July 11-12, 2018 -- Greater “burden sharing” is set to be a theme of the NATO summit in Brussels, with just eight of the alliance’s 29 members living up to their commitments to spend at least two percent of GDP on defence.

NATO: Summit focus on burden sharing
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(107mm by mm deep)

Planned:
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July 1-7, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features Charles Darwin, the Crimean War, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Caesar salad, the British National Health Service, the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea, and bull running at the San Fermin festival

July 1, 1858: Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was first presented in public when his papers were read at a meeting of the Linnean Society in London

July 2, 1853: The Russian army crossed into the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, then part of the Ottoman Empire, instigating the Crimean War

July 3, 1988: The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge was completed in Istanbul, Turkey, providing a second crossing between Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus

July 4, 1924: Chef Caesar Cardini, running out of food for his customers, created a salad from odds and ends that remained. Caesar salad was an instant hit

July 5, 1948: The National Health Service was founded in Britain. Its three core principles are that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery

July 6, 1988: The Piper Alpha oil platform exploded in the North Sea, killing 167 people. It remains the world’s worst offshore accident in terms of lives lost

July 7, 1591: The week-long festival of San Fermin, famous for the “encierro”, or running of the bulls, was established in the Spanish city of Pamplona

HISTORY: On this day July 1-7 2018 (week 27) (Graphic DUE Jun 25, 02:34GMT)
GN38058 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(52mm wide by 118mm deep)

July 8-14, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the ice cream sundae, the Battle of Mosul, Romulus and Remus, cultured pearls, the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Liu Xiaobo and the Costa Concordia.

July 8, 1881: The ice cream sundae was invented as an alternative to ice cream soda drinks, banned on the Sabbath as soda was considered a controlled substance, like alcohol

July 9, 2017: The Iraqi government declared victory in the Battle of Mosul after Iraqi and Kurdish troops regained control of the city seized by Islamic State in June 2014

July 10, 2008: A statue of a wolf suckling twins Romulus and Remus, said to have founded Rome, was revealed to date from the 13th century, instead of 500BC as previously believed

July 11, 1893: A Japanese entrepreneur produced the first cultured pearl. By 1935 there were 350 pearl farms in Japan, producing 10 million pearls each year

July 12, 2017: Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was convicted of corruption and money-laundering and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison

July 13, 2017: Liu Xiaobo, pro-democracy activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his efforts to promote human rights in China, died from liver cancer at age 61

July 14, 2014: The Costa Concordia was refloated before being towed away for scrap. The ship capsized off the Italian island of Giglio, with the loss of 32 lives, in January 2012

HISTORY: On this day July 8-14 2018 (week 28) (Graphic DUE Jun 25, 02:34GMT)
GN38059 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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Updated: (or update due)
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June 12, 2018 -- U.S. and North Korean officials are working overtime to put the final touches to the historic summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

Security will be a top priority. Both leaders will bring their own personal security teams, while elite Singaporean police – including Nepalese Gurkhas – will be in charge of security on roads and at the five-star Capella Hotel, the venue for the summit.

Negotiations between two sides include the seating position at the table, the layout of the room, and who is allowed in the room with them.

Other protocols negotiated include how many steps each leader should take before stopping for cameras.

The height difference – Kim is 1.70m (5ft 7in), Trump is 1.88m (6ft 2in) – may prompt North Koreans to insist the pair be seated when cameras are present.

Both sides are negotiating whether flags from both countries will appear in any official pictures from the summit.

More than 3,000 journalists from around the world registered to attend event.

Agreeing a satisfactory menu will be tricky as Trump is
a non-drinker who favours burgers while Kim enjoys wine and noodles.

Also, intense discussions are underway over who will pay for Kim’s preferred $6,000 room at high-end Fullerton Hotel. The U.S., Singapore and the anti-nuclear campaign group ICAN have agreed to contribute.




POLITICS: Preparing Trump-Kim summit (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jun 6)
GN38014 Graphic shows logistics for the summit.
(163mm wide by 235mm deep)

May 31, 2018 -- The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from its top allies and trading partners -- the European Union, Mexico and Canada. All vowed to retaliate by penalising U.S. products.

European officials had braced for the tariffs, and the EU has threatened to retaliate against U.S. orange juice, peanut butter, Kentucky bourbon (think Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort), blue jeans (Levis), motorcycles (Harley Davidsons) and other goods in return.

Canada is considering tariffs on steel, yoghurt and toilet paper, while Mexico is considering reacting by penalising imports of pork, apples, grapes, cheeses and metal products.

President Trump had initially imposed the tariffs in March, saying a reliance on imported metals threatened national security. But he exempted Canada, Mexico and the EU to buy time for negotiations -- a reprieve that expired at midnight (04:00GMT) on Thursday.

BUSINESS: U.S. tariffs on EU steel (1) (Graphic UPDATED Jun 4)
GN38006 Graphic shows EU steel exports to U.S. in 2017.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 1-30, 2018 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for June, such as the FIFA World Cup in Russia, the G7 summit in Canada, and the general elections in Turkey.

Events include:

June, France: President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial immigration bill comes before the Senate, amid claims that it penalises asylum seekers and unreasonably extends detention times. Reforms approved by France’s lower house, the National Assembly, would shorten the deadline for applications and double the time illegal migrants can be detained

Jun 5, U.S.: Fifty years ago presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot and fatally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, hours after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. The brother of slain President John F. Kennedy died in the early hours of the next day

Jun 7, UK: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens in Britain and other capitals, ahead of its Jun 22 U.S. premiere. In 2015 Jurassic World beat The Avengers in global box office takings but 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War has laid down a strong challenge. It grossed $1bn worldwide in its first week of release

Jun 8-9, Canada: U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions against the Islamic Republic – to the “regret” of France, Germany and the UK – will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosts G7 leaders in Quebec

Jun 14-Jul 15, Russia: With a global TV audience of 3.2 billion four years ago, all eyes will be on Russia for the 21st FIFA World Cup – the first time the football tournament has been held in Eastern Europe. The 32 teams include defending champions Germany and newcomers, Iceland and Panama

Jun 26, Poland: A dispute with the European Union over judicial reform gives the former Communist-led country until today to reassure the bloc it is not flouting the rule of law. Sanctions could follow if the EU is unconvinced

Jun 24, Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expects to win a third term in snap elections after 2017’s referendum gave him greater powers, moving Turkey ever further from its status as a parliamentary democracy

Jun 24, Saudi Arabia: A decades-old ban on women driving is lifted. Any woman aged 18 or over can apply for a driving license and learn to drive through women-only driving schools in five cities across the ultra-conservative kingdom – the only place in the world where such a prohibition was enforced

WORLD AGENDA: June 2018 interactive (1) (Interactive UPDATED May 25)
GN37981 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in June 2018.
(640px wide by 568px deep)

June 1-30, 2018 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for June, such as the FIFA World Cup in Russia, the G7 summit in Canada, and the general elections in Turkey.

Events include:

June, France: President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial immigration bill comes before the Senate, amid claims that it penalises asylum seekers and unreasonably extends detention times. Reforms approved by France’s lower house, the National Assembly, would shorten the deadline for applications and double the time illegal migrants can be detained

Jun 5, U.S.: Fifty years ago presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot and fatally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, hours after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. The brother of slain President John F. Kennedy died in the early hours of the next day

Jun 7, UK: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens in Britain and other capitals, ahead of its Jun 22 U.S. premiere. In 2015 Jurassic World beat The Avengers in global box office takings but 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War has laid down a strong challenge. It grossed $1bn worldwide in its first week of release

Jun 8-9, Canada: U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions against the Islamic Republic – to the “regret” of France, Germany and the UK – will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosts G7 leaders in Quebec

Jun 14-Jul 15, Russia: With a global TV audience of 3.2 billion four years ago, all eyes will be on Russia for the 21st FIFA World Cup – the first time the football tournament has been held in Eastern Europe. The 32 teams include defending champions Germany and newcomers, Iceland and Panama

Jun 26, Poland: A dispute with the European Union over judicial reform gives the former Communist-led country until today to reassure the bloc it is not flouting the rule of law. Sanctions could follow if the EU is unconvinced

Jun 24, Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expects to win a third term in snap elections after 2017’s referendum gave him greater powers, moving Turkey ever further from its status as a parliamentary democracy

Jun 24, Saudi Arabia: A decades-old ban on women driving is lifted. Any woman aged 18 or over can apply for a driving license and learn to drive through women-only driving schools in five cities across the ultra-conservative kingdom – the only place in the world where such a prohibition was enforced

WORLD AGENDA: June 2018 (1) (Graphic UPDATED May 25)
GN37980 Graphic shows news events in June 2018. An interactive version of this graphic is also produced each month.
(163mm wide by 210mm deep)

May 23, 2018 -- Philip Roth, influential giant of 20th century literature, who explored Jewish-American heritage, politics and male sexuality in over 30 novels, has died aged 85.

He was among greatest writers never to win the Nobel Prize. But he received virtually every other literary honor, including two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle prizes and, in 1998, the Pulitzer for "American Pastoral."

He was in his 20s when he won his first award and awed critics and fellow writers by producing some of his most acclaimed novels in his 60s and 70s, including "The Human Stain" and "Sabbath's Theater," a savage narrative of lust and mortality he considered his finest work.

He identified himself as an American writer, not a Jewish one, but for Roth the American experience and the Jewish experience were often the same.

The New York Times reported that a close friend of Roth's said he had died of heart failure.

OBITUARY: Philip Roth (1) (Graphic UPDATED May 23)
GN37987 Graphic shows profile of Philip Roth.
(107mm wide by 136mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 22, 2018 -- Despite an ever-growing world population the numbers of undernourished are falling because of the ability to move food around the world. A recent report from Chatham House highlights the fact that these maritime trade routes are under strain and identifies chokepoints at which shipments are increasingly vulnerable.

In addition to the Suez canal and Strait of Bad al-Mandab (that control shipping between the Mediterranean, the Red sea and the Gulf of Aden), the Panama Canal is strategically positioned between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. inland waterways and the Brazil rail network to its ports are also chokepoints, as are the Dover Strait (the narrowest part of the English Channel separating Great Britain from continental Europe), the Strait of Gibraltar (between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean), the Turkish Straits, the Black Sea rail network and ports, the Strait of Hormuz (between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman) and the Strait of Malacca, a narrow stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.


AGRICULTURE: Threat to global food trade (1) (Graphic UPDATED May 23)
GN37983 Graphic shows the change in the global population and the number of undernourished people between 2000 and 2016, together with the increase in the agricultural goods exported worldwide during this period. A map of the world shows the chokepoints that control the maritime delivery of food
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

Available:
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June 20, 2018 -- Venezuela’s crude oil production has fallen by 60% since June 2016 leaving state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela’s (PDVSA) unable to meet contracts for 1.5 million barrels per day, having only 694,000 bpd available for shipments.

Ahead of crucial talks at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting on June 22, production from founding member Venezuela is hitting new lows, an industry report found.

According to commodity pricing group S&P Global Platts, PDVSA will process just 499,000bpd of crude at its domestic refineries in June, accounting for only 31% of its 1.6 million bpd of refining capacity.

Platts reported this week that Venezuela has already warned international customers that it wouldn't be able to meet its crude oil commitments to them in June.

Venezuela's rig count, a loose barometer of future production, has fallen to 28 in May from 36 in April, and 49 in January, according to Baker Hughes International Rig Counts.

In November, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appointed National Guard major general Manuel Quevedo, a former housing minister with no known energy experience, to head PDVSA.

BUSINESS: Venezuela’s oil infrastructure (Graphic)
GN38067 Graphic shows Venezuela’s plunging oil production, refining capacity and main oil basins.
(107mm by 148mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 27, 2018 -- The “Hayabusa2” asteroid exploration mission, by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is set to arrive at asteroid Ryugu (formerly known as 1999 JU3) on June 27, after a five year flight. It will release a series of landers and an explosive penetrator to be used to acquire sample materials for return to Earth.

SPACE: Hayabusa2 asteroid sampler (Graphic)
GN38061 Graphic shows how the ambitious mission works.
(107mm by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 20, 2018 -- The United States is leaving the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, accusing the organisation of bias against Israel and pointing out that it includes accused human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Venezuela and Congo.

POLITICS: U.S. leaving UN Human Rights Council (Graphic)
GN38066 Graphic shows timeline and current members of council.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 19, 2018 -- Yemeni pro-government fighters supported by a Saudi-led coalition have seized the international airport in the vital port city of Hodeida after fierce battles with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, Yemeni military sources said.

YEMEN: Battle for Hodeida (Graphic)
GN38065 Graphic shows locations in Hodeida and pro-government advance.
(107mm by 131mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 18, 2018 -- U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his trade conflict with China Monday, threatening to impose a 10 per cent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods in retaliation for China’s decision to raise dollar-for-dollar taxes on $50 billion in U.S. goods.

Trump also threatened to extend tariffs to a further $200bn if Beijing continues to fight back. This would impose duties on $450bn worth of Chinese goods – nearly as much as America imported from China last year.

On Friday, Trump pledged to cut U.S.-China trade deficit by levying a 25 per cent tariff on up to $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, starting from July 6, boosting the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

The U.S. trade dispute, which currently involves China, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the European Union, has now expanded to include India.

New Delhi will raise duties on 30 products originating in the U.S., including motorcycles, fresh apples and almonds, as it strikes back against Washington’s move to impose higher taxes on Indian steel and aluminium exports.

The move is significant as it comes a day after Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu returned from the U.S. and just weeks ahead of further talks between the two countries on the issue. The tariffs which will raise $240 million will come into effect on June 21.

BUSINESS: Steps in U.S.-China trade conflict (Graphic)
GN38062 Graphic shows timeline of trade dispute.
(107mm by 187mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 18, 2018 -- The world’s two biggest economies are moving closer to an all-out trade war, with China raising import duties of 25 percent on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods, in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to place similar tariffs on the same annual value of Chinese imports.

BUSINESS: Products subject to U.S.-China tariffs (Graphic)
GN38060 Graphic shows U.S. and Chinese products potentially affected by 25 percent tariffs.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

Conservative Ivan Duque has won Colombia’s presidential runoff pledging to change a landmark peace accord with FARC rebels which ended decades of conflict in the South American state.

Duque, 41, is the candidate for the Democratic Center Party, a movement started in 2013 by hardline former President Alvaro Uribe.

After working at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington until 2014, Uribe asked Duque to return to Colombia and take a seat in Congress. Marta Lucia Ramirez, Duque’s running mate, will become Colombia’s first female vice president when they take office in August.

POLITICS: Colombia presidential election (Graphic)
GN38057 Graphic shows result of second round of Colombia’s presidential election.
(107mm by 82mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 19, 2018 -- Julian Assange, founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, has been living inside the tiny Ecuadorian embassy in London for six years, unable to exit for fear of extradition to the U.S. to face charges of espionage and other serious crimes.

Aug 16, 2012: Foreign Minister Patiño announces that Ecuador is granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians.

In its formal statement, Ecuador reasons that “as a consequence of Assange’s determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of press… in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or personal integrity will be in danger”.

Aug 18, 2012: Latin American states express support for Ecuador, with President Rafael Correa confirming that Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely. The following day Assange gives his first speech from the corner balcony – supporters forfeiting £293,500 in bail and sureties.

