News Headlines - 27 October 2019
▽Twitter Elitists: Three-Quarters Of All US Political Tweets Come From Very Few
A small but prolific pocket of Twitter users, just 6 percent of all U.S. adults with public accounts, account for 73 percent of tweets regarding American politics, the latest Pew Research Center study finds. The small share of tweeters stand in contrast to the median user who never tweets about politics. About 69 percent of U.S. adults on Twitter only tweeted about politics once or not at all.
This elite 6 percent of frequent political tweeters were found to share a series of civic-minded characteristics such as being political donors, campaign rally attendees and identify strictly as either a "liberal" or "conservative." An overwhelming majority of these politically active Twitter users, 92 percent, said they follow the news all of the time on a social media platform in which news is perpetually breaking.
TWO babies were among eight Afghans found suffering from hypothermia in the back of a UK-bound refrigerated "smuggler" lorry this morning... Two Romanian truckers were arrested when they tried to drive on to a ferry heading to England.
It comes after 39 bodies were found in the back of a similar refrigerated lorry in the UK after it was picked up from Purfleet, Essex, on October 23.
An old painting found in the kitchen of an elderly French woman who hung it above her oven has made her a multimillionaire.
The work, a masterpiece attributed to the 13th-century Italian painter Cimabue that was discovered earlier this year, sold for 24 million euros (￡20.7 million).
Dominique Le Coent of Acteon Auction House, who sold the work to an anonymous buyer near Chantilly, north of Paris, said the sale represented a 'world record for a primitive, or a pre-1500 work'.
▽Catholic bishops back limited relaxation of celibacy rule - BBC News
Roman Catholic bishops have voted to allow married men to become priests in the Amazon region, exempting them from the centuries-old rule on celibacy.
The vote came at the end of a Vatican assembly on the Amazon, where there is a severe shortage of priests.
For the proposal to take effect, it must be backed by Pope Francis, who is due to make his position clear soon.
▽Tiny beetle named after climate activist Greta Thunberg | The Guardian
A tiny species of beetle discovered more than 50 years ago has been named after environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have officially called the insect Nelloptodes gretae to honour the 16-year-old Swedish activist’s “outstanding contribution” in raising global awareness of climate change.
The arthropod, which has no eyes or wings, is less than 1mm long and belongs to the Ptiliidae family, which is made up of some of the world’s smallest beetles.
