News Headlines - 21 December 2019

▽Evangelical Magazine Christianity Today: Trump Must Go | Voice of America

A major evangelical Christian magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham on Thursday published an editorial calling for President Donald Trump’s removal from office.
The editorial in Christianity Today - coming one day after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives made Trump the third president in American history to be impeached - raised fresh questions about the durability of his support among the conservative evangelicals who have proven to be a critical component of his political base.

▽Reporters Without Borders: Number of journalists killed at its lowest since 2003 - CNN

Forty-nine journalists were killed this year, 57 are being held hostage and 389 are currently in prison, nonprofit group Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.
In its annual review, the Paris-based group found that the number of journalists killed in 2019 was the lowest since 2003, representing a "historically low" figure compared with an average of 80 journalists killed per year over the past two decades.
The fall in the number of journalists killed is due to a reduction in the number of journalists killed in war zones, Reporters Without Borders said, noting that 941 journalists have been killed over the past 10 years.

▽267 Million Names And Phone Numbers Leaked Online - And They’re All From Facebook

Recently, a security researcher named Bob Diachenko found a database of user account info including their name and phone numbers for 267 million Facebook users. It was available in an unprotected format and copied to other hacker forums.
Reports indicate that this presents a treasure trove of data for telemarketers and spam purveyors because the data looks legitimate and comes from the social network itself, not from an untrusted source.

▽Europe’s CHEOPS satellite blasts off on hunt for distant planets

Europe’s CHEOPS planet-hunting satellite left Earth on Wednesday a day after its lift-off was delayed by a technical rocket glitch during the final countdown.
The 30-centimetre (12-inch) telescope has been designed to measure the density, composition, and size of numerous planets beyond our solar system-so-called exoplanets.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), CHEOPS will observe bright stars that are already known to be orbited by planets.

▽Russia's Bolshoi rejects Misty Copeland's 'blackface' criticism - BBC News

Russia's Bolshoi Theatre says it will continue using performers who wear blackface make-up despite criticism from US ballet dancer Misty Copeland.
Copeland, an African-American ballerina, posted an image on Instagram of two white female actors in black body paint rehearsing for a show... Bolshoi Theatre director Vladimir Urin said the ballet had been performed the same way for many years.