Graphic News Planner (news) 15/02/2019 16:22:01

February 26, 2019 -- As the Grand Canyon National Park marks its centenary, it is fighting to prevent nearby lands from contamination by new uranium mining. A 20-year ban on mining remains in force, but is under review.

Companies hoping to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon are edging closer to that goal with uranium included on a list of 35 minerals the Department of Interior considers to be “critical.”

It is federal policy to seek new sources of domestic minerals on the critical list, including exploration and mining of areas rich in deposits.

As the Grand Canyon National Park celebrates the centenary of its founding by President Woodrow Wilson on Feb 26, 1919, President Trump is considering lifting a 20-year ban on mining in the area around the park, implemented in 2012 under the Obama administration.

ENVIRONMENT: Radioactive waste threat to Grand Canyon interactive (Interactive)
GN38796 Interactive graphic shows uranium mines and uranium claims scattered around the Grand Canyon National Park site, with timeline of important events.
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February 15, 2019 -- Spain, Eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, is facing more turmoil as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls an election just nine months after taking office.

Sánchez called a snap election for April 28 after failing to pass his Budget bill. The prime minister’s refusal to discuss independence for Catalonia angered separatist MPs who
vetoed his finance plans.

Divisions were highlighted when 12 Catalan separatist leaders and activists went on trial accused of rebellion and sedition over their unrecognised independence referendum in 2017.

According to a “poll of polls” from the Spanish daily El País, the Socialist Party (PSOE) of Pedro Sánchez would win the election, but fading support for its leftwing ally, Podemos, would leave it short of seats to form a government.

On the right, the centre-right People’s party (PP), combined with the continued rise of Ciudadanos, and surprise growth of the far-right Vox, may win enough seats to form a rightwing coalition like the one the three created in Andalucía, Spain’s most populous region, after December elections.

POLITICS: Spain pushed toward snap election (Graphic)
GN38808 Graphic shows current distribution of seats in parliament and projection of seats according to a “poll of polls” from El País.
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February 14, 2019 -- NASA has called time on its Opportunity Mars rover as the robot has not contacted Earth since June 2018, when it was engulfed in a dust storm.

One of the most successful feats of interplanetary exploration, NASA’s Opportunity rover mission, has come to an end after almost 15 years exploring the Martian surface.

The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe planet-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. Since then, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have sent more than a thousand commands to try and restore contact, but to no avail.

Designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel 1 kilometre, Opportunity surpassed all expectations of endurance, scientific value and longevity, ultimately travelling more than 45 kilometres by the time it broke down in Perseverance Valley.

Opportunity landed in Eagle Crater on January 24, 2004, seven months after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Its twin rover, Spirit, landed 20 days earlier in Gusev Crater on the other side of the Red Planet. Spirit logged almost 8 kilometers before its mission wrapped up in May 2011.

SPACE: End of the road for Opportunity Mars rover (Graphic)
GN38801 Graphic shows the traverse map for the Opportunity Mars rover.
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February 16, 2019 -- Two men in their 70s are vying for the presidency in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, where most of the electorate is under 40

Voters in the West African nation must decide whether to grant a second term to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The 76-year-old former military leader won office in 2015 on promises to improve Nigeria's oil-dependent economy, fight rampant corruption and quell insecurity — especially in the northeast plagued by Islamist extremists.

Buhari's main challenger is Atiku Abubakar, a 72-year-old businessman and former vice president campaigning on a similar platform.

Despite growing wealth in some of the country's commercial centres, Nigeria is also home to more people living in extreme poverty than any other nation.

NIGERIA: Presidential candidates (Graphic)
GN38803 Graphic shows profiles of Nigeria’s presidential candidates.
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February 14, 2019 -- European plane manufacturer Airbus is to end production of its A380 superjumbo. The firm will stop deliveries of the world’s biggest passenger jet in 2021 due to lack of customers.

The decision comes after Emirates, the largest A380 customer, cut back its order by 39 planes – from 162 to 123 aircraft.

The A380 has faced tough competition from smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft and has never lived up to Airbus sales expectations.

Airlines have been cautious about committing to the costly plane, so huge that airports had to build new runways and modify terminals to accommodate it. The double-decker planes started flying in 2007 and seated more than 500 passengers.

Airbus said it would enter talks with unions in coming weeks over the 3,000-3,500 jobs potentially affected.

AVIATION: Airbus A380 production to end (Graphic)
GN38800 Graphic shows details of Airbus A380 superjumbo.
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February 14, 2019 -- If the UK leaves the EU without an agreement on international trade -- a “hard Brexit” -- more than 435,000 jobs will be affected across the bloc, according to a new study by the Halle Institute for Economic Research.

“Potential International Employment Effects of a Hard Brexit” by economists Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch and Oliver Holtemöller looked into a hard Brexit’s potential impact on jobs in 56 industrial sectors across 43 countries while assuming a 25 per cent drop in UK imports from the EU.

The authors conclude that Germany could lose the most jobs with around 103,000 threatened if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal. In Germany, about 15,000 persons in the auto industry are working directly or indirectly for exports to the UK. More than 173,000 jobs in France, Poland, Italy and Spain will also be at risk.

Since production relies on global supply chains, not only firms in the remaining EU countries will suffer from declining exports to the UK. Supplies from China, India and the United States -- which contribute to EU exports to the UK — also threaten 108,000 workers.

In total, about 612,000 jobs are affected in the 43 countries examined. If the decline in UK imports is limited to 10 per cent, then the number of jobs affected falls to around 250,000.

BUSINESS: Brexit-EU jobs risk (Graphic)
GN38802 Graphic shows jobs threatened by country in the EU following a hard Brexit.
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February 13, 2019 -- Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is shipping some 1.15 million barrels per day of crude and refined products unimpeded by U.S. sanctions and payment restrictions, according to Reuters data.

Venezuela was exporting about 1.4 million barrels per day in the months before sanctions took effect on January 28.

The South American nation is looking to double exports to India as the sanctions – designed to undercut financial support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro – disrupt deliveries to the United States and Europe.

ENERGY: Venezuela oil shipments (Graphic)
GN38798 Graphic shows destinations of Venezuelan crude oil cargoes.
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June 25, 2019 -- Following his conviction for drug smuggling Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is likely to spend the rest of his life at a U.S. maximum security jail.

