Weekend News in Tweets: Wayde van Niekerk wins gold, Milwaukee violence & more

south africa flag wayde van niekerk joost

News moves at the speed of social media in today’s world, and that’s especially the case on the weekend. Take a look at the world news you might’ve missed this weekend through the 140-character lens of Twitter.

Welcome to the Weekend News in Tweets (12 August – 14 August).

Struggling Hull City beat reigning Premier League champions Leicester City 2-1 in the opening match of the season. It’s the first time a reigning Premier League champion was beaten on the opening day of the season.

South Africa’s Chad le Clos, America’s Michael Phelps and Poland’s László Cseh shared the silver medal in the 100m butterfly final, after all three swimmers posted the exact same time. Singaporean Joseph Schooling won gold, after beating all three swimmers.

Louisiana and Mississippi are still suffering the effects of severe flooding this weekend, after torrential downpours caused many of the states’ rivers to burst their banks. At least three people have died.

Weekend Google Search trends

The below graphs compare the search prevalence of some current global phenomena, like No Man’s Sky, Pokemon Go, the return of the Premier League, Donald Trump and the Olympic Games. It’s also interesting to note the global popularity of the various search terms in the countries across the world.



A dedicated and incredibly patient set of Cubans rolled a 90m-long cigar for Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro. Castro tuned 90 Saturday, a birthday which was both celebrated and lambasted on Twitter.

South African sprinter Wayde van Niekerk smashed the previous 400m World Record to win gold in Rio early Monday morning. The time of 43.03 is 0.15 quicker than the previous WR set by America’s Michael Johnson.

American swimmer and the most successful Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, bowed out of the Olympic Games with Gold in the team medley. It’s his 23rd Olympic medal, and largely thanks to him, the US team has never lost the Men’s team relay at the Olympics.

Jamaican Usain Bolt also won gold in the 100m final, to cement his place in the Olympic Games’ history books. He’s now the first man in history to win the 100m in three consecutive Olympic Games.

Fresh protests erupted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US this weekend, after an armed and fleeing man was shot by police. Violence continued through to the early hours of Monday morning.

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