Welcome to the first post of WordPress News Weekly. In these weekly posts, I gather news articles from WordPress-related resources so that you can keep up-to-date on all of the news. If you have anything else to add, please leave a comment below. Enjoy!

New WordPress 101 Tutorials

Author: Ashley Hurney

URL: http://ithemes.com/2014/06/04/new-wordpress-101-tutorials/

iThemes has announced brand new 101 (Beginner) WordPress tutorials! You can take a look at the course by clicking here.

New Plugin Syncs WordPress Content With a GitHub Repository

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/new-plugin-syncs-wordpress-content-with-a-github-repository

A new plugin, WordPress <–> GitHub Sync, written by Ben Balter, allows users to sync their WordPress posts and content to Github and allow versioning. You can even have readers make their own contribution to your articles or make pull requests. The features listed on the Github page are:

1. Allows content publishers to version their content in GitHub, exposing “who made what change when” to readers
2. Allows readers to submit proposed improvements to WordPress-served content via GitHub’s Pull Request model
3. Allows non-technical writers to draft and edit a Jekyll site in WordPress’s best-of-breed editing interface- Ben Balter (https://github.com/benbalter/wordpress-github-sync)

New Plugin Batch Deletes WordPress Comment Spam Without Killing Your Server

 Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/new-plugin-batch-deletes-wordpress-comment-spam-without-killing-your-server

There’s a new anti-spam plugin on the block and its name is Batch Comment Spam Deletion. This plugin makes it easy to delete comment spam without crashing your server. Batch was wrtten by Pippin Williamson and has been reported to delete up to 18,500 comments without breaking a sweat.

LayoutPress: A Drag-and-Drop Theme for WordPress

Author: Oliver Dale

URL: http://wplift.com/layoutpress-review

A new starter theme was recently created for WordPress, this time, it allows you to drag-and-drop and has its own, styled Customize bar. The starter theme has an asking price starting at $48 a year. You can find out more by clicking here.

20 Best Free WordPress Themes for Blogs

 Author: Raelene Wilson

URL:  http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/20-best-free-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/

WPMU DEV’s Raelene Wilson points out twenty themes that you can use on your WordPress site or blog. Rest assured, all of the themes found in this post are free, so if you find something you like, go ahead and use it!

Kirki: A Free Plugin to Style the WordPress Customizer and Add Advanced Controls

 Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/kirki-a-free-plugin-to-style-the-wordpress-customizer-and-add-advanced-controls

Kirki is a new and interesting plugin developed by Aristeides Stathopoulos and fovoc. This plugin allows developers to style and theme the WordPress Front-End Customizer. In other words, it allows you to add controls that users can modify such as the header, fonts among other options.

The Streamline Pro Child Theme for Genesis Tutorial

 Author: Bob Dunn

URL: http://bobwp.com/streamline-pro-child-theme-genesis-tutorial/

Bob Dunn of Bob WP, wrote a nice and lengthy tutorial about using the Streamline Pro Child Theme for Genesis. Genesis and Streamline Pro are themes that can be used for WordPress theme development. You can find Genesis here and Streamline Pro here.

WordPress.com VIP Releases Presentation Documents and Resources Under Creative Commons License

 Author: Sarah Gooding

 URL: http://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-vip-releases-presentation-documents-and-resources-under-creative-commons-license

Automattic announced and released Documattic, a Github repository containing presentations and many other documents for marketing and educational purposes. Documattic is released under Creative Common License which you can find here. Sara Rosso explains Automattic’s decision in releasing the document below:

We spend a lot of time explaining the great features of WordPress to client IT, security, and editorial teams, and work with partners and agencies to provide up-to-date information about WordPress software and its vast community of developers, designers, content creators, and site owners.

–  Sara Rosso 

Major Internationalization Improvements Planned for WordPress 4.0

 Author: Sarah Gooding

 URL: http://wptavern.com/major-internationalization-improvements-planned-for-wordpress-4-0

Automattic’s Andrew Nacin noticed that the WordPress’s famous 5 minute installation would be difficult for some international users. As a  result, he drafted a plan to improve internationalization for WordPress 4.0.

If the user’s first step is setup-config.php, we don’t actually have WordPress fully loaded at this point, which makes actually installing a language pack more difficult. The install step has WordPress loaded in full, just without database tables. We should look into making setup-config.php load “all” of WordPress to make these environments easier to code.

– Andrew Nacin

MiwoShop: A New WordPress eCommerce Shopping Cart Plugin

Author: Oliver Dale

URL: http://wplift.com/miwoshop-review

Oliver Dale Reviews MiwoShop, a brand new WordPress eCommerce shopping cart plugin. This plugin enters the eCommerce plugin arena as a port, from Joomla, to WordPress. To find out more about the plugin, you can click here. Miwoshop has a demo that you can try out if you are interested.

WordPress in Vietnamese: Now 100% translated

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/wordpress-in-vietnamese-now-100-translated

Thanks to many contributors, WordPress is now fully available in Vietnamese. Translation is hard work and now that WordPress has been finished, the contributors are now working on translating WordPress.org.

Preview the “Press This” Bookmarklet Redesign, Alpha Plugin Now Ready for Testing

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/preview-the-press-this-bookmarklet-redesign-alpha-plugin-now-ready-for-testing

The “Press This” bookmarklet, the one that lets you publish your WordPress posts from any part of the web, is getting redesigned. The project lead, Michael Arestad, is transitioning the bookmarklet from AJAX to WordPress’s WP-API’s system as soon as it is released. As of this time, it is in the design phase.

WordPress.com to Implement SSL for All Subdomains, Joins the Fight Against Mass Surveillance

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-to-implement-ssl-for-all-subdomains-joins-the-fight-against-mass-surveillance

In the fight against the NSA, WordPress.com and other sites have agreed to implement SSL for all of its subdomains. You can learn more about this initiative here.

Social Impact! 3 WP Plugins to Show Total Shares Just Like Mashable

Author: Joe Foley

URL: http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-social-media-total-shares/

Joe Foley writes about three WordPress plugins that can give your site like buttons similar to Mashable’s.

WordPress for Android 2.9 Debuts Blog Discovery Feature

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/wordpress-for-android-2-9-debuts-blog-discovery-feature

WordPress for Android version 2.9 has arrived with the new feature ‘Blog Discovery’. Using this feature, you can find many blogs hosted on the WordPress.com by using tags and/or categories. You can download the application here.

New WordPress Managed Hosting Plans at Pagely

Author: Joe Fylan

URL: http://www.wpmayor.com/new-wordpress-managed-hosting-plans-pagely/

Joe Fylan takes a look at the new managed hosting plans now available at Pagely powered by Amazon. How does this work and what does this all mean? Well, Amazon provides the servers/hardware for Pagely while Pagely manages your WordPress site. Pagely will auto-update your WordPres installation, will make backups of your site and more. Click here to learn more and/or sign up.

New Plugin Adds Syntax Highlighting to the WordPress Plugin and Theme Editors

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/new-plugin-adds-syntax-highlighting-to-the-wordpress-plugin-and-theme-editors

Syntax Highlight is a new plugin written by ukasz.webmaster that incorporates the ACE Editor into the WordPress Theme and Plugin editors. The topic of whether to improve/incorporate WordPress’s core editors has been controversial, but if you want, you can learn more about this plugin by visiting this page.

Codeus Review: A Highly Customizable Multi-Purpose Responsive WordPress Theme

Author: Joe Fylan

URL: http://wplift.com/codeus-multi-purpose-wordpress-theme

Joe Fylan reviews Codeus, a multi-purpose responsive theme that aims to not be tied down a to specific niche. If you would like to download the theme, you can go here.

bbPress 2.5.4 Security Release Available: Immediate Update Recommended

Author: Sarah Gooding

URL: http://wptavern.com/bbpress-2-5-4-security-release-available-immediate-update-recommended

bbPress has released a new version of their plugin and, if you are using it, should be updated as soon as possible! You can re-download the plugin from this page.