Graphic News Planner (news) 09/12/2019 10:35:38

December 6, 2019 -- Apple is likely going to include an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner hidden behind the screen of one of it’s 2020 iPhones, according to industry leaks.

The next generation of Apple iPhone is rumoured to include a fingerprint scanner tucked away behind the display screen.

Presently Samsung uses the technology in two of its devices but they have been plagued with problems, including allowing any finger to unlock the device if has been fitted with a screen protector.

Apple’s scanner will likely be Qualcomm’s new 3D Sonic Max, the latest version of its ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. It provides a recognition area seventeen times larger than the previous generation – allowing for increased speed, ease of use and even simultaneous two-finger authentication for greater security.

Under-display scanners are becoming popular with smartphone designers because they can reduce the bezel size so the display fills up most of the visible area.

Another method of under-display scanning, employed by electronic device manufacturers such as Huawei, is to use optics to analyse a fingerprint, but this is prone to false readings in bright sunlight and occupies more space within the device.

TECH: iPhone to feature hidden fingerprint scanner (Graphic DUE Dec 9, 17:00GMT)
GN39778 Graphic shows how under-display fingerprint scanners work.
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December 9, 2019 -- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are meeting in Paris alongside the French and German leaders in a renewed effort to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

MILITARY: Ukraine peace talks with Russia (Graphic DUE Dec 9, 17:00GMT)
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December 31, 2019 -- A review of major news stories in 2019...

YEAR END: Year in review 2019 (Graphic DUE Dec 9, 14:00GMT)
GN39774 Graphic shows a selection of key events that took place during 2019 and people in the public eye. Alternative events can be found in the GN On This Day in History database (link below).
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December 31, 2019 -- Graphic shows some of the top archaeological discoveries in 2019.

YEAR END: Archaeological discoveries of 2019 (Interactive)
GN39786 Graphic shows top archaeological discoveries in 2019.
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December 9, 2019 -- A volcano frequented by tourists on a small New Zealand island erupted, leaving at least five dead and several unaccounted for

As many as 100 people were in the vicinity when the eruption began at 14:11 local time (01:11GMT) on White Island, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the east coast of North Island, authorities said, sending up smoke visible from the mainland.

White Island sits about 50 kilometres (30 miles) offshore from mainland New Zealand. Already people are questioning why tourists were still able to visit the island after scientists recently noted an uptick in volcanic activity.

The GeoNet agency, which monitors volcanoes and earthquakes in New Zealand, raised the alert level on White Island from one to two on Nov. 18, noting an increase in the amount of sulfur dioxide gas, which originates from magma deep in the volcano. It also said at the time that over the previous weeks, the volcanic tremor had increased from weak to moderate strength.

The island is also known by the indigenous Maori name Whakaari.

DISASTERS: New Zealand volcano eruption (Graphic)
GN39785 Graphic shows location of volcano.
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December 15-21, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the epic Hollywood movie Gone with the Wind, the Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Chinese territory of Macao, the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and the Boeing Delta IV Heavy.

December 15, 1939: The epic Hollywood movie Gone with the Wind, set in the American South against the backdrop of the Civil War, had its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia

December 16, 1939: Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was born. Noted for her subtlety, she is best known for her long association with Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman

December 17, 1939: The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by her own crew off Uruguay after it was trapped in the River Plate by British warships

December 18, 1865: Slavery was abolished across the United States and its territories following the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

December 19, 1999: China resumed sovereignty over the territory of Macao after 442 years of Portuguese colonial rule. It is the only part of China where casino gambling is legal

December 20, 1989: U.S. troops invaded Panama to depose and capture its military dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been indicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges

December 21, 2004: The super-sized Boeing Delta IV Heavy blasted off on its maiden flight, launching a new era in heavy lift capability for the U.S. space programme

HISTORY: On this day December 15-21, 2019 (week 51) (Graphic)
GN39772 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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December 22-28, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the first S-ray images, the Hansom cab, General Manuel Antonio Noriega,the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops, the tsunami of 2004, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and British access Maggie Smith

December 22, 1895: German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen made the first X-ray image, of his wife’s hand, allowing the inner workings of the body to be observed without surgery

December 23, 1834: Englishman Joseph Hansom patented his “safety cab”. Light enough to be pulled by a single horse, they became popular in major cities around the globe

December 24, 1989: Panama’s deposed strongman, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, turned himself in to the Vatican Embassy in Panama and requested political asylum

December 25, 1979: Afghanistan was invaded by Soviet troops. A grinding nine-year campaign against local insurgents killed over 120,000 combatants and more than a million civilians

December 26, 2004: A magnitude 9.1 earthquake under the Indian Ocean triggered devastating tsunamis which killed around 230,000 people from Indonesia to the coast of Africa

December 27, 537: Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia was inaugurated. Initially a Greek Orthodox cathedral, it became a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and is now a museum

December 28, 1934: British actress Maggie Smith was born. A double Oscar winner, she is now best known as the waspish Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey

HISTORY: On this day December 22-28, 2019 (week 52) (Graphic)
GN39773 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
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December 6, 2019 -- A growing number of countries are participating in naval missions in the Middle East to safeguard shipping lanes amid continuing tensions with Iran.

Japan is the latest country to consider sending forces to the Gulf region, with the government announcing plans to dispatch an escort ship and patrol plane from the Maritime Self-Defence Force on a one-year mission, Reuters said.

The mission would be aimed at guarding ships supplying Japan under a law that allows military deployments for research and intelligence gathering. Japan has said it will not join a U.S.-led coalition protecting merchant vessels in Middle Eastern waters.

That coalition, dubbed Operation Sentinel, was officially launched from its Bahrain headquarters in November, with participants including the U.S., UK, Australia and several Gulf states.

The U.S. has blamed Iranian forces for attacks this summer on oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz – an allegation that Iran rejected.

A separate mission to guard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz is being set up by France out of its naval base in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. The Netherlands has said it will contribute a ship to that mission for a six-month period starting in January.

Denmark, Italy and Spain are among countries that have expressed interest in joining the French-led initiative.

MILITARY: Multinational efforts to protect Gulf shipping (Graphic)
GN39782 Graphic shows details of naval missions in the Middle East.
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December 6, 2019 -- North Korea may be preparing to resume testing engines used to power intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at its Sohae Launch Facility, which leader Kim Jong-un had once agreed to dismantle.

New commercial satellite imagery, captured by Planet Labs on December 5, shows a newly arrived shipping container at the facility, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a specialist in analyzing in satellite imagery at the  California-based Middlebury Institute.

Following the Singapore summit between the North Korean leader and U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2018, Kim agreed to dismantle the Sohae facility. North Korea did dismantle the test stand but reassembled it in March 2019, according to Lewis.

Pyongyang and Washington have been attempting to negotiate a deal that would see Kim give up the country’s nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles in exchange for relief from U.S. and United Nations economic and financial sanctions that have crippled the North Korean economy.

North Korea detonated the first of six nuclear devices in 2006. It successfully test-fired its Hwasong-14 (KN-20) ICBM that could potentially hit the U.S. mainland for the first time on July 4, 2017 -- America’s Independence Day.

Kim has warned the U.S. it has until the end of the year to offer more concessions or North Korea will pursue an unspecified “new path,” possibly a resumption of ICBM launches or nuclear tests.

On Tuesday, Trump revived the war of words with Kim by referring to him again as the “Rocket Man” at the NATO conference in London. Trump’s comment drew a contemptuous response from a government official in Pyongyang who described Trump as a “dotard.”

MILITARY: North Korea test site activity (Graphic)
GN39783 Graphic shows sohae test site.
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December 2, 2019 -- A selection of this year's best-selling toys, dolls, stuffed animals, games and gadgets.