His home since then has been a medium-sized room converted into a studio apartment, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill, and kitchenette.

POLITICS: Julian Assange’s six year exile (Graphic)
GN38048 Graphic gives a glimpse of what life is like for political refugee Julian Assange, inside the compact Kensington embassy where he lives and works in a single modest room.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 15, 2018 -- India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history with 600 million people facing acute water shortage, a government think-tank says. The crisis is only going to get worse.

By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP.

21 Indian cities, including New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, are likely to run out of groundwater by 2020.

States ranked lowest at managing water – such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana – are home to nearly half of India’s 1.3bn population as well the bulk of its agricultural produce.

Around 200,000 Indians die every year because they have no access to clean water.

ENVIRONMENT: India faces worst-ever water crisis (Graphic)
GN38056 Graphic shows areas affected by water stress and key findings of the report.
(107mm wide by 168mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 14, 2018 -- Californians will vote in November’s general election on the “Cal 3” initiative -- a bid to divide America’s most populous state into Northern California, California and Southern California.

The “Cal 3” initiative is driven by venture capitalist Tim Draper, who argues that California has become “ungovernable” because of its economic and geographic diversity as well as its population approaching 40 million people.

Election officials say this year’s effort gathered the roughly 365,000 signatures it needed to land on the general election ballot. It will be officially certified later this month. Even if it wins passage from voters, the measure would face significant hurdles.

California would break into three states — Northern California, California and Southern California. The measure aims to create states with relatively equal populations and economic strengths.

The new Northern California would include 40 counties, including Sacramento, San Jose and San Francisco as well as the state’s wine country and rural northern areas.

Keeping the name California would be a group of six counties centered around Los Angeles, with a total population of 12.3 million people.

Southern California, meanwhile, would include Orange and San Diego Counties as well what’s now known as California’s Central Valley and Inland Empire.

Turning one state into three would create four new U.S. senators, a move that would significantly boost Californians’ influence in Washington.


Passing at the ballot box is just the first hurdle. That would require support from a simple majority of voters.

The measure then directs the governor to ask Congress for the ultimate OK — likely a tall order. If Congress gave a green light, it would then be up the Legislature to determine exactly how the split would happen, including how the state’s debts would be divided. Each of the three states would determine their own governance structure.

Lawmakers would only have 12 months after congressional approval to set the new rules; otherwise the state’s debts would automatically split between the three new ones.


POLITICS: California to vote on splitting state (Graphic)
GN38053 Graphic shows the divisions of a proposed initiative to split California into three states
(107mm wide by 136mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 14, 2018 -- For 27 years, Greece and Macedonia have been bedevilled by one of the oddest disputes in international diplomacy – what the smaller, younger and landlocked country of 2.1 million should be called, at home and abroad.

EUROPE: Timeline of Macedonia-Greece name dispute (Graphic)
GN38051 Graphic shows timeline of Greek-Macedonian name dispute.
(107mm by 161mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 14, 2018 -- A massive dust storm blanketing about a quarter of the surface of Mars has threatened NASA’s Opportunity rover, plunging the solar-powered vehicle into what NASA has described as a “dark, perpetual night.”

NASA engineers last received a transmission from the nearly 15-year-old Opportunity rover on Sunday morning.

Engineers are operating under the assumption that the charge in Opportunity’s batteries has dipped below 24 volts, and the rover has entered low power fault mode, a condition where all subsystems, except a mission clock, are turned off. The rover’s mission clock is programmed to wake the computer so it can check power levels.

“We’re concerned but hopeful that the storm will clear and the rover will begin to communicate with us,” John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday.

First detected on May 30, the storm now blankets 35-million square kilometres of the Red Planet’s surface -- a quarter of the planet. NASA’s Curiosity rover has begun to see an increase in the atmospheric dust at its location in Gale Crater. Curiosity is not reliant on sunlight, being powered by an RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator).

SCIENCE: Mars dust storm hits Opportunity rover (Graphic)
GN38052 Graphic shows area of dust storm, key features of the Red Planet, and Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.
(107mm by 143mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 14, 2018 -- A Saudi-led alliance of Arab states launched an attack on Yemen’s main port city in the largest battle of the Yemen war, aiming to bring the ruling Houthi movement to its knees at the risk of worsening the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Soldiers took the town of Nakhila in Yemen's ad-Durayhimi district, some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) south of Hodeida International Airport, according to the government-run SABA news agency.

Fighters continued to move closer to the airport in fighting Thursday.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's exiled government launched an assault on the port city of Hodeida (hoh-DY'-duh) on Wednesday. The Red Sea port is the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine.

The biggest offensive of the years-long war in the Arab world's poorest nation has raised warnings from aid agencies that Yemen's humanitarian disaster could deepen.

The attack is aimed at driving out Iranian-aligned Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held Hodeida since 2015, and break the civil war's long stalemate. But it could set off a prolonged street-by-street battle that inflicts heavy casualties.

The fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida's port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen's food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country's population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starving.

YEMEN: Battle for lifeline port in Yemen (Graphic)
GN38050 Graphic shows areas of control in Yemen’s civil war.
(107mm wide by 146mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 13, 2018 -- The Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit has raised hopes of a relaxation of sanctions on North Korea, allowing imports of much-needed fuel from South Korean refiners and exports of its rich mineral deposits.

The United Nations Security Council resolution 2397 -- aimed at forcing Pyongyang back to the negotiating table -- capped refined petroleum exports to North Korea at 500,000 barrels annually. It also capped crude oil supplies at 4 million barrels a year.

Pyongyang operates just two refineries, according to S&P Global Platts. Pongwha Chemical Factory, located near the north-western border with China has a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day (b/d) and receives some 10,000b/d of crude from China’s Daqing oil field through an underground pipeline. Sungri Chemical Factory, near the north-eastern border with Russia, has a capacity of 40,000b/d. Sungri is 20% owned by Mongolia’s HBOil JSC.

If the peace talks are successful, they could revive plans to build a Russian gas pipeline, with a capacity of up to 10 billion cubic metres per year via North Korea to the south of the peninsula. The project between Russia's Gazprom and state-owned South Korean Gas Corp., or Kogas, was first agreed in 2008 but shelved in 2012.

In 2004, Irish-Anglo oil and gas company, Aminex, announced that the Donghanman Basin in the East Sea could hold up to five billion barrels of crude oil. The following year, China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) reported that the Sohanman Basin, in the Yellow Sea has crude oil reserves of about 60 billion barrels.

In addition to black gold, the nation’s mountains contain vast mineral reserves, including iron, gold, magnesite, zinc, copper, limestone, molybdenum, graphite, and possibly the world’s most significant deposits of rare earth elements needed to make smartphones and other high-tech products. Estimates of the value’s of North Korea’s mineral resources have varied between $6 trillion and $10 trillion.

BUSINESS: North Korea’s potential peace dividend (Graphic)
GN38047 Graphic shows North Korea’s potential peace dividend.
(107mm by 164mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 24, 2018 -- As Turkey votes in both parliamentary and presidential elections, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party are well-placed to win the vote, but economic instability and an unusual alliance of opposition candidates could jeopardise his re-election bid.

Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics since the AKP swept to power in 2002. The president is still the nation’s most popular politician. But as Turkey grapples with deep social turmoil, some pollsters suggest that he could be at risk of losing his parliamentary majority – and even be forced into a second round run-off of the presidential contest for the first time.

Either scenario would be a crushing setback for a leader who relies on success at the ballot box to justify his domineering style of rule.

Three main opposition candidates — the Good Party's Meral Aksener, the Felicity Party's Temel Karamollaoglu, and the CHP's Muharrem Ince — have come together in an alliance based on little more than a common drive to oust Erdogan.

A fourth party, the Kurdish-dominated People’s Democratic Party (HDP), is not part of the pact but has received support from its rivals.

