Dispatches

Elite company

U.S. tennis star Serena Williams won the Australian Open to claim her 19th Grand Slam singles title, moving past Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for second all-time. Williams, 33, defeated second-ranked Maria Sharapova for the 16th straight time to pick up her sixth win at the Australian Open. Williams, who won the U.S. Open in September, now trails only Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles on the all-time singles list.

Jan. 27

Auschwitz remembrance

About 300 aging survivors gathered in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz, where Nazis murdered some 1 million Jews. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, during the event issued a grim warning of rising anti-Semitism across the Middle East and Europe. “We do not want our past to become our children’s future,” said Roman Kent, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor. President Obama, in Saudi Arabia for King Abdullah’s funeral, sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to represent the United States at probably the last anniversary remembrance for most survivors.

Jan. 24

Walker win

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker emerged as the clear winner from a group of GOP presidential hopefuls who tested their messages at the 2015 Iowa Freedom Summit. The Des Moines Register released its first 2016 poll the following week and found Walker (15 percent) leading the crowded Republican field. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished third with 13 percent, but on Jan. 30 he announced he would not seek the GOP nomination in 2016 elections. When ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked Walker if he will run, he said, “After three elections for governor in four years in a state that hasn’t gone Republican since 1984 for president, I wouldn’t bet against me on anything.”

Jan. 22

Yemeni unrest

Pro-Iranian rebels seized control of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen, forcing pro-American President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his cabinet to resign. The pro-Iranian Houthis put Hadi under house arrest and later asked the ousted president to help form a new government, but he refused. The power grab came one year after President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address said Yemen was an example of his administration’s smarter approach to counterterrorism.

Feb. 3

Show killings

ISIS released a video reportedly showing captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive—capping a week of headline brutalities in which ISIS also apparently beheaded Kenji Goto, a 47-year-old Japanese journalist, who was a Christian. Goto had traveled to Syria to negotiate the release of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa, whom ISIS also murdered. The latest show killings escalated the terrorists’ spectacle with gruesome details and threats to Japan, which has sought to avoid international conflict since World War II. “Let the nightmare for Japan begin,” a militant said in the Goto video, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Japan would “make the terrorists pay the price.”

Jan. 29

Without a trace

Authorities officially declared Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an accident, even though no trace of the plane—or its 239 passengers and crew—has been found since it disappeared in March 2014. Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation concluded the plane ran out of fuel in the southern Indian Ocean and presumed dead everyone on board. Investigators vowed to continue the search, but the official declaration allowed families to obtain death certificates and seek compensation. Some family members vowed to refuse money until authorities could provide a sufficient explanation of the plane’s fate.

Feb. 1

Super show

An estimated 114.4 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLIX, and its overnight television rating shattered the previous record set two years ago—meaning about half of the nation’s homes tuned in to watch the New England Patriots cap a tumultuous NFL season with a 28-24 comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks. It was New England’s fourth title in 13 years.