May 9, 2018 -- The bridge linking Crimea to Russia over the Kerch Strait across the Black Sea opens. The 19-km road-and-rail bridge, the longest dual-purpose span in Europe, is seen as vital by the Kremlin to integrate Crimea into Russia, both symbolically and as an economic lifeline for the region.

TRANSPORT: Russian bridge to Crimea opens (Graphic DUE Apr 25, 12:00GMT)
GN35885 Graphic shows details of Kerch Strait bridge project.
(107mm wide by mm deep)

May 15, 2018 -- After very public production problems, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is to finally premiere at The 71st Cannes Film Festival on May 15.

MOVIES: Solo – A Star Wars Story (Graphic DUE Apr 23, 16:00GMT)
GN37130 Graphic shows where the 10th Star Wars movie fits into the sci-fi franchise canon, with details on the Han Solo backstory.
(107mm by 160mm deep)

April 20, 2018 -- Os preços do petróleo atingiram um máximo desde 2014, com o Brent
acima dos $74 o barril. O Brent subiu 11,4% desde janeiro.

Analysts point to escalating conflicts in Syria and Yemen, a crisis in Venezuela, and cuts to Saudi Arabian production for driving both Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to their highest levels since November 2014. On Thursday they traded $74.75 and $69.56 per barrel respectively.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been cutting crude output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to prop up oil prices since January 2017. Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia would be comfortable with prices trading in a range of $80 to $100 as it prepares to list state energy giant Aramco in early 2019.

China is importing a record nine million bpd of crude -- almost 10 percent of global consumption -- costing nearly $20 billion a month.

BUSINESS: Surge in crude oil prices (Graphic)
GN37141 Graphic shows price of Brent crude between June 2014 and April 2018.
(107mm by 112mm deep)

April 23-25, 2018 -- French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington DC for the first state visit of the Donald Trump presidency. During the three-day visit, the two leaders will discuss topics including ongoing issues with Iran, Syria, North Korea and Russia, as well as the U.S. moves on global trade.

POLITICS: Trump hosts Macron for first state visit (Graphic)
GN37094 Graphic shows schedule of Emmanuel Macron’s state visit.
(107mm wide by 159mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 19, 2018 -- Ultra-rich people with personal fortunes of more than $500m can afford to live wherever they want, but where are their favourite hotspots?

FINANCE: Where the ultra-wealthy live (Graphic)
GN37050 Graphic shows the top 10 countries ranked in order of number of people with more than $500 million in personal wealth.
(107mm by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 19, 2018 -- Russia has combat-tested more than 200 new advanced weapons systems in Syria since September 2015. Weapons deployed include long-range air- and sea-based Kalibr and Kh-101 cruise missiles.

Russia’s advanced weaponry will be demonstrated for the first time at Moscow’s Red Square military parade on May 9.

The Russian Navy Kalibr-PL or Kalibr-NK, also known as SS-N-30, is a long-range cruise developed as part of the Kalibr ship-borne missile system. This weapon is intended to hit targets with pinpoint accuracy at ranges of up to 2,500 kilometres, equipped with a conventional warhead and flying at altitudes of 50 to 150 metres from the ground.

The Kalibr-NK cruise missile was combat-tested in October 2015, when four Russian ships launched 26 rockets against targets in Syria from the Caspian Sea, travelling 1,500km. Western intelligence was unaware of the existence of the Kalibr-NK missile at that time.

The Kh-101 and Kh-102 are advanced stealthy cruise missiles deployed by Russian strategic bombers such as Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear. Crews from both bomber types have repeatedly used the Kh-101 against so-called Islamic State (IS) targets in the Syrian provinces of Deir al-Zour and Idlib.

The weapon was first tested in combat in November 2015 in a long-range mission that involved two Tu-160s flying from the Kola Peninsula inside the Arctic Circle, over the Atlantic toward Gibraltar and then east over the Mediterranean toward Syria to launch Kh-101s.

Paired with upgraded Tu-160 Blackjacks -- which have a range of 12,300km before needing in-flight refuelling -- the Kh-101 boasts an additional range of 5,000km and can deliver a 400kg high-explosive (HE) or 450 kiloton-nuclear warhead (102-version).

The missile now gives the Kremlin a global—and stealthy—aerial strike capability.

The new Kh-35, designated by NATO as Kayak, is a subsonic, sea-skimming anti-ship missile designed to engage amphibious assault ships and cargo vessels. Both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft can release the weapon.

The Kh-35UE features an improved propulsion system which doubles the effective range from 130km to up to 260km. It is fitted with a 145kg HE fragmentation, penetration warhead. The guidance system is resistant to electronic warfare jamming.

MILITARY: Russia’s new cruise missiles (Graphic)
GN36898 Graphic shows Russia’s Kalibr-NK (SS-N-30) sea-launched cruise missile, Kh-101 and Kh-102 air-launched cruise missile and Kh-35UE (Kayak) air- or sea-launched anti-ship cruise missiles.
(107mm by 462mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 18, 2018 -- Scientists aboard a Greenpeace ship have discovered that a massive coral reef near the mouth of the Amazon extends further than thought, overlapping areas where French company Total plans to drill for oil.

The research could further complicate plans by oil companies to explore an area that some geologists say could hold up to 14 billion barrels of petroleum, or more than the entire proven reserves in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2013, Total led a group including Britain’s BP Plc and Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras in buying five exploration blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin, but the discovery of a massive coral reef just 28 kilometers from the blocks has thrown environmental approval for drilling into doubt.

The Amazon Reef is a unique biome that includes giant sponges and rhodoliths – calcareous algae that form habitat for reef creatures. It is also thought to contain dozens of undiscovered species.

Environmentalists say it would be irreparably damaged if drilling
for oil begins.

ENVIRONMENT: Coral reef found in Amazon drilling area (Graphic)
GN37045 Graphic shows map of coral reef and of exploration blocks in the area.
(107mm wide by 155mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 17, 2018 -- Venezuela’s economic collapse has created the biggest migration crisis in recent Latin American history, with 5,000 people leaving the country every day according to the UN refugee agency.

At the current departure rate, 1.8 million people – more than five per cent of Venezuela’s population – will leave this year.

VENEZUELA: Refugees flee economic crisis (Graphic)
GN37014 Graphic shows selected data on Venezuela’s migration crisis.
(107mm by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 18, 2018 -- Netflix hit a record 125 million streaming subscribers in the three months to March with the addition of 5.5 million international subscribers. Revenues were up 40 percent to $3.7 billion.

While the streaming service is reportedly bleeding cash -- the Los Angeles Times recently reported that Netflix has more than $20 billion in accumulative debt -- investors see expansion to some 190 countries as a potential for profit in future years.

Netflix is planning to release 80 original films in 2018, costing upwards of $8 billion, according to Chief Financial Officer David Wells. “Let’s continue to add content -- it’s working, it’s driving growth,” Wells said.

