Events, Verisoph

2018 The second NYS scandal and the Ngiritas 0 cit. A second, larger National Youth Service scandal surfaced in 2018, with hundreds of millions of shillings paid to companies linked to the Ngirita family and others for goods never supplied. Courts later ordered the Ngiritas to forfeit assets as proceeds of crime, but prosecutions of the senior officials involved largely stalled. economy / politics ●●

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 ●●

April 2018 Bollore's African ports draw corruption charges 0 cit. French tycoon Vincent Bollore, whose group ran port and logistics concessions across French-speaking Africa, is charged in France over how his firm won contracts in Togo and Guinea. Investigators examined whether cut-price political campaign work helped secure the port deals in Lome and Conakry. The case pointed to how contracts were steered to French firms. economy / politics ●●

March 2018 Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, dies at Ol Pejeta 0 cit. Sudan, the last male northern white rhino on earth, is put down at Ol Pejeta Conservancy because of age and illness. His death leaves only two females of the subspecies, both kept at Ol Pejeta under armed guard. The event draws global attention to the conservancy and to the genuine, documented work it does protecting rare wildlife. environment ●●

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 ●●

2018 Zimbabwe launches Vision 2030 0 cit. President Emmerson Mnangagwa introduced Vision 2030, a plan to make Zimbabwe an upper-middle-income society by 2030. It is delivered through a stabilisation program and successive five-year development strategies. The plan states that its goals align with the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the wider 2030 development agenda. economy / politics ●

21 March 2018 Kenya signs the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement 0 cit. Kenya is among the first states to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, which aims to create a single continental market of over a billion people. The agreement enters into force in 2019 and trading under its terms begins on 1 January 2021. Proponents present it as African-led integration, while critics warn Kenya's more developed industries could be exposed and that phased tariff removal cuts government revenue. diplomacy / economy ●●●

30 July 2018 United States suspends Rwanda's AGOA apparel benefits over used-clothing tariffs 0 cit. Rwanda held to the used-clothing phase-out and sharply raised tariffs on imported second-hand garments to protect its domestic textile plan. In response, the United States suspended duty-free treatment for Rwandan apparel under AGOA. Rwanda accepted the loss of benefits rather than reverse its policy, the only EAC state to hold firm while Kenya and others backed down. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

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 Switzerland adopts automatic exchange of account data 0 cit. Switzerland began automatically sharing information on foreign residents' bank accounts with dozens of partner countries under an international standard. For foreign clients this effectively ended the banking secrecy that had defined Swiss finance for generations. The change was driven by sustained pressure from the United States and the European Union over tax evasion. diplomacy / economy ●●

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 ●●●

20 December 2019 Founding of the Space Force 0 cit. President Trump signs the defense bill creating the United States Space Force as the sixth armed service, built from Air Force space units. It is the first new military service since the Air Force in 1947, charged with defending American assets in orbit. technology / war ●●●

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 ●●●

14 February 2019 Pulwama attack 0 cit. A suicide bomber from the group Jaish-e-Mohammed struck a convoy of Indian paramilitary police in Pulwama, Kashmir, killing 40 personnel. The attack triggered air strikes between India and Pakistan. politics / war ●●●

6 January 2019 Independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine 0 cit. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted a decree of independence to a new unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separate from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church rejected the move and broke communion with Constantinople over it. politics / religion ●●●●

11 April 2019 Julian Assange is arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy 0 cit. British police arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after Ecuador withdrew the asylum he had held in its London embassy since 2012. The United States sought his extradition on charges tied to the 2010 leaks. politics ●●●●

3 January 2019 Chang'e 4 lands on the Moon's far side 0 cit. China's Chang'e 4 made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon. The mission marked China's rise as a major power in space exploration. exploration / politics / technology ●●●

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 ●●●

16 November 2019 Iran shuts down the internet during protests 0 cit. During protests over fuel prices in November 2019, Iran imposed a near-total internet shutdown lasting about a week. It was one of the most severe national blackouts recorded up to that point. politics / technology ●●●●

1 November 2019 Russia passes the sovereign internet law 0 cit. A law signed in 2019 and effective that November aimed to let Russia route its internet traffic through state-controlled points and operate a national network in isolation. Critics said it expanded government control over online speech. politics / technology ●●●●

5 August 2019 to 2021 Kashmir endures a record internet blackout 0 cit. After India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, it cut internet access across the region. The shutdown became the longest ever imposed in a democracy, with high-speed service restored in stages into 2021. politics / technology ●●●●

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 ●●●

26 March 2019 The EU passes the Copyright Directive 0 cit. The EU's 2019 Copyright Directive included Article 17, which pushed platforms to filter uploads for copyrighted material. Critics warned that automated filtering could sweep up lawful content. economy / technology ●●

February 2019 Senate report criticizes Confucius Institutes 0 cit. The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report concluding that the US government had done little oversight of Confucius Institutes despite hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese funding to American schools and universities. The report described the institutes as a soft-power tool operating with limited transparency about contract terms and Chinese government control. Its findings accelerated the pace of institute closures across American higher education. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 2019 Official LDS Church essay addresses Masonry and the temple 0 cit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published an official history topic essay on "Masonry" acknowledging that Joseph Smith and other Church leaders were Freemasons in Nauvoo and that the endowment introduced in 1842 shares elements of language and structure with Masonic ritual. The essay presents the Church's position that the ceremony's substance came through revelation to Smith and represents a restoration of temple worship rather than a borrowing from Masonry, explicitly attributing this as the Church's interpretation while noting the documented historical overlap in timing and form. religion ●●

21 December 2019 West African leaders and France announce the eco currency reform 0 cit. President Macron and Ivory Coast's president Alassane Ouattara announced that the eight-nation West African CFA franc would be renamed the eco, that member states would no longer be required to deposit half their foreign reserves in an operations account at the French Treasury, and that French representatives would leave the BCEAO's governing bodies. The euro peg and French guarantee of convertibility were kept in place, so critics argued the reform changed the currency's name and some administrative details while leaving its core structural dependency intact. diplomacy / economy ●●●

c. June 2019 FIFA opens a corruption case that leads to Blatter and Platini's indictment 0 cit. Swiss federal prosecutors formally charge Blatter and Platini with fraud over the disputed 2011 payment, sending the case to trial years after the ethics ban. The pair were ultimately acquitted at trial in 2022, though the prosecution underscored how long the legal fallout from FIFA's corruption era continued to run. politics ●

c. 2019 Freedom House documents a sustained global decline in democracy 0 cit. The watchdog organization Freedom House reports that global freedom has declined for over a decade, citing weakened checks on executive power, media pressure, and eroded election integrity in a growing number of countries with parliaments that remain formally in session. Analysts frame this as gradual institutional erosion rather than sudden overthrow, in line with the democratic backsliding literature. politics ●●

27 June 2019 Rucho v. Common Cause leaves partisan gerrymandering to the states 0 cit. The US Supreme Court rules in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts cannot review claims of excessive partisan gerrymandering, holding the issue to be a political question for states and Congress to resolve. The ruling leaves district-line manipulation, a well-documented tool for entrenching legislative majorities, largely outside federal judicial oversight. politics ●●

c. 2019 Local Media Investigations Revisit Masonic Membership on Planning Committees 0 cit. Several local newspapers and investigative outlets published pieces revisiting claims first raised by Knight and Short decades earlier, examining Masonic lodge membership among sitting councillors on planning and licensing committees in various English towns. These stories generally presented membership figures as a transparency concern rather than proof of specific corrupt decisions, and none produced findings equivalent to the documented convictions in the Poulson or Donnygate cases. The broader claim of a coordinated national Masonic network steering council business remains a contested allegation rather than an established fact. culture / politics ●