As Christmas edges nearer, the annual influx of new toys has arrived in stores, including slimy aliens, singing sharks, glamorous aeroplanes, rocket launchers, smart teddies and a high-tech reworking of a classic family game.

If you want to avoid disappointing loved ones, these are some of the toys and gadgets selling out fast in 2019:

Treasure X Aliens – $15
NERF Fortnite RL Blaster – $30
L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Fashion Dolls – $25-$35
Lego Harry Potter Knight Bus – $30
Robo Alive T-Rex – $15
WowWee Pinkfong Baby Shark Puppet – $20
Barbie Dreamplane — $75
FurReal Cubby – $100
Pictionary Air – $20
Apple AirPods Pro – $250

YEAR END: Top toys and tech for 2019 interactive (1) (Interactive UPDATED Dec 6)
GN39748 Interactive graphic shows popular toys and gadgets for the 2019 holiday season.
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December 5, 2019 -- President Emmanuel Macron hopes his highly contentious overhaul of the pension system will substantially reduce the cost of France’s current system, one of the most expensive in the world.

The planned overhaul of the French pensions system aims to streamline a complicated patchwork of provisions, but workers argue it will require them to work longer and will reduce their income.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers are marching through Paris and other cities on the first day of an indefinite national strike, disrupting transport and posing the biggest challenge to Macron since the gilets jaunes demonstrations began a year ago.

France currently has a system comprising dozens of different schemes and Macron wants to create a unified system, which he says would be more fair.

His new plan aims to reward employees for each day worked, awarding points that would later be transferred into future pension benefits.

The popular discontent will test the resolve of the government of President Macron, who says it remains determined to pass the reform next year.

ECONOMY: France’s expensive pension system (Graphic)
GN39780 Graphic charts pension spending as percentage of GDP among European countries.
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December 31, 2019 -- What has been the most significant scientific development of the year?  The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has drawn up a shortlist of breakthroughs of the year.

Just five years after the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014, two drugs developed by Merck and Johnson & Johnson have been successfully tested this year during the outbreak of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Developing vaccines traditionally takes 10 to 20 years.

Following on the AAAS list is an image of a flaming ring of starlight surrounding a dark circle. Black holes had long been theorised to exist but never directly observed. Astronomers combined observations from dozens of radio telescope dishes around the globe to generate the first-ever image of a black hole. The supermassive black hole is at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87, 53 million light-years from our Sun.

Back on Earth, neuroscientists have restored circulation and molecular and cellular functions in pig brains four hours after death, making them appear relatively normal but for the absence of brain waves indicative of consciousness.

A team of physicists claimed in the journal Nature that it had achieved the milestone of “quantum supremacy.” Google’s Sycamore microchip performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would take today’s most advanced classical computer some 10,000 years to crunch.

A stunning fossil skull from Ethiopia is the oldest and most complete specimen of Australopithecus anamensis, a 3.8 million-year-old human ancestor and predecessor of “Lucy,” Australopithecus afarensis. Lucy confirmed our ancient relatives were bipedal -- the ability to walk upright may have offered survival benefits and perhaps crucially, left the hands free to carry food and use tools.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft started the year by relaying images of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 -- an icy object from the far reaches of the Solar System, 1.6 billion kilometres beyond Pluto. The Kuiper Belt is a vast region of space containing billions of small objects thought to be leftover from the formation of the Solar System that could hold keys to understanding planetary formation.

YEAR END: Scientific achievements of 2019 (Graphic)
GN39770 Graphic shows key scientific achievements in 2019.
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December 31, 2019 -- At long last we’re getting the next James Bond film, “No Time to Die,” with director Cary Fukunaga, and the long-awaited follow-up with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Scarlett Johansson’s “Black Widow” kicks off Marvel’s Phase Four, while Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated remake of Frank Herbert’s cult classic sci-fi novel “Dune” finally hits screens.

YEAR END: Upcoming movies in 2020 interactive (Interactive)
GN39754 Interactive graphic shows 16 selected movie releases in 2020
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December 4, 2019 -- The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill targeting China’s mass crackdown on ethnic Muslim minorities in the far western Xinjiang region of the country.

China protested the U.S. bill early Wednesday.

The legislation condemns the detention of more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities in so-called re-education camps, where they are subjected to political indoctrination, torture, beatings, and food deprivation, as well as denial of religious and linguistic freedom.

It would require the State Department to evaluate whether Chinese officials would meet the criteria for sanctions for their roles in the crackdown in the Xinjiang region.

CHINA: U.S. House passes Xinjiang bill (Graphic)
GN39777 Graphic shows details of suspected re-education camps in China’s Xinjiang region.
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December 31, 2019 -- Last Farewells graphic shows some of the famous faces who died in 2019. From the world of politics: Prem Tinsulanonda, Robert Mugabe, Jacques Chirac. From the world of sport: Matti Nykänen, Niki Lauda. From the arts and entertainment: Albert Finney, Bruno Ganz, André Previn, Doris Day, Karl Lagerfeld, I.M. Pei, Franco Zeffirelli, Toni Morrison, Jessye Norman, Diahann Carroll, Alicia Alonso, Clive James. Others: Jeffrey Epstein, Alexei Leonov

Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen, widely regarded as the greatest in his sport, died on February 3 at age 55.
His five Winter Olympic medals included four golds, three of them won at Calgary 1988. He also bagged nine World Championship medals, including five golds, between 1981 and 1991

British actor Albert Finney died on February 7 at age 82.
The five-time Oscar nominee began his career in theatre before achieving global fame in the film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He starred in numerous films, including Tom Jones, Erin Brockovich and Skyfall

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz died on February 16 at age 77.
Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in the Oscar-nominated film Downfall (2004), he also received widespread acclaim for his collaborations with directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wim Wenders

German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died in Paris on February 19 at the age of 85.
As creative director for the French fashion house Chanel, Fendi of Italy, and his own eponymous label, he was one of the industry’s most prolific figures, instantly recognisable by his signature white ponytail and dark glasses

German-born U.S. conductor and composer André Previn died on February 28 at age 89.
One of the most talented musicians of the 20th century, he blurred the boundaries between jazz, pop, film and classical music, winning 10 Grammy Awards, and four Oscars for his film work. He was also principal conductor of many of the world’s major orchestras

Doris Day, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 60s, died on May 13 aged 97.
Known for her girl-next-door image, hit films and songs included Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk, while her screen partnership with Rock Hudson was one of the best-known in the history of romantic movies

I.M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect best known for the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, died on May 16 aged 102.
Other notable works include the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the JFK Presidential Library in Boston and the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. In 1983 he won the Pritzker Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture

Three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda died on May 20 at age 70.
The Austrian is best remembered for his remarkable recovery and return to racing after being badly burned in a crash in the 1976 German Grand Prix. He later became an airline entrepreneur but maintained links with F1, being instrumental in bringing Lewis Hamilton to the Mercedes team

Thailand’s former prime minister and royal confidante Prem Tinsulanonda, one of the most influential figures in modern Thai politics, died on May 26 aged 98.
The former army general served as prime minister from 1980-88, and was the most trusted advisor of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He subsequently played a key role in the coronation of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, just weeks before his own death

Renowned Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, famed for lavish, romantic films and extravagant opera productions, died on June 15 aged 96.
The last of a generation of post-World War II Italian film giants, he was perhaps best known his 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. It became a global hit that earned him an Oscar nomination for best director

American novelist Toni Morrison, whose best-selling books explored black identity in the U.S., died on August 5 at age 88.
In 1993 she became the first black woman to win the Nobel prize in literature. Her 11 novels included celebrated works like The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988

U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10 while awaiting federal trial on charges of sex trafficking.
The fallout from Epstein’s death engulfed several well-connected friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was removed from royal duties after failing to talk his way out of his connection to Epstein, a convicted paedophile

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe died on September 6 at age 95.
Initially admired as a hero of Africa’s independence struggle, his 37-year rule descended into tyranny, corruption and incompetence that ruined Zimbabwe’s economy and made him an international pariah. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017

Former French president Jacques Chirac, a self-styled affable rogue who championed the European Union but whose later years were blighted by corruption scandals, died on September 26 aged 86.
A towering figure in politics for five decades, Chirac served two terms as both president and prime minister, and took France into the single European currency. He is also remembered for his opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003

U.S. opera singer Jessye Norman, whose renowned soprano voice won her five Grammy awards, died on September 30 at age 74.
Among notable appearances she sang at the inaugurations of U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and performed La Marseillaise to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution in 1989

Award-winning U.S. actress Diahann Carroll died on October 4 at age 84.
Her hit 1960s TV show Julia was the first U.S. sitcom with a black woman in a central role. She was also the first black woman to win the Tony for best actress in 1962, for the Broadway musical No Strings

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who in 1965 became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, died on October 11 at age 85.
The Russian floated above the Earth for 12 minutes, tethered by cable to his Voskhod 2 spaceship. In 1975 he commanded the Soyuz capsule in the first ever joint U.S.-Soviet mission when Soyuz docked with a U.S. Apollo capsule

Alicia Alonso, renowned Cuban ballerina and choreographer, died on October 17 aged 98.
Best known for her portrayals of Giselle and the ballet version of Carmen, her company became the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1955. Alonso became partially blind at age 19, using lights in different parts of the stage to guide her

Clive James, Australian writer, TV broadcaster and critic, died on November 24 aged 80.
Renowned for his sharp wit and colossal vocabulary, his newspaper columns, radio and TV programmes entertained thousands around the world. He remained proud of his Australian heritage, despite living in Britain for over 50 years

Jonathan Miller, acclaimed British theatre director, writer, broadcaster and actor, died on November 27 aged 85.
A qualified neurologist, he found fame in the satirical Cambridge University revue Beyond The Fringe. He began directing operas in the 1970s and despite not reading music he directed more than 50 operas in cities around the world

YEAR END: Last Farewells 2019 (Interactive)
GN39771 Graphic shows well known people who died in 2019.
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December 3, 2019 -- In the 100th anniversary year of Britain’s Royal Air Force, two aviators have spent four months circumnavigating the globe in a mirror-polished aluminium WWII Spitfire.

A World War II Spitfire aeroplane is due to return to the UK on December 5, following an epic 40,000km, four-month flight around the world.

The striking aircraft, which has had its customary camouflage paint removed and instead its aluminium body mirror-polished, set off westwards in August taking in such countries as Greenland, Canada, United States, Russia, Japan, Thailand, India, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

It is flown by two pilots who alternate flying shifts – while one flies the Spitfire, the other rests in a Pilatus PC-12 support plane flying alongside. It also carries an engineer and spare parts, as well as a documentary film-making team.

Weather has been the expedition’s biggest challenge as, unlike modern aircraft, Spitfires do not have instruments that allow them to fly in bad conditions or cloud. The plane is deliberately flown low as often as possible so as to be visible from the ground.

AVIATION: Around the World in a Silver Spitfire (Graphic)
GN39756 Graphic shows the route of the Silver Spitfire with details on the plane and expedition.
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December 3, 2019 -- As NATO leaders gather in London to mark the alliance’s 70th birthday, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to renew demands that European allies and Canada step up defence spending.

Trump has repeatedly criticised fellow NATO members and complained that too few nations are on track to meet the alliance goal of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence by 2024.

Nine countries are projected to meet the 2% benchmark this year — the U.S. with about 3.4%, Greece, Britain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania — up from three nations in 2014. Germany will spend 1.35%, ranking it 17th, but it aims to hit 1.5% by the deadline. Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg spend less than 1%.

NATO: Alliance spending commitments (Graphic)
GN39775 Graphic shows NATO defence spending as share of GDP for 2019, and annual change in spending by European allies and Canada between 2013 and 2019.
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December 3, 2019 -- Average temperatures from 2010-2019 look set to make it the warmest decade on record, preliminary findings by the World Meteorological Organization suggest.

An annual assessment of the Earth’s climate by the Geneva-based organization said global temperatures so far this year were 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, putting 2019 on course to be in the top three warmest years ever recorded.

The warming experienced over the past decade is taking its toll on the natural world. The ice is melting at both poles and sea level rise has accelerated since the start of satellite measurements in 1993.

The world's seas are now a quarter more acidic than 150 years ago, threatening vital marine ecosystems upon which billions of people rely for food and jobs.

Climate change is also a key driver of the recent rise in global hunger, with more than 820 million people affected in 2018.

The number of newly displaced people as a result of weather extremes could reach 22 million by the end of 2019.

An annual assessment of the WMO underscored the stakes at two weeks of talks in Madrid aimed at shoring up the 2015 Paris Agreement to avert catastrophic global warming.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Last decade on course to be warmest (Graphic)
GN39776 Graphic shows global temperature anomaly between 1989 and 2019, and key findings of the WMO report.
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December 31, 2019 -- At long last we’re getting the next James Bond film, “No Time to Die,” with director Cary Fukunaga, and the long-awaited follow-up with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Scarlett Johansson’s “Black Widow” kicks off Marvel’s Phase Four, while Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated remake of Frank Herbert’s cult classic sci-fi novel “Dune” finally hits screens.

1. Top Gun: Maverick. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly. Thirty-four years later, Cruise’s character, Maverick, oversees a new class of drone-flying Top Gun candidates drawn from naval aviation. One of his trainees, Bradley Bradshaw, is the son of Maverick’s old buddy Goose, who died last time around.

Released by Paramount Pictures from July 17

2. Black Widow. Directed by Cate Shortland, starring Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz. After a decade as a supporting member of the Avengers, Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) finally gets her movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Natasha finds herself alone and forced to confront her past.

Released by Marvel Studios from May 1

3. Proxima. Directed by Alice Winocour, starring Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Lars Eidinger, Sandra Hüller. French drama follows Sarah, the only woman in an arduous European Space Agency programme, as she balances the demands of her seven-year-old daughter after being chosen to join the crew of a year-long space mission called Proxima.

Released by Dharamsala from March 20

4. Dune. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa. For his third sci-fi in succession, Villeneuve takes on Frank Herbert’s space opera Dune. Amidst a feudal interstellar society, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) must save the planet Arrakis and “melange” -- the most valuable asset in the galaxy.

Released by Legendary Entertainment from November 20

5. Death on the Nile. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Sophie Okonedo, Russell Brand. While on vacation on the Nile, Agatha Christie’s ace detective, Hercule Poirot (Branagh), must investigate the murder of a young heiress. Under the hot sun of Egypt, Poirot must untangle a love triangle gone murderously bad.

Released by The Estate of Agatha Christie from October 9

6. Onward. Directed by Dan Scanlon, starring Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Octavia Spencer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Set in a Pixar fantasy world of elves, trolls and dragons, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on a quest to help them come to terms with the death of their father and spend one last magical day with him.

Released by Walt Disney Pictures from March 6

7. 1917. Directed by Sam Mendes, starring George McKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth. Mendes’ WWI epic follows two young British soldiers given a seemingly impossible mission of crossing enemy territory to deliver a message that will stop hundreds of soldiers from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Released by Amblin Partners from January 10

8. The Gentlemen. Directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell. Ritchie returns with another classic gangster movie. Mickey Pearson (McConaughey) plays a London drug lord trying to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire to a dynasty of Oklahoma billionaires.

Released by Miramax from January 1

9. Infinite. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Mark Wahlberg, Sophie Cookson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jason Mantzoukas. Haunted by memories of two past lives, Evan Michaels (Wahlberg) believes his condition is unique until he meets Poppy and stumbles upon a centuries-old society, the Cognomina. Evan seeks to join their ranks as an equal.

Released by Di Bonaventura Pictures from August 7

10. Emma. Directed by Autumn De Wilde, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy. Jane Austen’s 1815 novel sees Emma Woodhouse (Taylor-Joy) matchmaking on behalf of her best friend while neglecting her perfect happiness -- a glittering satire of social class and the pain of growing up.

Released by Working Title Films from February 28

11. The King’s Man. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, starring Harris Dickinson, Ralph Fiennes, Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans. Kingsman prequel explores the history of the secretive gentlemanly international espionage operation. Set in the early 1900s, history’s worst criminals and tyrants join forces to ignite a war to end all wars.

Released by 20th Century Fox from February 14

12. Radioactive. Directed by Marjane Satrapi, starring Rosamund Pike, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sam Riley, Aneurin Barnard. Based on the graphic novel by Lauren Redniss, the story follows Marie Sklodowska-Curie (Pike) and Pierre Curie (Riley), and the repercussions of their discovery of radioactivity throughout the 20th century.

Released by StudioCanal from March 20

13. Parasite. Director: Bong Joon-ho. Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik. Bong’s latest Cannes award-winning film is a black comedy about a poor South Korean family’s aspirations to live the carefree life of their wealthy neighbours. Hope is the emotional parasite in the film.

Released by Barunson E&A from February 7

14. No Time to Die. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, starring Daniel Craig, Jeffrey Wright, Lashana Lynch, Rami Malek. Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when his old CIA friend Felix Leiter (Wright) persuades him into one last mission, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain (Malek) armed with dangerous new technology.

Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from April 3

/ENDS

YEAR END: Upcoming movies in 2020 (1) (Photomontage)
GN39747 Photomontage shows 14 selected movie releases in 2020.
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April 4, 2019 -- The foreign ministers of NATO celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding pact of the Alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty, in Washington DC, where it was signed.

NATO: 70th anniversary timeline interactive (2) (Interactive UPDATED Dec 3)
GN38958 Interactive graphic shows key dates in the Western military organization’s 70-year history
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December 2, 2019 -- China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, is building more coal-fired power plants and approving dozens of new mines in a bid to boost its slowing economy.

China burns about half the coal used globally each year. Between 2000 and 2018, its annual carbon emissions nearly tripled, and it now accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s total.

Recent media reports and satellite images suggest that China is building or planning to complete new coal power plants with total capacity of 148 gigawatts – nearly equal to the entire coal-power capacity of the European Union within the next few years, according to an analysis by Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group.

CLIMATE CHANGE: China planning new coal plants (Graphic)
GN39757 Graphic shows details of coal-fired plants in operation, and China’s plans to build new plants.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

December 2, 2019 -- The Philippines is bracing for a powerful typhoon which is edging closer to some of the country’s most densely populated areas, threatening the Southeast Asian Games.

Kammuri is expected to make landfall early Tuesday south of
Luzon with heavy rains and wind gusts of up to 185 kilometres per hour, forecasters said.

The storm is on track to then pass close to Manila, which is home to some 13 million people and the site for many of the SEA Games competitions.

Kammuri already jeopardising plans for Southeast Asian Games, which draws top athletes from 11 nations

Around 8,750 athletes and team officials are expected at this year's 30th edition – the biggest ever – along with another 12,000 volunteers. Organisers hope more than 500 million viewers will tune in on TV by the end of competition on December 11.

WEATHER: Typhoon Kammuri (Graphic)
GN39755 Graphic shows the path of the storm, including its forecast trajectory for the next four days.
(107mm wide by 121mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

December 4, 2019 -- At a London summit marking North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 70th anniversary, leaders of the 29-member alliance will likely adopt a Franco-German proposal for reform after U.S. President Donald Trump questioned the relevance of NATO.

At the December 4 summit, allies are expected to agree to share more of running costs and reduce U.S. share of funding for the NATO headquarters in Brussels, and its staff. Europe is also likely to agree to boost NATO battalions, ships and planes as a deterrence against any potential Russian attack.

Before taking office, Trump called NATO “obsolete” and has repeatedly stated his desire to withdraw from NATO. He continues to criticize the alliance, demanding that NATO members pay more in defence spending.

NATO had planned to hold a meeting of leaders in Washington to mark its 70th anniversary in April. That meeting was downgraded to a foreign ministers gathering, as some diplomats feared that Trump would use a Washington summit to renew his attacks on the alliance, as he did in July 2018.

At that annual gathering of NATO leaders in Brussels, Trump upended the proceedings, berating allies for not meeting the NATO spending goal of two per cent of economic output (GDP). At the meeting, he surprised leaders by demanding four per cent and walked out during a speech by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

NATO: 70th anniversary timeline (Graphic)
GN39752 Graphic shows key dates in the Western military organization’s 70-year history.
(163mm wide by 190mm deep) View graphic

November 29, 2019 -- British police have shot dead a man in a “major incident” on London Bridge in the heart of the British capital.

“We are in the early stages of dealing with an incident at London Bridge,” police said in a statement. A spokesman said: “It appears somebody has been shot.”

London Bridge was the scene of an attack in June 2017 when three militants drove a van into pedestrians and then attacked people in the surrounding area, killing eight people.

CRIME: London police shoot knife attacker (Graphic)
GN39751 Graphic shows location of London Bridge.
(107mm by 104mm deep) View graphic

November 28, 2019 -- British voters are heading to the polls for the third time in less than four years after lawmakers backed Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call for a snap election just two weeks before Christmas.

UK ELECTION: UK election process interactive (Interactive)
GN39743 Interactive graphic shows British election process.
(800px wide by 568px deep) View graphic

November 29 - December 13, 2019 -- Fans can pick up a piece of Star Wars history at an online auction of collectibles ahead of the release of the final movie in the sequel trilogy, “The Rise of Skywalker”.

An online auction of star Wars collectibles will run for two weeks in the run up to the festive period and the release of the final movie in the sci-fi triple trilogy, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”.

Items to go under the hammer include a rare Japanese R2-D2 radio, prototype Stormtrooper helmet and ILM model making department character size chart.

This is the second such auction to be held by Sotheby’s, the first in 2015 sold all 600 items and netted some $500,000.

The Star Wars franchise is one of the most successful in history, leading Disney to buy Lucasfilm in 2012 for over $4 billion. Since then it has invested heavily in its future – making a new trilogy of films, a spin-off television show and building two enormous theme park attractions.

The auction runs online from November 29 to December 13, 2019.

MOVIES: Star Wars memorabilia auction (Graphic)
GN39745 Graphic shows a selection of the more interesting or rare items up for sale in the auction.
(163mm by 200mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

December 1, 2019 -- The new European Commission takes over a month later than planned. Ursula von der Leyen’s new team was scheduled to start its work on November 1 but the transition process was delayed after the Parliament rejected three candidates from France, Romania and Hungary, whose governments then had to find replacements.

The new team of commissioners were confirmed by a vote of the European Parliament on November 27.

Von der Leyen, Germany's former defence minister and long-time close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the first woman to take on the presidency.

She has received praise for her effort to create a gender-balanced commissioner for the first time. 12 of her 27 commissioners are women.

The new team has three executive vice-presidents: Valdis Dombrokvskis (Latvia), Frans Timmermans (Netherlands) and Margrethe Vestager (Denmark).

Dutch socialist Timmermans is in charge of the European Green Deal that Von der Leyen champions.

