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Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. WHAT HAS OLYMPIC ATHLETES CONCERNED

New AP testing finds Rio’s Olympic waters highly contaminated by sewage, even far offshore, leaving athletes at risk of illness.

2. MAYOR DISMISSES CHICAGO’S POLICE CHIEF

He says the public’s trust in the department has eroded since the release of a video showing a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times, but he is also under scrutiny.

3. WILL GLOBAL WARMING CREATE ITS OWN REFUGEE CRISIS

Relatively few people have been forced to leave their home countries because of global warming, but the world appears utterly unprepared for the day when that changes.

4. WHERE REBUILDING IS PROVING DIFFICULT

Two months after the Taliban rampaged through the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, residents are still sifting through the rubble, wondering how they will ever rebuild and worrying that the insurgents will return.

5. UNDER RULE OF ISLAMIC STATE EXTREMISTS, GAYS UNDER THREAT OF CRUEL DEATH

A witness gives the AP a rare first-hand account of two men convicted of homosexuality who were thrown to their deaths from the roof of a hotel in Syria.

6. A CONVERSATION WITH TEXAS SEN. TED CRUZ

In an interview with the AP, the Republican presidential candidate outlines a robust approach to foreign policy inspired by Ronald Reagan, but doesn’t commit to more US troops on the ground in the Middle East.

7. MAINE LOOKS BEYOND LOBSTER

The state known for its crustaceans has become the nation’s top seaweed producer.

8. US HOLOCAUST HERO GETS HIS DUE

A WWII soldier who refused to let Jewish American prisoners of war be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate is being honored posthumously with Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the war.

9. READING, WRITING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

A national push is underway to expose more public school kids to computer science, even as early as kindergarten.

10. BACK PAIN KEEPING TIGER WOODS ON SIDELINES

The golfer, now at No. 400 in the world, tells the AP’s Doug Ferguson that he can’t even imagine when he might play again.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister says he won’t refuse a meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Serbia’s capital this week to hear what Turkey’s explanations on the downing of a Russian air force jet.

Sergey Lavrov says he will meet with Mevlut Cavusoglu in Belgrade on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting “to hear what he has to say.”

Lavrov says he spoke to Cavusoglu by telephone the day after the Russian aircraft was shot down, but heard only “just some excuses.”

Speaking after talks with his Cypriot counterpart on Wednesday, Lavrov said his country’s aim is to ensure that it doesn’t allow the “overflow” of terrorist threats in Turkey from making their way into Russia.

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A 68-year-old man from the UK successfully sued Apple after the company deleted precious photos, videos, and contacts from his iPhone, according to The Evening Standard. 

The plaintiff, Deric White, sought £5,000 ($7,500) in damages after he took his iPhone 5 into the Regent Street Apple Store in London for repair. Instead of fixing the phone, a store employee deleted everything. 

White was awarded £1,200 ($1,800) and around £800 ($1,200) in costs. 

“My life was saved on that phone,” he told The Sun. “It was only after staff fiddled around they asked if I’d backed my things up.” 

Apple argued in court that White has “not demonstrated how he suffered any loss” when his data, which includes 15 years worth of contacts, was deleted. The Court found differently, however. 

White will put the £1,200 towards a holiday in Cornwall, on the South Coast of England. “It’s not so much the money that I have won, but it’s the moral victory,” he said. “It’s absolutely fabulous, it’s a monumental victory.” 

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Brussels (AFP) – US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Washington welcomed Russia’s involvement in efforts to end the Syrian conflict, where Moscow could play an “extremely constructive” role.

“We welcome Russia’s engagement in  the Syria process. As long as they’re focused on Daesh (Islamic State) and as long they are genuine in wanting to be part of implementing the Geneva (accords), they can be an extremely constructive and important player in reaching a solution,” Kerry said after NATO talks in Brussels.

“I think the world would welcome that kind of cooperative effort,” he said.

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• The debate in the House of Commons starts at 11.30 a.m. GMT and lasts until 10 p.m.
• Politicians will vote on whether to bomb ISIS in Syria around 10 p.m. this evening
• The latest YouGov poll shows that 48% of Britons approve air strikes, 31% disapprove, while the rest remained undecided as of December 1.