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 ●●

21 August 2019 High Court sets aside Seriti Commission findings 0 cit. The Pretoria High Court set aside the Seriti Commission's 2016 findings, ruling it was 'inexplicable' that the commission had ignored evidence pointing to corruption, improper influence and fraud in the arms deal. The ruling effectively invalidated the commission's central conclusion that the deal was clean. economy / politics ●●

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 ●●

c. 2019 The export of digital authoritarianism 0 cit. Chinese firms began selling surveillance and censorship tools abroad under banners like Safe City, spreading facial recognition and monitoring gear to governments across Asia, Africa, and beyond. Analysts warned this exported a model of digital authoritarianism in which the state watches its people through the network. The trade turned surveillance technology into an instrument of foreign policy. diplomacy / politics / technology ●●

July 2019 The Arror and Kimwarer dams that were never built 0 cit. In 2019 investigators found that around 19 billion shillings had been paid to the Italian firm CMC di Ravenna for two dams, at Arror and Kimwarer, that were never built. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich became the first sitting cabinet minister in Kenya to be arrested. He was acquitted in 2023, an outcome critics point to as a sign of how rarely such prosecutions stick. economy / politics ●●●

25 February 2019 ICJ finds Britain's Chagos administration unlawful 0 cit. The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that Britain's continued administration of the Chagos Islands was unlawful and that decolonisation of Mauritius had not been lawfully completed. It called on Britain to end its control as rapidly as possible. The United Nations General Assembly then voted overwhelmingly to endorse the opinion. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 2019 The Agadez drone base rises in Niger 0 cit. The United States builds Air Base 201 near Agadez in Niger at a cost of about 100 million dollars, opening it for drone operations around 2019. It becomes a central node for surveillance and strikes against militants across the Sahel. The base is one of the largest US construction projects on the continent. technology / war ●●

21 December 2019 The West African CFA is renamed the eco and reserves leave Paris 0 cit. Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Emmanuel Macron announce that the West African CFA franc will be renamed the eco. The reform ends the requirement to deposit half of foreign reserves in the French Treasury and removes French representatives from the BCEAO board. The euro peg and French guarantee remain, and the Central African CFA is left untouched. economy / politics ●●●

5 October 2019 Malaysia launches the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 0 cit. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad launched the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, a plan to raise living standards and move Malaysia to a high-income, knowledge-based economy by 2030. It aims to spread growth more evenly across income groups, ethnicities, and regions. It joined a long list of countries that fixed their development branding on the year 2030. economy ●

13 June 2019 The UN and the World Economic Forum sign a Strategic Partnership Framework 0 cit. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and WEF chairman Klaus Schwab signed a framework to deepen cooperation on delivering the 2030 Agenda. It named six areas of joint work, including climate, health, and financing development. The deal was openly published, but more than 200 civil-society groups signed a letter opposing it, arguing it gave corporations too much influence inside the UN. diplomacy / economy ●●

December 2019 China sanctions NED over the Hong Kong protests 0 cit. During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, Beijing accused the National Endowment for Democracy of funding and steering the unrest, and in December 2019 it announced sanctions on NED and other US groups. NED had made grants to Hong Kong labor and civil-society organizations, which it listed publicly. China called this foreign interference; NED said it supported local groups working openly. diplomacy / politics ●●

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 ●●●

c. 2019 The United States becomes the largest single contributor 0 cit. For most of the WHO's history the United States is its single biggest funder, supplying both assessed dues and large voluntary grants. In recent years American contributions have covered on the order of a fifth of the organization's total funding. That scale gives Washington outsized weight in what the WHO can afford to do. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

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 ●●

April 2019 Yemen becomes the most fragile state 0 cit. The 2019 index placed Yemen at number one, with a score of 113.5. Years of civil war, foreign air strikes, economic collapse, and a large-scale hunger crisis had driven its score up sharply. Yemen held the top position in the years that followed. economy / war ●●●

