Our Earth Affairs

Update on the situation in Benin. Some of the coup leaders are taking refuge at the Tignon Barracks.

Benin's government says its armed forces have "foiled" an attempted coup after soldiers claimed on national television they had seized power, Sky News reports. news.sky.com/story/benin-...

The coup attempt in Benin has failed, with the only ‘success’ being the temporary taking over state TV channel Benin TV. A number of military personnel have been arrested, but coup leader, Pascal Tigri, 37, who’s a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, is still on the run.

Another coup attempt in West Africa, this time in Benin. It looks like it may have failed however, if the interior minister is to be believed. Some elements of the Republican Guard and police taken over a state TV station and said they’d removed President Patrice Talon from power.

Notable M7.0 earthquake on the Canada-Alaska border, just south east of Mount Logan.

Here’s a Reuters map showing the location of 90+ Chinese military ships operating in East Asia waters. It was inevitable that Western corporations seeking to replace their employees with cheaper labour by turning China into a giant manufacturing hub was always going to come back and haunt us.

The White House has installed new signs for the Oval Office and West Wing so Dozy Donald knows where he is.

Surprise, surprise, the Trump administration is subverting Europe.

In the latest episode of of British satirical puppet show Spitting Image, Trump kills Santa.

The US says it will start partially withdrawing from NATO in 2027 if Europe doesn’t pull its weight to start leading NATO defences by that point. Given the US is no longer a reliable ally, it has to happen. Still, just over a year from now is not very long to do any of this.

Trump will be mad 🤣

A federal judge in Florida orders the release of transcripts from grand jury investigations into Jeffrey Epstein from 2005 and 2007.

Elon Musk's X fined €120m over 'deceptive' blue ticks The European Commission says the social media site is opening its users up to scams and impersonations.

The EU has fined Elon Musk's social media platform X €120m (£105m) over its blue tick badges - prompting an angry reaction from the US. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What is the FIFA Peace Prize and why is Donald Trump expected to win? | CNN As billions of fans around the world tune in to watch the World Cup draw on Friday, they’ll also have the opportunity to watch FIFA president Gianni Infantino present a new, somewhat puzzling, award.

This stinks to high heaven, and I hope the World Cup gets boycotted next year. FIFA has created a new peace prize out of the blue by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Trump is expected to win it. edition.cnn.com/2025/12/04/s...

Flightradar24 says issues connected to Cloudflare have now been resolved. It is one of the numerous companies that relies on Cloudflare for its services.

Could scheduled maintenance have disrupted Cloudflare for a second time in less than a month?

India’s Economic Times seems to be the first to break the story of Cloudflare going down again for the second time in less than a month, affecting global internet services. economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/interna...

A major global internet outage is likely connected to services that rely on Cloudflare. The service went down in recent minutes.

Grand jury declines to charge Letitia James after first case dismissed - BBC News A judge recently threw out a federal case against the New York attorney general, but said the charges could be brought again in the future.

A federal grand jury in Virginia has declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, days after a judge dismissed the earlier case against her. It marks another blow to Trump's efforts to prosecute those he considers political adversaries, which also includes ex-FBI Director James Comey.

TRAC (Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium) reports a new armed organisation ‘New Republican Movement (NRM)’ has surfaced in Newry, Northern Ireland, claiming nearby councillors and members of the Legislative Assembly as “legitimate Targets”.

The US Treasury Department has quietly issued an exception to its own Russian sanctions list, allowing transactions with Lukoil-branded gas stations that are outside Russia through 29th April, 2026. oilprice.com/Latest-Energ...

Four unidentified military-grade drones have breached a no-fly zone in Dublin, Ireland, just minutes after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s plane landed. They targeted its flight path, then circled an Irish Navy vessel deployed for the visit. Ireland is probing it as a possible hybrid attack.

The UK and Norway have signed a cooperation agreement, with the UK agreeing to play a larger role in the defence of Norway.

Yasser Abu Shabab - Wikipedia

Hamas has killed Yasser Abu Shabab, the Israeli-backed leader of the Popular Forces in Gaza. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_...

Salisbury novichok poisonings: Putin 'morally responsible' for woman's death after authorising botched spy assassination bid Dawn Sturgess's condition was "unsurvivable" after she unwittingly sprayed herself with novichok from a perfume bottle left by a Russian military hit squad, report says.

The assassination attempt on former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury in 2018 was authorised by Vladimir Putin, who is "morally responsible" for the death of a woman poisoned by the nerve agent used in the attack, a public inquiry has found. news.sky.com/story/salisb...

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned the leaders of Ukraine, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that the US could "betray" the war-hit country, Germany’s Spiegel reports.

The Democrat Oversight Committee has released new images from Jeffrey Epstein’s island. It comes as the Trump administration has until the middle of this month to release the Epstein files in full.

A raccoon in Virginia has broken into a liquor store, soaking the aisle with alcohol and littering it with smashed bottles. The drunk raccoon was found by police sleeping it off in the toilet. It was taken to an animal shelter before being released unharmed hours later when it had sobered up.

Just months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) went missing, Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people, the majority of them from the Netherlands. It was the second Boeing 777 lost in 2014, and with the same airline.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - Wikipedia

The search for the long-missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) is to resume, the Malaysian government has said. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysi...