Graphic News Planner (news) 03/02/2023 18:12:31

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February 3, 2023 -- Launched two months ago, ChatGPT, a chatbot that can answer questions and even write poetry, is estimated to have surpassed 100 million monthly active users – a quicker uptake than even TikTok.

ChatGPT is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launching – the fastest-growing consumer application in history.

A report by UBS says an average of 13 million unique visitors had used ChatGPT per day in January, double the December levels.

It took TikTok about nine months to reach 100 million users and Instagram 2-1/2 years.

ChatGPT, which can generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to user inputs, is owned by OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft.

The availability of such a tool has raised concerns about its use for academic dishonesty and misinformation.

TECH: ChatGPT is fastest growing internet app (Graphic)
GN43884 Graphic compares how long it took popular apps to reach 100m users.
(107mm by 128mm deep) View graphic

February 3, 2023 -- Khartoum is set to sign a formal peace deal with Israel in a highly symbolic move - the city was the venue for the 1967 Arab League declaration that denied recognition of the Jewish state.

Israel and Sudan will sign an “historic peace agreement” in Washington in a few months' time, Israel's foreign minister announced, with Sudan becoming the latest Arab League country to establish such ties.

Since 2020, when the Abraham Accords were signed, there are now six Arab League countries with formal relations with Israel, plus a number that engage in informal or covert co-operation. Trade between Israel and the Abraham Accords countries now amounts to almost $3.5 billion, the majority with the United Arab Emirates.

MIDDLE EAST: Sudan to finalise Abraham Accords with Israel (Graphic)
GN43885 Graphic shows Arab League countries that have signed peace deals with Israel, and relations with others.
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February 3, 2023 -- Germany plans to build a multi-layered missile shield, deploying IRIS-T anti-missiles manufactured by Bavarian-based Diehl Defence, Israeli Arrow 3 and U.S. Patriot systems.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government is talking with multiple defence manufacturers to pro­cure air defence capabilities that could cost €17 billion ($18.5 billion).

The German defence ministry has earmarked eight Diehl IRIS-T anti-missile systems costing €2 billion to €3 billion, Arrow 3 systems manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries, costing up to €4 billion and the U.S.-made Patriot system, on which Berlin could spend as much as €10 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Germany aims to integrate the missiles into the planned European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI).

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, efforts to build a better air defence system in Germany had made little progress due to years of austerity measures and a lack of will to prioritise and invest. The Bundeswehr could only protect an area roughly the size of Berlin, mainly with its short-range Ozelot surface-to-air weapon systems.

As part of ESSI, the IRIS-T can hit targets up to 40 kilometres away and reach an altitude of 20,000 metres. The U.S. Patriot system has a reach of around 100km. The Arrow 3 interceptor, co-developed by Boeing and Israel Aerospace Industries, is intended to intercept ballistic missiles at altitudes of over 100km and with a reported range of up to 2,400km.

The ESSI programme was first announced by Scholz in a speech in Prague in August 2022. Last October, 14 NATO allies and Finland signed a letter of intent to join the programme.

MILITARY: German anti missile shield (Graphic)
GN43882 Graphic shows the IRIS -T SLM German air defence system.
(107mm by mm 149deep) View graphic

February 3, 2023 -- The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites.

Defence officials said the balloon had been watched since it entered U.S. airspace by several methods, including crewed aircraft, and has most recently been tracked crossing Montana, home to one of the three nuclear missile silo fields in the country, at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China next week for a visit agreed to in November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was not clear how the discovery of the spy balloon might affect those plans.

MILITARY: Chinese spy balloon flies over U.S. (Graphic)
GN43883 Graphic shows details of the Chinese balloon and facts about high-altitude surveillance balloons in general.
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February 3, 2023 -- President Zelensky has called for a 10th round of EU sanctions on Russia, saying the pace has slowed recently, while EU leaders in Kyiv are seeking to calm expectations of fast-track membership to the bloc.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said he is open to supplying F-16 jets to Ukraine in co-ordination with NATO allies, but UK prime minister Rishi Sunak warned that training could take months if not years.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has claimed that Russia may have up to 500,000 troops, mobilised last September, at the border ready for an expected offensive on the anniversary of the invasion in February. Mobile internet in occupied Luhansk was disabled to disguise Russian troop movements and force concentrations which have in the past been revealed by Ukrainians in the area.

UKRAINE: Situation report day 345 (Graphic)
GN43881 Graphic shows situation report following day 345 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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February 2, 2023 -- Ukraine has secured new weapons pledges to include longer range missiles in a co-ordinated action between the U.S., France and Italy.

The U.S. is readying a more than $2 billion package of military aid expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as support equipment for Patriot missile systems and precision-guided munitions.

France and Italy are finalising the delivery of their Surface-to-Air
Medium-Range/Land-based missile system, including the Aster 30, one of the only systems capable of intercepting the Russian Kh-22 anti-ship missiles which have been used to target civilian infrastructure.

UKRAINE: Allies to supply longer range rockets (Graphic)
GN43877 Graphic shows Ground-Lanuched Small Diameter Bomb and Aster 30 Air Defence Missile.
(107mm wide by 154mm deep) View graphic

February 2, 2023 -- Exxon Mobil, Shell and Chevron jointly posted $131 billion in profits for 2022, earning $14.96 million an hour and setting a historic high for the western oil and gas industry.

Britain’s Shell has reported profits for 2022 of almost $40bn on the back of a strong performance from its gas trading business.

Europe’s largest oil and gas company said that adjusted earnings had more than doubled to $39.9bn, smashing the previous record of $31bn set in 2008

The earnings continued record profits for the world’s biggest energy companies. U.S. rivals ExxonMobil and Chevron recently reported annual incomes of $55.7 billion and 35.5 billion, respectively.

These record profits result from both price gouging by the energy companies and the slashing of costs, including holding wage increases below the inflation rate.

Oil and gas prices have surged over the past year as Russian forces stormed into Ukraine, and global demand soared as economies recovered.

BUSINESS: Record energy profits (Graphic)
GN43880 Graphic shows quarterly profits of Exxon, Shell and Chevron.
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February 2, 2023 -- The U.S. has secured access to four additional military bases in the Philippines, allowing it to monitor Chinese movements in the South China Sea and around Taiwan.

The U.S. already had limited access to five sites under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The additional locations bring to nine the number of military bases the U.S. would have access to, and Washington had announced it was allocating more than $82 million toward infrastructure investments at the existing sites.

Signed in 2014, the EDCA allows U.S. forces to construct facilities, bring in equipment, and hold joint training exercises in mutually agreed upon bases in the Philippines.

The deal allows the U.S. to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays, but does not grant them permanent presence in the country.

The Philippines is one of America’s oldest treaty allies, but relations turned cold under former president Rodrigo Duterte as he sought friendlier ties with China.

POLITICS: U.S. secures deal on Philippines bases (Graphic)
GN43876 Graphic shows details of U.S.-Philippine defense cooperation.
(107mm wide by 143mm deep) View graphic

February 1, 2023 -- The U.S. accuses Russia of violating the New START treaty – a nuclear arms reduction agreement between the two nations that was extended in 2021.

The U.S. has accused Russia of violating the New START treaty, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the two countries can deploy, saying Moscow is refusing to allow inspection activities on its territory.

Russia says that it is inappropriate to invite the U.S. military to its strategic facilities at the moment – implying the U.S. backing of Ukraine, after Russia’s invasion, was hindering inspections. However, Russia claims it will stick to other New START terms and limitations.

Between the two of them, the U.S. and Russia still account for about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads.

MILITARY: Who has the most nuclear weapons? (Graphic)
GN43871 Graphic charts the number of nuclear warheads in the world.
(107mm by 160mm deep) View graphic

February 1, 2023 -- In an effort to reduce emissions and reach climate goals, countries across the world are looking to keep their nuclear reactors running for far longer than expected.

Already, many of the world’s reactors are scheduled to run far beyond what’s considered the typical 40-year lifespan. Operators are pushing to keep some reactors running for as long as 80 years. Researchers are even starting to consider whether the machines can keep generating electricity for 100 years, according to Bloomberg.

Just a few years ago, the idea of generating power from a century-old reactor was unthinkable. But the U.S. and the European Union have committed to cutting greenhouse gas pollution by at least 50 percent by 2030, and more than 70 nations have set net-zero targets. Pressure is mounting to find ways to meet those targets – and fast. That’s forcing the world to weigh the risks of nuclear power, which has no carbon emissions, against uncontrolled climate change and natural disasters. Bloomberg said.

ENERGY: Nuclear power revival (Graphic)
GN43874 Graphic shows details of countries with most nuclear reactors.
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February 1, 2023 -- Pakistan authorities accuse the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of the January 30 suicide bomb attack on the Kucha Risaldar mosque in Peshawar that killed over 100 people and injured 225 others.

The TTP, which boasts several thousand fighters on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, has become the largest militant organization fighting against the state in Pakistan.

According to a report from the Center for Research and Security Studies, there were 376 terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2022 that killed 533 people and injured another 832, including 14 suicide bombings that claimed 108 lives.

The TTP, Islamic State’s Khorasan (IS-K), Baloch Liberation Army and TTP splinter groups carried out 179 terrorist attacks in Pakistan last year.

The TTP is a by-product of the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, many jihadists who had fought on behalf of the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Indian Kashmir turned against the Pakistani state for its support of the United States’ so-called global war on terror.

Formed in 2007, the TTP claimed to be an extension of the Afghan Taliban and joined the war against the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Although the TTP suffered a decline from 2014 to 2018 from Pakistani military action and U.S. drone strikes, the Trump administration’s peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020 led to a resurgence.

Since July of that year, ten militant groups opposed to the Pakistani state have merged with the TTP, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates.

Following its takeover in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban released hundreds of TTP prisoners from jails in Kabul, strengthening the group.

Hours after Monday’s mosque bombing, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan called for Afghan Taliban rulers to stand by their 2020 pledge not to allow militants to use their soil for attacks against another country.

“They should honour their promises,” Khan said.

PAKISTAN: TTP reign of terror (Graphic)
GN43875 Graphic shows terrorist attacks in Pakistan since 2012 and highlights attacks by TTP.
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February 1, 2023 -- The number of people executed in Saudi Arabia has doubled for the second consecutive year and risen on average 82% since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman came to power.

The number of executions annually has risen from an average of 70.8 between 2010-2014, to 129.5 per year since 2015, with at least 147 people executed in 2022, 81 of them on a single day, up from 67 in 2021.

While the majority are for murder, a substantial proportion are for non-lethal crimes which are not recognised as “most serious” by international law and to which the death penalty could be applied. This includes drug trafficking, state security, sexual offences and sorcery.

Human rights groups fear that the kingdom’s human rights record will continue to be overlooked by the international community in favour of geopolitical and economic interests.

DEATH PENALTY: Executions double in Saudi Arabia (Graphic)
GN43872 Graphic shows number of executions in Saudi Arabia since 2010 and crimes attracting death penalty.
(107mm wide by 171mm deep) View graphic

February 1, 2023 -- Australian authorities found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400km stretch of highway.

Despite a 1400km-long search area along the Great Northern Highway, the capsule was located two metres from the road south of Newman.

The capsule lost in transit more than two weeks ago was discovered when a vehicle travelling at 70km per hour equipped with specialist detection equipment picked up the radiation.

Emergency services had “literally found the needle in the haystack”, they said.

The silver capsule contains a small amount of caesium-137, and is dangerously radioactive. An hour of exposure from about a metre away is the equivalent of having 10 X-rays, and prolonged contact can cause skin burns, acute radiation sickness and cancer, experts said.

The device is part of density gauge, which is used to measure density of iron ore feed.

The gauge was being transported by a subcontracted company, who picked it up from the mine site on 12 January to move it to a storage facility in the north-east suburbs of Perth.

The authorities said vibrations during transit may have caused bolts from the gauge to become loose, allowing the capsule to fall through gaps in the casing and truck.

AUSTRALIA: Missing radioactive capsule found (1) (Graphic UPDATED Feb 1)
GN43864 Graphic shows details about the radioactive capsule.
(107mm wide by 130mm deep)

January 31, 2023 -- Despite having one of the world’s most advanced air forces, Russia has so far failed to achieve air superiority over the much smaller and less well-equipped Ukrainian Air Force.

Ukraine won support Tuesday from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to obtain Western fighter jets, but there were no signs that larger nations like the U.S. and Britain have changed their stance of refusing to provide the warplanes to Kyiv after almost a year of battling Russia’s invading forces, according to AP.

Several Western leaders have expressed concern that providing warplanes could escalate the conflict and draw them deeper into the war. Such fighter jets would offer Ukraine a major boost, but countering Russia’s massive air force would still be a major challenge.

Switching to Western aircraft would require Ukrainian crews to undergo long training and would also raise logistical challenges linked to their maintenance and repair.

Russia methodically targeted Ukrainian air bases and air defence batteries in the opening stage of the conflict, but Ukraine has been smart about relocating its warplanes and concealing air defence assets, resulting in Russia’s failure to gain full control of the skies.

After suffering heavy losses early during the conflict, the Russian air force has avoided venturing deep into Ukraine’s airspace and mostly focused on close support missions along the frontline.

The Ukrainian air force faced similar challenges, trying to save its remaining warplanes from being hit by Russian fighter jets and air defence systems, AP said.

MILITARY: Losses in Ukraine’s air war (Graphic)
GN43850 Graphic shows equipment losses in Ukraine’s air war.
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January 31, 2023 -- The UK dropped seven places down the global corruption league table – the biggest slide among the world’s leading economies – following a string of political and public spending scandals.

Britain fell seven places to 18th on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, representing the biggest fall among the G7 countries.

The closely watched index was published two days after Rishi Sunak sacked the Conservative party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, after revelations over his tax affairs.

The index grades a country on a scale of zero to 100, the latter being perceived as least corrupt. The UK scored 73, sliding from 78 a year earlier.

Qatar, which faced criticism over its treatment of workers in the run-up to the World Cup, dropped nine spots to 40th place. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand remained at the top of the list, while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan were at the bottom.

POLITICS: UK tumbles in global corruption index (Graphic)
GN43870 Graphic shows selected data from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2022.
(107mm wide by 124mm deep) View graphic

January 31, 2023 -- Toyota maintained its position as the world’s leading car manafacturer
ahead of rival Volkswagen,despite supply-chain disruptions across the
industry and amidst forecasts of further weak demand in 2023.

Toyota sold 10.5 million vehicles in 2022, Volkswagen 8.3 million vehicles, with both companies hit by supply chain disruptions that have affected global automobile production following the pandemic and war in Ukraine.

However, electric vehicle makers continue to buck the trend, with Hyundai-Kia forecasting growth this year on the back of its accelerating EV sales, Tesla predicting sales up 30% and Chinese PHEV and EV maker BYD planning to double its sales in 2023.

MOTORING: Toyota tops global auto sales (Graphic)
GN43869 Graphic compares sales of Volkswagen and Toyota in last 10 years with sales and forecasts of selected automakers for 2022 and 2023.
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January 31, 2023 -- The International Monetary Fund says the UK will be the only one of the advanced and emerging economies to shrink in 2023.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the UK economy will contract by 0.6% in 2023, rather than grow slightly, like many other major economies are doing. However, it adds that the UK economy is now “on the right track”.

In its World Economic Outlook update, the IMF predicts the UK will be the only country out of the world’s advanced and emerging economies to suffer a year of declining GDP – estimated at a fall of 0.3%.

The IMF report reflects UK problems caused by high inflation, high energy prices and a high dependence on liquid natural gas.

Even Russia, which is being targeted by over 13,000 sanctions, will see economic growth in 2023.

The IMF did not mention Brexit in its report as a factor in the UK’s economic demise, although it cannot be ignored that the UK is also suffering from post-Brexit labour shortages.

January 31, 2023 marks three years since the UK left the European Union.

ECONOMY: IMF forecasts UK recession (Graphic)
GN43868 Graphic charts the UK economy against other major economies.
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January 31, 2023 -- The number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia in 2022 was the highest for four years – and almost double the 2021 figure – driven by the illegal horn trade.

Namibia, home to the only free-roaming black rhinos left in the world, recorded 87 cases of rhino poaching last year, compared with 45 in all of 2021 and 32 in 2020.

One rhino poaching incident has been recorded in 2023 so far. That brings the total tally of rhinos poached since 2014 to 543.

Gangs have decimated Africa’s rhino population to feed the demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of keratin -- the same stuff as hair and fingernails -- is prized in East Asia as a supposed medicine, aphrodisiac and as jewellery.

At least 54 per cent of all rhino horn seizures worldwide involve citizens from China and Vietnam.

With the price of African rhinoceros tusks surging to more than US$60,000 per kilogram, they are now almost as valuable as gold. And with the weight of tusks often reaching two kilograms, poaching is again on the rise in Namibia.

Wealthy buyers bid for antique rhino horn carvings to display or as investments. A report by the World Wildlife Fund’s trade monitoring programme, TRAFFIC, described how wealthy Vietnamese and Asians would “routinely mix rhino horn powder with water or alcohol as a general health and hangover-curing tonic.” That group also included men who believed rhino horn could cure impotence and enhance sexual performance.

ENVIRONMENT: Namibia rhino poaching (Graphic)
GN43867 Graphic shows numbers of Rhinos poached in Namibia since 2014.
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January 30, 2023 -- Shares in India’s Adani Group continue to plunge after U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of accounting fraud, leading investors to dump its stocks.

Gautam Adani and his family have suffered massive losses since Hindenburg issued its report on January 24.

By Monday morning, the stock rout had wiped more than $62 billion off the market cap of the seven listed companies and almost $30 billion off Gautam Adani’s family fortune.

Businesses in the conglomerate span industries including construction, data transmission, media, renewable energy, defence manufacturing and agriculture.

Most of the allegations by Hindenburg involved concerns about the group’s debt levels, activities of its top executives, use of offshore shell companies and past fraud investigations.

Following the report’s release, Jatin Jalundhwala, head of the Adani group’s legal department, said the group “was evaluating the relevant provisions under U.S. and Indian laws for remedial action against Hindenburg Research.”

“Hindenburg Research by their own admission, is positioned to benefit from a slide in Adani shares,” Jalundhwala said.

In Monday trading, the company’s Adani Enterprises gained 4.8% to trade at 2,892.85 rupees ($35.50), but shares in other Adani listed companies fell between 5% and 20%.

BUSINESS: Adani stock rout (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 30)
GN43866 Graphic shows fall in Adani stock since January 24.
(107mm by 135mm deep)

January 31, 2023 -- The last Boeing 747, the original “Jumbo Jet” that revolutionised air travel, has been delivered to charter carrier Atlas Air, ending 55 years of production.

A freighter version of the last commercial Boeing 747 jumbo jet will be delivered to Atlas Air on January 31, 2023.

In the late 1960s, Pan Am airline founder Juan Trippe, who wanted to cut costs by increasing the number of seats on aircraft, challenged Boeing President William Allen to make a plane that dwarfed the 707.

Engineer Joe Sutter and his team, known as “the Incredibles”, took just 28 months to develop the 747 before its maiden flight on February 9, 1969.

Due to the 747’s monumental size, a new 5.6 million-cubic-meter assembly plant had to be built in Everett, Washington – becoming the world’s largest building by volume.

The early years were riddled with problems, caused in part by the 1970s oil crisis, and the $1 billion development cost almost bankrupted Boeing. But by 1989, the plane's heyday had arrived thanks to the 747-400 revision that brought new engines and lighter materials – making it a perfect fit to meet the growing demand for trans-Pacific flights.

Today, a similar surge in innovation that birthed the 747 has also spelled its demise, as cheaper-to-run, less polluting dual-engine jets replace it.

The next generation Boeing 777X will not be ready until at least 2025 following a series of delays.

AVIATION: Final Boeing 747 delivery (Graphic)
GN43865 Graphic charts Boeing 747 entries and retirements over next 10 years.
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January 30, 2023 -- Ukraine has asked allied nations to create a “fighter jet coalition” to bolster their capabilities, just days after the U.S. and Germany approved the transfer of tanks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, after committing to supplying 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks.

The U.S., which is providing Ukraine with its M1 Abrams tanks, said it would discuss the idea of supplying jets “very carefully” with Kyiv on Thursday.

Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andrii Melnyk, has called for the creation of a “fighter jet coalition” that would provide Ukraine with U.S. F-16s and F-35s, Eurofighters, Tornados, French Rafales and Swedish Gripen jets, the BBC said.

Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat has said that F-16s may be the best option for a multirole fighter to replace the country’s current fleet of Soviet-era warplanes, according to Reuters.

MILITARY: F-16 fighter jet profile (Graphic)
GN43863 Graphic shows details of U.S. F-16 fighter jet and comparison with Russia’s Su-35.
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January 30, 2023 -- President Zelensky has called for allies to speed up the supply of weapons as a study by the Institute for the Study of War shows delays in the provision of HIMARS, NASAMS and tanks stalled Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Russia has accused Ukraine of a war crime in deliberately targeting a hospital in a HIMARS missile attack in the town of Novoaidar, in which 14 people were killed and over 20 injured.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has suggested that the New START nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S. army end in 2026, as the two countries have failed to agree a timetable for renewal talks, and discussions on resuming inspections were called off in November 2022.

UKRAINE: Situation report day 341 (Graphic)
GN43862 Graphic shows situation report following day 341 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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January 27, 2023 -- Earth’s spinning core may have started to rotate in the opposite direction, according to scientists at Peking University in Beijing.

In 1936, Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered that a liquid outer core envelops a solid metal marble at the centre of our planet — a fact which has bamboozled scientists ever since.

Planet Earth consists of three main parts – the crust (the planet’s surface that we live on), the mantle and the core.

The core can be sub-divided into an outer core and an inner core. The latter is as hot as the sun, and because it is under so much pressure, is a solid ball of iron and nickel.

Since the inner core floats in a sea of liquid iron and nickel (outer core) it is free to spin independently and not necessarily in sync with the rest of the planet’s rotation.

Scientists from Peking University in China have been studying the way seismic waves from earthquakes travel through the planet, and believe they have discovered that the Earth’s inner core rotation has paused and that over the years it has been swirling from one direction to another in a cycle approximately 70 years long.

Not all scientists agree with the new findings, however.

Dr John Vidale, a Geophysicist from Southern California who wrote a paper last year citing much faster changes in the core’s spin direction, says, “Our image of the inner Earth is still blurry. Something’s happening and I think we’re going to figure it out, but it may take a decade”.

Changes within the Earth’s core have an impact on humans by altering things like navigation and even the length of the day, although only by milliseconds.

SCIENCE: Earth’s core may have reversed its spin (Graphic)
GN43855 Graphic shows how scientists believe the Earth’s core rotates.
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January 27, 2023 -- The U.S. is to supply its latest Abrams main battle tank to Ukraine. The M1 Abrams was initially developed for the U.S. military in the 1980s to counter the threat of Soviet-era T-72s.

At the time, the Soviet tank force consisted primarily of T-64, T-72, and T-80 main battle tanks. However, during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991, the M1A1 Abrams and British Challenger 1s faced T-72s in a force-on-force engagement for the first time.

After just 100 hours of ground combat, Abrams and the Challengers engaged and destroyed Iraqi T-72s beyond the range of the T-72’s 125mm main gun. With an effective range of up to 3,000 metres, the T-72s were outgunned by the Abrams 120mm at 4,000 metres. A Challenger belonging to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards -- “Scotland’s Cavalry” of the 1st Armoured Division -- achieved a kill at over 5,100 metres, the farthest known tank-versus-tank kill in history.

Thirty-two years later, the Russian tank force invading Ukraine consists primarily of T-72, T-80, and T-90 tanks. The T-90 is a late-model T-72 hull and turret, integrating the newer V-84 MS diesel engine and the latest advanced turret components. Facing the Russian invasion is a mixed force of Ukrainian tanks, consisting of Soviet-era T-54/55s, T-62/64s, T-72s, and T-80/84s.

Last Friday (January 20), NATO defence chiefs met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss Ukraine’s ongoing weapons and equipment needs.

Following the Ramstein meeting, Germany and the U.S. committed to supplying Kyiv with a squadron of 14 Leopard 2s and 31 M1A2 Abrams to boost the odds against Russian forces.

Previously on January 14, British Prime Minister Rishi announced that Ukraine would receive 14 Challenger 2s and 30 AS90 155mm self-propelled guns within weeks. Training of Ukrainian tank crews will begin next week.

MILITARY: M1A2 Abrams vs. T72/90 (Graphic)
GN43856 Graphic shows U.S. M1 Abrams and Russian T-72/90 main battle tanks.
(107mm by 138mm deep) View graphic

January 26, 2023 -- The production of opium increased sharply in Myanmar, rising to a nine-year high due to the political and economic turmoil since the military took power in a coup nearly two years ago, the UN says.

Production reached nearly 795 tonnes in 2022, nearly double the production in 2021 – 423 tonnes – the year of the military coup.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) believes the growth was “directly connected” to the political and economic turmoil in Myanmar since the military took power in a coup nearly two years ago

The cultivated area in 2022 expanded by a third to 40,100 hectares, while the average estimated yield rose 41% to nearly 20kg per hectare, the highest value since the UNODC started keeping records in 2002, the report said.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium, after Afghanistan. The two countries are the source of most of the heroin sold around the world.

MYANMAR: Opium production surges (Graphic)
GN43857 Graphic shows increase in opium production and yields in Myanmar from 2002 to 2023.
(107mm wide by 136mm deep) View graphic

January 26, 2023 -- Germany’s decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine has pushed shares in the 134-year old arms manufacturer Rheinmetall - already surging since the war began - to a record high.

Rheinmetall was founded in 1839 to supply the German Empire with ammunition, and continued to supply arms to the state through both World Wars, temporarily being nationalised by the Nazi government.

As Germany takes on a more assertive role in its foreign policy, Rheinmetall is well positioned to take advantage with its Leopard tanks, Marder and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, Panzerhaubitze self-propelled howitzers, military trucks, air defence systems, and a full range of munitions.

MILITARY: Rheinmetall shares surge with arms to Ukraine (Graphic)
GN43852 Graphic shows how Rheinmetall shares have outperformed the European defence and aerospace industry average.
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January 31 - February 5, 2023 -- Pope Francis visits the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, delivering a message of peace and reconciliation to two sub-Saharan nations plagued by conflict.

The 86-year-old pontiff will visit the DR Congo from January 31 to February 3 and then spend two days in South Sudan before returning to the Vatican.

The pope will first travel to Kinshasa, where he will meet with the country’s authorities and victims of the conflict in the eastern part of the country. Then he will fly to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on February 3.

For the South Sudan leg, the leader of the world's nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics will be joined by his Anglican counterpart, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Church of Scotland Moderator – an unprecedented joint foreign trip by the three religious leaders.

