The 10 most important things in the world right now
Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Thursday.
1. Saudi Arabia is seeking a bank loan of $6 billion to $8 billion, in what would be the first significant foreign borrowing by the kingdom's government for over a decade. Riyadh has asked lenders to submit proposals to extend it a five-year US dollar loan of that size.
2. Twitter has been offering additional restricted stock and cash bonus to employees to prevent staff departure, the Wall Street Journal reports. Employees are being offered cash bonuses of between $50,000 and $200,000 to stick around another six months to a year.
3. EU interior ministers are set to meet in Brussels Thursday to discuss the migrant crisis after western Balkan nations slammed shut their borders, exacerbating a dire humanitarian situation on the Macedonian frontier.
4. Tens of thousands of documents containing the names, addresses, phone numbers, and family contacts of jihadis who joined the Islamic State have been given to Sky News. Sky reported that a disillusioned former member had handed over the documents on a memory stick that had been stolen from the head of the group's internal security police.
6. Maria Sharapova posted a Facebook message on Wednesday evening thanking her fans for their support after she announced she had failed a drug test. The Russian wrote a long, scrambled note about reading emails, going to the gym, online shopping, and being followed by paparazzi.
7. Apple's online-services boss has warned that if the FBI were to get its way, Apple might be forced to use an iPhone's camera or microphone to spy on people. In an interview broadcast on Univision, Eddy Cue defended Apple's refusal to cooperate with the FBI and extract data from an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
10. In a major milestone for artificial-intelligence research Google's DeepMind AI division defeated a human world champion at Chinese strategy game Go. DeepMind's "AlphaGo" AI won the game in Seoul, South Korea, by resignation after 186 moves.
And finally ... Meet Laurene Powell Jobs, the mysterious woman who inherited Steve Jobs' fortune.