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Post by prof20 on Jan 2, 2019 18:59:48 GMT
Trump seeks to move International Date Line
As part of his America First programme, President trump has announced that from 1st January 2021, New Year will be celebrated earlier in the USA than the rest of the World. He proposes to abandon the International Meridian Convention of 1884 and redraw the the line approximately 18 hours later,moving the USA to the forefront of the New Year celebrations. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has suggested that it is unlikely that the other nations of the world would agree to such a move and is now seen to be at risk of being fired. However rumours abound that he has suggested an alternative plan, whereby the USA refuses to recognise the Leap Year of 2020, meaning that the USA would go straight from 28th February 2020 to 1st March 2020 avoiding the 29th February. This would have the effect of placing the USA 24 hours ahead of the rest of the world. A UK Government spokesman refused to be drawn on the matter, which would result in the role of Royal Observatory at Greenwich in South London being replaced by a similar organisation in Greenwich, Connecticut. “At present we are considering the effect of Brexit and the likely move of the Royal Observatory to mainland Europe. We cannot envisage a move further afield,” said the spokesman. “Our focus has be upon the effects of Brexit. We are more interested in preventing the UK slipping into the 1950s.”
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