Twenty Things: Did You Know...?

INXS's international breakthrough album Kick turns 30/BBC.

Near and far news nuggets picked from the press.

1. Luxembourg-based Bitcoin exchange, Bitstamp, has said virtual currency Bitcoin is at a record high.
2. In the last five years, home-schooling numbers have grown by 57% across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. Cohabiting couples have become the fastest-growing family type in the UK.
4. Katie Hopkins has left MailOnline after two years as a columnist for the website by 'mutual consent'. Hopkins had asked for a 'final solution' against Muslims earlier in the year.
5. Mind your greens: The number of vegans in Britain has increased by more than 360% over the past decade, and it’s a movement being led by the under 35s.
6. YouTube has changed the way its autofill feature works after reports that some word combinations brought up paedophilic phrases, while YouTube star Jack Maynard has apologised for a tweet he posted in 2011 in which he joked about rape.
7. His parents named him Sathyanarayana Iyer, but he changed it to Regret Iyer. His childhood aspiration to be a journalist in India ultimately led to him changing his name, because he received so many rejection letters.
8. US gun background checks hit a new record on Black Friday, overtaking last year's single-day record by nearly 10%.
9. Groups protecting consumers warn Black Friday deals are often not as good as they seem, with more than half of last year's Black Friday deals cheaper or the same price as at other times of year, while the cost of Christmas dinner is set to increase, with even the UK's cheapest supermarket spread destined to be 16% more expensive than in 2016.
10. Entitled Coco, Pixar animation and "love letter to Mexico" is a film that tells of a boy called Miguel who is transported to the Land of the Dead when he touches a dead musician's enchanted guitar.
11. British ex-wife of an American leader in the so called Islamic State, Tania Georgelas escaped and now wants to dedicate her life to countering extremism and rehabilitating ex-jihadists.
12. Australia Day on 26 January marks the anniversary of British settlement in 1788, a date many Aboriginal and Torres Islander people consider offensive.
13. Lost or imprisoned? Eighty years after famed female pilot Amelia Earhart made her voyage around the world, people are still trying to figure out what happened to her - with one theory espousing she was taken prisoner and executed by the Japanese.
14. Losing international support, Aung San Suu Kyi has been formally stripped of an honour granting her the Freedom of Oxford because of her response to the Rohingya crisis.
15. Sixteen emerging artists have made it onto the BBC Music Sound of 2018 longlist, now in its 16th year, which has previously included names like Adele, Frank Ocean and Dua Lipa.
16. British boxer Amir Khan has been mocked online after asking fellow contestants on a reality TV show whether the UK had ever had a female prime minister. It has had two, including the current one.
17. INXS's sixth album Kick sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It became the band's legacy, going platinum eight times in the US and being certified diamond in Canada. By 1990, one in 20 Canadians owned a copy.
18. Things you don't want in your photos: One happy couple was unlucky enough to have Stephen King’s child-killing Pennywise the clown sneak into snaps that were meant to immortalise their pre-nuptial bliss.
19. Could more women soldiers make an army stronger? It's a question the UK armed forces are asking as only one in 10 members is a woman.
20. How are Nigeria and Norway connected? Fish.

Read more news >>