Almanac | OCT

PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 28: Siya Kolisi of South Africa celebrates at full-time after their team's victory in the Rugby World Cup Final match between New Zealand and South Africa at Stade de France on October 28, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

The big picture

Siya Kolisi of South Africa celebrates after the final whistle of a tense Rugby World Cup final in Paris on 28th October. The first black player to captain the Springboks, Kolisi says that his team’s 12-11 win over New Zealand at the Stade de France will help unite fans in South Africa, where “many people are helpless and there is so much division.” South Africa has now won the trophy a record four times, and on 30th October the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announces a public holiday in December to celebrate the team’s “momentous achievement”.

Sun | 1st

IRAN → A teenage girl collapses on the Tehran metro and falls into a coma shortly after an alleged altercation with the morality police. Activists claim that 16-year-old Armita Geravand sustained severe head injuries when assaulted by the morality police for not wearing the mandatory hijab; the authorities claim that she fainted. Geravand dies on 28th October.

Mon | 2nd

UK → A cheap vaccine for malaria developed by the University of Oxford is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, the second for the disease to be approved and the first to hit the WHO’s target of 75 percent efficacy, costs between $2-4 a dose and is expected to be available by mid-2024. More than 600,000 people globally died from malaria in 2022, 76 percent of whom were children aged under five.

Tue | 3rd

US → The House of Representatives ousts Kevin McCarthy as speaker after only nine months in the post. The 216-210 vote, which saw eight hardline Republicans vote with Democrats to remove the Californian lawmaker, in part due to his willingness to work with opposition politicians to try to avert a government shutdown, marks the first time ever a speaker has been removed from office. On 25th October, Donald Trump ally Mike Johnson is elected in McCarthy’s place.

Wed | 4th

UK → Rishi Sunak cancels the northern leg of a planned high-speed railway after costs on the project nearly doubled. The prime minister says that the decision not to build the section of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester will save £36 billion, which will instead be spent on “hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands”. Shadow transport minister Louise Haigh calls the decision to cancel the project a “staggering Tory fiasco”.

UK → The government announces plans to gradually increase the age at which people can legally smoke, thereby creating a “smoke-free generation”. If the plan is passed, the legal smoking age will be raised each year by one year, meaning nobody aged 14 or under will be able to legally buy cigarettes in England in their lifetime. The idea for a generational ban had been imported from New Zealand, where in February 2024 the law was scrapped by a new coalition government.

Thu | 5th

GERMANY → Climate scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service announce an unprecedented rise in global temperatures. The EU-funded body says that the previous month was by far the hottest September ever recorded, beating the previous record by half a degree. July and August 2023 were also the hottest on record. In January 2024 it is confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever, around 1.4C above pre-industrial average temperatures.

UKRAINE → A Russian missile attack on the village of Hroza in Kharkiv province kills a fifth of its population. Ukraine insists that there were no military targets in the area and that the vast majority of the 59 people killed in the strike were civilians, many of whom were attending a wake for a local soldier when the rocket struck. Moscow denies the deliberate targeting of civilians.

Sat | 7th

ISRAEL → Hamas launches an attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages. [P012 ‘It’s a human life that you’re negotiating for’]

Mon | 9th

US → Robert F Kennedy Jr announces that he will run for the presidency as an independent candidate. The anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, whose father was assassinated in 1968, had previously announced in April that he would run as a Democrat. After the Philadelphia campaign launch event, Kennedy’s three sisters and brother put out a joint statement denouncing his candidacy as “dangerous”.

Born

JuMBOs | Reported Mon 2nd | Jupiter-mass binary objects, spotted in the Orion Nebula in images taken by Nasa’s James Webb space telescope. The Jupiter-sized pairs of objects, which are free-floating in space, unconnected to any star, could result in the creation of a new astronomical category.

Helix flying cars | Announced Thu 5th | Single-passenger electric aerial vehicles, the first of a group of personal flying machines slated to go on sale over the coming years. Made by California-based company Pivotal, the $190,000 Helix
aircraft is expected to start shipping to US customers in June 2024 and while no pilot’s licence is required, buyers will need to complete a training course.

Died

Louise Glück | Fri 13th |Nobel prize-winning poet and former US poet laureate, 80

Sir Bobby Charlton | Sat 21st | World Cup-winning midfielder for England and Manchester United, and survivor of the 1958 Munich air disaster, 86

Tue | 10th

FRANCE → Survivors of a 2021 terror attack in Mozambique in which more than 1,000 people were killed accuse French multinational TotalEnergies, known as Total, of involuntary manslaughter. The complaint filed with French prosecutors alleges that Total, whose multi-billion dollar gas project in the northern Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique has been on hold since the attack, “failed to take necessary measures to ensure the safety of subcontractors” when Islamist insurgents linked to Islamic State stormed the town of Palma. Total has not commented on the case.

Thu | 12th

UK → Bernie Ecclestone is given a 17-month sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to fraud at a London court. The 92-year-old former head of Formula 1, who initially pleaded not guilty, was found guilty of failing to declare more than £400 million held overseas. Prosecutors say that Ecclestone has agreed in a civil settlement to repay almost £653 million to the UK tax authority.

Fri | 13th

GAZA → Israel orders the residents of northern Gaza to relocate immediately to the southern part of the territory in advance of a planned ground operation. The UN secretary-general António Guterres says that moving more than a million people across a war zone “with no food, water or accommodation” is “extremely dangerous, and in some cases, simply not possible”. Hamas urges residents to defy the Israeli order.

Sat | 14th

NEW ZEALAND → The ruling Labour party loses almost half its seats in parliament in a crushing election defeat. After weeks of political limbo, on 23rd November the incoming prime minister, Christopher Luxon of the National party, forms a governing coalition with the libertarian ACT and populist New Zealand First parties.

AUSTRALIA → The country votes ‘no’ in a referendum on indigenous representation. [P026 ‘Moment that mattered’]

Sun | 15th

POLAND → The right wing populist government fails to win a majority of seats in the country’s elections. While the Law and Justice party (PiF), which took power in 2015, won the most votes, a broad alliance of opposition parties wins a parliamentary majority and on 13th December former prime minister and European Council president Donald Tusk is sworn in as prime minister.

Blood money

Halloween saw a slew of horror films released in cinemas, but how did they compare critically and commercially to the rest of October’s releases?

How it works: We’ve compared the average score of review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com and box office taking according to the-numbers.com of the 25 best performing films released in UK cinemas in October

Mon | 16th

RUSSIA → The Kremlin agrees to return four children aged between two and 17 to their families in Ukraine in a deal mediated by Qatar. Ukraine says it has identified 20,000 children who have been abducted by Russia, although the true figure is thought to be far higher. Qatar announces the release of an additional six children in early December.

Tue | 17th

GAZA → Hundreds of people die in a blast at a Gaza hospital. Hamas accuses Israel of carrying out the strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City and says that 471 people have died. Israel blames a misfiring Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket for the explosion. An initial assessment by US intelligence says that Israel was not responsible.

CHINA → Delegates attend a summit held in Beijing to mark the tenth anniversary of the launch of the country’s Belt and Road Initiative. P030 ‘On the right track?’

INDIA → The supreme court rules against legally recognising same-sex marriage. While India’s highest court ended a colonial-era ban on homosexuality in 2018, on this occasion its justices rule that only parliament has the power to pass marriage equality laws. The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party strongly opposes same-sex marriage.

Wed | 18th

UK → Storm Babet brings torrential rain to parts of the UK, leaving seven people dead and 40,000 homes without power. Hundreds are left homeless due to flooding caused by the storm.