The elections will herald Turkey’s switch to the new presidency championed by Erdogan. The winner of the presidential election will become the most powerful ruler in the modern republic's history, thanks to constitutional amendments narrowly approved in a divisive referendum last year.

Others worry about the economic backdrop. The Turkish Lira plunged to new depths against the dollar, at one point down 20% compared to the start of the year, shaking confidence further in Erdoganomics.

POLITICS: Turkey elections 2018 (Graphic)
GN38043 Graphic shows main presidential candidates and predictions of presidential and parliamentary elections
(107mm wide by 185mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 18 - September 23, 2018 -- Artist Christo’s latest large scale work is The Mastaba, an enormous 20-metre-high floating sculpture in London’s Hyde Park.

Christo has created a temporary sculpture in London’s Hyde Park, called “The Mastaba (Project for London, Hyde Park, Serpentine Lake)”. It’s floating on The Serpentine from June 18 (weather permitting) to September 23, 2018, and is Christo's first major public, outdoor work in the UK. The temporary sculpture coincides with an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of Christo and Jeanne–Claude’s work, which includes sculptures, drawings, collages and photographs spanning more than 60 years. The sculpture and the exhibition both draw on Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s history of using barrels to create works of art.

Since the late 1960s, Christo has sought a suitable site for a floating Mastaba. The temporary sculpture in Hyde Park consists of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform. It is 20m high x 30m wide (at the 60° slanted walls) x 40m long. Standard 55 gallon barrels, 59cm x 88cm, have been specifically fabricated and painted for this sculpture. The sides of the barrels, visible on the top and on the two slanted walls of the sculpture, are painted red and white. The ends of the barrels, visible on the two vertical walls, consist of different hues of red, blue, and mauve.

The sculpture’s floating platform is made of high-density polyethylene cubes secured to the lakebed with weighted anchors. A primary steel scaffolding frame is constructed on top of the platform and the barrels are attached to a scaffold sub structure. The total weight is approximately 450 tonnes. The footprint of the sculpture will take up approximately 1% of the total surface area of the lake.

As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's projects, The Mastaba is being funded entirely through the sale of Christo's original works of art. No public money is used for Christo's projects and he does not accept sponsorship.

ART: Christo’s “Mastaba” London sculpture (Graphic)
GN38038 Graphic shows the construction of The Mastaba large-scale art object.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 12, 2018 -- Officials in Greece and Macedonia have said they are close to reaching a draft agreement to resolve a decades-old name dispute – but the proposed compromise is facing dissent in both countries.

EUROPE: Macedonia name dispute (Graphic)
GN38045 Graphic shows profile of Macedonia, and details of name dispute.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 12, 2018 -- Seven-in-ten Americans say they support direct talks between the U.S. and North Korea over its nuclear programme, but most doubt that they will be meaningful, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

NORTH KOREA: Approval of Trump-Kim talks (Graphic)
GN38042 Graphic shows results of Pew Research Center surveys on North Korea’s nuclear programme.
(107mm by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

January 29 - May 5, 2018 -- Graphic shows anniversaries and events on this day in history. Updated now to include the data for weeks 22 and 26 i.e. to June 30. The events and images are the same as on the GN On This Day print graphics GN37826 and GN37992. 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 fo events to that 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” (1) (Interactive)
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)

June 24-30, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the oldest known turtle, North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, the Berlin Airlift, America’s iconic Route 66, Soccer legend Pele, Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.


June 24, 2015: Scientists announced they had found the oldest-known turtle, 240 million years old, that combined traits of lizard-like ancestors with emerging turtle-like features

June 25, 1950: North Korea invaded South Korea, crossing the 38th parallel behind a firestorm of artillery. A UN ceasefire call was ignored and the Korean War began

June 26, 1948: The Berlin Airlift began after the Soviets imposed a blockade on West Berlin. Over the next year the Western allies flew in over 8,000 tonnes of food and fuel a day

June 27, 1985: America’s iconic Route 66, which stretched some 2,200 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, was decertified and all its highway signs were removed

June 28, 1940: Soccer legend Pele, Brazil’s top goalscorer who led his nation to three World Cup victories in 1958, 1962 and 1970, was born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento

June 29, 2003: Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn, who won a record four Best Actress Oscars during a glittering six-decade career, died at the age of 96

June 30, 2010: Rio de Janeiro’s iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer was unveiled after a $4 million restoration. The 38-metre statue attracts two million tourists a year

HISTORY: On this day June 24-30 2018 (week 26) (Graphic)
GN37992 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

June 17-23, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the aviator Amelia Earhart, Astronaut Sally Ride,the cartoon cat Garfield, the “Hot line” between the White House and the Kremlin, Mohammad bin Salman, son of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the astronomer Galileo Galilei, and the patent for a “Type-write”.

June 17, 1928: Amelia Earhart embarked on the first ever trans-Atlantic flight by a woman. She was one of three people aboard the Fokker tri-motor aircraft, Friendship

June 18, 1983: Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she was launched into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger

June 19, 1978: Garfield, now the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, first appeared. Garfield, an overweight cat, is shown above as a balloon in a Thanksgiving Day parade

June 20, 1963: A hot linewas established between the White House and the Kremlin, after delays in communication during the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of war

June 21, 2017: Mohammad bin Salman, son of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, was appointed as Crown Prince, after King Salman demoted his nephew, Muhammad bin Nayef

June 22, 1633: The Papal Inquisition forced astronomer Galileo Galilei to recant his then-heretical theory that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun

June 23, 1868: Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper publisher, received a patent for an invention called the ype-Writer


HISTORY: On this day June 17-23 2018 (week 25) (Graphic)
GN37826 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

June 11, 2018 -- Ben Lecomte, 51, aims to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean, covering 9,000km from Tokyo to San Francisco in six months while raising awareness of the state of ocean health.

Lecomte, who set off on June 5 from from Choshi, Japan, which is northeast of Tokyo, is expected to swim eight hours daily on a journey that could take six to eight months.

He will be accompanied by a 67-foot sailboat and each day a smaller inflatable motorboat will lead him in the water, keeping him on-course.

Scientific teams accompanying Lecomte will collect more than 1,000 water samples and study plastic pollution, mammal migration and the effect of extreme endurance events on the human body. They will also study the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on the ocean.

Much of Lecomte's backing comes from scientific publisher Seeker.com, who will be providing daily updates on his progress as well as promoting research on the data collected by the support team.

During his epic journey, he will swim across the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a key area for research as it is the biggest concentration of microplastic in the open ocean.

Lecomte, who faces dangers including storms, swarms of jellyfish, and extremely low temperatures, wears a bracelet that creates a magnetic field to repel sharks.

When Ben Lecomte stepped onto land for the first time after swimming across the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, he told himself ‘never again’.

PACIFIC: Longest swim attempt (Graphic)
GN38035 Graphic shows route and details of the challenge.
(107mm wide by 155mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 11, 2018 -- Since the U.S. removed tactical nuclear weapons from its bases in South Korea in 1991, five U.S. presidents have offered inducements to North Korea to forgo its quest for nuclear weapons.

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear weapons test from the Punggye-Ri Nuclear Test Facility on September 3, 2017, a day after Pyongyang published photos of Kim Jong-un with what it claims is a hydrogen bomb.

The independent Norwegian Research Organization (NORSAR) determined the magnitude of the test to have been 5.8. NORSAR calculated that the yield of the test device would be about 120 kilotons -- or about eight times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, and about six times that of the fifth test conducted at Punggye-Ri on September 9, 2016.

NORTH KOREA: North Korea’s nuclear quest (Graphic)
GN38041 Graphic shows timeline of North Korea’s missile teasts and nuclear tests.
(107mm by 157mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 11, 2018 -- Malta is accusing Italy of violating international norms by instructing a migrant rescue ship with 629 people aboard to stay at sea while a diplomatic standoff plays out over where it can dock.

