000 jobs; it also announces plans for a small car that will achieve 45 miles per gallon in response to rising fuel prices. (AP via Google News)
NASA reveals that Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center sustained unusual amounts of damage during the launch of STS-124. They are unsure what caused the damage, but are certain it will not cause any delay for the next launch, STS-125, in October. (CBS News via Spaceflight Now)
United States Democratic Party primaries, 2008:
- Illinois Senator Barack Obama wins the Democratic Party presumptive nomination, becoming the first African American to be nominated by a major party. (AP via Time) (BBC News)
- Senator Obama wins the Montana Democratic primary, 2008.
- New York Senator Hillary Clinton wins the South Dakota Democratic primary, 2008. (BBC News)
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization opens the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, focusing on the world food price crisis, climate change and agriculture^{[disambiguation needed]} and food vs fuel issues.
Three people are dead and many more injured as a result of flooding in the Zollernalbkreis region in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. (CNN)

ITN Candidates

Note that the High-Level Conference on World Food Security (2008) is clearly of interest, but needs a few sentences of referenced updates. - Banyan Tree 00:47, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois (pictured) secures the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States, becoming the first African-American to lead a major party in the United States.

He will most likely secure the delegates needed late tonight, or tomorrow. Also, it needs to be decided if we mention that he is the first black man to get the nomination of a major political party in the US. -CWY2190(talk • contributions) 19:24, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think yes to the second question as it's arguably more noteable then the actual selection of a candidate so unless some strange happens like the media not widely mentioning it, which I doubt will happen then it should definitely be there. Nil Einne (talk) 19:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC) Edit: Indeed I think thus [1] just goes to show that they almost definitely will Nil Einne (talk) 19:42, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's mentioned in the second sentence of this AP article. I think it would be good form for us to follow suit, since it is an historically signficant event. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 19:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting it like you did with two different links bolded in the headline, right next to each other, is confusing. I recommend emphasizing only Democratic nomination —dgies^t_c 21:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I think it should be included in the blurb as well. I have tweaked the blurb above to match. -- Grant .Alpaugh 22:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The table at Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008 currently has him 10 delegates away, and there's currently an editing tiff on Barack Obama over wording. The suggested blurb doesn't seem supported by the articles. - Banyan Tree 23:12, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The final two primaries are tonight. He will have those 10 delegates in the next 3 hours. -CWY2190(talk • contributions) 23:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

CNN, the AP, and the BBC are all calling him the presumptive nominee now that the polls have closed in SD. Andrew Levine (talk) 01:35, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The relevant articles appear to have been updated since I last checked as well. - Banyan Tree 01:40, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Change the blurb. It is news when he becomes the nominee, which he no doubt is now. --Plasma Twa 2 02:13, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand. Obama is only a norminee of presidency election, but not yet the president-to-be. From the past experience I don't think this news is suitable. – PeterCX&Talk 04:49, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you should have objected in March when we put McCain up. There is no way you can put him up and not Obama, the first black to get the nomination of one of the two major parties. -CWY2190(talk • contributions) 04:56, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As I understand it, and my understanding is reinforced by the current phrasing of the article, he is now extremely likely to gain a majority of nominations. That is not the same as securing the nomination, which was the thresh-hold for posting the McCain item. No-one expects him not to be the nominee, but until that is formally confirmed, this is WP:CRYSTAL. It might be that the phrase "a predicted majority" has a technical meaning in US politics, in which case it should be linked. If not, I really do not see how this can be posted until either votes are counted and officially announced, or Clinton withdraws from the campaign. To do otherwise is akin to saying that Dimitri Medvedev has a predicted majority of the Russian Presidenmtial election in 2012, which he almost certainly does. Kevin McE (talk) 14:16, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How come you make it sound like the only reason Obama is notable is because he's African-American? --Plasma Twa 2 06:25, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think CWY's point is that it makes little since to put up McCain but not put up Obama when Obama's nomination is of far greater notability and international interest then McCain, which IMHO is true. Whether people like it or not, the fact that Barack Obama is African-American/black has attracted a lot of interest and is in many ways of greater interest then the selection of a Democractic/Republican candidate in itself Nil Einne (talk) 15:12, 4 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe pushes Zimbabwean dollar (pictured) exchange rate above one Billion to the US dollar.

- Globally significant "in the public eye" both economically and politically.

- Highest profile example of extreme hyperinflation for many years, followed closely by the media world-wide media recently.

- "Landmark" figure of one billion chosen in order to ensure ITN proposal not merely repeated at regular intervals, plus has resonance in terms of *"billionaires". Also, this particular hyperinflation has very much accelerated in the past few days (see Zimbabwe dollar page) and is newsworthy additionally in that specific context.

- Thanks for your time/consideration, David.Harami2000 (talk) 19:56, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Would be good if there were an article dealing specifically on Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Otherwise it's a bit light on content. —dgies^t_c 21:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mhmm... much appreciate the feedback. I was 50-50 on that from a "quality of content"/"well-rounded article" point-of-view, although the likes of the World_record_progression_100_metres_men currently ITN swung that for me in that that's even more sketchy/list-like than the Zimbabwean dollar article, yet was still deemed OK for the front-page slot.

I'm unsure whether an in-depth Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe article is an immediately feasible option, alas, given how much would have to be ripped out of the Zimbabwean dollar page and the latter rewritten. (There's also a Paper_money_of_the_Zimbabwean_dollar page, so I'd rather been taking the Zimbabwean dollar article to be a proxy "hyperinflation in Zimbabwe" article, in recent months).

Will give that a thought and/or see what anyone else might think by way of suggestion for this, given the tight timescale.

Cheers, David. Harami2000 (talk) 22:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

On a strictly procedural level, you need to add the blurb to Portal:Current events with a link to a supporting external article. Once that is done, you can suggest an item here simply by saying "Nom Zimbabwean dollar", or reword the item if you feel that a new wording is required for ITN.

I'm afraid I can't figure out what is the updated and cited article that supports the suggested blurb. Please embolden the link to that article. As for the comment about creating a new article, an update to Economy of Zimbabwe would appear to be logical and less strenuous, though I'll take any article that satisfies the minimum level for referenced, updated content. Note that there must normally be updated prose to qualify for ITN, not updated tables. - Banyan Tree 23:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gotcha! I'd missed that Portal:Current events gateway to ITN, sorry. Which probably gives me or anyone else a day's leeway to pick up a top-flight news story or two for referencing and rewrite and/or summarise on the best article (using Zimbabwean dollar still looks easier as a re-edit rather than a totally new article). Thank you for the procedural walk-through, BanyanTree.

David. Harami2000 (talk) 23:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]