Drug kingpin Guzman previously escaped two high-security Mexican prisons before he was captured and extradited to the United States.

He is now looking at spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison.

The U.S. has one supermax prison in Florence, Colorado (ADX for “administrative maximum”). The compound is secure, remote and austere, earning itself the moniker “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.

Located outside an old mining town two hours south of Denver, ADX’s hardened concrete buildings house the nation’s most violent offenders, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols.

The 400 inmates are held alone for 23 hours a day in 2.1m by 3.7m cells, with fixed furnishings made of concrete.

Most inmates have a television offering limited programming, with their only real view of the outside world coming from a 10cm-wide window designed to prevent them from determining where they are housed in the facility. Human interaction is kept to the minimum, with prisoners even eating their meals in solitude – right beside their stainless steel toilets.

Guzman will be sentenced on June 25, for smuggling narcotics into the U.S. and for having a hand in dozens of murders.

CRIME: El Chapo’s likely supermax prison (Graphic)
GN38797 Graphic shows the whereabouts of the ADX Florence supermax prison, with diagram of the cell El Chapo will occupy if sent there.
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February 13, 2019 -- Germany, France and Britain have launched an EU-backed “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) to insulate trade with Iran from U.S. sanctions on Tehran. Called INSTEX, the SPV is a mirror image transaction system.

The European Union has been trying to keep Iran in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out in May 2018.

INSTEX would match a European trader buying Iranian oil to a European manufacturer selling machinery to an Iranian company.

The European oil buyer would not pay the Iranian exporter but would instead send its payment via INSTEX to the European manufacturer.

At the same time in Iran, the Iranian machinery buyer would not pay the European seller but would instead send its money to the Iranian oil seller. This trade channel replaces sanctionable international bank transfers between Europe with payments that do not cross Iran’s borders.

BUSINESS: Trade with Iran plan (Graphic)
GN38799 Graphic shows how INSTEX special purpose vehicle could work.
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February 11, 2019 -- Orbex is a British-Danish-German startup hoping to send small commercial satellites into orbit from a launch pad on the A’Mhòine peninsula in the Scottish highlands as early as 2021.

The 17m-long, two-stage Orbex launch vehicle, dubbed “Prime”, is set to be the first UK-built rocket to take off from a UK launch site. It is made from lightweight carbon fibre and aluminum composite, and features the world’s largest 3D printed rocket engine, according to NASASpaceFlight.

The rocket will likely use bio-propane, a clean-burning, renewable fuel source that cuts carbon emissions by 90 percent compared to fossil hydrocarbon fuels.

Most of the rocket components will be built at Orbex’s production facilities in Germany and Denmark. Assembly then takes place at Forres in Scotland before the rocket is transported by road to the proposed launch site at A’Mhòine.

SPACE: Orbex satellite launcher (Graphic)
GN38790 Graphic shows features of Orbex Prime launch vehicle.
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February 12, 2019 -- Apple’s 2018 iPhone sales in China fell by a fifth compared with 2017, while sales of Chinese rival Huawei’s smartphones soared 23 percent, according to IDC.

Since encountering iPhone sales problems, Apple no longer breaks out detailed numbers on its smartphone shipments in its quarterly results, so this report is the clearest indicator we have on the issues Apple is facing in the Chinese market.

Overall, Apple’s smartphone shipments fell 19.9% in the final quarter of 2018, reducing its market share to 11.5%, compared to Huawei, which enjoyed growth to snatch 29% of its domestic market.

BUSINESS: iPhone sales tumble 20 percent in China (Graphic)
GN38792 Graphic shows fourth quarter 2018 data disclosing Apple is continuing to lose market share in China to cheaper domestic smartphone makers.
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February 18, 2019 -- Knife crime offenders in London will have to wear GPS trackers upon release from prison in a bid to tackle violence in Britain’s capital.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, announced the pilot on Monday (Feb 11) as part of a public health approach to tackle “unacceptably high” levels of violent crime in the city.

Offenders leaving prison for crimes such as knife possession, wounding and grievous bodily harm under the year-long plan, starting on February 18, will be required to wear tracking devices.

In February last year, London’s monthly homicide rate briefly overtook New York’s for the first time in modern history -- with the New York Police Department (NYPD) reporting 11 murders and the Metropolitan Police reporting 15.

However, homicide rates in the two cities, which have similar population sizes, ended the year with the NYPD reporting 289 murders and the Met investigating 132 homicides.

CRIME: Knife crime in Britain  (Graphic)
GN38793 Graphic shows offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales in 2017 and 2018.
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February 27-28, 2019 -- Vietnam, communist-run but with capitalist leanings, hosts the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Washington’s goal for the Feb 27-28 talks is for North Korea to agree give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea frames the issue more broadly, seeking a removal of the “nuclear threat” from U.S. military forces in South Korea.

Host Vietnam hopes to boost its diplomatic leverage against its powerful neighbour, China, which contests waters in the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam.

But Vietnam’s history as a U.S. adversary that transitioned on its own terms to a dynamic free-market economy under a communist political system suggests a larger meaning for the summit.

VIETNAM: Hanoi hosts Trump-Kim summit (Graphic)
GN38791 Graphic looks at the reasons behind the decision to choose Hanoi as the venue for the summit.
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February 26, 2019 -- As the Grand Canyon National Park marks its centenary, it is fighting to prevent nearby lands from contamination by new uranium mining. A 20-year ban on mining remains in force, but is under review.

Companies hoping to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon are edging closer to that goal with uranium included on a list of 35 minerals the Department of Interior considers to be “critical.”

It is federal policy to seek new sources of domestic minerals on the critical list, including exploration and mining of areas rich in deposits.

As the Grand Canyon National Park celebrates the centenary of its founding by President Woodrow Wilson on Feb 26, 1919, President Trump is considering lifting a 20-year ban on mining in the area around the park, implemented in 2012 under the Obama admininstration.

ENVIRONMENT: Radioactive waste threat to Grand Canyon (Graphic)
GN38787 Graphic shows uranium mines and uranium claims scattered around the Grand Canyon National Park site, with timeline of important events.
(107mm by 170mm deep)

February 11, 2019 -- U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces have begun what could be the final battle against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, after a five-month campaign to liberate the Euphrates River valley from the jihadist group.