Pope Francis was scheduled to visit the two countries in July 2022 but had to cancel because of a persistent knee ailment.

The original itinerary included a stop in the city of Goma. But the stop to the capital of the North Kivu province has been scrapped due to a flare-up in fighting between the Congolese troops and the M23 rebel group.

RELIGION: Pope visits war-torn African countries (Graphic)
GN43854 Graphic shows itinerary for Pope Francis’ trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
(107mm wide by 139mm deep) View graphic

January 25, 2023 -- Less than a month into 2023, mass shootings have claimed over 70 lives in in the United States – a country with more guns than people.

There have already been 40 mass shootings in 2023 in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

A mass shooting is deemed to have occurred if a minimum of four people have been shot, either wounded or killed, not including the shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.

U.S. mass shootings have been on the rise since the Gun Violence Archive began records in 2014, a year which saw 273 incidents. In 2021 there were 690 mass shootings – a rise of more than 250%. The following year there were 647 mass shootings.

2023 could become the worst year so far. Less than a month into the year, U.S. mass shootings have already killed 73 people and injured 165 others – more incidents than any other January on record.

CRIME: Mass shootings on the rise in U.S. (Graphic)
GN43849 Graphic charts data on U.S. mass shootings.
(107mm by 155mm deep) View graphic

January 25, 2023 -- A huge iceberg, almost the size of Greater London, has broken off the 150m thick Brunt Ice Shelf in the Antarctic after cracks extended across the entire ice shelf.

The crack known as Chasm-1 had until 2012 been dormant for about 35 years, but over the last decade developed naturally as the ice shelf flowed towards the sea at a rate of about 2km per year.

It is not believed to be due to climate change, as atmospheric temperatures above the Brunt Ice Shelf are consistently sub-zero, and no warmer ocean water penetrates into the cavity under the shelf. The iceberg calved when Chasm-1 extended completely through the 150-metre thick ice shelf.

ENVIRONMENT: Antarctic iceberg size of London (Graphic)
GN43845 Graphic shows size and location of new iceberg, and biggest recorded Antarctic icebergs.
(107mm wide by 157mm deep) View graphic

January 25, 2023 -- After months of reluctance, the U.S. and Germany reportedly plan to send tanks to Ukraine, in what Kyiv hopes will be a game-changer on the battlefield.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the decision to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks – and allow other countries to send theirs too – at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is also expected to announce plans to send at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks.

MILITARY: U.S., Germany ready to send tanks to Ukraine (Graphic)
GN43844 Graphic shows details of German Leopard 2A4 and U.S. M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks.
(107mm by 130mm deep) View graphic

January 25, 2023 -- The Doomsday Clock, which indicates how near humanity is to annihilation, has moved closer than ever to midnight, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its “time” in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.

Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation.

BAS said the clock moved, in large part, because of the war in Ukraine. The other threats mentioned this year include climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies.

The decision is made by the BAS science and security board, which includes 13 Nobel Laureates. This year the announcement was made available in Ukrainian and Russian as well as English, due to the war in Ukraine.

Each year, the BAS decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer to or farther from destruction.

The idea began in 1945, when scientists working on the Manhattan Project – developing the world’s first nuclear weapons – created the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago (BAS) to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear war. Two years later, BAS launched its Doomsday Clock.

SCIENCE: Doomsday Clock 2023 (Graphic)
GN43847 Graphic shows ups and downs of the Doomsday Clock since 1947.
(107mm wide by 170mm deep) View graphic

January 25, 2023 -- Justin Bieber is the latest artist to sell the rights to his back catalogue. The Hipgnosis-Blackstone deal will exploit the value of the songs to receive revenue from global streaming sales.

Hipgnosis Song Management will control the Canadian singer’s entire portfolio released before 2022, comprising 290 tracks. London-based Hipgnosis Song Management and U.S. private equity group Blackstone will receive a payment every time a song is played publicly or streamed.

Bieber’s manager for 15 years, Scooter Braun, partially brokered the catalogue deal reported to be worth $200 million.

Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis Song Management, says that hit songs can be “more valuable than gold or oil.”

The revival of songs used on TV shows -- like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on the Netflix sci-fi TV show “Stranger Things” -- generates millions of dollars in royalty payments for the publishing rights holders.

Artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan have sold their songbooks to music companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, private equity firms piled into the market in search of steady returns from royalties powered by the rise of online streaming.

Last year Goldman Sachs predicted that revenue in the global music industry would grow at a compound annual rate of 12 per cent between 2021 and 2030, with revenues hitting more than $150 billion.

“The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable,” Mercuriadis said, announcing the latest deal.

BUSINESS: Music rights deals (Graphic)
GN43848 Graphic shows selection of music publishing deals.
(107mm wide by 159mm deep) View graphic

January 29 - February 4, 2023 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features sports person Ashleigh Barty, the outbreak of Covid-19, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the space shuttle Columbia, the city of New York, the Soviet airline Dobrolyot and the Beijing Olympics.

January 29, 2022: Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian tennis player to win the Australian Open since 1978. She announced her shock retirement just two months later

January 30, 2020: The WHO declared China’s coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency following confirmation of human-to-human transmission in other countries

January 31, 1938: Beatrix, the future Queen of the Netherlands, was born to Crown Princess Juliana and her German-born husband, Prince Bernhard

February 1, 2003: All seven astronauts died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to the atmosphere; debris had damaged the shuttle’s wing at launch

February 2, 1653: The city of New Amsterdam was incorporated. In 1664 the city was captured by British forces led by the Duke of York and renamed New York City

February 3, 1923: The Soviet airline Dobrolyot was founded, a date recognised as the beginning of civil aviation in the Soviet Union. It was renamed Aeroflot in 1932

February 4, 2022: Beijing became the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. U.S.-Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu (above) was among the stars of the Games

HISTORY: On this day January 29 - February 4, 2023 (week 05) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 24)
GN43807 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

January 24, 2023 -- As China’s rivalry with the U.S. grows, and economic growth slows, India could become the next global manufacturing powerhouse.

The widening rift between the United States and China is providing India with a golden opportunity to jump into the game and possibly emerge as a new manufacturing dynamo.

India has tried and failed to do this in the past, but there is a key difference this time – New Delhi is putting its money where its mouth is by spending nearly 20% of its budget this fiscal year on capital investments and infrastructure that could attract manufacturers.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election win in 2014, aided by his “Make in India” campaign, India’s highway network has become 50% longer and domestic air passengers have roughly doubled.

Traditionally, gems, jewellery, textiles and wood were among India’s key exports, but now two thirds of the country’s exports consist of manufactured goods, including engineered items, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

United States Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, highlights that U.S. companies, including Microsoft and Apple, have been expanding in India – with the latter’s outbound shipments of India-made iPhones doubling in value to $2.5bn from April to December 2022.

