What drives the price of bitcoin, in other words, what makes it go up or down? I am interested in knowing what kind of events and news have a direct impact on the bitcoin prices besides the raw supply and demand.
"The price" is established through supply and demand, by definition.

Speculators might temporarily skew supply or demand after reading some news or predicting/anticipating some event. Or simply by rumours and herd mentality (more often than not).

What those speculators react to you'd have to ask them and doesn't sound like an on topic question here. It's not related to Bitcoin anyway, as it's the same for any other market.

One likely upcoming drop in supply is coming around 2016-07-26 when the block reward is going to halve again.