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 ●

29 February 2020 Doha Agreement 0 cit. Agreement between the United States and the Taliban providing for withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban counterterrorism commitments. It preceded the collapse of the Afghan republic in 2021. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

15 September 2020 Abraham Accords 0 cit. Agreements normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, later joined by Morocco and Sudan. They were the first Arab-Israeli normalizations in a quarter century. diplomacy / politics ●●●

15 November 2020 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership 0 cit. Free trade agreement among fifteen Asia-Pacific countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and the ASEAN states. Measured by members' GDP it is the largest trade bloc in history. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

30 December 2020 EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement 0 cit. Agreement governing trade and cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit, providing tariff-free trade in goods with new border formalities. It took effect when the transition period ended. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

27 September 2020 to 10 November 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War 0 cit. Azerbaijan, using Turkish-supplied drones, retakes much of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian forces in six weeks. A further offensive in 2023 ends the Armenian enclave entirely. war ●●●

3 November 2020 to 2 November 2022 Tigray War 0 cit. Ethiopia's federal government and Eritrea fight the Tigray People's Liberation Front in a war marked by massacres, mass rape, and blockade-induced famine. Estimates of the dead run into the hundreds of thousands before the Pretoria peace deal. war ●●●

25 June 2020 Collapse of Wirecard 0 cit. German payments firm Wirecard files for insolvency after admitting 1.9 billion euros on its balance sheet likely never existed. The fraud at a DAX company becomes Germany's biggest postwar corporate scandal. economy ●●

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 ●●●●●

December 2020 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines 0 cit. The first mRNA vaccines were authorized to fight COVID-19, delivering genetic instructions that teach cells to trigger immunity. They were developed at record speed and proved a flexible new platform for vaccines. science ●●●●

June 2020 Great Reset initiative launched contested 0 cit. The World Economic Forum launched the Great Reset, a proposal to rethink economies and sustainability after the pandemic. The initiative became a frequent subject of conspiracy theories, though it was a documented set of policy proposals. economy / environment ●●●●

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 ●●●

c. 2020 China's e-CNY and central bank digital currencies 0 cit. China began public trials of a digital yuan issued directly by its central bank, one of the largest tests of a central bank digital currency. Many countries began studying or piloting similar official digital money. economy / politics / technology ●●●●

20 September 2020 The FinCEN Files are published 0 cit. Journalists reported on leaked US Treasury suspicious activity reports showing that major banks moved trillions of dollars in suspect funds. The files exposed weaknesses in global anti money laundering controls. economy / politics ●●●

March 2020 COVID-19 forces schools online worldwide 0 cit. In early 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools for over a billion students and pushed learning onto screens almost overnight. It accelerated digital education and exposed deep gaps in access. society / technology ●●●

March 2020 Pandemic quantitative easing floods the world with money 0 cit. Central banks unleash unprecedented quantitative easing during the COVID-19 crisis, expanding balance sheets by trillions; the surge in money is later linked by critics to the inflation that followed. economy ●●●●

April 2020 to 2021 Debt relief in the COVID-19 pandemic 0 cit. The G20, with IMF and World Bank support, suspended debt payments for the poorest countries through the Debt Service Suspension Initiative. The response revived long-running arguments about how to handle unsustainable sovereign debt. economy / politics ●●●

c. 2020 Manifestation goes viral online 0 cit. Manifestation, the belief that focused thought and belief can make desired outcomes real, spread widely through social media videos and influencers. It is a direct descendant of New Thought's law of attraction now detached from any church. culture / technology ●●

30 May 2020 Crew Dragon carries astronauts to orbit 0 cit. SpaceX flew NASA astronauts to the space station aboard its Crew Dragon capsule. It was the first crewed orbital launch from American soil since the shuttle retired in 2011. economy / exploration / technology ●●●●

3 June 2020 The World Economic Forum launches the Great Reset contested 0 cit. Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum publish the Great Reset initiative, openly proposing to reshape the global economy after COVID-19. A documented published program, distinct from the conspiracy theories that later attached to the name. economy / politics ●●●

2020 India adopts a new National Education Policy 0 cit. India's 2020 policy reshaped school stages, pushed mother-tongue teaching and competency-based learning, and set a target to raise higher-education access. It echoed global shifts toward skills over rote learning. politics / society ●●

March 2020 COVID-19 closes schools worldwide 0 cit. The pandemic shut schools for over a billion students and forced a sudden shift to online learning. It exposed deep gaps in access to technology and accelerated the global edtech push. society / technology ●●●●

14 October 2020 Platforms suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story 0 cit. In October 2020, Twitter and Facebook limited the spread of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop, citing hacked-materials and misinformation concerns. Twitter later said blocking the article was a mistake. politics / technology ●●●

c. March 2020 Platforms moderate COVID-19 misinformation 0 cit. During the pandemic, platforms removed or labeled claims that conflicted with public health guidance. The scale of the effort raised questions about who decides what counts as misinformation. science / society ●●●

October 2020 Facebook launches its Oversight Board 0 cit. Facebook created an independent Oversight Board to review contested moderation decisions, including the Trump ban. Supporters called it a step toward accountability, while critics questioned its power and reach. society / technology ●●

25 May 2020 Murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police 0 cit. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes during an arrest, killing him, in an incident recorded on video by a bystander and viewed worldwide. Chauvin was convicted of murder in 2021, and the killing triggered the largest protest movement in American history alongside renewed international scrutiny of police use-of-force practices. A Department of Justice investigation later found the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional and racially discriminatory policing. politics ●●●

c. 2020 All-In podcast launches 0 cit. David Sacks, along with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg, launched the All-In Podcast, discussing technology, finance, and politics. The show grew into a prominent platform amplifying the views of PayPal-network figures and their allies within Silicon Valley and, later, national politics. culture / technology ●

30 September 2020 Palantir goes public via direct listing 0 cit. Palantir Technologies began trading on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing, cementing the fortunes of co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel and CEO Alexander Karp. The listing was notable for the company's dual-class share structure that preserved Thiel's outsized voting control. economy / technology ●●

20 May 2020 France's National Assembly passes the CFA/eco reform law 0 cit. The French parliament passed legislation formally ending the requirement for West African CFA states to hold reserves at the French Treasury and removing French officials from the BCEAO's board, implementing the 2019 Abidjan announcement. Central African CFA states, using a separate franc issued by BEAC, did not adopt the same reforms and continued the pre-existing reserve-deposit arrangement, leaving that zone's currency structure unchanged into the 2020s. economy ●●

c. April 2020 FIFA settles US racketeering charges and reforms its structures 0 cit. US prosecutors expand the 2015 case with a superseding indictment naming more than a dozen additional defendants, including former CONMEBOL and CONCACAF officials, while FIFA itself is recognized in US courts as a victim entitled to restitution. The prolonged case became the most extensive sports corruption prosecution in history, resulting in numerous guilty pleas and convictions across multiple continents. economy / politics ●●

30 March 2020 Hungary's parliament grants Orban rule by decree during COVID-19 0 cit. Hungary's parliament, dominated by Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, passes a law letting him govern by decree indefinitely to fight the coronavirus pandemic, drawing comparisons to earlier emergency-powers laws in the democratic backsliding literature. Orban ends the formal decree powers two months later after international criticism, but scholars cite the episode as a documented modern example of a parliament voting to expand executive power under cover of emergency. politics ●●

27 March 2020 COVID-19 curfew enforcement killings 0 cit. The government imposed a nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew to curb the spread of COVID-19, and police enforcing it were documented using excessive force, including beatings and live ammunition, against curfew violators and bystanders. Thirteen-year-old Yassin Moyo was shot dead on his family's balcony in Nairobi's Kiamaiko estate on 31 March 2020 by an officer enforcing the curfew, a case IPOA investigated and recommended for prosecution. politics / society ●●

2020 Doug Swanson publishes "Cult of Glory" 0 cit. Journalist and historian Doug Swanson published "Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers," a book-length reassessment arguing that the Rangers' popular image as noble frontier lawmen obscures a long record of documented killings of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Black Texans. The book drew heavily on archival Ranger reports, court records, and prior scholarship, and became a widely cited reference point in public debate over Ranger history, including calls to reconsider Ranger monuments and museum exhibits. culture ●●

4 May 2020 COVID-19 'Plandemic' False-Flag Claims unproven 0 cit. A viral video titled 'Plandemic' and related online claims alleged that the COVID-19 pandemic was deliberately engineered or exploited by global elites as a staged crisis to expand government control and profit pharmaceutical companies. Public health agencies, virologists, and fact-checking organizations found no credible evidence supporting a coordinated 'plandemic,' though legitimate, separate scientific debate continued over the virus's origins. The 'plandemic' framing itself is a widely circulated but unsubstantiated conspiracy claim, distinct from the genuinely unresolved lab-leak versus natural-origin question. culture / politics / science ●●

28 May 2020 National Guard deployed during George Floyd protests 0 cit. After the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests and unrest spread to cities across the country, and governors in more than 30 states activated the National Guard, eventually mobilizing over 40,000 Guard personnel, the largest simultaneous domestic Guard deployment since the 1968 unrest following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Guard units guarded federal buildings, monuments, and city centers, including a much-criticized deployment near the White House and Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. The scale of the mobilization renewed debate over the proper role of the Guard in policing civil protest. politics / society ●●●

31 January 2020 United Kingdom leaves the European Union 0 cit. The United Kingdom formally left the European Union after nearly half a century of membership, entering a transition period to settle future relations. It was the first country ever to withdraw from the Union. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

19 January 2020 The Luanda Leaks expose Isabel dos Santos 0 cit. The ICIJ and partners reported on more than seven hundred thousand leaked files detailing how Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola's former president, built a fortune through deals with state companies. The reporting alleged she moved public money through a web of offshore firms while much of the country stayed poor. Dos Santos denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated. economy / politics ●●●

20 October 2020 Governments move against the tech giants 0 cit. The US Justice Department sued Google for illegally maintaining a monopoly in search, the biggest American antitrust case in a generation and part of a broader push against Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. The European Union followed a parallel track, passing the Digital Markets Act in 2022 to rein in dominant platforms. The actions reopened the old question of whether states can still discipline firms whose reach now spans the digital lives of billions. politics / technology ●●●

25 May 2020 George Floyd protests reignite the militarization debate 0 cit. The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer set off nationwide protests met in many cities by police in riot gear and armored vehicles, along with National Guard deployments and, in some places, active-duty troops on standby. The heavy response revived the arguments Ferguson had sparked about whether militarized policing calmed unrest or inflamed it. The protests fed a broader push for police reform and renewed calls to shut down the equipment pipeline. politics / society ●●●

January 2020 Clearview AI and the end of facial anonymity 0 cit. Reporting revealed that a little-known startup, Clearview AI, had scraped billions of photos from social media to build a facial-recognition tool that could identify a stranger from a single picture. Police forces were quietly using it. The story showed how facial recognition could strip away the anonymity people once had in public. science / society / technology ●●

2020 The Covid billionaires at KEMSA 0 cit. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority awarded emergency contracts worth billions of shillings for masks and protective equipment to politically connected and newly formed companies, often at inflated prices. The press dubbed the beneficiaries 'Covid billionaires'. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission flagged about 7.8 billion shillings in irregular spending, and KEMSA's top managers were removed. economy / politics / society ●●

5 January 2020 Al-Shabaab attacks the US base at Manda Bay 0 cit. In January 2020 al-Shabaab fighters breach Camp Simba at Manda Bay in Kenya, an airfield used by US forces. The attack kills one US soldier and two American contractors and destroys several aircraft. It exposes the vulnerability of the light US footprint in East Africa. politics / war ●●