Top News Story –

15 year old Greta Thunberg takes a stand for climate change at COP24

15 year old Greta Thunberg made headlines last month through her uncompromising – and uncomfortable! – presentation to the United Nations’ COP24 Climate Change conference in Poland.  For Greta, it’s as simple as this: climate change is a threat to our survival, and the world is not doing enough about it. Each Friday since August 2018, Greta has missed school to go on strike outside of the Swedish Parliament Building. She is demanding change, and has encouraged kids around the world to do the same until world leaders take serious action to reduce emissions and fulfil the mandates of the Paris Agreement. 

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Operation Northern Shield
  • Israel announces an operation to clear Hezbollah tunnels from Lebanon-Israeli border. (The Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

• Russians vote to rename the two main airports of Moscow, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo, after poet Alexander Pushkin and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, respectively. (TASS)

Law and crime

• The alleged boss of the Cosa Nostra mafia clan is arrested along with 45 suspected accomplices in the province of Palermo, Italy. They are accused of aggravated extortion. (Euronews)

Politics and elections

• Yellow vests movement
  • Following large protests against French President Emmanuel Macron‘s planned increases on fuel taxes, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announces that these plans will be suspended for at least six months. (Bloomberg)
• Brexit negotiations
  • The Government of the United Kingdom is found to be in contempt of parliament for the first time in history. The motion, which passed by 311 to 293 votes in the House of Commons, was triggered by Theresa May‘s government failing to publish its legal advice on its Brexit withdrawal plan. (CNN)
• Frank Scott Jr. is elected Mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, defeating Baker Kurrus in the runoff. Scott will become the city’s first African-American mayor. (USA Today)

Sports

• NHL expansion
  • In ice hockey, the National Hockey League announces that its board of governors unanimously approved a new franchise for Seattle. The new team will start play in the 2021–22 season, bringing the league’s membership to 32 teams. (ESPN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

Top News Story –

Driver ‘blows up’ car with ‘excessive’ use of air freshener

A driver caused an explosion in his car when he lit a cigarette after spraying air freshener.

He used “excessive” amounts of the aerosol scent before sparking up, according to firefighters.

Gas from the spray ignited, blew out the windscreen and windows and buckled the doors but the man escaped with only minor injuries.

Police said the incident in Halifax on Saturday “could’ve been worse” and warned people to follow safety advice.

The motorist was in stationary traffic in Fountain Street in the town at about 15:00 GMT on Saturday when the explosion happened.

It was so powerful it caused damage to windows at nearby businesses.

(BBC)

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2019 Lebanese protests
  • The Lebanese Army clashes with supporters of Hezbollah and Amal Movement in Beirut. The Shiite Islamists were attempting to attack an anti-government protester camp in Martyrs’ Square. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• The Supreme Court of the United States refuses to hear a case regarding homeless people sleeping in public parks, and on sidewalks, when no other shelter is available. In allowing the camping, the high court left intact a lower court ruling, calling such bans cruel and unusual punishment. (USA Today)
• In rare protests, dozens are arrested in Kazakhstan during Independence Day. Protestors demand political reform and the sidelining of the family of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. (Reuters)
• Cannabis in Zambia
  • Zambia legalizes the production and export of cannabis for economic and medicinal purposes, but recreational use of the drug remains illegal. (Reuters)
• The human rights group International Rights Advocates formally launches a lawsuit in the United States against Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. (Google), Tesla, Inc., Dell and Microsoft on behalf of 14 Congolese families whose children died or were injured in Copperbelt mines that supply cobalt for the firms’ lithium-ion battery products. (BBC)
• Wanted criminal Ridouan Taghi has been arrested in Dubai. He was wanted by the Netherlands for large scale cocaine trafficking and multiple murders. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

• 2019 French pension reform strike
  • On the twelfth day of the strike, Jean-Paul Delevoye resigns. Delevoye, who was in charge of the proposed pension reform, failed to disclose private posts and income in his asset declaration. (The Guardian)
• Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
  • The U.S. House Judiciary Committee releases its 658-page report on its inquiry of the impeachment of President Donald Trump, claiming he committed obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. (CNN)

Science and technology

• SpaceX successfully launches the JCSAT-18 and Kacific 1 communications satellites on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The satellites will bring Internet access to isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean. (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

Top News Story –

New Year Honours: Publication of addresses a ‘complete disaster’

The online publication of the addresses of more than 1,000 New Year Honours recipients was a “complete disaster”, a former cabinet minister has said.

Iain Duncan Smith, who was knighted, said ministers needed to ask “very serious questions” about how it had happened, while a former civil service chief called it a “serious failure”.

The Cabinet Office has apologised and says it is investigating.

Details of celebrities, senior police officers and politicians were released.

The list of 1,097 honours recipients – including high-profile names such as Sir Elton John, cricketer Ben Stokes, TV cook Nadiya Hussain and former director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders – was uploaded to an official website on Friday evening and removed on Saturday.

Most of the entries in the spreadsheet included full addresses – including house numbers and postcodes. The Cabinet Office said the document was visible for about an hour.

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • Security Belt forces say a missile fired by the Houthis hit a military parade in the southern separatist-held town of al-Dhalea, killing at least five people and injuring others. There are no claims of responsibility for the attack. (Reuters)
• War in Donbass
  • The Ukrainian government and separatist rebels exchange prisoners according to the “all identified for all identified” formula agreed upon during peace talks in Paris earlier this month. (NBC)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • Local officials say Taliban have killed 17 local militiamen in an attack on their base in Khwaja Bahauddin District, Takhar Province. A Taliban spokesman says they killed 21 gunmen. The Taliban propose a 7 to 10-day nationwide ceasefire, after which a peace deal with the United States would be signed. (Al Jazeera)
• 2019 United States bombing of Kata’ib Hizbollah
  • The United States Air Force carries out strikes using F-15E Strike Eagle jets and drones in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the death of an American civil contractor in a rocket attack on K-1 Air Base in Kirkuk Governorate. The strikes were targeted at the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group. A spokesman for Kata’ib Hezbollah, says 19 of its fighters were killed and 35 injured in the American strikes, while vowing to respond. (Reuters) (FRANCE 24) (The Washington Post)
  • Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi condemns the unilateral American bombings inside Iraq, saying the U.S. strikes are a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty”, and a “dangerous escalation that threatens the security of Iraq and the region.” (USA Today)
  • Iran warns of consequences after the airstrikes. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi stated it was “illegal” and “the United States must accept responsibility of the attack.” (CNN)
• Terrorism in Russia
  • Following a tip-off from the United States, Russia arrests two men planning a New Year’s Eve attack in the city of Saint Petersburg. (Sky News)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • The death toll of the attack in Mogadishu the previous day rises to 84 with over 25 others remaining missing. (Xinhua)
  • The United States target Al-Shabaab in a series of airstrikes that killed four. The strikes were in coordination with the government of Somalia. (DW News)

Arts and culture

• The world’s oldest rhinoceros, Fausta, dies in Tanzania at the age of 57. (BBC)

Business and economics

• Citizenship Amendment Act protests
  • The Indian tourism industry reports that, as a result of protests, December visits to the Taj Mahal and the state of Assam declined by 60% and 90% respectively compared to the same period last year. These declines are also occurring in the midst of general economic slowdown in the country. (Reuters)
• Over 19 flights are cancelled as a three-day strike at Lisbon Airport comes to an end. The strike was instigated when airport owner Vinci refused to unfreeze wages for the employees. (Reuters)
• Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo announces his country will adopt the eco as its new currency, but insists to fellow members of the currency union that it should not be pegged to the euro. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• An official at Bangladesh‘s health directorate says at least 50 people have died of cold-related illnesses in December. A cold wave sweeps through the country, with a lowest recorded temperature of 4.5 °C (40.1 °F). (Thomson Reuters via CBC)

Health and environment

• 2019 Samoa measles outbreak
  • The Samoan government lifts its six-week state of emergency after a mass immunization campaign against measles reduced the death and infection rates. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• West Freeway Church of Christ shooting
  • A man kills two people and injures another at a church in White Settlement, Texas, United States before being killed by a security guard and a civilian. (ABC News) (BBC)

Politics and elections

• 2019 Guinea-Bissau presidential election
  • Citizens of Guinea-Bissau head to the polls in the second round of the country’s latest presidential election. (Reuters)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

Top News Story –

Actress Sharon Stone blocked from dating app Bumble

Actress Sharon Stone says she was blocked from the dating app Bumble.

The online platform said there had been several reports of a fake profile, the 62-year-old posted on Twitter.

“Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary?” the star of the 1992 film Basic Instinct asked the online app, which matches those looking for romance based on location.

Bumble say they have now unblocked Stone’s account so she can get “back to Bumbling”.

“Trust us, we *definitely* want you on the Hive,” said Bumble’s editorial director Clare O’Connor.

Bumble is a dating app that connects users looking for romance, friendship or anything in between.

Users can filter who they want to meet according to gender, age range and the distance they are willing to travel.

If two users “like” each other, they “match” and can start communicating.

Bumble is different to other dating apps as the woman must initiate contact by sending the first message.

The founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said following the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements she wanted to empower women in the dating realm by giving them the opportunity to make the first move.

[BBC]

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from USA

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• December 2019 Mogadishu bombing
  • Al-Shabaab, an ally of Al-Qaeda, claims responsibility for the suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, that killed nearly 90 people. (Reuters)
• Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
  • ADF militants kill 22 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were all hacked with machetes and many also went missing in the attack. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

• 2019–20 Australian bushfire season
  • Thousands of people are reported stranded on a local beach awaiting evacuation near Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, as bushfires enter the coastal town. Four people are reported missing. Elsewhere, a volunteer Fire and Rescue NSW firefighter died battling a bushfire near the town of Jingellic. (The Guardian)

International relations

• Bolivia–Spain relations, Bolivia–Mexico relations
  • In a tit-for-tat move, Spain expels three Bolivian diplomatic staff from Madrid after interim Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez forced two Spanish diplomats and the Mexican ambassador to leave. Their expulsions are related to the Mexican embassy in La Paz‘s decision to shelter at least nine officials connected to the government of deposed President Evo Morales. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• Lulu and Nana controversy
  • Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that He Jiankui, who last year announced the birth of babies with modified DNA, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine of 3 million yuan, for “illegal medical practice“. Two other defendants are given lesser sentences. (CNN)
  • The court in Shenzhen confirms his claim that a second woman was impregnated, and reveals that three gene-edited babies were born instead of the previously believed two. (New Scientist)
• A Sudanese court sentences 29 people to be hanged for the killing of a teacher in detention in February during protests that led to the overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir. (BBC)
• A Yemeni man, suspected to be an Al-Qaeda militant, is sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for a November 11 terror attack against a group of Spanish theatre actors in Riyadh, wounding three of them. An accomplice is sentenced to 12 years of jail. (BBC)
• Former CEO of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance Carlos Ghosn escapes house arrest in Tokyo and flees to Lebanon. He was under arrest for money laundering and underreporting his income, though he denies the charges. (Reuters)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

Top News Story –

Editorial

So we made it. The world didn’t implode, explode or get hit by a devastating meteorite – we survived. But despite the opinion of the incumbent USA president most educated people agree that the world is in trouble due to the way humanity is treating it. We are like a bully who doesn’t realise the damage he is doing to a sensitive subject. It may have taken a 15 year-old from Sweden to finally wake up the rest of us.

Throughout the decade there have been a huge amount of major news stories with 119 covered here. This website, although far from complete (it proved a bigger task than expected), has covered many of the minor, but in some ways, no less interesting stories.

But one question has not been answered – the name the decade will forever be known as. The rather dull “the 2010’s” seems to be the phrase chosen by the daily press, but that is, of course, the title of this website so maybe that was the right answer all along. We still prefer “the Onesies”

This website will continue to expand with new dates added, old stories discovered and hopefully will become a useful place of research.

Finally a mention to four of the finest sources of information available (for free) today. BBC News, Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Internet Archive – Wayback Machine. We are lucky to have such amazing websites at our demand.

Twitter trends [from Trendinalia] – today from the World

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
  • Angry supporters storm the United States embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, in response to the U.S. airstrike on Sunday against Kata’ib Hezbollah militants. Iraqi officials say the U.S. ambassador and staff have been evacuated, but the U.S. Army denies this. The U.S. ambassador is reportedly on holiday. U.S. President Donald Trump blames Iran for the attack. (The Independent) (The Guardian)
  • According to an Iraqi official, demonstrators have prepared a sit-in protest in front of the embassy. (Xinhua)
  • Protesters in Tahrir Square distance themselves from the events around the U.S. embassy. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Tencent, along with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited and the Qatar Investment Authority, purchase a 10% stake in the Universal Music Group. The former purchased it to build up its own music streaming service. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• An 8 meters (26 ft) high fire ignites accidentally next to Adelaide Oval after the 9pm New Year’s Eve fireworks in Adelaide, South Australia. This comes following major controversy over the New Year‘s firework displays across Australia in response to ongoing bushfires. (News.com.au)
• 2018–19 Southern Africa drought
  • Severe drought conditions continue in Zimbabwe where close to 7 million people are facing food shortages, according to a Catholic aid agency. Because of repeated droughts over the past five years, many of Zimbabwe’s small farmers are unable to feed their families. Catholic Relief Services is working with farmers teaching soil and water conservation methods. The agency offers drought-resistant crops to farmers and is cooperating on a notification system warning farmers about threats to their harvest. (Catholic News Agency) (Bloomberg News)

Law and crime

• A court in Abidjan sentences Charles Blé Goudé to 20 years in prison in absentia for his role in the Second Ivorian Civil War that followed the 2010 presidential election, his lawyers say. (Reuters)
• Former Bosnian Serb Army general Milomir Savčić is indicted for his role in planning the Srebrenica massacre. (Reuters)
• Aftermath of the 2019 Fresno shooting
  • Police arrest six people in connection with a mass shooting last month in Fresno, California, that left four people dead and another six injured. (USA Today)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource