As you are very nearly certain to have read, physicists at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, made a brain-bending announcement yesterday: the Higgs boson, or at least a “Higgslike” subatomic particle, is very nearly certain to exist.

What on (or beyond) Earth does that mean?

The Internet is awash with explanations, so many of us are probably nearly certain to have a pretty good idea. But in the grand tradition of high school science class, let's double-check with a pop quiz:

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed the News of the World last year, will be forced to reveal the name of the journalist who directed him to intercept phone messages. In a unanimous decision, five supreme court judges today ruled that Mulcaire must pass on information about how hacking targets were chosen and who his contacts at the paper were to the legal team representing Nicola Philips. Philips, a victim of phone-hacking was an assistant to publicist Max Clifford and is currently pursuing a claim for damages.

The decision puts an end to Mulcaire’s 20 month fight to avoid disclosing the potentially discriminating information. Mulcaire’s previous attempts to protect himself from requests to reveal details of his links with News of the World reporters had been ruled against by both the high court and the court of appeal. Mulcaire had attempted to invoke privilege against self-incrimination to avoid disclosing any details that "expose him to prosecution." When delivering today’s ruling Judge Lord Walker said: "The supreme court unanimously dismisses Mr Mulcaire's appeal. Section 72 of the [Senior Courts Act] excludes his privilege against self-incrimination: the proceedings brought by Ms Phillips are 'proceedings for … rights pertaining to …intellectual property' and the conspiracy proceedings to which Mr Mulcaire would expose himself on disclosure of the information amount to a 'related offence'."

For the second time in less than a week The New York Times’ account on the Chinese social-networking site Sina Weibo has been deactivated. Users wanting to interact with the NYT via the site are greeted with a “user does not exist” message. Techcrunch also reports that other Chinese social networking accounts bearing the NYTimes’ name have also been blocked, though the paper has yet to confirm that these are authentic.

As previously reported by the Editors Weblog last Thursday, The New York Times’ Sina Weibo account was suspended within hours of its launch, only to be reactivated the very same day. In the time before the account was reinstated, speculation was rife that the Times's efforts to expand into the Chinese market would be fraught with difficulty. This time the gravity of the matter appears to have escalated, as the Sina Weibo account has seemingly been deleted, not suspended as it was before.

Yesterday, on CNN:

Kate Boulduan: “...I want to bring you the breaking news that, according to producer Bill Mears, the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of the commerce clause so it appears as if the Supreme Court justices have struck down the individual mandate— the centrepiece of the healthcare legislation. I’m going to hop back on this phone and try to get more information and bring it right to you, Wolf.”

Wolf Blitzer: “Wow, that's a dramatic moment. If in fact the Supreme Court has ruled that the individual mandate is in fact unconstitutional, that would be history unfolding.”

Banner: SUPREME CT. KILLS INDIVIDUAL MANDATE

…oops.

CNN, whose ratings have been slipping due to a paucity of hard-hitting news, according to The Associated Press, and which had been running a “countdown clock” to 10 am on its screen for hours leading up to the announcement, is reported to have also tweeted and emailed the faulty news to its followers.

Meanwhile, on Fox News:

Bill Hemmer made a similar gaffe, declaring it “breaking news” that the individual mandate had been declared unconstitutional, and a Twitter account run by Fox anchor Bret Baier allegedly posted the same news.

Meanwhile, at the White House: