Graphic News Planner (news) 24/01/2020 17:44:39

February 9-15, 2020 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features North Korea and nuclear weapons, the city of New Delhi, rebuilding Europe after WWII, the Republic of North Macedonia, the brothers Lumiere, Canada’s first ever Olympic gold medal and the Mughal dynasty

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 Government of India

February 11, 1945: World War II’s “Big Three”, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, met at Yalta to map out the future of post-war Europe and agree plans to found the United Nations

February 12, 2019: The Republic of Macedonia formally changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a 27-year naming dispute with Greece

February 13, 1895: French brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere patented the Cinematographe, a joint camera and film projector that ushered in the birth of modern cinema

February 14, 2010: Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s first ever Olympic gold medal on home soil, in the men’s freestyle skiing moguls at the Vancouver Olympics

February 15, 1483: Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty and Emperor of India from 1526 until his death in 1530, was born in Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan

HISTORY: On this day February 9-15, 2020 (week 7) (Graphic no due date yet)
GN39903 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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February 16-22, 2020 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features nylon, submarine warfare, Count Alessandro Volta,the fashion designer fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld,the great Mughal Emperors, the 1960s band The Monkees, and popcorn

February 16, 1937: DuPont received a patent for its new synthetic “miracle” fibre, named nylon. Commercial production of nylon for stockings started in 1939

February 17, 1864: The first successful attack by a submarine took place when the hand-propelled Confederate vessel Hunley sank a Union warship in the U.S. Civil War

February 18, 1745: Count Alessandro Volta was born. The Italian physicist, after whom a unit of electricity was named, invented the first electric battery in 1800

February 19, 2019: German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died at 85. As creative director of Chanel and his own label, he always wore dark glasses and his signature white ponytail

February 20, 1707: Aurangzeb, sixth and last of the great Mughal Emperors, died. Under his 49-year rule the empire expanded to encompass nearly all of the Indian subcontinent

February 21, 2019: Peter Tork (far left), who found fame with the popular 1960s band The Monkees, died aged 77. Tork played keyboard and bass on hits such as I’m A Believer

February 22, 1630: English colonists in America first tasted popcorn, kernels of corn that “pop” when heated over a flame, and known to Native Americans for over 1,000 years

HISTORY: On this day February 16-22, 2020 (week 8) (Graphic no due date yet)
GN39904 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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January 27, 2020 -- The 62nd GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles Sunday, January 26 at 20:00 ET (01:00GMT, Monday) on CBS.

Hosted for the second straight year by 15-time GRAMMY winner Alicia Keys, excitement has been mounting as more and more performers are announced, including Aerosmith, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Demi Lovato, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani.

MUSIC: Grammy Awards 2020 (Graphic DUE Jan 27, 06:00GMT)
GN39906 Graphic shows the winners of the 62nd Grammy Awards.
(107mm by mm deep)

January 24, 2020 -- China is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country's most important holiday.

HEALTH: China expands coronavirus lockdown (Graphic)
GN39907 Graphic shows worldwide confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as of January 24. and comparison with other human coronavirus outbreaks in Asia.
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January 24, 2020 -- Amazon says its music streaming service has more than 55 million global customers, marking the first time it has shared such growth data.

Amazon’s music streaming service has passed 55 million users, closing the gap between it and market leaders Spotify and Apple.

Amazon is notoriously guarded about its customer numbers and this marks the first time it has released such data.

With 55 million users, Amazon is edging closer to Apple Music’s market share, which last summer hit 60 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, Spotify remains the market leader with 113 million paying subscribers and 248 million total monthly users.

ENTERTAINMENT: Amazon closes in on Apple Music (Graphic)
GN39908 Graphic shows subscriber data on the big three streaming services – Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
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January 24, 2020 -- The Doomsday Clock -- which indicates how close our planet is to catastrophe -- is now only 100 seconds away from midnight. The clock now stands at its closest to the apocalypse since it began ticking in 1947.

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.

Last year, the clock was set at two minutes to midnight - midnight symbolises the end of the world - the same place it rested in 2018.

Now, 75 years after the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the clock is only 100 seconds away from midnight.

BAS President Rachel Bronson told reporters in Washington DC on Thursday that the time was now being kept in seconds rather than minutes because the “moment demands attention” and that the threats level is worsening”. She said the world was now menaced by influential leaders who “denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats.”

At just 100 seconds to midnight, the clock is at its closest to catastrophe ever. Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers -- nuclear war and climate change -- that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond, the Chicago-based group said in a statement.

ENVIRONMENT: Doomsday Clock nears midnight (Graphic)
GN39909 Graphic shows ups and downs of the Doomsday Clock since 1947.
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January 23, 2020 -- China has closed off the city of Wuhan, home to more than 11 million people, in an effort to try to contain a deadly new viral illness that has sickened hundreds and spread to other cities and countries in the Lunar New Year travel rush. Huanggang, a neighbouring city about 80km to the east, and several other cities are also under restrictions.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The number of cases reported is changing rapidly at the moment. The data reported by the Associated Press comes from the National Health Commission in China. The data reported by the WHO is currently lagging behind.

At least 17 people have died in China and more than 600 have been confirmed as infected as the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread throughout Asia and across the world.

Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak began, is under lockdown in an effort to contain the spread. Huanggang, Ezhou, and the smaller cities of Chibi and Zhijiang, all in Hubei province, are also under restrictions.

Authorities in the Chinese capital Beijing have cancelled all large-scale New Year celebrations to contain the spread of the virus.

HEALTH: China cities in lockdown over virus fears (Graphic)
GN39905 Graphic shows confirmed cases of 2019 novel coronavirus as of January 23.
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January 27, 2020 -- Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most infamous of all Nazi concentration and extermination camps, and its victims are commemorated on January 27 -- Holocaust Memorial Day -- the date of its liberation by Soviet troops in 1945.

Built between 1940-42 by occupying Nazi forces near the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland, Auschwitz became the centrepiece of Adolf Hitler’s so-called Generalplan Ost or Master Plan East.

Hitler directed SS chief Heinrich Himmler to develop a strategy to replace the populations of Eastern Europe with people of purely “Aryan” blood. Most of the Slavic and Baltic populations, including approximately six million Jews living in Eastern Europe, were to be exterminated.

Auschwitz was a network of camps, combining mass-killing by hunger and physical exhaustion with extermination on an industrial scale. In late summer 1941, the Nazis began experimenting with a new killing method -- a crystalline hydrogen cyanide gas called Zyklon B. Increasingly larger poison gas chambers were constructed at the camp as the war progressed.

Arrival in the camp started with a selection process -- Nazi physicians quickly assessed whether each person was healthy enough to be used as slave labour or sent to the gas chambers. After death, prisoners removed hair, gold teeth and fillings from the corpses, before incinerating the bodies in ovens in an adjacent furnace room.

Between 1940 and 1945 at least 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz, 90 percent of whom were European Jews. Victims also included 70-75,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and some 10-15,000 victims of other nationalities.

AUSCHWITZ: Holocaust Memorial Day 75th anniversary interactive (Interactive)
GN39887 Interactive graphic shows layout of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) extermination camp.
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January 23, 2020 -- Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the leading greenhouse gas heating the planet. Six other gases are much more powerful but less abundant. In 2018, greenhouse gas emissions reached 51.8 billion tonnes.

In 2018, the relatively significant increase in global CO2 emissions to 37.5 billion tonnes -- about 66% higher than that of 1990 -- was mainly due to a rise in global coal consumption, according to the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency’s 2019 report. CO2 is responsible for about three-quarters of global warming.

Global methane emissions, generated by coal and gas production and intensive livestock farming, increased to a total of 9.7 billion tonnes carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2-e), up 24 per cent from 1990. Methane is 25 times more potent than CO2 and accounts for almost 17% of global warming.

Nitrous oxide emissions from synthetic nitrogen fertilisers and manure reached 2.8 billion tonnes CO2-e, 28 per cent higher than in 1990. Brazil accounts for the most substantial increase, 4.2 per cent, followed by India 1.6 per cent, the U.S., China and Turkey. Nitrous oxide accounts for six per cent of total emissions.

The rest are the fluorinated gases: HFCs, PFCs, sulphur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride. These account for about two per cent of total emissions. Sulfur hexafluoride alone has a global warming potential of 22,800 times that of carbon dioxide. “F-gases” are used in refrigerators, air conditioning and power-transmission equipment. Some are by-products of aluminium production and semiconductor manufacturing. Russia released the most F-gases in 2018, followed by China, Turkey and the United States.

CLIMATE: Greenhouse gas emissions (Graphic)
GN39902 Graphic shows increase in greenhouse gas emission from 1990 to 2018.
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January 22, 2020 -- The White House plans to add seven countries to President Trump’s long-disputed travel ban, introduced in 2017, which created an uproar for targeting mainly Muslim-majority nations.

The Trump administration is planning to add seven - Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, according to U.S. media reports.

Under the current version of the ban, citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as some Venezuelan officials and their relatives, are blocked from obtaining a large range of U.S. immigrant and non-immigrant visas.

The announcement, which could come as soon as Jan 27 to mark the anniversary of the initial ban, would be evidence that Trump is prepared to emphasize some of his administration’s most divisive immigration policies during the heat of an election year.

The move is likely to sour ties between the U.S. and the countries affected under the expanded ban.

Nigeria, for example - Africa’s largest economy and most populous country - is a U.S. anti-terrorism partner and has a large diaspora residing in the United States.

POLITICS: Trump’s travel ban expansion (Graphic)
GN39901 Graphic shows affected countries and restrictions.
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January 22, 2020 -- Chinese health authorities have urged people in the city of Wuhan to avoid crowds and public gatherings, after warning that a new viral illness that has infected more than 400 people and killed at least nine could spread further.

The appeal came as World Health Organization experts were meeting to determine whether the outbreak should be declared a global emergency.

The number of new cases has risen sharply in China, the centre of the outbreak. There were 440 confirmed cases as of midnight Tuesday in 13 jurisdictions, said Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission. Nine people have died, all in Hubei province, since the outbreak emerged in its provincial capital of Wuhan late last month.

“There has already been human-to-human transmission and infection of medical workers,” Li said at a news conference with health experts. “Evidence has shown that the disease has been transmitted through the respiratory tract and there is the possibility of viral mutation.”

Authorities in Thailand on Wednesday confirmed four cases, a Thai national and three Chinese visitors. Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan have all reported one case each. All of the illnesses were of people from Wuhan or who recently travelled there.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The number of cases reported is changing rapidly at the moment. The data reported by the Associated Press (the source quoted below this story) came from the National Health Commission in China. The data reported by the WHO is currently lagging behind.

HEALTH: Spread of China Coronavirus (Graphic)
GN39900 Graphic shows coronavirus cases as of January 22.
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February 2-8, 2020 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Super Bowl LIII, astronomer Johannes Kepler, Gibraltar’s frontier with Spain, board game Monopoly, the Soviet Communist Party and the botanist and monk Gregor Mendel

February 2, 2019: The U.S. suspended the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987, citing Russian non-compliance. Russia said it would also withdraw

February 3, 2019: The New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl a sixth victory for both the Patriots and star quarterback Tom Brady

February 4, 1600: German astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered the father of modern astronomy, met Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague, becoming his assistant

February 5, 1985: Gibraltar’s frontier with Spain reopened after 16 years. It was closed in 1969 amid heightened tensions with Britain over the territory’s disputed status

February 6, 1935: The best-selling property trading board game Monopoly, invented by Charles Darrow and published by the Parker Brothers, made its debut

February 7, 1990: The Soviet Communist Party leadership agreed to surrender its 70-year monopoly on power, paving the way for a multi-party democracy

February 8, 1865: Gregor Mendel, botanist and monk who pioneered the laws of genetics, read his first scientific paper describing his studies of pea plants

HISTORY: On this day February 2-8, 2020 (week 6) (Graphic)
GN39892 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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January 26 - February 1, 2020 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features Spain and Portugal in the New World, the liberation of Auschwitz, the Turin Shroud, the car manufacturer Karl Benz, Guangzhou South Railway Station, Russia’s first McDonald’s restaurant, and the “Mounties” of Canada

January 26, 1500: Spain made landfall in Brazil but was unable to claim it due to a treaty between Spain and Portugal that divided the New World along geographical lines

January 27, 1945: Russian troops liberated the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people, 90% of them Jewish, were murdered from 1942 to late 1944

January 28, 2005: New research at the University of California showed that the Turin Shroud, dismissed by carbon-dating as a medieval fake, could in fact date from the time of Christ

January 29, 1886: German engineer Karl Benz patented the first successful petrol-driven motor car. It had three rubber-tyred wheels and travelled at 9.3mph

January 30, 2010: Guangzhou South Railway Station was opened. It is one of China’s largest rail transport hubs, located on the high-speed line linking Beijing with Hong Kong

January 31, 1990: Huge queues snaked through the streets as Russia’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Moscow. At that time it was the largest McDonald’s in the world

February 1, 1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known colloquially as the "Mounties", was formed from the North West Mounted Police founded in 1873,

HISTORY: On this day January 26-February 1, 2020 (week 05) (Graphic)
GN39891 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set) View graphic

February 1-29, 2020 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled in February. Events include the Iowa caucuses, parliamentary elections in Iran, and cuts to U.S. tariffs under a new trade deal with China. South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma goes on trial, Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival kicks off, and Japan Airlines offers free round-trip domestic flight tickets to Tokyo Olympics visitors. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft is due to launch and the Oscars are awarded in Los Angeles.

Events covered include:

Feb 3, U.S.: Iowa hosts the first caucuses ahead of the Nov 3 election. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial looms as a complication for Democrat senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, who are required to attend the trial as jurors, a drain on their campaigning efforts

Feb 4, South Africa: Former president Jacob Zuma appears likely to face the corruption charges he has dodged for 15 years, after his application for a permanent stay of prosecution was dismissed

Feb 5, U.S.: The Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA that is aimed at understanding how the sun creates and controls the heliosphere, is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on a seven-year mission

Feb 9, U.S.: Todd Phillips’ Joker, about Batman’s nemesis, leads the Oscars race with 11 nominations in 24 categories. Sam Mendes’s World War I epic 1917, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman each collected 10

Feb 14, U.S.: Washington will halve tariffs on a batch of Chinese imports in Phase One of a new trade deal. In exchange China pledged to buy more U.S. farm, energy and manufactured goods and strengthen intellectual property practices

Feb 21, Iran: Parliamentary elections come at a time when President Rouhani’s government is under siege from nationwide unrest and ever-tightening U.S. economic sanctions. The vote will test the popularity of the reformist bloc in parliament

Feb 21-26, Brazil: Rio’s raucous Carnival kicks off with President Bolsonaro’s slurs unlikely to spoil the party, which draws six million revellers each year. Bolsonaro, notorious for racist and homophobic remarks, retaliated with disapproving posts on social media after several 2019 floats took aim at him

February, Japan: Japan Airlines is offering free round-trip domestic flight tickets to up to 50,000 foreign nationals visiting Japan for the Tokyo Olympics this summer, in a bid to encourage visitors to venture beyond tourist hotspots

WORLD AGENDA: February 2020 interactive (Interactive)
GN39896 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in February 2020.
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January 21, 2020 -- New streaming service Disney+ is to launch on March 24 in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland – a week earlier than originally planned. It will be priced at €6.99/£5.99 per month.

Disney+ will be competitively priced at €6.99/£5.99 per month or €69.99/£59.99 if paid annually – keeping it in line with rival operators such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and lately Apple TV+.

Disney+ launched in North America in November 2019, where it became the most downloaded app, and the Netherlands where the platform was beta tested.

Disney+ will become available in Belgium, Portugal and Nordic countries in the summer of 2020.

It is believed the revised earlier launch date is an attempt by Disney to hamper widespread piracy of “The Mandalorian”, the channel’s first Star Wars live action show and the reason many viewers signed up to the service.

Disney has confirmed that the new service will replace the DisneyLife streaming channel, available in the UK and Ireland since 2015.

ENTERTAINMENT: Disney+ European launch date revealed (Graphic)
GN39899 Graphic shows details of the Disney+ streaming service heading to Europe in March 2020.
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January 21, 2020 -- Britain’s government is set to make a final decision on whether to go ahead with construction of HS2, amid warnings that the cost of the new high-speed rail link could soar to more than £100 billion ($130 billion).

A leaked report suggests HS2 – Europe’s largest infrastructure project – could cost almost double the £56 billion ($73 billion) predicted in 2015, according to the BBC.

Some £8 billion ($10.4 billion) has already been spent on the project, which will connect London, the Midlands and northern England using trains capable of travelling at 250mph (400km/h).

The first phase of the project, between London and Birmingham, is due to open at the end of 2026, with the second phase to Leeds and Manchester expected to be completed by 2032-33.

TRANSPORT: HS2 high-speed rail project (Graphic)
GN39897 Graphic shows details of HS2 high-speed rail project.
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January 21, 2020 -- Brexit may soon cost the United Kingdom in lost economic growth almost as much as its total payments to the European Union budget over the past 47 years, according to Bloomberg Economics.

An analysis by economist Dan Hanson for Bloomberg has found that since the June 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, the UK’s economic growth has lagged behind that of other G7 countries.

Hanson, a former Treasury economist, estimates the British economy is three per cent smaller than it might have been if the UK had not voted to leave the EU.

Bloomberg Economics has found that those economic losses due to Brexit reached £132 billion by the end of 2019, and will top £203 billion by the end of this year.

By comparison, a briefing paper by Mathew Keep for the House of Commons Library puts the UK’s total projected contribution to the EU budget from 1973 to 2020 at £215.6 billion after adjusting for inflation.

“As the UK comes to terms with its new trading relationship with the EU and grapples with the productivity challenge that has hindered growth since the financial crisis, the annual cost of Brexit is likely to keep increasing,” Hanson concludes.

BUSINESS: The cost of Brexit (Graphic)
GN39898 Graphic shows estimated cost of Brexit compared to Briain’s contributions to the EU budget.
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February 1-29, 2020 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled in February. Events include the Iowa caucuses, parliamentary elections in Iran, and cuts to U.S. tariffs under a new trade deal with China. South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma goes on trial, Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival kicks off, and Japan Airlines offers free round-trip domestic flight tickets to Tokyo Olympics visitors. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft is due to launch and the Oscars are awarded in Los Angeles.

