Events, Verisoph

2015 Singapore tops the PISA rankings 0 cit. Singapore finished first across reading, maths and science in the 2015 PISA tests. Its success made the small city-state a reference point in global debates about what works in schools. politics / society ●●●

c. 2015 Africa faces a learning crisis despite full classrooms 0 cit. By the 2010s most African children were enrolled in school, yet many could not read a simple sentence by the end of primary years. The gap between access and learning became the central education challenge. economy / society ●●●

2015 The US replaces No Child Left Behind 0 cit. The Every Student Succeeds Act kept annual testing but returned more control over standards and accountability to the states. It marked a pullback from the strict federal rules of the prior law. politics / society ●●

2015 The SDGs set a global target for quality education 0 cit. The UN adopted Sustainable Development Goal 4, a pledge of inclusive, quality education for all by 2030. It broadened the aim from mere access to learning outcomes. politics / society ●●●●

c. November 2015 Encrypting the web with HTTPS becomes standard 0 cit. The launch of the free Let's Encrypt service in 2015 helped push most websites to use encrypted HTTPS connections. Widespread encryption made it harder for censors to monitor and selectively block individual pages. society / technology ●●

7 January 2015 The Charlie Hebdo attack 0 cit. Gunmen murder staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over its cartoons of Muhammad. Violence and the threat of it become a way to silence speech that no law forbids, the heckler's veto at gunpoint. culture / society ●●●

March 2015 Rhodes Must Fall and the reckoning with empire 0 cit. Students at the University of Cape Town launch Rhodes Must Fall, a campaign to remove Rhodes's statue that spreads to Oxford and becomes a wider movement to confront the colonial legacy. The modern bookend to his story, and a fight over how the past is remembered. culture / society ●●●

c. 1 April 2015 Virginia Approves Compensation for Sterilization Victims 0 cit. Virginia's General Assembly approved a state budget including $25,000 payments to living survivors of the state's eugenic sterilization program, signed into law by Governor Terry McAuliffe. Virginia had sterilized more than 7,300 people, including Carrie Buck, under the law upheld in Buck v. Bell. politics / society ●●

6 July 2015 UK Undercover Policing Inquiry Established 0 cit. British Home Secretary Theresa May announced a statutory public inquiry into undercover policing after the Mark Kennedy and 'spycops' relationship scandals, examining decades of covert police infiltration of political groups dating back to 1968. The inquiry, chaired by a senior judge, has continued to hear evidence into the 2020s and has confirmed dozens of documented cases of officers using deception, false identities, and in some cases provocation while undercover. It remains the most extensive official documentation of state infiltration tactics in modern British history. politics / society ●●

25 June 2015 Farlam Commission report released on Marikana 0 cit. The Farlam Commission's report was made public, finding that a decision by senior police commanders the night before the shooting was the decisive cause of the deaths, and that Lonmin had failed to adequately engage striking workers or meet housing commitments made years earlier. The commission largely cleared political figures, including then-Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a Lonmin non-executive director, of directly causing the police operation, a conclusion that victims' representatives and some analysts disputed as too lenient. It recommended further investigation of individual police officers and strikers involved in the killings. politics / society ●●●

April 2015 Peacekeeper sexual abuse scandals surface 0 cit. Reports revealed that peacekeepers and allied troops had sexually abused children and women in the Central African Republic, part of a pattern of abuse across several UN missions. Whistleblowers who exposed the crimes were punished before the victims saw justice. The scandals showed how the shield sent to protect the vulnerable had in places become a source of harm. politics / society ●●

25 September 2015 The Sustainable Development Goals set a global agenda to 2030 0 cit. UN members adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, a shared agenda on poverty, health, climate, and equality reaching to 2030. Backers describe a common roadmap that governments choose to follow. The scale of the ambition, touching nearly every area of national policy, keeps alive an old argument about how far international goals should shape sovereign choices. politics / society ●●

2015 Spain offers citizenship to Sephardic descendants 0 cit. More than five hundred years after the expulsion, Spain passed a law offering citizenship to descendants of the Sephardim who could show their origin and a link to Spain. Portugal enacted a similar measure the same year. The Spanish window drew well over a hundred thousand applications before it closed, a formal gesture of repair for 1492. diplomacy / politics / society ●●

May 2015 Ireland's social transformation 0 cit. Once a socially conservative and church-dominated society, Ireland changed rapidly in a generation. Divorce was legalised by referendum in 1995, same-sex marriage was approved by popular vote in 2015, and the ban on abortion was repealed in 2018. The shift followed a sharp decline in the Catholic Church's authority, hastened by revelations of clerical and institutional abuse. religion / society ●●

18 May 2015 Obama rolls back some 1033 transfers 0 cit. President Barack Obama issued an executive order barring police from receiving certain military items outright, including tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, and some high-caliber weapons. Other gear could still be obtained but only with added training and oversight. The move was a partial rollback that reformers welcomed and many police groups opposed, arguing the restricted equipment protected officers in dangerous situations. politics / society ●●

c. 2015 Fentanyl and the synthetic opioid crisis 0 cit. Cheap, potent fentanyl made from chemical precursors overtook heroin and drove US overdose deaths past a hundred thousand a year. Mexican cartels pressing pills from imported precursors turned the drug trade into a mass-casualty public health emergency. economy / society ●●●

c. 2015 The enduring gap between centre and periphery 0 cit. Modern development data show a stark divide: the former settler core and central regions score high on income, schooling, and infrastructure, while the north, drylands, and stretches of the coast remain far behind. Historians and Kenya's own official inquiries present this not as an accident of climate but as the working-out of a colonial system that developed some regions and deliberately neglected others. The gap is treated as the clearest living trace of colonial rule on the country's map. economy / society ●●

2015 Zucman estimates the trillions hidden offshore 0 cit. Economist Gabriel Zucman estimated that around 7.6 trillion dollars, roughly 8 percent of the world's household financial wealth, sits in tax havens beyond the reach of tax authorities. He put the yearly loss to governments at about 200 billion dollars. These are his estimates, drawn from gaps in national accounts, and other scholars debate the exact figures. economy / society ●●●

2015 The Maasai Carry Both Nilotic and Cushitic Ancestry 0 cit. The African Genome Variation Project, published in Nature by Gurdasani and colleagues, sampled populations across sub-Saharan Africa and found layered, regionally distinct admixture rather than clean blocks. Kenyan Nilotic groups like the Maasai and Kalenjin carry both Nilotic ancestry and an older Cushitic, Afroasiatic-related component from the herders who came before them. No Kenyan group turns out to be a single unmixed line. The project made plain that mixing is the rule, not the exception. science / society ●●●

2015 Somali, Borana and Rendille Ancestry 0 cit. Cushitic-speaking groups in northern Kenya, including the Borana and Rendille, and their Somali neighbours share the Horn's mixed profile of East African and West-Eurasian ancestry. Genome studies place a measurable minority of their ancestry with ancient farming populations from the eastern Mediterranean and Iranian plateau. This is documented ancestry, not a claim that these communities are foreign. It shows the same porous history of movement and mixing found everywhere else in the region. science / society ●●

14 July 2016 Nice truck attack 0 cit. A man drove a cargo truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, killing 86 people. The Islamic State group claimed the attack. religion / society ●●●

19 December 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack 0 cit. A man drove a truck into a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, killing 13 people. The Islamic State group claimed the attack. religion / society ●●

12 June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting 0 cit. A gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State attacked the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people. It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history. religion / society ●●●

1 July 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack 0 cit. Islamist militants took hostages and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners, at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka. The Islamic State group claimed the attack. religion / society ●●

25 April 2016 Announcement of Saudi Vision 2030 0 cit. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled a plan to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil and loosen some social restrictions. The program included giant projects, tourism, and reduced clerical influence. economy / politics / society ●●●●

27 May 2016 Argentine court convicts Condor plotters 0 cit. An Argentine court convicted former officers for their role in Operation Condor, ruling that it was a coordinated criminal conspiracy across borders. The verdict came four decades after the crimes. politics / society ●●●

c. 2016 Platforms build large-scale content moderation 0 cit. Major social media companies expanded rules and teams to remove or limit content, from hate speech to misinformation. The scale of these systems made private platforms central gatekeepers of online speech. society / technology ●●●●

c. 2016 to c. 2022 Deplatforming and the content-moderation era 0 cit. Social platforms become the main public square, and their moderation decisions, from removing accounts to ranking what spreads, become the frontline of the speech fight. Private companies, not governments, now hold much of the power to permit or suppress speech at scale. society / technology ●●●

23 June 2016 Abduction and murder of Willie Kimani 0 cit. Human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josphat Mwenda, and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were abducted after a court hearing in a case Mwenda had brought accusing a police officer of shooting him. Their bodies, showing signs of torture, were recovered from the Ol Donyo Sabuk River near Machakos on 1 July 2016, prompting national outrage over police impunity. politics / society ●●●

26 April 2016 New Hillsborough inquests conclude 0 cit. Fresh inquests into the 96 deaths recognised by the original inquest concluded that the victims were unlawfully killed and that policing failures had caused or contributed to the disaster. The jury found that supporter behaviour had not contributed to the crush, formally rejecting the narrative advanced in the immediate aftermath. It was the longest jury case in British legal history. politics / society ●●●

c. 2016 Cobalt and coltan tie the Congo to the electronics age 0 cit. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies most of the world's cobalt and much of its coltan, minerals essential to phones, laptops, and electric-car batteries. Amnesty International and other groups have documented dangerous artisanal mining, including child labor, feeding global supply chains, while armed groups in the east have profited from the mineral trade. Congolese ground still powers the technology of richer nations with limited benefit flowing back to miners. economy / society / technology ●●●

2016 Forensic accounting meets the mega-leaks 0 cit. Leaks of millions of documents, from the Panama Papers to later troves, threw open the hidden world of shell companies, off-balance-sheet structures, and aggressive tax arrangements used to move and conceal wealth. Forensic accountants and reporters traced the money through the paper trail, showing that the same techniques that dress up company accounts also hide fortunes from tax authorities and the public. economy / politics / society ●●

2016 A WEF essay imagines owning nothing by 2030 0 cit. The World Economic Forum published an essay by Danish politician Ida Auken titled "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better", later paired with a short predictions video. It was one writer's speculative sketch of a sharing-economy future, not a policy or a plan the WEF adopted. The line later spread online as "you'll own nothing and be happy"; Auken added a note saying it was meant to start debate, not describe her ideal world. society / technology ●●

2016 The ID2020 alliance and the goal of legal identity for all 0 cit. The 2030 Agenda includes a target, SDG 16.9, to give everyone a legal identity, including birth registration, by 2030. That year the ID2020 alliance formed, a public-private partnership of companies, UN agencies, and nonprofits promoting digital ID as the way to reach it. Backers frame it as giving the undocumented access to services; critics warn that linking identity to digital systems raises real risks around surveillance and exclusion. society / technology ●

c. 2016 Frozen chicken imports hollow out Ghana's poultry sector 0 cit. Ghana, once largely self-sufficient in poultry, came to import the large majority of the chicken it consumes, most of it frozen cuts from the EU, the United States and Brazil. Local producers say they cannot match the price of imported parts that fetch little value in their home markets. Food-sovereignty campaigners describe this as dumping that de-industrialized a domestic sector; exporters describe it as normal trade in surplus cuts. diplomacy / economy / society ●

April 2016 The Panama Papers name the hidden owners 0 cit. In April 2016 journalists published the Panama Papers, 11.5 million documents leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca. The files linked world leaders, celebrities and criminals to secret offshore companies and forced Iceland's prime minister to resign. It was the largest leak of its kind at the time and made "offshore" a household word. economy / society ●●●

c. 2016 Historians weigh PNAC's record and influence 0 cit. Looking back, historians and journalists debate how much PNAC shaped the Iraq War and the wider turn to preemption. Most agree the group helped set the agenda and that its members held the posts that made policy, while cautioning that a costly, disputed war had many drivers beyond one think tank. The record of its documents, signatories, and appointments is documented; the weight of its influence remains argued. politics / society ●●●