The live feed from the House of Commons debate is here:

Britain’s government is about to start the debate on whether the country should join the alliance with the US in bombing ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) in Syria.

The debates, which were given the green light only yesterday, will last for 10.5 hours and will be immediately followed by a vote. The Conservative-led government indicated that if the vote results in approval for a bombing campaign in Syria, British fighter jets could be deployed by the end of this week.

It is largely believed that politicians will approve the air strike action on Syria because Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that he would only push for vote if he was almost certain it would go ahead. He said that risking a no vote could end up being a propaganda win for ISIS militants.

HOW POLITICIANS ARE VOTING

This how a YouGov poll places approval and disapproval for air strike action against ISIS in Syria:

• 360 MPs, including 50 from the Labour benches, are in favour of a bombing while 170 are against.

LATEST POLL RESULTS

A YouGov poll published this morning delivered some key points as to where the public, politicians and the main party leaders stand on the issue:

• Most of the public support a bombing on Syria — but approval is slipping: 48% approve, 31% disapprove, while the rest are undecided.

• Those who voted Labour in May have now changed their minds — moving from majority support: On November 17, 52% approved of RAF air strikes on ISIS in Syria while 26% opposed it. As of December 1,  35% now approve while 42% disapprove. 

• Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party, is bleeding in approval ratings: Only 24% say he is doing well as a leader and 65% say he is doing badly.
• Approval ratings for Prime Minister David Cameron, and leader of the Conservative party, is neutral but diminishing Labour support is boosting support for the Tories: Recent voting intention figures put Conservatives at 41% to Labour’s 30%. This lead of 11 is a four point improvement on the general election result.  

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NOW WATCH: An Iraq War veteran who works at KFC nails the minimum wage debate

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US investigators are accusing a bitcoin entrepeneur of running a Ponzi scheme that brought in nearly $20 million (£13.2 million).

Josh Garza, former CEO of GAW Miners, allegedly defrauded customers by promising vastly larger returns than it was capable of providing in an attempt to trick them into signing up, the US Securities and Exchange Commission says.

New bitcoins are created through “mining” — using computers to solve complex algorithms, helping to contribute to the upkeep of the network powering bitcoin in the process. It can be profitable — but requires costly specialised hardware to get started.

GAW Miners operated a “cloud” mining service: Users could pay for a share of the profits generated by the company’s hardware, meaning they don’t need to buy any kit of their own. These shares were called “hashlets.”

A criminal complaint filed on Tuesday by the SEC, which we saw over at CoinDesk, alleges that “hashlet sales had many of the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme. Because defendants sold far more computing power than they owned and dedicated to virtual currency mining, they owed investors a daily return that was larger than any actual return they were making on their limited mining operations.”

The SEC says that GAW Miners “earned about $19 million in revenue from the sale of the hashlets.” The company closed down earlier this year.

Garza’s lawyer told CoinDesk in a statement: “Josh Garza is disappointed that the SEC has filed a lawsuit against him. Any further comments will be through the court process.”

Speaking to Business Insider earlier this year, Marco Streng — CEO of Genesis Mining, another cloud mining company — said that fraud was a problem within the industry. “Cloud mining has a major trust issue … [fraudulent companies] don’t ever even own their own mining facilities. They just take pictures from other companies, photoshop them, then pretend they are theirs.” Streng did not accuse any specific companies of fraud.

“Though cloaked in technological sophistication and jargon, defendants’ fraud was simple at its core,” The SEC’s complaint about GAW Mining says. “Defendants sold what they did not own, and misrepresented the nature of what they were selling.”

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NOW WATCH: Saudi Arabia is building the world’s tallest building – nearly twice the height of One World Trade Center

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Frankfurt (AFP) – The number of new Volkswagen cars registered in Germany declined by 2.0 percent in November, but VW remained the biggest-selling brand in its home country, official data showed on Wednesday.  

New registrations of VW cars declined by 2.0 percent to 57,923 vehicles last month, the federal transport authority KBA calculated in regular monthly data, which also showed that VW’s share of the German market stood at 21.3 percent. 

Overall, the total number of new car registrations including all brands, both domestic and foreign, rose by 8.9 percent to 272,377 vehicles in November, KBA said.

VW is currently embroiled in a massive pollution-cheating scandal after it was forced to admit that it had installed software in 11 million diesel engines worldwide designed to skew the results of emission tests.

The scandal has sent shockwaves around the global automobile sector and plunged VW into its deepest ever crisis, which observers fear will hurt the group’s sales.

Among VW’s 12 different brands, new registrations of its top-of-the-range Audi marque rose by 3.0 percent in November, Porsche sales slipped by 0.4 percent, SEAT sales were down by 3.2 percent, but Skoda sales rose by 13.3 percent, KBA calculated.

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Brussels (AFP) – Eurozone inflation came in lower than expected in November, official data showed on Wednesday, giving further encouragement to the European Central Bank to pump up its stimulus to boost the economy.

ECB president Mario Draghi is widely expected to ramp up the central bank’s contested bond-buying programme on Thursday given low inflation levels across the 19 countries that share the euro.

The EU’s Eurostat statistics agency said inflation was unchanged in November at a weak 0.1 percent, lower than analysts’ forecast of 0.2 percent inflation for the period.

This is well below the ECB’s official target of near or just below 2.0 percent.

“November’s weaker-than-expected euro-zone consumer prices figures give a final green light for the ECB to both increase the pace of its asset purchases and cut its deposit rate at tomorrow’s policy meeting,” said Jonathan Loynes, Chief European Economist at capital Economics.

In March, the ECB launched a more than one-trillion-euro stimulus plan running through to September next year in order to snap a long period of low or negative inflation in the eurozone.

But the effects of that policy has now shown its limits, pushing the ECB toward further easing of monetary policy, many analysts believe.

The euro immediately fell to a low for the day after the disappointing data, dropping 0.42 percent against the dollar to $1.0588 in London trade.

Inflation in November was dragged down by energy prices, led by oil, but this fall slowed to 7.3 percent annually instead of 8.5 percent the previous month, the data showed.

Draghi on November 20 said the bank will “do what we must” to lift inflation as quickly as possible.

Central bankers of the 19-member eurozone are keen to fight falling prices because they can be poisonous for the economy, creating a vicious circle of falling demand and fewer jobs.

While falling prices might appear to be good for consumers, deflation can become entrenched if consumers delay purchases in the hope of lower prices later, which in turn prompts companies to hold off investment.

Most worryingly for the ECB will be the fall in core inflation, which  excludes oil and food. This went to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent a month earlier.

“The ECB will be particularly disappointed to see the relapse in core inflation in November. Consequently, there can be little doubt that the  ECB will press ahead with further stimulus at its December meeting on Thursday,” said Howard Archer of HS Global Insight.

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LONDON (AP) — The latest developments regarding the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq: All times local.

11.05 a.m.

Belgian police have raided five more houses in the Brussels area early Wednesday and detained two people for questioning regarding the Paris attacks that left 130 people dead last month.

The raids targeted people who could have a link to Mohamed Abrini, who was seen driving with Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam two days ahead of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, and Ahmed Dahmani, who is detained in Turkey.

None of Wednesday’s detainees have been charged.

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The festive period is one of the best times for gamers, as developers and console makers rush to have the latest games and accessories available in time for the holiday season.

From a leather gaming chair with a subwoofer to a noise-cancelling gaming headset, Business Insider UK has compiled the best gift for hardcore gamers.

Experience the latest console gaming with the Xbox One.

If the gamer in your life hasn’t yet made the leap to the current generation of consoles, the Xbox One is a must.

The Xbox One doubles as an entertainment centre, with Netflix, TV catchup services, and live TV included. 

Price: £229

Or if their loyalties lie elsewhere, the PlayStation 4 is a worthy rival.

You’re either an Xbox or a PlayStation person. If you’re shopping for the latter, then the PS4 is the perfect gift.

And with Sony having just unlocked more of the console’s computing power for game developers, there’s never been a better time to own a PS4.

Price: £249.99

Improve your speed and accuracy with Microsoft’s next-gen controller.

The Xbox Elite controller was designed for players, by players. Microsoft collaborated with pro-level gamers to create this customisable controller with attachable and detachable triggers and joysticks, allowing for improved accuracy and speed.

Price: £119.99

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