Non-English content is expanding, Netflix said. “O Mecanismo” is on track to become one of the service’s most-viewed original series in Brazil, and Spanish-language heist thriller “La Casa de Papel” was the most-watched non-English series ever on Netflix, according to the company.

While Netflix now has 125 million streaming members worldwide, there are an additional 575 million broadband users that are non-members globally -- and that excludes China -- Netflix said.

BUSINESS: Netflix reaches 125 million users (Graphic)
GN37047 Graphic shows quarterly rise in subscribers over past six years.
(107mm by 104mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 18, 2018 -- Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are due to start work in Douma, outside the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The alleged chemical attack on April 7 is the sixth chemical attack in Douma in 2018. Munitions recovered from previous attacks show they are modified Iranian 107mm rockets.

In addition to collecting samples, OPCW inspectors will be looking for other clues to confirm the alleged use of banned toxins in the attack on April 7.

Analysis of the samples will take place at the OPCW’s central laboratory in the Netherlands. The evidence is split and sent to independent national laboratories affiliated with the OPCW.

The inspectors will also be looking for other evidence, such as canisters, rocket or bomb fragments, impact sites and craters and will take photographs and video of them.

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission will not assign blame.

MILITARY: Syria chemical weapons (Graphic)
GN37005 Graphic shows improvised chemical weapons recovered at Syria’s Douma, site of six alleged chemical weapons attacks since January.
(107mm by 138mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

May 8-19, 2018 -- The 71st edition of the annual Cannes Film Festival gets underway on the French Riviera. This year’s Palme d’Or contenders include acclaimed directors Spike Lee, Pawel Pawlikowski, David Robert Mitchell and Jean-Luc Godard, who brings his new film, Le Livre d’Image, to the festival more than five decades after his 1965 movie Pierrot le Fou, which graces this year’s Cannes poster.

Also getting its world premiere at Cannes, though outside the official competition, is Solo: A Star Wars Story, a spinoff from the franchise, directed by Ron Howard.

Two of the directors in competition, Iranian Jafar Panahi and Ukrainian Kirill Serebrennikov, are under house arrest in their home countries.

The festival will not include any movies from Netflix, which opted not to submit entries in the wake of rules banning films from the main competition if they didn’t have a French theatrical release.

Actress Cate Blanchett will chair the jury that will decide the recipients of the festival’s main awards.

MOVIES: Cannes Film Festival 2018 (Graphic)
GN37002 Graphic shows line-up of films in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
(107mm wide by 165mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 18-20, 2018 -- Israel will celebrate 70 years of statehood, starting with an Independence Day ceremony on Wednesday which will end on Saturday evening after 70 hours of festivity.

Events will include the largest fireworks display in the country’s history, followed by an all-night beach party stretching 70km from Tiberias to Eilat. The $30 million-party will end Saturday night with a musical event that represents a soundtrack of Israeli society.

On May 14 -- the actual day of the anniversary -- the United States will relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The White House decision has sparked a furious reaction from Palestinians, who object to the U.S. recognition of the disputed city as Israel's capital and call May 14 the Naqba, their “day of catastrophe.”

EDITORS: The words in graphics (captions) are contained in downloadable text files. These text files are intended for editors wishing to review the words The text files can also be passed through Google Translate for a “quick” translation, or sent to a professional translator -- Somebody working in Adobe Illustrator can then replace the words on the graphic with the translated words.

POLITICS: Israel celebrates 70 years of independence (Graphic)
GN36963 Graphic shows a timeline of events.
(163mm by 322mm deep)

April 16, 2018 -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is caught in a political crisis over expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline to move 890,000 barrels of oil per day from landlocked Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific coast.

The C$7.4bn (US$6bn) expansion, which Trudeau says it is part of his plan to transition to cleaner energy, will create the equivalent of 37,000 direct and indirect jobs and $46.7bn in government revenues, according to operator Kinder Morgan.

But the project is fiercely opposed by British Columbia, many municipalities, some Aboriginal groups, and environmental activists concerned about possible oil spills.

ENERGY: Canada's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (Graphic)
GN36954 Graphic shows route and specifications of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
(107mm wide by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 13, 2018 -- The U.S., Britain and France launched coordinated strikes against targets within Syria in response to the alleged Douma chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say airstrikes launched Friday evening were designed to inflict “maximum damage” to Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

More than 100 missiles fired from ships and manned aircraft struck three of Syria’s main chemical weapons facilities, Mattis and Dunford said.

The targets included the Centre D’Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques an alleged chemical and biological weapons research facility in the Damascus suburb of Jamraya as well as a chemical weapons storage facility near the city of Homs. A third target, also near Homs, contained both a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and a command and control centre.

MILITARY: U.S.-led forces strike chemical targets in Syria (Graphic)
GN36918 Graphic shows target set in U.S.-led attack.
(107mm by 197mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 12, 2018 -- Tensions are mounting as the U.S. contemplates a targeted military response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria by the Assad regime.

Graphic shows the likely targets in Syria, should a U.S.-led attack take place. These are identified as air bases or chemical production facilities

Air bases:
T4
Shayrat
Dumeir
Marj Ruhayyil
Mezzeh

Chemical production facilities:
Aleppo
Al-Safira
Damascus (CERS*)
Hama
Homs
Latakia
*Centre D’Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques (Scientific Studies and Research Centre)

SYRIA: Likely targets of U.S.-led attack (1) (Graphic)
GN36822 Graphic shows likely targets in Syria, should a U.S.-led attack take place.
(107mm by 122mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 12, 2018 -- With more than 2.2 billion monthly active users, Facebook has stockpiled personal data on nearly one-third of the world’s population – a database that is the core of Facebook’s $40.65 billion business.

Appearing before Congress this week, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, tried to present Facebook’s approach to user data as open and transparent.

In question after question, he repeated that users control their data and can review it or delete it whenever they want. And if you cancel your account, that data will disappear from Facebook’s servers within 90 days.

Several members of Congress asked Zuckerberg about the data Facebook collects about people who are non-users of Facebook -- so-called “shadow profiles.” Zuckerberg responded, saying that he was “not familiar” with the term “shadow profiles.”

“You’ve said everyone controls their data, but you’re collecting data on people who are not even Facebook users, who never signed a privacy agreement and you’re collecting their data,” Representative for New Mexico Ben Luján said. “And you’re directing people who don’t have a Facebook page to sign up for Facebook to get their data.”

Facebook’s People You May Know service uses shadow profiles. Facebook encourages users to upload their entire address books to PYMK; this includes data on people who have never signed up for Facebook.

Instead of discarding non-user information, Facebook keeps the data in the shadow profile -- information held in reserve so that, if they ever do sign up for Facebook, the company will know who to propose as friends. Shadow profile data could explain how a non-Facebook user had his ex-wife suggested to his girlfriend and how a man had his secret biological daughter recommended to him.

Under a Federal Trade Commission consent decree to protect user privacy, Facebook is liable to fines of $41,484 per violation per user per day.

The biggest fine the FTC has ever imposed in a privacy case was a $22.5 million award in a settlement with Google in 2012. The FTC could theoretically fine Facebook $8.9 billion for every day of a violation affecting all of its 214 million U.S. users.

TECHNOLOGY: What Facebook knows about you (Graphic)
GN36789 Graphic shows issues over how Facebook curates user and non-user data. PYMK = People You May Know. D-NM = Democrat New Mexico
(107mm by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 11, 2018 -- The U.S. is building a multi-nation strike force against Syria to respond to an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held town near Damascus. Russia has urged America to avoid taking military action.

UU.S. firepower includes two destroyers and a possible submarine in eastern Mediterranean, aircraft - including F-22 stealth jets are based in Qatar, Jordan and Turkey, and about 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria. The USS Harry S Truman carrier strike force is also en route rom the U.S. east coast.

France has a missile-armed frigate in the Mediterranean and Rafale jets in UAE and Jordan. The UK has Typhoon and Tornado strike aircraft at Akrotiri and Cyprus.

The Russian presence in Syria includes 4,000-5,000 personnel. The range of the Russian air defence missiles is shown on the graphic.

SYRIA: U.S. options for military strike (Graphic)
GN36772 Graphic shows Russian presence in Syria and potential striking forces.
(107mm by 187mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 10, 2018 -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is appearing before a joint U.S. congressional hearing after admitting that up to 87 million users may have had their data improperly utilised by Cambridge Analytica to build election voter profiles.

TECHNOLOGY: Facebook privacy scandal (Graphic)
GN36739 Graphic shows numbers of users potentially affected by the breach of confidence, with data on the amounts of money Facebook is making from its billions of users around the world.
(107mm by 133mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 10, 2018 -- The combined net worth of Russia’s wealthiest people fell by almost $16 billion following U.S. sanctions on oligarchs who have benefited financially from close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. Treasury Department placed new sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs, 12 companies they either own or control and 17 senior Kremlin officials. The move is designed to prevent the targeted oligarchs from doing business in U.S. dollars and stop them dealing with U.S. citizens.

Russia’s wealthiest tycoons lost a staggering $15.8 billion by Tuesday morning, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index which updates figures at the close of every trading day in New York.

According to analysts’ estimates, most of the losses fell on Siberian nickel miner Vladimir Potanin, whose fortune declined $2.28 billion. Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov lost $1.37 billion, while Viktor Vekselberg saw his net worth fall by $1.28 billion. Of the three oligarchs, sanctions only applied to Vekselberg.

Of the seven Russians sanctioned, Oleg Deripaska lost $905 million on Monday. Investors wiped off 54 percent of the value of his industrial conglomerate En+ Group since Thursday, according to London Stock Exchange data. Through EN+, Deripaska owns 48 percent of Rusal, the sanctioned giant aluminium producer.

The sanctions are America’s response to Russia’s actions in Crimea, Syria and Ukraine as well as interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

BUSINESS: U.S. sanctions hit Russian oligarchs (Graphic)
GN36735 Graphic shows pen-pix of the seven sanctioned oligarchs and decline in their net worth where known.
(107mm by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 9, 2018 -- Russia and the Syrian government have blamed Israel for an attack on a Syrian military airbase in which at least 14 people were killed. Monday’s attack hit the Tiyas airbase, known as T4, near the city of Homs.

Israel, which has previously hit Syrian targets, has not commented. Syria initially said it suspected the U.S. was responsible for the air strike.

The incident comes amid international alarm over an alleged chemical attack on a Syrian rebel-held town.

The U.S. and France had threatened to respond to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, in the Eastern Ghouta region, near the capital Damascus.

SYRIA: Missile strikes hit T4 airbase (Graphic)
GN36684 Graphic shows T4 airbase and areas of control.
(107mm by 155mm deep)

April 9, 2018 -- Prime Minister Viktor Orban has won a third straight term in power after his ruling anti-immigration Fidesz party secured a crushing parliamentary majority, granting him two-thirds of the seats.

“We want to call out what’s ailing this continent,” Orban told Echo TV after claiming victory in Sunday’s election. “We don’t want to go against Europe and the EU; we want Europe and the EU to be strong and successful. But before that, we need to be honest about what’s hurting us.”

Chairman of the nationalist Jobbik party, Gabor Vona, stood down on Sunday night after coming second with just 20 percent of the vote. Socialist Party President Gyula Molnar also resigned after taking only 12.2 percent of the vote.

Orban’s strong Eurosceptic and anti-immigration stance has made him a role model for anti-establishment parties from Italy to Poland.

POLITICS: Hungary election result (Graphic)
GN36669 Graphic shows seats in the new Hungarian parliament.
(107mm by 68mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 15-21, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the bomb at the Boston Marathon, President Erdogan of Turkey, Martin Luther, French aviator Roland Garros, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the painter Canaletto and flying ace Baron von Richthofen.

April 15, 2013: Two bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured 170. One attacker was later killed in a police shootout, the other was captured

April 16, 2017: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey won a historic referendum on a package of constitutional changes granting him sweeping new powers

April 17, 1521: Martin Luther, addressing the Diet of Worms, refused to recant his views on the Reformation. Disorder broke out and the proceedings were adjourned

April 18, 1915: French aviator Roland Garros was shot down in World War I but survived and was taken prisoner. The tennis stadium complex in Paris is named after him

April 19, 1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began when the last 60,000 Polish Jews confined there resisted Nazi efforts to transport them to extermination camps

April 20, 1768: Italian painter Canaletto, best known for his paintings of Venetian scenes, died

April 21 1918: German First World War flying ace Baron von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, was killed in action

HISTORY: On this day April 15-21, 2018 (week 16) (Graphic)
GN36405 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

April 22-28, 2018 -- Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features the first nuclear explosion shown on TV, Saint George, the Panama Canal, the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, China’s aircraft carrier OO1A, the independence or Eritrea, and the mutiny on the Bounty.

April 22, 1952: An atomic test was broadcast live on U.S. national television for the first time. The 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 plane over the Nevada desert

April 23, 303BC: According to legend, Saint George, a Roman soldier of Syrian origin, died by order of the Roman emperor Diocletian for failing to recant his Christian faith

April 24, 2006: Panama unveiled a $5bn plan to expand the Panama Canal to cope with ships up to 50 percent wider than those then able to pass through the ageing waterway

April 25, 1918: Ella Fitzgerald, U.S. jazz singer, was born. As well as her solo career she often collaborated with the bands of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie

April 26, 2017: China launched the 001A, its first domestically built aircraft carrier, as regional tensions grew over Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea

April 27, 1993: Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia following a UN monitored referendum in which 99.83% voted in favour. The poll followed a 30-year civil war

April 28, 1789: Fletcher Christian led a mutiny aboard the British navy ship HMS Bounty. Captain William Bligh and other non-mutineers were cast adrift in a small boat in the Pacific

HISTORY: On this day April 22-28, 2018 (week 17) (Graphic)
GN36430 Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries on each day for the week.
(Each 52mm wide by 118mm deep packaged as a set)

April 6, 2018 -- President Trump has said that the United States will consider slapping tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods, escalating a potentially damaging trade dispute with Beijing that began on January 22.

If implemented, the further tariffs would triple the $50 billion placed on goods imported from China that Trump announced on Tuesday.

“In light of China’s unfair retaliation, I have instructed the [United States Trade Representative] to consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House on Thursday night.

Trump’s current list of goods that will be affected by the tariffs ranges across 1,300 categories, while China is only targeting 106 classes of U.S. exports. The Chinese duties include soybeans, aircraft and motor vehicles -- In 2017 these accounted for more than $40 billion (31 percent) of America’s $130.4 billion exports to China.

Economists, businessmen and Republicans have warned that a full-scale trade war between the two economic giants could end in devastation for the U.S. economy.

BUSINESS: U.S.-China trade conflict (Graphic)
GN36633 Graphic shows timeline of the escalating trade dispute.
(107mm by 191mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 27, 2018 -- Kim Jong-un of North Korea and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet for the first time at the “truce village” of Panmunjom for talks aimed at extending the recent détente on the Peninsula. The talks will pave the way for a historic summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The two Korean leaders will meet at Peace House, a South Korean building which lies south of the demarcation line that bisects Panmunjom, which means that Kim would become the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the Korean War.

Leaders of the two Koreas have held talks only twice since the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007, under previous liberal governments in South Korea. The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945 into a U.S.-dominated south and Soviet-backed north, which became sovereign nations three years later.

POLITICS: North and South Korea landmark summit (Graphic)
GN36577 Graphic shows layout and details of Panmunjom
(163mm wide by 188mm deep)

May 19, 2018 -- Prince Harry marries American former actress Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

At 13:00BST following the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds will make a carriage procession through Windsor, including Castle Hill, High Street, Sheet Street, Kings Road, Albert Road and Long Walk before they return to Windsor Castle.

The first of two receptions will be held in the splendour of St George’s Hall for all 800 guests attending the ceremony. Later that evening, Prince Charles will host a more intimate, private reception for the couple and their closest family members and friends.

UK ROYAL WEDDING: Carriage procession (Graphic)
GN36388 Graphic shows the carriage procession route through Windsor.
(163mm wide by 154mm deep)

May 19, 2018 -- Prince Harry marries American former actress Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The service will begin at 12:00 and be conducted by the Dean of Windsor, The Rt Revd. David Conner. The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd. and Rt Hon. Justin Welby, will officiate as the couple make their marriage vows. The Archbishop is the most senior bishop of the Anglican Church, and baptised Meghan into the Church of England in March.

Their plain gold wedding rings will be created from pure Welsh gold from the Clogau St. David Gold Mine in Dolgellau, Wales, a royal tradition that began 95 years ago when Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Mother, married the then Duke of York on April 26, 1923.

St George’s Chapel has been a venue for Royal weddings since the future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863. Harry’s father, Prince Charles celebrated his marriage to the former Camilla Parker-Bowles there in 2005. Other recent royal weddings at the chapel include Harry’s uncle Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, and the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, and Canadian Autumn Kelly in 2008. Harry and Meghan’s wedding is the first of two royal weddings taking place in the Chapel this year, with his cousin Princess Eugenie marrying Jack Brooksbank there in October.

St George’s Chapel is located inside the walls of Windsor Castle. The castle was built by William the Conqueror at a strategic location on the River Thames following the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century.

The chapel is a “Royal Peculiar” meaning it is under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch (rather than a diocese or archdiocese), and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in England. The Gothic style flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages, from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The magnificent fan vaulted ceiling was completed in 1528, during the reign of Henry VIII.

UK ROYAL WEDDING: St George’s Chapel (Graphic)
GN36387 Graphic shows St George’s Chapel and includes a cut-away.
(284mm wide by 240mm deep)

May 19, 2018 -- Prince Harry marries American former actress Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The service will begin at 12:00 and be conducted by the Dean of Windsor, The Rt Revd. David Conner. The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd. and Rt Hon. Justin Welby, will officiate as the couple make their marriage vows. The Archbishop is the most senior bishop of the Anglican Church, and baptised Meghan into the Church of England in March.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds will embark on a carriage procession around Windsor before returning to Windsor Castle for a reception in St George’s Hall for the 800 guests attending the wedding.

St George’s Chapel has been a venue for Royal weddings since the future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863. Harry’s father, Prince Charles, celebrated his marriage to the former Camilla Parker-Bowles there in 2005. Other recent royal weddings at the chapel include Harry’s uncle Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, and the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, and Canadian Autumn Kelly in 2008. Harry and Meghan’s wedding is the first of two royal weddings taking place in the Chapel this year, with his cousin Princess Eugenie marrying Jack Brooksbank there in October.

St George’s Chapel is located inside the walls of Windsor Castle. The castle was built by William the Conqueror at a strategic location on the River Thames following the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century.

The chapel is a “Royal Peculiar” meaning it is under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch (rather than a diocese or archdiocese), and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in England. The Gothic style flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages, from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The magnificent fan vaulted ceiling was completed in 1528, during the reign of Henry VIII.

UK ROYAL WEDDING: St George’s Chapel interactive (Interactive)
GN36410 Graphic shows St George’s Chapel, including a cut-away, and route of carriage procession through Windsor.
(800px wide by 568px deep)

April 4, 2018 -- Latin America will host the most licensing rounds in its history, opening about 1,100 oil and gas blocks for foreign investment in 2018.

Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy, expects intense exploration activity in deepwater basins around Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

“Sizeable reserves, project optimisation and good productivity have been driving deepwater costs down,” said Horacio Cuenca, research director for Latin America at Wood Mackenzie.

“2018 will certainly be a transformative year for the region, both economically and politically,” Cuenca said.

Mexico started the year attracting $93 billion in investment pledges and followed with another round securing over $8 billion. In March, Brazil added $2.4 billion to about $30 billion from an October bidding round.

Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina will follow with auctions through the year, with keen interest expected from the majors and Asian national oil companies.

BUSINESS: Latin America - Record oil auction (Graphic)
GN36443 Graphic shows oil and gas areas up for auction.
(107mm wide by 140mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 4, 2018 -- Social media posts are being blamed for a surge in knife and gun crime across London, leading to claims that the British capital has overtaken New York City for murders for the first time in modern history.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, London suffered 22 fatal stabbings and shootings in March, higher than the 21 in New York City.

Both cities have similarly sized populations of around 8.5 million people, but New York City’s murder rate has fallen by more than 54 percent since 2010, while London’s has grown by nearly nine percent over the same period.

Britain's most senior police officer recently said social media was partly to blame for the soaring rate of knife crime in the past three months. Mobile phone applications such as YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram were in part to blame for the bloodshed, she said.

Speaking to the Times, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick stressed that petty disputes could escalate into violence “within minutes” when rivals set out to goad each other on the internet.

CRIME: London surge in violent crime (Graphic)
GN36506 Graphic shows homicide rates in New York City and London over the past decade.
(107mm by 106mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 3, 2018 -- Left-wing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has an 18-point advantage at the start of formal campaigning for the presidency.

Lopez Obrador, who launched his campaign on Sunday, holds 38 percent of the vote, according to a poll by Parametria published on April 2.

Neither Ricardo Anaya, in second-place, nor third-placed Jose Antonio Meade show any sign of catching up with former Mexico City mayor Obrador.

Obrador could usher in a Mexican government less accommodating toward the United States, where President Donald Trump has stoked trade tensions with Mexico and aggressively moved to curb immigration.

POLITICS: Mexican presidential campaign kicks off (Graphic)
GN36439 Graphic shows results of Parametria opinion poll.
(107mm wide by 132mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 3, 2018 -- The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has re-entered correction territory -- what Wall Street calls a decline of 10 percent or more from its most recent peak -- as threats to tech stocks and a trade war spook the index.

Investors ditched shares of financial, technology and many other businesses, responding in part to a tweet from President Trump aimed at one of the country’s biggest companies. Amazon fell after Trump tweeted on Saturday that the company was scamming the U.S. Postal Service.

Fears of a trade war grew after China announced overnight Monday it had implemented tariffs on 128 types of U.S. imports.

Adding to those trade worries, Trump linked his proposal to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico to ongoing NAFTA negotiations between the two countries.

BUSINESS: U.S. tech stocks in “correction” (Graphic)
GN36440 Graphic shows Standard & Poor’s 500 index since January 26, 2018.
(107mm by 100mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 26, 2018 -- Spain’s Supreme Court has reactivated international arrest warrants for seven Catalan politicians currently living in self-imposed exile.

Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that 25 Catalan leaders should be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.

Puigdemont and other separatists have all denied wrongdoing, saying their declaration of independence was simply fulfilling a democratic mandate.

POLITICS: Catalan leaders wanted in Spain (Graphic)
GN36416 Graphic shows Catalan politicians wanted in Spain.
(107mm wide by 150mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 26, 2018 -- As Yemen enters its fourth year of conflict 8.4 million people are “a step away from famine,” according to the United Nations.

The UN Security Council warned earlier this month that conditions in Yemen are deteriorating, with 22.2 million of the country’s total population of 27.6 million now in need of humanitarian assistance.

Yemen’s rebel-held port of Hudaydah, a lifeline for the war-ravaged country dependent on food imports, remains closed three months after the Saudi-led coalition claimed to have lifted its long-running blockade.

“Hudaydah should be supporting more than 20 million Yemenis. It should be the source of at least 70 percent of all imports to Yemen,” Suze van Meegen, an adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP. “Instead it’s like a wasteland.”

CONFLICT: Yemen humanitarian crisis (Graphic)
GN36417 Graphic shows humanitarian situation report and areas of control.
(107mm by 138mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 23, 2018 -- U.S. President Trump is imposing 25 percent tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods while China unveiled taxes on $3 billion of U.S. imports in response to steel and aluminium duties announced earlier on March 8.

The United States shipped $138.5 billion worth of agricultural products around the world in 2017, including $19.6 billion (14 percent) to China.

Now, one of America’s most prominent farming industries fears it could find itself a target of Chinese retaliation. Exports of soybeans totalled $13.9 billion in 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The idea of targeting soybeans would be to inflict economic pain in states where Trump’s base lies, according to Randal Phillips of the Mintz Group, a firm that helps companies identify risk. Eight of the most prominent exporting states voted for Trump in 2016. A ninth, Minnesota, voted narrowly for Hillary Clinton.

China and Hong Kong combined is also the second-biggest market for U.S. pork, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. On Friday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced plans for a 25 percent tax on U.S. pork imports.

Other businesses with significant sales in China that Beijing could target include Apple, Boeing and General Motors.


BUSINESS: Looming U.S.-China trade war (Graphic)
GN36411 Graphic shows trade between China and America in 2017 and values of main imports and exports.
(107mm by 155mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 23, 2018 -- Lt. Gen. McMaster is the latest in a series of high-profile exits from President Trump’s administration. He will be replaced as national security adviser by John R. Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations.

The move signals a more confrontational approach in American foreign policy at a time when Trump faces mounting challenges, including from Iran and North Korea.

Bolton, who has backed attacking North Korea and Iran, will be Trump’s third national security adviser in 14 months. He will take the job on April 9.

POLITICS: High-level White House departures (Graphic)
GN36409 Graphic shows high-level members of the Trump administration that have resigned or been fired.
(107mm by 210mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 21, 2018 -- Qatar has announced a series of multi-billion dollar defence purchases, as the Gulf state adds more aircraft, ships and military vehicles to its arsenal amid a bitter diplomatic dispute with its regional neighbours.

MIDEAST: Qatar military buildup (Graphic)
GN36404 Graphic shows major defence purchases by Qatar since Gulf diplomatic crisis began in June 2017.
(107mm by 161mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 22, 2018 -- The surveillance scandal of Cambridge Analytica use of Facebook data to help the Donald Trump campaign win in the 2016 election began three years earlier with a scientific paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study by Michal Kosinski of Stanford, David Stillwell of the University of Cambridge and colleagues involved 58,466 adult American users of Facebook. Subjects provided information about themselves and took a standard test to classify their personalities in five broad categories: degree of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism or OCEAN.

The researchers then correlated the “big five” personality traits with each person’s Facebook “likes,” an average of 227 per subject. This data led to a computer model which could predict a person’s race with 95% accuracy, gender with 93% and political orientation — Democrat or Republican for instance — with 85% accuracy.

In 2014 assistant psychology professor Aleksandr Kogan who runs London-based Global Science Research (GSR) approaches Kosinski and Stillwell. Kogan wants access to the OCEAN data set on behalf of Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL). The deal fails to go ahead.

GSR develops its version of the data set using Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Kogan’s subjects are paid by SCL to take the Facebook survey.

Crucially, for every individual recruited on MTurk, Kogan also captures the same data for each subjects’ unwitting Facebook friends -- an average of around 340 friends per individual. GSL suddenly owns a massive data pool of profiles of 50 million individuals across the United States.

GSR’s data set is used by Cambridge Analytica in the Republican Party presidential Iowa caucuses in support of Ted Cruz. Cruz wins. “The impressive bit,” says Cambridge Analytica’s chief executive, Alexander Nix, is to expand the findings from those who took the personality tests to the entire American electorate of 230 million. Nix says Cambridge Analytica also has “4,000–5,000 data points” -- pieces of information -- on every single adult U.S. citizen.

In June 2016 the Trump campaign hires Cambridge Analytica. The campaign develops “dark posts” on Facebook to target wavering left-wingers, African-Americans, and young women to “suppress” their vote.

Dark posts target users with specific profiles in specific locations. For example, news aimed at African-Americans in which Hillary Clinton refers to black men as predators or in the Miami district of Little Haiti highlighting the failure of the Clinton Foundation following the earthquake in Haiti.

Facebook became weaponised, and Donald Trump became President of the United States of America.

POLITICS: How Facebook was weaponised (Graphic)
GN36408 Graphic shows how Facebook was used to influence 2016 U.S. presidential election.
(107mm by 152mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 1-30, 2018 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for April.

Apr 1, South Korea: The U.S. and South Korea begin joint military drills delayed by the Winter Olympics. Washington’s refusal to cancel the exercises risks an end to tentative plans for summits between the leaders of all three countries

Apr 1, UK: Britain’s Royal Air Force, the world’s oldest independent air force, celebrates its centenary. Formed as a response to repeated German air raids during World War I, the RAF contributed to the Allied victory in November 1918

Apr 4, U.S.: With tensions again running high over racial injustice, national commemorations mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of iconic civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Apr 7, Switzerland: World Health Day 2018 offers a chance to focus on the achievements and shortcomings of the World Health Organization as the UN agency marks its 70th anniversary

Apr 13-14, Peru, Colombia: President Trump will need all the deal-making skills to take the chill off his reception in Latin America, where his approval rating is just 16 percent. He visits the region to attend the three-yearly Summit of the Americas

Apr 19, Cuba: Raúl Castro steps down as president, almost six decades after his late brother Fidel Castro came to power. Raúl’s likely successor, Vice-President Miguel Díaz-Canel (above) must build on the unfinished task of reforming the economy, Cuba’s most urgent challenge

Apr 24, U.S.: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington DC for the first state visit of the Donald Trump presidency. With a focus on trade, both leaders appear to have set aside earlier animosity to strengthen the Élysée-White House bond

April, China: China’s 8-tonne Tiangong-1 space lab is expected to crash back to Earth. Exact predictions of when, and where, it will come down remain elusive but any risk to human life is considered very low

WORLD AGENDA: April 2018 interactive (Interactive)
GN36403 Responsive interactive graphic shows news events in April 2018.
(640px wide by 568px deep)

April 1-30, 2018 -- The World Agenda gives a preview of world events scheduled for April - such as Trump’s visit to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Apr 1, South Korea: The U.S. and South Korea begin joint military drills delayed by the Winter Olympics. Washington’s refusal to cancel the exercises risks an end to tentative plans for summits between the leaders of all three countries

Apr 1, UK: Britain’s Royal Air Force, the world’s oldest independent air force, celebrates its centenary. Formed as a response to repeated German air raids during World War I, the RAF contributed to the Allied victory in November 1918

Apr 4, U.S.: With tensions again running high over racial injustice, national commemorations mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of iconic civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Apr 7, Switzerland: World Health Day 2018 offers a chance to focus on the achievements and shortcomings of the World Health Organization as the UN agency marks its 70th anniversary

Apr 13-14, Peru, Colombia: President Trump will need all the deal-making skills to take the chill off his reception in Latin America, where his approval rating is just 16 percent. He visits the region to attend the three-yearly Summit of the Americas

Apr 19, Cuba: Raúl Castro steps down as president, almost six decades after his late brother Fidel Castro came to power. Raúl’s likely successor, Vice-President Miguel Díaz-Canel (above) must build on the unfinished task of reforming the economy, Cuba’s most urgent challenge

Apr 24, U.S.: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington DC for the first state visit of the Donald Trump presidency. With a focus on trade, both leaders appear to have set aside earlier animosity to strengthen the Élysée-White House bond

April, China: China’s 8-tonne Tiangong-1 space lab is expected to crash back to Earth. Exact predictions of when, and where, it will come down remain elusive but any risk to human life is considered very low

WORLD AGENDA: April 2018 (Graphic)
GN36402 Graphic shows news events in April 2018. An interactive version of this graphic is also produced each month.
(163mm wide by 210mm deep)

May 19, 2018 -- Prince Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, is to marry American former actress Meghan Markle. Meghan was baptised into the Church of England ahead of her wedding and plans to become a British citizen.

At the time of his wedding Prince Harry will be sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, and had to obtain permission from the Queen to marry under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.

By tradition, male members of the Royal family receive a title from the monarch on their wedding day. The vacant title Duke of Sussex is regarded as the most likely choice for Harry, meaning Meghan would become HRH The Duchess of Sussex.

UK ROYAL WEDDING: Line of succession (Graphic)
GN36389 Graphic shows the line of succession within the British Royal Family.
(107mm wide by 177mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 20, 2018 -- A parcel bomb has exploded at a FedEx depot near San Antonio, Texas, injuring one, the local fire department said.

The incident occurred overnight in the town of Schertz, an hour south of Austin where four bombs have been planted in recent weeks.

Investigators believe a serial bomber is behind the attacks.

CRIME: Serial bomber hunted in Texas (Graphic)
GN36400 Graphic shows location of bombs in Texas.
(107mm wide by 159mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 19, 2018 -- Police in Austin, Texas, are warning that a fourth device that exploded in the city, injuring two men, may be connected to three parcel bombs that have killed or injured four other people since early March.

The two men, thought to be in their 20s, suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to the hospital after they came upon a suspicious device on the side of a road.

The possibility that the road-side bomb was triggered when someone handled, kicked or came into contact with a trip wire, differs from the previous explosions that were set off when individuals handled packages that were left on doorsteps.

A reward of $115,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.

CRIME: Austin bomb explosions (Graphic)
GN36392 Graphic shows location of bombs in Austin, Texas.
(107mm wide by 154mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 19, 2018 -- Every day, more than 115 Americans die after overdosing on opioids – including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl – according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

U.S. President Donald Trump will unveil new plans to tackle the country’s opioid epidemic on Monday. The programme will include stiffer penalties for high-intensity drug traffickers, including the death penalty for some dealers.

The White House plan will also seek to cut opioid prescriptions by a third over the next three years by promoting practices that reduce over-prescription of opioids in federal healthcare programmes.

Opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin and synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, killed almost 45,000 people in the U.S. in the year to August 2017, more than any year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HEALTH: America’s addiction to opioids (Graphic)
GN36397 Graphic shows rise in opioid fatalities.
(107mm by 101mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 19, 2018 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, receiving 76.67 percent of the vote, extending his rule over the world’s largest country for another six years.

Putin recorded his best ever performance in Sunday’s polls, electoral officials said with 99.8 percent of ballots counted.

His victory will take his political dominance of Russia to nearly a quarter of a century, until 2024, by which time he will be 71. Only Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ruled for longer. Putin has promised to use his new term to beef up Russia's defences against the West and to raise living standards.

POLITICS: Russia presidential election result (Graphic)
GN36390 Graphic shows result of Russia’s presidential election.
(107mm by 69mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 1, 2018 -- The Royal Air Force celebrates its 100th birthday, marked by special events, activities and other initiatives at local, regional and national levels running from April to the end of November 2018.

Formed towards the end of World War I in April 1918, the RAF is the world’s oldest air force to become independent of army or navy control.

1924: Fleet Air Arm formed from RAF units operating at sea

1940: During World War II, RAF defends UK from German air attacks in Battle of Britain

1940-45: Campaign by RAF Bomber Command includes night attacks on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden, and “Dambusters” raid

1948-49: In first major crisis of Cold War, RAF provides 17 percent of all supplies delivered during Berlin Airlift

1956-69: RAF’s V Bomber force carries responsibility for UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent

1982: RAF takes part in Falklands War alongside Fleet Air Arm, flying from Ascension Island in mid-Atlantic and Royal Navy aircraft carriers

Post-Cold War: Large-scale RAF operations include two Gulf Wars, Kosovo War in 1999, Afghanistan War and 2011 intervention in Libya

Current: RAF flying combat missions against so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

HISTORY: Royal Air Force centenary (Graphic)
GN36285 Graphic shows timeline of Britain’s Royal Air Force with illustrations of Sopwith Camel, Supermarine Spitfire, Douglas Dakota, Avro Lancaster, Avro Vulcan, Harrier Jump Jet, Panavia Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-35
(107mm wide by 160 mm deep)

March 16, 2018 -- The Soviet-era State Scientific Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology is believed to be the source of the “Novichok” family of nerve agents that Britain claims was responsible for poisoning former Russian spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The institute’s 12-storey headquarters, known by the acronym GosNIIOKhT, is in south-east Moscow near the Aviamotornaya metro station and infamous KGB-FSB Lefortovo Prison.

In June 1990, during President Mikhail Gorbachev’s period of “perestroika” and “glasnost” (openness), Russia and the U.S. signed a bilateral U.S.–Soviet Chemical Weapons Accord.

In October 1991, Dr Vil Mirzayanov, a Soviet chemical weapons scientist who later turned whistleblower, revealed that Moscow had developed a series of new and extremely lethal “third generation” of binary nerve agents at GosNIIOKhT, under a secret programme code-named “Foliant.”

The reason being that the U.S. had successfully developed its Bigeye BLU-80B bomb -- a binary weapon to disperse nerve agent VX. Binary armaments contain two substances separately that mix to produce a lethal agent.

Mirzayanov claimed that the Kremlin planned to continue producing binary weapons after signing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993, using commercially available organophosphates used as fertilisers and insecticides.

Months after the CWC was signed, Novichok-7 was developed, produced and tested in Shikhany, a “closed” town and military research establishment in central Russia. Novichok-7 is about seven times more deadly than soman.

In 1992 Mirzayanov was jailed on charges of treason. He has been living in exile in New Jersey since the 1990s.

In 2004 President Vladimir Putin signed a decree making the GosNIIOKhT institute one of Russia’s strategic defence industries.

SCIENCE: Russia’s chemical weapon stockpile (Graphic)
GN36384 Graphic shows timeline of Russia’s chemical weapons stockpile.
(107mm by 166mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 16 - June 30, 2018 -- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) aims to outperform the crippled Kepler space observatory, which has found 30 potentially life-bearing exoplanets in nine years.

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

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

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


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

March 13, 2018 -- When Raúl Castro steps down as president in April, he will hand his successor the unfinished task of reforming the economy -- Cuba’s most urgent and increasingly controversial challenge.

The most challenging task that Cuba’s new president will inherit is the unification of the dual currency and exchange rates. The government has little margin for error -- it has no significant foreign reserves to cushion economic upheavals and no access to assistance from international financial institutions such as the U.S.-controlled IMF and World Bank.

Cuba currently faces a decline in shipments of cheap oil from the island’s closest ally, Venezuela. To offset lower supplies, Cuba bought 2.1 million barrels of crude oil from Algeria last year and will buy the same amount in 2018.

U.S. President Trump’s new Cuba policy, announced in June and recently written into law, bans U.S. citizens from doing business with dozens of entities that have links to Cuba’s military, intelligence and security agencies. Americans in Havana could break the law by ordering the wrong Cuba Libre, including Tropicola, the soda marketed by government conglomerate Cimex, as well as two of its rum brands, Ron Caney and Ron Verdadero.

POLITICS: Issues facing Cuba’s next leader (Graphic)
GN36324 Graphic show main tasks facing Miguel Díaz-Canel -- the likely next president of Cuba.
(107mm by 159mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

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

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

May 14, 2018 -- The United States will open a new embassy to fulfill President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The new mission will be temporarily housed in American consular offices within a diplomatic compound that was built on disputed territory.

The opening of the embassy will coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding, which is preceded by a day that Palestinians
call the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, of their displacement in the 1948-49 Arab-Israel war.

POLITICS: U.S. Embassy to open in Jerusalem (Graphic)
GN36310 Graphic shows U.S. diplomatic compounds in Jerusalem and possible location of new U.S. Embassy.
(107mm wide by 189mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 8-18, 2018 -- After debuting Pop.Up last year, Airbus is back at the 88th Geneva International Motor Show with a new version of its modular concept car.

The “Pop.Up Next” concept is a joint project between Airbus, Italdesign and Audi. Pop.Up Next features an ultra-light, two-seater passenger cabin, which can be attached either to a 60-kW (80-hp) electric powered self-driving car or a flight module.

In autonomous car mode, it has a top speed of 100km/h (62mph) and a range of 130km (81 miles).

In flight mode, an air module attaches to the cabin’s roof. Eight electric motors then whisk its passengers away, soaring over the grid-locked city. Airbus and Italdesign believe Pop.Up Next could take flight within seven to 10 years.

TECH: “Pop.Up Next” — latest hybrid car-copter (Graphic)
GN36309 Graphic shows how the hybrid travel system works.
(107mm by 147mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 6, 2018 -- Bangladesh is turning a cyclone-lashed island in the Bay of Bengal into a home for 100,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. The island, known as Bhasan Char, meaning “floating island” was created recently as Himalayan sediments carried to the sea settled, forming a land mass that floods every year.

British and Chinese engineers are helping prepare the island to receive refugees before the onset of monsoon rains, which could bring disastrous flooding to ramshackle camps further south that now teem with about 1 million Rohingya. The rains could start as early as late April.

BANGLADESH: Rohingyas’ floating Island interactive (Interactive)
GN36287 Responsive interactive infographic shows location of Bhasan Char, layout of the housing project, and cut away of a refugee house.
(800px wide by 568px deep)

November 27, 2017 -- Prince Harry is to marry his girlfriend, American actress Meghan Markle, Clarence House has announced. The prince, fifth in line to the throne, will marry Megan on May 19, 2018 and will live at Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace in London.

Miss Marke is the first person of mixed race heritage to marry into the British royal family, and also the first American. Mrs Simpson, later known as the Duchess of Windsor, was also American but her intended marriage to King Edward VIII caused a constitutional crisis that led to his abdication prior to their marriage.

UK ROYAL WEDDING: Profiles Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (Graphic)
GN36018 Graphic shows short profiles of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
(107mm wide by 150mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 9, 2018 -- The suspected chemical attack in Douma – the last rebel-held town in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta – is the latest in a string of similar deadly assaults since an attack in August 2013 that killed more than 1,400 people.

The 2013 attack in the east and southwest of Damascus, including the towns of Ain Tarma, Jobar, Muadamiya and Zamalka, killed 1,429 people, including 426 children, according to a U.S. government assessment.

Since that assault there have been 144 documented uses of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, chlorine, phosphorus, deadly sarin nerve agent and other agents.

In December 2012 reports emerged from the city of Homs that government forces had used “Agent-15”, a BZ-type nerve agent that poisoned scores of people and caused hallucinations and behavioural changes.

On April 4, 2017, Syrian warplanes attacked the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in the northwestern province of Idlib with a chemical agent, killing at least 83 people. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons later identified the agent as sarin gas.

Overnight on April 6-7, 2017, the United States fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Airbase, controlled by the Syrian government, from which it says the attack was launched.

MILITARY: Chemical attacks in Syria (1) (Graphic UPDATED Apr 9)
GN36675 Graphic shows extent of Syrian chemical weapons attacks and types of agents used.
(107mm by mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

April 3, 2018 -- As Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping extend their terms in office, the two communist states are entering a new era of autocracy.

Political rights and civil liberties around the world deteriorated to their lowest point in more than a decade in 2017, according to U.S.-based Freedom House. Since 2006, 113 countries have seen a net decline to democracy, and only 62 have experienced a net improvement.

Under 18 years of Putin’s leadership, corruption has spread to all levels of government and business while the Kremlin’s foreign policy appears driven by media manipulation, fake news, cyber attacks and trolls.

Freedom House paints a picture of Russia carrying out disinformation campaigns before elections in the U.S., France, and Germany, cultivating far-right parties across Europe, threatening or invading its neighbours, and supplying military aid to Middle Eastern dictatorships.

In China, the constitutional change to allow Xi to become president for life harks back to the one-man rule of the Mao era. Beijing has built up a propaganda and censorship apparatus with global reach and has used economic pressure to support repressive governments from Southeast Asia to Africa.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, but with a lower turnout of just 41.5 percent.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking control over the judiciary, and scrapping the office of the Prime Minister following an unpopular constitutional referendum to create a “super-presidential” system. His response to the July 2016 coup attempt has become a witch hunt, resulting in the arrest of some 60,000 people, the closure of over 160 media outlets.

Erdogan arrested scores of people for “spreading terrorist propaganda” in a crackdown against criticism of Ankara’s offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish militias that are a force against so-called Islamic State.

POLITICS: World’s most powerful autocrats (1) (Graphic UPDATED Apr 3)
GN36399 Graphic shows selection of the world’s strongmen.
(107mm by 164mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 30 - April 2, 2018 -- China’s Tiangong-1 space station will come crashing back to Earth in days. While it is impossible to plot exactly where the 8.5-tonne module will impact, the chance of debris hitting anyone is tiny. Any debris could, however, be contaminated with remaining toxic and carcinogenic hydrazine rocket fuel.

In 2011, the Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace, China’s first space station, was launched, serving as both a manned laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities. Four years later, Beijing admitted it would not be able to perform a re-entry due to having lost control of the module.

SPACE: China’s space station crashing to Earth (1) (Graphic UPDATED Mar 28)
GN36326 Graphic shows Tiangong-1 altitude decay and potential re-entry area.
(107mm wide by 168mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 27, 2018 -- NATO on Tuesday joined a wave of countries expelling Russian diplomats over the nerve-agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

The mass expulsions were a show of solidarity for Britain, which blames Russia for the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil. Moscow denies responsibility and has pledged to retaliate.

Moscow has already expelled 23 British diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to London’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and their families on March 20. Moscow also closed the British consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council cultural body.

The RIA news agency quoted Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov as saying Moscow will dismiss at least 60 staff from U.S. diplomatic missions.

RIA also quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry source as saying: “The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn.”

POLITICS: Mass expulsions of Russian diplomats (1) (Graphic UPDATED Mar 28)
GN36428 Graphic shows numbers of diplomats expelled by country.
(107mm by 133mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 27, 2018 -- Speculation is rife over the venue of a potentially historic summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

A visit to Beijing by Kim Jong Un on March 26, reaffirms the close ties with North Korea’s biggest ally ahead of the summit.

One of the most likely summit sites being discussed is the Joint Security Area Panmunjom - the only spot along the Demilitarized Zone where North Korean troops stand face-to-face with South Korean and UN Command forces.

Other rumoured sites include Pyongyang, Beijing, and other locations in Asia such as Singapore. Also raised are neutral locations across Europe - such as Finland, Sweden or Switzerland, and international waters.

POLITICS: Trump-Kim summit site rumours swirl (1) (Graphic UPDATED Mar 28)
GN36429 Graphic shows possible venues for the summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
(107mm wide by 160mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))

March 20, 2018 -- The world’s last male northern white rhino has died after months of ill health, bringing the rhino subspecies a step closer to extinction.

“Sudan”, the 45-year-old rhino who lived under 24-hour security at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, was put to sleep due to the rapid deterioration in his condition.

Sudan was being treated for age-related complications that had affected his muscles and bones and also gave him extensive skin wounds.

Genetic material of Sudan collected to support future attempts to reproduce white northern rhinos through advanced cellular technologies, using stored semen and eggs from remaining females, Najin and Fatu.

ENVIRONMENT: Last male northern white rhino dies (1) (Graphic UPDATED Mar 20)
GN36295 Graphic shows range and status of Rhino populations.
(107mm wide by 170mm deep (print) and 2-screen responsive graphic (digital))