EUROPE: Mediterranean migrant standoff (Graphic)
GN38040 Graphic shows location of ship, and migrant arrival data.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 8, 2018 -- The Trump administration’s decisions to exit the Iran nuclear deal, to quit the Paris accord on climate change and slam tariffs on allies are the latest examples of America’s unilateralism.

The Group of Seven summit ended in acrimony Saturday, with U.S. President Donald Trump lashing out at host Canada and retracting his endorsement of the joint statement.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Trump’s tariffs on G7 allies -- justified on national security grounds -- as “insulting and unacceptable.”

Tweeting en route to his next summit in Singapore with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, Trump said he had instructed U.S. officials “not to endorse the communique as we look at Tariffs (sic) on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market! (sic)”

He accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of acting “meek and mild” during meetings, only to attack the U.S. at a news conference.

Trump controversially suggested that the G7 offer a seat at the table to Russia, saying “something happened a while ago where Russia is no longer in. I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in.”

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 after it invaded and annexed Crimea.

The annual G7 summit includes Britain, Italy, France, Germany, the U.S. and Japan.

POLITICS: America takes on the world (Graphic)
GN38033 Graphic shows how countries are responding to Trump’s dismissive attitude to international co-operation.
(107mm by 193mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 7, 2018 -- The United States is pressing its European allies to get more NATO battalions, ships and planes ready for combat, officials say, in a fresh move to shore up NATO’s deterrence against any Russian attack.

NATO: Readiness plan to deter Russian threat (Graphic)
GN38031 Graphic shows likely provisions of NATO plan.
(107mm by 133mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 7, 2018 -- Two decades after a border war erupted between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Addis Ababa says it will abide by a 2002 border commission ruling, offering Eritrea a chance to end Africa’s longest war.

Ethiopia’s ruling party, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, says it will fully accept ruling that would entail ceding disputed town of Badme to Eritrea.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the two-year conflict and Eritrea remains on a war footing, demanding that Ethiopia withdraws from the "occupied territory".

If Ethiopia follows through, the move could help settle some of the differences between the two archrivals on the Horn of Africa.

Peace with Eritrea is part of radical reform agenda initiated by Ethiopia’s new prime minister Abiy Ahmed to open up country after 26 years of authoritarian rule.

CONFLICT: Africa’s longest war may finally end (Graphic)
GN38030 Graphic shows areas of dispute according to 2002 boundary commission.
(107mm wide by 144mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 12, 2018 -- The much-anticipated meeting between the U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place at the five-star Capella Hotel on the Singaporean island of Sentosa.

Once known as the “island behind death” due to its violent piracy past, and the site of a World War Two massacre, the now tranquil island of Sentosa provides a luxury backdrop to the historic summit.

Sources familiar with the arrangements said U.S. diplomats had picked the island resort, which is connected to the Singapore main island by a single causeway that can be easily closed off to traffic.

POLITICS: Trump-Kim summit set for Sentosa island (Graphic)
GN38026 Graphic shows security zones and factfile about the Sentosa Island.
(107mm wide by 190mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 6, 2018 -- Pro-government forces in Yemen are closing in on the Red Sea port of Hodeida, the main point of entry for aid to the war-ravaged country, following a rapid advance against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

YEMEN: Arab coalition advances on Hodeida (Graphic)
GN38027 Graphic shows areas of control in Yemen’s civil war.
(107mm by 133mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 6, 2018 -- The death toll after Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted has hit 75 with at least 192 people missing as pyroclastic flows and volcanic gases threaten nearby villages.

Explosions intensified Wednesday, sending pyroclastic flows -- a mix of ash, molten rock and volcanic gases that can be more dangerous than lava -- streaming down the volcano’s south side.

The village of El Rodeo was devastated by lahars, a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. In steep areas, lahars can exceed speeds of 200 km/h (120mph).

Guatemala’s disaster agency said 3,100 people had evacuated nearby communities, and ashfall was affecting an area with about 1.7 million of country’s 15 million or so people. Shelters have been opened for those forced to flee. Sunday's eruption was the biggest since 1974.

DISASTERS: Guatemala's Fuego volcano (Graphic)
GN38028 Graphic shows location of Guatemala and the Volcan de Fuego.
(107mm by 91mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 5, 2018 -- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered atomic authorities to increase Iran's uranium enrichment capacity if a nuclear deal with world powers falls apart after the U.S. withdrawal.

IRAN: Nuclear fuel cycle (Graphic)
GN38024 Graphic shows Iran’s nuclear power fuel cycle.
(107mm by 133mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 5, 2018 -- Man-made diamonds -- manufactured by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) -- are grown in carbon-containing gas in a plasma state. Layers of carbon atoms create stones chemically identical to mined diamonds.

The first synthetic diamonds were made in Sweden in 1953 by a high pressure-high temperature process, literally a carbon-copy of nature.

In 1989, a technological leap was achieved when the Diamond Research Laboratory (DRL), later to become De Beers’ Element Six, completed diamond synthesis using a low-pressure CVD.

A diamond is one giant molecule of carbon atoms. Using CVD, diamond forms in a high-temperature plasma mix of hydrogen and methane, at very low pressures inside a vacuum chamber. An actual diamond crystal acts as a seed for diamond growth.

A fundamental problem of diamond synthesis is the allotropic nature of carbon itself. Different physical forms of the element include diamond, graphite and buckminsterfullerene or “buckyballs” -- graphite, not diamond, is the stable crystalline phase of carbon.

DRL’s breakthrough was the discovery of optimal gas mixtures and temperatures for diamond growth. By using a high supersaturation of atomic hydrogen, carbon atoms form three dimensional tetrahedral bonds of diamond as opposed to weaker bonds of graphite.

Apart from jewellery, synthetic diamond has commercial applications from oil and gas drilling to cutting-edge electronics. Synthetic diamond is a candidate material for quantum computing which performs operations that are not possible using computers that follow classical physics.

SCIENCE: Man-made diamond (Graphic)
GN38017 Graphic shows principles of CVD method of creating synthetic diamond
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 4, 2018 -- The planned summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump is sharpening focus on the dividends North Korea could enjoy as part of one of the world’s most dynamic economic regions.

NORTH KOREA: Potential for economic development (Graphic)
GN38013 Graphic shows aspects of North Korea’s economic potential.
(107mm by 161mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 6, 2018 -- “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is set for a rerun of the battle royale of summer 2015, between dinosaurs and superheroes. Fallen Kingdom opens around the world from June 6 (U.S. premiere – June 22).

Three years ago “Jurassic World” surpassed “The Avengers Age of Ultron” to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time -- currently, it sits at fifth place.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and a crowd of blood-curdling pterosaurs, the 2015 Jurassic World shattered the law of diminishing returns of movie sequels. Jurassic World earned a jaw-dropping $208 million opening box office and went on to $1.6 billion worldwide.

Three years later, Fallen Kingdom, directed by J.A. Bayona and written by Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, is the fifth Jurassic Park to face off against the third Avengers movie -- the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise. “Avengers: Infinity War,” which also stars Chris Pratt.

While the four dinosaur-movies have earned $3.69 billion since 1993, MCU’s 19 films since 2007 have grossed more than $16.8 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Whichever movie eventually takes the worldwide box office crown this summer, Chris Pratt is set to be a winner.

ENTERTAINMENT: Jurassic World sequel fights for dominance (Graphic)
GN38011 Graphic charts box office earnings from the Jurassic Park franchise against those of The Avengers movies.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 4, 2018 -- At least 25 people were killed and nearly 300 injured when Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted, spewing an 8-kilometre stream of molten lava shortly before noon on Sunday.

Rescuers have struggled to reach rural residents cut off by the eruption, the Associated Press reports. Authorities have been unable to account for an undetermined number of people and say they fear the death toll could rise.

The Volcan de Fuego, or “volcano of fire,” exploded in a hail of ash and molten rock, blanketing nearby villages in heavy ash. It then began sending lava flows down the mountain’s flank and across homes and roads.

The eruption forced Guatemala City’s La Aurora international airport to shut down its main runway due to the presence of volcanic ash.

DISASTERS: Guatemala's Fuego volcano eruption (Graphic)
GN38012 Graphic shows location of Guatemala and the Volcan de Fuego.
(107mm by 91mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 10-16, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the ballpoint pen, the career of tennis player Rafael Nadal, the founding of Magdalen College in Oxford, the Pioneer spacecraft, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, the marine sanctuary in Hawaii, and the death of Chancellor Kohl.

June 10, 1943: Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen, consisting of a ball that turned freely in a socket and deposited smudge-free ink

June 11, 2017: Spain’s Rafael Nadal won a record 10th French Open title, becoming the first player in the Open era to win a single Grand Slam tournament 10 times

June 12, 1458: Magdalen College was founded in Oxford by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. Magdalen was among the first Oxford colleges to teach the sciences

June 13, 1983: The U.S. spacecraft Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system, after passing Jupiter and clearing the orbit of Neptune

June 14, 2017: A massive fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in west London, killed 71 people. The cladding on the building was feared to have spread the blaze

June 15, 2006: The world’s largest marine sanctuary, supporting over 7,000 species, many of them unique to the region, was established in northwestern Hawaii

June 16, 2017: Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany from 1982-98, died at the age of 87. Kohl is credited with the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall

HISTORY: On this day June 10-16 2018 (week 24) (Graphic)
GN37825 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

June 1, 2018 -- Italy’s populists have put an end to three months of political gridlock and formed a government, staving off the threat of new elections that could have become a referendum on the euro.

ITALY: Key government appointments (Graphic)
GN38009 Graphic shows key government ministers and composition of Italy’s parliament.
(107mm by 159mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 31, 2018 -- A total of 1,304 journalists have been killed worldwide* since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, including 58 in Russia.

MEDIA: Number of journalists killed in Russia (Graphic)
GN38007 Graphic charts the numbers of reporters killed worldwide since 1992, highlighting Russian journalists in particular.
(107mm by 100mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 1, 2018 -- Mariano Rajoy’s tenure as one of Europe’s longest-serving prime ministers is hanging in the balance, with the opposition Socialists close to winning enough support to push through a no-confidence vote in Spain’s fragmented parliament.


Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the centre-left Socialist party (PSOE), brought a no-confidence motion after Spain’s High Court handed long jail terms to dozens of people linked to the ruling People’s Party (PP) in a long-running corruption trial, known as the Gurtel affair.

But the PSOE, with just 84 seats in 350-seat parliament, needs the backing of the leftist Podemos party and smaller groups, including Catalan pro-independence parties and Basque nationalists.

Rajoy’s minority government has struggled after inconclusive elections in 2015 and 2016, and is under fire for the perceived inability to solve secession crisis in Catalonia.

Ciudadanos (Citizens), a centre-right party, riding high in many polls thanks to hard line on Catalan separatism, is pushing for immediate elections.

POLITICS: Spain’s prime minister faces confidence vote (Graphic)
GN38004 Graphic shows how Spain’s PM could be pushed out.
(107mm wide by 156mm (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 31, 2018 -- Israeli Air Force F-35I Adir fighters carried out their first airstrikes against enemy targets in April. The stealth warplanes flew within the range of Russian S-400 air defence radars located at Hmeimim Air Base.

Israel’s air force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Nurkin reported on May 22 that the F-35I Adir warplanes had been used for the first time in the Middle East and “attacked twice on different fronts” in their first combat operations anywhere in the world.

The IAF declared the 140 “Golden Eagle” Squadron with nine F-35I Joint Strike Fighters at Nevatim Air Base initially ready for combat operations in December 2017.

The F-35Is are believed to have flown on April 29 from Nevatim, over Jordan and Iraq, before penetrating Syrian airspace -- all the while within range of Russian S-400 air defence systems based at Hmeimim Air Base on Syria's western coast.

The target tracking radar of the S-400 is the 92N6E (NATO Codename: Gravestone) which can detect and track aircraft, cruise missiles, ballistic rockets and drones within a distance of 600km.

The aircraft attacked military sites in Hama and Aleppo provinces with GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) -- an unpowered glide bomb credited with a standoff range of 110km.

The Hama attack against the home base of Syria’s 47th Brigade destroyed significant arms caches, including Iranian-supplied surface-to-surface missiles. Blasts reported at 22:40 local time registered as a 2.6-magnitude earthquake, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.

This means the F-35Is attacked some 350km from Israeli territory, making it the deepest Israeli strike within Syria since the IAF destruction of the Al-Kubar nuclear reactor near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria in September 2007.

MILITARY: Israeli F-35s in first combat mission (Graphic)
GN38005 Graphic shows F-35 and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb with details of the April 29 attack deep within Syria.
(107mm by 141mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 30, 2018 -- The U.S. has threatened sanctions against companies in Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands that are involved in the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany.

Nord Stream 2 delivers gas directly to Germany, bypassing Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia, allowing Russia to cut gas supplies to these nations without worrying about the consequences.

ENERGY: Nord Stream 2 pipeline (Graphic)
GN38002 Graphic shows main Russian gas export pipelines and EU gas consumption.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 17, 2018 -- Colombians vote in a runoff between two frontrunners from opposite ends of the political spectrum, while a peace process with leftist rebels hangs in the balance.

Gustavo Petro, a leftist running on an anti-establishment platform, and Ivan Duque, a conservative lawyer and former senator who has promised to change some provisions of the controversial 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels that brought to an end over half-a century of armed conflict.

Duque, a former bureaucrat at the Inter-American Development Bank, promises to stimulate the economy by decreasing taxes on businesses and boosting oil production. His critics point out that the 41-year-old has almost no managerial experience.

Petro, a former member of the disbanded M-19 guerrilla movement and former mayor of Bogota, pledges to overhaul Colombia’s orthodox economic policy and redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. Petro's critics accuse him of being a populist, pointing to his past support for Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

Colombia is Latin America's third most populated country, after Brazil and Mexico, and is one of the world's largest exporters of flowers and coffee, though its economy relies largely on oil and mining.

POLITICS: Colombia divisive runoff (Graphic)
GN38001 Graphic shows results from first round of elections and profiles of the two frontrunnes
(107mm wide by 166mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 29, 2018 -- Populist parties are vowing to turn voter anger over their thwarted bid to govern for the first time into a referendum on Italy’s place in Europe, as the country faces fresh elections as soon as late summer.

ITALY: Election voting intentions (Graphic)
GN37996 Graphic shows Italian polls on voting intentions in next general election.
(107mm by 114mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 30, 2018 -- Former North Korea spy chief Kim Yong Chol arrives to New York for talks on an upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

General Kim, 72, is a controversial figure in neighbouring South Korea, and previously served as a negotiator in inter-Korean talks.

He is believed to have masterminded numerous attacks on South Korea, including the sinking of the Cheonan military vessel in 2010, which killed 46 sailors.

Kim Yong Chol has been closely involved with talks with South Korea as well and his visit to the United States would further indicate preparations for the historic summit are moving ahead.

NORTH KOREA: Who is General Kim Yong-chol? (Graphic)
GN37993 Graphic shows profile of Kim Yong-chol.
(107mm wide by 158mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 29, 2018 -- America’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) applies sanctions on 39 entities in Russia’s defence and intelligence sectors, and secondary sanctions on countries engaging in business with them.

After successfully threatening secondary sanctions against some of Europe’s largest companies -- France’s Total and Airbus, Norway’s Saga Energy and Denmark’s shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk -- over their trade with Iran, Washington is now targeting Russia’s strategic ties around the world.

Under Section 231 of CAATSA, any third-country business or individual that engages in a“significant transaction” with Russia’s defence or intelligence sectors will face secondary sanctions. These penalties will affect many of America’s allies, driving them to reduce their defence and energy dependence with Russia.

Washington is pressing New Delhi to cancel India’s proposed $4.5 billion deal with Russia for five S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. NATO member Turkey signed a $2.5bn agreement in December to also purchase S-400 systems, while Russia’s Rosatom is building a $20bn nuclear power station at Akkuyu on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Indonesia has defied pressure from Washington, signing a $1.1bn order for 11 Russian-made Su-35 warplanes, while Vietnam is resisting U.S. pressure to dump Russia and buy American weapons.

After losing billions of euros from sanction-threats after the Trump administration quit the Iran nuclear deal, European companies that are partners in Russia’s planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany now face penalties.

The U.S. may slap sanctions on France’s Engie, the UK-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV Group and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, all partners in Nord Stream 2.

BUSINESS: U.S. CAATSA sanctions (Graphic)
GN37994 Graphic shows countries that could face secondary sanctions for their deals with Russia.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 25, 2018 -- The economic impact of U.S. President Trump’s move to quit the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran will hit EU companies that have done business with Iran since the 2015 accord was signed.

Iran’s crude oil exports more than doubled since the nuclear deal with the P5+1, the five permanent members of the UN’s Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK and the U.S., plus Germany. Under the pact — the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for limited sanctions relief — Tehran saw oil exports surge from 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd.

In a meeting in Vienna on Friday (May 25) to try and salvage the nuclear deal, Iran told European powers to present it with measures to compensate it by the end of May. Tehran would then decide within weeks whether to quit the accord.

The EU has been trying to find a way to ensure that economic benefits continue to persuade Tehran to stay in the deal. But that has proven difficult, with European companies worried over U.S. secondary sanctions.

French oil and gas giant Total has decided to cancel a five-billion-dollar project to develop South Pars natural gas field unless U.S. authorities grant it a waiver. Norway’s Saga Energy has dropped a $3 billion agreement to build solar power plants while Denmark’s shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk has called a halt to doing business with Iran. Airbus is loosing a $25 billion deal to sell commercial aircraft to IranAir and Iran’s Aseman Airlines. 

BUSINESS: Iran oil production and trade (Interactive)
GN37991 Graphic shows effect of sanctions on Iran’s crude oil exports and its five largest trading partners.
(px wide by px deep)

June 13, 2018 -- Nintendo has announced that the video game Fortnite is being released for its Switch console, bringing the biggest selling game in the world to the popular gaming platform.

Switch owners will be able to compete against those already playing Fortnite on Xbox One, PC, Mac and mobile devices, but not against PlayStation 4 gamers because of restrictions imposed by Sony. The game -- which lets up to eight players compete at once -- is due to go on sale on December 7.

ENTERTAINMENT: “Fortnite” game phenomenon (Graphic)
GN37988 Graphic explains the principle of the game, and how it has taken the world by storm – earning its developers a fortune in the process.
(107mm by 180mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 24, 2018 -- Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, is preparing to embark on its maiden mission, providing electricity to a remote Russian town in the Arctic far east.

RUSSIA: Floating nuclear power plant (Graphic)
GN37984 Graphic shows details of Akademik Lomonosov nuclear floating power unit and its maiden mission.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 24, 2018 -- Work is due to start on the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Turkey – a waterway to bypass the congested Bosphorus Strait. But critics fear that the Canal Istanbul, also known as Kanal Istanbul, will result in ecological disaster.

With estimated costs of around $16 billion, the 45km-canal connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, is one of the most ambitious of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's engineering mega-projects.

He has said that if he wins a third term in snap elections, his government’s priority will be its construction.

The Bosphorus is one of world’s busiest waterways with 53,000 vessels passing through in 2017, compared with 17,000 in Suez Canal and 12,000 in Panama Canal.

Erdogan says the canal will take the pressure off the Bosphorus and prevent accidents there. He says “mega-projects”, such as Istanbul’s third airport, are major contributors to the economy.

But opponents and scientists say that the plans — which would turn Istanbul’s European side into an island — could displace thousands of people, destroy forests, threaten the city's fresh water supply and increase oxygen levels in Black Sea, impacting wildlife.

Besides the ecological impact, experts warn that there is an open question of whether or not such a canal would violate the Montreux Convention, a 1936 treaty that ensures the free passage of commercial vessels and naval ships of countries along the Black Sea.

SHIPPING: Canal Istanbul (Graphic)
GN37989 Graphic shows route of the Istanbul Canal.
(107mm wide by 183mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 23, 2018 -- Sweden is testing the first road of its kind that can charge a vehicle as it drives along. The state-funded scheme, named eRoadArlanda, could potentially help cut the high cost of electric cars.

TRANSPORT: World’s first electrified road interactive (Interactive)
GN37986 Responsive interactive graphic shows details of eRoadArlanda project.
(800px wide by 568px deep)

May 24, 2018 -- A group of international journalists departed Wonsan in North Korea Wednesday to watch the dismantling of KimJong-un’s nuclear test site after eight reporters from South Korea received last-minute permission to join them.

MILITARY: North Korea’s nuclear test site (Graphic)
GN37990 Graphic shows the Punggye-ri test site and a schematic of the tunnel system.
(107mm by 186mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 22, 2018 -- Giuseppe Conte, a law professor with scant political experience, has been picked as the candidate for prime minister by Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League.

Italy’s head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, must approve the appointment of Conte as prime minister. Conte’s rise to Palazzo Chigi -- the seat of government in central Rome -- is not yet a certainty; President Mattarella is to hold a fresh round of talks with the heads of the upper and lower houses of parliament on Tuesday.

Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini both ruled themselves out of the top job, but both are expected to be senior ministers in the cabinet.

Salvini is expected to become the interior minister -- to oversee strict curbs on immigration -- after the arrival of more than 600,000 boat migrants on Italian shores over four years fueled the anti-immigrant League’s popularity.

Di Maio will likely become minister for economic development, to introduce a universal income for the poor, a signature Five Star policy. The economy ministry could go to Salvini’s top adviser, Giancarlo Giorgetti, or Paolo Savona, an 81-year-old economist and former industry minister.

POLITICS: Italian PM candidate Giuseppe Conte (Graphic)
GN37982 Graphic shows profile of Giuseppe Conte and likely cabinet positions of Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini in a coalition government.
(107mm by 128mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 21, 2018 -- Sweden is testing the first road of its kind that can charge a vehicle as it drives along. The state-funded scheme, named eRoadArlanda, could potentially help cut the high cost of electric cars.

If you could directly charge electric cars as they were travelling along the highway the two biggest barriers to their success – range anxiety and cost – would be eliminated.

A project in Sweden called eRoadArlanda, which links electric trucks to Stockholm airport and a local distribution centre, is well on the way to proving that the electrified highway works.

Hans Saell, a spokesman for the eRoadArlanda project, believes pushing electricity into cars from a connection under the road will boost the technology in trucks, and could be scaled up to cars.

This promise to make recharging simple and ubiquitous would allow car manufacturers to put smaller batteries in their cars, currently so expensive as to make them unaffordable to the general public. Range anxiety would be a thing of the past too. Currently investors in hugely expensive charging infrastructure projects will be looking over their shoulders.

The eRoadArlanda project is backed by Swedish state-owned energy provider Vattenfall, Elways, an innovation company, and the construction and infrastructure company NCC. It uses Elways’ patented technology. Saell is CEO of the eRoadArlanda consortium and Business development manager at NCC.

Saell believes the concept is capable of scaling up for widespread adoption and could well lead to autoroutes across Europe being fitted with the technology.

“We definitely believe this is very scaleable. If you electrify the highways, manufacturers can use smaller batteries and it takes away range anxiety, and it costs less than €1 million ($1.2m) per kilometre. The cost of a tramway, for instance, is at least 50 times higher,” Saell said in an interview with Graphic News.

The electric power would be accessed from under the road safely, using a thin connector, in contrast to the exposed third rail often used to power electric trains. The vehicle would detect when a section of the highway was set up for recharging and automatically make the connection with a moveable arm, without cutting speed.

“This could be commercialised within 5 to 10 years in Sweden and will allow much smaller batteries to be used. The cost of batteries today is more or less half the price of the car and with this technology batteries would be half the size or smaller than those today,” Saell said.

The electrified road would augment other ways of charging including wireless technology, which could be used while cars are parked, and the traditional plug-in methods.

Some experts were sceptical about the impact of the development on the wider world of electric cars.

Nicolas Meilhan, analyst with Frost & Sullivan in Paris, said this would be very expensive.

“We won’t really have the money to invest in this kind of massive infrastructure project. Better to use what we already have more efficiently. If you want to electrify trucks, put them on trains. Curb private cars in cities and make better use of public transport, walking and cycling. Use plug-in hybrids for long distance driving and lightweight small electric cars for commuting,” Meilhan said.

Testing on electric trucks at eRoadArlanda started in April and will last at least 12 months.

TRANSPORT: World’s first electrified road (Graphic)
GN37968 Graphic shows details of eRoadArlanda project.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 21, 2018 -- The Mount Kilauea volcano, spewing and exploding on Hawaii’s Big Island, is becoming more violent, sending rivers of molten rock pouring into the ocean and launching lava spatter skywards.

Kilauea is the most active of the five volcanos that from the island of Hawii, and are considered sacred by the Hawaiian people. The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a World Heritage Site attracting over 2.5 million people annually.

VOLCANO: Hawaii volcano becoming more hazardous (Graphic)
GN37979 Graphic shows the latest lava flow map from the Kilauea volcano eruption.
(107mm by 150mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 21, 2018 -- Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has won re-election to another six-year term, in a vote marred by the boycott of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable coalition and claims of vote-rigging.

The primary opposition candidate, Henri Falcón, rejected the result soon after the polls closed.

With 92 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 67.7 percent or 5.8 million votes while Falcón won 21.2 percent (1.8 million votes) and Javier Bertucci secured 10.8 percent (925,000 votes), according to the National Electoral Council. Just 46% of the electorate turned out to vote.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump said it would not recognise the result.

POLITICS: Venezuela election result (Graphic)
GN37973 Graphic shows Venezuela election result.
(107mm by 103mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 21, 2018 -- China is funding dual-use infrastructure projects from the Pacific to the Horn of Africa, fuelling “debt traps” that will give Beijing leverage to gain strategic and military power.

It is all part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative -- also known as “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) -- a US$8 trillion plan to create a new Silk Road with sea and land links across Asia and Africa to Europe. OBOR will encompass some 64 nations and an estimated 7,000 infrastructure projects. And this real estate will need to be defended.

Projects costing around $900 billion are currently underway or in the planning stage, paid for with billion-dollar loans from Beijing. Loans that cannot be serviced leave governments in the debt trap. China is leveraging economic debt for strategic advantage, tilting the balance of power from the U.S and its allies towards Asia, according to a report by Harvard Kennedy School scholars for the U.S. State Department.

Co-authors, Sam Parker and Gabrielle Chefitz, point out that Beijing has used infrastructure incentives in the contested South China Sea to help break opposition to Beijing’s territorial ambitions. Now, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Pakistan and Vanuatu are deemed to be vulnerable.

In 2017, struggling to pay its $8bn debt to Chinese state-controlled companies, Sri Lanka leased its strategic port of Hambantota to China for 99 years, raising fears it could become a military base.

In Djibouti, where the U.S., France and China already have military bases, Beijing’s state-owned enterprises have taken over Doraleh Container Terminal in exchange for debt.

Pakistan, where China is constructing major port facilities at Gwadar, is adding $62bn of Chinese loans on top of external debt standing at $82bn

Vanuatu, just 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) off Australia’s coast, has taken at least $270 million in Chinese loans in the past decade. Fairfax Media reported in April that China had held discussions with Vanuatu about building a People’s Liberation Army naval base -- a charge vehemently denied by Beijing.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Parker said, “China is giving hundreds of billions to countries that can not afford to repay it, and it’s going to want something in return for that money. ”

MILITARY: China’s “debt-trap diplomacy” (Graphic)
GN37978 Graphic shows five Chinese dual-purpose infrastructure projects from Vanuatu to Djibouti.
(107mm by 156mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 15, 2018 -- Fifty years ago, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot and fatally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, hours after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. He died in the early hours of the next day.

Fifty years later, Robert’s grandson, Joe Kennedy III, is a rising star of the Democratic party.

The 37-year-old, who is currently serving his third term as U.S. Representative of Massachusetts 4th Congressional District, stepped into the national spotlight as he delivered the traditional rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union speech in January.

The Kennedys were one of the most prominent families in 20th Century U.S. politics. Joseph Kennedy was U.S. ambassador to Britain under President Franklin Roosevelt. His son John F Kennedy was president 1961-63, and his other sons Robert and Edward became senators.

POLITICS: Kennedy family tree (Graphic)
GN37969 Graphic shows the Kennedy family tree.
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May 22, 2018 -- Google’s parent company Alphabet is entering the fiercely contested music streaming battleground with its new “YouTube Music” service.

ENTERTAINMENT: YouTube launches “Music” streaming service (Graphic)
GN37970 Graphic shows company marketshare in the highly competitive music streaming sector, with a look at the state of play in the music industry in general.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 12, 2018 -- The Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) – set to bring Azeri natural gas to Turkey and the EU – is the central link in the so-called Southern Gas Corridor aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian supplies.

ENERGY: TANAP gas pipeline (Graphic)
GN37939 Graphic shows route of Trans-Anatolian Pipeline and other components of Southern Gas Corridor.
(107mm by 120mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

June 12, 2018 -- Singapore, a city-state in South East Asia with a population of about 5.6 million, hosts the historical summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Singapore’s diplomatic ties with North Korea and its relative proximity made the small Southeast Asian nation a natural choice for the landmark meeting, analysts say.

POLITICS: Why Singapore for Trump-Kim summit? (Graphic)
GN37874 Graphic shows reasons why Singapore has been chosen for the Trump-Kim summit.
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April 16 - June 30, 2018 -- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) aims to outperform the crippled Kepler space observatory, which has found 30 potentially life-bearing exoplanets in nine years.

TESS detects tiny changes in brightness caused by transit of planets across face of stars. It’s four cameras will scan areas of space 400 times larger than that covered by Kepler.

KEPLER — Launch: Mar 7, 2009
Candidate exoplanets found: 2,245
Confirmed exoplanets found: 2,342
Confirmed exoplanets found, less than twice Earth-size and in habitable zone: 30
Jul 2012: One of four reaction wheels, used to maintain Kepler’s position, breaks down
May 2013: Second reaction wheel fails
May 2014: K2 extension born, using limited maneuverability to scan smaller red dwarfs

K2 MISSION
Candidate exoplanets found: 479
Confirmed exoplanets found: 307


SPACE: TESS planet hunter (Graphic)
GN36325 Graphic shows how TESS will improve on its forebear Kepler, with timeline on Kepler’s achievements and mishaps.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

July 31, 2018 -- April 27, 2018 is the deadline to submit your name to NASA for inclusion aboard its Parker Solar Probe, set to launch in July-August this year.

SPACE: The Parker Solar Probe (Graphic)
GN36312 Graphic explains how to submit your name for uploading to the probe and how the mission will be carried out.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))