World

Twilight of the Great Media Mogul?

1 | U.S.

The board of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. approved a plan on June 27 that would split the conglomerate’s publishing and entertainment divisions into two separate companies. Book publisher HarperCollins and Murdoch’s roughly 175 newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and the New York Post) will form one of the new companies, while the other will boast 20th Century Fox and hugely lucrative cable channels such as Fox News, FX and National Geographic. Although Murdoch–who says he intends to maintain control over both companies–has compared the move to the 2006 Viacom-CBS split, the News Corp. reconfiguration will look more lopsided: the publishing group accounts for only about 10% of current profits. The rationale for the split, News Corp. says, is that bifurcating the holdings will simplify management and increase shareholder value, which dipped following the embarrassing phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. that implicated a number of News Corp. publications. Still, some analysts have pointed to this plan as an acknowledgment that Murdoch’s newspapers, which are dear to the octogenarian, are struggling to keep up with the profitable entertainment arm and are therefore better off separated.

Newspapers once formed the bedrock of Murdoch’s empire

A Very New Government

2 | EGYPT

Now that Mohamed Morsy is Egypt’s first democratically elected President, he can begin to carry out the traditions of his office, including naming a Cabinet. Despite his critics’ concerns about an Islamist government, Morsy has vowed to appoint a diverse selection of people, including a woman, a Christian and members of the opposition. Governing with support from a broad coalition will help him in the contest for Egypt’s future against the reigning generals from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Morsy’s Circle

Mohamed ElBaradei has been mentioned for Prime Minister

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi will remain Defense Minister

Abul Ela Madi, an Islamist, could be one of three VPs

Naglaa Ali Mahmoud has vowed to be a humble First Lady

One-Child Woes

3 | CHINA

In a case that sparked controversy over China’s one-child policy, a woman forced to have a late-term abortion continues to face an ordeal, as does her family. Feng Jianmei–whose pregnancy was terminated at seven months because she had violated the one-child law–said she was being kept in a hospital against her will. Meanwhile, her husband went into hiding after he and relatives were harassed by local authorities and residents of the northwestern province of Shaanxi. State-run media reported that a county-level family-planning official had been sacked and others punished following an investigation that found they used “crude means” to persuade Feng to have the abortion. The one-child policy, adopted in 1979, aims to control China’s population of 1.3 billion.

Easy Being Green

4 | DENMARK

E.U. countries are leading the charge in wind energy, and those turbines may signal hope on the horizon. With oil prices rising, economies faltering and that pesky ozone hole getting bigger, turbines provide clean energy, thousands of jobs and a fancy new skyline.

[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]

World’s biggest wind-power producers (in megawatts per million people)

SPAIN 469

DENMARK 693

PORTUGAL 387

IRELAND 356

SWEDEN 313

GERMANY 355

SOURCE: GLOBAL WIND ENERGY COUNCIL

A Royal Handshake

5 | NORTHERN IRELAND

Queen Elizabeth II waves to a crowd in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, while on a tour marking her Diamond Jubilee. In a moment steeped with symbolism, she shook hands in Belfast with Martin McGuinness, a Northern Irish politician and former commander of the Irish Republican Army, the militant group that waged a long, violent campaign against British rule.

Bad Old Days

6 | IRAQ

Just six months after the last U.S. troops withdrew, the ugly specter of sectarian violence loomed once more over Iraq. A spate of bomb attacks across the country, including a series of blasts in Baghdad on June 28, targeted markets and holy sites frequented by Iraqi Shi’ites. Almost 200 people were killed in June alone. A power-sharing dispute between Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni parties and the largely Shi’ite coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has exacerbated tensions.

$1 MILLION

ISRAEL

Prize money for the new annual Genesis award, intended to be the “Jewish Nobel.” The money will be awarded for excellence in virtually any field to people who attribute their achievement to Jewish values.

U.K.

‘Life is a race. And I’m gonna win.’

MUSE, in lyrics from “Survival,” the official song of the 2012 London Olympic Games. In addition to being the primary theme for all international TV spots, the British band’s song will be played when athletes enter the Olympic stadium and during lead-ups to the medal ceremonies.