Thu | 19th

YEMEN → The US navy shoots down three cruise missiles and several drones fired towards Israel by Houthi rebels. The Iran-backed militant Shia organisation, which overthrew the elected Yemeni government in 2014, has declared support for its “brothers in Gaza” and in November it hijacks a cargo ship in the Red Sea it claims is Israeli. Japan condemns the hijacking of what it says is a Japanese-operated, British-owned ship; its 25 crew members, none of whom are Israeli, remain captive. On 11th January 2024, the US and UK carry out the first of several joint air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Fri | 20th

ITALY → Prime minister Giorgia Meloni separates from her partner after his sexist comments are broadcast in a leaked recording. TV host Andrea Giambruno, who has a daughter with Meloni, leaves his job and apologises after he appears to boast about an affair and ask a female colleague for a threesome on the set of Diario del Giorno.

Sat | 21st

UK → The founder of the Dangerous Sports Club dies aged 78. [P040 ‘The art of living dangerously’]

Mon | 23rd

UK → Scientists announce a breakthrough in treatment for cervical cancer using existing drugs that could cut deaths by 35 percent. The “remarkable” trial funded by Cancer Research found that a short course of induction chemotherapy followed by the usual chemoradiation treatment significantly reduced rates of relapse and death.

Tue | 24th

UK → An ancient lost landscape bigger than Belgium that has been “frozen in time” under the east Antarctic ice sheet is discovered by scientists. Found using a technique known as ‘radio-echo sounding’, the 12,000-square-mile landscape consisting of valleys and hills has been untouched for around 34 million years.

UK → Britons are eating less meat than at any point since the 1970s, according to new government figures. Consumption of beef, pork and lamb has fallen by 26 percent over the last decade while chicken consumption is down by 11 percent.

Record breakers

2,749lbs

World’s heaviest pumpkin

| Mon 9th |

Travis Gienger, California, US

1h 15m 48s

Fastest half-marathon dressed as
an elf

 Sun 15th

Melvin Nyairo, Toronto, Canada

1.9m x 3.3m

Largest grilled cheese sandwich

 Sat 21st

Exodus and Iggy Chaudhry, Wisconsin, US

Wed | 25th

US → Eighteen people are killed and 13 others are injured in a mass shooting in Maine. The attack at a bowling alley in Lewiston, the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history, triggers a two-day manhunt which ends when the suspect, Robert Card, takes his own life. Police believe that Card, a sergeant first class in the US army reserve, was acting alone and may have been hearing voices and having paranoid thoughts.

Fri | 27th

ISRAEL → The Israel Defense Forces launch a ground operation in Gaza. [P044 ‘Moment that mattered’]

Sat | 28th

UK → An ice hockey player dies after his neck is cut during a match. The Nottingham Panthers describe its player Adam Johnson’s death as a “freak accident”, which occurred when he was injured in a collision with Sheffield Steelers’ Matt Petgrave, who teammates say is “absolutely distraught”. On 14th November the police arrest a man, who is not named, under suspicion of manslaughter before releasing him on bail. Johnson’s death revives a debate about compulsory neck guards in the sport.

My intention is to spoil it for both of them” – Robert F Kennedy Jr on whether his candidacy is more likely to hurt Joe Biden or Donald Trump |  Mon 9th

Sun | 29th

RUSSIA → A crowd chanting antisemitic slogans storms an airport in Dagestan in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel. Videos show airline staff ushering passengers back into aircraft as crowds of people, some carrying Palestinian flags and banners denouncing Israel, spill onto the tarmac of Uytash Airport near Makhachkala and surround the planes. No passengers are hurt. The Russian interior ministry says more than 200 people are arrested, while the Kremlin claims without evidence that Ukraine “played a direct and key role” in orchestrating the unrest.

Mon | 30th

SPAIN  Fifa bans Luis Rubiales from all football-related activities for three years after its disciplinary committee investigated his behaviour during the medal ceremony of the Women’s World Cup final. The former Spanish soccer federation president had been criticised for kissing footballer Jenni Hermoso, an act she says was not consensual.

Tue | 31st

SWITZERLAND → Saudi Arabia is confirmed as the sole bidder to host the 2034 men’s football World Cup finals after Australia decides not to submit a bid. Despite concerns from human rights groups, a second World Cup in the Gulf in 12 years, following Qatar in 2022, is now almost certain to take place.

Posted on Wednesday, July 10th, 2024 - Categories: #53 - Oct-Dec 2023, App Issues.