Feb 3, U.S.: Iowa hosts the first caucuses ahead of the Nov 3 election. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial looms as a complication for Democrat senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, who are required to attend the trial as jurors, a drain on their campaigning efforts

Feb 4, South Africa: Former president Jacob Zuma appears likely to face the corruption charges he has dodged for 15 years, after his application for a permanent stay of prosecution was dismissed

Feb 5, U.S.: The Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA that is aimed at understanding how the sun creates and controls the heliosphere, is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on a seven-year mission

Feb 9, U.S.: Todd Phillips’ Joker, about Batman’s nemesis, leads the Oscars race with 11 nominations in 24 categories. Sam Mendes’s World War I epic 1917, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman each collected 10

Feb 14, U.S.: Washington will halve tariffs on a batch of Chinese imports in Phase One of a new trade deal. In exchange China pledged to buy more U.S. farm, energy and manufactured goods and strengthen intellectual property practices

Feb 21, Iran: Parliamentary elections come at a time when President Rouhani’s government is under siege from nationwide unrest and ever-tightening U.S. economic sanctions. The vote will test the popularity of the reformist bloc in parliament

Feb 21-26, Brazil: Rio’s raucous Carnival kicks off with President Bolsonaro’s slurs unlikely to spoil the party, which draws six million revellers each year. Bolsonaro, notorious for racist and homophobic remarks, retaliated with disapproving posts on social media after several 2019 floats took aim at him

February, Japan: Japan Airlines is offering free round-trip domestic flight tickets to up to 50,000 foreign nationals visiting Japan for the Tokyo Olympics this summer, in a bid to encourage visitors to venture beyond tourist hotspots

WORLD AGENDA: February 2020 (Graphic)
GN39895 Graphic shows news events in February 2020. An interactive version of this graphic is also produced each month.
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February 2-8, 2020 -- Graphic shows anniversaries and events on this day in history. Updated now to include the data for weeks 05-06 i.e. to February 08. The events and images are the same as on the GN On This Day print graphics GN39891 and GN39892 If you are hosting GN36036 on your own servers (rather than using the embed code supplied by Graphic News), the data in the hyperesources 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 “auto-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 hyperesources folder. (Instructions available - see below).

HISTORY: ON THIS DAY “interactive” (week 05-06) (Interactive UPDATED Jan 21)
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.
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January 20, 2020 -- China has reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected with a new coronavirus, including the first cases in the capital, as millions begin travelling ahead of the country’s Lunar New Year holiday.

HEALTH: China coronavirus outbreak (Graphic)
GN39893 Graphic shows details of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and confirmed cases.
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January 20, 2020 -- The past decade was the hottest on record, and 2019 was the second-warmest year ever -- just 0.04 degrees Celsius shy of the record set in 2016, and nearly 1°C higher than the 20th-century average.

Whether the cause is human activity or natural variability -- and the evidence strongly suggests it’s caused by carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels -- global temperatures have risen steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, described by historian Arnold Toynbee as the years after 1750.

According to an analysis conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8°C since records began in 1880.

“These trends are the footprints of human activity stomping on the atmosphere,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, director of the GISS. “We know that this has been driven by human activities.”

The average for 2019 was only 0.04 degrees lower than in 2016, a year with an El Niño weather phenomenon which drove a global surge in wildfires.

The six hottest years in recorded history have all taken place since 2014, while nine of the ten warmest years have occurred since 2005.

CLIMATE: Hottest years on record (Graphic)
GN39894 Graphic shows 10 warmest years on record.
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January 21, 2020 -- In the coming weeks, 100 lawmakers in the U.S. Senate will decide whether President Donald Trump should be removed from office for seeking Ukraine’s intervention in the 2020 presidential race.

The Senate will begin the impeachment trial on Tuesday at 1pm, starting with a vote on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s organizing resolution.

After lawmakers hear from both sides – House prosecutors and White House counsel – and any witnesses, they will be given a full day to deliberate before a vote on conviction is held.

A two-thirds majority is required to convict and oust Mr Trump. Given that Republicans control the 100-seat chamber with a 53-47 majority, the president is widely expected to be acquitted.

POLITICS: How Senate impeachment trial works (Graphic)
GN39888 Graphic shows key figures and rules at the Senate impeachment trial.
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January 17, 2020 -- France is stepping up its military effort in the Sahel, pledging extra troops and calling on the United States to maintain its support, amid a surge in violence linked to Islamist militant groups.

French President Emmanuel Macron met leaders of the so-called G5 Sahel force on Monday and they vowed to boost their military efforts under a joint command in the Sahel, and to focus their counter-insurgency efforts against the so-called Islamic State militant group.

They also urged the United States to maintain its key support in the fight against Islamic extremism. The U.S. provides intelligence, logistical and drone support for the French forces, but there have been mixed signals from Washington that it could pull out. Reuters said.

France, the former colonial power, has 4,500 troops in the sprawling, semi-arid Sahel, but security has been progressively worsening.

Militants linked to Al Qaeda and so-called Islamic State have strengthened their foothold in the region, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking ethnic violence, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The UN envoy for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, last week said that terrorist attacks have increased five-fold in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger since 2016, with over 4,000 deaths reported in 2019 compared with an estimated 770 deaths in 2016.

AFRICA: Anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel (Graphic)
GN39862 Graphic shows details of anti-jihadist operations in Africa’s Sahel region.
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January 17, 2020 -- Suicides in Japan have fallen to their lowest number in more than 40 years, bringing the overall figure to below 20,000 a year for the first time since record-keeping began in 1978, according to the National Police Agency.

The number of suicides per 100,000 people dropped to 15.8, down 0.7 from 2018. The government is aiming to reduce the rate to 13 per 100,000 by 2025 -- a level similar to the United States and Germany.

By gender, suicides among women hit a record low 6,022, down 528 from a year earlier, while those of men stood at 13,937, down 353.

Tokyo saw the most significant number among the 47 prefectures with 2,107 suicides, followed by Osaka at 1,191, Saitama at 1,100, Aichi at 1,062 and Kanagawa at 1,057. Tottori posted the lowest number of 80.

Japanese suicides peaked at 34,427 in 2003, alarming policymakers and drawing international attention.

“We need to face up to the reality that as many as about 20,000 people took their own precious lives,” Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato told a press conference. “We want to continue efforts, such as by using social media, to create a society in which no one is pushed into suicide,” he said.

HEALTH: Japan suicide rates fall (Graphic)
GN39890 Graphic shows suicides in Japan since peak in 2003.
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January 16, 2020 -- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has proposed sweeping constitutional changes seen as an attempt to extend his 20-year reign after his term in office expires in 2024.

Russian lawmakers are set to quickly approve the appointment of a new prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, after President Vladimir Putin kicked off an unexpected reshuffle of his inner circle.

Mishustin would succeed Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin associate who was Russia's prime minister for eight years. Medvedev resigned hours after Putin proposed sweeping changes to the constitution.

The reshuffle sent shock waves through Russia's political elites, who were left pondering what Putin's intentions were and speculating about future Cabinet appointments.

Putin has been in power longer than any other Russian or Soviet leader since Josef Stalin, who led from 1924 until his death in 1953. Under the current law, Putin must step down when his current term ends.

POLITICS: Longest-serving Russian leaders (Graphic)
GN39884 Graphic shows days in office of Russian leaders.
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January 16, 2020 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to turn India into a $5 trillion economy by 2024 – eclipsing the U.K. and Germany – needs gross domestic product (GDP) to expand at more than 11 percent for the next four years -- more than double the five percent estimated by India’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) for fiscal 2019-20.

The CSO estimate puts the country’s growth at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has called for significant reforms to boost India’s economy.

“We have a lot of young people entering the labour force. We need to provide jobs for them, and even if much of the growth is job-oriented, five percent doesn’t cut it,” Rajan said during an interview with CNBC on January 13.

In May last year, Rathin Roy, then a member of Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, warned that India’s growth is faltering at lower-middle-income levels -- defined by the World Bank as per capita income between $1,026 and $3,995. “No country which has been in a middle-income trap has been able to come out of it,” Roy warned.

India’s per capita income is about $2,000 a year -- trailing Indonesia, where per capita income is at $3,900, and dwarfed by China’s $9,800, South Korea’s $31,000 and the U.S.’s $62,600.

BUSINESS: India’s economic slowdown (Graphic)
GN39883 Graphic shows changes in economic growth since the global financial crisis.
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January 15, 2020 -- A combination of aircraft including helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and larger air-tankers, able to reach the most inaccessible regions, provide a crucial role in battling Australia’s worst bushfires on record.

With aircraft, the fire services can scout out inaccessible regions and determine if a fire has broken out. With helicopters, they can evacuate homes and trapped fire teams. And with waterbombers, they can fight the fire directly and help ground crews put out a blaze.

This year, the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) fleet of around 130 aircraft has been boosted by up to 500 aircraft from more than 150 operators.

Most of the aircraft available can be used to “firebomb” water onto fires or drop retardant from the sky above.

Australia is battling its worst bushfire season on record, with fires burning since September killing 29 people, destroying more than 2,500 homes and razing bushland across an area the size of Bulgaria.

AUSTRALIA: Aircraft fighting bushfires (Graphic)
GN39859 Graphic shows key aircraft battling bushfires in Australia.
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January 27, 2020 -- Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most infamous of all Nazi concentration and extermination camps, and its victims are commemorated on January 27 -- Holocaust Memorial Day -- the date of its liberation by Soviet troops in 1945.

Built between 1940-42 by occupying Nazi forces near the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland, Auschwitz became the centrepiece of Adolf Hitler’s so-called Generalplan Ost or Master Plan East.

Hitler directed SS chief Heinrich Himmler to develop a strategy to replace the populations of Eastern Europe with people of purely “Aryan” blood. Most of the Slavic and Baltic populations, including approximately six million Jews living in Eastern Europe, were to be exterminated.

Auschwitz was a network of camps, combining mass-killing by hunger and physical exhaustion with extermination on an industrial scale. In late summer 1941, the Nazis began experimenting with a new killing method -- a crystalline hydrogen cyanide gas called Zyklon B. Increasingly larger poison gas chambers were constructed at the camp as the war progressed.

Arrival in the camp started with a selection process -- Nazi physicians quickly assessed whether each person was healthy enough to be used as slave labour or sent to the gas chambers. After death, prisoners removed hair, gold teeth and fillings from the corpses, before incinerating the bodies in ovens in an adjacent furnace room.

Between 1940 and 1945 at least 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz, 90 percent of whom were European Jews. Victims also included 70-75,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and some 10-15,000 victims of other nationalities.

AUSCHWITZ: Holocaust Memorial Day 75th anniversary (Graphic)
GN39865 Graphic shows layout of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) extermination camp.
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January 14, 2020 -- Scientists have discovered the oldest known solid material on Earth in a meteorite which landed in Australia in the 1960s. The tiny specks of stardust predate our sun by up to three billion years.

SCIENCE: Oldest material on Earth (Graphic)
GN39858 Graphic shows details of research, and timeline of stardust.
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January 14, 2020 -- A source of protein created by bacteria from carbon dioxide, water and renewable energy is more efficient than photosynthesis used by plants.

Photosynthesis is the process which plants, algae and some bacteria use to harness energy from sunlight and turn inorganic carbon, nitrogen and sulphate ions into digestible carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

However, in the blackness of the deep ocean, hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria that live around hydrothermal vents are denied light energy. Here, plumes of mineral-laden fluid flow from ocean-bed vents at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Celsius. These bacteria use a process known as chemosynthesis -- a process analogous to photosynthesis.

In the 1960s, researchers John Foster and John Litchfield worked on a NASA project for space life-support systems at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. Foster and Litchfield used the hydrogen-fixing bacterium Ralstonia eutropha to produce a food protein by chemosynthesis, with carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts and hydrogen as carbon and energy sources, respectively. Animal feeding studies revealed good growth with rats; however, problems in feeding primates indicated a possible presence of a toxin.

Now, Finnish startup Solar Foods has come up with a way to produce a protein-rich food called Solein using chemosynthesis. Solein is made by electrolysis of water to release bubbles of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Bacteria feed on the carbon dioxide and hydrogen and produce the Solein, which is then dried to make a powder. The dried Solein has a protein content of 50 per cent and looks and tastes similar to wheat flour.

SCIENCE: Food by chemosynthesis (Graphic)
GN39855 Graphic shows chemosynthesis route to edible protein.
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January 13, 2020 -- Five candidates have made it through to the next stage of the contest to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, after securing the backing of their colleagues.

POLITICS: Labour leadership contenders (Graphic)
GN39854 Graphic shows profiles of Labour party leadership contenders.
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January 13, 2020 -- Todd Phillips’ supervillain origin story and R-rated box-office smash “Joker” topped all films with 11 Academy Awards nominations on Monday, while Martin Scorsese’s elegiac crime epic “The Irishman”, Quentin Tarantino’s 1960s Los Angeles fairy tale “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” and Sam Mendes’ World War I tale “1917” all trailed close behind with 10 nods apiece.

Those four were among the nine films nominated for best picture. The others were: “Parasite”, “Little Women”, “Marriage Story”, “Jojo Rabbit” and “Ford v Ferrari.”

The nominees for best international feature film are: “Corpus Christi”, Poland; “Honeyland”, North Macdeonia; “Les Miserables”, France; “Pain and Glory”, Spain; “Parasite”, South Korea.

MOVIES: Oscar nominations 2020 (Graphic)
GN39852 Graphic shows nominations for the 2020 Academy Awards.
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January 13, 2020 -- Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes as seismologists warn that the Taal volcano could erupt at any time, potentially triggering a tsunami.

Authorities in the surrounding province, Batangas, have declared a “state of calamity”, signifying major disruption.

More than 16,000 people were evacuated from the volcanic island and the area immediately around it - normally a popular tourist spot. Dozens of tremors set residents on edge.

Schools and businesses have shut across the capital, Manila, as clouds of volcanic ash have engulfed the city. Several flights have been suspended at Manila International Airport.

Taal volcano, the country’s second most active volcano, has erupted more than 30 times in the past 500 years, most recently in 1977. An eruption in 1911 killed around 1,500 people.

DISASTERS: Taal volcano (Graphic)
GN39853 Graphic shows location of volcano.
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January 10, 2020 -- Australian authorities have urged almost a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes as hot, windy conditions fuel deadly bushfires across the east coast.

The danger is centred on New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s most populous states, where temperatures and wind speeds are escalating after a few days of relatively benign conditions.

Authorities sent emergency texts to 240,000 people in Victoria on Friday, telling them to leave. People in high-risk regions in New South Wales and South Australia were also urged to think about leaving, but officials did not say how many, Reuters said.

Since October, 27 people have been killed and thousands forced to flee as huge bushfires scorched more than 10.3 million hectares of land across Australia, or an area the size of South Korea.

AUSTRALIA: Bushfire conditions set to worsen (Graphic)
GN39850 Graphic shows details of bushfires in southeastern Australia.
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January 10, 2020 -- Claims by Western leaders suggesting that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile mistakenly brought down a Ukrainian passenger jet, possibly in error, are being rejected by Tehran.

The Iranian civil aviation chief said he was “certain” that the plane was not hit by a missile.

The crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 with the loss of 176 lives came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.

Newsweek quoted Pentagon and senior U.S. intelligence officials, as well as an Iraqi intelligence official, as saying they believed flight PS752 was hit by a Russian-made Tor-M1 missile.

The Tor, also called the SA-15 Gauntlet by NATO, is a short-range system that integrates the missile launcher and radar into a single tracked vehicle.

It is designed to be mobile and lethal against targets at altitudes up to 6,000 meters and at ranges of 12km, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Tor missiles are guided by radar and fly at almost three times the speed of sound. They have a small warhead – about 15kg of high explosive – but are designed to spray fragments of shredded metal, like bullets, into a target upon detonation.

The Tor is among the most modern air defense systems owned by Iran.

MILITARY: Tor missile system (Graphic)
GN39849 Graphic shows location specifications of the Tor missile system.
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January 10, 2020 -- British taxpayers pay an annual Sovereign Grant to the Royal Household to support the monarch’s official business. In exchange, The Queen surrenders the revenue from The Crown Estate to the government.

In 2018-19, the Royal Family cost £67 million, an increase of £19.6 million (41%) compared to the previous year, mainly due to a rise in expenditure on property maintenance, including £14.1 million on the renovation of Buckingham Palace. The other big-ticket cost in 2018 was payroll costs of £23.2 million.

The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 came into effect from April 1, 2012, to provide support for the official duties of The Queen and maintain the Occupied Royal Palaces. The palaces include Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Mews, Windsor Home Park and parts of Kensington Palace. Previously, funding came from the Civil List and the Grants-in-aid for Royal Palaces, Royal Travel and Communications and Information.

By coincidence, the very first news graphic this artist ever produced was to illustrate a story on the Civil List for the London-based Sunday Times in 1969. At the time Duncan Mil was a post-graduate student studying visual journalism under the late, great Peter Sullivan.

BUSINESS: UK Royal sovereign grant (Graphic)
GN39848 Graphic shows th annual cost of the Royal Household.
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January 7-10, 2020 -- Interesting highlights of this year’s CES show from Las Vegas include the Bosch Virtual Visor for cars, and the tiny Air Pix selfie-taking drone.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the tech industry’s event of the year, and a sneak peek at inventions that will hopefully improve our lives in years to come.

Two highlights from this year’s event are the Virtual Visor and the Air Pix drone.

German manufacturer Bosch announced the Virtual Visor, a digital sun visor for automobiles that tracks a driver’s eyes to block out the sun without obscuring their view of the road.

AirSelfie unveiled the pocket-sized $100 Air Pix drone that will hover and follow you around taking selfie pics that you can instantly upload to social media via an accompanying smartphone app.

TECH: Two of the best gadgets from CES 2020 (Graphic)
GN39845 Graphic shows how the Virtual Visor and Air Pix work.
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January 9, 2020 -- The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are aiming to settle a long-running feud over a massive dam project on the Nile River, which has raised fears of conflict over scarce water resources.