The assault on Baghouz Tahtani, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, began on Saturday night. It came after the evacuation of more than 20,000 civilians over the past two weeks. Many of them are suspected fighters or the wives and children of IS fighters.

Estimates of the number of fighters remaining in Baghouz Tahtani vary from 400 to 600 and are thought to include some of the most die-hard and committed extremists who have stayed with the group to the bitter end.

Syrian Democratic Forces forces entered the villages of Shajilah and Baghuz Fawqani on January 23.

SYRIA: Islamic State last stronghold (Graphic)
GN38789 Graphic shows Kurdish-led campaign against so-called Islamic State.
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February 10, 2019 -- Period drama The Favourite won seven awards out of 12 nominations at the Bafta film awards, collecting the outstanding British film prize at the star-studded ceremony. The film also collected the best production design prize and best make-up and hair.

Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma also had a successful night picking up four of the big prizes -- best film, best director, best cinematography and best film not in the English language.

Rami Malek won best actor for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman won best adapted screenplay, while Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor for Green Book.

FILM: BAFTA British Academy Film Awards 2019 (Graphic)
GN38669 Graphic shows winners of 2019 BAFTAs.
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February 8, 2019 -- Aid convoys from international allies supporting Venezuela’s opposition risk becoming the focus of confrontation with troops loyal to President Nicolás Maduro.

Juan Guaido, the self-declared interim president, has welcomed an offer from the United States of $20 million of food and medicines, and the supplies are being transported to the border. But Mr Maduro, who has the support of the army, views the aid effort as a pretext for a U.S.-led military
intervention.

Venezuelan soldiers are using a fuel tanker and cargo containers to cut off access to the Tienditas bridge, which links the Colombian border town of Cucuta to Venezuela.

The United Nations has warned against using aid as a pawn in Venezuela.

Venezuela's socialist economic system has been severely hit following the collapse of world oil prices in 2014. Inflation has skyrocketed, and since 2016, more than three million Venezuelans have fled to neighbouring countries amid a shortage of food and medicine in the country.

VENEZUELA: Tensions rise over humanitarian aid (Graphic)
GN38786 Graphic shows flahspoints related to delivery of humanitarian aid to Venezuela.
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February 8, 2019 -- Boeing is partnering with Nevada-based startup Aerion Corporation to develop a business jet that promises to bring back the luxury of supersonic air travel for the first time since Concorde retired in 2003.

Boeing said it will provide engineering, manufacturing and flight-test resources for Aerion’s AS2 jet, which is due to make its first flight in 2023.

The 12-seater plane is able to fly at speeds of up to Mach 1.4, or about 1,000 miles per hour – some 70 percent faster than today’s quickest business jets, according to Bloomberg News.

AVIATION: Aerion AS2 business jet (Graphic)
GN38781 Graphic shows details of Aerion AS2 jet.
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February 11, 2019 -- Four decades ago, on February 11, 1979, the United States-backed Shah of Iran’s government fell, ten days after the triumphant return from exile of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Islamic Republic was proclaimed on April 1.

On November 4, 1979, the 15th anniversary of Khomeini’s exile from Iran, students chanting “Marg bar Āmrikā” -- “Death to America!” -- stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The assailants took 90 people hostage, including 52 Americans.

The impact of the revolution that saw the end of Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the instalment of Khomeini as the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic continues to shape the world forty years later.

The creation of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Syrian civil war are a direct consequence of Tehran’s influence, as is the regional cold war against Saudi Arabia and Israel and anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

Iran’s revolution also triggered conflicts in the region, starting with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and leading to the current proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen.

When Saddam invaded invade Kuwait in 1989, he drew the U.S. troops into the region and set the path for President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.

A new era seemed possible when U.S. President Barack Obama offered to “extend a hand” if Iran would “unclench its fist”. In 2015, newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed to end Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Last year President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal and renewed sanctions citing Iran’s continued development of non-nuclear ballistic missiles. Crowds still chant the revolutionary mantra “Death to America!” in Tehran every Friday.

POLITICS: Iran Islamic Revolution anniversary (Graphic)
GN38783 Graphic shows key events in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in February 1979.
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February 9, 2019 -- On February 9, 1969, the first Boeing 747 took to the air. The “Queen of the Skies” was the first wide-body “jumbo jet” capable of carrying more than 400 passengers, driving down the cost of flying for millions of people around the globe.

Everything about the wide-body “jumbo jet” set precedents. Boeing’s prototype 747, the RA-001, was born in a custom-built assembly plant in Everett, Washington -- the biggest building by volume ever constructed.

The design grew from a U.S. Air Force contract for a large transport aircraft, capable of hauling 52 tonnes of cargo 8,000km (5,000 miles). The cockpit was placed in a hump above a flip-up nose door big enough to drive a tank through. In 1965, Lockheed’s design won the competition and became the C-5 Galaxy.

Boeing engineer Joe Sutter was then tasked by Boeing’s president Bill Allen to work on a new project -- a giant airliner inspired by the military cargo blueprints, and demand from Juan Trippe, the president of Pan Am, for a plane twice the size of the first-generation jet airliner, the 200-seat 707.

With Sutter heading the design team the prototype took to the air in just 16 months, assembled by 50,000 construction workers, mechanics, and engineers known as “The Incredibles.”

Sutter and his team kept the high flight deck, the nose door, and the Pratt & Whitney “high-bypass” engines proposed for the military freighter -- high-bypass creates much more thrust for the amount of fuel burned. Sutter realised that more passengers per flight meant the cost per passenger would fall, and fuel-efficient jets would be cheaper to run.

Pan Am took delivery of its first 747-100 on January 15, 1970. Since then, Boeing has built over 1,500 747s, and about 500 still fly today.

AVIATION: Boeing 747 50th anniversary interactive (Interactive)
GN38776 Interactive graphic shows timeline of the Boeing 747 and features 747-100, Air Force One, and 747-8I Intercontinental models.
(800px wide by 568px deep)

February 7, 2019 -- The past five years have been, collectively, the hottest on record, with 2018 the fourth-warmest since modern records began.

In 2018, Earth’s global surface temperatures were the fourth warmest since 1880, according to analyses by NASA and NOAA.

Global temperatures in 2018 were 0.83°C warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean and 1.01°C warmer than the 1880 mean. Globally, 2018’s temperatures lie behind those of 2016, 2017 and 2015, but collectively, the past five years are the warmest on modern record.

According to scientists, the warming is being driven in large part by increased emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases caused by human activities.

Weather patterns affect regional temperatures, so not every region on Earth has experienced the same amount of warming, but the trend is strongest in the Arctic region, where 2018 saw the continued loss of sea ice. Additionally, mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets continued to contribute to rising sea levels. Increasing temperatures are also contributing to longer fire seasons and some extreme weather events.

NASA’s temperature analyses incorporate surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations.

These raw measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heat island effects that could skew the conclusions. These calculations produce the global average temperature deviations from the baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

NASA estimates that 2018’s global mean change data has a 95 percent certainty level.

ENVIRONMENT: Global warming threat (Graphic)
GN38782 Graphic charts the global temperature anomaly from 1880 to 2018.
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February 19, 2019 -- An Israeli nonprofit group is aiming to lead the first privately funded mission to land a probe on the moon, following in the footprints of the former Soviet Union, the U.S. and China.

The mission marks yet another milestone, not only in the history and technical arc of space exploration, but also in how humankind goes about space exploration.

SpaceIL was founded in 2011 to compete in the Google Lunar XPrize, a program that planned to award $30 million to the first privately funded team who could build a spacecraft and land it successfully on the moon. The Google Lunar XPrize contest deadline ended in 2018 without a winner. Undaunted, SpaceIL forged ahead with the development and construction of the spacecraft, and is now ready to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

SpaceIL’s Beresheet – Hebrew for “In the Beginning” is shaped like a round table with four carbon-fibre legs, stands about 1.5 meters tall and weighs 585kg – with fuel accounting for two-thirds of that weight.

It will carry instrumentation to measure the magnetic field of the moon, a laser-reflector provided by NASA and a time-capsule of cultural and historical Israeli artifacts.

In spaceflight, the primary constraint in traveling from place to place is not distance, but the quantity of energy required. The Falcon 9 rocket only carries Beresheet about 10 percent of the total distance to the moon. But it provides nearly 90 percent of the total energy required to get there. Consequently, once lifted from the surface of the Earth, and with a small amount of additional energy from its own propulsion system, Beresheet can boost its own orbit by positioning itself so that it’s captured by the moon’s gravitational pull. This process will take several weeks.

Once landed on the moon, however, the mission may only last a few more days. The lander is not designed for the long haul, but instead will demonstrate advances in technology as well as the business model for a privately funded spacecraft landing on another body in the solar system.

SPACE: World’s first private lunar lander (Graphic)
GN38780 Graphic shows how Israel’s SpaceIL intends to land a craft on the moon.
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February 6, 2019 -- Magnetic north is on the move, forcing an emergency update for GPS systems which need its precise location to function accurately.

Earth’s magnetic North Pole is moving far faster than it has before, forcing scientists to issue an emergency update for the World Magnetic Model, critical to sea and military GPS navigation, as well as gadgets like smartphones.

It is normally updated every five years but the schedule has been pushed forward a year due to the accelerated rate at which the pole is moving.

The wandering magnetic north pole, which long jiggled above Canada and barely moved, is now moving 48km a year towards Siberia. Since the 1990s, the movement has accelerated from about 15km a year to 50-55km a year.

Earth’s magnetic field is generated mainly by movement of the liquid iron that makes up most of our planet’s core, some 3,000km beneath the surface. That movement causes the magnetic poles to shift, but the cause of recent acceleration remains unknown.

SCIENCE: Earth’s shifting magnetic north pole (Graphic)
GN38778 Graphic tracks movement of the magnetic north pole from 1590 to today, including an explanation of what causes it.
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February 5, 2019 -- China has slaughtered almost one million pigs over the past six months as the country battles an incurable African swine fever epidemic which threatens to cripple the country’s domestic pig farming industry.

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal animal disease affecting pigs and wild boars with up to 100 percent mortality, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Since August 2018, China has confirmed ASF outbreaks in 25 provinces. More than 950,000 pigs have been culled in an effort to halt further spread.

China produces more than half of the world’s pigs – around 700 million a year. Most of them stay within China’s borders, with just 1.6 million exported in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

HEALTH: African swine fever in Asia (Graphic)
GN38774 Graphic shows details of African swine fever outbreaks and transmission of the disease.
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February 6, 2019 -- China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are providing billions of dollars in financial support to Pakistan as the country burns through its foreign currency reserves at the fastest pace in Asia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Pakistan from February 14-18.

Since the election of Prime Minister Imran Khan in July, the State Bank of Pakistan has received some $13.5 billion in loans or pledges from its allies. Premier Khan has been reluctant to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help again -- in 2013 Islamabad was loaned $6.7 billion by the IMF. However, the IMF has confirmed that Pakistan has asked for an emergency bailout of $8 billion to cover sovereign debt payments.

Both Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s -- two of the three major global rating agencies -- have downgraded Pakistan’s long-term debt rating to “B-Negative.” The downgrade indicates a higher credit risk; therefore, it is likely to push up interest rates required from government and corporate bodies when they go to the international markets to raise borrowing.

BUSINESS: Pakistan foreign loans (Graphic)
GN38779 Graphic shows declining foreign currency reserves held by State Bank of Pakistan.
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February 27-28, 2019 -- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are to hold their second summit, raising hopes that the two sides can break their stalemate over denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The meeting would be Trump’s second summit with Kim over the last year and the first time a U.S. president has twice met the leader of the authoritarian regime.

The two men held their first meeting in Singapore in June. Trump has been eager to hold a second summit in spite of a lack of concrete progress in persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has good relations with both the United States and North Korea, had been widely touted as the most likely venue for the meeting.

POLITICS: North Korea’s diplomatic encounters (1) (Graphic)
GN38716 Graphic shows details of past summits between North and South Korea.
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February 5, 2019 -- Paid streaming subscriptions have given the record industry a lifeline, restoring it to a period of growth and expansion.

In the year 2000 the record industry was riding high on a crest of bumper CD sales, but it was to be short lived. The fast-developing internet brought with it illegal music downloads and file sharing, which saw CD sales plunge by two thirds over the next decade.

