News Headlines - 06 January 2019

▽Moscow says FBI arrested Russian a day after it detained ex-U.S. Marine | Reuters

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday the United States had detained a Russian citizen, a day after Moscow arrested the former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan on suspicion of spying.
Whelan was taken into custody by Russia’s Federal Security Service on Dec. 28. His family have said he is innocent and that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.
The ministry said the United States detained Russian citizen Dmitry Makarenko on Dec. 29 on the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, and had transferred him to Florida.

▽King of Malaysia abdicates amid rumours of marriage to ex-Russian beauty queen

The King of Malaysia renounced the throne on Sunday after weeks of speculation over his ill health and rumours that he had married a former Russian beauty queen in a secretive ceremony.
The abdication of Muhammad V was announced by Malaysia's National Palace, which mysteriously gave no hints as to why the monarch had taken the historic decision.
It marks the first time in Malaysian history that a monarch has stood down since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1957.

▽Renewables exceed 40% in Germany for 2018 | Windpower Monthly

Wind turbines produced 111.35TWh in 2018, 20.4% of total generation in the country in 2018, according to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).
Lignite coal was the only energy source to produce more power than wind in 2018, the researchers noted, with 131.28TWh accounting for 24.1% of Germany’s total... Clean energy sources accounted for 40.4% of total generation in Germany last year — an all-time high and the first time they had exceeded the 40% mark.

▽Arizona police investigate after 'vegetative patient gives birth' - BBC News

Police in the US state of Arizona have launched a sexual assault investigation amid reports a patient in a vegetative state for a decade gave birth.
The woman is a patient in a clinic run by Hacienda HealthCare near Phoenix.
Hacienda HealthCare gave no details but said it was aware of a "deeply disturbing incident".

▽How On Earth Did 'Pokémon GO' Make Almost $800 Million In 2018?

The biggest story of the gaming year is certainly Fortnite, which made Epic Games $3 billion this year despite its battle royale mode being free, selling only cosmetics. But a similarly impressive story is that Pokémon GO made $795 million in 2018, two years after its release, which represents a 35% jump from the year before. And I’d argue that it did so while being a free game that sells far less attractive items than Fortnite’s never-ending carousel of skins.