2016 A UN commission projects a shortfall of millions of health workers by 2030 0 cit. The UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth projected a worldwide shortfall of about 18 million health workers by 2030, concentrated in low- and lower-middle-income countries. WHO later revised the projected 2030 gap to roughly 10 million. Both figures point to demand growing fastest where staff are already scarce. economy / society ●●

24 November 2017 Al-Rawda mosque attack 0 cit. Militants attacked the al-Rawda mosque in North Sinai during Friday prayers with bombs and gunfire, killing 311 people. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Egyptian history. religion / society ●●●

1 January 2017 Reina nightclub attack 0 cit. A gunman attacked the Reina nightclub in Istanbul during New Year celebrations, killing 39 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. religion / society ●●

22 May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing 0 cit. A suicide bomber attacked crowds leaving an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, many of them children and teenagers. religion / society ●●●

3 April 2017 Saint Petersburg metro bombing 0 cit. A suicide bomber detonated a device on a metro train in Saint Petersburg, killing 15 people. The bomber was linked to Central Asian militant networks. religion / society ●●

31 October 2017 Tercentenary of the United Grand Lodge of England 0 cit. English Freemasonry marked 300 years since the 1717 founding with a large celebration at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017. The event drew thousands of members from around the world. culture / religion / society ●●

15 October 2017 #MeToo goes viral against sexual abuse 0 cit. The #MeToo hashtag spread worldwide as millions shared experiences of sexual harassment and assault, building on activist Tarana Burke's earlier work. It brought down powerful abusers and forced a reckoning across many industries. culture / society ●●●

20 March 2017 David Rockefeller dies 0 cit. David Rockefeller, the last grandchild of John D. Rockefeller, died in March 2017 at the age of 101. He was among the best known bankers and philanthropists of his era. economy / society ●●

October 2017 The QAnon Phenomenon 0 cit. QAnon emerged from anonymous online posts claiming a secret cabal controlled governments and media. Its baseless claims spread widely and have been documented as a conspiracy movement, not as fact. politics / society ●●●

c. 2017 The revival of crystals and astrology 0 cit. Crystals, astrology and tarot saw a strong revival among younger people, spread through social media and mobile apps. Surveys show many users treat these as casual identity and wellness tools rather than a formal religion, blending New Age practice with everyday culture. culture / society ●●

2017 Kenya rolls out a competency-based curriculum 0 cit. Kenya began replacing its exam-heavy system with a competency-based curriculum focused on skills over memorization. The shift followed a global trend promoted by bodies like the World Bank. politics / society ●●●

c. 2017 to c. 2020 Reports of birth suppression among Uyghurs in Xinjiang 0 cit. Research and news investigations reported that Chinese authorities sharply cut Uyghur birth rates in Xinjiang after 2017 through mass placement of IUDs, sterilizations, and penalties, with official birth rates falling steeply. China denies coercion, while several governments and researchers describe the measures as forced birth suppression. politics / society ●●●●

c. May 2017 Police Federation chairman says Freemasonry blocks reform 0 cit. Outgoing Police Federation chairman Steve White tells the Guardian that Freemasons within policing have been an obstacle to reform and to the promotion of women and Black and minority ethnic officers. The United Grand Lodge of England responds that the claim of organized obstruction is baseless. This is a documented public statement by a serving police representative, presented here as his allegation rather than an established finding. politics / society ●●

c. May 2017 Freemasons dismiss claims of organized obstruction unproven 0 cit. In response to Police Federation chairman Steve White's remarks, the United Grand Lodge of England issues a statement calling the idea that Freemasons are actively thwarting police reform "laughable." This exchange illustrates the gap between broad allegations of Masonic obstruction, which are contested and unproven at an institutional level, and the individually documented corruption cases of the 1970s. society ●

c. 2017 Freemasonry's declining institutional influence in policing 0 cit. Academic commentary published around this time argues that Freemasonry no longer carries significant institutional influence within British policing, pointing to falling lodge membership, the decline of the informal old-boy networks common in the mid-20th century Met, and increased scrutiny following the corruption scandals and inquiries of the preceding decades. society ●

August 2017 Police killings during 2017 election protests 0 cit. In the unrest following the disputed August 2017 presidential election and its October rerun, police shot and killed protesters in Nairobi's informal settlements and in Kisumu. Human Rights Watch, in a report titled 'Kill Those Criminals,' documented dozens of deaths from police gunfire and beatings during the period, including of children, and found little evidence of accountability for the officers involved. politics / society ●●●

14 June 2017 Grenfell Tower fire 0 cit. A fire spread rapidly up the exterior of Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey public housing block in west London, killing 72 people. Combustible aluminium composite cladding installed during a recent refurbishment was found to have accelerated the fire's spread. The disaster led the government to establish a public inquiry into its causes. society ●●●

11 July 2017 Infected Blood Inquiry established 0 cit. Prime Minister Theresa May announced a UK-wide public inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, into the treatment of patients with contaminated blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, which had infected thousands with HIV and hepatitis C, mostly through NHS treatment for haemophilia. It became known as one of the worst treatment disasters in the history of the NHS. The inquiry heard evidence over several years from victims, families and officials. science / society ●●

28 August 2017 Trump administration reverses the rollback 0 cit. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would undo Obama's limits and again allow police to obtain the previously restricted military equipment. Officials framed the reversal as giving officers the tools they needed and rejected the idea that the gear itself fueled bad policing. Civil liberties groups condemned the change as a return to arming local police for war, reopening the same argument Ferguson had raised. politics / society ●●

2017 The capture and conviction of El Chapo 0 cit. After two humiliating prison escapes, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán was extradited to the United States in 2017 and convicted in 2019 to a life sentence. His trial laid bare the Sinaloa cartel's reach and the bribery that had shielded it for decades. politics / society ●●

2017 Mass surveillance in Xinjiang 0 cit. The Chinese state built one of the most intense surveillance systems ever seen to control the mostly Muslim Uyghur population of Xinjiang. Checkpoints, facial recognition, phone searches, and a predictive-policing app fed a network that helped send hundreds of thousands of people into internment camps. Rights groups documented it as a model of high-tech repression. politics / society / technology ●●●

July 2017 Kenya recognises Asians as the 44th tribe 0 cit. The government formally recognised Kenyans of Asian descent as the country's 44th community, or tribe. The move acknowledged more than a century of settlement and the community's reduced but continuing presence. Supporters called it overdue recognition of a group long treated as outsiders. politics / society ●●

2017 South Africa's land audit measures the gap 0 cit. The government's land audit finds that white South Africans, a small minority of the population, still own the large majority of individually held farmland more than two decades after apartheid ended. The figures make plain how little the willing-buyer, willing-seller model shifted ownership. They become central evidence in the argument that the negotiated bargain left colonial land patterns in place, and in the debate over what to do next. economy / society ●●

c. 2017 Rangers are accused of killings and abuses in the north 0 cit. Rights groups, local residents, and later the Oakland Institute allege that NRT-linked rangers were involved in extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and beatings in Isiolo and Marsabit. NRT denies the claims and says its rangers follow the law. The specific abuse allegations are contested and have not been proven in court, and they are presented here as allegations, not established facts. politics / society ●●

March 2017 The rancher Tristan Voorspuy is shot dead 0 cit. Tristan Voorspuy, a British-born safari operator and co-owner of the Sosian ranch, is shot dead while inspecting lodges burned during the invasions. His killing becomes a symbol of the violence of the 2017 crisis. It also draws attention to the deep resentment between large landowners and herders competing for the same ground. society / war ●●

April 2017 Kuki Gallmann is shot and wounded on her conservancy 0 cit. Kuki Gallmann is shot and badly wounded on her Laikipia conservancy during the same wave of unrest, after buildings on the property are burned. She survives. The attack on one of Laikipia's most prominent conservation figures underlines how the land conflict reaches into even the best-known private holdings. society / war ●●

November 2017 The Paradise Papers follow the money 0 cit. In November 2017 the Paradise Papers, drawn mainly from the offshore law firm Appleby, exposed the tax arrangements of multinational companies, politicians and the very rich. The 13.4 million files showed that much offshore activity was legal, raising questions about the rules rather than just lawbreaking. They widened the debate from hidden crime to the design of the tax system itself. economy / society ●●

2017 Bantu Farmers Absorbed Local Foragers 0 cit. As Bantu-speaking farmers spread across eastern Africa they did not replace the hunter-gatherers already living there but mixed with them to varying degrees. Ancient-DNA work by Pontus Skoglund and colleagues shows forager ancestry surviving inside modern farming populations, sometimes small, sometimes large. The boundary between farmer and forager was a zone of intermarriage, not a wall. Present-day Kenyan Bantu groups such as the Mijikenda and Kikuyu carry that older forager thread. science / society ●●

24 June 2018 End of the Saudi Women's Driving Ban 0 cit. Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women driving, one of the most visible reforms under Vision 2030. The change came alongside continued detention of some activists who had campaigned for it. politics / society ●●●

2 October 2018 Killing of Jamal Khashoggi 0 cit. Saudi agents killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The murder damaged the kingdom's image and its relations with Western governments. politics / society ●●●

c. 2018 Wellness spirituality blends with self-help 0 cit. Modern self-help increasingly fuses New Thought optimism, therapy language and New Age practice into a broad spiritual-but-not-religious outlook. Surveys track a steady rise in people who leave organized religion yet keep private spiritual beliefs of this kind. culture / society ●●

August 2018 Major platforms deplatform Alex Jones 0 cit. In August 2018, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify removed content from Alex Jones and his Infowars brand within days of one another. The coordinated timing fueled debate over platform power. society / technology ●●●

c. 2018 Shadow-banning becomes a flashpoint 0 cit. Users and politicians accused platforms of quietly limiting the reach of accounts without notice, a practice called shadow-banning. Companies said they downranked some content but disputed how the term was used. society / technology ●●

c. 1 May 2018 Florida Grand Lodge votes to recognize Prince Hall counterpart 0 cit. The Grand Lodge of Florida, F&AM, voted at its annual communication to move toward mutual recognition of the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge, Prince Hall Affiliated, of Florida, with the process completed the following year. Florida's recognition came nearly three decades after Connecticut's, illustrating how much slower recognition proceeded in parts of the South. culture / society ●●

14 August 2018 The Pennsylvania grand jury report 0 cit. A grand jury found that about three hundred priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses had abused more than a thousand children over seventy years, and that bishops had systematically hidden the crimes. The report renewed pressure on the Church and prompted investigations in other US states. politics / religion / society ●●●

2018 to 2019 Pope Francis and the abuse reckoning 0 cit. After a crisis in Chile and revelations about the former US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was expelled from the priesthood in 2019, Pope Francis convened a global summit of bishops on protecting minors. The Church issued new rules requiring the reporting of abuse and cover-ups, though critics said the measures fell short of true accountability. politics / religion / society ●●●

February 2018 Parliament moves toward expropriation without compensation 0 cit. In February 2018 the National Assembly adopts a motion to review Section 25 to allow land expropriation without compensation, reflecting anger at the slow pace of reform. A bid to amend the Constitution to spell this out fails in December 2021 when it does not reach a two-thirds majority. The political fight moves from changing the Constitution to writing new legislation instead. politics / society ●●

2018 Commissioners and scholars conclude the reckoning was documented but buried 0 cit. In his book on the commission, Ronald Slye argued that Kenya had produced a serious account of its injustices only to shelve it, calling the report thorough but effectively suppressed. Fellow commissioners and human-rights organizations reached similar conclusions, pointing to the lack of debate, prosecutions, and reparations. Their assessment is that the truth was recorded but the promised justice and reconciliation never followed. politics / society ●●

c. 2018 Economists call the CFA a colonial currency 0 cit. Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla and co-author Fanny Pigeaud publish a detailed critique arguing that the CFA franc constrains the monetary sovereignty of its members and serves French interests. Their book is later translated as Africa's Last Colonial Currency. Defenders reply that the peg brings low inflation and stability, so the balance of blame for the CFA's effects remains disputed. economy / society ●●

10 December 2018 The Global Compact for Migration is adopted 0 cit. Delegates adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first UN framework to cover international migration as a whole. The UN General Assembly endorsed it days later by a vote of 152 in favor, with the United States and a few others voting against and several abstaining. The compact states in its own text that it is non-binding and respects national sovereignty over borders. diplomacy / politics / society ●●

c. 2018 Cheap EU milk powder floods West African markets 0 cit. European exporters shipped growing volumes of low-cost skimmed-milk powder, often blended with palm oil, into West African markets after EU milk quotas ended in 2015. Reports by Oxfam and the development group SUDWIND documented the powder selling well below the cost of local fresh milk, undercutting West African herders. Campaigners call it agricultural dumping enabled by EU farm subsidies; the European Commission maintains the exports are legal and demand-driven. diplomacy / economy / society ●●

c. 2018 The Gates Foundation rises to the top tier of funders 0 cit. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation becomes one of the two largest contributors to the WHO, rivaling entire national governments. Counted together with Gavi, the vaccine alliance the foundation helped create and funds, the private philanthropic footprint in global health is larger still. Nearly all of this money is earmarked for chosen priorities such as vaccines and polio. economy / science / society ●●●

16 January 2018 Sengwer man killed and EU suspends forest funding 0 cit. Forest Service guards shot dead a Sengwer herder, Robert Kirotich, during an operation in the Embobut Forest. The European Union responded by suspending a large water-towers conservation programme it funded in the area. The killing and the funding freeze drew global attention to how donor-backed conservation could turn violent against the people it displaced. environment / politics / society ●●●

21 April 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings 0 cit. Coordinated suicide bombings struck churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 269 people. A local Islamist group linked to the Islamic State carried out the attacks. religion / society ●●●●

15 March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings 0 cit. A white supremacist gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers, killing 51 people and streaming the attack online. It was the deadliest shooting in New Zealand's history. religion / society ●●●

2019 Kenya rolls out the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) 0 cit. Kenya replaces 8-4-4 with a 2-6-3-3-3 Competency-Based Curriculum focused on skills over rote exams. CBC follows a global competency-based-education model promoted by the OECD and the World Bank, a case of a transnational education agenda reshaping a national system. economy / politics / society ●●●

15 March 2019 The Christchurch attack video spreads and is removed 0 cit. A gunman livestreamed a mosque shooting, and platforms struggled to remove millions of copies of the video. The attack led to the Christchurch Call, a pledge by governments and companies to curb violent content online. society / technology ●●●

c. 2019 Fake news laws spread worldwide 0 cit. A wave of laws against online falsehoods spread across countries including Singapore, which passed its POFMA law in 2019. Rights groups warned that many were used to restrict criticism and journalism. politics / society ●●●

18 June 2019 California apologizes for historical genocide against Native Americans 0 cit. Governor Gavin Newsom issued a formal state apology, describing the historical treatment of California's Native peoples, particularly during the Gold Rush era, as genocide, and signed an executive order creating a truth and healing council. Scholars estimate California's Native population fell from roughly 150,000 to about 30,000 between 1846 and 1873 due to violence, disease, and state-sanctioned militia campaigns, estimates drawn from historian Benjamin Madley's research and state archival records. politics / society ●●

30 October 2019 Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report 0 cit. The first phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, focused on the events of the night of the fire and found that the London Fire Brigade's 'stay put' advice had continued too long after the building's compartmentalisation had failed, contributing to deaths. It also confirmed that the building's cladding had failed to adequately resist the spread of fire. The second phase went on to examine the wider causes, including regulation, product testing and refurbishment decisions. politics / society ●●

c. 2019 Feminists split over sex and gender 0 cit. A bitter debate grew within feminism over whether the movement should center biological sex or gender identity, especially on the rights of transgender people. Some feminists say sex-based protections are at stake, while others say trans women must be fully included; both sides claim the mantle of women's rights. The dispute remains unresolved and deeply contested. politics / society ●

2019 Surveillance capitalism is named 0 cit. Scholar Shoshana Zuboff published a book arguing that leading tech firms had built a new economic order she called surveillance capitalism. In her account, companies harvest human experience as free raw material, turn it into predictions of behavior, and sell those predictions in markets. The phrase gave a name, attributed to Zuboff, to the sense that the free internet runs on watching its users. economy / society / technology ●●●