AFRICA: Ethiopia dam dispute (Graphic)
GN39840 Graphic shows details of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project.
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January 25, 2020 -- The Year of the Rat begins for the world’s most populous country, and people born under the sign, the first of the 12 animals on the Chinese zodiac, might benefit from honing their communication skills. They won’t need coaxing to watch their pennies or to view CCTV’s multi-hour New Year’s Eve extravaganza, which is one of the most important events in the country.

CHINA: Year of the Rat (Graphic)
GN39843 Graphic shows Year of the Rat factfile.
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May 8, 2019 -- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle welcomed their first child into the world on May 6, 2019. The baby boy has been named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Baby Archie is seventh in line to the throne, behind his grandfather, Prince Charles, uncle, Prince William, three cousins, George, Charlotte and Louis, and father, Prince Harry.

As yet there has been no mention of a potential royal title for Archie.

ROYAL BIRTH: British line of succession (2) (Graphic UPDATED Jan 9)
GN39004 Graphic shows line of succession to the British throne.
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January 19-25, 2020 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features neon signs, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the bathyscaphe Trieste, the “week of barricades”in Algiers, and the mine disaster in Brumadinho, Brazil

January 19, 1915: French physicist Georges Claude was granted a patent for the neon sign. It swiftly became a revolutionary tool within the advertising industry

January 20, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for his fourth term as U.S. president, a record that will go unbroken as there is now a limit of two elected terms

January 21, 1954: The world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, was launched. Her many records included the first submerged transit of the North Pole in 1958

January 22, 2015: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died at around 90 years of age. Seen as something of a reformer, he became a vocal advocate of peace in the Middle East

January 23, 1960: The bathyscaphe Trieste dived to a depth of 10,916 metres in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest known point of the Earth’s oceans

January 24, 1960: A major insurrection, the “week of barricades”, began in Algiers in protest against French President Charles de Gaulle’s policy of self-determination for Algeria

January 25, 2019: A dam collapse at an iron ore mine in Brumadinho, Brazil, sent triggered mudflows that slammed through the mine’s offices and cafeteria, killing over 270 people

HISTORY: On this day January 19-25, 2020 (week 04) (Graphic)
GN39827 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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January 7, 2020 -- Libya’s eastern-based forces say they have taken control of the coastal city of Sirte from the U.N.-recognised government in Tripoli, in what would be a key strategic gain.

LIBYA: Opposition forces take Sirte (Graphic)
GN39835 Graphic shows areas of northwestern Libya controlled by rival forces.
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January 7, 2020 -- The U.S. is deploying thousands of additional troops in preparation for attacks from Iranian forces or their proxies following the killing of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani.

While officials say American intelligence isn’t clear on whether Iran's latest military moves are designed to bolster Tehran’s defenses or prepare for an offensive strike, the U.S. is continuing to reinforce its own positions in the region, including repositioning some forces.

Officials said a number of the recently deployed soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division had moved into Iraq from Kuwait in order to increase security for Americans there.

The U.S. Maritime Administration put out the warning for ships, citing the rising threats after Soleimani's killing. Oil tankers were targeted last year in mine attacks the U.S. blamed on Iran.

Tehran denied being responsible though it did seize oil tankers around the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s crude oil travels.

Soleimani's death, which has sparked major protests, further nuclear development and new threats of violence, has raised the prospect of a wide and unpredictable conflict in the Middle East and escalated tensions between Iran and the U.S.

MILITARY: U.S. troops around Iran (Graphic)
GN39836 Graphic shows U.S. troops in the Middle East and deployments following the killing of Qassem Soleimani.
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January 6, 2020 -- Egypt’s New Administrative Capital is being built from scratch in the desert 35km east of Cairo. Covering 700 square kilometres, the city is designed to alleviate congestion in the current capital.

The project, launched in 2015 by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, aims to offer a clean and efficient base for the government and finance industry, as well as homes for at least 6.5 million people, Reuters said.

The first phase, covering about 168 square km, will have ministries, residential neighbourhoods, a diplomatic quarter and a financial district. A large mosque and cathedral, as well a hotel and conference centre, have already been built.

The Egyptian government plans to start running the country from the new capital from mid-2020.

EGYPT: New Administrative Capital (Graphic)
GN39803 Graphic shows details of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital (NAC).
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January 6, 2020 -- A network of foreign militias built by General Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian commander assassinated in Iraq by the U.S., are likely to remain Tehran’s primary weapon in its asymmetric fight against Washington.

Soleimani’s network of third parties began in Lebanon, where he backed the Shiite Hezbollah group, formed in 1982 in reaction to Israel’s occupation of the country’s south.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- under Soleimani’s direction -- armed Iraqi Shiite militias with roadside bombs and other weapons to attack U.S. forces. Iran’s support for Shiite militias in Iraq expanded from 2014, when the Baghdad government backed the Popular Mobilization Forces as a means to fight Islamic State.

In Syria, Iran intervened to preserve its only state ally, President Bashir Al-Assad, in the country’s ongoing civil war, with Hezbollah and militias from Iraq as well as Shiites from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since 2015, Iran has backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen against forces supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. On Friday, Houthis called the killing of Soleimani “a war crime,” saying “striking U.S. bases in the region is the only available solution.”

Now, the proxy infrastructure Soleimani set up before his death could provide the means to strike back at U.S. interests across the region.

MILITARY: Iran’s proxy forces (Graphic)
GN39834 Graphic shows Tehran’s proxy militias in the Middle East.
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January 3, 2020 -- The U.S. has killed Iran’s top military leader General Qassem Soleimani -- head of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) -- in a drone strike in Iraq.

The 62-year old was killed at Baghdad airport, alongside Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, deputy commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (Hashed al-Shaabi), early on Friday in a strike ordered by President Donald Trump.

Gen Soleimani’s assassination marks a major escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “severe revenge” awaits those behind the attack. He also announced three days of national mourning.

Global oil prices have soared by more than 4% in the wake of the attack.

MILITARY: General Soleimani factbox (Graphic)
GN39828 Graphic shows key dates in the life of Major General Qasem Soleimani.
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January 1-31, 2020 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for January. Events include Boeing’s suspension of 737 MAX production, Britain’s exit from the EU, and presidential elections in Taiwan. Alejandro Giammattei is sworn in as president of Guatemala, Ethiopia and Egypt hold talks about sharing Nile River water and world leaders mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. China’s Year of the Rat begins, and CBS launches the new “Star Trek: Picard” series.

Events covered include:

Jan 2, U.S.: Boeing is to suspend production of its 737 MAX jet, its biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years, as fallout from two fatal crashes drags into 2020. The stoppage is likely to affect suppliers and the wider economy

Jan 14, Guatemala: Alejandro Giammattei (right) is sworn in as president. He pledged to grow the economy and reduce unemployment so that Guatemalans are not forced to attempt to migrate to the U.S.

Jan 15, U.S.: Talks between the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Egypt in Washington DC aim to agree on how Nile River water will be shared once the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is functional

Jan 22, Taiwan: Tsai Ing-wen, who takes a hard line against China, is bidding for a second term as president. Her support for the protests in Hong Kong and Beijing’s overt efforts to thwart her bid have boosted her standing in pre-election polls

Jan 22, U.S.: Patrick Stewart reprises his Star Trek role of Jean-Luc Picard in a new CBS series. Star Trek: Picard chronicles the next chapter of the retired Starfleet admiral’s life

Jan 25, China: The Year of the Rat, the first of 12 animals on the Chinese zodiac, begins. People born under the Rat sign are said to be quick-witted and resourceful

Jan 27, Poland: Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1945, and world leaders are expected to attend 75th anniversary commemorations both here and in Israel

Jan 31, UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s clear election majority handed him the mandate he needs to ratify his Brexit deal and take Britain out of the European Union on this date

WORLD AGENDA: January 2020 interactive (Interactive)
GN39811 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in January 2020.
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December 18, 2019 -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson is moving ahead with Brexit, and wants to negotiate a trade deal with the European Union by the end of 2020.

A top priority for Britain’s government will be Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, the law needed to make Brexit a reality. It must become law before January 31 if Johnson is to stick to his timetable, and the government plans to hold the first significant vote on it Friday.

The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on January 31 and to concluding trade talks by the end of 2020. Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delay – a vow that has set off alarm bells among businesses, who fear it means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021.

Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal in only 11 months will be a struggle. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the timetable “extremely challenging.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said “it won’t be possible … in this limited time to do everything. But we will do everything we can.”

POLITICS: UK road to Brexit (Graphic)
GN39814 Graphic shows key dates on Britain’s path to Brexit.
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December 18, 2019 -- France is rallying fellow European nations to join Special Operations Task Force Takuba, to be deployed in the Sahel region of Africa in 2020 to combat Al Qaeda and Islamic State-backed terrorists.

Takuba, which means “sabre” in the Tuareg language, will be comprised of Special Operations units from approximately a dozen European countries. Special forces from France, Great Britain, Estonia and the Czech Republic are already committed to Takuba, with other deployments expected from Norway, Ireland, Latvia, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands.

France launched Operation Serval in 2013, after extremists linked to Al Qaeda exploited a Tuareg rebel uprising to take the cities of Timbuktu and Gao. A year later, that mission evolved into Operation Barkhane with a mandate for counter-terrorism missions across the vast Sahel region, encompassing Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Of more than 24,200 foreign and regional troops currently deployed in the Sahel, France remains the region’s primary security guarantor, with about 4,500 French forces operating in Operation Barkhane.

At almost 13,300 military personnel, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has more troops in the Sahel than all other regional and foreign forces combined. However, UN peacekeepers have become a frequent target of insurgent attacks in Mali, suffering 206 fatalities to date.

The Group of Five (G5) Sahel Force, established in 2017, consists of 5,000 soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania.

The U.S. military has around 800 special operations forces in Niger, along with a new drone base at Dirkou, flying armed MQ-9 Reapers against Islamic State fighters in southern Libya.

The European Union Training Mission (EUTM) has 620 troops based at Bamako. While over 14,000 soldiers have gone through the EU programme since 2013, the capabilities of the Malian armed forces remain severely lacking -- raising questions over whether a similar boost in training efforts under France’s Operation Takuba would be any more effective.

TERRORISM: Western presence in the Sahel (Graphic)
GN39808 Graphic shows western operations in Africa’s Sahel region.
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January 1-31, 2020 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled in January. Events include Boeing’s suspension of 737 MAX production, Britain’s exit from the EU, and presidential elections in Taiwan. Alejandro Giammattei is sworn in as president of Guatemala, Ethiopia and Egypt hold talks about sharing Nile River water and world leaders mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. China’s Year of the Rat begins, and CBS launches the new “Star Trek: Picard” series.

Jan 2, U.S.: Boeing is to suspend production of its 737 MAX jet, its biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years, as fallout from two fatal crashes drags into 2020. The stoppage is likely to affect suppliers and the wider economy

Jan 14, Guatemala: Alejandro Giammattei (right) is sworn in as president. He pledged to grow the economy and reduce unemployment so that Guatemalans are not forced to attempt to migrate to the U.S.

Jan 15, U.S.: Talks between the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Egypt in Washington DC aim to agree on how Nile River water will be shared once the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is functional

Jan 22, Taiwan: Tsai Ing-wen, who takes a hard line against China, is bidding for a second term as president. Her support for the protests in Hong Kong and Beijing’s overt efforts to thwart her bid have boosted her standing in pre-election polls

Jan 22, U.S.: Patrick Stewart reprises his Star Trek role of Jean-Luc Picard in a new CBS series. Star Trek: Picard chronicles the next chapter of the retired Starfleet admiral’s life

Jan 25, China: The Year of the Rat, the first of 12 animals on the Chinese zodiac, begins. People born under the Rat sign are said to be quick-witted and resourceful

Jan 27, Poland: Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1945, and world leaders are expected to attend 75th anniversary commemorations both here and in Israel

Jan 31, UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s clear election majority handed him the mandate he needs to ratify his Brexit deal and take Britain out of the European Union on this date

WORLD AGENDA: January 2020 (Graphic)
GN39810 Graphic shows news events in January 2020. An interactive version of this graphic is also produced each month.
(163mm wide by 210mm) View graphic