The Short List: Spacecraft lands on comet; WTC window washers rescued; climate deal
Here's hoping the spacecraft can hang on to that comet
It's still a win. It's just that the spacecraft didn't quite dig its claws into the comet the way engineers had hoped it would. For the very first time, a tiny spacecraft, Philae, touched down on a streaking comet. When Philae landed, the control room in Germany erupted in jubilation. But soon after, engineers learned harpoons meant to anchor Philae to the comet didn't fire. A good number of the 10 scientific instruments on the spacecraft should still gather data, but the situation is grimmer for Philae's drill and the probes on the harpoons unless they can be coaxed to function properly. Check @Philae2014 on Twitter for status updates and photos.
Cryptic chats burned big banks on foreign exchange
If you're going to hatch a global currency manipulation scheme, it's probably best not to do it over IM. Several big banks, including JPMorgan and Citibank, agreed today to pay $4.3 billion to settle civil allegations from regulators in the U.S., Great Britain and Switzerland that they tried to manipulate the world's $5.3-trillion-a-day foreign exchange currency-trading market. In some exchanges, traders sounded more like mob conspirators than bank employees. Except when they sounded like teenagers. JPMorgan Trader: lets double team them. Bank W Trader: YESssssssssssss.
Men go to work washing windows, become afternoon spectacle, get rescued
Yikes. Two window washers at One World Trade Center spent a terrifying afternoon dangling above the New York City skyline when a cable supporting the scaffolding they were on went slack, and the motorized platform tipped precariously. Office workers and construction workers streamed onto a nearby street, their necks craned upward to watch the scaffold as it waved in the wind. Firefighters sawed through a window on the unoccupied 68th floor and were able to pull the workers inside to safety. The silvery skyscraper, which rose from the ashes of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reopened just last week.
In smoggy China, some air-clearing on climate change
We all know President Obama has been in China for the APEC Summit. What we didn't know was that for the past nine months, secret climate change talks have been taking place between the world's top two polluters. Obama and China's President Xi Jinping presented a joint plan to curb carbon emissions in a historic step in the fight against climate change. Cue applause, followed quickly by groans as Republicans came out saying they would resist the president's plans. It's clear from his actions that President Obama intends to make climate change a hallmark of his last two years in office.
Navy SEAL who thought, 'We're going to die' during bin Laden raid has more to say
Robert O'Neill, the former SEAL Team 6 member who claims he fired the fatal shot into Osama bin Laden's forehead, is still talking about the night the terror leader was killed. The second part of his exclusive interview with Fox News airs tonight. In part one, O'Neill said he and his team had only bits of information ahead of time, but that some of them figured out who the target was. They concluded that they most likely weren't going to come back. "This is a good way to go, and it's worth it because we're going to kill him,'' he told Fox.
Extra Bites
Day in Pictures: Our favorite photo from today's gallery.
This guy wanted to steal a chainsaw so he put it down his pants.
Kim Kardashian bared her oiled butt on the cover of a magazine. This just made us miss Joan Rivers.
Did f-bombs ruin The Concert for Valor?
Anderson Cooper got punk'd. This is how.
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This is a compilation of stories from across Paste BN.
Contributing: Doug Stanglin, Alia E. Dastagir, Jane Onyanga-Omara, Kevin McCoy, David Jackson, Calum MacLeod, Melanie Eversley and William M. Welch, Paste BN; Traci Watson, Special for Paste BN; Associated Press