There is no UK commissioner. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government opted not to nominate a candidate even though the UK has not yet left the union and the EU has since launched legal action.

POLITICS: Who’s who in new European Commission (2) (Graphic)
GN39497 Graphic shows new European Commission members.
(163mm wide by 234mm deep) View graphic

November 27, 2019 -- Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power has won initial regulatory approval to restart a nuclear reactor at its Onagawa power plant – the closest reactor to the epicentre of the 2011 earthquake that caused the Fukushima disaster.

Tohoku Electric said in a statement it has received a first green light from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart the No. 2 reactor at Onagawa, subject to a public consultation period, Reuters said.

Onagawa was the closest among Japan’s nuclear plants to the epicentre of the magnitude-9 quake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people, as well as causing the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The station was swamped by the tsunami, but survived with its cooling system intact, saving its reactors from the threat of meltdowns similar to those that occurred at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi station to the south.

Further approvals will be required before the restart, along with the consent of local authorities, which is not guaranteed.

The reactor is a boiling water reactor (BWR) with the same basic design as those that melted down in the Fukushima crisis.

ENERGY: Japan approves restart of tsunami-hit reactor (Graphic)
GN39742 Graphic shows status of Japan’s nuclear reactors.
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November 27, 2019 -- A selection of this year's best-selling toys, dolls, stuffed animals, games and gadgets.

As Christmas edges nearer, the annual influx of new toys has arrived in stores, including slimy aliens, singing sharks, glamorous aeroplanes, rocket launchers, smart teddies and a high-tech reworking of a classic family game.

If you want to avoid disappointing loved ones, these are some of the toys and gadgets selling out fast in 2019:

Treasure X Aliens – $15
NERF Fortnite RL Blaster – $30
L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Fashion Dolls – $25-$35
Lego Harry Potter Knight Bus – $30
Robo Alive T-Rex – $15
WowWee Pinkfong Baby Shark Puppet – $20
Barbie Dreamplane — $75
FurReal Cubby – $100
Pictionary Air – $20
Apple AirPods Pro – $250

YEAR END: Top toys and tech for 2019 (Graphic)
GN39736 Graphic shows popular toys and gadgets for the 2019 holiday season.
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November 27, 2019 -- China has overtaken the U.S. as the country with the largest diplomatic network, a clear indication of Beijing’s growing international ambitions.

According to the Lowy Institute, China now has 276 embassies and other representative offices globally, three more than the U.S.

After China and the U.S., France is the next most connected diplomatic power, according to the report, with 267 embassies and consulates around the world. Japan is in fourth place, with Russia ranked fifth.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been building his international profile since coming to power in 2012, seeking to put Beijing at the centre of global affairs.

China's diplomatic rise has been rapid in recent years. In 2016, it was still third behind the U.S. and France with only 267 diplomatic missions. In 2017 it had moved to second spot.

POLITICS: China becomes largest diplomatic power (Graphic)
GN39741 Graphic shows countries with most diplomatic posts. Full list can be found here: https://globaldiplomacyindex.lowyinstitute.org/country_rank.html
(107mm wide by 134mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

December 2, 2019 -- Russia expects to start up its first gas pipeline to China, known as Power of Siberia. The pipeline aims to transport 38 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year when it reaches its full capacity.

Built by Russian energy giant Gazprom, the pipeline runs about 3,000km from the Chayanda and Kovykta gas fields in Siberia to Blagoveshchensk, near the Chinese border, according to Bloomberg News.

Another gas pipeline in China connects to the Russian system and will eventually stretch over 3,000km southwards to Shanghai.

ENERGY: Russian gas pipeline to China (Graphic)
GN39735 Graphic shows details and route of Power of Siberia pipeline.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 26, 2019 -- The UN is warning that countries will have to increase carbon-cutting goals five-fold if the world is to avoid warming by more than 1.5C.

A report by the UN Environment Programme, published days before governments gather in Madrid for an annual meeting on climate change, showed the amount of planet-heating gases being pumped into the atmosphere hitting a new high last year, despite a near-global pledge to reduce them.

Man-made greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2018 to 55.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the UN’s annual ‘emissions gap’ report. While much of the increase came from emerging economies such as China and India, some of those emissions are the result of manufacturing outsourced from developed countries.

To stop average global temperatures from increasing by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius this century compared with pre-industrial times, worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases will have to drop by 7.6% each year in the coming decade, the agency said. Scientists say the 1.5C target — contained in the 2015 Paris climate accord — would avert some of the more extreme changes in global weather patterns predicted if temperatures rise further.

Even the less ambitious goal of capping global warming at 2C would require annual emissions cuts of 2.7% between 2020 and 2030, UNEP said.

That currently seems unlikely.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon emissions gap grows (Graphic)
GN39737 Graphic shows global worming projections and worst polluters.
(107mm wide by 158mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

January 1, 2020 -- Strict International Maritime Organization rules kick in on January 1 to reduce air pollution, prohibiting ships from using fuels containing more than 0.5% sulphur -- down from 3.5% today.

The shift to cleaner fuel is expected to add US$13-$15 billion a year to the industry’s fuel bill -- costs which the industry will pass along to its customers. Fuel costs are shipowners’ single most significant expense and shipping accounts for 90 per cent of world trade.

How carriers recoup the rising cost of fuel will be critical to their profitability. Shipowners will likely pass it on to shippers as a “Bunker Adjustment Factor” (BAF).

Since early October, the average low-sulphur bunker price for major bunkering ports tracked by Drewry -- maritime research service -- has been $542 per tonne, up from the $396 cost of high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) at the same bunkering ports. Shippers and forwarders are expected to set a BAF of around $145 per container from January.

Shipowners have limited ways to comply with the rule change. They can buy IMO-compliant fuels, or they can install expensive sulphur-reducing scrubbers.

Whatever happens, the impact will affect trade in everything from commodities like oil, soybeans and steel to items that move on container ships, like TVs, smartphones, furniture and clothes.

ENVIRONMENT: New maritime fuel rules (Graphic)
GN39734 Graphic shows bunker fuel demand and world’s largest bunker fuel ports.
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November 25, 2019 -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party holds a 12-point lead over the opposition Labour Party ahead of Britain’s election, according to a YouGov poll.

The Conservatives look likely to secure around 349 seats in the House of Commons, a gain of 32 seats on 2017, according to Datapraxis analysis of 270,000 voter interviews conducted by YouGov.

The main opposition Labour party is predicted to lose 49 seats, taking them to just 213, their worst defeat since 1983.

UK ELECTION: Boris Johnson on track for majority (Graphic)
GN39731 Graphic shows voting intentions according to YouGov poll for Nov 21-22, and predicted seats in House of Commons.
(107mm by 130mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 25, 2019 -- Voters turned out in record numbers to give Hong Kong democrats a landslide majority in district council elections.

Pro-democracy candidates were victorious in 347 of the 452 district council seats up for grabs; pro-Beijing candidates won 60 seats, while independents - many of them pro-democracy - got 45, they say.

Some 2.94 million people voted in the election, compared to 1.4 million in 2015.

The result of Sunday’s elections could force the central government in Beijing to rethink how to handle the unrest, which is now in its sixth month. The district councils have little power, but the vote became a referendum on public support for the protests.

POLITICS: Hong Kong local election results (Graphic)
GN39730 Graphic shows results of Hong Kong’s district election.
(107mm wide by 148mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 25, 2019 -- A record number of female candidates have registered to take part in Britain’s general election. Since first being permitted to stand in 1918, 494 women have taken their seats as Members of the House of Commons.

An analysis by the Press Association shows that 1,120 female candidates have registered -- 34 percent of the total -- the highest proportion of women candidates in a British general election in history, up from 29% in 2017 and 26% in 2015.

Finland trailblazed the path for women over a century ago. In the 1907 elections, Finland elected 19 female lawmakers. They made up 9.5% of the elected members, a level that the UK had still not reached in 1992.

In 1918, Britain passed the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act which allowed women to become MPs for the first time. Seventeen women stood in the December 1918 general election. Constance Markievicz was the sole woman elected but as a member of Sinn Féin, she did not take her seat at Westminster.

On December 1, 1909, Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in the Commons after winning a by-election in Plymouth Sutton for the Conservatives.

Women did not make up more than 10 percent of candidates until 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman prime minister. That year, 11 percent of candidates were female. However, the 1979 election produced only 19 women out of the 635 members of parliament, just 2.9 percent.

There were 206 women in the House of Commons in the last parliament -- a record high of 32 percent.

UK ELECTION: Women in parliament (Graphic)
GN39729 Graphic shows numbers of women candidates standing in the December 12 general election.
(107mm by 156mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

January 1 - November 30, 2019 -- Graphic shows anniversaries and events on this day in history. Updated now to include the data for weeks 49-50 i.e. to December 14. The events and images are the same as on the GN On This Day print graphics GN39712 and GN39713. 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 49-50) (Interactive UPDATED Nov 25)
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)

December 8-14, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-Shek, the British actress Judi Dench, the Australian aviators Ross and Keith Smith, the aurora borealis, the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, the second Sino-Japanese War and the Panama Canal.

December 8, 1949: Chinese Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Formosa, now known as Taiwan, after defeat by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War

December 9, 1934: Oscar-winning British actress Judi Dench was born. A star of stage and screen for 60 years, she reached mass audiences as spy chief M in seven James Bond films

December 10, 1919: Australian aviators Ross and Keith Smith successfully completed the first flight from England to Australia in their Vickers Vimy biplane, a converted WWI bomber

December 11, 1719: The first recorded sighting in the United States of the aurora borealis occurred in New England. The oldest known auroral citing was written in China in 2600BC

December 12, 1792: Ludwig van Beethoven, aged 22 and newly arrived in Vienna, noted in his diary he had 15 ducats, enough for his first music lesson with Franz Joseph Haydn

December 13, 1937: Japanese forces captured the Chinese city of Nanking. Over the next six weeks they killed around 300,000 Chinese in what became known as the “Rape of Nanking”

December 14, 1999: The U.S. formally ceded the Panama Canal to Panama, having maintained control of the channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans since 1904

HISTORY: On this day December 8-14, 2019 (week 50) (Graphic)
GN39713 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set) View graphic

December 1-7, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the “gilets jaunes” protests in France, the French impressionist artist Georges Seurat, the Bhopal disaster in India, the first Burger King restaurant, the Great Smog of London, the Everglades National Park, and the discovery of the jet stream.

December 1, 2018: Protesters wearing “gilets jaunes” rampaged through central Paris following two weeks of nationwide protests against fuel taxes and high living costs

December 2, 1859: French impressionist artist Georges Seurat was born. He developed the technique of pointillism, as seen in works like La Grande Jatte

December 3, 1984: A toxic gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant near Bhopal, India, killed over 3,700 people. It remains the world’s worst industrial accident

December 4, 1954: The first Burger King restaurant opened in Miami, Florida. By the early 21st century, Burger King claimed to have about 14,000 stores in around 100 countries

December 5, 1952: Around 4,000 people died when London was enveloped in the Great Smog. The toxic mix of fog and smoke led to a parliamentary act that cut smoke emissions

December 6, 1947: The Everglades National Park, now a World Heritage Site visited by more than one million people every year, was dedicated in southern Florida

December 7, 1934: The jet stream, bands of strong winds high above the earth, was supposedly discovered by Wiley Post on a test flight into the stratosphere

HISTORY: On this day December 1-7, 2019 (week 49) (Graphic)
GN39712 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set) View graphic

November 22, 2019 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges on Thursday, throwing Israel’s paralysed political system into further disarray and threatening his 10-year grip on power.

He rejected calls to resign, angrily accusing prosecutors of staging “an attempted coup.”

The first-ever charges against a sitting Israeli prime minister capped a three-year investigation, with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit indicting Netanyahu for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.

The indictment does not require the 70-year-old Netanyahu to resign, but it significantly weakens him at a time when Israel’s political parties appear to be limping toward a third election in under a year.

An ashen-faced Netanyahu appeared on national TV late Thursday, claiming he was the victim of a grand conspiracy by police and prosecutors who had intimidated key witnesses into testifying against him.

POLITICS: Netanyahu indicted on corruption charges (Graphic)
GN39727 Graphic shows details of corruption cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 22, 2019 -- A total of 3,322 candidates are standing for election in the UK’s 650 parliamentary constituencies on December 12.

Around a third -- 1,120 -- of this year’s candidates are women compared with 959 in 2017, according to an analysis by the Press Association news agency.

More than half of all Labour’s candidates are women -- 333 of 631 candidates or 53 per cent, while 20 of SNP’s 59 candidates are women, amounting to 34%.

Of the 611 Liberal Democrat candidates, 188 (31%) are women -- up from 29% in 2017 -- while 190 of the Conservatives 635 candidates at this election are women, making a total of 30%.

Some 60 seats feature “Remain Alliances” between the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru to ensure the parties that want to stop Brexit do not split the vote.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party pulled out of all 317 seats the Tories won in 2017.

UK ELECTION: Political party logos (Artwork)
GN39728 Graphic shows logos of political parties standing in the general election.
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December 1-31, 2019 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for December. Events include the UK election, NATO and COP25 summits, and Aramco’s imminent IPO. Gazprom supplies gas from Siberia to China, the latest U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is christened, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft prepares to collect samples from asteroid Bennu, and the last episode of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is released.

Events covered include:

Dec 2-13, Spain: Madrid hosts the COP25 summit on the urgency of the need to tackle climate change, a change of venue after unrest forced Chile to pull out of hosting duties

Dec 3, Space: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu a year ago, and it now begins rehearsing for its all-important sample collection phase in mid-2020. Analysis of the samples could help devise ways to divert the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid from slamming into Earth late in the 22nd century

Dec 3-4, UK: NATO leaders meet in London for the 70th birthday of the Alliance and for a summit likely to be marked by tensions over the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, and NATO-member Turkey’s subsequent incursion

Dec 5, Saudi Arabia: The world’s most profitable company, Aramco, releases its share price ahead of its first public stock offering. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to diversify the economy away from oil but investors face risks due to high geopolitical and military tensions in the region

Dec 7, U.S.: The Navy christens its latest nuclear- powered aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy. Expensive lessons learned while building the first so-called supercarrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, should smooth Kennedy’s path to deployment

Dec 12, UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a snap election hoping to win a majority in parliament to break the political paralysis over Brexit, but it is far from clear that the vote will end the deadlock

Dec 18, U.S.: Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, the conclusion to the series, is released. Stars include Daisy Ridley (left), and the late Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. Disney rejected computer- generated images of Fisher, instead using unseen material recorded for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in 2015

Dec 20, Russia & China: Gazprom begins supplying gas from Siberia to China via the 3,000km Power of Siberia pipeline – described as the most ambitious, costly and geopolitically-critical energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union

WORLD AGENDA: December 2019 interactive (Interactive)
GN39723 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in December 2019.
(640px wide by 568px deep) View graphic

December 1-31, 2019 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for December. Events include the UK election, NATO and COP25 summits, and Aramco’s imminent IPO. Gazprom supplies gas from Siberia to China, the latest U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is christened, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft prepares to collect samples from asteroid Bennu, and the last episode of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is released.

Dec 2-13, Spain: Madrid hosts the COP25 summit on the urgency of the need to tackle climate change, a change of venue after unrest forced Chile to pull out of hosting duties

Dec 3, Space: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu a year ago, and it now begins rehearsing for its all-important sample collection phase in mid-2020. Analysis of the samples could help devise ways to divert the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid from slamming into Earth late in the 22nd century

Dec 3-4, UK: NATO leaders meet in London for the 70th birthday of the Alliance and for a summit likely to be marked by tensions over the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, and NATO-member Turkey’s subsequent incursion

Dec 5, Saudi Arabia: The world’s most profitable company, Aramco, releases its share price ahead of its first public stock offering. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to diversify the economy away from oil but investors face risks due to high geopolitical and military tensions in the region

Dec 7, U.S.: The Navy christens its latest nuclear- powered aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy. Expensive lessons learned while building the first so-called supercarrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, should smooth Kennedy’s path to deployment

Dec 12, UK: Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a snap election hoping to win a majority in parliament to break the political paralysis over Brexit, but it is far from clear that the vote will end the deadlock

Dec 18, U.S.: Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, the conclusion to the series, is released. Stars include Daisy Ridley (left), and the late Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. Disney rejected computer- generated images of Fisher, instead using unseen material recorded for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in 2015

Dec 20, Russia & China: Gazprom begins supplying gas from Siberia to China via the 3,000km Power of Siberia pipeline – described as the most ambitious, costly and geopolitically-critical energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union

WORLD AGENDA: December 2019 (Graphic)
GN39722 Graphic shows news events in December 2019. An interactive version of this graphic is also produced each month.
(163mm wide by 210mm) View graphic

November 20, 2019 -- Interstellar comet C/2019, also dubbed 2I/Borisov after its discoverer, will have its closest approach to the Sun and Earth in December.

2I/Borisov is an interstellar comet, meaning that it came from outside our solar system. It is the first such comet ever observed, and only the second interstellar object of any kind, after the asteroid-like ‘Oumuamua.

The comet was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov on August 30, 2019, using a 25.6-inch (0.65-metre) telescope that he designed and built specifically to hunt for small, faint objects.

The comet will be much too dim to see without a telescope, and it will be a challenge even in fairly large amateur instruments. Its maximum brightness is currently predicted to be only magnitude 15, about as faint as Pluto.

SCIENCE: Interstellar comet Borisov (Graphic)
GN39725 Graphic shows details of comet 2I/Borisov and its path through the solar system.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 20, 2019 -- British political parties will try to win the constituencies which had the smallest majorities in the 2017 election. Here are the top 34 most marginal seats around the UK which parties will target in a snap poll on December 12.

In North East Fife in Scotland, it would have taken just one person to vote the other way in the 2017 election to have left the constituency tied. In this circumstance the Returning Officer would have been forced to draw lots to determine the final result. Instead, the SNP’s Stephen Gethins won the seat with a majority of just two votes.

UK ELECTION: Marginal constituencies (Graphic)
GN39726 Graphic shows marginal seats in the 2019 general election.
(107mm by 163mm deep) View graphic

December 12, 2019 -- With the UK deeply divided over Brexit, how people voted in the 2016 referendum is key to which party they will support in the election.

The United Kingdom’s contentious 2016 referendum to depart the EU and subsequent years of political rancour have led to an unpredictable general election.

The British public will head to the polls on December 12, with Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoping to win the majority so he can deliver the country’s exit from the European Union, known as Brexit.

UK ELECTION: Divided UK heads for general election (Graphic)
GN39718 Graphic highlights major points of interest that could alter the course of the UK general election.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital)) View graphic

November 19, 2019 -- British voters are heading to the polls for the third time in less than four years after lawmakers backed Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call for a snap election just two weeks before Christmas.

Almost everything about this ballot is impossible to predict. It pits Johnson against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn -- each with spending plans unheard of since the tax-and-spend and borrowing culture of the 1970s.

The winner could finally settle the fate of Brexit, more than three years after a referendum to leave the European Union plunged the nation into crisis.

Johnson is gambling an election will finally give him the majority in Parliament he needs to push through his stalled Brexit deal. His rival, Corbyn, could put the whole thing to a second referendum.

The Liberal Democrats, led by Jo Swinson with a signature policy of opposing Brexit, and Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, which favours a “clean break” with the EU, are threatening to squeeze both the main parties in marginal seats.

The Scottish National party is aiming to secure extra Westminster seats to strengthen its hand in seeking another independence poll, while a face-off between nationalist and unionist parties in Northern Ireland could boost the cause of a united Ireland. The stakes are high.

UK ELECTION: UK election wallchart (Graphic)
GN39717 Graphic shows wallchart on British election process.
(420mm wide by 297mm deep) View graphic

December 2-13, 2019 -- Climate activist Greta Thunberg is due to attend the 25th COP25 climate summit in Madrid, Spain.

The Swedish teen climate activist, who refuses to fly because of the environmental impact of air travel, set off for Spain on November 13 from Hampton, Virginia, with an Australian couple of YouTubers aboard solar-powered catamaran called La Vagabonde.

The 16-year-old had planned to travel to Chile, but the country pulled out of hosting the COP25 climate meeting because of protests there.

Thunberg is heading back across the Atlantic Ocean after nearly three eventful months spreading her climate message across North America.

While in the U.S., she appeared on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” in New York, protested alongside Sioux leaders in North Dakota, biked in Santa Monica with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and joined school strikes every Friday from Iowa City to Los Angeles.

In September, Greta gave an impassioned speech before the United Nations Climate Action Summit, where she scolded world leaders for not acting quickly and decisively to combat climate change.


CLIMATE CHANGE: Greta Thunberg’s journey (Graphic)
GN39710 Graphic shows details of Greta Thunberg’s journey.
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November 12, 2019 -- Online video subscription services are spending billions of dollars on original content to take on Netflix, but not all are likely to survive.

Netflix will spend two-thirds more on content this year than movie theatre box office receipts thus far in 2019. The streaming industry requires enormous financial investment to create original content, but deep pockets do not guarantee success.

The latest player in this hard-fought market is Disney+, which launches in some territories on November 12, expanding around the world in 2020. By this time, there will be a plethora of streaming services fighting for our attention, resulting in a vast spending spree in excess of $35 billion.

Six major players are going head-to-head in a battle to usurp Netflix, but not all of them can survive.

ENTERTAINMENT: Online streaming expenditure (Graphic)
GN39700 Graphic shows how much competing streaming services are spending on content.
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December 12, 2019 -- The European Commission’s incoming President, Ursula von der Leyen, is planning to present “European Green Deal” legislation -- to enshrine climate neutrality in EU law -- at the next EU summit, due to take place on December 12-13.

Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans will control the “European Green Deal” portfolio, the implementation of a package of policies designed to achieve an emissions-free continent by 2050.

A priority for Timmermans’ team includes the raising of the EU’s carbon reduction target from 40% to 50-55% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. The entire EU has only managed to lower emissions by 23.5% per cent so far -- while Spain has seen a 17.9 per cent increase -- a further 26-31 per cent cut appears a high ask.

Latvian conservative Valdis Dombrovskis will handle the “Economy that Works for People” portfolio, tasked with transforming the European Investment Bank (EIB) into a climate bank and unlock €1 trillion of investments over the next decade.

The EIB strategy includes a major “green” bond issuance programme to fund R&D and low-carbon technology. The European Central Bank, private finance and institutional investors are expected to buy these green bonds.

The Green Deal also requires an end to all EU and national public funding for fossil fuel-powered energy projects. Germany, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Spain want the EIB to keep funding gas projects to help the transition from coal or nuclear power. EIB figures show it funded almost €2 billion of fossil fuel projects in 2018.

There is also a “Just Transition Fund” to ease the pain for fossil fuel-dependent regions. The European Parliament has called for an extra €4.8 billion for this fund. The Polish Economic Institute estimates that to be effective, the fund needs at least €10-20 billion annually in the 2021-2027 period.

ENVIRONMENT: EU green deal (Graphic)
GN39687 Graphic shows key components of the EU’s “green deal.”
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October 30, 2019 -- Within a few years, Carlsberg beer may be bought in cardboard bottles that are 100% recyclable, or that biodegrade if dropped as litter.

Brewing giant Carlsberg is working with Danish start-up Paboco to design a paper-based beer bottle that can be pulped and recycled after use, or decompose harmlessly in the environment if left as litter.

The current prototype features reconstituted wood fibres with a metal cap – although plans are underway to design a tethered cap made from either a bio composite or just pure paper. Currently, to keep the bottle from getting soggy, it is lined with a thin layer of polyethylene furanoate or PEF – a tough, fully recyclable plastic substitute made from plants rather than oil, a process less harmful to the environment.

Fundamental to plans to upscale the business to an industrial level is responsible forestry. For every tree harvested, two or three will be planted and allowed to grow to an optimal size before harvesting. Growing trees can bind more carbon dioxide than older ones, so a cycle of frequently harvesting and planting younger trees absorbs more carbon dioxide than a forest that is allowed to mature and stop growing.

Carlsberg says their Green Fibre Bottle is an important step in its ultimate ambition to phase out glass and metal containers, but not quite yet. Initially, it hopes to offer cardboard bottles as an alternative, perhaps beginning in as little as two years.

The Danish brewer has form with eco-friendly initiatives. In 2018, it launched the Snap Pack, where beer cans are attached together for multi-packs using naturally decomposing glue rather than tethered with plastic rings or shrink-wrapped plastic, reducing packaging waste by more than 1,200 tonnes a year – equivalent to 60 million plastic bags.

Paboco is working on similar bottle initiatives for brands such as Absolut vodka, Coca-Cola and L’Oréal.

ENVIRONMENT: Futuristic cardboard beer bottle (Graphic)
GN39666 Graphic shows the design of the Pobaco-Carlsberg Green Fibre Bottle prototype.
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December 12, 2019 -- Britons head to the polls in a general election to help break the Brexit deadlock, with each of the major parties taking a different stance toward how, when and whether the country should leave the European Union.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leader of the Conservative Party, wants to implement the divorce deal he agreed with the EU as soon as possible, and then negotiate a long-term free-trade agreement with the bloc from next year.

Jeremy Corbyn, of the main opposition Labour Party, wants to renegotiate Johnson’s deal so that the UK remains in the EU customs union and retains a “close” single market relationship. The plan would then be put to another public vote.

Jo Swinson, of the Liberal Democrat Party, promises to cancel Brexit altogether if the party wins power at the election. If the party does not win a majority, it will support a second referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, wants the UK to remain in the EU and supports another referendum. The SNP’s ultimate goal is for an independent Scotland with full membership of EU.

Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, wants the UK to leave the EU without a deal and offers the Conservatives an electoral pact if Johnson changes track and backs a “clean-break Brexit”.

POLITICS: Where do UK parties stand on Brexit? (Graphic)
GN39671 Graphic shows the positions of the main UK parties on Brexit.
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October 29, 2019 -- As the Arctic, including much of Siberia, warms twice as fast as the rest of the world, the permafrost -- permanently frozen ground -- is thawing, putting cities, oil pipelines and other infrastructure at risk.

Permafrost covers some 65 per cent of Russia, and Siberia’s permafrost area is home to 80 per cent of Russia’s natural gas operations. Thawing is especially worrisome for mining, oil and gas companies in Russia’s so-called “Kingdom of Winter.”

The annual losses of the Russian economy due to permafrost thawing range from 50 to 150 billion rubles ($2.3 billion) a year, Alexander Krutikov, Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East and the Arctic said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Scientists say the planet’s warming must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius -- but Siberia’s temperatures have already spiked far beyond that.

A large area of eastern Siberia called Yakutia -- an area one-third the size of the United States -- has risen at double or even triple the global average rate, according to work by Yakutsk-based scientists Fedorov and Alexey Gorokhov.

In Yakutia’s town of Srednekolymsk, summer used to last from June 1 to September 1 but now extends a couple of weeks longer on both ends. Warmer winters and longer summers are steadily thawing the frozen earth that covers 90 per cent of Yakutia.

Yakutia’s permafrost formed during the Late Pleistocene, the planet’s last glacial period which ended about 11,700 years ago, and contains an estimated 70 billion tonnes of methane.

As the permafrost thaws, animals and plants frozen for thousands of years begin to decompose and send a steady flow of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere -- fueling the cycle of carbon release and temperature rise.

ENVIRONMENT: Russia's melting permafrost interactive (Interactive)
GN39643 Interactive graphic shows Russia’s permafrost regions.
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December 18, 2019 -- The final episode of Star Wars ends an epic nine-part space opera that began over 40 years ago, but can it live up to the hype or match the monumental box office haul of The Force Awakens?

Box Office Pro is predicting a U.S. domestic opening weekend of $200 million for the final entry in the Star Wars nonology, The Rise of Skywalker.

The ninth episode in the sprawling sci-fi saga comes out 42 years after the original movie, then simply entitled Star Wars, landed in theatres in 1977.

To date, three trailers have been released, giving fans glimpses of highly unexpected scenes. In several clips, Rey is seen battling Kylo Ren on the wreckage of the Death Star (destroyed in Return of the Jedi) – now protruding from an ocean moon named Kef Bir. In another emotionally charged scene, the droid C-3PO says he is “taking one last look… at my friends.” An ominous voice-over from the evil Emperor, aka Darth Sidious, implies that he was not killed at the end of episode VI after all, and is back for revenge.

The Rise of Skywalker is released in the U.S. on December 20, although many European countries will screen it from December 18.

ENTERTAINMENT: Star Wars triple trilogy comes to a close (Graphic)
GN39642 Graphic reveals the budget and global box office takings for each of the previous eight main canon Star Wars movies – with insights into the final episode due in cinemas from December 18.
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October 6-12, 2019 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the spanish opera singer, Montserrat Caballé, the German Democratic Republic, Russia’s Kalibr-NK long-range cruise missile, the Eddystone Lighthouse, London’s Millennium Wheel, French Impressionist painters, and the exodus of migrants from Honduras.

October 6, 2018: Montserrat Caballé, Spanish opera singer, died aged 85. Barcelona, her famous duet with Freddie Mercury, became the anthem of the 1992 Olympics

October 7, 1949: The German Democratic Republic, commonly known as East Germany, with its capital in the Soviet sector of Berlin, was proclaimed

October 8, 2015: Russia’s Kalibr-NK long-range cruise missile made its combat debut, reaching targets in Syria from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea

October 9, 1759: The Eddystone Lighthouse, off England’s southwest coast, was completed. Modelled on the shape of an oak tree, it had a major influence on lighthouse design

October 10, 1999: London’s Millennium Wheel, at the time the world’s tallest Ferris wheel, was successfully raised into a vertical position on the south bank of the River Thames

October 11, 2004: An exhibition by 12 French Impressionist painters opened in Beijing, the first time China had shown such paintings on this scale. It attracted 300,000 visitors

October 12, 2018: An ever-growing migrant caravan set out from Honduras with hopes of reaching the U.S. By year end over 7,000 migrants were camped on the Mexico-U.S. border

HISTORY: On this day October 6-12, 2019 (week 41) (Graphic)
GN39498 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set) View graphic