The United Kingdom would end up in the news for multiple reasons today. First and foremost... would be the Good Friday Agreement. After years of setbacks, political changes and flat-out misfortune (including rescheduled meetings and illnesses), the British government would end meet up with the Irish and finally sign what would be called the Good Friday Agreement or the Belfast Agreement. This set of agreements, signed between the British government and the Irish government along with most of the parties of Northern Ireland would serve to finally end the Troubles. [1] Issues relating to
sovereignty, governance,
discrimination, military and paramilitary groups, justice and policing were central to the agreement. It restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of "
power sharing" and it included acceptance of the
principle of consent, commitment to
civil and political rights,
cultural parity of esteem,
police reform,
paramilitary disarmament and early release of paramilitary prisoners, followed by
demilitarisation. The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland ("North–South"), and between the Republic of Ireland and the
United Kingdom ("East–West"). [2] Surprisingly enough, the Troubles have calmed down considerably even before the agreement, with the Labor government having helped out alot with ironing the details with the dela in the actual signing due to various misfortunes and circumstances that kept delaying the signing. However, now that it was here, it was quite a relief to say the least.
In additional news related to the British, after weeks of delay along with further hours of discussion, Parliament would finally succeed in passing one of the biggest reforms ever. This reform would revolutionize the voting system of the United Kingdom, changing the electoral method from first-past-the-post over to the single transferable vote system that the LibDems have been clammoring for a while. They say this as the best chance to break the duopoly of power held by the Tories and Labour Parties with the other smaller parties also giving their support there. Labour did it out of a mix of principle and pragmatism and some of the Tories even did so out of pragmatism like usually expected from them though others noted that it may benefit them more in the long run here. Additionally, they had a few years before an election had to be held over and they decided to look over some of the other issues. Intra-party discussions were being held over the future of these elections, the rammifications and the like on how to proceed and what the future would await.
The positive news certainly helped to balance out some of the other concerns over in the world. The Kosovo War was seeing Albania and Macedonia fully entering the war on the side of the Kosovo revolutionaries, the former doing it so Kosovo may unify over with Albania while Macedonia was doing it out of a series of agreements regarding refugee concern and other potential benefits down the line. While there has been some NATO assistance over with the Kosobo forces and the Yugoslavic army still weakened from the war, it was so far a bit of a stalemate in regards to it. Meanwhile, there was still the desertations and MIA soldiers along with their equipment regarding the Iranian-Turkish War that while having settled, was laying questions to where these armed forces may have gone and for what purpose. Meanwhile, after after over30 years of rule, President of Indonesia Suharta would resign, signalling the end of a long period over for Indonesia. The instabilities of the Asian financial panic would be what would finally do him in, especially in losing important loyalities. [1] China would try and come in for assistance to deal regarding the financial troubles.
Over for American news, the increased security measures and reforms on reporting suspicious individuals would begin paying off and preventing some potential troubles such as attacks on abortion clinics or suspects regarding potential firearm incidents involving youth. In some positive news,
Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at
Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time. Speaking of Disney, they would launch
Toon Disney, devoted to carrying animated series and movies, 24 hours a day. Chief Justice Jordan would announce her resignation as per the agreement put in by the Constitution though it would take effect until later. But most of all, would be the court case that would be having a profound impact over in the world of technology... that of
United States v. Microsoft Corporation, where the
United States Department of Justice and 20
U.S. states file an
antitrust case against
Microsoft. This would be over accusations monopolistic practices in the PC market, mainly with restrictions on PC manufacturer and users on the programs they can have on and use. Many would see this as laying the groundwork for changing the computer landscape forever as there was quite a good chance that Microsoft would be penalized by this. [3]
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998
[2]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday_Agreement
[3]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_in_the_United_States
