This week, last year: 12th – 18th June

The public pays tribute to Jo Cox at a memorial held on 22nd June 2016 – what would have been her 42nd birthday – at Trafalgar Square in London. Photo: Garry Knight/Flickr

Our news highlights from 12 months past, for your weekly dose of Slow Journalism perspective…

Sun 12th June 2016
A mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub leaves 49 people dead and 53 wounded. The perpetrator, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, is killed by police after a three-hour standoff.

Read “We remember them” – our piece examining the world’s reaction to the Orlando shootings

“Life was miserable in the caliphate” — Abu Omar, a 25-year-old Isis defector from Syria, tells The Sunday Times that many militants are desperate to leave Isis territory due to the dismal quality of life and the ever-present threat of violence.

Mon 13th June 2016
Microsoft buys business social network LinkedIn for £18.5 billion in cash. It is the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s 41-year history.

A Dutch woman who reported that she was raped is deported from Qatar after being found guilty of adultery. The 22-year-old, who has spent three months in custody, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence by a Qatari court. Her alleged attacker got 140 lashes for extramarital sex but wasn’t charged with rape.

Tue 14th June 2016
French police stop a bus carrying up to 50 suspected Russian hooligans to Lille ahead of the second match between England and Russia in the Euro 2016 football tournament. Local authorities have blamed approximately 150 well-trained Russian hooligans for violence against English fans and police in Marseille, where the teams first met on 11th June.

Wed 15th June 2016
Florida police recover the body of a two-year-old child killed by an alligator at Disney World. Lane Graves was snatched and dragged into a lake at the Grand Floridian Resort near Orlando.

Turkish citizens are denied visa-free travel to European Union member states after the country fails to meet conditions on border security and human rights set out by the EU.

Thu 16th June 2016
British MP Jo Cox is killed in an attack in her West Yorkshire constituency. Thomas Mair, a 52-year-old man with a history of mental illness and association with far-right extremist groups, is arrested and charged with her murder.

Read our interview with Tim Dixon, Jo Cox’s friend and founder of the Jo Cox memorial fund

Fri 17th June 2016
A former Auschwitz guard is sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the murder of 170,000 people during the Holocaust. Retired dairy farmer Reinhold Hanning, 94, told the Detmold court that he was “very, very sorry” for doing nothing to stop the killings.

Sat 18th June 2016
“Pizza and cold beer” — British astronaut Tim Peake reveals his short-term future plans after returning to Earth after 186 days in space.

Posted on Monday, June 12th, 2017 - Categories: Extras, The week that was.