December 2019 The smartphone as a tracking device 0 cit. Journalists obtained a file of location pings from ordinary smartphone apps and showed they could follow named individuals through their daily lives. The data, gathered by a hidden industry of location brokers, tracked people to their homes, workplaces, and protests. It made plain that the phone in nearly every pocket is also a continuous tracking beacon. economy / society / technology ●●

April 2019 Kenya rolls out the Huduma Namba digital ID 0 cit. Kenya launches the National Integrated Identity Management System, the Huduma Namba, to assign every resident a single digital identity for accessing services. The programme draws on the World Bank's Identification for Development agenda and the wider global digital-ID ecosystem, and Kenyan courts later halt parts of the rollout over data-protection and exclusion concerns. Defenders cite efficient service delivery and financial inclusion, while critics warn of surveillance, exclusion of the undocumented, and external influence over national identity infrastructure. politics / society ●●

c. 2019 KRA values cars against the CRSP price list 0 cit. The Kenya Revenue Authority values imported vehicles using its Current Retail Selling Price list, a schedule of benchmark prices by make and model. Taxes are calculated from this figure after age-based depreciation, not from what the buyer actually paid. Because the list sets the taxable value, updates to it directly change how much importers owe, and revisions have drawn repeated complaints. economy / society ●●

15 March 2019 Kenyan High Court strikes down the Kenya-Mauritius tax treaty 0 cit. Kenya's High Court nullified the 2012 double-taxation agreement with Mauritius after a challenge by Tax Justice Network Africa, which argued it opened a route for profit-shifting and revenue loss. The court struck the treaty down on procedural grounds, finding it had not been properly ratified and laid before Parliament as the law required. Tax Justice Network Africa framed the win as exposing a treaty designed to bleed the tax base; the government defended it as a standard investment-promotion accord. economy / politics / society ●●●

2019 The New Humanitarian becomes the publishing partner 0 cit. Foreign Policy's role in presenting the index wound down over the 2010s. From 2019 the news outlet The New Humanitarian carried the annual rankings and analysis, while the Fund for Peace continued to compile and publish the data. The index kept its yearly release schedule. politics / society ●●

c. 2019 Fenced wildlife land beside landless people 0 cit. By the late 2010s a large share of Kenya's land sat inside parks, reserves and conservancies managed for wildlife and tourism, while many pastoralists and forest peoples remained landless or squeezed onto small plots. The gap raised a plain question about who the land was for. It set the core tension of fortress conservation: rich habitat protected while the people beside it went without. economy / environment / society ●●●

2019 Ancient DNA tests the spread of herding 0 cit. Mary Mary E. Prendergast and colleagues published genome-wide data from ancient individuals in Kenya and Tanzania. The DNA showed herding spread south in stages, with a population related to northeast Africans mixing with local foragers, then herders and foragers staying distinct while living side by side. The genetic story matched the broad picture linguists had drawn from Cushitic and Afroasiatic word history. Genetics became a fourth line of evidence alongside language, pottery, and memory. science / society ●●●

c. 2019 Ilchamus press for recognition and representation in Baringo 0 cit. The Ilchamus remain a small community, numbering around thirty-three thousand in the 2019 census, and have pressed for fair political representation within Baringo County. They face pressure from a fluctuating lake, drought, insecurity and competition over land with larger neighbours. Court cases and advocacy have sought to secure a dedicated electoral constituency and greater recognition. politics / society ●

2019 Terik language survives as an endangered tongue 0 cit. By the 2019 census the Terik numbered only around twenty-three thousand people, a small community pressed by assimilation to the Nandi. Their language is counted among the endangered tongues of Kenya, and it has been documented by outside researchers to preserve a record. In recent years the position of the Terik language has strengthened somewhat as migration into Nandi land slowed. culture / society ●

11 March 2020 COVID-19 declared a pandemic 0 cit. The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic as the new coronavirus spreads worldwide. Lockdowns halt much of global life, millions die, and the crisis accelerates remote work, state spending, and geopolitical rivalry. science / society ●●●●●

25 May 2020 Murder of George Floyd sparks global protests 0 cit. A Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, captured on video. His death set off worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. politics / society ●●●