Today record labels are bouncing back, thanks to the same demon that almost destroyed it – the internet, now in the guise of paid-for music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime, which generally charge users between $5 and $10 a month for unlimited access to millions of songs.

Record company sales have jumped an average 7 percent annually since 2014, with streaming now the top source of revenue, generating $6.6 billion in 2017, up from $1.9 billion in 2014.

This change in fortune is leading Universal Music Group to consider selling a stake in its business – possibly valued at more than $25 billion – and is courting potential buyers in private, ahead of an expected announcement on February 14, 2019.

Although things are looking up at the moment, the music business is an unpredictable animal, but even so, will investors be able to resist a stake in the number one music company?

Universal’s line-up of music legends includes ABBA, Bob Marley, Taylor Swift, U2 and Van Halen. Its artists had the top five tracks on Spotify and Apple Music in 2018, and it accounted for 30 percent of global music sales in 2017. Sony Music Entertainment took 22 percent and Warner Music Group another 16 percent.

MUSIC: Record labels saved by the internet (Graphic)
GN38775 Graphic charts the fall and rebirth of the record industry at the hands of the internet, and includes data on what streaming services pay per song play.
(107mm by 144mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 1 - February 23, 2019 -- Graphic shows anniversaries and events on this day in history. Updated now to include the data for weeks 07-08 i.e. to February 23. The events and images are the same as on the GN On This Day print graphics GN38749 and GN38750. If you are hosting GN36036 on your own servers (rather than using the embed code supplied by Graphic News), the data in the hypersources folder can be topped up with the data for the separate weeks. These can be downloaded separately in the ZIP.clip file.

The graphic is “audo-updating” so if you look at the graphic tomorrow, it will show a different picture and selection of events to those shown today. This is because the graphic is constructed like an “interactive” graphic, but is not “interactive” in the sense that the viewer can change the events displayed; instead it “interacts” with the clock on your computer or mobile and this determines the selection shown.

The graphic is also responsive so if you view on a mobile phone it will look as good, but different, from the version seen if you view on your larger tablet or computer screen.

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. This is easy to do as there are separate files for the images and words for each day in the hyper sources folder. (Instructions available - See below).

HISTORY: ON THIS DAY “interactive” (Weeks 07-08) (Interactive UPDATED Feb 5)
GN36036 Responsive graphic showing 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)

February 17 - March 23, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the Periodic Table of chemical elements,India’s “Bandit Queen”, Thomas Edison, riots in the Ukranian capital Billy Graham Jr, Woolworth’s stores and the origin of lawn tennis.

February 17, 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev, by writing the chief properties of chemical elements on cards and arranging them in various ways, formulated the Periodic Table

February 18, 1994: Phoolan Devi, India’s “Bandit Queen”, was released from jail after serving 11 years. She then went into politics but was shot dead in 2001

February 19, 1878: Thomas Edison patented the phonograph, in which a large horn transmitted vibrations to a needle that scribed a recording on to a cylinder rotated by hand

February 20, 2014: More than 100 people were killed as protesters attempted to reclaim Independence Square from riot police in the heart of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev

February 21, 2018: U.S. evangelist Billy Graham Jr., influential preacher who was the first to use the medium of TV to convey the Christian message to worshippers, died at age 99

February 22, 1879: Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Five-and-Ten-Cent store n Utica, New York, pioneering sales and customer service practices still in use today

February 23, 1874: Major Walter Winfield patented an outdoor game he called “sphairistike”, Greek for “playing ball”, but which soon became known as lawn tennis

HISTORY: On this day February 17-23, 2019 (week 08) (Graphic)
GN38750 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(52mm wide by 118mm deep)

February 10-16, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features child star Shirley Temple, Einstein’s gravitational waves, George Gershwin, Nelson Mandela’s release from jail, La Marseillaise, the foundation of St Louis and Fidel Castro.

February 10, 2014: Shirley Temple, the child star who charmed Depression-era moviegoers, died aged 85. In later life she became U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia

February 11, 2016: Scientists announced they had finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago

February 12, 1924: In New York, George Gershwin played his haunting composition Rhapsody In Blue for the first time in public. It established his reputation as a serious composer

February 13, 1990: Nelson Mandela, newly released from jail, received a hero’s welcome on his return to Soweto, pledging to end “the dark hell of apartheid” in South Africa

February 14, 1879: La Marseillaise was restored as France’s national anthem. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget De Lisle to rally soldiers to defend their homeland

February 15, 1764: French explorers Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau founded the city of St Louis, gateway to the American west, on the west bank of the Mississippi river

February 16, 1959: Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after heading up a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile

HISTORY: On this day February 10-16, 2019 (week 07) (Graphic)
GN38749 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

February 9, 2019 -- On February 9, 1969, the first Boeing 747 took to the air. The “Queen of the Skies” was the first wide-body “jumbo jet” capable of carrying more than 400 passengers, driving down the cost of flying for millions of people around the globe.

Everything about the wide-body “jumbo jet” set precedents. Boeing’s prototype 747, the RA-001, was born in a custom-built assembly plant in Everett, Washington -- the biggest building by volume ever constructed.

The design grew from a U.S. Air Force contract for a large transport aircraft, capable of hauling 52 tonnes of cargo 8,000km (5,000 miles). The cockpit was placed in a hump above a flip-up nose door big enough to drive a tank through. In 1965, Lockheed’s design won the competition and became the C-5 Galaxy.

Boeing engineer Joe Sutter was then tasked by Boeing’s president Bill Allen to work on a new project -- a giant airliner inspired by the military cargo blueprints, and demand from Juan Trippe, the president of Pan Am, for a plane twice the size of the first-generation jet airliner, the 200-seat 707.

With Sutter heading the design team the prototype took to the air in just 16 months, assembled by 50,000 construction workers, mechanics, and engineers known as “The Incredibles.”

Sutter and his team kept the high flight deck, the nose door, and the Pratt & Whitney “high-bypass” engines proposed for the military freighter -- high-bypass creates much more thrust for the amount of fuel burned. Sutter realised that more passengers per flight meant the cost per passenger would fall, and fuel-efficient jets would be cheaper to run.

Pan Am took delivery of its first 747-100 on January 15, 1970. Since then, Boeing has built over 1,500 747s, and about 500 still fly today.

AVIATION: Boeing 747 50th anniversary (Graphic)
GN38767 Graphic shows timeline of the Boeing 747 and features 747-100, Air Force One, and 747-8I Intercontinental models.
(219mm wide by 221mm)

February 4, 2019 -- Iran has displayed a new cruise missile with a claimed range of more than 1,350km, during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The surface-to-surface missile, named Hoveizeh, is from the Soumar family of cruise missiles, which Iran added to its arsenal in 2015, according to a Reuters article quoting Defence Minister Amir Hatami.

IRAN: Hoveizeh cruise missile (Graphic)
GN38768 Graphic shows range and details of Hoveizeh cruise missile.
(107mm by 135mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

February 4, 2019 -- Nine European nations have now joined the United States in recognising opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, heightening a global showdown over President Nicolas Maduro's rule.

As head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Guaidó says the constitution allows him to assume power temporarily when the president is deemed illegitimate.

Guaidó has become the international symbol of Venezuela’s revolt, projecting an image of stability in a crisis fuelled by skyrocketing hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine and political strife.

His rise is due in large part to his mentor, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who is a political prisoner under house arrest that bars him from politics.

In 2015, Lopez was sentenced to 13 years and nine months in a military prison on charges including inciting violence. He was released to house arrest in July 2017.

Though he’s prevented from leaving his property, the 47-year-old former presidential candidate is in regular contact with Guidó as well as foreign heads of state.

Lopez is using Skype calls and encrypted messages, from his home in Caracas, to organise street protests and international allies.

POLITICS: Venezuela’s crisis timeline (Graphic)
GN38770 Graphic shows timeline of crisis since Nicolas Maduro took power in 2013.
(107mm by 161mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

February 4, 2019 -- “Once-in-a-century” flooding affecting parts of Queensland is set to worsen amid warnings of more heavy rain in the area.

The authorities were forced to open floodgates of a major dam late Sunday, unleashing what they called "dangerous and high velocity flows.”

In Townsville, a major export hub for copper, zinc, lead and sugar, more than 1,100 people have been evacuated, while up to 20,000 homes are at risk of being inundated if the rains continue, officials said.

Authorities warned residents to beware of crocodiles and snakes spotted in floodwaters in residential areas.

Australia's tropical north typically experiences heavy rains during the monsoon season, but the recent downpour has seen some areas get a year's worth of rainfall in a week.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the downpours could continue until Thursday, while floodwaters will take some time to recede even when the rains lessen.

Meanwhile, Australia endured its hottest month on record in January, with sweltering conditions expected to persist through April.

AUSTRALIA: Queensland flooding worsens (Graphic)
GN38769 Graphic shows flooding warning areas in Queensland.
(107mm wide by 131mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

February 2, 2019 -- The U.S. is suspending its compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, raising the spectre of a dangerous and costly arms race in Europe.

The Trump administration says The U.S. will withdraw from the landmark 1987 arms control accord in six months if Moscow does not end its alleged violation of the pact.

The United States alleges that a new Russian cruise missile violates the pact. The missile, the Novator 9M729, is known as the SSC-8 by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Russia denies the allegation, saying the missile’s range puts it outside the treaty, and has accused the United States of inventing a false pretext to exit a treaty Washington wants to leave anyway so it can develop new missiles. Russia has also rejected a U.S. demand to destroy the new missile.

The treaty, signed in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned an entire class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5,000km.

MILITARY: U.S. suspends compliance with INF treaty (Graphic)
GN38764 Graphic shows a factfile on the 9M729 missile and range map.
(107mm wide by 171mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

February 1, 2019 -- A rising share of the heroin crop from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is being shipped along a network of maritime routes to East and southern Africa in a so-called “smack track” to the West.

The traditional land route via Iran, Turkey and the Balkans has become increasingly difficult for drug traffickers to use – owing to Turkey tightening its borders in response to the war in Syria, and attempts by European countries to keep out refugees. As a result, more of the harvests are being dispatched along the “southern route” to Africa, according to the Economist newspaper.

Most of the heroin is destined for Western markets but a spin-off trade is fuelling consumption in Africa, along with the formation of an integrated regional criminal economy.

AFRICA: East coast heroin route (Graphic)
GN38763 Graphic shows heroin trafficking routes.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 31, 2019 -- Opinion polls show former Israeli armed forces chief Benny Gantz as the strongest challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s general election in April.

Four opinion polls on Israeli TV and news websites on Wednesday showed a boost for Gantz’s new centrist Israel Resilience Party at the expense of centre-left rivals. But it was still running second to Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud, Reuters said.

The surveys gave Gantz’s party between 19 and 24 seats in the 120-member parliament – up from around 12 to 15 in previous polls – compared with 29 to 31 for Likud, about the same number as in earlier forecasts.

POLITICS: Israel election poll (Graphic)
GN38761 Graphic shows projected seats in parliament according to poll results.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

Facebook reported $6.88 billion in net profits in the final three months of 2018 -- a jump of 61% from the same period a year earlier -- while revenue for the quarter rose 30% to $16.91 billion.

Despite ongoing controversies, the Menlo Park, California-based company reported $55.83 billion in 2018, up from $40.65 billion in the previous year, and net profits of $22.11 billion.

Monthly active users in the U.S. and Canada remained flat at 242 million compared with the third quarter while its European monthly users grew to 381 million from 370 million in fourth quarter 2017.

Users in the U.S. and Canada are Facebook’s most lucrative, worth an average of $34.86 each. Users in Europe generated an average of $10.98 each while global average revenue per user grew to $7.37.

BUSINESS: Facebook record profits (Graphic)
GN38762 Graphic shows annual revenues and profits from 2010 to 2018 and monthly active users in Q4 2018.
(107mm by mm 107deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 30, 2019 -- The polar vortex is bringing deadly cold weather to large areas of the U.S. for the second time since 2014.

It all started with misplaced Moroccan heat. In December, the normally super chilly air temperatures 30km above the North Pole rapidly rose by about 70 degrees Celsius, thanks to air flowing in from the south. It’s called “sudden stratospheric warming.”

That warmth split the polar vortex, leaving the pieces to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside Boston.

Americans were introduced to the polar vortex five years ago. It was in early January 2014 when temperatures dropped to minus minus 27C in Chicago and meteorologists, who used the term for decades, started talking about it on social media.

This outbreak may snap some daily records for cold and is likely to be even more brutal than five years ago, especially with added wind chill.

Scientists are debating whether polar vortexes are occurring more frequently, and if this is due to climate change.

WEATHER: Polar vortex freezes U.S. (Graphic)
GN38759 Graphic shows how the “polar vortex” weather system is affecting North America.
(107mm wide by 150mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 30, 2019 -- Despite President Donald Trump’s claim that so-called Islamic State has been defeated, the militant organisation has yet to be finished off in Iraq and Syria, and affiliated groups remain a threat around the world.

Even though IS has lost virtually all of its former territory, the group is thought capable of sustaining an insurgency in Iraq and Syria as well as sporadic terrorist attacks abroad for years.

Estimates of IS strength range from several thousand to 30,000 fighters. The organisation’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and several top deputies are believed to be still alive, according to Bloomberg News.

TERRORISM: Islamic State resurgence (Graphic)
GN38757 Graphic shows active presence of so-called Islamic State and affiliated groups.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 30, 2019 -- Antarctic explorers are trying to find the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s famous ship Endurance, which sank in 1915 during his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole.

The Endurance was trapped in pack ice and eventually sank 3,000m under the Weddell Sea.

The Weddell Sea Expedition 2019, led by an international team of scientists from Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute, have deployed the SA Agulhas II polar research vessel to the wreck site.

When they reach the last known location of the Endurance, they will use the Hugin 6000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to scan the seafloor for the ship.

The spot where the vessel went down is known with some precision, thanks to the coordinates recorded by Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s skipper and master navigator.

Shackleton’s 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out to complete the first land crossing of Antarctica, but after Endurance became trapped the crew had to abandon ship. Shackleton and five of his men eventually escaped across the Southern Ocean, enabling the rescue of the rest of the crew, in a journey regarded as an epic feat of survival.

ANTARCTICA: Bid to find Shackleton’s lost ship (Graphic)
GN38755 Graphic shows details about Shackleton’s expedition and the bid to locate the wreck of Endurance.
(107mm wide by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 29, 2019 -- Researchers at Scotland’s Roslin Institute have genetically modified chickens to produce human proteins in their eggs. Production from chickens can cost anywhere from 10 to 100 times less than in factories.

The study found that high quantities of the proteins can be recovered from each egg using a simple purification system and there are no adverse effects on the chickens themselves, which lay eggs as usual. The therapeutic proteins are encoded in the chicken’s DNA and produced as part of the egg white.

The research published in BMC Biotechnology finds sound evidence for using chickens as a cheap method of producing high-quality drugs that work at least as well as the same proteins produced using existing laboratory methods.

The team at Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and Roslin Technologies initially focused on two proteins that are essential to the immune system and have therapeutic potential -- a human protein called IFNalpha2a, which has potent antiviral and anti-cancer effects, and a protein called macrophage-CSF, which is being developed as a therapy that stimulates damaged tissues to repair themselves.

Hens can produce 15 to 50 micrograms of the target protein per millilitre of egg white -- just three eggs were enough to provide a clinically relevant dose of the drug. As chickens can lay up to 300 eggs per year, researchers say their approach could be more cost-effective than other production methods for some crucial medicines.

Professor Helen Sang, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, said: “We are not yet producing medicines for people, but this study shows that chickens are commercially viable for producing proteins suitable for drug discovery studies and other applications in biotechnology.”

SCIENCE: Chicken eggs as drug factories (Graphic)
GN38753 Graphic shows how pharmaceuticals can be produced in chicken eggs.
(107mm by 138mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 28, 2019 -- The U.S. and a number of other countries have recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president in a move labelled by embattled President Nicolás Maduro as a U.S.-orchestrated coup.

The tumult erupted when Guaidó, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress, declared before masses of supporters last week that he has temporarily assumed presidential powers, vowing to hold free elections and end Maduro's dictatorship.

President Donald Trump and several foreign leaders quickly recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader, prompting Maduro to cut ties with the U.S. and order its diplomats from Caracas within 72 hours.

Russia, China, Mexico, Turkey and Cuba back Maduro, who also retains the backing of the military.

But major European countries including Spain, France, Germany, Britain, Portugal and Netherlands say they will recognize Guaidó as
interim president unless Maduro calls fresh elections by February 3.

VENEZUELA: Who is backing Guaidó? (Graphic)
GN38751 Graphic shows international support for Guaidó and for Maduro.
(107mm wide by 120mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

February 1-28, 2019 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for February, including a possible second meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the initiation of a six-month countdown to U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty, presidential elections in Nigeria, and the 91st Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

WORLD AGENDA: February 2019 interactive (Interactive)
GN38738 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in January 2019.
(640px wide by 568px deep)

January 24, 2019 -- The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will touch down in 2020 to collect a sample from the surface of Bennu -- a carbon-rich asteroid which may contain the molecular precursors to the origin of life on Earth.

Of more than 500,000 asteroids in the solar system, Bennu is one of only five with the right orbits, sizes and carbonaceous compositions for a sample-return mission. The 510-metre wide asteroid is probably part of a much more massive asteroid -- remaining debris from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.

Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu, 110 million kilometres from Earth, in December 2018. On New Year’s Eve, the spacecraft went into orbit around Bennu.

Starting in February, the OSIRIS-REx team will perform a series of close flybys of Bennu, taking high-resolution images of the asteroid to select a sampling site.

During the summer of 2020, the spacecraft will briefly touch the surface of Bennu using a two-metre-long robotic arm, its Touch-and-Go Sample Arm Mechanism (TAGSAM) to retrieve a sample.

The sample head will use high-pressure nitrogen to kick up regolith -- dust and rock particles from millions of years of meteoroid impacts -- during a five-second contact. The TAGSAM can capture particles up to two centimetres in diameter while contact pads can pick up fine dust particles up to one millimetre in diameter.

The OSIRIS-REx team hope to collect up to two kilograms of regolith. The sample will be sealed in a return capsule for the cruise back to Earth, arriving in September 2023.

SPACE: Osiris Rex asteroid mission (Graphic)
GN38741 Graphic shows spacecraft, touch-and-go robotic arm and sample return capsule.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 22, 2019 -- A newly discovered fossil shark has been named after the 1980s arcade game, Galaga. The Galagadon lived in the rivers of South Dakota around 67 million years ago, at the same time as Tyrannosaurus rex.

SUE the T. rex is the most famous fossil from the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota—the most complete skeleton ever discovered of the world’s most popular dinosaur. When Field Museum scientists removed the rock surrounding SUE’s bones twenty years ago, they kept the leftover sediment (called matrix). For decades, the leftover matrix sat in underground storage at the museum, until scientists and volunteers began meticulously picking through it in search of tiny fossils. They found the remains of a shark that lived in a river SUE probably drank from.

“This shark lived at the same time as SUE the T. rex, it was part of the same world,” says Pete Makovicky, the Field Museum’s curator of dinosaurs and one of the authors of the Journal of Paleontology study describing the new species. “Most of its body wasn’t preserved, because sharks’ skeletons are made of cartilage, but we were able to find its tiny fossilized teeth.”

The team, led by North Carolina State University’s Terry Gates, named the shark Galagadon nordquistae, a nod to its teeth, which have a stepped triangle shape like the spaceships in the 1980s video game Galaga, and to Karen Nordquist, the Field Museum volunteer who discovered the fossils.

“It was so tiny, you could miss it if you weren’t looking really carefully,” says Nordquist, a retired chemist who has been microsorting, or sifting through dirt to find tiny fossils, for the Field Museum for fifteen years. “To the naked eye, it just looks like a little bump, you have to have a microscope to get a good view of it.”

The teeth are only a millimetre wide—about the diameter of the head of a pin—and the shark they belonged to was small too. “Galagadon was less than two feet long—it’s not exactly Jaws,” says Makovicky. “It’s comparable to bamboo sharks living today. It probably had a flat face and was very likely camouflage-coloured, since its relatives today have a camouflage pattern. It would have eaten small invertebrates and probably spent a fair amount of time lying on the bottom of the riverbed.”

But while Galagadon wasn’t breaking any size records, its discovery is making scientists question what they thought they knew about the area where SUE the T. rex was found. “We had always thought of the SUE locality as being by a lake formed from a partially dried-up river—the presence of this shark suggests there must have been at least some connection to marine environments,” says Makovicky. “This wasn’t some Sharknado event—these animals were making their way up rivers from the sea.”

“Today, carpet sharks, which include bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, mostly live in the waters in southeast Asia and Australia, so it’s surprising to find their fossils at the SUE locality. During the Late Cretaceous the continents continued to drift apart, further isolating dinosaurs and other land animals, and at the same time created the Atlantic and Indian oceans. With occasional seaways connecting these young oceans, we have found fossils of marine life flourishing globally, including Galagadon and its relatives. ” says Eric Gorscak, a research associate at the Field Museum and another author on the study.

The study also reflects the importance of learning about fossils beyond big, flashy dinosaurs. “Every species in an ecosystem plays a supporting role, keeping the whole network together,” says Terry Gates, lecturer at North Carolina State University and a research affiliate with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and lead author of the paper describing the shark. “There is no way for us to understand what changed in the ecosystem during the time of the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous without knowing all the wonderful species that existed before.”

“Most people, when they think of fossils, think of big huge dinosaur bones, but in the dirt, there are the bones of tiny animals,” says Nordquist. “When you get those bones and identify them, you get an idea of the whole environment—everything that lived with the big dinosaurs. You learn so much from microsorting.”

SCIENCE: Prehistoric shark named after video game (Graphic)
GN38736 Graphic shows what the shark may have looked like, with explanation on how it gained its unusual name.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 22, 2019 -- The critically acclaimed Netflix film “Roma” landed a best picture Academy Award nomination and several other nods Tuesday morning as the streaming service continued breaking through old Hollywood barriers.

Meanwhile, Disney’s “Black Panther,” a part of the studio’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, scored the first-ever best picture nomination for a superhero movie.

The Academy of Motion Pictures is reportedly planning to go host-less following the exit of actor and comedian Kevin Hart who pulled out after a social media storm surrounding homophobic remarks he had posted years previously.

Last year, the Oscars hit a new ratings low, declining 20 percent and averaging 26.5 million viewers. Though ratings for award shows have generally been dropping, the downturn prompted the academy to revamp this year’s telecast.

MOVIES: Oscar nominations 2019 (Graphic)
GN38733 Graphic shows nominations for the 2019 Academy Awards.
(107mm wide by 154mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 29 - October 7, 2019 -- The Beijing Expo, the biggest international horticultural exhibition ever staged, will be a centrepiece of China’s celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Communist state.

The show, located in Yanqing on the outskirts of Beijing municipality, will open on April 29th and last for more than five months, according to the Economist newspaper.

Organisers say at least 16 million visitors are expected to attend the expo, with more than 100 countries and international organisations putting on displays.

Built by thousands of workers, the 960-hectare expo park is half as big again as the one made for the 2008 Olympics, which was previously the city’s record-setter.

CHINA: Beijing Expo 2019 (Graphic)
GN38672 Graphic shows location and details of exhibition.
(107mm by 161mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 1, 2019 -- Boeing is looking to build on the success of its popular 777 family of aircraft with the next generation 777X, promising ultra-long range, enhanced fuel efficiency and improved passenger comfort levels.

Engineers and mechanics are preparing to roll out the 777X flight-test plane for its public debut as early as February, according to the Seattle Times. The first flight is due a month or two later.

The aircraft comes in two variants, the 777-9 and the smaller but longer-range 777-8.

Boeing says Emirates will be the first airline to receive the 777X, when it gets rolled out in 2020. Other customers include Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

AVIATION: Boeing 777X (Graphic)
GN38665 Graphic shows features of Boeing 777X, and comparison with Airbus A350.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 23, 2019 -- Odysseus, a massive solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed to fly continuously for up to three months at high altitudes, will be used to perform climate and atmospheric research.

SCIENCE: Boeing’s solar-powered drone interactive (1) (Interactive UPDATED Dec 5)
GN38590 Interactive graphic shows key features of the Odysseus aircraft.
(800px wide by 568px deep)