India’s exports have surged from $300 billion a year (2016-2020) to $422bn per year, and according to McKinsey, has the potential to increase its gross value added (GVA) metric by $320bn by 2027.

ECONOMY: India’s economic aspirations (Graphic)
GN43842 Graphic charts key metrics on India’s desire to become a developed nation.
(107mm by 157mm deep) View graphic

January 24, 2023 -- The Oscar nominations include the surprise nomination for Paul Mescal, who received a Best Actor nod for his role in the father-daughter drama Aftersun, alongside Austin Butler, Brendan Fraser, Bill Nighy, and fellow Irish actor Colin Farrell.

Everything Everywhere All At Once, an indie sci-fi comedy-drama starring Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, leads with 11 nominations.

All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin follow with nine nominations each.

Other best picture nominees include Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis and The Fabelman. Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness and Women Talking are also among them.

Fifteen films have advanced in the Documentary Feature Film category, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Music, Original Score, Original Song, Animated Short Film, and Live Action Short Film.

Ten films have nominations for Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound and Visual effects.

The Oscars ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live in more than 200 territories worldwide.

MOVIES: Oscar nominations 2023 (Graphic)
GN43841 Graphic shows nominations for the 95th Academy Awards.
(107mm by 174mm deep) View graphic

February 1-28, 2023 -- Events in February include the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a ban on imports of Russian oil products, the presidential elections in Nigeria, and a rescue mission to bring three crew members home from the International Space Station.

Feb 5, Europe: A ban on imports of Russian oil products takes effect to further deprive Moscow of revenue, while Russia imposes its own ban on oil sales to any country complying with a price cap agreed by Western nations in December.

Feb 7, U.S.: President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union speech, facing a Republican-controlled House and a special counsel investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

Feb 12, U.S.: Six years after her last album release, Rihanna headlines one of the world’s most-watched musical events, the Super Bowl half-time show.

Feb 17-27, South Africa: Admiral Gorshkov, a Russian frigate armed with new-generation hypersonic missiles, takes part in joint exercises with the navies of China and South Africa off the coast of Durban.

Feb 18, India: The Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) opens in Bengaluru. It houses a growing collection of over 60,000 artworks showcasing Indian art and culture from the 10th century to the present.

Feb 20, Russia: Moscow plans a launch to the ISS to rescue three crew members who are effectively stuck in orbit after a meteoroid hit their Soyuz capsule.

Feb 24, Ukraine: One year ago Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a war that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions, and destroyed vital infrastructure.

Feb 25, Nigeria: Peter Obi of the Labour Party is the frontrunner to win the presidential election in Africa’s most populous nation.

WORLD AGENDA: February 2023 (Graphic)
GN43834 Graphic shows selected news events in February 2023.
(163mm wide by 210mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital) (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital) (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

January 24, 2023 -- Germany is under pressure from Ukraine and some NATO allies to allow Kyiv to be supplied with German-made Leopard 2 tanks for its defence against Russia’s invasion.

Pressure has been building on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine and also let other countries send the ones they own – under military procurement rules, Germany must authorise any re-exports.

But Scholz’s Social Democrat party has been holding back, wary of sudden moves that could cause Moscow to escalate further.

A German defence source told Reuters that Poland had submitted a request to the German government to let it supply up to 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, upping the pressure on Berlin still further, Reuters said.

MILITARY: Leopard 2 inventories (Graphic)
GN43840 Graphic shows Leopard 2 main battle tank inventories of selected European and NATO countries.
(107mm by 113mm deep) View graphic

May 6, 2023 -- The coronation celebrations will feature street parties, a concert at Windsor Castle, light shows and a public holiday where community volunteering will be encouraged.

Charles, 74, automatically became king upon the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth on September 8, last year.

As well as being the king of the United Kingdom, he is also king and head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The coronation ceremony for him and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, will take place on Saturday, May 6, 2023.

MONARCHY: Coronation of King Charles III (Graphic)
GN43839 Graphic shows itinerary of events for coronation of King Charles III.
(107mm by 154mm deep) View graphic

January 23, 2023 -- Education Minister Chris Hipkins will become New Zealand’s next prime minister after MPs of the ruling Labour party made the 44-year-old their unanimous choice on Saturday (January 21, 2023) to replace outgoing leader Jacinda Ardern.

Hipkins, 44, won an endorsement Sunday from his Labour Party colleagues, but that is just a formality now. Hipkins will be sworn in Wednesday, one week after Ardern announced her intention to resign.

“It’s a big day for a boy from the Hutt,” Hipkins said, referring to the Hutt Valley near Wellington where he grew up.” I’m really humbled and really proud to be taking this on. It is the biggest responsibility and the biggest privilege of my life,” Hipkins said on Facebook.

Hipkins –– whose role in leading the country’s Covid-19 response helped earn him the tag of “Mr Fixit” -- said in a press conference that his government would return to economic surplus due to the country’s pandemic response.

Hipkins named Carmel Cipollone as deputy prime minister, the first “Pasifika” -- a New Zealander of Pacific Island descent -- to hold the role.

The new prime minister’s term will last just eight months before he faces a general election on October 14 when he faces Christopher Luxon, who leads the rival National party.

A Taxpayer’s-Union Curia poll, taken three days before Ardern announced her resignation, put Labour’s vote at 31.7 per cent, a fall of 1.4 points.

The National Party’s support also fell, but from a higher base. Its vote fell 2.2 points to 37.2 per cent.

In the 120-seat Parliament, this would mean a National-led coalition government with 63 seats compared to a Labour-led coalition with 55 seats.

POLITICS: New Zealand new PM (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 23)
GN43836 Graphic shows political transition to new prime minister and latest poll results.
(107mm by 139mm deep)

February 5-11, 2023 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, SpaceX, the first woman to be elected President of Costa Rica, the race horse Shergar, North Korea’s nuclear weapons, the city of New Delhi and the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

February 5, 1852: The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and one of the largest museums in the world, opened to the public

February 6, 2018: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket on its maiden flight, carrying founder Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload

February 7, 2010: Laura Chinchilla was the first woman to be elected President of Costa Rica. A protege of outgoing president Oscar Arias, her term in office ended in 2014

February 8, 1983: The Aga Khan’s Derby-winning horse Shergar was kidnapped from his stable in Co. Kildare, Ireland and despite a ransom demand, was never seen again

February 9, 2005: North Korea admitted for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons, and announced it was suspending participation in disarmament talks

February 10, 1931: The city of New Delhi was inaugurated as the capital of India. It houses all three branches – legislative, executive and judicial – of the Indian government

February 11, 2013: Pope Benedict XVI declared his intention to retire, citing ill health. Taking the title Pope Emeritus, he was the first pontiff to step down since 1415. He died in Dec 2022

HISTORY: On this day February 5-11, 2023 (week 06) (Graphic)
GN43808 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set) View graphic

January 20, 2023 -- The world’s largest streaming service has released its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings report, showing it added 7.66 million subscribers globally – beating its own estimate by more than three million.

U.S. streaming giant Netflix ended 2022 with more than 230 million global subscribers, beating analysts’ expectations as hits like “Harry & Meghan” drew in new viewers.

The company said it enticed 7.66 million new members in the past three months – more than three million above their earlier estimate of 4.5 million subscribers.

When Netflix became a publicly traded company in 2002, it had an opening price of $15 a share. Now its shares trade for $337.31 – up almost 50 percent in the past six months.

Fresh content also helped attract users to Netfix’s new lower-priced “Basic with Ads” subscription service, as consumers cut back on entertainment spending amid an uncertain economic outlook.

ENTERTAINMENT: Netflix adds millions of new subscribers (Graphic)
GN43832 Graphic charts Netflix subscriber growth.
(107mm by 130mm deep) View graphic

January 20, 2023 -- At least 1,000 tech companies laid off at least 154,000 employees last year, while redundancies have continued in 2023, with more than 49,000 layoffs recorded this year.

Tech giant Amazon has started to axe over 18,000 jobs, the largest number in its 28-year history, as the company looks to adapt to the gloomy economic outlook.

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, confirmed the cuts to workers in its human resources and stores. Many job cuts include workers on Amazon Alexa devices, the voice assistant launched in 2014.

Jassy told employees earlier this month: “Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so.”

In addition, Alphabet will cull 12,000 jobs, while Meta will lose 11,000. Microsoft will cut 10,000 jobs, and Salesforce will lose 8,000 as the technology industry responds to slowing demand.

BUSINESS: Tech sector job cuts (Graphic)
GN43833 Graphic shows selected job cuts to the tech sector.
(107mm by 122mm deep) View graphic

January 20, 2023 -- A huge, venomous cane toad, dubbed “Toadzilla” by rangers in Australia, is believed to be the largest of her species ever found.

Weighing 2.7kg, the specimen is six times bigger than average cane toad. The current Guinness World Record for the largest toad - 2.65kg - was set by a pet toad in Sweden named Prinsen in 1991.

Cane toads are native to South and Central America. They are extremely hardy animals and voracious predators of insects and other small prey.

These qualities led to their introduction into Australia as a means of controlling pest beetles in the sugar cane industry in 1935, before the use of agricultural chemicals became widespread.

Since then, the range of cane toads has expanded through Australia’s northern landscape and they are now moving westward at an estimated 40 to 60km per year.

Toadzilla has since been euthanised, as is standard practice in Australia for the pests, and will be donated to the Queensland Museum.

ENVIRONMENT: Giant toad found in Australia (Graphic)
GN43831 Graphic shows details of the specimen found and range of cane toads in Australia.
(107mm wide by 100mm deep) View graphic

January 19, 2023 -- India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country this year, and could become the third largest economy by 2028.

Even though its population growth has slowed to 1.2% since 2011, down from 1.7% in the previous decade, India’s population will pass China’s 1.4 billion sometime in 2023.

China’s demographic decline, with its decreasing and ageing population, combined with geopolitical tensions, could enable India, with its youthful, educated workforce, to supplant China as the “world’s factory”.

India’s economic growth of 5.5% over the last 10 years has already enabled it to overtake the UK as the fifth largest economy, and it is expected to pass Germany and Japan within the next 5 years according to the IMF.

POPULATION: India to become world's most populous nation (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 19)
GN43826 Graphic shows Indian and Chinese population growth from 1970-2070, and compares age of the population in the two countries.
(107mm wide by 161mm deep)

January 31, 2023 -- On October 21, 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the set of the movie Rust, when a live round was fired from a prop gun being held by actor Alec Baldwin. He denies responsibility.

Movie star Alec Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter over the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on a film set when he fired a prop gun.

The incident happened on the New Mexico location of his low-budget western “Rust”. Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the film’s armorer, will also be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

October 21, 2021, while rehearsing a scene inside a wooden chapel on Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico – a popular western location seen in the likes of Jimmy Stewart’s 1955 “The Man from Laramie” and Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s 1969 “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

As the crew worked out positions for the scene, Baldwin, playing a grizzled 1880s Kansas outlaw, fired a live round from an Italian-made Pietta Long Colt revolver replica – the bullet passing through Hutchins’ chest and lodging in director Joel Souza’s shoulder.

Hutchins died in flight to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, while Souza was later discharged from hospital.

On April 10, 2022, the producers, of which Baldwin is one, were fined $136,793 by New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, who said “management knew that firearm safety procedures were not being followed on set and demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety”.

CRIME: Felony charges filed against Alec Baldwin (Graphic)
GN43828 Graphic shows events surrounding the death of Halyna Hutchins.
(107mm by 160mm deep) View graphic

January 20, 2023 -- The U.S. is expected to announce it is sending Stryker armoured vehicles to Ukraine for the first time, to help Kyiv launch advanced combat operations.


The White House is finalising plans to send nearly 100 Stryker armoured vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid worth about $2.5 billion, with an announcement expected at a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Germany on Friday.

In addition to sending Strykers for the first time, Washington is also expected to announce it will send at least 50 more Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. Officials cautioned the plans were not final.

The two vehicles serve different purposes. The Bradley brings more firepower but carries fewer troops. The more lightly armoured Stryker, because it is wheeled, can move a lot faster on paved roads, meaning it can get infantry squadrons into the fight faster.

Ukraine has for months sought to be supplied with heavier tanks, including the U.S. Abrams and the German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders have been treading carefully. The UK announced last week that it will send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, but the U.S. and Germany have held off.

MILITARY: U.S. to send Stryker vehicles to Ukraine (Graphic)
GN43824 Graphic shows specifications of the M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle.
(107mm wide by 136mm deep) View graphic

January 18, 2023 -- Samsung may introduce a new teardrop-shaped hinge in its next foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold5, to reduce the visible crease down the centre.

Samsung is the market leader in foldable phones, but their design is far from perfect, with every model released so far suffering from a visible crease down the centre of the screen when opened.

However, the next generation Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 may feature a new “teardrop” hinge design, originally patented in 2016, according to South Korean technology platform, Naver.

The new hinge assembly will potentially lessen the stress placed on that portion of the screen – reducing the opportunity for creasing.

It will also allow the device to fully close with both halves of the screen pressed flush against each other – something its predecessors have been unable to do.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 is expected to come to market in August 2023.

TECH: New hinge may fix folding phone crease (Graphic)
GN43819 Graphic compares the current generation folding phone hinge to the new “teardrop” design.
(107mm by 160mm deep) View graphic

January 17, 2023 -- With a wingspan of 117 metres, the world’s largest aircraft, the Stratolaunch Roc, has made a record-breaking six hour test flight in California.

Named after an enormous mythical bird said to be so big it could carry full-grown elephants, the Roc was designed to enable air-launching of hypersonic vehicles for rapid and iterative testing, and eventually for affordable access to space.

Its high wings and unique dual hull design, in which the pilot and co-pilot occupy the right fuselage and the flight data systems the left, allows safer under-wing launches from a central position. Stratolaunch plan to carry out the first “drop test” release of their prototype hypersonic vehicle Talon-A from the Roc later in 2023.

AVIATION: Stratolaunch Roc world’s largest aircraft (Graphic)
GN43815 Graphic shows details of the Stratolaunch aircraft.
(107mm wide by 150mm deep) View graphic

January 16, 2023 -- Oxfam is calling for new taxes on the super-rich to tackle a post-Covid rise in global inequality. The richest 1% captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth created since 2020, worth $42 trillion.

The aid group made its plea as the Swiss Alpine village of Davos hosts political leaders, CEOs and celebrities for the week-long World Economic Forum.

In a report titled “Survival of the Richest”, the charity said that during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, $26 trillion (63%) of all new wealth was captured by the richest 1%, while $16 trillion (37%) went to the rest of the world put together.

Billionaire fortunes have increased by $2.7 billion a day. This comes on top of a decade of historic gains – the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years.

Oxfam calls for taxes at rates that progressively redistribute wealth and reduce extreme inequality.

BUSINESS: Super-rich control 63 percent of new wealth (Graphic)
GN43810 Graphic shows the share of all wealth gained between 2020 and 2021 and the increase in billionaire wealth between 1987 and 2022.
(107mm wide by 147mm deep) View graphic

January 13, 2023 -- Large deposits of rare earth oxides, essential for high-tech manufacturing including electric vehicles, wind turbines and mobile phones, have been found in northern Sweden.

Sweden’s state-owned mining company LKAB reported the largest deposit of rare earth metals ever discovered in Europe at its Kiruna ion-ore mine, the world’s largest. The Per Geijer deposit contains over a million tonnes of the valuable minerals which are essential for products ranging from smart phones and solar panels to lasers and guided missiles.

There is currently no rare earth mining in Europe, with over 60% of the world’s supply coming from China. Demand for these elements is expected to surge in the coming years.

INDUSTRY: Sweden discovers Europe’s largest rare earth deposits (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 14)
GN43806 Graphic shows location of Europe’s largest rare-earth mineral deposits and lists the 17 rare earth elements.
(107mm wide by 151mm deep)

January 10, 2023 -- The success of a 1987 agreement to stop using chemicals that damage the ozone layer means it may recover in a few decades.

Restoration of the ozone layer is back on track after China largely eliminated emissions of the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11).

A gaping hole in the ozone layer was discovered by scientists in 1985. Two years later, the Montreal Protocol was signed by 46 countries, promising to phase out harmful chemicals blamed for eating away at the ozone layer.

If current policies are adhered to, the ozone layer will be restored to pre-ozone hole values at different times:

2040: Globally, excluding Arctic and Antarctic
2045: Arctic Circle
2066: Antarctic

It should be noted that although the depletion of the ozone is harmful – allows more ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach the ground – it is not a major contributor to climate change.

ENVIRONMENT: Ozone layer on track to be restored (Graphic)
GN43759 Graphic shows the remarkable decline in CFC gas emissions.
(107mm by 142mm deep) View graphic

November 11, 2022 -- At least 10 White House contenders could run in the 2024 presidential election. U.S. President Joe Biden says he intends to run for re-election but will make a final decision early next year.

The outcome of midterm elections for governorships and Senate seats in battleground states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona will decide President Joe Biden’s prospects ahead of the next presidential race.

If Biden steps aside -- after all, he will be 81 years old in 2024 -- there could be a wide Democratic field. A nominee race could include Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney and California’s Governor Gavin Newsom could also be contenders.

While several 2024 Republican White House hopefuls are emerging, former President Donald Trump has made no secret of his interest in running again.

While Trump will be the front-runner for the 2024 Grand Old Party nomination if it takes control of Congress, he may no longer be the most likely nominee.

According to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Republicans might become so “exhausted by the battle -- the constant battle -- that they may believe that, well, maybe it’s time to turn the page if we can get someone who has all Trump’s policies, who’s not Trump.”

That person could be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis -- a more extreme version of Trump and potentially a more electable one.

DeSantis has positioned himself as an aggressive conservative without Trump’s legal problems and the congressional investigation into his role in the deadly January 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Other GOP nominees could include Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

POLITICS: 2024 U.S. presidential hopefuls (Graphic)
GN43479 Graphic shows U.S. White House hopefuls for the 2024 presidential election.
(107mm by 154mm deep) View graphic

January 1 - December 31, 2021 -- Have a look at how this interactive graphic auto-updates each day to show a range of international anniversaries and events today in history - a daily feature to engage your online visitors day after day.

EDITORS: This graphic is a responsive interactive that can be published in an iframe. The events and picture displayed are determined by the system clock on the device on which it is viewed.

The graphic can be published using embed code. If you host the graphic yourself you may wish to substitute some of the events or images to give a more national or local interest. The image and text for each day are held in the hypresources folder. Data is supplied for a whole year (instructions available - see below)


HISTORY: ON THIS DAY auto-updating (3) (Interactive UPDATED Jun 30)
GN40881 Responsive graphic shows anniversaries and events from today’s date in history. Changes automatically each day. Come back tomorrow to see anniversaries and events for that date.
(800px wide by 650px deep - auto updating)

May 28, 2021 -- A significant 15% of Americans believe that the reins of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic paedophiles.

A new poll, carried out on behalf of the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core, finds that 15% of those surveyed in the United States believe far-right QAnon allegations that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping paedophiles who run a global, cannibalistic child sex trafficking operation.

Similarly, 20% think there is a biblically proportioned "Storm" coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders – i.e. Donald Trump.

Note: The "Storm" has been repeatedly predicted to occur since 2017, such as on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021. Not surprisingly, it didn't happen.

Former QAnon devotees also allege that followers believe President Joe Biden is, in fact, a malfunctioning robot whose mouth does not operate properly – hence the face mask.

At its heart, QAnon holds a completely unfounded theory that asserts Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipers in government, business and the media.

The conspiracy theory emerged in October 2017 with a post on the website 4chan, by "Q", claiming to be a high-level government official with Q clearance, who has access to classified information involving the Trump administration. It is, however, more likely that Q is a group of people acting under one pseudonym.

The survey was conducted from March 8 to 30, 2021, canvassing a sample of 5,625 people aged 18 and over, living in all 50 U.S. states.

UNITED STATES: 15 percent of Americans believe QAnon conspiracies (1) (Graphic)
GN41401 Graphic charts poll data on Americans who believe in the QAnon conspiracy movement.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic