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1959 Okinawa F-100 crash
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The 1959 Okinawa F-100 crash (Japanese: 宮森小学校米軍機墜落事故), also known as the Miyamori Elementary School crash (宮森小学校米軍機墜落事故), occurred on June 30, 1959, when a North American F-100 Super Sabre of the United States Air Force crashed in Ishikawa, in United States-occupied Okinawa, killing 18 people. At 10:40 A.M., a United States Air Force F-100D Super Sabre, piloted by 34-years-old Captain John G. Schmitt Jr. from Chalmers, Indiana, became uncontrollable during a training or test flight from Kadena Air Base located in the towns of Kadena and Chatan. Schmitt ejected from the aircraft, landing safely and unhurt. However, the F-100 crashed into Miyamori Elementary School and surrounding houses in the nearby city of Ishikawa, killing 11 students and 6 other people in the neighborhood, and injuring 210 others including 156 students at the school. Immediately after the crash, troops of the armed police rushed to the accident site and worked on rescue operations. Most of the doctors residing in central Okinawa Island rushed to treat the victims. The fire caused by the accident was extinguished one hour later, with 27 buildings including 3 school buildings and 1 public building being destroyed, while 2 school buildings, 2 private houses and eight other buildings were half-destroyed. At the time of the accident, Miyamori Elementary School had about 1,000 children and teachers, with almost all children in the school taking a milk break at the end of the second hour of classes. The F-100 crash became a major tragedy in Okinawa as the victims were mostly very young schoolchildren, and contributed to increasingly ill-feelings towards the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands from the Okinawan community. The crash led to fierce protests of anti-American sentiment in Okinawa, calling for the US occupation authorities to leave and for the islands to be returned to the control of the Government of Japan. The US military immediately launched a compensation scheme for victims, paying $4,500 for the dead and $2,300-$5,900 for serious injuries depending on disability. The US military paid a total of $119,066 in compensation for the accident, but this amount was only about 10% of the victims requested. The US authorities determined that the defective F-100 had experienced an engine fire despite recently undergoing repairs in Taiwan, and that Schmitt had attempted to aim the aircraft at an unpopulated hilly area before ejecting. In 1965, a memorial statue for the victims of the disaster was erected at the crash site in Ishikawa. In 1976, a former student at Miyamori Elementary School died at the age of 23 from complications related to burns caused by the crash 17 years earlier. Their death brought the sum of people killed in the F-100 crash to 18, and their name was added to the monument in 2010. On June 30, 2009, 800 people, including former students of Miyamori Elementary and relatives of the victims, attended a 50th-anniversary memorial service at the crash site, now in the city of Uruma. Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima spoke at the ceremony, saying, "The Okinawa people of the time were deeply saddened by the accident in which the lives of children having dreams and hopes for the future were lost. "[1]
The F-100 crash and its aftermath were dramatized in the movie Himawari, directed by Yoshihiro Oikawa, completed in 2012. [2][3]
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Air crash
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Aeroflot Flight 902 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 902 was a passenger flight on a scheduled domestic service from Khabarovsk to Moscow, with intermediate stops at Irkutsk and Omsk, Russia. The flight was operated by a Tu-104A aircraft. On 30 June 1962, with 76 passengers (including 14 children) and 8 crew members aboard, the flight departed Irkutsk on schedule, and made a timely report 50 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk. A few minutes later, an agitated voice later identified as that of the co-pilot made an incoherent emergency transmission with a background of an unusual noise. Repeated subsequent attempts to contact the flight failed. [citation needed]
The aircraft's wreckage was found 28 km east of Krasnoyarsk Airport, in flat terrain with small areas of forest. Investigators subsequently determined that the plane had impacted the ground upside-down at an angle of 40°. There were no survivors. [1]
The official cause of the disaster was reported to be a stall and loss of spatial orientation in cloud. A second theory was a loss of control due to a fire in the passenger cabin. [citation needed] However, damage found on the port side of the fuselage (specifically, an entry hole with signs of fire damage on the inside) was consistent with damage from an anti-aircraft missile, and there was unofficial confirmation that such a missile had gone astray during an air defense exercise in the area. [1]
Unofficial sources indicated that a fragment of the fuselage was found with a 20 cm hole and fire damage, indicating a high-speed impact. At the time of the crash, a unit at nearby Magansk had fired anti-aircraft missiles as part of an exercise. The responsible missile had allegedly lost its intended target in a storm front before hitting the Tu-104. [2]
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Air crash
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The Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force
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The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force elevates research in recent years by the Navy into unexplained encounters with high-performance craft. The Pentagon briefing room. | DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando 08/14/2020 08:01 PM EDT Link Copied The Pentagon, under growing pressure from Congress, said Friday it has established a new high-level body to investigate reports of "unidentified aerial phenomena" following multiple incidents in recent years of UFOs reportedly intruding into military airspace. The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force was created by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist on Aug. 4, elevating an effort that since 2018 has been under the purview of the Office of Naval Intelligence, officials said. "The Department of Defense established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs," Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said in a statement. "The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security." The new high-level attention was heralded by Lue Elizondo, who was involved in a previous Pentagon UFO research program known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Intelligence Program, or AATIP, that was wound down in 2012. Elizondo resigned in 2017 in part over frustration that senior Pentagon officials were not taking seriously enough a series of unexplained encounters, including those experienced by pilots flying off the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt in 2004 and 2015 who reported unknown aircraft maneuvering in ways that appeared to defy aerodynamics. "This is precisely the intended result of what we were trying to achieve under AATIP," Elizondo told POLITICO following the announcement. POLITICO, along with the New York Times, first reported on the existence of AATIP and the Nimitz incident in 2017. The Navy last year said it was updating its reporting guidelines for such sightings to more comprehensively collect new data. And earlier this year it officially made public three videos of the Nimitz and Roosevelt incidents. The Pentagon announcement on Friday also comes several weeks after the Senate’s version of the Intelligence Authorization Act required the director of national intelligence and secretary of defense, working with a variety of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, to prepare a public report of government findings on the UAP issue. "We have things flying over our military bases and places where we are conducting military exercises, and we don't know what it is and it isn't ours, so that's a legitimate question to ask," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), acting chair of the intelligence panel, told WFOR-TV in Miami last month. "Frankly, if it's something from outside this planet, that might actually be better than the fact that we've seen some sort of technological leap on behalf of the Chinese or the Russians or some other adversary," he added. Rubio's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, Elizondo told POLITICO he believes the combination of a steady stream of new UAP reports in recent months and the pressure from Congress has compelled military leadership to be more aggressive about an issue that historically has carried a significant stigma but is now far more mainstream. "They can't ignore it anymore," Elizondo said. "They are looking like they are hiding something from the American people. Not taking this more seriously is now a liability." The plans for the new task force were first reported by CNN on Thursday. Gough, the Pentagon spokesperson, said Friday she could not provide specifics on how many personnel or from which agencies have been assigned to the new operation. But she explained it is an outgrowth of research efforts undertaken by the Navy's intelligence arm and that the service will continue to play a leading role. "The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF," her statement said. In a followup email, she added that "since the majority of recent reporting about UAP observations have come from naval aviators, since approximately 2018 the Department of the Navy has been leading assessments of UAP incursion into [Department of Defense] training ranges and designated airspace." "Over the last year, DoD undertook efforts to formalize the good work done by the Navy for DoD," she added. "Deputy Secretary Norquist approved the establishment of the UAPTF on Aug. 4, 2020." In the official announcement Friday, Gough also explained that "the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern." "The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report," the statement added. "This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing."
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Organization Established
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1984 anti-Sikh riots
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The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.The ruling Indian National Congress had been in active complicity with the mob, as to the organisation of the riots.] Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwidewhilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000.
The assassination of Indira Gandhi was in retaliation to her order to the Indian Army to attack the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984. The attack had resulted in a deadly battle with armed Sikh groups who were demanding greater rights and autonomy for Punjab. Sikhs worldwide had criticized the army action and many saw it as an assault on their religion and identity.
In the aftermath of the pogroms, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons. The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised. The collusion of political officials in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement. The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings genocide.
In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings". According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian National Congress' complicity in the riots and called it "opportunism" and "hatred" by the Congress government, of Sikhs. Although the U.S. has not identified the riots as genocide, it acknowledged that "grave human rights violations" occurred. In 2011, the burned sites of multiple Sikh killings from 1984, were discovered in Hondh-Chillar and Pataudi areas of Haryana. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials.
After 34 years of delay, in December 2018, the first high-profile conviction for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots took place with the arrest of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court. [28] Very few convictions have taken place in the pending 1984 cases, with only one death penalty conviction for an accused, Yashpal in the case of murdering Sikhs in the Mahipalpur area of Delhi.
In 1972 Punjab state elections, Congress won and Akali Dal was defeated. In 1973, Akali Dal put forward the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to demand more autonomy to Punjab.It demanded that power be generally devolved from the Central to state governments. The Congress government considered the resolution a secessionist document and rejected it. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a prominent Sikh leader of Damdami Taksal, then joined the Akali Dal to launch the Dharam Yudh Morcha in 1982 to implement the Anandpur Sahib resolution. Bhindranwale had risen to prominence in the Sikh political circle with his policy of getting the Anandpur Resolution passed. Others demanded an autonomous state in India, based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. As high-handed police methods normally used on common criminals were used on protesters during the Dharam Yudh Morcha, creating state repression affecting a very large segment of Punjab's population, retaliatory violence came from a section of the Sikh population, widening the scope of the conflict by the use of violence of the state on its own people, creating fresh motives for Sikh youth to turn to insurgency. The concept of Khalistan was still vague even while the complex was fortified under the influence of former Sikh army officials alienated by government actions who now advised Bhindranwale, Major General Shabeg Singh and retired Major General and Brigadier Mohinder Singh, and at that point the concept was still not directly connected with the movement he headed. [37] In other parts of Punjab, a "state of chaos and repressive police methods" combined to create "a mood of overwhelming anger and resentment in the Sikh masses against the authorities," making Bhindranwale even more popular, and demands of independence gain currency, even amongst moderates and Sikh intellectuals. ] Meanwhile, out of 220 deaths during the first 19 months of the Dharam Yudh Morcha protests, 190 had been Sikhs.
By 1983, the situation in Punjab was volatile. In October, Sikh militants stopped a bus and shot six Hindu passengers. On the same day, another group killed two officials on a train. The Congress-led central government dismissed the Punjab state government (led by their party), invoking the president's rule. During the five months before Operation Blue Star, from 1 January to 3 June 1984, 298 people were killed in violent incidents across Punjab. In the five days preceding the operation, 48 people were killed by violence. According to government estimates, the number of civilians, police, and militants killed was 27 in 1981, 22 in 1982, and 99 in 1983. By June 1984, the total number of deaths was 410 in violent incidents and riots while 1,180 people were injured.
On 1 June, Operation Blue Star was launched to remove him and the armed militants from the Golden Temple complex. [42] On 6 June Bhindranwale died in the operation. Casualty figures for the Army were 83 dead and 249 injured. According to the official estimate presented by the Indian government, 1592 were apprehended and there were 493 combined militant and civilian casualties. Later operations by Indian paramilitary forces were conducted to clear the separatists from the state of Punjab.
The operation carried out in the temple caused outrage among the Sikhs and increased the support for Khalistan Movement. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. One of the assassins was fatally shot by Gandhi's other bodyguards while the other was convicted of Gandhi's murder and then executed. Public outcry over Gandhi's death led to the killings of Sikhs in the ensuing 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupted the following day. They continued in some areas for several days, killing more than 3,000 Sikhs in New Delhiand an estimated 8,000 – 17,000 or more Sikhs were killed in 40 cities across India. At least 50,000 Sikhs were displaced. Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri, and other Trans-Yamuna areas of Delhi were the worst affected.
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Riot
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Welwyn Tunnel rail crash
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The Welwyn Tunnel rail crash took place in Welwyn North Tunnel, north of Welwyn (now Welwyn North) station on the Great Northern Railway, on 9 June 1866. [1] According to L T C Rolt, "from the point of view of damage to engines and rolling stock it was one of the most destructive in railway history. "[2]
There are two tunnels between Welwyn station and Knebworth on the East Coast Main Line, known as Welwyn South Tunnel and Welwyn North Tunnel. In 1866, traffic through the tunnels was operated using a form of block working - the signalmen at Welwyn and Knebworth communicated with each other via a telegraph system, and were not permitted to signal a train into the tunnels until they had received confirmation that the previous train had cleared the section. The instrument was a "speaking" telegraph, which was used for general communication between the signal boxes. The first train involved in the accident consisted of 38 empty coal wagons, hauled by a tender locomotive. [1] The second train was a Midland Railway goods train from London, with 26 wagons. The third train was a Great Northern express freight train, carrying meat from Scotland for Smithfield Market. [2]
The train of coal empties was signalled away from Welwyn at 23:20. When passing through the North tunnel, the engine failed and the train came to a stand. At first, guard Wray recommended that the train be allowed to roll back on the falling gradient to Welwyn, but the driver refused, as such a move would be dangerous and contrary to the rules. According to regulations, Wray should have placed detonators on the line to protect the rear of his train, but he did not, and he also failed to communicate with either signal box. At 23:36, the Midland Goods train stopped at Welwyn signal box. The signalman at Welwyn, who had not received the "out of section" signal for the train of coal empties, sent a telegraph message to Knebworth asking if it had cleared the tunnel. The Knebworth signalman stated to the official enquiry that he had replied with the code for "No", but the Welwyn signalman claimed that he had received a "Yes". The code for "No" differed from the code for "Out" only by the number of beats on the telegraph needle,[1] and the enquiry ruled that the Welwyn signalman had misinterpreted the signal as being "Out", which would have the same meaning as "Yes" in answer to his question. He therefore cleared his signals and allowed the Midland train into the tunnel. The Midland train ran into the stationary first train at a speed estimated between 20 and 25 mph. The driver had no warning of its presence, and the collision killed Wray whilst severely injuring Rawlins, an employee of the Metropolitan Railway, who was travelling in the guard's van contrary to the regulations of the Great Northern Railway. He was severely injured and died on the morning of the 12th. The driver and fireman of the Midland train were not seriously injured, but it took them some time to extricate themselves from the debris of the accident. Before any of the railwaymen could communicate with either signal box, the up meat train was allowed into the tunnel, where it struck the wreckage from the first collision and caught fire. Due to the difficulty of accessing the tunnel after the accident, and because the fire was directly beneath one of the tunnel's ventilation shafts, it was not extinguished until 11 June - according to Rolt, "all that night and all through the next day the ventilation shaft belched flames, smoke and the smell of roasting meat over the surrounding countryside. "[2]
The official report, by Captain F. H. Rich of the Royal Engineers, blamed the collision mainly on Guard Wray of the first train, for failing to protect the rear of his train after it had stopped, and for relying on the signals for protection in this situation. [1] A secondary cause was the misreading of the telegraph message by the Welwyn signalman. Rich recommended two changes to the signalling method, which were subsequently adopted in the system of absolute block working - before a train is allowed into a section, the signalman must positively request clearance from the next box ahead, rather than relying on the "out of section" message for the previous train, and a separate block telegraph that permanently displays the state of the section should be used, in addition to the general-purpose "speaking" telegraph.
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Train collisions
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US withdraws from UN Human Rights Council as Haley decries 'cesspool of political bias'
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Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations blasts the Council for its 'politicized scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records.' The Trump administration announced Tuesday it was withdrawing the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council, with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley calling the 47-member council “a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.” Haley noted the move came after a year where “we did not see any progress.” Haley threatened the pullout last year, citing longstanding U.S. complaints that the council showed a “chronic bias” against Israel. Calling it “an organization that is not worthy of its name,” Haley decried the membership of countries like China, Cuba and Venezuela — which also have been slammed for human-rights violations. The announcement, though, also came just a day after the U.N. human rights chief denounced the Trump administration for separating migrant children from their parents. “I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from our human rights commitments. On the contrary. We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights,” Haley said. “We did not make this decision lightly. When this administration began 17 months ago, we were well aware of the enormous flaws in the Human Rights Council. We could have withdrawn immediately. We did not do that. Instead, we made a good faith effort to resolve the problems.” Haley said that if the council does reform, the United States “would be happy to rejoin.” “The Human Rights Council has long been the foe of those who truly care about human rights around the world. The United States has proven, yet again, its commitment to truth and justice and their unwillingness to allow the blind hatred of Israel in international institutions to stand unchallenged,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon reacted. “We thank President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador Nikki Haley for their leadership and call on the moral majority at the UN to hold all of its institutions accountable.” Trump long has been critical of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, which he has accused of showing a bias against Israel. Haley last year slammed the body for its “relentless, pathological campaign” against Israel. Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton opposed the creation of the body when he served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres, spoke for the greater U.N.: “The Secretary-General would have much preferred for the United States to remain in the Human Rights Council. The U.N.’s Human Rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.” “The U.N. Human Rights Council is headed up by some of the worst human rights violators in the world. They are actually in the leadership of the Council year after year after year,” Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said. “They are anti-Israel, over and over again. That is their constant drumbeat. So, I get it, we can try to be there, so we can try to be a participant in it. But when you are there, we vote no every time, and it just becomes a problem every time as well. So it doesn’t seem to make a difference whether we are there or not there.” A senior official added that the U.S. gave the United Nations’ Human Rights Council a year to reform, and said it had failed to do so. The council, according to the official, protects human rights abusers and shows bias in rendering decisions. The official claimed countries like China, Egypt and Russia worked to undermine U.S. reform efforts, and that the council has passed more resolutions this year condemning Israel than Iran, Syria and North Korea combined. The official says the Trump administration believes staying in the council lends it credibility, and only will rejoin if it reforms. The move extends a broader Trump administration pattern of stepping back from international agreements and forums under the president’s “America First” policy. Although numerous officials have said repeatedly that “America First does not mean America Alone,” the administration has retreated from multiple multilateral accords and consensuses since it took office. Since taking office, the administration has announced its withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the U.N. educational and cultural organization and the Iran nuclear deal. Other contentious moves have included slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum against key trading partners, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv. Haley has been the driving force behind the latest move, which would be unprecedented in the 12-year history of the council. No country has ever dropped out voluntarily. Libya was kicked out seven years ago. The move could reinforce the perception that the Trump administration is seeking to advance Israel’s agenda on the world stage, just as it prepares to unveil its long-awaited peace plan despite Palestinian outrage over the embassy relocation. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is visiting the Middle East this week as the White House works to lay the groundwork for unveiling the plan. Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly, Rich Edson, Ben Evansky and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Andria–Corato train collision
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The Andria–Corato train collision happened late in the morning of 12 July 2016 when two regional passenger trains on a single-track section of the Bari–Barletta railway collided head-on between the towns of Andria and Corato in the Apulia region of southern Italy. Twenty-three people were killed and 54 injured. [1][2][3] The stretch of track is operated by regional rail company Ferrotramviaria. [4]
The Bari–Barletta line is laid to standard gauge, with 3,000 V DC overhead electrification. Since the 1990s the line has been refurbished, and is mostly upgraded to double track. [5] The accident occurred between the Corato and Andria stations, on the remaining single-track section of the line between Ruvo di Puglia and Barletta. That 37-kilometre (23 mi) section operates with "telephonic block" signalling, where station masters must notify the arrival of trains and inform drivers whether it is safe to proceed. [6] EU funds were made available in April 2012 to upgrade this remaining section to double track, but at the time of the accident the work had only recently been put for tender. [7]
The collision occurred at 11:06[8][9] local time (09:06 UTC) in the countryside, adjacent to an olive grove, approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Andria station and 51 km (32 mi) from Bari. (Many earlier reports mentioned the time 11:38[10] and also other train service numbers than those later reported. But this seems to have been a mistake.) The trains involved were a Stadler FLIRT ETR 340 (service ET1016 from Bari to Barletta) and an Alstom Coradia ELT 200[11] (service ET1021 from Barletta to Bari), each being a four-carriage multiple unit. They were travelling at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) in opposite directions: ET1021 travelling south-east from Andria and ET1016 north-west from Corato. [4][12] The crash occurred on a curve, giving neither driver any chance to spot the other train, or attempt an emergency braking, before the collision. [6] The first two carriages and the fore part of the third one of ET1016, and the leading carriage of ET1021, disintegrated in the impact; the second carriage of ET1021 partially derailed and was heavily damaged; the other cars of both trains remained on track almost intact. [13]
The weather at the time was described as hot, moist and sunny,[13] with temperatures up to 40 °C (104 °F). [4]
23 people were killed and 54 injured. Both drivers and one of the two conductors were killed. [2] One of the victims was a farmer who was hit by a metal plate while he was working close to the crash site. The rescue operations were complicated by the lack of road access to the site of the accident and by the hot weather. A field hospital was set up adjacent to the crash site. Some of the injured were airlifted to hospital by medical helicopter. An appeal was made for local people to donate blood. Around 200 emergency service personnel were involved in the rescue effort,[4] as well as members of the army. [14]
The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, cut short a visit to Milan, returned to Rome and then, in the early evening, visited the crash site. [4] The Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, expressed condolences for the crash, as did Pope Francis. [15] The Mayor of Corato, Massimo Mazzilli, said that the scene was "as if an airplane fell out of the sky". [16]
The Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza delle Ferrovie (ANSF) is responsible for investigating rail accidents in Italy. The rail operator stated that it had secured records of the communications between the stations at either end of the single track section and the phone calls made between the station masters and the two drivers. [6] The train event recorder from one of the trains was recovered from the wreckage, but the other's was destroyed. [14]
Initial responses from the public inquiry led by the Public Prosecutor of Trani's Justice Court said that departure clearance from Andria for ET1021 should not have been given because, when it left the station, ET1016 was already on the track. Investigations will try to determine why ET1021 was cleared for departure before ET1016 (the train coming from the opposite direction) had arrived at Andria station. On 14 July 2016, the station masters of both Corato and Andria were placed under investigation for their roles in the disaster. [17]
According to the timetable, both trains should have been crossing in Andria's station between 10:58 and 10:59. Accounted sources[18][8][9] report that a third train ET1642, running late from Corato to Andria and preceding ET1016, could have been confused with ET1016 itself, causing Andria's station master to assume the track between Andria and Corato was free of traffic once the late train had departed northbound to Barletta. On 6 December 2017, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport published a survey report on the accident and confirmed the direct cause was the confusion of ET1642 and ET1016. [19]
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Train collisions
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WA’s road death toll for 2021 rises to four after fatal crashes in Peel and Kununurra
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Two people have been killed in a horror 12 hours on WA’s regional roads, taking the State’s road death toll to four in 2021. A 22-year-old man died after crashing his white Mazda ute into a tree in the Peel region about 6:25am on Friday. The man was driving on Pinjarra-Williams road, in Marradong, when he left the road and struck the tree about 10kms west of Boddington. He was the only person inside the car and died at the scene. This comes after a female pedestrian was struck and killed by a car in Kununurra on Thursday evening. The woman was hit on the south side of Victoria Highway, near Packsaddle road, about 6:40pm. She is yet to be officially identified and police are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash. A man in his 20s, riding a Kawasaki motorcycle in Joondalup was killed on Wednesday when he collided with a grey Mazda. The crash happened just after 7am at the intersection between Joondalup Drive and Collier Pass in Joondalup. The grey Mazda was travelling north on Joondalup Drive when it collided with the green Kawasaki motorcycle. The motorcyclist was taken to Royal Perth Hospital by ambulance but died shortly after. The driver of the Mazda was not injured. On New Year’s Day, Nomads bikie Cameron Hurst was struck and killed by a car in Karnup, south of Perth. Mr Hurst, 28, died about 8.30pm, after getting out of a car, which had stopped along Mandurah Road. He had walked onto the road before being struck by a white Holden, police said. Anyone with information regarding the Marradong crash are asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.
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Road Crash
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Indian Airlines Flight 605 crash
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On the 14th of February 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus A320 touched down on a golf course short of the runway in Bangalore, India, sending the plane careening into an earthen embankment. As the battered airliner came to a stop, fire tore through the passenger cabin, forcing badly injured survivors to flee for their lives; of the 146 people on board, 92 died in the crash and the inferno that followed. Indian investigators faced great pressure to find the cause of the crash, which was the first involving the A320 in regular passenger service. The investigation soon revealed a series of escalating human errors involving the use of the plane’s advanced autopilot during the approach to Bangalore, as the crew made a disjointed effort to get back onto the proper glide path. The crash fueled an ongoing controversy around the radical design of the A320. Were the pilots really to blame, or did responsibility lie with a poorly designed user interface? Looking back at the accident today, the answer seems to be a little bit of both — the defining feature of a series of crashes involving the Airbus A320, of which Indian Airlines flight 605 was neither the first nor the last. Indian Airlines was a fully state-owned carrier run by the government of India, which specialized in domestic routes to complement the long-haul flights offered by the country’s other flag carrier, Air India. Near the end of the 1980s, Indian Airlines launched a major initiative to overhaul its fleet, replacing early generation Boeing 737–200s with the latest innovation in short-to-medium range passenger jets: the Airbus A320. First introduced in 1988, the Airbus A320 was nothing short of revolutionary. It was the first aircraft ever to incorporate a fly-by-wire system, whereby pilot inputs were fed to computers which then moved the flight controls proportionally with respect to the aircraft’s speed and configuration. The plane had no traditional control columns; instead, it had a pair of side sticks which the pilots could move with one hand. Instead of huge banks of analog gauges, the cockpit was dominated by six large computer screens that displayed a wide variety of flight parameters, autoflight information, and automated fault messages. Within its complex software architecture, so-called “alpha floor” protections lay in wait to respond swiftly and without prompting to any dangerous attitude that could develop in flight. Pointing to all these changes, Airbus hailed the plane as both easier to fly and safer than conventional airliners. But many in the industry questioned this design philosophy right out of the gate, arguing that the extensive role of computers in basic aspects of flight obscured how the plane was responding to pilot commands and increased the probability of errors. On June 26th 1988, those fears gained new credibility. During the first ever passenger flight of an Airbus A320 — a low altitude flyby at an air show, followed by a sightseeing trip around Mont Blanc — the plane failed to clear trees past the end of the runway during its flyby and crashed into a forest, killing 3 passengers and injuring more than 50. The cause of the crash is still a source of controversy to this day. The official investigation found that a lack of flight planning before the flyby was the main cause of the crash. This lack of planning led the pilots to perform the flyby too close to the ground while unaware of the presence of the forest, which they did not attempt to avoid until it was too late. But the pilots, who survived the crash, insisted that the flight computers had gone into landing mode when they got close to the ground and prevented them from applying max power to avoid the forest. Although there was no real evidence that this occurred, enough circumstantial evidence existed to suggest that there could be more to the story, and the controversy surrounding the crash never died down. After all, the optics were bad: a crash occurred on the very first passenger flight of a radical new aircraft, and any explanation that didn’t fault the design was likely to be seen as a cover-up orchestrated to protect the finances of one of France’s biggest employers. Meanwhile, Indian Airlines forged ahead with its plan to purchase 18 Airbus A320s, which began to arrive early in 1989. Like any airline incorporating a new plane into its fleet, it faced a conundrum: Indian law required that a pilot have 100 hours as first officer on a particular aircraft type before he or she could be promoted to captain, but there were no qualified A320 captains in India under whom these pilots could serve as first officers. Therefore, a large group of Indian Airlines pilots (most of whom had been flying the Boeing 737) were granted an exemption to this rule so that they could attend a special training course at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, before returning as qualified captains to teach others what they had learned. Among these pilots was Satish Gopujkar, an experienced 737 captain with over 10,000 flying hours. After attending the rigorous introductory course in Toulouse, he was appointed as a training captain on the A320, where he would conduct the final line checks for other Indian Airlines pilots in the process of upgrading to captain on the new airplanes. One of the Indian Airlines pilots undergoing training early in 1990 was Captain Cyril Fernandez, another 737 pilot who had almost as much experience as Gopujkar. Upon returning from Toulouse, he was slated to begin flying his line checks — 10 regular passenger flights performed under the supervision of a training captain. Upon completion of these checks, he would be fully certified as captain on the A320. The first of his line checks was to be Indian Airlines flight 605 on the 14th of February 1990, a short domestic flight from Bombay to Bangalore in southern India. Flying in the first officer’s seat to monitor his ability as captain was Satish Gopujkar, who by this point had accumulated 255 hours on the Airbus A320. Although Gopujkar could still be considered a rookie, Fernandez, with only 68 hours on the type, was a complete novice. On such a new aircraft, however, 255 hours was about as much as anyone could be expected to have. At 11:58 a.m. local time, Indian Airlines flight 605 departed Bombay with 139 passengers and 7 crew on board, climbed to its cruising altitude, and proceeded toward Bangalore. All was normal as the flight contacted Bangalore control and began its descent, and at 12:53 they received clearance to perform a visual approach to runway 09. Understanding the events that took place during the descent into Bangalore requires some basic knowledge about how to fly the Airbus A320. During normal flight, everything revolves around the autoflight systems — specifically, what modes they are in. A large part of the job of an A320 pilot consists of keeping track of the autoflight modes, and using the Flight Management System (FMS) to select new modes as needed for different phases of flight. On the A320, there are three main autoflight regimes: the lateral regime (heading); the vertical regime (altitude and descent rate); and auto thrust, which controls airspeed and engine thrust. Each of these parameters has two basic types of guidance: “managed,” in which the flight computer (FCU) determines what inputs are needed to maintain a particular trajectory; and “selected,” in which the FCU holds the parameter to whatever value has been selected by the pilots. By managing these modes through the FMS, pilots can fly the plane essentially from takeoff to touchdown without ever touching the conventional controls. While descending into Bangalore, the crew of flight 605 found themselves slightly above the normal glide path — a common occurrence, and one which is easily corrected by temporarily increasing one’s rate of descent. To accomplish this, Captain Fernandez set the vertical mode to “Open Descent,” a mode in which the airplane descends to a previously selected target altitude while the auto thrust holds engine power at idle. In this case, that target altitude was 4,600 feet above sea level, or about 1,700 feet above the ground, the altitude to which they had been cleared by air traffic control. In Open Descent mode, the auto thrust will not adjust engine power to maintain a selected airspeed.
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Columbia woman convicted of murder in 2010 fails to get sentence reduced
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A Columbia woman who was convicted in 2010 for the 2004 murder of her ex-husband was denied a sentence reduction Tuesday by the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals. Tausha Fields was seeking post-conviction relief of her life sentence without parole for the murder of Mitchell Kemp and the concurrent 20-year sentence for armed criminal action. She filed her motion in 2017, roughly four years after the filing deadline. She had sought an exception to the relief rule claiming "third-party interference" in her ability to timely file the motion while she already was in prison. Despite the late filing, the appeals court in 2018 did allow an evidentiary hearing to take place on her claim that her lawyer was ineffective. Allegations must be proven According to Tribune reporting in 2018, Fields' trial lawyer had intended to file a post-conviction relief motion, but failed to do so due to a debilitating illness. Her lawyer had to file the motion within 90 days of the unsuccessful murder trial appeal in 2012. Fields had alleged sufficient facts to invoke the interference exception, Presiding Judge Mark D. Pfeiffer wrote in the opinion issued Tuesday. Fields and her lawyer still had to prove those allegations. The evidentiary hearing took place May 9, 2019. She presented evidence concerning merits of claims of ineffective assistance by her trial lawyer and testimony from both of her trial attorneys and the investigator that assisted the trial lawyers. She did not, however, present evidence of active interference that would have excused her filing the relief motion four years late. Because of this, the motion court ruled she did not establish the actual-interference exception. Fields appealed. The appeals court reviews the case When reviewing the ruling from the motion court, the appeals court seeks to determine if there were clear errors, Pfeiffer wrote. While Fields raised six points in her appeal, the three-judge panel only looked at her first point as it served as the threshold for the other five. The ruling on the first point likely would have been the same for all. Fields' first point related to the active interference exception. The appeals court saw Fields had alleged the appeal actually filed timely, but required proof of these allegations through evidence. This is done in one of three ways , Pfeiffer wrote, citing the 2012 Dorris v. State. Fields could file a motion on her own behalf so that the timestamp reflects it is within the time limits of the relief rule; Alleging and proving through evidence the motion falls within the recognized exception to the time limits; or Alleging and proving through evidence an amended motion noting the court misfiled the motion. Fields alleged she was within a recognized exception to the time limit and alleged active interference by a third party. She failed to prove this however, because no evidence was presented at the evidentiary hearing about her interference allegations, Pfeiffer wrote. "Fields conceded as much in her appellate brief to this court," he wrote. More: Court orders hearing in Boone County murder case While the appeals court did allow in 2018 the evidentiary hearing to move forward, Fields still had to prove her allegations, he added. "Fields may have met her burden of alleging sufficient facts entitling her to an evidentiary hearing, but '(allegations) in a postconviction motion are not self-proving,'" Pfeiffer wrote, quoting the 2017 Gittemeier v. State . Because Fields did not present evidence during the hearing, this meant she had abandoned the claim of active interference, per the post-conviction relief rule , and so the rule exception does not apply, Pfeiffer wrote. Fields also claimed during the appeal that her allegations should have been interpreted as evidence because the facts alleged were verified and sworn to under oath by motion counsel in an affidavit. Affidavits are not treated as evidence, Pfeiffer wrote, citing court precedence from 2004, 1971 and 2014. "Fields failed to meet her burden of proving to the motion court that her motion was timely under a recognized exception," he wrote. "The motion court’s conclusion to that effect was not clearly erroneous; nor was the motion court’s dismissal of Fields’s motion as untimely erroneous."
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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'Years in the making': Established Latino groups helped Biden in Arizona, Nevada
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"I voted for the candidate that would most help my family and community, and Donald Trump is not it," said a Las Vegas-based young Latina voter. Joe Biden joins the picket line with the Culinary Workers Union outside the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on Feb. 19.Patrick Semansky / AP file Nov. 13, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC By Suzanne Gamboa and Anita Hassan Tomas Robles was 12 years old when a police officer pulled up to his family, who had become stranded on their return home to Phoenix from a vacation across the border. The officer didn't ask whether they needed help. He questioned his father about weapons and drugs and then forced his father to put his hands on the hood of a searing hot car, rummaged through their belongings without a warrant and left without assisting them. Years later, in 2010, Arizona implemented one of the nation's strictest anti-immigration laws, SB 1070, which allowed police to racially profile people and question them about their citizenship and immigration status. "2010 was like a powder keg for the state. The organizations that were built in response to SB 1070 ... would not exist without that law being passed," said Robles, co-executive director of Living United for Change, one of the organizations formed as a result of the law that helped mobilize Latinos politically. The group's acronym, LUCHA, means "fight" in Spanish. Robles, 38, watched as the organizing that he and other young people immersed themselves in a decade ago had its biggest impact yet as the Republican-controlled state flipped Democratic this week, its voters choosing Joe Biden over President Donald Trump and voting for Democrat Mark Kelly for the Senate. "This was 10 years in the making," said Robles, who started as LUCHA's executive director in 2013 with two employees. Today, with co-Executive Director Alejandra Gomez, he oversees offices in three counties and a staff of about 48. Joe Biden's supporters promote the importance of the Latino vote in the majority Hispanic neighborhood of Maryvale in Phoenix on Oct. 31.Edgard Garrido / Reuters In Arizona and Nevada, states with substantial Latino populations, Biden won the majorities of Latino voters, many of whom were propelled to the polls through established on-the-ground Latino organizing. The Latino support from the two states opens up a new path to the White House through the Latino-rich Sunbelt states. The Latino populations in Nevada and Arizona, about 30 percent of the overall population in each state, are predominantly Mexican American. Latinos are about 1 of every 5 voters in Arizona, and Biden got 63 percent of their votes, while Trump drew about a third, according to NBC News' analysis of exit polling. The electorate grew from 2016, when it was about 15 percent, and Biden improved slightly on the performance of Hillary Clinton, who got 61 percent of Latino votes that year. Trump won Arizona by 80,000 votes in 2016. In Nevada, where former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid pulled out a tough re-election victory in 2010 by turning out Latino voters, Trump improved his share of Latino votes from 29 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls, while Biden's performance of 56 percent was below Clinton's 60 percent in 2016. Knocking on nearly half a million doors Nevada's powerful Culinary Workers Union deployed door-to-door canvassers starting Aug. 1 — earlier than it has in previous years because of the pandemic. The union endorsed Biden. Many of its 60,000 mostly Latino members work in the state's casinos, hotel and service industry and associated tourism, which was brought to a halt as Covid-19 case numbers rose and as workers were sickened and others were furloughed or let go. The union's mobilizing machinery became key as the pandemic also pulled the plug on person-to-person contact with Latino voters and large campaign events for months — and as early polls showed soft enthusiasm for Biden among Latinos nationally. Bethany Khan, the union's spokeswoman, said canvassers knocked on nearly half a million doors in Las Vegas and Reno and spoke to 40,000 Latino voters. "Ever since Trump took office, he's been a threat to the livelihood of workers and our families," Khan said, adding that 54 union members or their family members have died from Covid-19 since March. Related News 'Building for the last four years': Pennsylvania Latinos were pivotal for Biden Leo Murrieta, Nevada director for Make The Road Action, said years of outreach and organizing made Latino voters more discerning about disinformation in Spanish-language advertising. He pointed to Trump's telling Spanish-language voters that he was handling the pandemic and to his downplaying of its dangers. "The Trump campaign spent a lot of money in Spanish-language media to divide and break off Latinos from Democrats, trying to divide families and just lying to Latinx voters," Murrieta said. "That wasn't met soon enough by the Joe Biden campaign. We had to pressure every campaign to do more." 'We go to the community' Some of Biden's most active outreach to Latino voters ended up being in Arizona and Nevada. The campaign hired local Latino leaders and bilingual staff members who pushed his message in Spanish-language and Latino media. Biden's first visit to Arizona was in October. He was more cautious about traveling and holding public events than Trump because of the coronavirus. Trump made several visits to the state, but he had to cancel one when he was hospitalized with Covid-19. Robles said the Biden effort in Arizona was the most culturally competent engagement he'd seen from a presidential campaign. The campaign sent former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, the only major Latino presidential candidate in 2020, to Arizona and Nevada a few times to help rally Latino voters, once to preside at a lowrider-themed "Ridin' with Biden" event in Phoenix. In Nevada, after being asked by the campaign for ideas to reach Latinos, Nevada state lawmaker Edgar Flores worked with others from east Las Vegas to organize a cabalgata, a parade on horseback that is traditional to the community. Video of the event went viral, and a second event was held. "The Biden campaign knew that getting the Latino vote was going to be absolutely essential and came to me and said, 'What can we do?'" Flores said. "I said whatever we do, we go to the community. Nothing about this will work if you want our community to go somewhere else." He also insisted that the event amplify the community. Liliana Trejo-Vanegas, 26, of Las Vegas, said her vote was more anti-Trump than pro-Biden. She, her mother, her father and her sister filled out mail-in ballots and dropped them off at polling locations because of Covid-19 concerns. Trejo-Vanegas, a freelance photographer who shoots weddings and events, lost work because of the pandemic. She said she felt that Trump disregarded the impact of the coronavirus on Latinos. Immigration policies were also important to Trejo-Vanegas. While she said she believed Biden could have done more for immigration reform as vice president, she said she felt that Trump's policies and rhetoric were "terrible." "So I voted for the candidate that would most help my family and community, and Donald Trump is not it," she said. Trump gained Latino support in Nevada But 37 percent of Nevada's Latino voters didn't agree with Trejo-Vanegas and cast their ballots for Trump. The share is an 8 percentage-point improvement on his showing in 2016. Republican former state legislator Victoria Seaman, who in 2014 was the first Republican Latina elected to the Nevada Assembly, tied Trump's increased Latino support to his economic policies. Nevada was one of the hardest-hit states during the 2008 Great Recession, but like others, Latinos were experiencing better economic times before the Covid-19 pandemic, said Seaman, who said she is of Spanish and Mexican descent. "Latinos and Hispanics want the same thing that everyone else wants," said Seaman, who is now on the Las Vegas City Council. "They want good jobs. They want to be able to put food on the table, good health care, good education, and they feel as though President Trump delivered that." Similar to Republican-voting Latinos in other states, Seaman said the Nevada voters don't hold Trump responsible for the pandemic and see him as being able to pull the country through it. 'We educated the voters about their power' Latino organizations hope the 2020 results will finally draw the investment and year-round interest in mobilizing Latino voters that many grassroots groups have been urging for years. Arizona "represents the great example of why having vision, long-term investment, really can make a difference," said Hector Sánchez Barba, executive director and CEO of Mi Familia Vota. Arizona: Over 500 hundred @mifamiliavota canvassers hit the doors, made calls, and fought to flip Arizona.
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Queensland Alumina Ltd fined $500k in damages over 2018 environmental breach in Gladstone
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A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) has pleaded guilty to environmental charges over a 2018 incident where chemicals were mistakenly released into the atmosphere, and fined $500,000 in Gladstone Magistrates Court — one of the largest environmental fines in Queensland.
In September 2018, an over-pressure safety system was opened during unplanned maintenance, releasing up to 3 tonnes of alkali bauxite slurry into the atmosphere.
The contaminant caused over $70,000 in damages to homes and cars in the coastal industrial suburb of South Trees in Gladstone.
Alkali bauxite slurry is a chemical created in the process of creating alumina. A technical specialist was dismissed as a result of the incident.
Prosecutor Deborah Holliday QC said untrained operator error had been pegged to blame, as neither an electrician nor the specialist "had received the proper trainings".
Ms Holliday sought a penalty of $500,000 in damages, acting on behalf of the Department of Environment and Science.
The Department has been granted $100,000 for a public project, enhancing the local environment, and to monitor and enhance air quality.
QAL was also made to repatriate all legal costs.
The Department of Environment and Science said in a statement the fine was one of the largest penalties for an environmental breach in Queensland. It said the plume caused "serious environmental harm".
Defence attorney Ralph Devlin QC admitted the incident was serious and did not encourage acting Magistrate Ross Woodford to consider a lesser fine.
QAL has previously been in court five times for instances of causing environmental harm, including previously releasing contaminants into the atmosphere.
Magistrate Woodford said the company had an "unenviable record of being the most prosecuted person, or individual, or corporation, in the Environmental Act's 26-year history".
In August 2018, only a month before the incident in question, the company began a five-year environmental program. In a statement, QAL general manager Pine Pienaar said they accepted the court's decision.
"Queensland Alumina Limited deeply regrets the caustic release in September 2018 and we apologise for the impact caused," he said. "There were no reported environmental or human health impacts from the event." QAL is one of the largest alumina refineries in the world, contributing $153 million to the local economy. It is owned by Rio Tinto and aluminium company Rusal.
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Organization Fine
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2007 Blue Angels South Carolina crash
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The 2007 Blue Angels South Carolina crash occurred on April 21, 2007, when the Number 6 US Navy Blue Angels jet crashed during the final minutes of an air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina. [1] The sole fatality was the pilot, Lieutenant Commander Kevin "Kojak" Davis. [2] The body of the pilot and the flight recorder were recovered and moved to the local coroner's office. [3]
Eight nearby residents were injured and millions of dollars worth of private property damage were caused by flying debris. [4]
A report was released on January 15, 2008, ending the investigation by the Navy into the crash. The report states that when Lieutenant Commander Davis pulled back into a 6.8-g pull, he lost control of the aircraft due to G-force-induced Loss Of Consciousness (G-LOC). [5]
All six McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets of the Blue Angels were making their final turns into the landing pattern when Lt. Cmdr. Davis, piloting Blue Angel #6, became disoriented by the G-forces of the turn. [6][4] His airplane flew behind the audience and low over a tree-line, three miles away from air show center. The aircraft slid for two hundred to three hundred yards after it hit the ground. [4][7] This was followed by a plume of black smoke, which Blue Angel #1 immediately began to circle while the others landed. Several rescue helicopters and local emergency vehicles went to the crash site in response to 9-1-1 calls. [8][9]
The Blue Angels returned to their home base at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, to discuss continuing their season. [10] Sunday's air show went on as planned but, in a special tribute, the GEICO Skytypers flew the missing man formation in honor of the fallen Blue Angel. [4]
Soon after LCDR Davis’ crash, the Blue Angels began performing a five-jet demonstration. The squadron called back former Blue Angel, LCDR Craig Olson, to fill the opposing solo position. LCDR Olson had previously served with the squadron from 2003 to 2005, during which time he flew both solo positions.
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Trending //
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(Lusaka) – Zambia’s next government should urgently clean up lead pollution that has affected the health of tens of thousands of children and adults in the city of Kabwe, six organizations said today, following the publication of a United Nations experts’ letter on the issue. The Zambian general elections are scheduled for August 12, 2021. The organizations are Human Rights Watch, Advocacy for Child Justice, Caritas Zambia, Children's Environmental Health Foundation, Environment Africa Zambia, and Terre des Hommes.
On July 26 the UN published a letter from two UN special rapporteurs, the expert on toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana, and the expert on persons with disabilities, Gerard Quinn, to the government of Zambia, about the severe lead pollution and serious human rights concerns in and around the former mine in Kabwe, Central Province. They asked the Zambian government about its steps to address the toxic threat and urged robust steps to end the longstanding health rights violations and ensure the health, safety, and well-being of Kabwe’s residents. The experts also sent a letter to Jubilee Metals, a South African company planning to reprocess metals at the former mine, and a letter to the South African government, seeking information about the human rights impacts of their business.
“UN experts on toxic pollution and on people with disabilities have sounded the alarm bell over Kabwe,” said Juliane Kippenberg, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Zambian political leaders and candidates should recognize the urgency of the Kabwe situation and commit in their election campaigns to cleaning up this toxic legacy.”
Kabwe was the site of a mine and smelter that polluted the environment with extremely high levels of toxic lead from 1904 to 1994. Kabwe residents still have lead-polluted homes, backyards, schools, play areas, and roads, as documented in a 2019 report by Human Rights Watch. Tens of thousands of children living near the mine are at acute risk of severe health risks from lead poisoning. It is estimated that up to 200,000 people in the vicinity have elevated blood lead levels.
The former mine area contains over five million tons of waste from the mine and smelter. Lead dust from these uncovered waste dumps continues to blow over to nearby residential areas and threaten community health. Rather than directly tackling the waste piles, the government has licensed further mining and reprocessing activities that pose additional health risks. In their letter, the UN experts expressed concern about reports of ongoing artisanal and small-scale mining.
Lead is a heavy metal so toxic that there is no known safe level of exposure, according to the World Health Organization. It can cause hearing loss, vision loss, high blood pressure, IQ deficits, behavioral problems, and even coma, convulsions, and death. Children are especially at risk because their bodies are still developing and absorb proportionally more lead than adults.
A 2018 medical study estimated that over 95 percent of children in townships exposed to lead from the Kabwe mine have elevated blood lead levels, and about half of children in the townships have such high blood lead levels that they urgently require medical intervention. Adults are also affected, with particular risks during pregnancy. A video made by local youth activists working with Environment Africa in 2019 highlights the impact on children and the need for action.
The mine was originally owned by British colonial companies, including Anglo American, and later nationalized. There was never a comprehensive clean-up even though the mine was closed in 1994. Anglo American is currently facing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of affected children and women of childbearing age in Kabwe, filed by lawyers from South Africa and the United Kingdom in October 2020.
“People in Kabwe whose rights to health have been violated have a right to effective remedies,” said Namo Chuma, country director of Environment Africa Zambia. “This includes access to health care, reparations, and immediate measures to end further toxic exposure.”
The UN expert on toxics and human rights, officially the special rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to examine the human rights implications of toxic and otherwise hazardous substances, as well as initiatives to promote and protect human rights in this context. The special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities is mandated to strengthen efforts to recognize, promote, implement, and monitor the rights of people with disabilities.
The Zambian government has taken some important steps to tackle the problem, the groups said. It is currently testing and treating children affected by lead in Kabwe with a loan from the World Bank, and has started to remediate homes and a school. However, its efforts do not address the source of the contamination itself, the mine waste. If the waste is not cleaned up, progress made could be quickly reversed, as it will continue to spread toxic dust across the area.
The government should conduct a comprehensive remediation process with the technical and financial support of donors and companies, the groups said. Regulations governing the human rights and environmental obligations of corporations in their global operations are urgently needed to avoid such disasters in the future.
“The lead pollution in Kabwe is a scandal,” said Bishop Clement Mulenga, the bishop of Kabwe. “Proper remediation and reclamation are needed right now to protect the health and future of Kabwe’s children.”
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Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 90 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice
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Mass Poisoning
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Exercise in the Caucasus returns Green Berets to resistance roots
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The Army is wrapping up a groundbreaking multinational exercise in the Caucasus nation of Georgia this week that featured a combined airborne operation and the largest special operations exercise ever hosted by the country. According to an Army press release, approximately 2,500 personnel from 15 countries participated in the biennial Agile Spirit exercise, including 700 U.S. troops led by U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The exercise ends Friday. The exercise included a pair of airborne jumps, in addition to parallel conventional and special operations training scenarios. Georgian, Polish, and U.S. special operations forces join a notional Georgian guerrilla to force breach a door to demonstrate close quarter combat tactics during the 10th Annual Agile Spirit Exercise in Senaki, Georgia, Aug. 4, 2021. (Army/Spc. Preston Hammon) The exercise’s goals are “increasing interoperability among participating nation militaries and strengthening regional security cooperation,” the release said. More than 250 jumpers from the Georgian Defense Forces and the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, executed a pair of airborne operations — one during the day Sunday, and another late Monday night into Tuesday morning. The jumps occurred at Georgia’s Vaziani Drop Zone, according to Maj. Chris Bradley, a 173rd Airborne Brigade spokesperson. Soldiers from the U.S. state of Georgia — the Georgia Army National Guard, to be exact — participated alongside troops from 21st Theater Sustainment Command, 7th Army Training Command, 173rd Airborne Brigade, 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade, U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, and U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, according to the release. Special operations scenario A Green Beret officer representing Special Operations Command-Europe at the exercise, who spoke on background in order to freely discuss the details of the training, told Army Times that this was the first-ever special operations exercise hosted by Georgia. Green Berets, psychological operations soldiers and civil affairs troops joined their peers from Georgia, in addition to Polish, British and Romanian special operations troops, for the exercise. Georgian and Romanian special operations forces rappel out of a UH-60 Huey Helicopter and pull security during the 10th Annual Agile Spirit Exercise in Senaki, Georgia, Aug. 4, 2021. (Army/Sgt. Hayden Hallman) The special operations training scenario focused on enabling a Georgian resistance force in the event of invasion by an overwhelming enemy force, he explained — such as the Russian armored columns that poured into the small country during their 2008 war. The five-day war saw Russian forces permanently occupy the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which the U.S. government considers a part of Georgia. “Twenty percent of their country is currently occupied by Russia,” noted the Green Beret officer. During the exercise, the troops honed their ability “to prevent the [notional] occupying enemy from consolidating their gains within the recently occupied territory,” the Green Beret officer said. He added that the scenario included ambushes, raids, and sabotage to practice “some of those specific tactical skills within that overall resistance context.” “Resistance operations are a large part of unconventional warfare, which is one of the core tasks of special forces,” the Green Beret officer said. The focus on resistance operations in Georgia is part of the special operations community’s broader return to its unconventional warfare roots for great power competition. The shift comes after nearly two decades of focus on counterterrorism missions during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of SOCEUR’s partner force work right now centers around the “resistance operating concept,” a newly codified doctrine that seeks to help partner nations develop the ability and framework to field legitimate, effective resistance forces in the event of enemy invasion and occupation, according to a 1st Special Forces Command podcast explaining the concept. “The whole point of [the resistance operating concept] is that you hopefully never have to execute it,” the Green Beret officer said. “Building up this internal strength is able to act as a deterrent against aggression.” But thanks to exercises like Agile Spirit and the commitment of partner nations, the resistance efforts are ready if needed. “The people here are very cognizant [of the ongoing Russian occupation],” the Green Beret said. “This concept of total defense is not new to Georgia, and they’re very proud to embody it.”
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Eau Claire hospital staff hold coat drive for woman recovering from COVID-19
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EAU CLAIRE — Mary Stanley liked the idea of holding a coat drive in Eau Claire this winter. Instead of sitting in the back of the closet, unused or outgrown winter coats could go to people who needed them, she thought. Just a couple weeks after Stanley made a comment about her idea to her health care team at Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire, they made it a reality. Stanley, of Eau Claire, has been recovering for the past year from a severe bout of COVID-19. Fighting exhaustion, anxiety and brain fog debilitating enough that she couldn’t return to her job, Stanley underwent months of testing before she was able to join the cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program at Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire in late October. There, she hoped to get her old strength back. When Stanley began telling exercise specialist Scott Miller that the hospital should consider holding a coat drive, Miller took her at her word. “I kept feeling like that needed to happen,” Stanley said. “Every time I came in I’d bug Scott about it.” Miller and the cardiopulmonary rehab team at the hospital, who work to help patients with lung and heart conditions regain or build strength, quickly organized a local coat drive. Their efforts garnered more than 100 donations of jackets and coats the week before Thanksgiving. They donated the outerwear to King’s Closet, a free clothing organization in downtown Eau Claire. “I thought to just keep it simple, collect (the coats at the hospital), starting with staff and patients from cardiopulmonary rehab,” Miller said. “All of a sudden we had people dropping off garbage bags’ worth of coats.” A ‘glimmer of hope’ during long-haul COVID Stanley began to feel sick while visiting family over Thanksgiving in November 2020. “I was so cold. I didn’t think I’d ever get warm again,” she recalled. On Dec. 1 she tested positive for COVID-19. The first and second weeks of her illness she spent in bed, weak and feeling ill. In the third week after her diagnosis, she felt worse; a nurse evaluated Stanley via phone call and told her to go to a hospital right away. At Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire, a CT scan showed blood clots in Stanley’s lungs, along with COVID-19 pneumonia. After a week in the hospital’s COVID-19 unit on antibiotics, Stanley was discharged on Dec. 20, 2020. Four days later, on Christmas Eve, she once again couldn’t catch her breath and was readmitted to the hospital. An X-ray found that she still had pneumonia. Her second hospital stay lasted almost another week. “This time I was a lot weaker,” Stanley said. “Every time I got up I was using a walker.” The hospital discharged her with a walker; she’d begun blood thinner medication for her blood clots, which made the prospect of a fall even more dangerous, she said. In February and March, Stanley tried to return to work — where she helps connect veterans with health care after they leave military service — but she couldn’t concentrate and still had debilitating exhaustion. After a few weeks she had to stop working again. Some people who recover from COVID-19 have been seen to suffer from a wide range of lingering health problems for months. Some organizations have begun to refer to the condition as long-haul COVID or post-COVID syndrome. It can even affect people who didn’t become seriously ill from their bout of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. “It just feels like it’s two steps forward, ten steps back,” Stanley said. Stanley’s doctors told her that she had interstitial fibrosis, or scarring in her lungs. It was an intimidating diagnosis, Stanley said, and for much of 2021 she underwent dozens of tests and scans. Her short-term disability insurance benefit was expiring and she wasn’t making any income. Stanley didn’t want to retire, but she wasn’t sure she could go back to work while still suffering from extreme fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and brain fog. “It’s so depressing to be able to go from working full time, doing your own grocery shopping, doing your laundry, to ‘I have to get out of the shower and sit down and rest before I can finish taking the shower because I’m so weak,’ ” Stanley said. “It’s hard to wrap your mind around it.” But after Stanley started cardiopulmonary rehab at the hospital this fall, her exhaustion and strength began to improve. Miller told her that her condition could be managed as long as she exercised and worked to keep her lungs strong. For Stanley, it was “a little glimmer of hope.” Patients who enter Marshfield Medical Center’s cardiopulmonary rehab program are first assessed with a walking test, Miller said. Staff then help them gain strength from that baseline. “I almost have to rein her in at times,” Miller said of Stanley. “You want to (see) that, where they’re eager to get better again. She’s definitely that case.” Giving back It was shortly after Stanley suggested to Miller the hospital organize a coat drive that Marshfield Medical Center staffers surprised her with their efforts. “Scott said, ‘You’re not going to believe this,’ ” Stanley said, remembering arriving at the hospital one day for a rehab session. “I go in there and there’s huge bags full of coats. I got goosebumps. I was so happy.” Miller, the cardiopulmonary rehab staff, workers from other departments and other patients gathered more than 100 donations of coats, jackets and boots. “I’d like to do it next year,” Miller said. “ … I think it’s very easy to forget when we have everything, all the chaos going on in our lives, that someone is just trying to figure out, ‘How do I get a coat?’ It’s easy to take that stuff for granted.” Stanley’s health has improved, especially after starting her rehab. Daily life is still overwhelming, she said, but she’s seen a lot of improvement after working to regain her strength. “Before I came into the rehab (program), I just had the sense that it was kind of hopeless,” Stanley said. “It is what it is, and there’s nothing I can do about it … I’m not back to where I was, but mentally I feel much better.” She hopes even more recovery is on the way, adding, “I can’t wait to get on the other side of this.”
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Famous Person - Recovered
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Synchronicity in Economic Policy amid the Pandemic
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The opening sentence of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is among the most famous in world literature, but it has a special significance to economists, for whom it represents a principle that can be applied in multiple contexts and fields of study. The Anna Karenina principle states that success requires the comprehensive fulfillment of a set of necessary conditions, and the absence of any one of those conditions will lead to failure. Consequently, successes are all fundamentally similar, as they reflect the presence of the same array of factors, while failures are diverse, with each stemming from its own unique deficiencies. The global economic crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic inverts the Anna Karenina principle. The causes of the pandemic-induced shock—lockdowns, border closures, the collapse of trade, travel bans, and financial market volatility—were common across countries and regions, while the projected recovery will be marked by the divergent circumstances of each country and the idiosyncrasies of its policy response. Success in the post-pandemic era will reflect a constellation of policies and capacities peculiar to each country, including national vaccination rates, integration into major economic blocks, the ability to provide fiscal and monetary stimulus, and the restoration of solvency in the private sector. While all “unhappy” countries will be essentially alike, each “happy” country will be happy in its own way. While every national recovery will hinge on country characteristics, the success or failure of major economies and economic blocs will profoundly influence the outlook for smaller economies and developing countries. Recent progress in the vaccination rollout in the United States and other advanced economies has raised expectations for the global economic recovery. According to the Spring 2021 edition of the IMF’s Word Economic Outlook, the global economy is projected to expand at a rate of 6 percent in 2021, up from the 5.5 percent growth rate projected in January, due to the faster-than-expected recovery of advanced economies.[1] Bolstered by unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, the United States, China, and Western Europe are poised for a swift rebound: annual GDP growth in the United States, China, and Western Europe are projected to reach 6.4, 8,4 and 4.5 percent, respectively, in 2021. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Europe and Central Asia (ECA) are projected to grow by 4.4 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, albeit with large disparities across countries. Differences in vaccination rates are driving the divergence in growth projections, as the easing of pandemic-related restrictions and the resumption of mobility, production, trade, and travel all hinge on widespread vaccination. While good progress has been achieved overall, vast disparities in vaccination coverage align closely with national income levels. The slow progress of vaccination efforts in developing countries threatens to hinder their recovery while also exacerbating the global risk of virus mutation. Several countries that are currently facing renewed waves of contagion and/or new viral strains have been forced to reimpose restrictions and delay the return of normal economic activity. A second driver of divergent recovery trends is the extent of each country’s integration into international value chains linked to advanced economies. As global economic activity rebounds, the World Trade Organization projects that merchandise trade will grow at a rate of 8.0 percent in 2021. The reestablishment of global and regional value chains is also boosting trade in capital goods and intermediate inputs. For example, the growth of US industrial output is expected to accelerate the recovery in Mexico’s manufacturing sector due to the strong synchronicity between the business cycles of the two countries. Similarly, given the close integration of many developing countries in ECA with the European Union, the restoration of European regional value chains is expected to enhance growth prospects across ECA. As global economic activity recovers, prices for oil, metals, food and other commodities are expected to rise. Recovering commodity prices have already bolstered growth in some ECA countries, including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as in LAC countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. Although higher commodity prices will be tailwinds for resource-rich commodity exporters, they will be headwinds for net importers, especially developing countries that rely on oil imports. Trade in services will likely remain subdued and is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels before 2022. The hospitality and travel sectors continue to be the most severely affected by the crisis, and tourism-dependent countries in the Caribbean and the Balkans face a slow and uncertain recovery. A third source of divergence is in the policy response adopted by fiscal and monetary authorities. Several counties are confronting inflationary pressures that will limit the ability of their central banks to maintain accommodative monetary policies. Expansionary monetary stances, rapid credit growth, exchange-rate depreciation, and rising commodity prices have amplified inflationary pressures in Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Many central banks either already hiked benchmark policy rates in Q1 2021 or have signaled the end of their easing cycles. Though necessary to manage inflation, monetary tightening could dampen prospects for a swift recovery by putting pressure on interest rates, spurring capital outflows, or weakening exchange rates. Tighter monetary policies in advanced economies could also worsen financing conditions for emerging markets and intensify the volatility of capital flows, especially to the most vulnerable ECA and LAC economies. Even in the absence of monetary tightening, US 10-year bond yields have risen sharply in Q1 2021, putting pressure on emerging-market exchange rates that may need to accelerate the tightening of their monetary policy stance. Fiscal pressure has also intensified as governments strive to extend emergency economic support without undermining investor confidence. The pandemic-induced recession has triggered a surge in deficits and debt levels in many economies, especially LAC and ECA countries, many of which had already experienced a rapid debt buildup prior to 2020. Unsustainable debt dynamics could compel governments to rescind vital fiscal support before a broader recovery has fully consolidated. While fiscal deficits are projected to narrow, on balance, between 2020 and 2021, they are expected to remain large by historical standards. Narrowing fiscal space will weaken the ability of many governments to provide further cyclical support, though Chile and Peru are notable exceptions in the LAC region which have some additional room to continue to foster economic activity. In ECA, while fiscal space is narrowing in many countries including the Western Balkans and Ukraine, the EU Recovery & Resilience Facility will provide sizeable grants to Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland. Resource economies in Central Asia can continue to provide stimulus financed by high commodity prices. If public debt trajectories become unsustainable, some countries may resort to financial repression to prevent a surge in borrowing costs, accelerating inflation and weakening their currencies. A final contributor to the uneven global recovery is the relative vulnerability of each country’s private sector. Corporate debt burdens in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) were already at historic elevated levels before the COVID-19 outbreak: with easy access to international credit markets, foreign-denominated liabilities accumulated over the last decade, resulted in a currency mismatch between earnings and debt service that heightened corporates vulnerability to exchange-rate shocks and rising global risk aversion. By the end of 2019, corporate debt levels in Ukraine, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia were close to 50 percent of annual GDP, while in Bulgaria, Russia, and Turkey this ratio had reached more than 70 percent. Corporate debt levels are relatively low in the LAC region, except Chile, where corporate debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. Corporate vulnerabilities in EMDEs have risen sharply during the pandemic, especially among firms with high preexisting debt burdens and those operating in sectors that were particularly exposed to the economic impact of COVID-19. In the aftermath of the pandemic, policymakers in many EMDEs have focused on preventing firms from being prematurely driven into insolvency through an unprecedented injection of liquidity and the adoption of forbearance measures to enable banks to expand credit to the real sector. However, government forbearance has obscured the line between firms that are illiquid and firms that are insolvent (i.e., “ghost firms”), and nonperforming loan indicators do not fully capture the deterioration of asset quality in the financial sector. High corporate risk premiums indicate an elevated risk of debt defaults, and firms facing large debt overhangs may reduce future investment and grow more slowly over the medium term. The divergence in recovery paths will reflect the relative ability of national policymakers to facilitate smooth debt workouts and ensure that debt-restructuring mechanisms and solvency frameworks function effectively. These conditions are especially crucial in EMDEs, where bankruptcy frameworks are generally weaker and where inefficient debt resolution often leads to the excessive destruction of capital, even under normal circumstances [1] The January 2021 edition of the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects projected a global economic growth rate of 4 percent, but this projection was revised upward to 5.3 percent in April 2021 due to stronger-than-expected GDP growth rates in the second half of 2020, a faster-than-expected vaccination rollout in 2021, and the continuation and expansion of monetary and fiscal stimulus in advanced economies.
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Financial Crisis
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Steel strike of 1919
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The steel strike of 1919 was an attempt by the weakened Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (AA) to organize the United States steel industry in the wake of World War I. The strike began on September 22, 1919,[2][3] and collapsed on January 8, 1920. [4]
The AA had formed in 1876. It was a union of skilled steel and ironworkers which was deeply committed to craft unionism. However, technological advances had slashed the number of skilled workers in both industries. [5]
In 1892, the AA had lost a bitter strike at the Carnegie Steel Company's steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The Homestead strike, which culminated with a day-long gun battle on July 6 that left 10 dead and dozens wounded, led to a wave of de-unionization. From a high of more than 24,000 members in 1892,[6] union membership had sunk to less than 8,000 by 1900. The union attempted to organize workers in the tin industry, but a sudden wave of industry consolidations left the union facing the gigantic U.S. Steel corporation. In the U.S. Steel Recognition Strike of 1901, the union struck the fledgling company and won nearly all its demands. But the union's executive board wanted more and rejected the pact. U.S. Steel was able to muster its resources and break the strike. [7]
By the end of World War I, the AA was a shell of its former self. In 1892, The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing unskilled iron and Steelworkers into federal unions in 1901. Local groups of wire drawers, house men, tube workers, blast furnace men and others had all formed unions. The Federal Association of Wire Drawers was chartered in 1896, the Tin Plate Workers' Protective Association in 1899, the International Association of Blast Furnace Workers in 1901, and the International Association of Tube Workers in 1902. Most internationals disbanded after a short time, but many local federal unions became deeply entrenched in the workplace. [8]
Insistence on retaining its craft union identity kept it from establishing a stronger presence in the metals industries. The union was in crisis, however. The steel industry was growing quickly, and the skilled jobs in which AA members worked were disappearing. The union had to act in order to save itself. At the November 1909 AFL convention, AA president P.J. McArdle introduced a resolution, which quickly passed, calling for an organizing drive at U.S. Steel. By December, organizers were flooding plants throughout the Northeast and Midwest. But workers remained skittish after the failed 1901 strike, and the drive never got off the ground. [9]
The AFL then attempted to organize workers on the AA's behalf. The AFL's strategy was twofold. First, the federation would wait for a strong upturn in economic conditions. When workers felt less dependence on their employer and showed signs of restiveness, the organization would initiate an organizing effort. Second, the federation would create staff-driven unions run from national AFL headquarters. Samuel Gompers and other AFL leaders had a nativist view of the unskilled immigrants working in steel plants. Distrusting immigrant workers to manage their own affairs, the AFL intended to run unions for them. These assumptions doomed the organizing drive. The AFL did not account for the hardening anti-union attitudes of U.S. Steel executives and plant managers, and the federation had no real plan to counterbalance the vast financial resources the company would pour into anti-union espionage, strikebreaking and union avoidance measures. When the AFL did organize a local union, the federation's patronizing attitudes and management style alienated workers and left the local union powerless. [10]
During World War I, the AA saw some limited growth. Inflation pushed restive employees to demand wage increases which the AFL and the AA were quick to claim credit for. But membership growth remained weak and scattered rather than substantive and strategic. To encourage more organizing, the AFL formed a National Committee for Organizing the Iron and Steelworkers. More than 15 AFL unions participated in the committee, while 24 claimed jurisdiction over portions of the steel industry. John Fitzpatrick and William Z. Foster of the Chicago Federation of Labor were the committee's leaders. But the organizing drive was hampered by the refusal of many of the participating unions to provide resources and support, and by the committee's lack of a mechanism to enforce jurisdictional agreements and requisition funds. Although the National Committee had some initial success in establishing local steelworker councils, these councils never received formal recognition from the AFL or the AA. [11]
Shortly after Armistice Day, AFL organizers in and around Pittsburgh began to be harassed by the steel companies: permits for meetings were denied, meeting halls could not be rented (when they were, the local Board of Health closed the hall), Pinkerton agents stopped organizers at the train station and forced them to leave town, and literature was seized. The AFL sought assistance from its political allies, but the harassment continued. The anti-union pressure spread to the Midwest and West. As the post-war recession affected the economy, plant managers targeted union supporters and those with large families for dismissal in order to ensure that union efforts were stifled. [12]
The AFL pushed back. On April 1, 1919, thousands of miners in Pennsylvania went on strike to demand that local officials allow union meetings.
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Strike
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At least 30 killed in gold mine collapse in Afghanistan
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At least 30 people were killed when a gold mine collapsed in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, in the latest tragedy to strike the war-torn country. Another seven were injured in the incident in Kohistan district of Badakhshan province, district governor Mohammad Rustam Raghi told AFP. Villagers had dug a 60-metre deep shaft in a river bed to search for gold. They were inside when the walls fell in. It was not clear why the shaft collapsed, but the provincial governor's spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari told AFP the miners were not professionals. "The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them," Nazari said. "We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site."
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Mine Collapses
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[OPINION] More BNPP threats: A Manila Trench megathrust earthquake and its tsunamis
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'[T]here is some worry that not enough attention is being paid to the possibility of a megathrust earthquake at the Manila Trench subduction' The following is the ninth in a series of excerpts from Kelvin Rodolfo’s ongoing book project Tilting at the Monster of Morong: Forays Against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and Global Nuclear Energy. Our last foray explained how Mt. Natib and her sisters exist because the South China Sea Plate is being forced to thrust underneath the northern Philippines at the Manila Trench. This sets the scene for a “megathrust” earthquake, the most powerful and dangerous kind. Elastic rebound …is what happens after you drop a basketball on the floor, or pull and release a rubber band; also how geologists explain faulting and earthquakes. Very simply, if a large rock mass is pulled, or squeezed, or forced against another, it will deform elastically before it breaks by faulting. Rocks in hand-sized pieces are rigid. But in large masses like lithospheric plates, rock is remarkably elastic. Tectonic plates push against each other only a few centimeters a year. But the plates stick, even as they continue to creep toward each other. This accumulates elastic energy, like a bow being stretched for an arrow. Eventually, so much elastic energy accumulates that it overcomes the friction holding the two sides of the fault together. The sides snap past each other in a megathrust earthquake – by far the worst kind, including almost all of magnitude greater than “Moment Magnitude” (Mw) 8. Their danger is worsened by their unpredictability, like the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004. And shared by the Manila Trench subduction… The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman megathrust earthquake We could begin discussing megathrust earthquakes with the Tōhoku catastrophe that destroyed Fukushima, Japan in 2011. But the Aceh megathrust earthquake is closer to the Philippines, and close to my heart because I worked on the region for my doctorate long ago. The morning after Christmas 2004, an earthquake started about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Sumatra’s Aceh province and 30 kilometers below the surface, triggering one of the worst disasters in history. The rupture was a thousand miles (1,600 kilometers) long, and its average width was 200 kilometers, so its surface was 320,000 square kilometers. At that surface, the sides of the fault snapped past each other an average 15 meters or 50 feet. Starting at the epicenter, the rupture propagated northward an average of 2.5 kilometers per second. Yes, per second! Even at that speed, the rupture is so long; it lasted a record 10 minutes. Most earthquakes last only about a minute. It was the world’s third largest earthquake: Mw 9.1 to 9.3. A US Geological Survey video displays how it made the seafloor move vertically. It is hard to grasp such a gargantuan event. To give a sense of how much energy was released, the 1990 Luzon earthquake that devastated Baguio and Dagupan was a magnitude Mw 7.7, equivalent to exploding 2 million tons of TNT. But on the Mw scale, each whole number is 32 times more energetic than the last, so the Aceh earthquake expended the energy of 5 billion tons of TNT. The Sumatra-Andaman megathrust tsunamis Here’s a cartoon of a megathrust event: The Aceh earthquake explosively jolted the ocean surface above it into several waves that spread away from the epicenter in all directions. The waves were only about 30 centimeters high, but they were hundreds of kilometers long, so their volumes were enormous. In deep waters they moved very rapidly, around 800 kilometers per hour. But as the waves entered shallow water, friction with the sea floor began to slow them down. This squeezed them, shortening them and increasing their heights. Unlike normal ocean waves, they did not crest and break. Instead, they arrived suddenly, usually as fast-moving surges tens of meters deep that invaded inland as far as two kilometers. Worse, in some places including Aceh and Thailand’s popular resort Phuket Island, the sea suddenly withdrew some minutes before the first surge arrived, luring people offshore to gawk and gather stranded fish. Among the many European tourists lost in the following surge were Walter Scholl and his wife. Walter was a German geologist who was a visiting professor at UP Diliman in the 1980s. A ten-year-old English girl who had learned about tsunamis in school understood what was about to happen when she saw the water recede. She saved her family and other tourists by convincing them to flee to high ground. Should the Manila Trench experience a megathrust earthquake, may there be many Filipinos similarly forewarned. A USGS video of this drawing reconstructs how the tsunamis were propagated in the northern Indian Ocean. See how a trough is Phuket’s first arrival? But the tsunami was not limited to the area of this video. It affected all of the Indian Ocean, and parts of the Pacific as well. Two hours after the earthquake, the tsunami arrived at Sri Lanka as waves up to 12 meters high, invading two kilometers inland. In seven hours the tsunami arrived at Somalia, 5,000 kilometers from the epicenter. Four waves as high as nine meters reached about a kilometer inland, killing almost 300 people. In all, about 228,000 people perished in 14 Indian Ocean countries. A Manila Trench megathrust? An Indian Ocean tsunami warning system would have minimized the great loss of life in 2004, but tsunamis had not been anticipated. Similarly, there is some worry that not enough attention is being paid to the possibility of a megathrust earthquake at the Manila Trench subduction. Relying heavily on the definitive analysis of the Manila Trench region by Phivolcs geophysicists Bart and Leo Bautista in 2001, tsunami experts from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore are modeling how their respective countries might be affected. Here are their estimates of maximum tsunami heights: In 2012, Leo Bautista analyzed historical records of earthquakes along the trench. None stronger than an estimated Mw 7.6 has happened since the Spanish came to Luzon in the 1560s. This low seismic activity isn’t comforting, because Luzon and the South China Sea Plate continue to converge, about 9 centimeters a year at the northern end of the trench to 5.5 centimeters at its southern end, where researchers think a rupture is most likely to occur. That is where the subducting slab is diving vertically. If the rupture happens there, upward movement against gravity, and damage, will be maximized. The longer the delay between major megathrust earthquakes, the more elastic energy is stored. It is estimated that about 30 meters that should have slipped smoothly have instead been stored elastically at the Manila Trench subduction. Evidence says that the last large South China Sea tsunami happened sometime between 1000 and 1076 CE. The Manila Trench subduction is judged capable of exceeding an Mw 9 earthquake every thousand years. It took the entire Indian Ocean to absorb the Aceh tsunami. The South China Sea is so much smaller. – Rappler.com Born in Manila and educated at UP Diliman and the University of Southern California, Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo taught geology and environmental science at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1966. He specialized in Philippine natural hazards since the 1980s.
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Tsunamis
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2006 Dublin riots
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A series of riots in Dublin on 25 February 2006 was precipitated by a controversial proposed march down O'Connell Street of a unionist demonstration. The disturbances began when members of the Garda Síochána attempted to disperse a group of counter-demonstrators blocking the route of the proposed march. The situation escalated as local youths joined forces with the counter-demonstrators. Love Ulster was a controversial Unionist organisation dedicated to commemorating the Unionist victims of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. This was organised in part by Willie Frazer of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR). It was a partisan group established to voice outrage at killings by the Republican paramilitary organisations, but it has been criticised for not doing the same for victims of loyalist paramilitary organisations. Frazer had said of loyalist paramilitary prisoners that "They should never have been locked up in the first place", and that he had "a lot of time for Billy Wright. "[1]
An example of this alleged attitude is the previous displaying of the picture of an Ulster Volunteer Force member who was allegedly involved, among others, in the murder of 26 people in Dublin in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, and who was himself killed by the Provisional IRA in 1976. His picture had appeared at FAIR rallies and an organiser of the Love Ulster demonstration previously told a republican newspaper that he would not guarantee that images of the murder suspect would not be displayed during the demonstration. [2]
The Love Ulster march in Dublin was to consist of a uniformed band, several hundred activists (including some from the Orange Order) and relatives of victims, all of whom would march from Parnell Street north of the River Liffey, down O'Connell Street, past Trinity College onto Nassau Street, Dawson Street and Molesworth Street, and eventually reaching Leinster House, the seat of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament), on Kildare Street. The march of this group in Dublin was viewed as provocative by some Irish nationalists and many Irish republicans, particularly in the context of an Orange Order march. [3] The Orange Order has been accused of being a sectarian organisation and is known for its anti-Catholicism. [4] The right to march was supported by the main Irish political parties and the march was authorised by the Garda Síochána. Love Ulster had organised a similar rally in Belfast in October 2005. Sinn Féin, an Irish republican political party, did not organise a protest, and said that the march should be allowed to go ahead, calling for republicans to ignore the march. Republican Sinn Féin had an organised presence. Their protest blocked the north eastern junction of O'Connell Street and Parnell Street. The small Republican Sinn Féin group (and some activists from the Irish Republican Socialist Party) were joined by several hundred local youths. Before the violence broke out, they chanted republican chants. Several thousand bystanders were also on the scene, but took no part in the subsequent rioting. When the marchers had formed up at the top of Parnell Square and their bands began to play in anticipation of the start of the march, gardaí attempted to disperse the protest at around 12:45. At this point, scuffles broke out between protesters and Gardaí. After the failure of the initial garda effort to disperse the protesters, the violence escalated. The Garda Public Order Unit was deployed and stones and metal railings – to be used for renovation work on O'Connell Street – were thrown at gardaí by protesters; as were fireworks, bricks, crude petrol bombs, and other missiles. As the rioting continued, the ranks of the rioters were swelled by many local teenagers who had not taken part in the initial protest. Several barricades were constructed from building materials on the street to impede the march and the gardaí. The march was due to start at 12:30, but as the violence went on the gardaí decided against trying to escort the marchers through O'Connell Street, and at about 13:30 the assembled marchers returned to the coaches that had brought them to Dublin from Northern Ireland. The three coaches were then driven to Leinster House, where a small parade was carried out, and a letter was handed to Irish Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. They were then escorted out of the city. [5] One of the coaches was attacked by stone throwers on the way home. Violence continued sporadically on O'Connell Street for another hour or so. The Gardaí, advancing from the northern end of the street gradually pushed the rioters back southwards. The most sustained violence took place around the General Post Office building, where the rioters initially sat down in protest and then, several of them having been batoned, regrouped behind burning barricades and threw rocks, paving slabs and one or possibly two petrol bombs at Gardaí. Several Gardaí, protesters and a number of journalists from RTÉ and TV3 were injured. RTÉ's chief news correspondent, Charlie Bird was singled out for attack by some rioters and was kicked and punched while being called an "Orange bastard" before being rescued by the Garda SDU officers. [6] Charlie Bird had been a member of the Workers' Party of Ireland which had split from Sinn Féin in 1970 and was seen as highly critical of the Republican Movement. [7] However some of the violence appeared to be entirely random in its targets. For instance several bystanders were attacked and a woman who was five months pregnant was punched in the stomach. The woman later sent a text message to NewsTalk 106 to thank the Gardaí and ambulance service who looked after her after the incident. In addition, the windows of several businesses, including Foot Locker, Schuh, and Ulster Bank near O'Connell Bridge, were smashed and at least one shop (Footlocker shoe shop) was looted. Among those arrested for looting this shop were a number of foreign nationals as well as locals – indicating that in the latter stages of the riot, much of the disturbances were opportunistic – inspired by vandalism or desire for theft rather than politically motivated. [citation needed]
While the stand off on O'Connell Street was still going on, several hundred rioters followed the Unionist coaches to the Nassau Street area where they set alight a number of cars and damaged several businesses. Again the attacks on cars and businesses in this area appears to have been entirely at random. On the other hand, the headquarters of the Progressive Democrats party (who are very critical of the Irish Republican movement) on South Frederick Street off Nassau Street was also attacked, which seems to indicate at least some political motivation among the rioters. Further skirmishes broke out around the River Liffey at O'Connell Bridge, Aston Quay, Fleet Street and Temple Bar, as the Gardaí re-took O'Connell street, before the rioters dispersed. The most serious property damage was in the Nassau Street area, where three cars were burnt out, windscreens were smashed, and businesses had their windows broken. Many people also became trapped in shops and restaurants, including branches of McDonald's and Burger King. Having eventually dispersed the rioters, the gardaí then closed O'Connell Street to facilitate a cleanup of the scene by building workers. Media reports have estimated the cost of the cleanup job at €50,000, and Dublin Chamber of Commerce placed loss of earnings for businesses in the city due to the riots at €10,000,000. [8]
Estimates for the number of unionist marchers before the event were predicted to be over 1,000.
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Riot
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As high-stakes climate summit begins, Biden apologizes for U.S. withdrawal from Paris accord
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Queen Elizabeth II says ‘none of us will live forever’ as she urges climate action and statesmanship South Africa has one of the most coal-intensive economies in the world. Can it change?
Biden to ask Congress to set aside $3 billion for climate adaptation
Chinese President Xi offers no new commitments in written comments to COP26 conference
India vows to boost renewables, hit ‘net zero’ emissions by 2070 Marshall Islands pleads with world leaders to save country from rising seas
In Scotland, Biden apologizes for Trump’s decision to pull out of Paris accords
David Attenborough calls on world leaders to “rewrite our story” White House official not worried about looming Supreme Court climate case
"The eyes of history are upon us,” Biden tells summit Prince Charles takes his environmental bona fides to COP26
John Kerry, Gina McCarthy launch U.S. Center at COP26
Boris Johnson spells out what 2, 3 and 4 degrees of global warming look like — and it’s not pretty
Boris Johnson compares climate crisis to a James Bond film U.N. secretary general: ‘We face a moment of truth’
Queen Elizabeth II says ‘none of us will live forever’ as she urges climate action and statesmanship South Africa has one of the most coal-intensive economies in the world. Can it change?
Biden to ask Congress to set aside $3 billion for climate adaptation
Chinese President Xi offers no new commitments in written comments to COP26 conference
India vows to boost renewables, hit ‘net zero’ emissions by 2070 Marshall Islands pleads with world leaders to save country from rising seas
In Scotland, Biden apologizes for Trump’s decision to pull out of Paris accords
David Attenborough calls on world leaders to “rewrite our story” White House official not worried about looming Supreme Court climate case
"The eyes of history are upon us,” Biden tells summit Prince Charles takes his environmental bona fides to COP26
John Kerry, Gina McCarthy launch U.S. Center at COP26
Boris Johnson spells out what 2, 3 and 4 degrees of global warming look like — and it’s not pretty
Boris Johnson compares climate crisis to a James Bond film U.N. secretary general: ‘We face a moment of truth’
A global summit convened in Glasgow, Scotland, widely seen as the most important international climate negotiations since the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, began on Monday with speeches by world leaders, including President Biden, who warned that climate change is “ravaging the world.” In remarks at a smaller meeting just after his formal speech, he apologized for the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord under former president Donald Trump. “I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize,” he said.
Here’s what to know
GLASGOW, Scotland — Queen Elizabeth II appealed to world leaders gathered at the climate conference to engage in “true statesmanship” and work together as “the time for words has now moved to the time for action.”
In an video address played at an evening reception for presidents and prime ministers, the monarch said she hoped the summit would be “one of those rare occasions where everyone will have the chance to rise above the politics of the moment and achieve true statesmanship.”
Elizabeth said she hoped leaders would leave the summit with “a determination, a desire and a plan to address the impact of climate change and to recognize that the time for words has now moved to the time for action.”
The 95-year-old monarch had planned to attend the reception in person but was ordered to rest by doctors.
The speech was recorded at Windsor Castle, where she is living, on Friday afternoon.
The queen paid tribute to “my dear late husband,” Prince Philip, quoting from a speech he gave in 1969 voicing concern about the levels of pollution. She also singled out her son Prince Charles, who addressed world leaders on Monday, and her grandson Prince William, who is at the summit with some of the finalists from his Earthshot Prize.
“I could not be more proud of them,” she said.
The queen specifically referenced young activists, saying, “I have drawn great comfort and inspiration from the relentless enthusiasm of people of all ages — especially the young — in calling for everyone to play their part.”
“None of us will live forever,” she said in closing. “But we are doing this not for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children, and those who will follow in their footsteps.”
South Africa is negotiating with a handful of wealthy nations about how to overhaul its ailing electricity sector in what could become a model of climate finance for other countries heavily dependent upon coal plants.
The showcase plan, which could cost as much as $15 billion, would not only provide financial support for the state-owned utility, but also backing for broader economic and social change — known as a “just transition” — in a deeply divided and unequal society. The plan could help persuade other developing nations, mostly in Asia, to shelve plans to build as much as 243 gigawatts of new coal plants.
“We think it could be a very important feather in the cap of this COP if broad outlines are announced that could provide a template for other country-scale transactions,” said Mike Muldoon, managing director for innovative finance at the Rockefeller Foundation. “We think this is one of the only solutions that meets the scale of the challenge.”
South Africa, whose economy is one of the most coal-intensive in the world, wants to steer investment into renewables and start shutting down its aging fleet of 15 coal-fired, carbon-spewing power plants, which supply 84 percent of the nation’s electricity.
President Biden will work with Congress to set aside $3 billion a year by 2024 in financing for adaptation to climate change in developing countries, the White House said Monday.
The sum, which will go to protecting the world’s poorer citizens from rising seas and temperatures, is part of the $11.4 billion Biden already requested at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The White House said the $3 billion set aside would reduce the impacts of climate change on people most vulnerable to its effects. “These impacts are already being felt, making investments in developing countries’ climate resilience more urgent than ever,” the White House said.
“President Biden recognized the need to increase support for adaptation, which is already costing developing countries an estimated $70 billion a year,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute, a research nonprofit organization. “However, the $3 billion in support for adaptation is not additional to the $11.4 billion already pledged by the Biden administration.”
Dasgupta said “we hope the United States will work toward increasing and balancing adaptation and mitigation finance as called for in the Paris agreement.”
The White House said the $3 billion would go to a new umbrella program called President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, or PREPARE, which will work with several different agencies, including the Agency for International Development, multilateral development banks, the Development Finance Corp., and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
GLASGOW — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday offered no new commitments to the U.N. conference to combat climate change, submitting only a terse written statement for the record as he skipped an in-person visit to the gathering in Glasgow.
“China will continue to prioritize ecological conservation and pursue a green and low-carbon path to development,” Xi wrote, offering no specifics other than a promise to release concrete plans for peaking his country’s emissions in 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
“I hope all parties will take stronger actions to jointly tackle the climate challenge and protect the planet, the shared home for us all,” he said.
Xi’s absence was a disappointment for many of the policymakers who have gathered from around the world for two weeks of negotiations, a sign of limited Chinese ambitions for the conference, known as COP26. And since China, the world’s factory, is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, the outcome of the climate conference may not live up to its ambitions as one of the final chances to avert warming before it spirals out of control.
The Chinese president has not traveled outside of the country since early 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday committed his nation — the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases — to massive investments in renewable energy by the end of the decade in an effort to move away from its reliance on fossil fuels.
Modi pledged that the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people would install 500 gigawatts of non-fossil energy by 2030, and that India would meet half of its energy demands from renewable sources by the same time.
The prime minister, as expected, also committed India to a target of “net zero” emissions by 2070 — two decades later than the mid-century goal that many advocates had hoped the country would pursue.
Modi used part of his statement to underscore that India had fulfilled its promises under the 2015 Paris climate accord and that it would continue to shift to more climate-friendly policies going forward.
“Today, the entire world acknowledges that India is the only big economy in the world that has delivered both in letter and in spirit on its Paris commitments,” Modi said in remarks at the opening of COP26.
But he said the nation’s continued shift away from fossil fuels — like that of other developing countries — would require significant amounts of financing and technical support from the developing world.
Rising sea levels could sink buildings and flood much of the Marshall Islands, but the country’s climate envoy refuses to accept the scenario experts describe as a looming reality: She wants world leaders to step up.
“I don’t think it should be acceptable to any person in this world to write off a country,” Tina Stege told Sky News at the COP26 summit that started Monday in Glasgow, where dozens of heads of states and government are gathering Monday for climate negotiations.
Her country does not have the luxury of waiting. The central Pacific island nation, home to nearly 60,000 people, is already reeling from droughts and flooding while it prepares what she calls “a survival plan.”
But like many of the countries hardest hit by climate change, the Marshall Islands needs help and money. While developed nations had pledged more than a decade ago to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer ones cope with climate impacts, they have fallen short, according to the United Nations.
President Biden on Monday apologized for President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, saying it had set the world back.
“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact that the United States and the last administration pulled out of the Paris accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit,” said Biden, speaking briefly at a side meeting of world leaders at the COP26 climate summit.
Biden had pledged that his administration would attempt to make up for the Trump administration’s four years spent turning away from policies meant to address climate change.
He made the remarks just after his opening address, at a meeting titled “Action and Solidarity — the Critical Decade.” He said that the United States has a special responsibility to lead on climate, noting that the country is responsible for a huge part of the problem. “I want to emphasize again, those of us who have deforested a long time ago, those of us who have taken actions a long time ago to cause the problems we have, we have to be ready to step up,” he said.
Biden said he has a sales job to do among some voters back home about the importance of reducing emissions. “That’s the next big case I have to make,” he said.
GLASGOW, Scotland — British naturalist Sir David Attenborough made a passionate plea for world leaders to “rewrite our story,” warning that those who could be impacted by catastrophic climate change were not “some imagined generation” but “young people alive today.”
Attenborough is a beloved figure in Britain — and beyond — who has entranced generations with his globally popular natural history documentaries.
He has been dubbed the “people’s advocate” for COP26.
Attenborough began his speech to assembled world leaders in Glasgow with a history lesson. For the last 10,000 years, he said, the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere has been relatively stable, offering humanity predictable seasons and reliable weather.
This meant that “civilization was possible, and we wasted no time in taking advantage of that,” he said. “The global temperature has not wavered over this period by more plus or minus one degrees Celsius — until now.”
He said that humanity was in “trouble” and the story was not merely one of instability, it was also about inequality. “Those who’ve done the least to cause this problem are being the hardest hit,” he said.
There was still time to turn “tragedy into triumph,” however. “We are, after all, the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth. We now understand this problem. We knew how to stop the number [of carbon emissions] rising and put it in reverse.”
“In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a terrible decline," said the 95-year-old documentary maker, peering out at the crowd. "In yours, you could, and should, witness a wonderful recovery. That desperate hope — ladies and gentlemen, delegates, excellencies — is why the world is looking to you and why you are here.”
White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said on Monday that she was not worried by the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants.
“I mean, the Supreme Court takes up a lot of cases, and we’ll have to wait and see. But as you know, the Clean Air Act is pretty flexible. And there’s many opportunities for us to get at … pollutants like greenhouse gases,” McCarthy told reporters at COP26, the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
“Part of the value, I think, of the Build Back Better framework and those resources is that regulations are important, but they’re not the only way to get a home run here. And so I fully expect we’ll have regulatory tools, and we’ll be able to use them,” she added.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted a request from 19 Republican-led states and the coal industry to consider their challenge to the EPA’s authority to curb greenhouse gases from power plants, which could threaten a key plank of President Biden’s climate agenda.
The Republican-led states are trying to prevent Biden’s EPA from issuing the type of sweeping emissions controls that were proposed by the Obama administration.
The Supreme Court put former president Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan on hold in 2016, and it was never implemented. The Trump administration’s attempt to repeal and replace the plan — known as the Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule — was rejected by a federal appeals court in Washington.
“We have to wait a while to have the Supreme Court speak to this. But I have a lot of confidence,” McCarthy said. “You know, the ACE rule is no longer around because the courts made it defunct. Perhaps that will have an impact on the decision-making of the Supreme Court.”
McCarthy was addressing reporters after an event at the U.S. Center, a physical space in the COP26 conference venue where the Biden administration is hosting panels.
During the event, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) noted that her state has taken aggressive steps to rein in planet-warming pollution, such as by imposing a fee on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Democrats in Congress are considering including a methane fee in their $1.75 trillion social spending bill, despite opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
LaToya Cantrell, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, said she awoke to the dangers of global warming in 2018, when a single heavy rain event dumped five inches of water on the city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “I knew then that the impact of climate change would truly be the framing of my term as mayor of New Orleans,” she said.
In brief opening remarks at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, President Biden told world leaders that the Earth is at an inflection point, with limited time left to prevent significant warming to the planet.
“This is the decisive decade.” he said.
Biden’s presence alone signals a major change in U.S. policy after four years under former president Donald Trump’s turn away from climate issues.
The president touted his legislative agenda, saying that it would provide the resources and legal framework to make good on the U.S. pledge to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent in the next decade. But while Biden had hoped to come to Glasgow with his agenda approved, but its fate remains uncertain.
Biden also sought to frame the global increase in energy prices — which has prompted him to push for more oil production in the short term — as a reason countries need to move to renewable energy sources in the long term.
“We must view it as a call to action,” Biden said.
While he did not mention Trump by name, Biden did reference his predecessor, who pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate accord.
“The United States is not only back at the table, but hopefully leading by the power of our example,” Biden said. “I know it hasn’t been the case and that’s why my administration is working overtime to show that our climate commitment is action, not words.”
The president also stressed the need to provide financial support to less-developed nations, which are bearing much of the burden of the effects of climate change.
He concluded his remarks: “God bless you all, and may God save the planet.”
GLASGOW, Scotland — Britain’s future king, Prince Charles, told world leaders at the U.N. climate summit on Monday that they should seek solutions to global warming in nature.
“After billions of years of evolution, nature is our best teacher,” the Prince of Wales said. “In this regard, restoring natural capital, accelerating nature-based solutions and leveraging the circular bio-economy will be vital to our efforts.”
Unlike the presidents and premiers who will be speaking at the Scottish Event Campus, the prince has spent his life developing deep thoughts about sustainability, organic farming, biodiversity — and the sanctity of Nature, which the prince always capitalizes in print.
Unlike the others, Charles has no real power over laws or budgets. But the 72-year-old, ruddy-cheeked royal in the immaculately tailored pinstripes is a potentially powerful voice on climate change — now, and when the heir apparent takes the throne some day as the 21st century’s first eco-king.
The question: Will the people listen to him?
Top officials from the Biden administration on Monday announced the launch of the U.S. Center at COP26, as the White House released a long-term strategy for eliminating America’s carbon emissions by mid-century.
John F. Kerry, President Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, told a crowd of diplomats, journalists and others that the U.S. Center did not exist at previous United Nations climate summits under former president Donald Trump.
Kerry said the science is clear on the need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, the more ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris agreement.
“The scientists have made it clear as a matter not of politics, not of ideology … but as a matter of mathematics and physics,” he said.
Kerry noted that the Biden administration on Monday unveiled a long-term strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. He said the document was a “companion” to the United States’ previously released commitment under the Paris agreement, known as a nationally determined contribution, or NDC.
White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy drew applause and laughter from the crowd when she cracked jokes in her characteristic thick Boston accent.
McCarthy said Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by “well over” a gigaton. “And for all those whispering, ‘Well how much is that,’ I’ll tell you it’s well over a billion tons,” she said.
McCarthy said that even though the Trump administration “didn’t particularly like to talk about climate change,” America has continued to reduce its planet-warming pollution. She added later: “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kicking butt on offshore wind.”
GLASGOW, Scotland — In an attempt to stir world leaders into action, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vividly outlined the difference that a seemingly small rise in global temperatures could make.
The landmark eco-summit in Glasgow is widely seen as a crucial moment when countries must deliver on the Paris agreement in 2015, when leaders agreed to pursue efforts to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius than in preindustrial times.
“Two degrees more, and we jeopardize the food supply for hundreds of millions of people, crops wither, locusts swarm,” he said.
One degree more, and the extreme weather patterns the world is already seeing will get a whole lot worse.
“Three degrees, and you can add more wildfires and cyclones, twice as many. Five times as many droughts, and 36 times as many heat waves,” he said.
He continued, “Four degrees and we say goodbye to whole cities — Miami, Alexandria, Shanghai, all lost beneath the waves.”
Alok Sharma, the COP26 president, has said that the Glasgow summit is the “last, best hope” to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach.
GLASGOW, Scotland — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared the world’s climate crisis to a James Bond movie, arguing that the planet is "one minute to midnight” on the doomsday clock — a situation with which the fictional spy is very familiar.
“We are in roughly the same position, my fellow global leaders, as James Bond today — except that the tragedy is this is not a movie, and the doomsday device is real,” he said at the start of his address to 120 leaders from around the world.
“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change,” he said, “it’s one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock, and we need to act now.”
Johnson also referenced climate activist Greta Thunberg, though not by name, when he said that all the promises made at previous COP conferences, “will be nothing but blah blah blah, to coin a phrase” unless the Cop26 in Glasgow is “the moment we get real about climate change.”
Johnson urged leaders to make specific pledges on “coal, cars, cash and trees” — his oft-repeated slogan for top climate priorities for the summit — and said that leaders should not “fluff our lines,” warning that the younger generations will “not forgive us.”
“If we fail, they will not forgive us. They will know that Glasgow was the historic turning point when history failed to turn.”
The latest from Glasgow
After two weeks of talks in Glasgow, diplomats from almost 200 countries have agreed to ramp up their carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poor countries on the front lines of climate change. Read the full agreement here.
More on the causes and effects climate change: How we know global warming is real | How climate change is making parts of the world too hot and humid to survive | The undeniable link between weather disasters and climate change More on climate change solutions: Tracking Biden’s environmental actions | The world’s biggest plant to capture CO2 from the air just opened in Iceland | Why we shouldn’t give in to climate despair | Costa Rica’s environmental minister wants to build a green economy. She just needs time.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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Zalău explosion
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Coordinates: 47°11′N 23°3′E / 47.183°N 23.050°E / 47.183; 23.050
The Zalău explosion occurred on September 14, 2007 in a block of flats in Zalău, Romania as the result of a gas leak. Two people died and fifteen were injured in the explosion. [1] The structure was severely affected and the block of flats E24 was demolished in October 2007. [2] A total of 19 families were affected by the deflagration. They had been petitioning local natural gas distributor E.ON Gaz for two years before the explosion as a strong smell of gas could be sensed both inside and outside the block of flats. [3] The gas network system had been eight years overdue before the explosion. [4]
On September 19, 2007, hundreds of people participated in the funeral of those who died in the explosion. [5] Because E.ON Gaz did not provide support to the affected families, they protested in front of the headquarters of the company in Târgu Mureș on September 14, 2009. [6][7] In December 2010, six persons were sentenced to prison in connection with the explosion,[8] but in December 2011 their sentences were suspended. Compensations owed to individuals ranged from 67,000 to 222,000 lei. [9] In March 2012, the former owners started to rebuild the block of flats. [10]
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Gas explosion
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16 of the Best Celebrity Wedding-Guest Dresses to Inspire Your Own Look
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All products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Getting dressed up for a wedding has always been a fun practice, but the ceremonies on this year’s calendar feel exceptionally special. For many of us, these celebrations of love (which may have been postponed and months in the making!) will also mark the first time we reunite with cocktail dresses and ballroom gowns in over a year. So how does one prepare for such a momentous occasion? Well, by getting inspiration from some of our favorite style stars. We look to them for street style tips, so why not take a page from their books when heading to your friend’s wedding? After all, celebrity wedding-guest dresses are almost as fun as celebrity bridal gowns. Over the years, we’ve seen many tastemakers support family and friends while dressed to the nines. From the Emilio Pucci halter gown Emily Blunt wore to George and Amal Clooney’s Venice nuptials to the delightful gown Naomi Campbell donned during Prince Albert II of Monaco’s royal soirée, their wedding-day ensembles could certainly be sources of inspiration. Below, you’ll find 16 celebrity wedding-guest dresses to help inform your own look—no royal-wedding invite needed. WATCH Zoey Deutch’s Makeup Guide for Acne-Prone Skin Joyful colors like marigold will light up the room. Follow Clooney’s lead and select a classic sheath that will never go out of style. At David Grutman and Isabel Rangel’s wedding, Union put a romantic twist on the LBD with lace insets. You can always count on a sweet bow dress, especially one with a beautiful print like the one Moss wore to the wedding of Prince Christian of Hanover and Alessandra de Osma at Basilica San Pedro. If the dress code calls for all-white attire, it’s totally fine to wear the shade traditionally reserved for the bride. Add a sparkling touch, similar to that on Graham’s dress, with silver sequins or metallic fabrics. A timeless wrap dress will always deliver, as seen here with Witherspoon’s floral number. Don’t underestimate the power of a dress that can do double duty. A black maxi similar to Alba’s is perfect for mixing and matching with different accessories. Plus, it can be worn over and over again. Take notes from Beckham and opt for a modest dress with a high neckline. And if you’re up for it, a bright pair of heels adds the perfect finishing touch. Yes, halter necklines are back and perfect for all of those summer weddings. A bright shade of blue similar to Blunt’s will look stunning in pictures too. Speaking of necklines, the asymmetric one-shoulder silhouette is also a classic winner. Play with pastel shades or floral prints that offer a sweet touch. Black gowns are perfect for those weddings with a black-tie dress code. Erivo and Ciara twinned in voluminous options at Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian’s ceremony. A neutral print similar to Clarke’s wedding-guest dress worn for Kit Harington and Rose Leslie’s celebration is a smart way to make a subtle statement. For her sister’s all-white ceremony, Beyoncé proved less is more in a minimalist white frock. For a little more coverage, a long-sleeve dress is also a great option. Miller opted for a chocolate-hued number while attending Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling’s nuptials. Leave it to Perry to show us a way to wear smile-inducing colors at a wedding. Her prismatic tie-dye dress feels of the moment. Fluffy tulle and flowy chiffon fabrics make getting dressed up even more exciting. So layer on the sheer materials just like Dern did here.
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Famous Person - Marriage
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American Sydney McLaughlin sets world record in Olympic 400m hurdles final
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The day before, Karsten Warholm crushed his old world record, finishing the men’s race in 45.94, and runner-up Rai Benjamin’s 46.17 also beat the old mark.
It was a lot to live up to for the women, whose race was even more eagerly anticipated. They exceeded expectations.
Starting from Lane 7, Muhammad burst out of the blocks and made up the lag quickly — too quickly? — as they cruised down the backstretch.
Slowly, steadily, McLaughlin drew even, and they were at nearly a draw when they reached the final 100 meters. McLaughlin scaled the last hurdle, then started inching away.
The .12-second margin was close — but not as close as in Doha, when McLaughlin lost by .07 in a race that changed her thinking.
She had burst onto the scene in 2016, a 16-year-old out of East Orange, New Jersey, who loved to tell the story about how she could juggle, and ride a unicycle, and do both at the same time. She could hurdle, too. To prove it, she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in one of the most stacked events on the program,
Muhammad, already in her prime, won a gold medal in Rio de Janeiro. McLaughlin was out in the semifinal round. A great learning experience.
The 2019 races in Des Moines, then Doha, showed how good McLaughlin really was, but left her with an undisputable reality. Muhammad was better.
McLaughlin changed coaches, moving over to work with the famed Bobby Kersee, whose expertise has helped produce what could be its own wing of a track and field Hall of Fame: Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence Griffith Joyner, Allyson Felix.
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Break historical records
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Cornwall’s worst mining disaster in which 39 men drowned
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Our weekend morning emails feature the very best news and exclusive content from our team of reporters I suspect that if many people were asked where Cornwall’s worst mining disaster took place, the majority of answers would be Penwith or West Cornwall. Perhaps, more specifically, Levant where in 1919 the mine’s man engine broke flinging 31 men to their death in the depths below. However, the disaster with the highest death toll in Cornish mining history happened more-or-less in the middle of the Duchy, in St Newlyn East. It was 175 years ago when 39 men perished at East Wheal Rose, leaving 22 widows and 60 fatherless children. The average age of the dead miners was just 23. A local historian, who has regularly cleaned the headstone of one of the young miners who died, has now approached St Newlyn East Parish Council to suggest that the anniversary of the terrible event is marked in the village this July.
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Mine Collapses
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Brumadinho dam collapse: Hope fades for hundreds missing in Brazil
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At least 34 people have been killed and about 300 others remain missing after a dam collapsed at an iron ore mine in south-eastern Brazil, officials say. Rescue teams have been scouring the site near the town of Brumadinho, following Friday's collapse. It is not clear what caused the failure of the dam, owned by Vale, Brazil's largest mining company. Vale has had 6bn reais ($1.6bn; £1.2bn) frozen from its accounts to help fund recovery works and handle damages. The rupture of the dam caused a sea of muddy sludge to bury the site's cafeteria, where workers were eating lunch, and at least one bus that carried employees. On Saturday, emergency services used helicopters and earth-moving machinery in the search for survivors. Some 366 people have been rescued, Minas Gerais state fire department says. Of those, 23 have been taken to hospital. Vale said it could not reach 252 of its employees and contractors. Residents and guests at a local inn were also reported missing. Eight of the victims have been identified. Search efforts have been hampered by the difficult access to the area, the BBC's Julia Carneiro in Brumadinho reports. Even retrieving the bodies will be complicated because they are thought to be under a thick layer of mud, our correspondent adds. A bus that was carrying workers had been found but it was unclear how many people were inside. But three people who were stranded in a pick-up truck were rescued alive. President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew over the disaster area in a helicopter on Saturday, tweeted that it was hard not to get "emotional" after seeing the scale of the devastation. He said he had accepted an offer by Israel to send search equipment that could find people buried in the mud. Brazil's environmental protection agency, Ibama, issued Vale with an initial fine of 250m reais ($66.5m; £50m) in relation to the incident. Relatives of the missing gathered at a warehouse set up by Vale criticised the lack of information. "I want to know the truth. There's a disregard for everyone here," 43-year-old Sirlene do Carmo Januário told the BBC - her missing 23-year-old son, Rangel, worked at a company's building that was hit by the sludge. Earlier, state Governor Romeu Zema said the chances of finding more survivors were slim. "We're likely to just be recovering bodies." The collapse comes just over three years since a dam burst in Mariana, also in Minas Gerais, killing 19 people, in what was considered Brazil's worst environmental disaster. The dam near Feijão iron ore mine burst its barrier at around 13:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday, flooding another dam down below. The torrent of sludge cut through the dam's complex, nearby farms and the neighbourhood where many of the workers lived, destroying houses and vehicles. There are reports that the dam's alarm system - which local residents had been trained to respond to - failed. Vale president Fabio Schvartsman said the collapse may have occurred too quickly for a siren which triggers security protocols to be activated. Built in 1976, the dam was one of several in the area and it was used to hold residue from the mine. It had a capacity of 12m cubic metres and had been an inactive site for three years, Vale said. On 5 November 2015, a dam - also owned by Vale, along with BHP Billiton - burst at a Samarco mine in Mariana. More than 60m cubic metres - enough to fill 20,000 Olympic swimming pools - spilled over into the surrounding area. After a lengthy court case, BHP Billiton and Vale reached a settlement worth at least 6.8bn reais ($1.8bn) with the Brazilian government. BHP faces new lawsuit over Brazil disaster Seven charged over Samarco dam disaster Miners agree timeframe for Samarco claim Deadly storm cuts transport links around Vancouver Delhi shuts schools and colleges as air turns toxic Heated protests outside court ahead of Rittenhouse verdict. VideoHeated protests outside court ahead of Rittenhouse verdict
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Mine Collapses
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James Watt Street fire
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The James Watt Street fire on Monday, 18 November 1968, was a fatal factory fire in Glasgow, Scotland leading to a large loss of life, with 22 employees killed. [1] The number of fatalities was a consequence of the building retaining barred windows, a feature remaining from its previous use as a whisky bond. Around 100 firemen from Glasgow Fire Service attended this incident, which reinforced Glasgow's reputation for tragic fires in the 30 years after the Second World War. Many of these fires resulted from poor building standards, with many premises being modified from their original purpose. Glasgow city centre did not suffer from wartime bombing to the extent of other British cities, and consequently, many industrial premises were still of nineteenth-century origin, and were located in cramped and narrow streets. The factory premises was located in James Watt Street, a street between Argyle Street and the Broomielaw on the north side of the River Clyde. The building consisted of a ground, first, and second floors, with basement. Julius and Samuel Stern ran the upholstery business, B Stern Ltd., on the upper floors. [1] A glass company, G. Bryce, occupied the basement and part of the ground floor. [1] The building had previously been used as a whisky bond (a warehouse used for storage before excise duty has been paid) and, in common with many of Glasgow's industrial premises, had seen numerous changes of use. The previous use of the building involved high security measures including barred windows, meaning that, in the event of a fire, escape could be compromised. In the following enquiry, it was discovered that the doors to the fire escape were locked from the inside. The alarm was raised at around 10:30, with the first crews arriving within five minutes. A serious fire was seen to be in progress and a "Make Pumps 10" message was sent to control almost immediately (additional appliances required, which in addition to those already there would total 10). As part of this request for reinforcements, a "Persons Reported" message was sent, indicating persons were requiring urgent assistance and rescue. 70 firemen attended to fight the fire,[1] with water poured onto the building from turntable ladders. It was found that efforts at rescue were futile due to the intense heat and the difficulties in entering the building. Escape from the building had been prevented due to fire on the stairs, caused by polyurethane foam, and the escape doors from the first and second floors to the fire escape were found to have been locked from the inside. Eventually, no persons were seen at the windows, and any hopes of rescue for those inside ended when the roof of the building collapsed. Many attempts were made to enter the building where the employees were believed to be but intense heat drove back the firemen. The Glasgow Fire Service personnel eventually gained access to the building, by cutting through the steel doors using oxy-propane cutting gear. The fire was brought under control around 3pm by which time 20 bodies had been found. A further 2 were found later, totaling 22. 5 women and 17 men. Only 4 people of those known to be in the building escaped. [2] The dead found inside the factory were judged to have died due to the inhalation of smoke, the burning of polyurethane foam resulting in poisonous fumes.
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Fire
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2004 California wildfires
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This is a partial and incomplete list of California wildfires. California has dry, windy, and often hot weather conditions from spring through late autumn that can produce moderate to severe wildfires. Pre-1800, when the area was much more forested and the ecology much more resilient, 4.4 million acres (1.8 million hectares) of forest and shrubland burned annually. [1] California land area totals 99,813,760 or roughly 100 million acres, so since 2000, the area that burned annually has ranged between 90,000 acres, or 0.09%, and 1,590,000 acres, or 1.59% of the total land of California. [2] During the 2020 wildfire season alone, over 8,100 fires contributed to the burning of nearly 4.5 million acres of land. Wildfires in California are growing more dangerous because of the accumulation of wood fuel in forests, higher population and greater electricity transmission and distribution lines. [3][4][5] United States taxpayers pay about US$3 billion a year to fight wildfires, and big fires can lead to billions of dollars in property losses. [6] At times, these wildfires are fanned or made worse by strong, dry winds, known as Diablo winds when they occur in the northern part of the state and Santa Ana winds when they occur in the south. However, from a historical perspective, it has been estimated that prior to 1850, about 4.5 million acres (17,000 km²) burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months, with wildfire activity peaking roughly every 30 years, when up to 11.8 million acres (47,753 km³) of land burned. [7][8] The much larger wildfire seasons in the past can be attributed to the policy of Native Californians regularly setting controlled burns and allowing natural fires to run their course, which prevented devastating wildfires from overrunning the state. [7]
More than 350,000 people in California live in towns sited completely within zones deemed to be at very high risk of fire. In total, more than 2.7 million people live in "very high fire hazard severity zones", which also include areas at lesser risk. [9]
The four most common ignition sources of large California wildfires since 1980 have been equipment generating sparks (chainsaws, grinders, mowers, etc. ), overhead power lines, arsonists, and lightning. [10]
These are the 20 largest wildfires in California from 1932 (when accurate records started to be kept) through 2020, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). [11] List: "Top 20 Largest California Wildfires" (PDF), http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/# of Federal fire incident system. Note: Burned area and position in the list are subject to change. A list of the 20 deadliest wildfires, according to CAL FIRE, can be found at "Top 20 Deadliest California Wildfires" (PDF). Note: Number of deaths and position in the list are subject to change. A list of the 20 most destructive wildfires, according to CAL FIRE, can be found at: "Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires" (PDF). Note: Number of destroyed structures and position in the list are subject to change. Starting in 2001, the National Interagency Fire Center began keeping more accurate records on the total fire acreage burned in each state. [23]
A 2015 study[58] addressed whether the increase in fire risk in California is attributable to climate change. [59]
Note: Check primary sources for up-to-date statistics. In some parts of California, fires can recur in areas with histories of fires. In Oakland, for example, fires of various size and ignition occurred in 1923, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1946, 1955, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1970, 1980, 1990, 1991, 1995, 2002, and 2008. [114][115] Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Los Angeles County are other examples. Orange and San Bernardino counties share a border that runs north to south through the Chino Hills State Park, with the park's landscape ranging from large green coastal sage scrub, grassland, and woodland, to areas of brown sparsely dense vegetation made drier by droughts or hot summers. The valley's grass and barren land can become easily susceptible to dry spells and drought, therefore making it a prime spot for brush fires and conflagrations, many of which have occurred since 1914. Hills and canyons have seen brush or wildfires in 1914, the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and into today. [116]
On occasion, lightning strikes from thunderstorms may also spark wildfires in areas that have seen past ignition. Examples of this are the 1999 Megram Fire, the 2008 California wildfires. [citation needed], as well as both the LNU and SCU Lightning Complex fires of 2020.
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Fire
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Turkey's top diplomat on Thursday said Greece and Egypt violated the rights and continental shelves of Turkey and Libya by signing a maritime deal on exclusive economic zones (EEZ)
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Turkey's top diplomat on Thursday said Greece and Egypt violated the rights and continental shelves of Turkey and Libya by signing a maritime deal on exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the Eastern Mediterranean. In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed that the text and map of the agreement had yet to be revealed, adding: "However, it's obvious by the given coordinates that the deal not only violates the rights and continental shelf of Turkey but also of Libya."
"Hence, an agreement that violates our continental shelf, which we have reported to the UN, is null and void and the reason why we've come to this point is that countries like Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, are trying to sign agreements with Egypt and Israel while ignoring Turkey," Cavusoglu added.
"We'll continue to show them and the world that this agreement is null and void on the table and in the field."
Egypt announced earlier on Thursday that it signed a bilateral agreement with Greece on the delimitation of maritime jurisdictions between the two countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish Foreign Ministry slammed the "so-called agreement" in a statement, asserting that Greece and Egypt had no mutual sea border and that the deal was "null and void" for Ankara. It added that the demarcated area in the agreement was located on Turkey's continental shelf, as Ankara had reported to the UN.
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Sign Agreement
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Pan Am Flight 708 crash
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Pan Am Flight 708 (PA 708) was a cargo flight that crashed on initial approach less than 10 mi (16 km) west-southwest of its destination airport, Berlin Tegel in Germany, in the early morning hours of November 15, 1966. The flight was operated by a Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) Boeing 727-21, registration N317PA,[1] name Clipper München, routing from Frankfurt Airport. All three crew members perished. The cause was undetermined because US investigators were not allowed to survey the impact site near Dallgow in what was then East Germany, and only half of the aircraft remains were returned by Soviet military authorities in East Germany to their US counterparts in erstwhile West Berlin. Flight 708 usually landed at Tempelhof Airport. But because of runway maintenance at Tempelhof, Pan Am shifted its flights to Tegel Airport. At the time of the accident, weather was poor and it was snowing. The Soviet authorities returned about 50% of the wreckage. Some major components were not returned, including the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, flight control systems, navigation and communication equipment. At the time of the crash, the Soviet Union did not belong to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). [2] Nations belonging to ICAO allow reciprocal visits by official observers in order to improve aviation safety.
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Air crash
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1946 Australian National Airways DC-3 crash
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On Sunday 10 March 1946 a Douglas DC-3 aircraft departed from Hobart, Tasmania for a flight to Melbourne. The aircraft crashed into the sea with both engines operating less than 2 minutes after takeoff. All twenty-five people on board the aircraft died. It was Australia's worst civil aviation accident. [Note 1][2]
An investigation panel was promptly established to investigate the accident. The panel was unable to conclusively establish the cause but it decided the most likely cause was that the automatic pilot was inadvertently engaged shortly after takeoff while the gyroscope was caged. The Department of Civil Aviation took action to ensure that operation of the automatic pilot on-off control on Douglas DC-3 aircraft was made distinctive from operation of any other control in the cockpit, and that instructions were issued impressing on pilots that gyroscopes should be un-caged prior to takeoff. An inquiry chaired by a Supreme Court judge closely examined three different theories but found there was insufficient evidence to determine any one of them as the cause. This inquiry discovered that the captain of the aircraft was diabetic and had kept it secret from both his employer and the Department of Civil Aviation. The judge considered the captain's diabetes and self-administration of insulin probably contributed significantly to the accident but he stopped short of making this his official conclusion. In his report, the judge recommended modification of the lever actuating the automatic pilot. The inquiry uncovered four irregularities in the regulation of civil aviation in Australia and the judge made four recommendations to deal with these irregularities. The Australian National Airways aircraft registered VH-AET arrived at Cambridge aerodrome at 8:15 pm local time, about four hours late. The return flight to Essendon Airport was scheduled to depart at 4:50 pm, but did not do so until 8:50 pm. [3]
On board were 21 passengers, 3 pilots and an air hostess. [3] Douglas DC-3 (and C-47) aircraft were normally crewed by two pilots but on 10 March the cockpit of VH-AET was occupied by a third person, a supernumerary pilot who was making his first flights with the airline. [Note 2][5][6][7] The weight of the aircraft was about 900 pounds (408 kg) below the maximum authorised weight. [Note 3][8]
The takeoff was into a light southerly wind towards Frederick Henry Bay and the sea. Observers at the aerodrome reported that the takeoff was normal, and both engines were operating perfectly. [3]
Witnesses in the vicinity of Seven-Mile Beach[Note 4] estimated that the aircraft reached a height of a little above 400 ft (122 m)[10] before turning left slightly and descending steeply. [9] The aircraft cleared the land and crashed into Frederick Henry Bay about 300 yards (275 m)[Note 5] beyond the water's edge and a mile (1.6 km) from the western end of Seven-Mile Beach. [3][13] After takeoff it flew for less than 2 minutes[13][14] and covered a distance of only 2.9 nautical miles (5.4 km). [Note 6]
On learning of the crash at nearby Seven-Mile Beach employees of Australian National Airways raced from Cambridge aerodrome to lend assistance. About 11:15 pm the rear fuselage came to the surface a short distance off-shore. [Note 7][18] Donald Butler,[Note 8] one of the employees, feared the air hostess might still be trapped in her seat in the rear of the fuselage. He took a length of rope, swam out to the floating piece of structure, attached the rope to the tailwheel and then swam back to the beach. A motor lorry was used to drag the rear fuselage ashore but there was no-one inside. [16][17][18] The right tailplane, elevator and trim tab were almost undamaged. The elevator trim tab was still set appropriately for a shallow climb after take-off. [9]
The wreckage was in about 18 ft (5.5 m) of water. [Note 9][20] A diving pontoon was towed to the site by Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Huon. [Note 10][21][22] Diver Glen Thorne[Note 11] found pieces of wreckage scattered over a wide area of the sea bed. The aircraft had disintegrated and there were few recognisable pieces of structure. Key parts of the wreckage were eventually recovered from the sea bed by Thorne working from the pontoon. [11]
About 4 hours after the crash the mutilated body of a woman was washed onto Seven-Mile Beach. Fifteen minutes later the body of a man was washed ashore. It was later identified as the body of the captain. At intervals until 6:30 am another 5 bodies were washed ashore. [17] The next day, another 3 bodies were recovered. [20] The bodies were badly mutilated and either naked or clad only in vestiges of underclothing, indicating the severity of the impact with the water. [5][16] One body was missing a leg. [16] A head, severed from its body, was recovered in the vicinity. [24]
The bodies of 21 of the 25 people on board were eventually recovered from the beaches around Frederick Henry Bay. The remaining 4 bodies were never found. [Note 12][19][27] One body was found on the beach at Sandford, about 5 miles from the site of the crash. [28] The body of the supernumerary pilot was not identified until 19 days after the accident. [29]
Two years after the accident, a human thigh-bone was found on Seven-Mile Beach. Police believed the bone came from one of the bodies never recovered. [30][31]
The director-general of Civil Aviation promptly established a panel to investigate the accident. [Note 13] The panel was chaired by John Watkins, Superintendent of Airworthiness & Aeronautical Engineering.
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Air crash
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Taiwan President Rebuffs China's Xi Jinping in Most Defiant Speech Yet
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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen rebuffed Chinese leader Xi Jinping in her most defiant speech yet on Sunday after the latter gave a competing address in which he extolled the Communist Party and its plans for the island's future.
In 5,000-word remarks for the 110th anniversary of the Republic of China (ROC)—Taiwan's formal name—Tsai called on her citizens to be "masters of our own destiny," in a speech her spokesperson described as a heartfelt message from a president who is no longer running for reelection.
Her address came 24 hours after China's Xi spoke at length to mark the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, the event—originating in the central Chinese city of Wuhan—that led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the ROC. Xi referenced "a republic on Chinese soil" but didn't name the ROC, which the People's Republic of China (PRC) considers to be over, despite its de facto existence in Taiwan.
In words that were meant to be heeded by Taiwan's government as well as its people, Xi linked his Taiwan ambitions to the "rejuvenation" of the Chinese nation, calling "unification" of the island "the general trend of Chinese history" and "the common will of all Chinese people." He also reiterated China's intention to rule Taiwan under a Hong Kong–style "one country, two systems" formula.
He struck an overall softer tone by emphasizing unification by peaceful means, saying it serves both China and Taiwan. Beijing's officials, however, continue to remind their counterparts in Taipei that China will never renounce the use of force to achieve their goal.
Xi also concluded with a stark warning about loyalty to China, saying: "Those who forget their heritage, betray their motherland, and seek to split the country will come to no good end; they will be disdained by the people and condemned by history."
In Tsai's prepared remarks the next day—described by commentators as the strongest of her presidency so far—she didn't shy away from speaking out against China's military intimidation and political isolation of Taiwan.
"But the more we achieve, the greater the pressure we face from China," Tsai said, following her praise for Taiwan's part in global health contributions and its shoring up of the global semiconductor supply chain. "So I want to remind all my fellow citizens that we do not have the privilege of letting down our guard."
"We call for maintaining the status quo, and we will do our utmost to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered," she said, before repeating her desire for meaningful dialogue with Beijing "on the basis of parity."
She added: "We hope for an easing of cross-strait relations and will not act rashly, but there should be absolutely no illusions that the Taiwanese people will bow to pressure. We will continue to bolster our national defense and demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves in order to ensure that nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us."
China's plan for Taiwan "offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan, nor sovereignty for our 23 million people," she argued.
Tsai committed to four positions that she called "the bottom line and common denominator" most widely accepted by the people of Taiwan. Among them were the insistence that the ROC and PRC "should not be subordinate to each other" as well as Taiwan's commitment to "resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty."
The future of Taiwan, Tsai said, "must be decided in accordance with the will of the Taiwanese people"—a direct rejection of Xi's view that Taiwan's future as a province of China is the "will of all Chinese people."
Tsai concluded her remarks with a pledge to push constitutional amendments and institutional reforms that will preserve Taiwan's democratic system.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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2017–2019 eruptions of Mount Agung
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Mount Agung, a volcano on the island of Bali in Indonesia, erupted five times in late November 2017, causing thousands to evacuate, disrupting air travel and causing environmental damage. As of 27 November 2017, the alert level was at its highest and evacuation orders were in place. Tectonic earthquakes from the volcano had been detected since early August 2017, and volcanic activity intensified for several weeks before decreasing significantly in late October. A second, more violent period of major activity began in late November. Agung has since had eruptions in January, June, July and December 2018 and January, February, March, April, May and June 2019. Agung erupted in 1843[2] as reported by Heinrich Zollinger:
After having been dormant for a long time, this year the mountain began to be alive again. In the first days of the activity earthquake shocks were felt after which followed the emission of ash, sand and stones. [3]
Mount Agung's 1963 eruption was among the most catastrophic volcanic events in Indonesian history. After initial explosions in the crater on 18 February of that year, lava began flowing down the mountain on 24 February, eventually traveling 7 km over the next three weeks. On 17 March, a highly explosive eruption occurred, reaching a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 5 and sending lethal pyroclastic flows at high speeds down the mountain's slopes, killing at least 1,500 people. [4] Heavy rainfall mixed with ash from the eruption in the following days caused extensive lahars which killed about 200 more people. A smaller eruption occurred on 16 May, sending pyroclastic flows down the mountain once more, killing about 200 more people. [4][5] By the time the eruptions ceased in early 1964, they had claimed about 1,900 lives, marking the event as the 8th deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Since 1963, the population of Bali has nearly doubled. [6] Mount Agung is therefore considered highly dangerous by Indonesian authorities. This concern was the primary reason behind their decision to evacuate more than 100,000 people in response to the surge in local tectonic activity in the latter half of 2017. [5]
Volcanic earthquakes were observed from 10 August 2017[7] and the intensity increased in the following weeks. On 30 September 2017, an increase of rumbling and seismic activity around the volcano made people raise the alert to the highest level and about 122,500 people were evacuated from their homes around the volcano. [8] The Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority declared a 12-kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano on 24 September. [9] A plume was observed on 13 September. [7]
Evacuees gathered in sports halls and other community buildings around Klungkung, Karangasem, Buleleng, and other areas. [10] The monitoring station is in Tembuku, Rendang, Karangasem Regency, where intensity and frequency of tremors were monitored for signs of the imminent large eruption. [11]
The area experienced 844 volcanic earthquakes on 25 September, and 300 to 400 earthquakes by midday on 26 September. Seismologists have been alarmed at the force and frequency of the incidents as it has taken much less for similar volcanoes to erupt. [12][13]
In late October 2017, the activity of the volcano decreased significantly, leading to lowering of the alert status on 29 October. [14]
The alert level remained at 3 (out of 4) until the start of the second major activity period, and plumes were observed during this time. [15][16]
A small phreatic eruption was reported at 09:05 on 21 November (UTC), with the top of the ash cloud reaching 3,842 metres (12,605 ft) above sea level. [17] Thousands of people immediately fled the area,[18] and over 29,000 temporary refugees were housed in over 270 locations nearby. [19]
A magmatic eruption began early on Saturday morning, 25 November. [20] The eruption plume rose 1.5–4 km above the summit crater, drifting towards the south[20] and dusting the surroundings with a thin layer of dark ash, leading some airlines to cancel flights bound for Australia[20] and New Zealand. An orange glow was later observed around the crater at night, confirming that fresh magma had reached the surface. [21][22]
At 23:37 on 26 November (UTC), another eruption occurred. Ngurah Rai International Airport was closed next day,[23] leaving many tourists stranded. [24] More than 100,000 people in a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) radius of the volcano were ordered to evacuate. [25]
Sunday 26 November's eruption continued at a constant rate,[26] and lahars were reported in the Selat district south of the volcano. [24] The Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology reported that the top of the eruption column had reached an altitude of 9,144 m (5.7 miles). [27] Ash continued to spread in a southeasterly direction, and estimates by the Pacific Disaster Center predicted that the resulting atmospheric ash exposure would affect up to 5.6 million people within the densely populated region surrounding the volcano. [26]
Reductions in eruption intensity and wind dispersal of the ash cloud led authorities to reopen Ngurah Rai International Airport at 07:00 (UTC). [28][29] Authorities also warned that the eruption volume could increase again at any time, potentially shutting down air traffic once more. [29]
The volcano erupted once again on 11 January, sending plumes of smoke and ash, while Indonesia's Bali international airport was declared safe, operating normally. [30] The eruption column was reported to rise 2.5 km above the mountain. Agung erupted on 12 June, sending plumes of smoke and ash some 2,000 meters above the volcano's summit. [31] No flights were affected from the event. On 28 June, water vapour and volcanic ash emission were detected from Mount Agung up to two kilometres into the air. The Ngurah Rai Airport was closed due to the event. [32][33]
Agung erupted again 3 July due to a minor strombolian explosion. 700 people living near the crater were evacuated. No flights were affected. [34]
On the morning of 30 December, the volcano sent ash skywards as it erupted for about three minutes, spewing white clouds of smoke and ash more than 700m into the air. [35] Several villages in Bali were covered in a thin layer of ash, but no smoke or lava was detected coming from the volcano and no evacuation has been ordered.
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Volcano Eruption
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2009 World Netball Series
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The 2009 World Netball Series was the inaugural tournament of the World Netball Series. The 2009 Series was held at MEN Arena in Manchester, England from 9–11 October, and was the first major trial of the new FastNet rules that were announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) in 2008. New Zealand won the 2009 tournament with a 32–27 victory over Jamaica in the gold medal playoff. [1]
The 2009 World Netball Series was played under FastNet rules, which were designed to make games faster and more television-friendly, with the ultimate aim of raising the sport's profile and attracting more spectators and greater sponsorship. [2][3][4] Netball is now following in the footsteps of cricket and rugby in providing a shorter version of the game to appease existing netball fans and grab the attention of new ones. [5][6] It was organised by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA), in conjunction with the national governing bodies of the six competing nations, as well as the Manchester City Council, England Netball, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and UK Sport. [7] The Manchester City Council and UK Sport also contributed funding for the inaugural tournament. [8] The Co-operative Group were announced as title sponsors for the 2009 Series. [9]
The 2009 World Netball Series was telecast in Australia by Network Ten; in Jamaica by Television Jamaica;[10] in New Zealand by TV ONE; and in the United Kingdom by Sky Sports. The 2009 World Netball Series was a new and exciting opportunity for those that have wanted to support netball to assist in making the series a success. This recent event has enabled a number of local and international companies to get behind the new concept of FastNet netball. [11] The following were the sponsors for the 2009 World Netball Series:
-The Co-operative Group who assists with the netball development in the UK. -ASICS U.K and Ireland provided netball shoes for this event in that performance and movement is crucial. -Shock Absorber sports bra is an essential piece of clothing for any netball player. As well as the 2009 World Netball Series the shock absorber bra is also involved in the development of England's senior team, Under 21 and Under 19 Netball teams. -Manchester City Council. -The North West Development Agency (NWDA). -UK sport. -The International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) is the sole recognised federation for netball. Currently, over 60 National Netball Associations are affiliated to IFNA, grouped into 5 Regions – Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania, then each have their own regional federation. -England Netball is the governing body for enhancing the netball in England. It is a company limited by guarantee and comprises approximately 3,000 Clubs and some 68,000 affiliated members. Netball is largely driven by the efforts of many volunteers operating at a national, regional, county and community level, and the England netball association can help with this. -Gilbert are the exclusive supplier to IFNA as well as New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, Scotland Wales, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Malawi Nigeria and USA Netball. -Monkhouse Intersport sold exclusive merchandise for the 2009 World Netball Series. -Matalan retail
-Slazenger S1 Sports Drink is the official sports drink of the 2009 World Netball Series. -Manchester Evening News Arena. It is sometimes described as the ‘voice of Manchester’ for anything that is occurring there, like the 2009 world netball series. The 2009 World Netball Series required a number of volunteers to make this event happen. Without the time and energy volunteers give, this series would not have been possible. Here are the volunteer's roles that the 2009 World Netball Series required. [12]
Match Statistics
-Updating scores on The Co-operative World Netball Series website and providing score sheets for teams. Programme Distributors
-Operating the programme sales desk. Informing spectators of promotional offers and competitions. Handling money and ensure that it is stored securely. Accreditation Crew
-Distribution of Accreditation passes and welcome packs. Production of additional passes. Runners
-On hand to assist the Operations Manager e.g. ice baths, moving equipment etc. Media Liaisons
-Ensure that media requirements are met throughout the event. Carry out any other duties that may be reasonably required e.g. basic office admin assistance. VIP reception
-Greet VIP's and direct them to the designated VIP area. Support the VIP Manager and carry out any other duties that may be reasonably required. VIP host
-Look after VIP's throughout the event in the designated VIP area. Support the VIP Manager and carry out any other duties that may be reasonably required. Stewards
-Ensure public, players and officials are directed to the correct areas and do not enter restricted areas. Check that event staff, officials and spectators are in possession of the correct accreditation pass or tickets. Ball Patrol
-A vital part of officiating team. Active role in ensuring game runs smoothly.
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Sports Competition
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Glasgow Bellgrove rail accident
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On 6 March 1989, two Class 303 commuter trains crashed on the Springburn branch of the North Clyde Line, just east of Bellgrove station in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland. Driver Mr. Hugh Kennan, aged 62 of Maryhill, and passenger Mr. Robert McCaffrey, aged 58, a retired rail worker from Scotstoun, died in the crash and 53 people were injured. [1]
The accident was of a type known as "ding-ding, and away". It was caused primarily by a signal passed at danger (SPAD) in conjunction with the single-lead junction track layout, where two lines converged into one just beyond the platform end and then diverged again – a layout which is simpler to maintain but is vulnerable in the event of a SPAD. This type of junction has been implicated in other accidents, notably to the south-east of Glasgow in the Newton rail accident just a couple of years later. Both trains were travelling at 40 mph (65 km/h), so the collision speed was 80 mph (130 km/h). The force of the impact was so severe that at least one passenger was thrown out of his seat and completely destroyed one of the "A" frame back-to-back seats. An official report, delivered in May 1990, determined that the Milngavie-to-Springburn train had passed the signal at danger, causing a collision with the Springburn-to-Milngavie service. [2]
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Train collisions
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Landslide buries 15 people, including three children, from PNG gold mine camp
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Fifteen people, including three children, are feared dead after being buried alive in a landslide in a remote part of Papua New Guinea's Central Province. The area in the Goilala District, known as Saki, is home to an informal alluvial mining camp, where people dig and pan for gold to make a living. A group were sleeping at the base of the mountainside when the landslide happened in the early hours of Monday morning, local time. Details of the incident only emerged on Tuesday, as the area is only accessibly by helicopter or a 2-hour walk and has no mobile phone reception. Disaster officials have been flown to the site. A Government officer who accompanied them to the site told the ABC that 15 people, including three children, are believed to have been buried but only two bodies have been recovered so far. Before flying to the site on Monday afternoon, the MP for Goilala, William Samb, said it wasn't expected that anyone survived. "Unfortunately there are no survivors, from what we hear," he said. "They were all asleep in the early morning, then sadly they were all buried alive." The rain and remoteness have hampered recovery efforts, with locals having to use shovels and pitchforks to try to dig through the fallen earth. Mr Samb, who has remained at the site, has organised additional tools, including chainsaws and axes, and food to be flown in. "Recovery has been slow due to the enormity of the disaster, and locals are helping to dig through the earth with whatever tools are available to them," a statement from his office said. "[The Government] will work towards recovering the rest of the bodies and finding a way forward to repatriate bodies back to their home villages across Goilala," it said. Heavy rain has been suspected to be the cause of the landslide. It's not yet clear if the mining activities and land clearing may have contributed by making the ground less stable. While details are still to be confirmed, Mr Samb said the incident nevertheless highlighted the dangers alluvial miners in the country face, describing it as "a risky business". Governor of the Central Province Robert Agarobe is expected to fly to the site. Mr Agarobe said there are concerns the landslide could create a dam. "What our fear is, if the dam builds up and it breaks it will cause more damage downstream," he said. He said an explosives expert from the army may need to be brought in to clear the earth if that is the case.
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Mine Collapses
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An explosion incident reported early Monday evening claimed the lives of two people in the Farmersville area.
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Farmersville, TX (June 30, 2021) – An explosion incident reported early Monday evening claimed the lives of two people in the Farmersville area. At approximately 4 p.m., on June 28, the Collin County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene of an exploding incident about 35 miles northeast of Dallas.
Reports provided by the Collin County Sheriff’s Office show that an explosion took place at the outmost energy facility located in Collin County near Farmersville. The incident caused severe disc damage throughout the area. Two contractors who were employees of Bobcat Contracting and Fesco Petroleum Engineering were fatally injured in the accident. Two victims were declared deceased at the scene. Two other people were transported to area hospitals for further care. At this time, the cause of the incident remains under investigation
Our thoughts are with the victims injured in this accident. We hope for their full recovery.
We would like to offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims who lost their lives in this incident. Our thoughts are with them at this time.
Every year, deadly explosions take place across the United States to have a devastating impact on the lives of those involved. Explosions involving gas pipelines are more likely to result in severe and fatal injuries for victims who are on-site at the time of the incident. Although gas is an extremely beneficial substance for most homes, businesses, and motor vehicles, it can be extremely deadly if it is not handled with care. Although we cannot predict when I’m explosion will take place, we know more often than not that they will end with devastating consequences. When victims lose their lives in explosion incidents, it is crucial that surviving relatives reconnect reach out to an explosion injury attorney as soon as possible. In some cases, surviving relatives may be able to recover compensation to alleviate some of the economic and non-economic damages they face moving forward.
The national explosion injury attorneys at Burg Simpson provide a variety of services for our clients to ensure they are in the best position possible to get full and timely compensation following an explosion. Some of the services we offer our clients include:
Our team has over four decades of experience fighting to protect the legal rights of families who have lost loved ones in oil, gas, and propane explosion throughout the entire country. Our team strives to ensure surviving relatives are able to protect their legal rights and get the justice they deserve. Our team is experienced in investigating all types of explosions in the sea and on land to uncover the circumstances that led to the explosion taking place in order to help families get justice. Contact our national personal injury attorneys today by calling (888) 895-2080 to see how we can help you.
Note: Independent sources were used in the creation of this post. These sources include news reports, police reports, eye-witness reports, social media reports, and first-hand accounts about the injury accident. For that reason, the facts pertaining to the specific events surrounding this accident have not been independently verified by our writing team. If there is any information that is not correct about a specific incident or if you would prefer that the post be removed, please reach out to us as soon as possible so that we can make the correction or remove the post.
Disclaimer: At the personal injury law firm of Burg Simpson, we have made it our mission to give back to our local community members. We have dedicated our careers to changing peoples’ lives for the better by fighting for them in court to ensure that they receive fair and full compensation for their injuries and damages after suffering an injury. We hope these posts will help bring awareness to the dangers of driving and will remind members of our communities to practice safer driving habits and take the necessary precautions to prevent being injured. This is not a solicitation for business. The information in this post should not be misconstrued as medical advice or legal advice. The photos depicted in this post are not representative of the actual accident scene.
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Gas explosion
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1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
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The 1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Budapest, Hungary, at the Kincsem Park on March 26, 1994. A preview on the event was given in the Herald,[1] and a report in The New York Times. [2]
Complete results for senior men,[3] junior men,[4] senior women,[5] junior women,[6] medallists,
[7] and the results of British athletes[8] were published. An unofficial count yields the participation of 760 athletes from 60 countries. This is in agreement with the official numbers as published. [8]
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Sports Competition
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2000 Turkmenistan earthquake
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The 2000 Turkmenistan earthquake took place at 8:11 p.m. Moscow Time on December 6 and had a magnitude of 7.0. [3] The intensity of the earthquake reached VIII at its epicenter, and VI at the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat. The epicentre was located approximately 25 kilometers north of the city of Balkanabat and 125 kilometres southeast of Türkmenbaşy. There were unconfirmed reports that the quake killed up to 11 people and injured 5 others. [4]
Turkmenistan lies at the northern edge of the zone of complex tectonics caused by the continuing collision between the Arabian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The main structure in the Caspian Sea is the Apsheron Sill, a zone of active subduction. The trend of the Apsheron sill is quite oblique to the overall plate motion and this results in significant amounts of right lateral strike-slip along this structure in an overall transpressional setting. Onshore, the motion along the Apsheron sill is transferred to the Ashgabat Fault, another right lateral strike-slip fault, across a large restraining bend. [5]
The focal mechanism for this event indicates that it was the result of oblique reverse faulting on one of two possible faults, either northwest–southeast or west–east trending. [6]
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Earthquakes
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#OlympicSuperstars | India's Men's Relay Team Breaks 4x400m Asian Record But Misses Final
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The Indian men's relay team made history in the 4x400 meter at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as they set a new Asian record with a staggering time of just 3:00.25 minutes. The previous Asian record was held by Qatar who finished the relay in 3:00.56 minutes at the 2018 Asian Games. However, finishing fourth in the heats and ninth overall, they could not qualify for the final event. The Indian men's relay team comprised of Muhammed Anas, Nirmal Noah, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob.
Even though the Indian men's relay team set a new Asian record, they suffered a heartbreak as they missed out on qualification for the final by just 0.88 seconds. After the first round of the heat, Muhammad Anas finished last, but Nirmal Noah's stellar run helped take the team to sixth place. Once the baton was handed over to Arokya Rajiv, he overtook the French team to push India to fifth position. Lastly, the baton was handed over to Amoj Jacob, whose effort went in vain as the Indian team only managed to finish fourth and missed out on the final by an extremely small margin. The Indian team eventually finished behind Poland, Jamaica and Belgium.
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Break historical records
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Being pregnant is not a get out of jail free card', judge tells drug dealing mum-to-be - before sparing her prison
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The 20-year-old said she had been selling MDMA and cannabis 'to pay the bills' A drug dealing woman narrowly avoided time behind bars despite a judge saying her being pregnant wasn't a "get out of jail free" card. Rebecca Pomphrett, 20, of Emerson Street, Toxteth, had been caught selling off MDMA and cannabis outside of St George's Hall in Liverpool, the Echo reports. But she later confessed that she was selling the drugs to pay household bills and as an opportunity to 'get out of the house' during lockdown. READ MORE: Police raid couple's home at midnight after M62 arrest and find drugs racket Considering the impact prison would have on her unborn baby, the judge spared her a jail sentence. Liverpool Crown Court heard officers arrested Pomphrett opposite Lime Street station, at around 3.30pm, on October 2 last year. Michael Stephenson, prosecuting, said she had a cannabis grinder and cigarette papers on her when she was caught. He said: "She was spoken to by the officers. They didn't have a female officer with them, but when asked if she had other drugs on her, she volunteered other drugs in her possession. "She had what's described as five quarter ounce deals of cannabis, 32.4g, but it does appear from the description it was poor quality material... dust and stalks. "She also had 14 yellow tablets, weighing 6.5g, which proved to be MDMA, with a street value of £70 to £140." Pomphrett gave a no comment interview, but later admitted possessing Class A and B drugs with intent to supply. Mr Stephenson went on to add: "She has provided a more candid account in the pre-sentence report, where she says effectively it was A, an opportunity to get out of the house, and B, the chance to make some provision towards payment of household bills. "Her phone contained a significant number of dealing messages, relating to the 'Gas Gang'. "She had identified several locations where she could be met for the purchase of drugs." Mr Stephenson said the Crown suggested it was a street dealing "significant role" case, because she was selling drugs to fund household bills. Ken Heckle, defending, suggested it was a "lesser role", meaning the judge could take a lower starting point, and with mitigation and credit, could impose a sentence of two years or less, capable of being suspended. He said Pomphrett wasn't blaming anyone else and agreed she was "almost naively and refreshingly honest" in a pre-sentence report, after showed immaturity in her dealings with officers. He said: "The reason the Crown know the messages is she readily gave the PIN [to the phone] "She was badgered by a person to do this... She was a willing participant in difficult circumstances." He said Pomphrett was supported in her court by her aunt, who has had parental responsibility for her since she was two, and whom she considers to be her mum. A letter from her grandad outlined her parents were "incapable" of looking after her. After speaking to her aunt, he said this was because of "alcohol", Pomphrett's parents were 16 and 17 at the time, and "put themselves first". He said Pomphrett's one past conviction for battery in 2017 was an assault on her aunt in a "teenage tantrum". Mr Heckle said remorseful Pomphrett was now in a relationship with a young man and due to give birth in April, but was admitted to hospital on Friday because of "really bad morning sickness". He said: "The father is going to be significantly affected if this defendant was in Styal [prison]." Judge Swinnerton said: "More importantly, so is the baby." Mr Heckle said: "I'm not putting it forward as a 'get out of jail free card' in that sense, but with her difficulties she wouldn't go from Styal back to the women's hospital in Liverpool, she would be transferred to Manchester." He said this could lead to difficulties with transfer of medical notes and added: "Continuity of care is perhaps all important at this stage." He said she had "probably been hoodwinked by people more criminally sophisticated than her to do this" and jailing her "would deprive the father in particular of the joys of a birth in hospital in normal circumstances". Pomphrett cried as Judge Swinnerton told her: "If you didn't know then, you know now, dealing in Class A drugs, possession with intent to supply Class A drugs is a serious offence. "Class A drugs can kill, Class A drugs do damage, and destroy lives and communities." However, he said the case "shouts out to me that you're naive, not criminally sophisticated, that you are yourself to some extent vulnerable, and you have been very foolish". He accepted she had "a difficult start" in life and her aunt had to "pick up the pieces". Judge Swinnerton said: "You have to think very hard about what sort of start you're going to give your child in life. "Be more like your auntie and less like your birth mum is what I would urge you to do, because you've got another human being coming along, who's going to be utterly dependent on you and the care you can provide." He said she performed "a limited function under direction" through "naivety, immaturity or exploitation". Judge Swinnerton said: "You were used by others and you were foolish and immature enough to agree to do that." He said the claim she had wanted to "get out of the house during lockdown" was "ridiculous". But he found it was a "lesser role" case, there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and jail would have a significant harmful impact on others. Judge Swinnerton said: "The others are your unborn child, not your partner. That would be terribly sad if he couldn't be present at the birth, but it's not the impact on him, it's the impact on your unborn child. "I don't think being pregnant is a 'get out of jail free' card - of course it isn't - but it's going to be a lot of hard work for you . "I do take account of the fact you're pregnant, not as a 'get out of jail free' card, but account of the impact on others, and you." He handed her two years in prison, suspended for two years, with a 10-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 80 hours of unpaid work. Judge Swinnerton reserved any breaches to himself and warned: "If you get involved in something like this again, you're going to go to prison."
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Tick Fire
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The Tick Fire was a wildfire that burned in Los Angeles County, California. The fire broke out on October 24, 2019, and burned several thousand acres. [2] The fire forced the mass evacuation of 40,000 people from the Santa Clarita valley.
The fire in Canyon Country was reported around 1:40 p.m. Thursday October 24 near the 31600 block of Tick Canyon Road. Initially reported at 200 acres, the blaze rapidly grew to more than 850 acres in less than an hour, fire officials said. [5]
It continued to expand overnight after it jumped State Route 14, closing portions of the highway and forcing additional evacuations in the Sand Canyon area. The blaze had burned nearly 7 square miles by the morning of October 25 and was 5% contained, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Some 10,000 structures were threatened by the fire. [6]
As of 7 a.m. Saturday October 26, the blaze was 25% contained. Firefighters experienced gusts of winds exceeding 40 miles per hour and temperatures near three digits, which posed a challenge in containing the fire. Tick Canyon Road between Abelia and Summit Knoll was closed. Soledad Canyon Road and Sand Canyon Road offramps were closed on October 24 and reopened. State Route 14 North and South off ramps were closed, due to the abrupt and rapid spread of the fires over the freeway. The blaze also jammed traffic between the Antelope Valley and Los Angeles. The northbound Antelope Valley Freeway (SR 14) was reopened on October 25 as crews continued to battle the fire ahead of an anticipated shift in wind direction. By 6 a.m. on October 26, firefighters said all road closures would be lifted, except for Baker Canyon and Tick Canyon Road. Other areas such as east of Sand Canyon Road south of Sierra Highway at Linda Vista Street, remained off limits at the time. Meanwhile, the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway, which had been closed between Golden Valley Road and Agua Dulce, was reopened at approximately 4 p.m. October 25. The Sand Canyon Road off-ramp remained closed, along with southbound lanes of the freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol. [5]
Due to the intensity of the Santa Ana Winds and multiple fires, many schools and colleges throughout Santa Clarita were closed. These school districts, schools, and colleges included:
Sulphur Springs School District:
Canyon Springs Community School, Fair Oaks Ranch Community School, Golden Oak Community School, Leona Cox Community School, Mint Canyon Community School, Mitchell Community Elementary School, Pinetree Community School, Sulphur Springs Community School, and Valley View Community School. William S. Hart Union High School District:
Academy of the Canyons High School, Bowman High School, Canyon High School, Castaic High School, Golden Valley High School (Santa Clarita, California), Hart High School, Learning Post High School, Saugus High School, Valencia High School, West Ranch High School, Arroyo Seco Junior High School, Le Mesa Junior High School, Placerita Junior High School, Rancho Pico Junior High School, Rio Norte Junior High School, Sierra Vista Junior High School, Golden Oak Adult School, Independent study, and Sequoia School. Newhall School District:
McGrath Elementary, Meadows Elementary, Newhall Elementary, Oak Hills Elementary, Old Orchard Elementary, Peachland Elementary, Pico Canyon Elementary, Stevenson Ranch Elementary, Valencia Valley Elementary, and Wiley Canyon Elementary. Saugus Union School District:
Santa Clarita Elementary School, Bridgeport Elementary School, Cedarcreek Elementary School, Emblem Academy, James Foster Elementary School, Charles Helmers Elementary School, Highlands Elementary School, Mountainview Elementary School, Northpark Elementary School, Plum Canyon Elementary School, Rio Vista Elementary School, Rosedell Elementary School, Skyblue Mesa Elementary School, Tesoro Elementary School, and West Creek Academy. Colleges:
College of the Canyons (Valencia), College of the Canyons (Canyon Country), and California Institute of the Arts (Valencia)
Due to the Tick fire, Southern California Edison preemptively turned off electricity as a preventive measure to reduce the risk of their equipment igniting another fire. [7] On October 24, areas in Santa Clarita that were affected by the power outages included Agua Dulce and Canyon Country, leaving about 26,000 residents without power. [8] Another 380,000 residents were at risk of these power outages. [8]
Evacuation centers were opened for evacuees on October 25. The gymnasium of College of the Canyons Valencia admitted approximately 400 residents affected by the fires. [9]
West Ranch High School opened to provide shelter to residents as well. [10]
The Castaic Animal Care Center provided shelter for pets, as people searched for and stayed in shelter centers. On October 24, the Governor announced that the state has secured federal Fire Management Assistance Grants to help ensure the availability of resources to fight the Kincade and Tick fires and enable local, state and tribal agencies to recover eligible costs. County Board of Supervisors chair Janice Hahn also issued a local emergency declaration. [11]
A public briefing in Los Angeles was held that day, regarding the ongoing fire threats and the need to hold utilities accountable for the consequences of their decisions to shut off power for large portions of the state. [11]
On October 25, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation for the counties of Sonoma and Los Angeles due to the effects of the Kincade and Tick fires. [11]
Proclamation of a State of Emergency
WHEREAS beginning on October 23, 2019, a significant wind event struck California, resulting in nearly statewide red flag warnings due to extremely dangerous fire weather conditions; and
WHEREAS on October 23, 2019, the Kincade Fire began burning in Sonoma County; and
WHEREAS on October 24, 2019, the Tick Fire began burning in Los Angeles County; and
WHEREAS these fires have destroyed structures and continue to threaten homes and other structures, necessitating the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents; and
WHEREAS these fires forced the closure of major roadways and are threatening power lines and other critical infrastructure; and
WHEREAS erratic winds, high temperatures, and dry conditions have further increased the spread of these fires; and
WHEREAS the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved Fire Management Assistance Grants to assist with the mitigation, management, and control of the Kincade Fire and Tick Fire; and
WHEREAS local and state emergency operations centers have been activated; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8558(b), I find that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist due to the Kincade Fire and Tick Fire in Sonoma County and Los Angeles County, respectively; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8558(b), I find that the conditions caused by these fires, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single local government and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to appropriately respond; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8625(c), I find that local authority is inadequate to cope with the magnitude of the damage caused by these fires; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8571, I find that strict compliance with various statutes and regulations specified in this order would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of these fires. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution and statutes, including the California Emergency Services Act, and in particular, Government Code section 8625, HEREBY PROCLAIM A STATE OF EMERGENCY to exist in Los Angeles and Sonoma counties due to these fires. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. All agencies of the state government utilize and employ state personnel, equipment, and facilities for the performance of any and all activities consistent with the direction of the Office of Emergency Services and the State Emergency Plan. Also, all citizens are to heed the advice of emergency officials with regard to this emergency in order to protect their safety. 2. The Office of Emergency Services shall provide local government assistance to Sonoma and Los Angeles counties, if appropriate, under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act, Government Code section 8680 et seq., and California Code of Regulations, Title 19, section 2900 et seq. 3. As necessary to assist local governments and for the protection of public health and the environment, state agencies shall enter into contracts to arrange for the procurement of materials, goods, and services necessary to quickly assist with the response to and recovery from the impacts of these fires. Applicable provisions of the Government Code and the Public Contract Code, including but not limited to travel, advertising, and competitive bidding requirements, are suspended to the extent necessary to address the effects of these fires. 4. The provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code section 1253 imposing a one-week waiting period for unemployment insurance applicants are suspended as to all applicants who are unemployed as a direct result of these fires who applied for unemployment insurance benefits during the time period beginning October 23, 2019, and ending on the close of business on April 23, 2020, and who are otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. 5. Vehicle Code sections 9265(a), 9867, 14901, 14902, and 15255.2, requiring the imposition of fees, are suspended with regard to any request for replacement of a driver's identification card, vehicle registration certificate, or certificate of title, by any individual who lost such records as a result of these fires. Such records shall be replaced without charge.
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Fire
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Inside Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal's Luxurious Wedding Destination in Alibaug
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The first of the year and the much-awaited celebrity wedding is about to begin. The news of childhood sweethearts Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal getting hitched has completely taken over the internet. The couple’s highly-anticipated wedding will take place in Alibaug, a seaside town about a 100 kms from Mumbai. Fresh details from the destination wedding with pictures have surfaced online and have gone viral across social networking sites. A quaint beach resort, The Mansion House will host the limited guests for the forthcoming big, fat wedding. Known for its serene, picturesque location lined with palm trees, the mansion is at a walkable distance from the Sasawane beach. The family of the soon-to-be groom has already arrived at the exotic location. The number of people have been limited keeping in mind the restrictions due to the pandemic, but the ceremonies including mehendi and sangeet will all be held as per Punjabi rituals. The grand mansion ensures a curated wedding experience with a laid-back vibe and all the elements of decor and interiors boast of a quintessential Bollywood wedding party. A few glimpses into the lavish property will highlight the emphasis on luxury and glamour. Three segments of the space - The Palm Court, The Cove Room and The Sky Deck Room - have been exclusively booked for Varun and Natasha’s guests and their families. The exteriors evoke a breezy mode with lush coconut greens framing a sparkling swimming pool, floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows and an all-white facade. 'Wonderful Experience': Neetu Kapoor Wraps Shooting For Jug Jugg Jeeyo Katrina, Vicky's Bollywood Guest List for Dec Wedding: Sidharth, Kiara, Varun and More The interiors of the property are soothing which makes it ideal for a small guest list. The 25-room mansion features a minimal aesthetic complete with wooden accents. Guests at every room have a host of options for a luxury experience. The destination also promises an exquisite culinary experience, from a buffet breakfast to barbeques and local cuisine. The Mansion House, be it office conferences or yacht parties, offers tailor-made arrangements for any kind of celebration. The resort venue is a 20-minute speedboat ride from Mumbai. One can spot many stunning corners while scrolling through the venue’s Instagram account, and it will only up the anticipation for the couple’s wedding glimpses. Take a tour of some of the property’s most breathtaking visuals ahead of Varun and Natasha’s big day:
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crash
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Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, disintegrated in-flight and crashed near Cannelton, Indiana (10 miles east of Tell City, Indiana) on March 17, 1960. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew members. There were no survivors. Flight 710 was a regularly scheduled flight departing Minneapolis-St. Paul to Miami with a stop at Chicago Midway Airport. Radio contact with the Indianapolis Control Center was made at approximately 3:00 pm local time. About 15 minutes later, witnesses reported seeing the airplane break into two pieces with the right wing falling as one piece and the remainder of the craft plunging to earth near Cannelton in southern Indiana. [1]
At the time, investigators organized by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) worked on three major theories:
"Obviously, this plane broke up in the air," CAB spokesman Edward Slattery said at the time. "It is too early to tell the cause of the tragedy, but we will investigate all possibilities, including a bomb." (Edwardsville Examiner, March 19, 1960)
The New York Times reported that at 5:44 P.M., an hour and a half after news of the crash in the snow-covered Indiana-Kentucky border country, an anonymous caller told the Chicago police that a bomb had been placed aboard a plane at Midway Airport. The police searched the airport, but found nothing and said that they were convinced the call was a prank. The operator said she thought the caller was a young teenager. The craft's fuselage plunged into an Ohio River country farm at a speed of over 600 miles per hour and disintegrated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent agents to the scene to determine whether there was any violation of federal law. Such an investigation would include the possibility of sabotage. State Police Sgt. Joe O'Brien said that the plane was last heard from over Scotland, Indiana, about 70 miles (110 km) from the crash site. He said the pilot, Capt. Edgar LaParle, had reported rumble and the weather was very muggy and cloudy. So much wreckage rained over a wide area, as the plane came apart in the air, that it was first believed that two planes had collided. However, the Federal Aviation Agency and the State Police said that all the pieces they could find were from one plane — Northwest's Lockheed Electra Flight 710. A wing and two engines of the wrecked turboprop were found about five miles (8 km) from the place where the plane's fuselage hit. Almost nothing was left of the craft. Hours after the crash, a column of blue-gray smoke still rose from the crater, about 25 ft (7.6 m) deep and 40 ft (12 m) wide. NASA, Boeing and Lockheed engineers determined that the probable cause for the accident was in-flight separation of the right wing while cruising at 18,000 ft (5,500 m) due to flutter caused by unexplained reduced stiffness of the engine mounts. This was subsequently defined as "whirl mode. "[2][3] Six months earlier, a Braniff International Airways L-188 Electra, Flight 542, disintegrated over Buffalo, Texas at 15,000 ft (4,600 m), killing all on board. [2] This second similar crash moved the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately issue a reduced cruise speed directive while investigators tried to determine the cause of the fatal crashes. Among the victims were:
The citizens of Perry County and the Cannelton Kiwanis Club raised funds for a memorial at the site of the 1960 crash. Dedicated in 1961, the Kiwanis Electra Memorial marks the site. It is located on Millstone Road, which may be reached via Indiana highways 66 and 166, eight miles (13 km) east of Cannelton in Tobin Township. Cannelton newspaper editor and civic booster Bob Cummings wrote the words which are inscribed on the memorial along with the names and symbols of the religious faiths of those who died aboard the plane. The inscription reads: "This memorial, dedicated to the memory of 63 persons who died in an airplane crash at this location, March 17, 1960, was erected by public subscription in the hope that such tragedies will be eliminated."
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Air crash
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2019 Townsville flood
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The 2019 Townsville flood was a major flood event that occurred in the city of Townsville and surrounding areas, on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. [1] Townsville has endured around 20 major flooding events since colonial settlement in the 1860s, but the 2019 event was one of the worst natural disasters to ever impact the region. [2] The 2019 Townsville flood was caused by a slow-moving tropical low, situated east of Mt Isa, embedded in a stalled, but vigorously active, monsoon trough. Northerly, moisture-rich monsoonal air driven by the tropical low was encountered by coastal south-easterly winds, creating a convergence zone of unstable weather. The net result of the two opposing air masses was then driven westwards over the mainland. [3] The system persisted for approximately one week with little deviation or movement, producing consistent medium to heavy rainfall over the affected areas, with isolated very heavy showers and locally damaging winds. Major to historic flooding occurred across the Townsville region as a result. Two fatalities were reported after bodies were found in floodwaters [4] and a third person reported missing was never found. [5] Two additional deaths were reported on February 12 and February 26 due to melioidosis, with at least 10 more hospitalised with the bacterial infection. [6] The weather system went on to produce major flooding in northern Central Queensland, most of which was severely drought-stricken. In addition to damaged infrastructure such as train lines, as many as 500,000 cattle were estimated to have perished in the ensuing floodwaters. [7]
Some Townsville suburbs, particularly Rosslea, Hermit Park, and Idalia, experienced major inundation, with pockets of intense rainfall causing dangerous flash flooding in the northern suburb of Bluewater. Record heights at the Ross River Dam forced emergency planners to fully open the dam's spillway, releasing additional water into the Ross River, further compounding the existing flooding downstream. Severe erosion was observed on the banks of the Ross River, causing structural damage to pathways and boardwalks. The rushing of water caused supporting rocks and concrete under one particular section of pathway to be eroded away, creating a dangerous hazard for pedestrians. Record spillway heights at Aplins Weir caused damage to a pedestrian bridge. Multiple agencies assisted with rescue and recovery, including State Emergency Service (SES) Queensland Government, Townsville City Council, Queensland Rural Fire Service, Australian Defence Force and Team Rubicon Australia (Now known as Disaster Relief Australia). Notably, many locals volunteered to assist emergency services, evacuating trapped residents by boat from their flooded homes. The large number of volunteers, boats, and resulting queue of helpers were later dubbed the "tinny army" by local media. The floods were one of Queensland's worst natural disasters, and had heavily impacted the region. Townsville has a long history of battles against the extremes of heavy flooding and long droughts. [8]
Approximately 3300 homes were damaged by floodwaters, and about 1500 homes rendered uninhabitable. As many as 30,000 insurance claims were filed in the aftermath of the event, with damages estimated to be $1.243 billion AUD based on insurance losses. [9]
During the second half of January 2019, a pulse of the Madden–Julian oscillation moved through the Australian region, where it invigorated a weak monsoon trough that was located to the north of the Australian continent. [10] At this stage, the monsoon trough contained two tropical lows, one of which was located within the Torres Strait, while the other low was located within the Timor Sea. [11] Over the next few days, the monsoon trough intensified, as it moved southwards and several areas of low pressure were identified along this trough, around the Cape York Peninsula. [10]
This article about a flood is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Floods
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Prairie ranchers take stock of summer drought as decisions about culling cattle loom
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Pounded by drought and cattle feed shortages, the last few months have been gruelling for many Prairie ranchers. Now, as fall approaches and people take stock, tough decisions loom as ranchers assess how many cattle they will keep through winter amid escalating costs. "I know that we're probably looking at liquidating about a third of our herd just because we can't find enough feed for the winter," said Melanie Wowk, who has about 300 cattle on a ranch in northeastern Alberta. She said feed costs have gone from three cents to 12 cents per pound in the past four months, noting the price of barley has also gone "through the roof" and straw supplies are scarce. While some areas on the Prairies received rain recently, pastures are still showing the effects of the hot, dry summer. "It's tough," said Wowk, who is also a veterinarian and chair of the Alberta Beef Producers. "It's a tough decision." Many ranchers across the Prairie provinces will face similar decisions over the next few months. "I'm hearing everything from people culling a third of the herd to not culling anything to going out of business," said Bob Lowe, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA). "So it's all over the board." Still, the hope is that earlier worries of a huge reduction in the size of the overall Canadian cow herd will not materialize, thanks in part to late summer rainfall in some regions and agriculture recovery programs. Analyst Brian Perillat expects the Canadian cow herd to shrink "moderately" this year due to the drought, but not by the double-digit percentages that had been feared earlier in the summer. "We were in the middle of the dire stress of the drought, [but] it's turned out a little bit better than maybe we were anticipating," said Perillat, of Canfax, a division of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association that tracks market data. Ranchers think the coming months will provide them with a clearer picture, but a much smaller herd would likely put upward pressure on the prices consumers pay should it result in tighter supplies of beef. Herds can take years to rebuild. In Manitoba, Tyler Fulton said the rain across parts of the province last month was a "godsend" for some. "The difference that it made was that it allowed producers to keep those cows on grass," said Fulton, a rancher and president of the Manitoba Beef Producers. "The way things were shaping up, they were going to have to pull the animals off probably two or three months earlier than normal." But while the rain has bought some ranchers a couple of months' time, Fulton said it hasn't addressed the winter feed situation. "The problem is that there was such a massive deficit of hay production." The federal-provincial agriculture recovery program is there to help ranchers cover a portion of their winter feed costs, Fulton said. "It does move the needle on whether or not they can afford to keep those animals around," he said. "But there's still … some question as to whether or not there is enough feed, and in particular roughage, to go around. I'm optimistic that it'll happen. But we'll have to wait and see." Fulton thinks they'll have a clearer idea of the impact on the Manitoba herd by mid-December. "I don't sound it, but I'm actually optimistic about the long-term potential of the industry," he said. "I really think from a demand standpoint ... we're set up really well." CCA's Lowe said that with demand rising globally, the outlook for cattle prices is "nothing but up." "We've got to be able to hang on to them and keep them in order for that to really make any difference," he said. Senior Producer Western Digital Business Unit
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Droughts
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Tragedy on our roads: Crash kills young man, 24, and woman, 22, in Wheatbelt town of Pingelly
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A 24-year-old man and 22-year-old woman have been killed in a horror crash in the Wheatbelt town of Pingelly. The single-vehicle crash happened sometime on Saturday night or early Sunday morning on the Wickepin-Pingelly Road. The 24-year-old man was driving a silver Subaru Forester east when it left the road and crashed in East Pingelly. The driver and his 22-year-old passenger died of their injuries at the scene. Major crash officers are calling for information to help with their investigation. Anyone who saw the crash or saw the vehicle before the crash is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppers.wa.com.au. Dash-cam or mobile phone vision can be uploaded directly to investigators by clickingthis link. Sign up for our emails
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Road Crash
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Seattle General Strike
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The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was a five-day general work stoppage by more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington from February 6 to 11. Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the strike to gain higher wages, after two years of wage controls during World War I. Most other local unions joined the walk-out, including members of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Government officials, the press, and much of the public viewed the strike as a radical attempt to subvert American institutions. The strike's demand for higher wages came within months of the end of World War I, the original justification for the wage controls. From 1915 to 1918, Seattle had seen a big increase in union membership, and union leaders were inspired by the Russian revolution of 1917. Some commentators blamed the strike on Bolsheviks and other radicals inspired by "un-American" ideologies, making it the first expression of the anti-left sentiment that characterized the Red Scare of 1919 and 1920. [1]
In these years, more workers in the city were organized in unions than ever before. There was a 400 percent increase in union membership from 1915 to 1918. At the time, workers in the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, were becoming increasingly radicalized, with many in the rank and file supportive of the recent revolution in Russia and working toward a similar revolution in the United States. In the fall of 1919, for instance, Seattle longshoremen refused to load arms destined for the anti-Bolshevik White Army in Russia and attacked those who attempted to load them. [2]
The arrival of the Russian steamship Shilka in Seattle on December 24, 1917 added to the thought of Bolshevik involvement. The ship had been damaged and thrown off course in a storm and limped its way into the port almost out of fuel, food and fresh water. The U.S. Attorney in Seattle was tipped off by an "informant" that the ship was coming and it was going to "aid the enemy. "[3] The enemy at this time would have been the labor parties threatening a strike. Many believed that its arrival signified a Bolshevik connection with the labor unrest in Seattle. A lot of rumors came about because of this ship's arrival. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a front-page article about an I.W.W. ship being held that contained over a hundred thousand dollars to help I.W.W. members get out of jail. [4] This article proved to be false as the search of the vessel by local law enforcement turned up nothing of significance. A first-hand account of a sailor aboard the ship claimed that there was no evidence found on board because the only contentious material was some flyers in a briefcase that were carried off of the ship upon its arrival. [5] Another passenger that arrived with the ship was arrested for taking part in labor talks with one of the unions in the area. [6] Although there was never any concrete evidence connecting the Shilka to the labor parties of Seattle, there was enough to show that the labor parties at the least had the support of Bolshevik Russia. There was a lot of fear of the Bolsheviks because it was known that they had been hoping for a revolution in the Western World in order to support Russia by pooling resources. [7] The ship spent about a month in port before it was allowed to leave and was not seen again in the Seattle area. Most unions in Seattle were officially affiliated with the AFL, but the ideas of ordinary workers tended to be more radical than their leaders. A local labor leader from the time discussed the politics of Seattle's workers in June 1919:[8]
I believe that 95 percent of us agree that the workers should control the industries. Nearly all of us agree on that but very strenuously disagree on the method. Some of us think we can get control through the Cooperative movement, some of us think through political action, and others think through industrial action. Another journalist described the spread of propaganda relating to the Russian Revolution:[8]
For some time these pamphlets were seen by hundreds on Seattle's streetcars and ferries, read by men of the shipyards on their way to work. Seattle's businessmen commented on the phenomenon sourly; it was plain to everyone that these workers were conscientiously and energetically studying how to organize their coming to power. Already, workers in Seattle talked about "workers' power" as a practical policy for the not far distant future. A few weeks after the November 1918 armistice ended World War I, unions in Seattle's shipbuilding industry demanded a pay increase for unskilled workers. They formed the Seattle Metal Trades Council, made up of delegates from twenty-one different craft unions; there were seventeen at the time of the first strike vote. At the time of the General Strike, these separate unions no longer made separate agreements with the yard-owners; a single blanket-agreement was made at intervals by the Metal Trades Council for all the crafts comprising it. In August 1917, the workers had succeeded in establishing a uniform wage scale for one third of the metal tradesmen working in the city. [9] At the time of the general strike, James Taylor was president of the Council. [10]
In an attempt to divide the ranks of the union, the yard owners responded by offering a pay increase only to skilled workers. The union rejected that offer and Seattle's 35,000 shipyard workers went on strike on January 21, 1919. [11]
Controversy erupted when Charles Piez, head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC), an enterprise created by the federal government as a wartime measure and the largest employer in the industry, sent a telegram to the yard owners threatening to withdraw their contracts if any increase in wages were granted. The message intended for the Metal Trades Association, the owners, was accidentally delivered to the Metal Trades Council, the union. The shipyard workers responded with anger directed at both their employers and the federal government which, through the EFC, seemed to be siding with corporate interests. [11]
The workers immediately appealed to the Seattle Central Labor Council for a general strike of all workers in Seattle. Members of various unions were polled, with almost unanimous support in favor–even among traditionally conservative unions. As many as 110 locals officially supported the call for a general strike to begin on February 6, 1919, at 10:00 am. [12] Among the strikers were war veterans who wore their uniforms as they went on strike. [13]:86–87
A cooperative body made up of rank and file workers from all the striking locals were formed during the strike, called the General Strike Committee. It acted as a "virtual counter-government for the city. "[14] The committee organized to provide essential services for the people of Seattle during the work stoppage.
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Strike
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Hundreds feared buried, death toll rises after dam collapse in Brazil
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Brumadinho, Brazil (CBS NEWS)- The death toll from the collapse of a dam holding back mine waste in southeastern Brazil rose to 34 on Saturday as searchers flying in helicopters and rescuers laboring in deep mud uncovered more bodies. An estimated 300 people were still missing and authorities expected the death toll to rise during a search made more challenging by intermittent rains. Romeu Zema, the governor of the state of Minas Gerais, warned that those responsible “would be punished.” Daily Folha de S.Paulo reported Saturday that the dam’s mining complex, owned and operated by Brazilian mining company Vale, was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to “decreased risk.” Preservation groups in the area say the approval was unlawful. In addition to the 34 bodies recovered as of Saturday afternoon, 23 people were hospitalized, said authorities with the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive. Company officials also had said that 100 workers were accounted for. But the company said in a statement Saturday afternoon that 251 workers were still missing, while fire officials estimated 296 were still unaccounted for. Scores of families in the city desperately awaited word on their loved ones. For many, hope was fading to anguish. “I don’t think he is alive,” said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. “Right now I can only hope for a miracle of God.” Israel was sending a mission to help with rescue operations and provide aid, according to a statement Saturday from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Netanyahu made the help offer during a call with President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been an enthusiastic ally of Israel. Bolsonaro, who assumed office Jan. 1, did a flyover Saturday of the area affected by the dam collapse. Vale workers were eating lunch Friday afternoon when the dam collapsed, unleashing a sea of reddish-brown mud that knocked over and buried several structures of the company and surrounding areas. The level of devastation quickly led Bolsonaro and other officials to describe it as a “tragedy.” “It’s distressing, maddening,” said Vanilza Sueli Oliveira, who was awaiting news of her nephew. “Time is passing. It’s been 24 hours already. Time is passing. I just don’t want to think that he is under the mud.” The rivers of mining waste raised fears of widespread contamination. According to Vale’s website, the waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 “contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.” Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened. “The principal victims were our own workers,” Schvartsman told a news conference Friday evening, adding that the restaurant where many ate “was buried by the mud at lunchtime.” After the dam collapsed Friday afternoon, parts of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Several helicopters flew over the area on Saturday while firefighters carefully traversed heavily inundated areas looking for survivors. Rooftops poked above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and a Vale administrative office, where employees were present. On Friday, Minas Gerais state court blocked $260 million from Vale for state emergency services and is requiring the company to present a report about how they will help victims. On Saturday, the state’s justice ministry ordered an additional $1.3 billion blocked. Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in Minas Gerais state, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Schvartsman said what happened Friday was “a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.” Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who hadn’t heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company. “Vale destroyed Mariana and now they’ve destroyed Brumadinho,” she said. “I need answers. I am desperate.” On Twitter, President Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to “prevent more tragedies” like Mariana and now Brumadinho. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazil’s economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries. Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored a lack of regulation, and many promised to fight any further deregulation by Bolsonaro in Latin America’s largest nation. The latest spill “is a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies responsible for the tragedy with Samarco dam, in Mariana, also controlled by Vale,” Greenpeace said in a statement. “History repeats itself,” tweeted Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and three-time presidential candidate. “It’s unacceptable that government and mining companies haven’t learned anything.”
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Mine Collapses
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Lockheed Fire
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The Lockheed Fire was a wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Swanton and Bonny Doon areas of Santa Cruz County, California. The fire was started on August 12, 2009 at 7:16 PM PDT. [2]
A Red Cross shelter was established at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz for families who were evacuated from the area. An animal evacuation center was also established at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Many resources were demanded for this fire. The steep terrain and lack of road access in the area made it difficult to fight the blaze. The cause of the fire was determined to be an out of control or unattended camp fire. [3]
[4]
[5]
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Fire
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Flash droughts set to increase in India, finds study
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A new study predicts an increase in the frequency of flash droughts in India towards the end of this century. Intraseasonal variability of the summer monsoon rainfall and anthropogenic warming have been found to amplify the risk of future flash droughts and this can have negative impacts on crop production, irrigation demands, and groundwater abstraction in India, according to the study. Flash droughts are droughts that intensify more rapidly than normal, posing a risk to agriculture, ecosystems and water availability. Conventional droughts take months and sometimes even years to develop to full intensity. Flash droughts on the other hand develop at an unusually fast rate due to extreme weather conditions and persist from a few weeks to some months. Such droughts can be localised to a specific region or can become widespread and affect a large part of the country. The new study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, investigated the causes of past flash droughts in India between 1951 and 2016. Based on the findings, the researchers predict an increase in the frequency of flash droughts in the future. In India in recent years, flash droughts occurred in 1986, 2001 and 2015. The 2001 flash drought-affected north and central India while the 1986 and 2015 flash droughts were more widespread, impacting crop production. A 2020 study found that 10%-15% of rice and maize crop areas are affected by the flash droughts each year in India. Ulka Kelkar, Director of Climate Program at the World Resource Institute (WRI) India, who was not involved in the study, said that as the climate warms, evaporation is likely to increase, and summer rainfall is expected to fall in a few intense spells. “We tend to think of drought as a slow-onset disaster. But many cropping practices are very tightly dependent on the timely arrival of the monsoon,” she said. Though the impact may be lesser than a more severe conventional drought, frequent flash droughts can have a cumulative drastic effect on agriculture. The rapid onset of drought and lack of early warning does not give enough time for preparation and drought mitigation and could lead to extensive damage. For instance, in 2012, a flash drought in the United States of America impacted a large part of the country causing agricultural loss of over $30 billion. Read more: Impact of drought and heat on forests Flash droughts can be identified either by monitoring changes in precipitation, evapotranspiration, or soil moisture. In the current study, the researchers used a hydrology model to simulate soil moisture patterns across the country to identify the duration and extent of flash droughts. A defining feature of a flash drought is the rapid depletion of soil moisture in the topsoil layer which then moves deeper affecting the ‘root-zone’ of crops and vegetation. Wind speed, daily precipitation, and maximum and minimum temperature data of the last 60 years were fed into the model to estimate soil moisture over 5-day periods. The onset of flash droughts was identified as the time when soil moisture dropped below a particular level (the 20th percentile) over the 5-day period. With these criteria, the researchers considered flash droughts with a minimum duration of 15 days and a maximum duration of 90 days and identified 15 flash drought events in the past. Of these, the flash drought in the year 1979 that affected 40% of the country, was observed to be the most severe. The 1979 drought in India has been described as “the worst in this century nationwide” in a New York Times article. The hardest-hit areas received 75% less than normal rainfall and some states had reached ‘near-famine’ conditions. The reasons for the drought were not clear at that time but were thought to be due to odd-weather patterns and unusually hot temperatures. This study offers some clues. On investigating the primary drivers of flash droughts, the researchers found that a simultaneous occurrence of extreme hot and dry periods resulting in depletion of soil moisture were the main causes. Vimal Mishra, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar and lead author of the study explains that in 1979, around 125 days after the onset of the monsoon season, the soil moisture was very high. But within 10 days, the soil moisture dropped very quickly as there was a dry spell and temperatures were high, with an average increase of more than 2 degrees centigrade. He said, “Normally, conventional droughts take months to build up. But flash droughts can occur during the monsoon season when there are long breaks in the monsoon and the temperature is high. Soil moisture dries within 1-2 weeks, causing flash droughts.” To gain an understanding of how flash droughts would occur in future climates, they used the same model but fed data from a global climate model, Community Earth System Model that provides temperature and precipitation data for the year 1900-2100, to estimate soil moisture. The model predicts a 7-8 fold increase in the frequency of flash droughts in India similar to the one in 1979. Mishra said that although during the initial phase of the monsoon, there is a projected increase in rainfall, during the later season, rainfall is projected to decline. But temperatures are projected to increase throughout resulting in extreme hot and dry periods. This intraseasonal variation in monsoon along with warmer temperatures will increase the risk of flash droughts. The influence of anthropogenic events such as greenhouse emissions, land use-land cover change and industrial aerosols were also investigated. The study found that greenhouse emissions will significantly increase the frequency of extreme hot and dry periods, which are the main drivers of flash droughts. Raghu Murtugudde, professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, USA, who was not involved in the study said, “The study looks at the past history of flash droughts in terms of the dynamic patterns before getting into future projections. This is a good way to do things. However, the models remain unreliable.” He said that most models are unable to produce the historic trends in the monsoon and the projections of regional patterns for rain, for e.g. which month will have maximum rain, are different for each model. Since flash droughts are a very regional phenomena, he added that it is critical to understand reliable regional patterns within the overall dynamic patterns. “India is like a popcorn kettle that is getting hotter. But where the kernels will pop or not is a difficult process to model or project. So I tend to be very skeptical about projections beyond a decade or two,” he said. But he expects that warming of the Indian Ocean and weather influences from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans may produce large-scale extreme changes in monsoon which could cause flash droughts. The Indian summer monsoon varies across different time scales such as interannual or diurnal, but the intraseasonal variations are the most prominent and crucial ones that impact agriculture production, according to Arindam Chakraborty, Professor, Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, IISc, Bangalore. Chakraborty who was not involved in the research said, “this study is essential to show how atmospheric forcings such as longer breaks (in monsoon) can impact the soil moisture and thus the agriculture production.” Murtugudde added, “the impact on agriculture is even more complicated because just the warming will do a lot of damage even if rainfall doesn’t change. Droughts themselves get exacerbated because of the warming in terms of soil moisture loss.” Read more: Making children resilient to droughts Kelkar’s work in the Jalna district of Maharashtra has revealed that poorer farmers, usually from low caste or small farm holders are most vulnerable to drought. When droughts become severe or widespread, they impact agriculture as labour work is hard to find and even factories can shut down due to water shortage, said Kelkar. “With climate change, we need to prepare for drought just as we would for a sudden flood or storm – with early warning systems, drought-tolerant crop varieties, hardy cattle breeds, cattle shelters, and crop insurance,” she warned. CITATION Mishra, V., Aadhar, S., & Mahto, S. S. (2021). Anthropogenic warming and intraseasonal summer monsoon variability amplify the risk of future flash droughts in India. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 4(1), 1-10.
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Droughts
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Brexit trade deal published as UK calls for end to 'ugly' divisions
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Saturday published the text of its narrow trade agreement with the European Union just five days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most momentous global shift since the loss of empire. The text includes a 1,246-page trade document, as well as accords on nuclear energy, exchanging classified information, civil nuclear energy and a series of joint declarations. The “Draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” means that from 2300 GMT on Dec. 31, when Britain finally leaves the European Union’s single market and customs union, there will be no tariffs or quotas on the movement of goods originating in either place between the United Kingdom and the EU. Prime Minister Boris Johnson cast the deal as the final implementation of the will of the British people who voted 52-48% for Brexit in a 2016 referendum, while Europe’s leaders said it was time to leave Brexit behind. Michael Gove, a senior British minister who campaigned alongside Johnson to leave the EU, said the deal would allow Britain to put some of the divisions of the nearly five-year Brexit crisis behind it. “Friendships have been strained, families were divided and our politics has been rancorous and, at times, ugly,” Gove wrote in The Times. “We can develop a new pattern of friendly cooperation with the EU, a special relationship if you will, between sovereign equals,” Gove said. The Brexit referendum exposed a United Kingdom divided about much more than the European Union, and has fueled soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and modern Britishness. Such musings amid the political crisis over Brexit have left allies puzzled by a country, the world’s No. 6 economy and a pillar of the NATO alliance, that was for decades touted as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability. The two sides finally clinched a trade deal on Christmas Eve that explicitly recognises that trade and investment require conditions for “a level playing field for open and fair competition.” If, though, there are “significant divergences” on rules between the two sides, then they can “rebalance” the agreement. Related Coverage Each side will have an independent subsidy control adjudicator, though it was not immediately clear which body would do this in Britain, which had insisted on being free of any jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice. On services, which comprise up to 80% of Britain’s economy, the two sides simply commit “to establish a favourable climate for the development of trade and investment between them”. On fishing rights, Johnson agreed to a 5-1/2 year period to phase in new rules on what EU boats can catch in British waters, after which there will be annual consultations on the EU catch. Britain will no longer take part in security sharing organisations and databases such as Europol, Eurojust and SIS-II, though there will be some cooperation for the exchange of passenger information and DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registration data. The text includes many detailed annexes including on rules of origin, fish, the wine trade, medicines, chemicals and security data cooperation. EU states are now working to implement the deal by Jan. 1 through a fast-track procedure known as “provisional application”. However, the European Commission said in publishing the treaty that the fast-track approach would hold only until end-February as the European Parliament’s consent - expected in the first weeks of 2021 - is still needed to permanently apply it. For the text of the draft deal: here Writing by by Guy Faulconbridge, Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Mark Heinrich
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Withdraw from an Organization
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1989 FIBA Americas Championship for Women
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The 1989 FIBA Americas Championship for Women, was the first FIBA Americas Championship for Women regional basketball championship held by FIBA Americas, which also served as Americas qualifier for the 1990 FIBA World Championship for Women, granting berths to the top four teams in the final standings. It was held in Brazil between 6 August and 13 August 1989. Eight national teams entered the event under the auspices of FIBA Americas, the sport's regional governing body. The city of São Paulo hosted the tournament. Cuba won their first title after defeating hosts Brazil in the final. The United States already qualified for the World Championship by virtue of winning the 1988 Olympics.
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Sports Competition
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2014 Eketahuna earthquake
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The 2014 Eketahuna earthquake struck at 3:52 pm on 20 January, centred 15 km east of Eketahuna on the south-east of New Zealand's North Island. It had a maximum perceived intensity of VII (severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale. [1] Originally reported as magnitude 6.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was later downgraded to a magnitude of 6.2. A total of 1112 aftershocks were recorded, ranging between magnitudes 2.0 and 4.9 on the Richter Scale. [2]
New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the North Island Fault System (NIFS). [3]
The focal mechanism of the earthquake, its depth and the distribution of aftershocks show that it was a result of oblique normal faulting within the upper part of the subducting Pacific Plate, with the rupture terminating upwards at the plate interface. [4]
It was felt strongly down the country, from Auckland in the north to Dunedin in the south, and more than 9,000 reports were submitted by the public to GeoNet, the geological hazards monitoring network. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported damage to walls and chimneys and road closures in the lower North Island. [5]
The Earthquake Commission, (EQC) received 5,013 claims, 1,514 of them from Palmerston North. Minor to moderate damage was also reported in Eketahuna, Wellington, Masterton, Carterton, Kapiti Coast, Pahiatua, Levin and Otaki. [6] Three 1920s-style buildings in Masterton were evacuated after cracks appeared. One building needed to be demolished. According to The New Zealand Herald, two people were injured as a result of falls. [5]
Hokowhitu Lagoon in Palmerston North is thought to have suffered water-bed damage leading to water leaking. Currently no fix is in place to solve this. [7]
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Earthquakes
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Guiberson Fire
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The Guiberson Fire was a wildfire that burned from September 22 until September 27, 2009 in Guiberson Canyon of the western Santa Susana Mountains, between Fillmore and Moorpark in Ventura County, California. The Guiberson Fire, which started between Fillmore and Moorpark, caused the evacuation of almost 600 homes in Meridian Hills and Bardsdale with about 1,000 structures threatened, in addition to oil pipelines in the area. The cause of the fire is still unknown. [2]
The fire destroyed an estimated 17,500 acres (71 km2), destroying an outbuilding and injuring 10 firefighters. [1] On day two of the fire Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. [2]
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Fire
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Mass fish die-off in Darling River could impact fish numbers in other states
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Fish experts have said the mass die-off of fish in the Darling River could result in lower native fish stocks in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria.
Up to a million Murray cod have died across a 40-kilometre stretch of river at Menindee, near Broken Hill, with the New South Wales State Government confirming another fish kill has occurred at Lake Hume.
Previous research has found much of the Murray Darling Basin's native fish population comes from the Menindee Lakes and the lower Darling River.
Some of the fish killed off in the mass fish death are already endangered species of Murray cod and silver perch.
RecFish SA executive director, Danny Simpson, said the Lakes are the "engine room" for fish breeding, particularly the golden perch.
"Fish die-offs such as this, which are extremely large, have the potential to really have a detrimental impact on recreational fishing in this state," Mr Simpson said.
"The water management practices of some upstream areas really need to change immediately so that we don't have these die-offs occurring in the future."
Freshwater fish ecologist Lee Baumgartner said it would take a number of years before the impacts on other states could be estimated.
"In certain years the Darling has a really big influence … but not every year," Dr Baumgartner said.
"If this year was a really strong year, where fish were going to breed in the Darling, it could have a really big impact.
"In 2012 there was a really big fish kill event which had a big impact for a few years but the fish recovered fairly quickly, within five years we saw fish communities coming back."
The Federal Department of Environment and Energy said the crippling drought conditions in the area had affected water temperatures in the river and sparked the algal bloom.
Numerous experts have called the fish deaths a preventable catastrophe.
Australian National University professor, John Williams, co-authored a paper on the health of the Murray-Darling Basin.
He said too much water is being removed from the northern Basin and irrigators need to reduce their take by 40 per cent. "Any water management policy must be able to deal with the conditions we currently have, and clearly the policy is not doing that," Professor Williams said.
"The Murray Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) has not removed water back to the environment in sufficient amounts to actually keep the river flowing so we avoid these conditions."
Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, David Littleproud, proposed using $5 million for a native fish recovery strategy and will seek agreement for the money to come from Murray-Darling Basin funds.
Professor Williams said fish deaths will continue to occur until flow regime is corrected.
"We've got some very difficult times ahead. We need to stop what we're doing and audit what's going on in this water reform process," he said.
The NSW Irrigator Council chief executive, Luke Simpkins, said a 40 per cent reduction in water uptake for NSW irrigators would "destroy" the cotton industry.
"Already our people have suffered greatly as a result of the drought," he said.
"A lot of people have a go at cotton but the reality is people are working within their license conditions given to the farmers by Water NSW." Mr Simpkins also took a stab at the MDBP before he hopefully pleaded for rain.
"On the environmental side people are saying the plan isn't working … and where farmers are using irrigation people are saying it's not working either," he said.
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Environment Pollution
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Malév Flight 110 crash
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At about 11:45 A.M. on September 16, 1971, Malév Flight 110 crashed near Kiev-Borispol Airport. It was making its approach, but there was poor visibility; due to heavy fog and poor weather conditions, it was limited to 1800 meters. To worsen the situation, the plane's generator had failed, forcing the crew to switch to the battery's auxiliary power. But due to the poor visibility, the crew was forced to make two landing attempts, both of which failed. As they tried to land, the visibility significantly decreased to about 700 meters. Usually, in the event of emergency, the equipment necessary to control the airplane could operate using batteries for at least sixty minutes when staff shut down excessive consumers such as refrigerators, kitchen heaters, or cabin lighting in time. This did not happen, so battery life decreased by half. The plane eventually ran out of battery power and crashed several kilometers away from the airport. The plane broke up and all 49 people on board perished. After an investigation, officials determined that the crash was caused by an unfortunate series of events involving pilot error, mismanagement of the situation by the ground crew, aircraft malfunctions, and poor conditions.
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Air crash
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Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots
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From August 22 to August 24, 1992 violent xenophobic riots took place in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock, Germany; these were the worst mob attacks against migrants in postwar Germany. Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where asylum seekers lived. At the height of the riots, several hundred militant right-wing extremists were involved, and about 3,000 neighbourhood onlookers stood by, applauding them.
The initial response of authorities and politicians was heavily criticised.For some days prior to the riots, veiled warnings of impending trouble had been posted in some newspapers.olice and politicians seemed reluctant to respond, and, when they did, their responses were considered inadequate. Outside the building where the refugees were housed, several hundred asylum seekers had been camping for days with little or no access to basic facilities. This was contributing to escalating tensions in the neighbourhood. Between 22 and 26 August 1992, there were 370 provisional arrests and 408 preliminary investigations related to the riots. Among the arrested were 110 people from former West Germany; 217 from the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, including 147 from Rostock; and another 37 from the former East Germany. During the riot, 204 police officers were injured. No one was killed.
The Zentrale Aufnahmestelle für Asylbewerber für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (ZAst M-V), or "Central Refugee Shelter" for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was in an 11-storey plattenbau apartment complex known as the "Sunflower House" or "Sunflower Tower", because of the large sunflowers decorating one side. The building was notorious for the inhumane conditions under which the asylum seekers there were living and the lack of support (if any) provided for them. The authorities had ignored numerous complaints from citizens and residents over the filthy and deplorable conditions in the apartment building.
The shelter was originally intended to house 300 refugees a month, but by summer 1992 it was averaging 11,500 refugees per month. Primarily Roma from Romania, they were left by overstretched shelter staff to camp out in front of the building for days at a time. The municipal government refused to provide portable toilets and there was no water or garbage collection. Clashes between the homeless migrants and the Lichtenhagen residents increased. Neither the city nor the state government took action. For days prior to the riots, the newspapers Norddeutsche Neueste Nachrichten and Ostsee-Zeitung had been calling for a "Lichtenhagen interest group". There were anonymous warnings that if by the weekend, the refugee shelter was not "cleaned up," order would be made. This gave young gang members from every corner of Rostock, normally enemies, a date, place and purpose to congregate. One 19-year-old skinhead said, "The police know the Rostock Skins and 'Hools' [hooligans]. When something like this is announced, we're there! "
The first day's riot started with young people from the neighbourhood throwing stones. This was contained by the police, but media coverage encouraged neo-nazis to roam the area. This led to a situation where a xenophobic mob outnumbered the police by day three. The original target, the asylum accommodation, was evacuated on the second day, whereupon the mob stormed a neighbouring building in which 115 Vietnamese immigrants, a social worker and a ZDF television crew had mistakenly been left behind. While the building burned, they barricaded their doors against rioters, who were climbing over the balconies armed with baseball bats and Molotov cocktails. Below, a mob of over 3,000 spectators eagerly watched and applauded.
Charges of police and political incompetence were levelled from the beginning. One explanation cited for the lack of effective action by the police was that they were reluctant to take any action which might have been reminiscent of the recently cast-off communist police state. [2] There were also charges that police and politicians were privately sympathetic to the anti-migrant sentiment.
The first major conviction relating to the riots was on 4 March 1993, though 24 convictions on lesser charges had already been handed down. A 22-year-old man was convicted of throwing a firebomb at police, of seriously disturbing the peace, violating weapons laws and attempted bodily harm. An attempted murder charge was dropped for lack of evidence. Critics complained that no one was convicted of assaulting a foreigner, only of assaulting the police or of disorderliness. It took almost ten years to prosecute 408 people. ]
The following timeline was reconstructed by the "Legislative Committee to Investigate the Refugee Shelter Incident" ("Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss zu den Ereignissen um die ZAst").
August 22, Day 1
From about 6:00 p.m. a large crowd assembled in front of the refugee shelter. At 8:02 p.m., thugs started attacking the shelter and violence escalated quickly. By 10:46pm, police were forced to retreat from the area. At 11:02 p.m. riot police arrived on the scene and were attacked with Molotov cocktails. At 11:24 p.m. another police unit arrived from Schwerin. At 1:34 a.m. Water cannons were set up and put to continuous use. Between 1:34 and 2:34 a.m., the rioters were pushed towards the autobahn. At 2:25 a.m. a water cannon vehicle was set on fire by a Molotov cocktail. At 2:30 a.m. Rostock police command declared a police emergency and the armoury was opened. Officers were issued tear gas and fired at the crowd.
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Riot
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Hamlet chicken processing plant fire
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The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial fire in Hamlet, North Carolina, at the Imperial Foods processing plant on September 3, 1991, resulting from a failure in a hydraulic line. 25 workers were killed and 55 injured in the fire, trapped behind locked fire doors. In 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection. [1] Investigators believe a safety inspection might have prevented the disaster. [2]
A federal investigation was launched. Owner Emmett Roe received a 20-year prison sentence, of which he served only four years. The company received the highest fine in the history of North Carolina. [3] As a result, the federal government took over enforcement of much of North Carolina's worker safety laws. [4] Survivors and victims' families accused the fire service and city of Hamlet of racism, leading to two monuments to the tragedy being erected. The plant was never reopened. The fire was North Carolina's worst non-mining industrial disaster and second worst industrial disaster overall. [5] The death toll was particularly high for a United States industrial disaster in the late 20th century, despite being a lower death toll than several other disasters in the past, such as the 1947 Texas City disaster, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the 1860 Pemberton Mill collapse. [6]
The Imperial Foods building was 11 years old, although the basic structure dated back to the early 20th century. The building had been used for food processing applications and had been an ice cream factory. [2] At the time of the fire, it included adjoining structures totaling 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2). [5] The factory was constructed with bricks and metalwork and was one story high. [2] The interior was a "maze of large rooms separated by moveable walls", and both workers and the product moved around the interior from process to process, going from front to rear. [5] Imperial's operators usually kept the doors of the chicken plant padlocked and the windows boarded, to prevent theft, vandalism or other criminal acts. [7] There had been no safety inspections by the state due to a lack of inspectors. [1] The poultry inspector visited the site daily and knew of the fire violations. One worker stated that much of the chicken meat was rotten,[7] and that the reason it was processed into chicken nuggets (that was often sold to fast food restaurants and schools) was to disguise the foul taste. He did not report these violations. [6][7] Some workers were made nervous by the locked doors but did not voice their concerns for fear of losing their jobs. [5]
The company had a poor safety record, though with no previous fatal accidents. It was cited in the 1980s for safety violations at its plant in Moosic, Pennsylvania. The violations included poorly marked or blocked emergency exits. [8] The offending factory had been closed by the time of the North Carolina fire. The Hamlet plant had three previous fires, but no action was taken to prevent recurrence or to unlock the doors. [7] The building had fires before Imperial took over as well, although these, too, were non-fatal. [2] The Imperial plant at Cumming, Georgia, had two major fires, one of which, in 1989, caused $1.2 million (equivalent to $2,200,000 in 2019[9]) worth of damage. [8] The Hamlet plant had no fire alarm system to warn workers farther back in the plant, and there were no sprinklers in the building. [7][10]
An extensive fire was considered unlikely because of a lack of flammable materials throughout the complex, other than packing materials in the rear. There were open spaces between rooms in place of doors to allow for easy access by forklift trucks. The only barriers were curtains of plastic strips between some to hold in refrigerated air. This allowed for rapid spread of smoke and heat in the deadly blaze. The building's previous use as an ice cream production facility meant that the walls and floor were hard, smooth surfaces, which limited the amount of material that was available to absorb heat and smoke during the fire. [2]
An inspection of the floorplan shows that 12 of the victims died of smoke inhalation and several more were injured when they ran into the freezer in a panic rather than to the front of the building. [citation needed]
There were 90 employees in the facility at the time of the fire, which began when a 25-foot-long (7.6 m) deep fat fryer vat developed a hydraulic leak, which subsequently caught fire[2] at around 8:30 AM. [1] This cooker's temperature was controlled by thermostat and was maintained at a constant 375 °F (191 °C), which was variable by design to 15 °F (8.3 °C) either way. [2] The fire spread rapidly, causing a panic so that some workers suffered trauma injuries during a rush to escape. [1] Large quantities of smoke were produced by a combination of burning soybean oil and chicken, and melting roof insulation. The smoke was later found to be hydrocarbon-charged and had the potential to disable someone within a few breaths. [2] Several gas lines embedded in the ceiling also caught fire and exploded. [3]
The majority of those who escaped unharmed were workers in the front of the building who left through the unlocked main entrance, but most workers were trapped by a curtain of smoke. Others tried to escape through the locked doors by kicking them down, but without success; most of the survivors from the rear of the building got out through a loading bay. The bay was initially blocked by a tractor-trailer, but three workers went into the rear of the truck and pounded on the walls until they were heard by rescuers who moved the vehicle. [5] Others escaped when several workers managed to break open a few of the doors, though for many this came too late. [3]
The injured were sent to several hospitals for treatment for their injuries. One of the dead worked for an outside company and was resupplying the on-site vending machines; no one realized he was inside the plant until the company he worked for reported his truck missing. [11][failed verification]
25 people died and 54 suffered injuries or aftereffects such as burns, blindness, respiratory disease from smoke inhalation, neurological damage and post traumatic stress disorder.
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Fire
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2014–15 Malaysia floods
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Beginning on 14 December 2014, a series of floods from the northeast monsoon hit Indonesia, West Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and later Sri Lanka in South Asia. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Indonesia, 200,000 in Malaysia, and several thousand in Thailand. [12] Floods are also affecting 1,100,000 in Sri Lanka. [13]
Malaysian Meteorological Department National Weather Centre senior meteorological officer Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip attributed the flooding in northern Malaysia to the full moon and the presence of northeast monsoon winds blowing consistently across the South China Sea from November 2014 until March 2015. [14] He noted that rivers overflowed when incessant rainfall caused water from the upstream to not reach the confluence. [14] The Malaysian government has promised to undertake a thorough investigation to identify the real cause of this floods especially in the east coast when the floods have receded. [15] The year's heavy rains were caused by a southeast monsoon blowing across the South China Sea, making the sea warmer than usual. [16] Scientists have predicted that as climate change worsens, storm patterns will become less predictable and more severe. [12] Massive development without care to the environment and drainage problems have been cited as contributing factors. [16]
Various countries have been affected by floods with Malaysia topped the list of evacuees. [17]
Heavy rains in North Sumatra caused flooding in most areas from 14 December, but as of 17 December the water was receding. [1] On 19 December, another flood damaged 525 hectares (1,300 acres) of farmland in eight districts in Indragiri Hulu Regency, Riau. [22] Hundreds of houses in the Bengkalis Regency of Riau were submerged waist-deep (1 metre (3.3 ft)), but the approximately 500 residents are still at home as there is no place to take refuge. The villagers cannot do anything because of a limited budget. [23][24] In the Tamiang district of Aceh, flooding forced about 28,000 people to take shelter on higher ground. [25] A total of 94,500 people have taken refuge in Aceh as of 27 December. [11] As of 27 December, about 100,000 people had been evacuated nationwide, with the number of patients seeking treatment at command posts still increasing. [11]
Between 26 and 28 December, most floods in such areas in Aceh have receded.
Heavy rains since 15 December forced 3,390 people in Kelantan and 4,209 people in Terengganu to flee their homes. Several Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) intercity train services along the East Coast route were disrupted on 18 December following the floods. [28] On 20 December, the area of Kajang, Selangor, was also hit by serious floods. [29] By 23 December, most rivers in Kelantan, Pahang, Perak and Terengganu had reached dangerous levels. [30] Due to rising water levels, most businesses were affected, and about 60,000 people were displaced in the next day. The state of Kelantan had the most evacuees (20,468[31] to 24,765), followed by Terengganu (21,606), Pahang (10,825), Perak (1,030), Sabah (336) and Perlis (143).
The situation continues to worsen in Kelantan and Terengganu, due to heavy rain. Most roads in Kelantan have been closed. [34] The worst-hit district in Terengganu is Kemaman, followed by Dungun, Kuala Terengganu, Hulu Terengganu, Besut and Marang. In Pahang, the worst-hit areas are Kuantan, Maran, Jerantut, Lipis and Pekan. [34] Dozens of foreign tourists were stranded at a resort in a Malaysian national park in Pahang. Most were travellers from Canada, Britain, Australia and Romania. [35] All were rescued via boat and helicopter. [17] In Kedah, at least 51 people were evacuated. [36] A teenager in Perlis was the first victim to die in this flood. [37]
In southern Malaysia, between 300 and 350 people have been displaced in both Johor and Negeri Sembilan. [38][39] The number of evacuees nationwide reached more than 200,000 by 28 December, with 10 people killed. The flooding is considered the country's worst in decades. [12][17][40] However, the exact numbers of evacuees, missing persons and deaths are unknown, as the Malaysian flood centre was unable to provide any accurate figures. [41] Some victim were found in miserable condition after surviving on one meal of rice a day after being stranded in the floods, who was intereviewed by Aaron Ngui. [42] On 31 December, a Royal Malaysia Police Ecureuill AS 355F2 helicopter crashed during a patrol in Kelantan, injuring four crews on board. [43]
As of 2 January 2015, floodwaters continued to recede and the number of evacuees in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak continued to reduce. [44]
On 21 December, a Bell 206 helicopter which departed for relief missions crashed in Yala's Muang District due to bad weather, injuring four crewmen. [45] Because of the incident, Thai southern army has imposed a ban on all types of aircraft from 22 to 26 December and were ordered to use only ground vehicles to patrol flooded areas. [46] A large number of districts in Narathiwat Province have been declared disaster zones with 115,853 residents from 30,624 households been affected. [45] Eight of sixteen districts in Songkhla Province, including Hat Yai, Sadao, Rattaphum, Khuan Niang, Chana, Thepha, Na Thawi and Sabai Yoi also have been declared disaster zones. [47] In Yala Province, more than 50,000 residents have been affected. [48] As of 30 December, 15 people have been killed in the flooding.
On 26 December, rains in Narathiwat and Pattani provinces have stopped, while flooding in Phatthalung has eased. Continuous aid was distributed to affected residents in Songkhla Province including to Malaysian residents in the border of Narathiwat as Thai Prime Minister had heard that around 40,000 Malaysians living along the border were suffering. [49]
An estimated 1.1 million people were affected by torrential rainfall, widespread floods, landslides, mudslides and high winds since 19 December 2014. [9] Over 6,400 houses are reportedly fully destroyed and an estimated 18,537 houses are partially damaged.
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Floods
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CU Boulder Scientists Will Launch Cereal Box-Sized Satellite Into Space To Examine Planets Outside Our Solar System
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CU Boulder is about to put a CUTE spin on space exploration. The CUTE Satellite, short for Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment, is no bigger than a box of cereal but will spend 7 months exploring planets outside our solar system. CUTE will launch on September 27th on the back of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California. The satellite, according to principal mission investigator Kevin France, cost around $4 million and is only about as big as a “family-sized box of Cheerios.” “It’s an experiment that NASA is conducting to see how much science can be done with a small satellite,” said France, a professor in the CU Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. “That’s exciting but also a little daunting.” CUTE will then enter orbit around Earth, aiming sensors at a series of exoplanets called “hot Jupiters.” These planets are large hot gas giants. CUTE’s goal is to give scientists better understanding of how these planets form. (credit: University of Colorado) This is one in a series of missions spearheaded by the CU Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. LASP has developed many other CubeSat missions to explore a a gamut of things like solar activity to supernovae in far-off galaxies. “Ultimately CUTE has one major purpose, and that is to study the inflated atmospheres of these really hot, pretty gassy exoplanets,” Arika Egan, a LASP graduate student who helped to develop the mission, said. “The inflation and escape these exoplanetary atmospheres undergo are on scales just not seen in our own solar system.”
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New achievements in aerospace
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Two men wanted for Hanoi bank robbery
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Two male robbers enter a BIDV bank branch in Hanoi, July 27, 2020. Photo courtesy of Hanoi police. Hanoi police are searching for two men who robbed a BIDV bank branch off VND942 million ($41,000) at gunpoint Monday morning. Two male suspects speaking with a northern Vietnamese accent used a gun and demanded staff of a BIDV branch in Dong Da District. Hanoi police's initial investigations found that at around 9:55 a.m. Monday, two men with face masks and jackets walked from Nguyen Hong Street to the BIDV Ngoc Khanh branch at 27 Huynh Thuc Khang Street. As soon as they stepped through the door, one of them took out what looked like a homemade gun and shot at the roof, shouting, "everybody sit still, put your hands in the air." The man then went behind each of the counters and threw money over them to the other suspect who quickly put the cash into a backpack. The man who collected the money also threw a black bag on the floor saying it was full of explosives and threatening to trigger them if anyone tried to fight back. The two then ran out of the bank and used the gun to intimidate a civilian who was withdrawing money from an ATM nearby. They took his plum-colored motorcycle with the license plate 29X2-137 and drove towards Thang Long Boulevard. Police say the man holding the gun is between 1m65 and 1m68 tall. He wore brightly colored long trousers, a white cloth mask, a white baseball-cap helmet and dark shoes. The other, about 1m75 tall, has a slim body and wore dark trousers with sports shoes. Hanoi-headquartered BIDV is one of Vietnam's largest banks by assets, with the state holding a majority stake.
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Bank Robbery
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W.A.K.O. World Championships 2001 (Belgrade)
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W.A.K.O. World Championships 2001 were the joint thirteenth world kickboxing championships (the other was held earlier that year in Maribor, Slovenia) hosted by the W.A.K.O. organization. It was the second championships to be held in Serbia and Montenegro (the Europeans had been held here back in 1996) and was open to amateur men and women across the world. There were three styles on offer at Belgrade; Full-Contact, Low-Kick (men only) and Thai-Boxing (men only). The other typical styles, Semi Contact, Musical Forms etc., had taken place at the sister event in Maribor. By the end of the championships Russia was the strongest nation overall, followed by Belarus in second and hosts Serbia and Montenegro in third. The event was held over five days in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, starting on Wednesday, 21 November and finishing on Sunday, 25 November 2001. [1][2]
Full-Contact is a form of kickboxing where both punches and kicks are thrown with full force with strikes below the waist prohibited. Most matches are settled by either a point's decision or referee stoppage and like most other amateur contact sports, head and body protection is compulsory. More detail on Full-Contact rules can be found on the W.A.K.O. website. At Belgrade both men and women took part in the style with the men having twelve divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs, and the women had seven ranging from 48 kg/105.6 lbs to over 70 kg/+143 lbs. [3] Notable winners included was Roman Romanchuk who would also have some success in amateur boxing and Fouad Habbani who made the successful transition to Full-Contact having won gold in Light-Contact at Maribor. By the end of the championship Russia was by far the most successful country in the category winning seven golds and six bronzes in both male and female competition. [4]
Low-kick is a style of kickboxing which is similar to Full-Contact, allowed strikes (punches and kicks) to be thrown at full force, with the only difference being that strikes are also allowed to the legs of the opponent. Fights are mainly won by a point's decision or by a referee stoppage, with head and body protection mandatory for all contestants. More details on the rules can be found at the W.A.K.O. website. [5] At Belgrade the category was open to men only with twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs. The most notable gold medallist was Ivan Strugar who won yet another gold medal (sixth overall) at a W.A.K.O. championships, while future K-1 MAX and Superleague fighters (and brothers) José Reis and Luis Reis won bronze. By the end of the championships the host nation Yugoslavia was the strongest country in Low-Kick winning five gold, one silver and one bronze. [6]
Thai-boxing (more commonly known as Muay Thai is the most physical style of kickboxing in which the contestants use punches, kicks, elbows and knees to attempt to defeat their opponent, often by referee stoppage or via a point's decision. As with other forms of amateur kickboxing, participants must wear head and body protection. At Belgrade the category was open to men only with twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs. Notable winners included Andrei Kulebin winning the first of what would later be many world titles and future It's Showtime 77 MAX world champion Dmitry Shakuta. As with the last world championships Belarus proved to be absolutely dominant once more in Thai-boxing, going one better this time by picking up an incredible nine gold medals. [7]
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Sports Competition
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2020 UEFA Super Cup
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The 2020 UEFA Super Cup was the 45th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The match featured German club Bayern Munich, the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, and Spanish club Sevilla, the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. It was played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary on 24 September 2020. [5]
The match was originally scheduled to be played at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal, on 12 August 2020. [6][7] However, after the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe caused the postponements of the previous season's club finals, the UEFA Executive Committee chose to award the rescheduled Champions League final to Portugal, and postponed and relocated the Super Cup to Budapest. [8][9]
Following discussions with its 55 member associations on 19 August 2020,[10] the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 25 August 2020 to use the 2020 UEFA Super Cup as a pilot match for which a reduced number of spectators, up to 30% of the capacity of the stadium, can be allowed in, and it became the first official UEFA match to have spectators since their competitions were resumed in August 2020. [11]
Bayern Munich won the match 2–1 after extra time to secure their second UEFA Super Cup title. [1]
The Estádio do Dragão was scheduled to stage its first ever UEFA Super Cup match. It had hosted the UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2019 UEFA Nations League Final. The city of Porto and Portugal as a whole, however, had seen one Super Cup match before in 1987, as the now-demolished Estádio das Antas hosted the second leg. This was the first UEFA club competition final hosted at the Puskás Aréna and the second for Budapest and Hungary, having hosted the 2019 UEFA Women's Champions League Final at the Groupama Arena. Prior to the relocation, the stadium had been selected as one of the hosts for the UEFA Euro 2020 as well as hosting the 2022 UEFA Europa League Final,[12] before being rescheduled to 2023. [8][13]
An open bidding process was launched on 8 December 2017 by UEFA to select the venue of the UEFA Super Cup in 2020. Associations had until 12 January 2018 to express interest, and bid dossiers had to be submitted by 29 March 2018. Associations hosting matches at UEFA Euro 2020 were not allowed to bid for the 2020 UEFA Super Cup. UEFA announced on 15 January 2018 that nine associations had expressed interest in hosting the 2020 UEFA Super Cup. [14]
The Estádio do Dragão was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Kyiv on 24 May 2018. [16][6]
The UEFA Executive Committee relocated the match to Puskás Aréna in Budapest at their meeting on 17 June 2020. [8]
Tickets were on sale for the general public until 9 September 2020. [17] Moreover, 3,000 tickets were available for the supporters of each team. In total, 15,500 tickets were sold. [18] Strict hygiene measures, including social distancing and wearing of face masks when social distancing could not be respected, were in place during the match. Ticket holders from overseas had to present proof of a negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test performed within three days of entry, and had to leave the country within 72 hours after their entry. Despite Hungarian government insisting that the match would be safe to attend, there was opposition to the decision to have spectators. Hungarian politician Ildikó Borbély called the game an "unacceptable experiment", while Minister President of Bavaria Markus Söder urged Bayern fans not to travel, fearing that the match could turn into a "hotbed for COVID-19 to spread". Hungarian Medical Chamber advisor, epidemiologist András Csilek, stated that the Chamber also considered it wrong, saying that it "carries unnecessary risk adding" and "shouldn't be allowed". [19]
On 15 September 2020, UEFA named English official Anthony Taylor as the referee for the match. Taylor had been a FIFA referee since 2013, and previously worked as one of the additional assistant referees in the 2014 UEFA Super Cup, 2015 UEFA Europa League Final, 2016 UEFA Champions League Final and UEFA Euro 2016 Final. He was joined by his fellow countrymen, with Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn as assistant referees, Stuart Attwell as the video assistant referee (VAR) and Paul Tierney as the assistant VAR. Israeli referee Orel Grinfeld served as the fourth official. [2]
Sevilla were awarded a penalty after 13 minutes when Ivan Rakitić was blocked and bundled over in the penalty area by David Alaba. Lucas Ocampos scored the penalty shooting to the left corner to put Sevilla ahead. Leon Goretzka made it 1–1 in the 34th minute, with a side foot finish to the left corner of the net after a take down assist from Robert Lewandowski. [20]
The game went into extra time, with substitute Javi Martínez getting the winner for Bayern in the 104th minute with a powerful header to the top left corner of the net when the ball fell to him, after Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou had punched the ball back into play. [21]
The Champions League winners were designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes. Man of the Match:
Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich)[1]
Assistant referees:[2]
Gary Beswick (England)
Adam Nunn (England)
Fourth official:[2]
Orel Grinfeld (Israel)
Video assistant referee:[2]
Stuart Attwell (England)
Assistant video assistant referee:[2]
Paul Tierney (England)
Match rules[23]
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Sports Competition
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COVID-19 a Catalyst for Healthcare Merger and Acquisition Activity
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January 13, 2021 - Despite delivering an economic blow to provider organizations, the pandemic confirmed the “strategic rationale” for healthcare mergers and acquisitions, according to consulting firm Kaufman Hall. A year-end analysis of healthcare merger and acquisition activity in 2020 found that there were 79 transactions announced, significantly down from the 92 transactions announced in 2019 but marginally higher than the decade low in 2010 (74 transactions). Additionally, seven of the transactions announced in 2020 were “mega mergers,” which the firm defines as a merger involving two companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue. There were only three mega mergers announced in 2019. Healthcare merger and acquisition activity in the last year highlighted the need for hospitals and health systems to focus on core business strengths, address infrastructure gaps through partnerships, and strengthen intellectual capacity, the firm explains. And the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could be the catalyst for more healthcare merger and acquisition activity in 2021. “The pandemic has accelerated the need for strategic initiatives that address the opportunities of industry transformation and that reward well-thought-out alignment opportunities,” Kaufman Hall stated in the analysis. Healthcare leaders are already anticipating a higher level of merger and acquisition activity heading into the new year. According to a recent survey of healthcare CFOs conducted by BDO, 44 percent say the pandemic will drive an increase in partnerships in 2021. Another 41 percent of CFOs expect an increase in consolidation. “From improving relationships between payers and providers to research partnerships between academic medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies, the walls in the healthcare ecosystem continue to come down in favor of collaboration and community to serve the greater good,” the authors of the survey report stated. Hospitals and health systems with “significant depth of intellectual capital and expertise” are at an advantage in the COVID-19 world, Kaufman Hall emphasized. Providers who can deliver telehealth, develop and disseminate new clinical protocols, rebuild supply chains, manage vaccine trials and vaccination, and implement other innovative adaptations had the upper hand with addressing the challenges of COVID-19, the firm explained. This has led some organizations, like regional health systems, to announce transactions with academic medical centers or teaching hospitals, for example. In practice, for instance, New Hanover Regional Medical Center announced last year that it is joining Novant Health to partner with the UNC School of Medicine in North Carolina. Northwest Community Healthcare also unveiled plans to merge with NorthShore University Health System in Illinois in 2020. “As health systems face ongoing uncertainty and work to transform healthcare, intellectual capital will be as important as scale in helping them respond nimbly and efficiently to new challenges,” Kaufman Hall stated. Partnerships can also help hospitals address gaps in infrastructure that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted, such as ICU bed capacity. In this case, regionalization has become more prevalent as a healthcare merger and acquisition strategy as evidenced by the planned but stalled merger of four safety-net hospitals in Chicago, Illinois last year. Hospital leaders also realized last year that they must focus on core business strengths to maintain financial stability while divesting or creating partnerships to manage underperforming areas. For instance, six of the 14 announced transactions represented divestitures by major for-profit health systems in the second quarter of 2020, Kaufman Hall reported. This trend is likely to continue into 2021, BDO added, with healthcare CFOs most likely to divest from behavioral health (24 percent), retail properties (23 percent), virtual health (17 percent), and post-acute care (16 percent). But divestitures may spark more partnerships, as health systems seek to fill the gaps to ensure consumers maintain access to high-quality care, Kaufman Hall stated. Physicians groups hit the hardest by the pandemic’s financial impact are also likely to be seeking new partnerships that provide more financial security, the firm added. The analysis also showed that healthcare merger and acquisition activity by for-profit health systems as both acquirer and seller increased in 2020. The number of financially distressed sellers also remained stable last year at 16 percent of announced transactions compared to 20 percent in 2019.
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Organization Merge
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11 Famous Couples Who Have Been Together Forever But Never Got Married
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Here at Brides, we're a little biased towards weddings for, well, obvious reasons. But we also think it's just as romantic (if not more) to commit yourself to each other without submitting to societal and governmental standards. We've all heard happy stories about life-long marriage—and the memories that come along with having a beautiful ceremony. But, there are plenty of adorable examples of non-married duos who have made commitments to each other—and are still going strong (a la Derek Shepard and Meredith Grey's post-it note). The Grey's Anatomy fictional pair is not the only example. There are plenty of IRL couples who went the nontraditional route in making their relationships last. In fact, not tying the knot is more common than you might think—and becomes more prevalent every passing year. Some may even say it's "in." Ahead we've rounded up some of our favorite Hollywood couples who passed on making things "official" but have lasted longer than a lot of legally binding Hollywood marriages. Getty Images Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell are the ultimate couple goals (and the first people who come to mind when talking commitment outside of marriage). The couple met on the Disney movie The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966 but didn't get together until 1983 on the set of Swing Shift. "I already feel devoted, and isn't that what marriage is supposed to do?" Hawn explained in 1990. "So as long as my emotional state is in a state of devotion, honesty, caring, and loving, then we're fine." Getty Images This major power (and incredibly good-looking) couple met in 2011 on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines. While they keep their relationship and family life extremely private, they have been committed for the last 10 years and share two daughters, Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 5. Getty Images The two actresses met back in the early aughts at a party but didn't become romantically involved until 2015 (they were both seeing other people at the time). They've been together ever since, often gushing about each other in interviews and at red carpet events. Getty Images The Friends star and the Snow Patrol rocker have been romantically linked since 2013 and were engaged before splitting in 2015. But a year later, the pair reconciled and have been going strong ever since. Getty Images The Bridesmaids actress and Jumanji actor have been together since 2012 after meeting on the set of the Annie remake. They have two sons, Rocco and Rafa, and refer to each other as husband and wife but have not tied the knot. Getty Images Couples who design together stay together. At least that's the case for Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the masterminds behind the luxury fashion brand Proenza Schouler. The couple met while studying at Parsons the New School of Design, and they launched their brand—named after their mothers' maiden names—in 2002. Getty Images According to Vanity Fair, the two met in 1986 at a charity event, the same year that The Oprah Winfrey Show premiered. They've been together ever since and even became engaged in 1992, but Winfrey shortly after realized marriage wasn't what she wanted. She opened up about the proposal in O Mag's February 2020 issue. "I wanted to know he felt I was worthy of being his missus, but I didn't want the sacrifices, the compromises, the day-in-day-out commitment required to make a marriage work," she said. "My life with the show was my priority, and we both knew it." Getty Images This Columbian singer and Spanish soccer player met back in 2010 at the World Cup in South Africa. The couple never married but they have been together ever since and share two sons, Sasha and Milán. Getty Images Saturday Night Live alum and Bridesmaids star has been with her longtime partner director Paul Thomas Anderson since 2001. The pair never married, but Rudolph decided to refer to Anderson as her "husband" following the birth of their first child in 2005, she told the New York Times. "People know what that means," she explained. "It means he’s the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we are not going anywhere." Getty Images Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys have been together since 2014, after meeting on the set of their show, The Americans. Their characters' chemistry was so palpable that fans started to question their relationship IRL. Eventually, the duo confirmed their relationship, and in 2016 the couple welcomed their son Sam into the world. Getty Images This ultra-private couple met in 2001 on the set of the Latin pop star's music video for "Escape," in which Iglesias and the tennis star Kournikova had a steamy make-out scene. They went public with their relationship in 2002 but have remained pretty private ever since. In 2017, the couple welcomed twins Nicholas and Lucy, and two years later, they welcomed their other daughter, Mary.
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Police Search for Suspect in Attempted Bank Robbery
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HOCKESSIN, Del. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a man suspected of trying to rob a Delaware bank. The masked man who entered a M&T Bank branch in Hockessin on Saturday passed a note to a bank employee in which he demanded money, but he left the bank without any cash after the employee didn't cooperate with his demands, according to the Delaware State Police. A State Police news release says the suspect drove off in a light colored sport utility vehicle. Nobody was injured during the robbery attempt.
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Bank Robbery
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2013 Oddset Hockey Games
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The 2013 Oddset Hockey Games was played between 6–10 February 2013. The Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and Russia played a round-robin for a total of three games per team and six games in total. Five of the matches were played in the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and one match in the Ice Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Finland won the tournament for the fourth time. The tournament was part of the 2012–13 Euro Hockey Tour. All times are local (UTC+1 for the games in Sweden, and UTC+4 for the game in Russia). GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalties In Minutes; POS = PositionSource: [1]
TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = ShutoutsSource: [2]
Best players selected by the directorate:[1]
Tournament All-Star Team selected by the media:
Goaltender: Alexander Salak
Defencemen: Ilya Nikulin, Ville Lajunen
Forwards: Juhamatti Aaltonen, Sergei Mozyakin, Evgeny Kuznetsov
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Sports Competition
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Signing of the RCEP and the Future Asian Order
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After multiple stumbles, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was finally signed in November 2020. It has been a long journey to this point, starting about 8 years ago with the announcement that negotiations would commence. Ultimately, India did not participate, but with 15 signatories this is an enormous free trade agreement that represents roughly 30 percent of the world’s GDP and population.
With a rise in global protectionism during the COVID-19 crisis, the signing of the RCEP itself sends a significant political message from East Asia: a commitment to preserving the free and open economic order and trade systems. The agreement can also be interpreted as signifying a continuing faith in globalization as a path to national development. Finally, the timing of the signing – immediately after the United States presidential election – could be seen as an attempt by East Asia to show support for a free economic order irrespective of the outcome of the election.
RCEP is an experiment in “ASEAN-centered” economic integration, which seeks to build on the networks formed by the ASEAN+1 FTAs in the 2000s. The agreement does much to support the feasibility of the ASEAN-centered approach.
RCEP encompasses 15 fields, and contains an important milestone in the establishment of common rules and standards for economic activity. Agreements to reduce tariffs related to trade in goods in a wide range of fields are eye-catching, and will surely encourage progress in customs procedures, trade facilitation and rules of origin along with interregional trade.
Even more significant is that common rules were finally established in areas where they did not previously cover all ASEAN countries or did not involve countries such as China, specifically in competition, government procurement and electronic commerce. It is true that the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (or CPTPP) has established common rules for fields that are not part of RCEP, including state-owned enterprises, labor, and the environment, but China and Korea are not part of the CPTPP, while only Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam participate in that agreement from among ASEAN countries.
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Sign Agreement
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'NAFTA lite': Trump and Democrats' trade deal is similar to pact president mocked as 'worst ever'
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump relentlessly ridiculed the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada as the “worst trade deal ever” when he was running for office and promised to rip it up if he was elected.
But instead of tearing the agreement to shreds, Trump mostly patched it up.
The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as the USMCA, that is supposed to replace NAFTA – and which appears headed for congressional approval following a deal this week between Trump and House Democrats – is in many ways similar to its quarter-century-old predecessor.
More than half of the new trade agreement simply modernizes provisions already contained in NAFTA.
“The president didn’t rip up NAFTA, nor is this just a rebranding of NAFTA with the Trump and House Democrats’ names on it,” said Daniel Ujczo, an international trade attorney in Ohio.
Instead of demolishing NAFTA and starting over, “it’s a renovation of North American trade,” Ujczo said. “We put a fresh coat of paint on about 60 percent of the deal, so we kept what worked in the original NAFTA. But we have upgraded some applications and fixtures in terms of the technology chapters and customs chapters. And then we knocked down some walls.”
Democrats, labor groups and other critics mocked the new trade proposal as “NAFTA lite” when Trump announced the agreement last year after more than a year of talks with Mexico and Canada.
House Democrats insisted on revisions before they would allow the deal to be put to a vote. After months of negotiations with the Trump administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a series of changes to the deal on Tuesday, including stronger provisions Democrats had wanted on labor, enforcement and pharmaceuticals.
What's in the new trade deal?:From NAFTA to USMCA: Key changes on trilateral trade pact
The revised deal “is infinitely better than what was proposed by the administration,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters during a news conference in the Capitol.
“This is no longer NAFTA lite,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who was involved in the talks. “This is a new trade agreement.”
Not so, said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens’ Global Trade Watch.
“Fixing the existing, damaging NAFTA is not the same as negotiating a truly progressive trade agreement from scratch,” she said.
Regardless, the deal between House Democrats and the Trump administration clears the way for the House and the Senate to vote on the trade agreement, handing the president a victory on a legislative priority even as he faces the likelihood of impeachment as early as next week.
Pelosi and other Democrats did not say when they expect a vote on the trade pact but suggested it could happen before the end of the year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he does not expect the Senate to take up the trade deal until after it wraps up Trump’s likely impeachment trial early next year.
McConnell and the USMCA:Democrats rip McConnell on delaying USMCA vote until after impeachment trial
While the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada does not represent a wholesale rewrite of NAFTA, it does contain several new provisions, including a chapter dealing with e-commerce, which was in its infancy when NAFTA took effect in 1994.
The new trade pact, which updates rules for the movement of products between the three countries, also puts in place tougher labor standards regarding auto production.
Under NAFTA, automakers can avoid tariffs on their cars if 62.5 percent of their vehicles’ components are manufactured in the U.S., Canada or Mexico. That threshold jumps to 75 percent under the new deal. Also, starting in 2020, 30 percent of vehicle production would have to be done by workers earning an average production wage of at least $16 per hour. By 2023, that percentage would rise to 40 percent.
Labor groups and other critics had complained those provisions didn’t go far enough and that the new agreement did not include a sufficient means to enforce such requirements.
Trade deal redux:New trade deal with Canada, Mexico borrows heavily from pact that Trump abandoned
But House Democrats said Tuesday a series of revisions they negotiated with the Trump administration would provide for adequate monitoring, accountability and enforcement. One provision, for example, calls for the establishment of attachés in Mexico City to regularly monitor whether Mexico is adhering to environmental laws, regulations and practices.
Democrats hailed the changes as a victory for American workers. But Dan Ikenson, a trade expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argued the revisions made the new trade agreement worse because it will now be easier for special interests to halt trade by simply accusing Mexican factories of violating labor or environmental provisions.
In addition, the tougher auto standards will have the effect of forcing car manufacturers to keep production facilities in the United States instead of moving them to Mexico, he said.
“There’s a lot of upstream protectionism that has been baked into this agreement,” Ikenson said.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the new pact “rebalances trade in North America,” which will lead to more American jobs, and that the revisions make the deal “better and stronger for the American people.”
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Tear Up Agreement
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The Collapse of Lehman Brothers: A Case Study
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Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.1 Hundreds of employees, mostly dressed in business suits, left the bank's offices one by one with boxes in their hands. It was a somber reminder that nothing is forever—even in the richness of the financial and investment world. At the time of its collapse, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States with 25,000 employees worldwide. It had $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in liabilities. The bank became a symbol of the excesses of the 2007-08 Financial Crisis, engulfed by the subprime meltdown that swept through financial markets and cost an estimated $10 trillion in lost economic output.1 In this article, we examine the events that led to the collapse Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers had humble origins, tracing its roots to a general store founded by German brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1844. Farmers paid for their goods with cotton, which led the company into the cotton trade. After Henry died, the other Lehman brothers expanded the scope of the business into commodities trading and brokerage services.2 The firm prospered over the following decades as the U.S. economy grew into an international powerhouse. But Lehman face plenty of challenges over the years. The company survived the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression, two world wars, a capital shortage when it was spun off by American Express (AXP) in 1994 in an initial public offering, and the Long Term Capital Management collapse and Russian debt default of 1998.3 Despite its ability to survive past disasters, the collapse of the U.S. housing market ultimately brought Lehman to its knees, as its headlong rush into the subprime mortgage market proved to be a disastrous step. The company, along with many other financial firms, branched into mortgage-backed securities and collateral debt obligations. In 2003 and 2004, with the U.S. housing bubble well under way, Lehman acquired five mortgage lenders along with BNC Mortgage and Aurora Loan Services, which specialized in Alt-A loans. These loans were made to borrowers without full documentation.4 At first, Lehman's acquisitions seemed prescient. Lehman's real estate business enabled revenues in the capital markets unit to surge 56% from 2004 to 2006. The firm securitized $146 billion of mortgages in 2006—a 10% increase from 2005. Lehman reported record profits every year from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, it announced $4.2 billion in net income on $19.3 billion in revenue.4 In February 2007, Lehman's stock price reached a record $86.18 per share, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $60 billion.5 But by the first quarter of 2007, cracks in the U.S. housing market were already becoming apparent. Defaults on subprime mortgages began to rise to a seven-year high. On March 14, 2007, a day after the stock had its biggest one-day drop in five years on concerns that rising defaults would affect Lehman's profitability, the firm reported record revenues and profit for its fiscal first quarter. Following the earnings report, Lehman said the risks posed by rising home delinquencies were well contained and would have little impact on the firm's earnings.6 Lehman's stock fell sharply as the credit crisis erupted in August 2007 with the failure of two Bear Stearns hedge funds. During that month, the company eliminated 1,200 mortgage-related jobs and shut down its BNC unit.5 It also closed offices of Alt-A lender Aurora in three states. Even as the correction in the U.S. housing market gained momentum, Lehman continued to be a major player in the mortgage market. In 2007, Lehman underwrote more mortgage-backed securities than any other firm, accumulating an $85 billion portfolio, or four times its shareholders' equity. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Lehman's stock rebounded, as global equity markets reached new highs and prices for fixed-income assets staged a temporary rebound. However, the firm did not take the opportunity to trim its massive mortgage portfolio, which in retrospect, would turn out to be its last chance.5 In 2007, Lehman's high degree of leverage was 31, while its large mortgage securities portfolio made it highly susceptible to the deteriorating market conditions. On March 17, 2008, due to concerns that Lehman would be the next Wall Street firm to fail following Bear Stearns' near-collapse, its shares plummeted nearly 48%.7 By April, after an issue of preferred stock—which was convertible into Lehman shares at a 32% premium to its concurrent price—yielded $4 billion, confidence in the firm returned somewhat.7 However, the stock resumed its decline as hedge fund managers began to question the valuation of Lehman's mortgage portfolio. On June 7, 2008, Lehman announced a second-quarter loss of $2.8 billion, its first loss since it was spun off by American Express, and reported that it raised another $6 billion from investors by June 12.5 According to David P. Belmont, "The firm also said it boosted its liquidity pool to an estimated $45 billion, decreased gross assets by $147 billion, reduced its exposure to residential and commercial mortgages by 20%, and cut down leverage from a factor of 32 to about 25."7 These measures were perceived as being too little, too late. Over the summer, Lehman's management made unsuccessful overtures to a number of potential partners. The stock plunged 77% in the first week of September 2008, amid plummeting equity markets worldwide, as investors questioned CEO Richard Fuld's plan to keep the firm independent by selling part of its asset management unit and spinning off commercial real estate assets. Hopes that the Korea Development Bank would take a stake in Lehman were dashed on September 9, as the state-owned South Korean bank put talks on hold.8 The devastating news lead to a 45% drop in Lehman's stock, along with the firm's debt suffering a 66% increase in credit-default swaps.8 Hedge fund clients began abandoning the company, with short-term creditors following suit. Lehman's fragile financial position was best emphasized by the pitiful results of its September 10 fiscal third-quarter report.7 Facing a $3.9 billion loss, which included a $5.6 billion write-down, the firm announced an extensive strategic corporate restructuring effort. Moody's Investor Service also announced that it was reviewing Lehman's credit ratings, and it found that the only way for Lehman to avoid a rating downgrade would be to sell a majority stake to a strategic partner. By September 11, the stock had suffered another massive plunge (42%) due to these developments.7 With only $1 billion left in cash by the end of that week, Lehman was quickly running out of time. Over the weekend of September 13, Lehman, Barclays, and Bank of America (BAC) made a last-ditch effort to facilitate a takeover of the former, but they were ultimately unsuccessful.7 On Monday, September 15, Lehman declared bankruptcy, resulting in the stock plunging 93% from its previous close on September 12. Lehman stock plunged 93% between the close of trading on September 12, 2008, and the day it declared bankruptcy. Former chair and CEO Richard Fuld runs Matrix Private Capital Group, which he founded in 2016. The company manages assets for high-net worth individuals, family offices and institutions.9 He reportedly sold an apartment in New York City for $25.9 million as well as a collection of drawings for $13.5 million. In years following the collapse, Fuld acknowledged the mistakes the bank made though he remained critical of the government for mandating that Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy while bailing out others. In 2010, he told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission the bank had adequate capital reserves and a solid business at the time of its bankruptcy.10 Erin Callan (now Erin Montella) became chief financial officer at the age of 41 and resigned in June 2008 following suspicions she had leaked information to the press.11 Her LinkedIN profile lists her as an advisor at Matrix Investment Holdings. Other stints include six months serving as head of hedge fund coverage for Credit Suisse and co-founding a non-profit that provides paid maternity leave to mothers.1213 In 2016, Montella published an autobiography, Full Circle: A Memoir of Leaning in Too Far and the Journey Back, about her experiences in the financial world.14 Lehman's collapse roiled global financial markets for weeks, given its size and status in the U.S. and globally. At its peak, Lehman had a market value of nearly $46 billion, which was wiped out in the months leading up to its bankruptcy.1 Many questioned the decision to allow Lehman to fail, compared with the government's tacit support for Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in March 2008. Bank of America had been in talks to buy Lehman, but backed away after the government refused to help with Lehman's most troubled assets. Instead, Bank of America announced it would buy Merrill Lynch on the same day Lehman filed for bankruptcy.15 Yale School of Management. "The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview," Page 2. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Yale School of Management. "The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview," Page 3. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Yale School of Management. "The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview," Pages 3-5. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. International Journal of Accounting Research. "What Caused the Failure of Lehman Brothers? Could it have been Prevented? How? Recommendations for Going Forward," Page 1. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Hong Kong Institute of Bankers. "Bank Asset and Liability Management." John Wiley & Sons, 2018. United States District Court Southern District of New York. "Lehman Brothers Equity/Debt Securities Litigation, 08 Civ. 5523 (LAK)," Page 51. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. David P. Belmont. "Managing Hedge Fund Risk and Financing: Adapting to a New Era," Pages 72-73. Jon Wiley & Sons (Asia), 2011. Claudio Scardovi. "Restructuring and Innovation in Banking," Page 18. Springer, 2016. Matrix Private Capital Group. "About Us." Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Richard Fuld. "Written Statement Of Richard S. Fuld, Jr. Before The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission," Page 8. Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Thomas Piontek and Andrew Metrick. "The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview," Page 8. Yale Program on Financial Stability Case Study, October 2014. LinkedIn. "Erin Callan Montella." Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Life Foundation. "Our Mission." Accessed Dec. 18, 2020. Erin Callan Montella. "Full Circle: A Memoir of Leaning in Too Far and the Journey Back." Triple M Press, 2016. Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Thomas Piontek and Andrew Metrick. "The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview," Pages 11, 20 and 21. Yale Program on Financial Stability Case Study, October 2014.
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Financial Crisis
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Builder fined $175,000 after death of worker Mitchel Birkin, 19, in Yarloop
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A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
The family of a teenage worker killed at a building worksite in regional Western Australia has urged employers and supervisors to do more to keep young employees safe from harm.
Crane worker Mitchel Birkin, 19, died four years ago when a concrete panel fell on him while he was helping to rebuild a house lost in Yarloop's 2016 devastating bushfires.
Head contractor Gran Designs was fined $175,000 in the Bunbury Magistrates Court today after pleading guilty to failing to provide a working environment where workers were not exposed to hazards, as well as breaches of safety regulations.
Prosecution lawyer Gemma Mullins told the court Gran Designs was wrong to allow the three tonne prefabricated panel to be propped against a group of tree stumps, rather than laid flat or rested on the deck.
"This should not have happened," Ms Mullins said.
The court was told Mr Birkin was directly employed by local crane company Halifax, and was acting as a 'dog-man' to guide the lifting of the panels from a sea container at the worksite in Yarloop in March 2017.
Mr Polak told Mr Birkin to secure the panel to the tree stumps temporarily, and turned to take a phone call.
When he looked back, he saw the panel begin to fall before there was time to secure it, and yelled at Mr Birkin to get out of the way.
The prosecution said the property's owner, a doctor, rushed to help but Mr Birkin had "unsurvivable" injuries.
Prosecution lawyer Ms Mullins said the situation was not black and white, but as head contractor, the company had a duty to ensure a safe workplace.
"Mr Birkin did not come home."
She said it was the first time the company had used the panels and it had not prepared an adequate safety plan.
Defence lawyer Michael Morgan said Gran Designs director David Polak had profound remorse.
He said Gran Designs — of which Mr Polak was now sole director — was in liquidation and no longer operating as a result of the tragedy.
"At one point, he (Mr Polak) told me that he had considered driving into a tree," Mr Morgan said.
Magistrate Belinda Coleman described Mr Birkin's family impact statement as harrowing.
"Mrs Birkin has said in her victim impact statement that all companies and supervisors need to take vital precautions to keep young adult workers safe from harm," she said.
Magistrate Coleman said while the maximum penalty was $400,000, she had to take into account the guilty plea, that Gran Designs was effectively no longer operating, and its lack of capacity to pay.
"No penalty will bring back Mr Birkin, nothing will compensate for the loss of a son," she said.
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Organization Fine
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Reggae entertainer Chronixx's upcoming concert at the Brooklyn Mirage will cancle
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Reggae entertainer Chronixx has revealed that his upcoming concert at the Brooklyn Mirage scheduled for September 6, has been cancelled. On Monday (Aug 30, 2021), the “Skankin sweet” singjay shared a post on Instagram with his over 893 thousand followers. The post reads, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, our September 6th concert at the Brooklyn Mirage has been cancelled. We appreciate everyone who brought tickets and made plans to attend. Thank you for always showing us love. #delasplash.” Chronixx in the caption further stated, “Massive love to my family all over the world and especially the family in NYC. The almighty is carrying us.” Fellow reggae entertainers Kaba Pyramid and Jesse Royal are among the many social media users reacting to the post. The ongoing effects of COVID-19 have forced some entertainers, and promoters to pull the plug on their events.
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Organization Closed
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WFP chief uses Nobel speech as call for action to avert ‘hunger pandemic’
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With 270 million people – more than the entire population of Western Europe – “marching toward starvation”, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) called for greater action to avert a “hunger pandemic”, in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the UN agency on Thursday. WFP Executive Director David Beasley warned “famine is at humanity’s doorstop”, threatening to destroy lives and undo so much we hold dear. “Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse —270 million people are marching toward starvation,” he said, speaking from the agency’s headquarters in Rome. “Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of COVID. And if that’s not bad enough, out of that 270 million, 30 million depend on us 100 per cent for their survival.” WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize back in October for its work providing lifesaving food assistance to millions worldwide, often in dangerous locations. Last year, it supported nearly 100 million people. Mr. Beasley underlined that food is “the pathway to peace.” For the agency, it is also sacred, and their work is “an act of love”, he told the online ceremony, citing both the 1964 Nobel laureate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and The Bible. “We stand at what may be the most ironic moment in modern history. On the one hand — after a century of massive strides in eliminating extreme poverty, today those 270 million of our neighbours are on the brink of starvation. That’s more than the entire population of Western Europe”, he said. “On the other hand, there is $400 trillion of wealth in our world today. Even at the height of the COVID pandemic, in just 90 days, an additional $2.7 trillion of wealth was created. And we only need $5 billion to save 30 million lives from famine.” Mr. Beasley said many of his friends, as well as world leaders, often remark that he has the greatest job in the world, saving the lives of millions. However, he begged to differ: “Well, here is what I tell them: ‘I don’t go to bed at night thinking about the children we saved, I go to bed weeping over the children we could not save. And, when we don’t have enough money, nor the access we need, we have to decide which children eat and which children do not eat, which children live, which children die. How would you like that job?’," he said, adding "Please don’t ask us to choose who lives and who dies.” The United Nations released $100 million of emergency funding on Tuesday to stave off the risk of famine in seven countries most at risk from a hunger epidemic fueled by conflict, economic decline, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which provides lifesaving food assistance to millions across the world – often in extremely dangerous and hard-to-access conditions – has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Famine
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2010 European Women's Handball Championship
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The 2010 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark and Norway from 7–19 December. It was the first European Championship hosted by two countries. [1] Norway won their overall 5th gold medal, when they defeated first time finalist Sweden in the final. Romania claimed the bronze medal. Three Danish and two Norwegian cities have been selected to host the 2010 Championship. The venues in Aalborg, Aarhus and Larvik were only used during the preliminary round. The fourth venue to be used in this round is located in Lillehammer, and was also one of the two venues in the main round. The other being MCH Indoor Arena in Herning, which was the only venue to be used in the final round. [2][3]
If two or more teams were equal on points in the preliminary or main round, their ranking was determined as follows:[4]
During the preliminary or main round matches:
After the completion of the preliminary and main round matches:
Qualification matches were played from September 2009 to May 2010. [1] Following the new system introduced for the 2010 Men's Championship, all teams were included in the qualification round, except host Denmark and defending champion and host Norway. Teams were divided in 7 groups and the two top ranked teams from each group qualified. Each nation had to submit an initial squad of 28 players by 3 November 2010,[5] but 12 of them became reserves when the final squad of 16 players was announced the day before the tournament starts. [6]
13 Referee pairs were selected:[7]
The draw for the final tournament took place 17:00 CET on 5 June 2010 in Odense. [8]
All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
Top 2 teams from each group advanced to the Semifinals, while the third placed team from each group competed in a 5th/6th place play-off. All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)
Source: EuroHandball.com
Norway5th title
Chosen by team officials and EHF experts: EHF-Euro.com
Chosen by team officials and EHF experts: EHF-Euro.com
Source: SportResult.com
Source: SportResult.com
Source: SportResult.com
Source: SportResult.com
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Sports Competition
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Solar storm heading towards Earth and could disrupt power and communications
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A solar flare is heading towards the Earth and could bring disruption across the north of the planet - with potential power outages and satellite signal disruption. The flare, a Coronal Mass Ejection, is set to hit the atmosphere on October 11 - and could see the Northern Lights visible in parts of England. Forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), a unit of the US Department of Commerce under NOAA, have issued a G2 geomagnetic storm warning, reports The Express . A G2 alert means there could be disruption to the power grid and radio signals - it is a moderate alert on the scale of G1 to G5. In a statement SWPC said: “Induced currents / power grid fluctuations can occur. High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms.
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New wonders in nature
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Merion air disaster crash
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In southeastern Pennsylvania on April 4, 1991, a Piper Aerostar propeller-driven aircraft collided in mid-air with a Bell 412 helicopter over Merion Elementary School in Lower Merion Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia. All five people in both aircraft were killed, including United States Senator John Heinz, the sole passenger of the Piper. [2] Two school children on the ground were also killed by falling debris. [3][4][5][6] In addition to the seven fatalities, five more people on the ground were injured. An investigation discovered the cause of the accident to be poor judgment and pilot error of the crews from both aircraft. Heinz's Piper departed from Williamsport Regional Airport in central Pennsylvania at about 11:25 a.m. EST. Heinz was in Williamsport for a press conference pertaining to funding of U.S. Route 15. His press conference lasted about two and a half hours the morning of Thursday, April 4. Heinz rented the twin-engine Piper Aerostar from Lycoming Air based at the Williamsport airport, Heinz and his two pilots, both from Lycoming County, departed for Philadelphia just before 11:30 a.m.
As Heinz's aircraft neared Philadelphia, on final approach to Philadelphia International Airport, pilot Richard Shreck noticed that the nose landing gear locked indicator was not illuminated. Shreck executed a missed approach and entered a holding pattern north of the airport. The two pilots began troubleshooting the problem and alerted air traffic control. They executed a low pass over the tower whose personnel all agreed the gear was extended. A passing Sun Oil Company Bell 412 helicopter, headed to the company's headquarters, was enlisted to identify if the gear was indeed down and locked. The crew of the Bell 412 couldn't identify the condition of the landing gear from a safe distance so moved closer for a better look. At 12:10 p.m., the two aircraft collided over Merion Elementary in Lower Merion, with the helicopter's rotor clipping the left wing and fin of the Aerostar from underneath. The helicopter spun out of control and the Aerostar dived to the ground, disintegrating on impact in the elementary school grounds. Two schoolgirls were killed and five others injured by the debris, which fell in a 250-yard (230 m) radius around the school and surrounding area. [7][8][9]
An NTSB and FAA Investigation was opened almost immediately. In 1992, the National Transportation Safety Board's finding were announced. It was determined that the "appallingly poor judgment" of both flight crews caused the accident. [10][11][12]
The report later claimed that visual checks of the aircraft from the helicopter were pointless because it is impossible to see into the nose-wheel well of an Aerostar from a helicopter to check whether the nose-gear is locked. The board's investigators recited a long litany of the mistakes and wrong decisions that led to the deaths and injuries. "This was a senseless accident that didn’t have to happen," said James L. Kolstad, chairman of the five-member National Transportation Safety Board at the time. The official description of the accident as released by both the NTSB and FAA conclude that the incident was caused by poor judgment and pilot error of crews on the Aerostar and Bell helicopter. The helicopter crew's actions were pointless as the crew would have been unable to appropriately determine the condition of the nose-wheel of the Aerostar from a helicopter. And the Aerostar should have made an emergency landing attempt at Northeast Airport. The accident caused a change in procedure at many airports as helicopters were not to be used to determine landing gear failure. Aircraft should just fly a low pass or buzz the airport for visual confirmation from services on the ground. [13]
"No one could have stopped this from happening. It was an act of God." Rebecca Rutenberg, "Remembering the John Heinz Tragedy, Twenty-Five Years Later"
News of Heinz's death at age 52 shocked fellow lawmakers. Senator Tim Wirth of Colorado, saying that he and his wife, Wren, considered Heinz and his wife, Teresa, "our dearest friends in the Senate," paid tribute to his "intense intelligence, sparkling charm, and broad vision." Word of Heinz's death came from his Washington office. At midafternoon, sobbing members of his staff began walking out of his office in the Russell Senate Office Building. A few minutes later, the senator's legislative director, Richard Bryers, announced Heinz's death to reporters. The crash received multi-national attention making papers and news channels stories in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia. A U.S. Army operation out of Fort Dix, New Jersey, was caught filming a commercial with aircraft near Merion Elementary shortly after the accident. Complaints followed. An informal ban on flights in Lower Merion during school hours lasted for a while. Even the media agreed not to fly traffic or news helicopters above the school. [14]
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Air crash
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1945 Avro York crash
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On 1 February 1945 an Avro York carrying members of the British delegation to the Yalta conference crashed off the Italian island of Lampedusa. During the flight to Yalta, undertaken during night time, the crew became unsure of their position due to a navigation radio malfunction. The aircraft ended up over Lampedusa and circled for approximately one hour as crew members attempted to verify their position. The crew eventually determined the proper course to Malta but by then the aircraft lacked the fuel quantity to cover the distance. During an attempted ditching the Avro crashed into the sea, killing all four crew and 11 passengers. Some sources state there were four survivors. [1][2]
The aircraft crew consisted of Warrant Officer William Wright, Leading Aircraftman John Chicken - wireless operator, Flight Sergeant Alfred Claude Jack Walker – flight engineer and Flying Officer Arthur Applebey – air gunner. [1]
Results of the accident investigation were reported to Parliament by Air Minister Sir Archibald Sinclair. He stated in part, that the air crew had sufficient experience but had never previously flown together as a crew. [2]
Six victims of the crash were buried at Imtarfa Military Cemetery in Malta. Some of the CWGC graves are damaged due to bombing of a nearby airfield in the Second World War. [3] Wright is buried in the Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery in Tunisia. [4]
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Air crash
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United Airlines Flight 409 crash
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United Airlines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight which originated in New York, New York. The final flight destination was San Francisco, California, with stops in Chicago, Denver and Salt Lake City. The aircraft operating the service, a Douglas DC-4 propliner, registration N30062,[1] crashed into Medicine Bow Peak, near Laramie, Wyoming, on October 6, 1955, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members). The victims included five female members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and military personnel. [2] At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in the history of American commercial aviation. [2][3] Another 66 lives had been lost earlier that year in the March 22 crash in Hawaii of a United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster military transport aircraft,[4] and 66 had also died in the mid-air collision of two United States Air Force C-119G Flying Boxcars over West Germany (1955 Altensteig mid-air collision) on August 11, placing the three crashes in a three-way tie as the deadliest aviation incidents in 1955. [5][6]
Flight 409 left New York, New York one hour and 11 minutes late. Routine crew changes were made in Chicago and Denver. Flight 409 departed Denver, Colorado at 6:33 a.m. on October 6, 1955, 83 minutes after its scheduled departure time. The assigned path the airliner was expected to fly was along airways V-4 Denver to Laramie, Wyoming V-118 to Rock River, Wyoming radio, V-6 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and V-32 to a landing in Salt Lake City. The flight was operating under Visual Flight Rules and was assigned a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Because the aircraft was not pressurized, the altitude was chosen to keep the passengers and crew from experiencing the discomfort that flying higher could cause. The route assigned to the airliner was specifically designed to allow safe passage at 10,000 feet over the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. [7]
An expected position report from the United crew, scheduled for 8:11 a.m. while over Rock Springs, was not received, and repeated attempts to make radio contact with flight 409 were met with no response. With the airliner's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was alerted to the missing aircraft. No radar was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft. The Wyoming Air National Guard launched two search aircraft: a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star piloted by Mel Conine and a single seat F-80 Shooting Star piloted by Ed Weed. Working on the assumption that the United plane may have taken an unauthorized short cut to make up for the 83-minute delay out of Denver, the two search planes pointed their aircraft toward the highest mountains in the region, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak. After a search of Elk Mountain failed to find the missing DC-4, Conine and his observer spotted at 11:40 a.m. a black stain and wreckage just southwest of the highest portion of Medicine Bow Peak. Turbulence kept them too far away to locate any possible survivors and they left the site to return to their base in Cheyenne. [8]
The New York Times (Oct. 7, 1955) reported:
"First rescuers to reach the scene said they had found about 50 bodies strewn along a 300-foot course down the face of the mountain. Only a tail piece, part of the fuselage and a wing of the plane had been located at mid-afternoon by rescuers who fought snowdrifts and a howling wind on the 12,005-foot Medicine Bow Peak. The mountain is about 40 miles west of here in the Snowy Range. The front part of the split plane was believed to have fallen down the other side of the peak. Another rescue group went up the north face of the mountain from Rawlins. The operation was suspended this evening because of a snowstorm and darkness. The scene was marked by two huge patches of oil where the plane's engines apparently struck about 50-75 feet from the peak. The wreckage then slid down the steep incline in two ravines, much of it coming to rest 300 feet down on a small glacier. I don't see how there would be a chance of anyone surviving, said Capt. Conine, Wyoming Air National Guard jet pilot, who was one of the first to spot the wreckage. A C-47 was sent from Cheyenne, Wyo., to circle the peak, particularly the northwest side, to search for the front portion of the plane. The Civil Aeronautics Administration said planes were unable to fly near the mountain because of the weather conditions. Recovery of the widely scattered remains of the victims was extremely challenging due to the difficult terrain at the crash site. At the base of the almost perpendicular cliff where the aircraft hit, movement was hindered by a wide talus of weathered, fragmented rock and large boulders, all piled loosely on a steep slope. Mountaineers doing the recovery work also had to be constantly wary of rock falls that might be triggered by the activities of those above them on the cliff face. Cold weather and occasional snow also played a role in impeding recovery efforts. The recovery of human remains was not completed until the evening of October 11, 1955, five full days after the accident. Due to safety concerns, the CAB accident investigation team —not trained in alpine mountaineering techniques— was unable to visit the cliff location where the DC-4 initially hit. [9] Study of the wreckage that could be retrieved for examination suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed of the plane, implying that the plane was attempting a climb at the time of its crash. The reasons for this are not explicitly known, but several theories exist:
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored.' This theory was never proven, and the CAB report specifically states that there was no evidence to support crew incapacitation. [7]
After the investigation of the accessible wreckage was completed, United Airlines requested that the remaining debris be destroyed by the military. Attempts were made to accomplish this, but despite the use of explosives, artillery fire and —according to most sources— napalm bombs dropped from aircraft, complete obliteration of the wreckage was not possible. [10] One source, a 2007 book about the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, contradicts the assertion that military jets bombed the site with napalm; instead, the book states that the cliff face was mined with explosives that were detonated in the spring of 1956, and the event was tightly controlled and not publicized. [9] Regardless of the disposal method, small fragments of flight 409's airframe and parts of the engines still exist in the area surrounding the crash site. [11]
Prior to the loss of United 409, the deadliest scheduled airline accident in U.S. history was the June 1950 disappearance of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 over Lake Michigan, when 58 died. [3] [note 1] The 66 lives lost on Medicine Bow Peak remained the highest death toll on a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. for less than a year. In June 1956 two airliners, a Super Constellation and a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people. Flight 409's crash, and other crashes and mid-air collisions in the United States that occurred over the next several years, convinced the U.S. Congress to improve airline safety procedures, and to increase civil aviation radar coverage.
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Air crash
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FAO sounds alarm on Desert Locust outbreak in northeast ...
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Sudan + 5 more
FAO sounds alarm on Desert Locust outbreak in northeast Africa and Saudi Arabia triggered by heavy rains
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© FAO/M. de Montaigne
Increased vigilance, strict monitoring and early control needed to prevent further swarms forming and spread along both sides of the Red Sea
15 February 2019, Rome - Heavy rains and cyclones have triggered a recent surge in Desert Locust populations, causing an outbreak to develop in Sudan and Eritrea that is rapidly spreading along both sides of the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, FAO warned today.
The UN agency called on all the affected countries to step up vigilance and control measures to contain the destructive infestations and protect crops from the world's most dangerous migratory pest.
Moving fast
Good rains along the Red Sea coastal plains in Eritrea and Sudan have allowed two generations of breeding since October, leading to a substantial increase in locust populations and the formation of highly mobile swarms. At least one swarm crossed the Red Sea to the northern coast of Saudi Arabia in mid-January, followed by additional migrations about one week later. Groups of mature winged adults and a few swarms also moved north along the coast to southeast Egypt at the end of the month.
In the interior of Saudi Arabia, two generations of breeding also occurred in the southeastern Empty Quarter region near the Yemen-Oman border after unusually good rains from cyclones Mekunu and Luban in May and October 2018 respectively. A few of these swarms have already reached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and southern Iran with a potential risk of spreading further towards the India-Pakistan border.
Stepping up efforts
Aerial spraying operations were mounted in Sudan and Saudi Arabia supplemented by ground control measures in both countries, as well as in Eritrea and Egypt, treating more than 80,000 ha since December.
"The next three months will be critical to bring the locust situation under control before the summer breeding starts," said Keith Cressman, FAO's Senior Locust Forecasting Officer. "The further spread of the current outbreak depends on two major factors - effective control and monitoring measures in locust breeding areas of Sudan, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia and the surrounding countries, and rainfall intensity between March and May along both sides of the Red Sea and in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula."
FAO is convening a meeting next week in Jordan (17- 21 February) with affected countries to review the current situation with the aim of intensifying survey and control operations.
February forecast
Breeding will continue in February on the Red Sea coast in Sudan and Eritrea, causing a further increase in hopper and adult groups, hopper bands and adult swarms. As vegetation dries out, adult groups and a few swarms are likely to move north along the Red Sea coast in Eritrea to Sudan, and from the Red Sea coast of Sudan to the Nile Valley in northern Sudan. There is a moderate risk that some swarms will continue crossing the Red Sea to the coastal and interior areas of Saudi Arabia.
Major threat to crop production
Desert Locusts are short-horned grasshoppers that can form large swarms and pose a major threat to agricultural production, livelihoods, food security and the environment and economic development.
Adult locust swarms can fly up to 150 km a day with the wind. Female locusts can lay 300 eggs within their lifetime while an adult insect can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day - about two grams every day. A very small swarm eats the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people and the devastating impact locusts can have on crops poses a major threat to food security, especially in already vulnerable areas.
FAO's work on preventing locust plagues
The Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS) at FAO Headquarters in Rome has been operating a global monitoring and early warning system since the 1970s as part of the preventive control strategy. More than two dozen frontline countries in Africa, the Near East and southwest Asia contribute to this system by undertaking regular surveys in the desert to look for green vegetation and Desert Locust.
The field teams use an innovative tool developed by FAO called eLocust3, which is a handheld tablet for recording observations and sending data in real time via satellite to the national locust centres and to DLIS. This information is regularly analysed together with weather and habitat data and satellite imagery in order to assess the current locust situation, provide forecasts up to six weeks in advance, and issue warnings and alerts when necessary.
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Insect Disaster
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Scott Morrison yet to speak with Emmanuel Macron since tearing up submarine contract
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France is still angry over Australia's decision to cancel a $90 billion deal to acquire submarines from a French company.
French President Emmanuel Macron greets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris in June. Source: EPA
Scott Morrison has not spoken with Emmanuel Macron as France seethes over the tearing up of a $90 billion submarine deal.
While France is sending its ambassador back to the US after a conciliatory phone call with President Joe Biden, it is not following suit with Australia.
Mr Morrison is hopeful of re-engaging with the French president but expects to wait for a while.
"The opportunity for that call is not yet. But we'll be patient," the prime minister told reporters in Washington DC on Thursday morning.
"We understand their disappointment and that is the way that you manage difficult issues. It's a difficult decision."
Australia was accused of blindsiding France over the decision to ditch a deal to acquire conventional submarines from French company Naval Group.
France recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the US in retaliation to the announcement.
In a subsequent call with France, Mr Biden agreed consulting that country ahead of the announcement could have prevented the diplomatic row.
Mr Morrison welcomed the US call, which he said helped reinforce the important role France and Europe played in the Indo-Pacific.
"Our door is wide open. Our invitation is there. We understand the hurt and the disappointment," he said.
But the prime minister expected to wait a while for his own chat with Mr Macron.
"I know that will be some time before that occurs, but we will patiently pursue those opportunities because we want to work together," he said. "I look forward when the time is right and when the opportunity presents that we will have a similar discussion."
Mr Morrison was also confident of securing the necessary political backing from US politicians for the sharing of nuclear technology after meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"The support on the Hill, of course, in the US system of government, will be absolutely necessary as we progress this important partnership," Mr Morrison said.
He will meet world leaders including Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.
Mr Morrison will also take part in a virtual meeting with Pacific Islands Forum leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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Tear Up Agreement
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Russia Is Flexing Its Military Muscle to Test Its International Prowess
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Russian warships held a new round of combat drills in the Sea of Japan amid mounting military tensions in the Pacific region. The Russian Pacific Fleet’s corvettes conducted live-fire exercises involving surface-to-air missile strikes against notional enemy targets, according to the Pacific Fleet’s press office. "The warships alternately deployed to the assigned area and practiced air defense measures at a naval combat training range. The combat teams delivered missile fire from Redut surface-to-air missile systems against Malakhit target missiles fired from the missile corvette Inei that simulated the notional adversary,” the Pacific Fleet’s press statement said. “The air targets were timely uncovered and locked on. After the cruise missiles entered the destruction range, they were successfully eliminated by missiles of the Redut air defense systems fired from the corvettes," the statement continued. The Pacific Fleet added that an unspecified unmanned aerial vehicle supported the corvettes during the exercises. It is not immediately clear from Russian media reporting on the exercise whether or not the missile launches were part of a broader set of regional drills involving other Russian Naval assets. The Redut, or Poliment-Redut, is the Naval version of Russia’s modernized S-350E Vityaz medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, equipped with 9M96E guided missiles. The Redut system is compatible with the Russian Navy’s latest classes of modernized corvettes and frigates. The two vessels that led the exercises, Sovershenniy and Gromky, are part of Russia’s Steregushchiy class of modern corvettes. The Russian navy planned to commission eleven Steregushchiy-class corvettes through 2024. Of these, six are already serving in the Baltic and Pacific fleets; five more have been laid down and are in various stages of construction or sea trials. The introduction of the Steregushchiy-class marked one of the Russian navy’s first steps in its ongoing transition away from its bloated, aging Soviet inheritance to a smaller, but manageable and more advanced local force. Despite their relative youth, the Steregushchiy boats have already been succeeded by the larger and heavier Gremyashchiy-class of guided missile corvettes. An iterative update, the Gremyashchiy-class boasts greater endurance and adds the ability to launch cruise missiles that include Russia’s new 3M22 Tsirkon winged, hypersonic anti-ship missile. Earlier this year, the Pacific Fleet carried out what appears to be its largest set of military exercises in the Sea of Japan since 2019. Months before, Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew a joint patrol mission over the Japan and East China Seas. The Pacific Fleet’s exercises follow a new wave of China-Taiwan tensions, with Beijing launching a series of unprecedented military and diplomatic provocations against Taipei in recent months. Normally loath to draw Beijing's ire, Japanese defense officials took the uncharacteristic step earlier in August of speaking openly in support of Taiwanese sovereignty. Chinese officials and state media wasted no time weaponizing the Biden administration’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan, with state-run Chinese outlet Global Times gloating that Washington will soon “abandon” Taipei just as it did Kabul.
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Military Exercise
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1986 British International Helicopters Chinook crash
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On 6 November 1986, a Boeing-Vertol Model 234LR Chinook helicopter returning workers from the Brent oilfield crashed on approach to land at Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands. At 2.5 mi (4.0 km) from the runway the helicopter had a catastrophic forward transmission failure which caused the tandem rotor blades to collide. The helicopter crashed into the sea and sank. Forty-three passengers and two crew members were killed in the crash; one passenger and one crew member survived with injuries. The helicopter was normally based at Aberdeen Airport but had been based at Sumburgh Airport since 3 November 1986 to operate a shuttle service from the Brent oilfield in the East Shetland Basin. [1] On 6 November the first flight was delayed due to an oil leak from an engine gearbox that was soon rectified and the aircraft left Sumburgh at 08:58 with 40 passengers for the Brent Field. The aircraft visited three platforms with exchanges of freight and passengers then departed Brent Platform C at 10:22 with 44 passengers on board for return to Sumburgh Airport. It transited at a height of 2,500 feet (800 m), and as it approached Sumburgh it was cleared to descend to 1,000 feet (300 m). Reporting 4.5 miles (7.2 km) from the airfield, the controller cleared it to land on helicopter runway 24. Nothing else was heard. The voice recorder indicated that the crew noticed an increased noise level in the flightdeck followed by a bang. Despite applying full cyclic pitch control, the aircraft did not respond and nose-dived towards the sea from a height of 150 feet (50 m). The helicopter hit the sea, broke up and sank. A Coastguard search and rescue Sikorsky S-61 helicopter which had just departed Sumburgh Airport on training flight reported liferafts in the sea. It then observed a survivor clinging to a substantial piece of wreckage. While they winched the man on board another survivor was noted among the floating bodies. With no signs of other survivors the Coastguard helicopter flew the survivors to Lerwick for transfer to hospital. An air and sea search failed to find any more survivors but all the floating bodies were recovered and brought to the airport. One of the flight crew and the flight attendant were among the dead. A diving support vessel, the MSV Deepwater 1 (now named Rockwater 1), started a search for the sunken wreckage at 09:00 the following morning. Sea conditions were rough with strong tidal currents and a water depth around 90 metres but the wreckage was located. The monohulled Deepwater 1 struggled to maintain position in the building sea and current conditions. Shell Expro's Multi Services Vessel, the MSV Stadive, arrived and assumed the role of primary recovery vessel and, being a semi-submersible, was able to quickly recover the major components of interest. By the evening of 10 November the cockpit voice recorder, the cockpit section of the fuselage, the rotors and rotor heads, and the gearboxes and associated control systems had been recovered and transferred to the Deepwater 1, which departed for Aberdeen to pass her cargo onwards for analysis by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). The Stadive remained on site and recovered much of the remainder of the fuselage and the bodies of the victims. In all, 44 of the 45 victims' bodies were recovered. The accident was caused by the failure of a modified bevel ring gear in the forward transmission which allowed the twin rotors to collide when synchronisation was lost. The AAIB stated that the underlying causes were the inadequacy of a previously accepted test programme and the failure of a stringent inspection programme. The board made three recommendations:
The oil industry decided that the Chinook was too big for the offshore support task and the remaining Chinooks were withdrawn and sold. All surviving aircraft now operate with Columbia Helicopters in heavy lift, non-passenger capabilities. Other North Sea helicopter incidents:
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Air crash
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Final countdown to Ex Ukuthula underway
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A “reduced brigade” level exercise is readying for action at the SA Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) in Northern Cape. The field training exercise – Ukuthula (“peace” in isiZulu) – follows brigade planning exercise Amabutho (brigade in isiZulu) led by headquarters of 43 SA Brigade. It kicks off on 28 September and goes through to 27 November at the landward force’s premier training facility. The Directorate: Corporate Communication (DCC) of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) said the exercise takes junior command staff duties (JCDS) officers “through the complex African battle space ensuring Army readiness as an integral component of its force preparation”. The ongoing presence of COVID-19 in South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, has seen limitations on military exercises. This saw the integrated sub-unit commanders’ and JCDS’ course goers locally partake in separate exercises, rather than the customary combined one. This approach sees those on the JCDS course working under the HQ 43 SA Brigade banner with 12 different Army units deploying 300 plus soldiers and support personnel. Units involved are 10 Air Defence Artillery Regiment, 1 SA Infantry Battalion, 1 Special Service Battalion, 1 SA Tank Regiment, 1 Signal Regiment, 1 Tactical Intelligence Regiment, 101 Field Workshop, 16 Maintenance Unit, 8 Medical Unit, elements of the rapid deployment operations team and CTC. Both Amabutho and Ukuthula are based on AU scenarios – 5 for peace support operations and 6 for intervention operations. According to DCC the aim is exposure to AU standard operating procedures (SOP), inter-operability in joint planning as well as AU doctrine and conduct of business.
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Military Exercise
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2010 World Lacrosse Championship
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The 2010 World Lacrosse Championship was held between 15–24 July. This international men's field lacrosse tournament organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse took place in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was the third time that the tournament was played in Greater Manchester, after the 1978 and 1994 championships. The United States captured their ninth gold medal, defeating Canada 12–10 in the championship game. [1] Paul Rabil of Team USA was named tournament MVP. [2] Australia earned its fourth-straight bronze medal by defeating Japan 16 –9. A record 29 nations competed at the event, eight more than the 2006 WLC in London, Ontario. The 101 games were held at the Armitage Centre, Manchester University's sports grounds. [3][4]
For the first time, a FIL World Lacrosse Festival ran alongside the world championships from 17 to 22 July. 48 teams from around the world competed in 8 divisions from U16 to Grand Masters. [5]
The Iroquois Nationals' participation in the championships was prevented in a dispute over their passports. [6] The team sought to travel on Haudenosaunee passports, but the United Kingdom government would not allow it because of increased passport security requirements. [7] The United States Department of State initially also refused to allow the passports, but later granted the team a one-time waiver to travel to the tournament. However, the U.K. would not issue the team visas. [8]
Initially, the Iroquois were hoping to be able to travel, and agreed to forfeit their first game against England. Because it was the opening game of the tournament, organizers arranged for the host team to play Germany in an exhibition match instead. [9] However, just before game time, the FIL decided to move Germany to the Blue Division and the Iroquois to the Plum Division, making the England-Germany match an official one. [10] The Iroquois team did not officially withdraw from the tournament, and would have been allowed to play its remaining games should it have resolved its passport difficulties in time. [11] On 18 July, the FIL announced that the competition schedule had progressed too far to allow Iroquois to compete in the tournament. [12] Each of the other three Plum Division teams were given 1–0 forfeit victories over the Iroquois team. For pool play, nations were separated into seven divisions according to strength, the top six teams were placed in the Blue Division, and the other teams were put in six divisions of four. Each of the thirty nations were eligible to win the championship. Each division played round-robin games for ranking to determine which tournament brackets they would be placed in. The Blue Division originally consisted of the top six teams from the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship, but Germany was moved up to replace the missing Iroquois team. The first and second place teams from the Blue Division advanced to the tournament semifinals. The third and fourth place teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The fifth and sixth place teams were placed into the 5th through 8th place classification bracket. Canada's 10–9 win over the United States marked the first time that the American team lost a preliminary round game in any world championship, and only its third loss overall. [13] Both teams ended up advancing to the semifinals. Japan, Australia, and England all finished 2–3 in the Blue Division and 1–1 in head-to-head matches against each other. All three games between the teams were close, with two going into overtime. Japan and Australia advanced to the quarterfinals based on goal differential in those matches. Starting on 19 July, all teams except for the Blue Division moved to one of three intermediate brackets: either the upper, middle, or lower bracket. The upper bracket included the six first-place finishers from each division as well as the top two second-place finishers. These teams were still eligible for the World Championship and could have finished anywhere from 1st to 16th in the tournament. By winning two games in the upper bracket, Scotland and Netherlands advanced to the quarterfinals. The middle bracket included the remaining four second-place finishers and the top four third-place finishers. These teams could have finished anywhere from 9th to 24th in the final rankings. The lower bracket included the remaining two third-place finishers and the six fourth-place finishers. These teams could have finished no higher than 17th in the final rankings. On 21 July, Finland beat Poland 13–7 to advance to the 9th–12th place bracket, sending Poland to the 13th–16th place bracket. Italy beat Switzerland 7–6 to advance to the 17th–20th place bracket, while Switzerland entered the 21st–24th place bracket.
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Sports Competition
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Introduction of Marshall Islands
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The Republic of Marshall Islands is part of an international task force established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to review the safety of a planned release of water now stored at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The taskforce made up of eleven internationally recognised experts with diverse backgrounds from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Viet Nam. A statement from the IAEA says task force members will not work in a national capacity but as part of an international team managed by the IAEA and reporting to its Director General. The team held its first meeting on Tuesday, with prominent independent experts from around the world participating as members. It was set up under the authority of the IAEA will oversee the Agency’s programme of technical assistance and review Japan’s plans and actions related to the water discharge. Opening the three-day meeting at IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Director General Grossi emphasised the “enormous importance” of the work of the task force, saying its members were among the world’s leading scientists and experts in the areas of nuclear safety and radiation protection. The task force will demonstrate that the review is carried out in an objective, credible and science-based manner and help send a message of transparency and confidence to people in Japan and beyond. “I wanted to make sure that the Agency would not only have the expertise of the best and brightest but also the expertise of those from countries in the region,” the Director General told the inaugural Task Force meeting. During this week’s meeting, the task force will discuss the content, structure, and schedule of the IAEA’s review in the coming years; the key technical elements that must be assessed; and will receive detailed technical briefings from the Government of Japan. The team will conduct its first technical mission to Japan, including significant onsite activities at Fukushima Daiichi, in December. The IAEA has provided technical assistance to support Japan’s efforts at Fukushima Daiichi in areas such as radiation monitoring, remediation, waste management and decommissioning since the 2011 accident. The Government of Japan decided in April to discharge the treated water into the sea and requested the IAEA’s assistance to help ensure it takes place in line with international safety standards and without harming public health or the environment. Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the IAEA would support Japan before, during and after the release, which is planned to begin in 2023. The two sides agreed on the project’s terms of reference in July and, earlier in September, the IAEA sent a team to Japan to begin implementation of the multi-annual review.
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Organization Established
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Iraq unveils plan to build and launch satellite
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A communication satellite in Earth orbit. Getty Images Iraq unveiled plans this week to build and launch a communications satellite soon and is seeking foreign partners, a government official told The National. The satellite is intended to help modernise the country's telecommunications services. "Iraq is seeking foreign and Arab countries to build and launch a satellite for the country. What has been announced this week is the tender for the project," communications ministry spokesman Raad Mashhadani told The National. Details on how long it will take to be built, where they plan to launch it from and the cost will be finalised after receiving bids, Mr Al Mashhadani said. The tender invites the developers to design, build, launch and operate the satellite, offering a partnership deal, according to the tender seen by The National. Interested companies have to pay 75 million Iraqi dinar ($51,000) to obtain the documents and have until November 18 to submit their bids. “This achievement came with the support and guidance of Prime Minister Mustafa Al Khadhimi who is pushing for Iraq to keep up with developments taking place in the new telecoms sector,” Mr Al Mashhadani said. Iraq's TigriSat reached space in June 2014. The satellite is used to detect dust storms using camera technology. Photo: Nanosats Iraq's Minister of Communications Arkan Al Shaibani, who announced the plan at the Second Iraqi Cyber Security Conference in Baghdad, said “the development represents the prestige and sovereignty of the state”. In 2014 a team of Iraqi students at the University of Rome built a micro satellite called TigriSat, which blasted into orbit in June of that year on board a converted Soviet-era intercontinental ballistic missile. The small satellite – Iraq's first – uses a camera to detect dust storms over the country and is still in orbit. Iraq claimed it had tested two rockets capable of carrying a satellite into space in 1989 under Saddam Hussein's government, which would have made it the first Arab state with such a capability. The launch was the culmination of a secretive space programme called Al Ta-ir, which aimed to put two experimental satellites into orbit. The programme came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of the Gulf war in 1991 however, and the satellites, one of which was described as looking like a "1970's disco-themed coffee table", never got beyond the development stage.
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New achievements in aerospace
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A visual history of pandemics
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As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has. Today’s visualization outlines some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the current COVID-19 event. Disease and illnesses have plagued humanity since the earliest days, our mortal flaw. However, it was not until the marked shift to agrarian communities that the scale and spread of these diseases increased dramatically. Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox, and others first appeared during these early years. The more civilized humans became – with larger cities, more exotic trade routes, and increased contact with different populations of people, animals, and ecosystems – the more likely pandemics would occur. Here are some of the major pandemics that have occurred over time: Note: Many of the death toll numbers listed above are best estimates based on available research. Some, such as the Plague of Justinian, are subject to debate based on new evidence. Despite the persistence of disease and pandemics throughout history, there’s one consistent trend over time – a gradual reduction in the death rate. Healthcare improvements and understanding the factors that incubate pandemics have been powerful tools in mitigating their impact. In many ancient societies, people believed that spirits and gods inflicted disease and destruction upon those that deserved their wrath. This unscientific perception often led to disastrous responses that resulted in the deaths of thousands, if not millions. In the case of Justinian’s plague, the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea traced the origins of the plague (the Yersinia pestis bacteria) to China and northeast India, via land and sea trade routes to Egypt where it entered the Byzantine Empire through Mediterranean ports. Despite his apparent knowledge of the role geography and trade played in this spread, Procopius laid blame for the outbreak on the Emperor Justinian, declaring him to be either a devil, or invoking God’s punishment for his evil ways. Some historians found that this event could have dashed Emperor Justinian’s efforts to reunite the Western and Eastern remnants of the Roman Empire, and marked the beginning of the Dark Ages. Luckily, humanity’s understanding of the causes of disease has improved, and this is resulting in a drastic improvement in the response to modern pandemics, albeit slow and incomplete. The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century, in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Cautious port authorities required ships arriving in Venice from infected ports to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing — the origin of the word quarantine from the Italian “quaranta giorni”, or 40 days. One of the first instances of relying on geography and statistical analysis was in mid-19th century London, during a cholera outbreak. In 1854, Dr. John Snow came to the conclusion that cholera was spreading via tainted water and decided to display neighborhood mortality data directly on a map. This method revealed a cluster of cases around a specific pump from which people were drawing their water from. While the interactions created through trade and urban life play a pivotal role, it is also the virulent nature of particular diseases that indicate the trajectory of a pandemic. Scientists use a basic measure to track the infectiousness of a disease called the reproduction number — also known as R0 or “R naught.” This number tells us how many susceptible people, on average, each sick person will in turn infect. Measles tops the list, being the most contagious with a R0 range of 12-18. This means a single person can infect, on average, 12 to 18 people in an unvaccinated population. While measles may be the most virulent, vaccination efforts and herd immunity can curb its spread. The more people are immune to a disease, the less likely it is to proliferate, making vaccinations critical to prevent the resurgence of known and treatable diseases. It’s hard to calculate and forecast the true impact of COVID-19, as the outbreak is still ongoing and researchers are still learning about this new form of coronavirus. We arrive at where we began, with rising global connections and interactions as a driving force behind pandemics. From small hunting and gathering tribes to the metropolis, humanity’s reliance on one another has also sparked opportunities for disease to spread. Urbanization in the developing world is bringing more and more rural residents into denser neighborhoods, while population increases are putting greater pressure on the environment. At the same time, passenger air traffic nearly doubled in the past decade. These macro trends are having a profound impact on the spread of infectious disease. As organizations and governments around the world ask for citizens to practice social distancing to help reduce the rate of infection, the digital world is allowing people to maintain connections and commerce like never before. Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 pandemic is in its early stages and it is obviously impossible to predict its future impact. This post and infographic are meant to provide historical context, and we will continue to update it as time goes on to maintain its accuracy. World Economic Forum Type may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use. Nicolas LePan, Mining Editor, Visual Capitalist This article is published in collaboration with Visual Capitalist. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. Top COVID-19 stories: WHO warns of syringe shortage; Health workers in England to be required to get COVID-19 vaccine; Canada authorizes COVID-19 booster dose. The world is moving into a post-COVID dispensation. In this new era, India will prioritize economic expansion and sustainability to sustain its growth and influence on the world stage.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Steph Curry breaks Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan records as he continues historic scoring streak
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Updated 1026 GMT (1826 HKT) April 20, 2021
JUST WATCHED
(CNN)
Steph Curry's hot streak just got hotter.
It might be a season of transition for the Golden State Warriors, yet the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player has excelled and continued his record-breaking scoring streak on Monday night.
Curry scored 49 points in his team's 107-96 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, breaking Kobe Bryant's record for consecutive 30-point games by a player aged 33 or older.
The three-time NBA champion has now scored more than 30 points in 11 straight games, surpassing Bryant's record of 10 set in December 2012.
Read More
Curry shoots against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Currry's run of form comes a week after he overtook Wilt Chamberlain as the Warriors' all-time leading scorer.
"From Wilt's [record] last week and then this streak, I'm obviously aware," Curry told the media in his post-game press conference. "But you don't put too much pressure on yourself, you just play basketball.
"Being aggressive, obviously, but kind of letting the game come to you. For me, that looks a certain type of way, but I'm having a blast out there just playing basketball and it's obviously working."
Curry is now averaging 39.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists over 10 games in April.
His 49 points was his fifth 40-point game in April which passes Bryant and Michael Jordan for the most 40-point games in a month by a player aged 33 or older.
With 47 and 49 points in his last two games, Curry became the first player aged 33 or older with back-to-back 45-plus point games since Jordan did it in 2001.
A primary factor in Curry's success over his career has been his three-point range proficiency. He is second in the all time three pointer ranking list behind Ray Allen.
And in his recent tear, Curry has been connecting from deep with even more consistency, making 46 three pointers over the last five games. No one in NBA history has made more.
Curry hit 10 threes on Monday night which was his sixth game with 10 or more threes this season. No other player has more than five in their career.
Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videos
Curry goes for a shot during the first half of the game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
No wonder his teammate Andrew Wiggins called Curry "one of a kind." Meanwhile Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who has coached Curry to three memorable championship wins, regards the guard's hot streak as something that is "above and beyond."
"I've seen Kobe Bryant early in his career ... had a stretch where he went nuts," Kerr told the media.
"Obviously, Michael Jordan had some stretches where he just scored like crazy, but obviously nobody's ever shot the ball like this in the history of the game. Even by Steph's own lofty standards, this is above and beyond."
Curry's recent play has helped the Warriors post their best stretch of the season, having won five of their past six games.
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Break historical records
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Wheatley residents seek answers about gas explosion
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Roughly two weeks after a massive gas explosion destroyed two buildings in downtown Wheatley and injured a score of residents, more than 300 people tuned in for a virtual town hall meeting Saturday looking for some answers.
The most pressing for the majority of the audience? Why wasn’t finding a source of the gas leak made a top priority after first being discovered in June “instead of putting a Band-Aid on it?”
Don Shropshire, Chatham-Kent’s top administrator, said simply finding the source of that leak wasn’t that simple. While an abandoned gas well is the suspected culprit, he said, the source of the hydrogen sulphide leak still remains unknown.
“When we had the first event in June, we reached out to a number of technical experts and the advice that we received at that time is this could be a one-off event,” Shropshire said.
At that time, the same experts told the municipality not to go digging or searching for the source of the leak, Shropshire added, “because you actually might create other types of problems.”
When the second leak was detected at the same site in July, he said the municipality “doubled down” while the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry started to work on finding technical experts that could trace the source of the gas.
Jennifer Barton, an assistant deputy minister with Natural Resources, described the leak and subsequent explosion as a “complicated situation.”
“It is under the downtown core … and it will take some work by those technical experts to determine where that gas is coming from and what recommendations they have to make to mitigate the risks,” she said.
She noted the province is still finalizing negotiations for the technical experts but noted some were already on site last week doing work.
As for who will pay the costs involved, Shropshire said, “Quite frankly, we don’t know.”
Ultimately, the cost could be borne by a combination of government funding and insurance money, as well as private property owners, he added.
“It really depends on what the source is.”
Shropshire said the municipality intends to explore every avenue to make sure financial supports are available to deal with both the immediate emergency and rebuilding the community.
Temporary accommodations are still being provided for nine families. Since gas is currently not being detected in the area of the blast, municipal officials were asked why detectors couldn’t be installed that would allow displaced residents to return to their homes.
Chatham-Kent fire Chief Chris Case said the recurrence of the leaks has been “completely unpredictable.”
“We’re beginning to see this pattern where the gas comes in very large quantities of pressure and then stops as quickly as it came,” he said, which makes the situation difficult to manage in terms of community safety.
While the impact of the explosion above ground is obvious, Shropshire added, “what we don’t know .… is what happened to that explosion below ground level.”
The blast could have changed some of the routes of the hydrogen sulphide that was leaking at the 15 Erie St. N. property in the downtown, causing that gas to go to another location.
“So trying to figure out where you need to put gas monitoring – how that’s going to take place – that’s really going to be a systematic process,” Shropshire said.
Another resident asked about any guarantees at this point for public safety.
“Until we actually finish that investigation, I don’t think there’s going to be a way we can actually provide a fulsome answer to that question,” Shropshire said.
Ontario’s oil and gas industry dates back more than 160 years, with many older wells predating regulation of the sector. That means many of these wells were not originally constructed or plugged and abandoned to current standards.
The problem of gas leaks has cropped up in a number of other Southwestern Ontario communities in the past.
“We’ve had several municipalities and mayor reach out to us and mention they’ll do whatever they can to help us,” Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff said.
He said he expects municipal officials from across the region are closely watching what happens in Wheatley because any solutions could benefit other municipalities facing similar circumstances in the future.
eshreve@postmedia.com
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Gas explosion
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Teen suspects in violent Woodstock, Ont. bank robbery arrested just hours after heist
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TORONTO -- Five suspects, four teens and one 21-year-old, in a violent robbery at a bank in Woodstock, Ont. were arrested in Mississauga on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the heist occurred. Police say that four of the suspects arrived at a bank in Woodstock just prior to 2 p.m. in a vehicle that had been stolen in Brampton earlier in the day. It is alleged that the suspects bound employees and customers inside the bank with zip ties and that one of them struck a customer with an alleged firearm, causing minor injuries. The suspects then stole an unspecified quantity of cash and fled the scene. About two hours later at around 4 p.m., Peel police in Mississauga located the stolen vehicle used in the robbery in Mississauga and arrested five suspects, including the driver of a second vehicle involved in the robbery. An imitation firearm was also recovered during the arrests. Anthony Mitchell, 19, Elijah Cromwell, 19, Daphne Tran, 21 as well as a 16-year-old male and a 14-year-old male are all facing charges in connection with the robbery. The 14-year-old and 16-year-old cannot be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. None of the charges have been tested in court. Peel police are continuing to investigate and are asking anyone with information to contact the Central Robbery Bureau at (905) 453-2121 ext. 3402.
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Bank Robbery
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Cashel South African Air Force Alouette crash
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On 23 December 1975, an Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopter of the South African Air Force carrying a two-man crew and four Rhodesian Army officers crashed near Cashel in Rhodesia after it collided with a hawser cable mid-flight. The accident dealt a severe blow to the Rhodesian Security Forces, then fighting bitterly against ZANLA and ZIPRA insurgents in the Rhodesian Bush War, for the officers involved were some of its best and would prove difficult to replace. An Alouette III helicopter of the South African Air Force (SAAF) crewed by an SAAF pilot, Air Sub-Lieutenant Johannes van Rensberg, and a South African Air Force (SAF) flight technician, Sergeant Pieter van Rensberg, was flying from Umtali to Melsetter with four senior Rhodesian Army officers as passengers. These were Major General John Shaw, Colonel David Parker, Captain John Lamb and Captain Ian Robinson. The Alouette III was one of several loaned to Rhodesia to assist in counter-insurgency operations during the Bush War. Flying at low altitude in accordance with procedure and en route to troops stationed on the border for a Christmas visit, the helicopter flew into a rusty, long-forgotten hawser cable at around 10 a.m. on Shinda Orchards Farm near Cashel, just south of Umtali and 3 km from the Mozambican border. The cable had years before been used to pass logs down a steep slope and was unmarked on any maps. The airframe began to break up as the helicopter spun out of control and crashed. All on board were killed except for the pilot, who was seriously injured, losing one of his legs. [1][2] He was fitted with an artificial leg and got the nickname, Peg-a-Leg van Rensburg. A combined funeral was held six days later, on 30 December, at St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral in Salisbury. A joint honour guard, unusual due to the rarity of four officers from four different regiments dying alongside one another, was provided by the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) and the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR). It was the largest Security Forces funeral ever held in Rhodesia, with a huge officer contingent taking part in the funeral procession. Behind the honour guard and the men's families, the top brass – army commander Lieutenant General Peter Walls, Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs P. K. van der Byl, Commissioner Peter Sherren of the British South Africa Police (BSAP), Air Marshal Mick McLaren of the RhAF and the South African military attaché, Brigadier L. L. Gordon – led this slow march. [3][4]
Sergeant Pieter van Rensburg body was flown to South Africa where he was buried on 28 December with full military honors in the Voortrekker Heights cemetery in Pretoria. The service was held in the Zwartkops Airforce chapel. Shaw was the Rhodesian Army's Chief of Staff and thus second-in-command to Walls. Almost a month earlier, on 30 November, Parker had ended his tenure as commanding officer of the RLI whereupon he was promoted from Lieutenant-Colonel to the rank of Colonel. Robertson was the acting commanding officer of 5 Independent Company the Rhodesia Regiment,[2] and Lamb served in the headquarters of 3 Brigade the RAR. [3]
The historians Hannes Wessels and P. J. H. Petter-Bowyer agree that the deaths of the Rhodesian officers, in particular the death of Parker, affected the course of the Bush War in the guerrillas' favour: Shaw was Rhodesia's "next Army Commander", says Petter-Bowyer, and Parker "its finest field commander". The Colonel was "earmarked for bigger things", Wessels writes, "... his loss was a considerable blow to the Rhodesian war effort. "[1][5]
Likewise, Peter Godwin and Ian Hancock describe Shaw as a "controversial figure within Army circles, disliked—by some—for his drinking and his manners" but nevertheless Walls' "probable successor". They go on to say "the loss of Parker and Lamb, on the other hand, was generally regarded as a grievous blow. "[6]
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Air crash
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The AP Interview: Hungary committed to contentious LGBT law
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The right-wing populist government in Hungary is attracting conservative thinkers from the United States who admire its approaches to migration, LGBT issues and national sovereignty — all matters that have put the country at odds with its European partners, who see not a conservative haven but a worrying erosion of democratic institutions on multiple fronts.
Hungary’s top diplomat has a few things to say about that.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country would not cede ground on policies that have caused the European Union to impose financial penalties and start legal proceedings against it over violations of the bloc’s values.
“We do not compromise on these issues because we are a sovereign country, a sovereign nation. And no one, not even the European Commission, should blackmail us regarding these policies,” Szijjarto said.
Topping the list of contentious government policies: a controversial Hungarian law that the EU says violates the fundamental rights of LGBT people. That led the EU’s executive commission to delay billions in economic recovery funds earmarked for Hungary — a move Szijjarto called “a purely political decision” and “blackmail.” The law, he says, is meant to protect children from pedophiles and ”homosexual propaganda.”
“We will not make make compromises about the future of our children,” Szijjarto told the AP. The law, passed in June, makes it illegal to promote or portray sex reassignment or homosexuality to minors under 18 in media content. It also contains provisions that provide harsher penalties for pedophilia. Critics say it conflates pedophilia with homosexuality and stigmatizes sexual minorities.
The measures were rejected emphatically by most European leaders. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte suggested Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, should pull his country out of the EU if he is unwilling to abide by its collective principles. The conflict is only the latest in a protracted fight with the bloc over what it sees as a sustained assault on democratic standards in Hungary — alleged corruption, a consolidation of the media and increasing political control over state institutions and the judiciary.
Last year, the EU adopted a regulation that links the payment of funds to its member states’ compliance with rule-of-law standards — a measure fiercely opposed by Hungary’s government, which argued it was a means to punish countries that break with the liberal consensus of Western Europe’s countries. The EU’s concerns over Hungary straying from democratic values have gone unheard by several prominent American conservatives who have recently visited the country and extolled Orban’s hardline policies on immigration and flouting of the EU’s rules. On Thursday, Hungary hosted former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at a conference in Budapest dedicated to family values and demography, both issues that form a central pillar of Hungary’s conservative policy. “One approach (to population decline) says that we should foster migratory flows toward Europe. This is an approach which we don’t like,” Szijjarto said. In addition to firm opposition to immigration, Hungary’s government emphasizes traditional family values and resistance to the widening acceptance of sexual minorities in Western countries. It also portrays itself as a beacon of “Christian democracy,” and a bulwark against migration from Muslim-majority countries — positions on which it finds common cause with the former vice president.
“We know that Vice President Pence is very committed to this issue ... with a strong Christian background, so that is the reason we invited him,” Szijjarto said. Despite Hungary’s position on immigration, it did evacuate more than 400 Afghan citizens who had assisted Hungarian forces in Afghanistan after that country’s government fell to the militant Taliban last month. But Szijjarto said his country was “not going to take any more Afghans,” and that no refugees would be allowed to cross Hungary’s southern border into the EU. “We will not allow anybody to come illegally to Europe,” he told the AP. Pence’s visit to Hungary was only the latest in a series of anti-immigration right-wing Americans visiting Hungary, which its government increasingly portrays as a bastion of conservative values.
Tucker Carlson, the most popular host on the right-wing Fox News Channel, spent a week broadcasting from Budapest in August. While there, he heaped praise on Orban’s approach to immigration, family values and national sovereignty. Carlson also made a visit by helicopter to tour a fortified fence along the country’s southern border.
On Wednesday, the Hungarian state news agency reported that Budapest would host next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, an annual gathering of primarily U.S. conservative activists and politicians. Hungary’s government, Szijjarto said, is “happy when American commentators come to Hungary. We are happy because when they come, they will see the reality.”
“United States press or media outlets usually characterize us as a dictatorship, as a place where it’s bad to stay, and they write all kinds of fake news about Hungary,” he said. “But when these commentators come over, they can be confronted with the reality.”
But while some of Hungary’s admirers see it as a beacon, the EU’s financial pressure — designed to change Budapest’s behavior — represents increasing pushback from the other side of the political spectrum.
Last week, Hungary sold several billion dollars in foreign currency bonds in an effort to cover the costs of planned development projects even if EU recovery funds are not released. This, along with economic growth, means Hungary’s budget is “in pretty good shape,” Szijjarto said, allowing for flexibility with the country’s central budget without the need for EU funds. “Hungarian people should not be afraid of any kind of loss suffered because of this political decision by the European Commission,” Szijjarto said. With national elections next spring expected to be the biggest challenge to Orban’s power since he was elected in 2010, Hungary’s government is ramping up on divisive issues like migration, LGBT rights and the COVID-19 pandemic that can mobilize its conservative voting base. On Thursday night, in his speech before world leaders at the United Nations, Szijjarto drew parallels between migration and the pandemic, saying the two together formed a “vicious circle” in which the health and economic impacts of the virus’s spread would lead more people to “hit the road.”
“The more people that are involved in the migratory flows, the more accelerated the virus will spread,” he told the U.N. assembly. “So nowadays, migration does not only constitute the already well-known cultural, civilizational or security-related risks, but very serious health care risks as well.”
Hungary’s law affecting LGBT people will be accompanied by a national referendum ahead of elections on the availability of gender-change procedures to children and on sexual education in schools. Szijjarto said the referendum will provide “strong argumentation in the debates” with the EU over the law, and a mandate from voters for the government to hold strong on its policies. “The best munition a government can have during such a debate,” the minister said, “is the clear expression of the will of the people.”
___
Justin Spike, based in Budapest, covers Hungary for The Associated Press. He is on assignment this week at the United Nations.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Chester General rail crash
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The Chester General rail crash occurred on 8 May 1972 at Chester railway station (traditionally known as Chester General station) in northwest England. The 19:31 freight train from Ellesmere Port to Mold Junction consisted of 38 wagons hauled by a Class 24 diesel locomotive no. 5028. The first five wagons were tank wagons containing kerosene, petrol and gas oil. At around 20:50 the train was approaching Chester on a 1 in 100 falling gradient when the driver discovered that the brakes had failed. It ran past a signal at danger and through a set of points which were set for no. 11 bay platform, where an empty diesel multiple unit was standing. As there was nothing more he could do, the driver jumped out onto the platform with the train still travelling at around 20 mph. It ploughed straight into the DMU and completely destroyed the first coach. The second coach was torn from its bogies and thrown up onto the platform where it demolished the refreshment room wall. There were very few people on that part of the station, although the staff in the refreshment room had to shelter themselves from falling masonry. A major fire broke out when the burst fuel tanks of the trains ignited, but the fire brigade were based nearby and arrived within a couple of minutes. They were able to rescue a trapped postal worker and evacuated several passengers from an adjacent lightly loaded train before it too was engulfed by the fire. Damage caused to the trains was severe, especially after petrol from two of the tank wagons began to boil and was forced out of the pressure relief valves, whereupon it ignited. The fire was not extinguished until 00:20 the following day. The trains involved were all written off and a section of the station roof was damaged and consequently removed. The first eight wagons were equipped with the vacuum brake but the pipes had not been connected. The train had run from Ellesmere Port as an unbraked freight train and stopped at Helsby, where it needed to reverse. The guard had forgotten to connect the vacuum pipes when the locomotive coupled up to the opposite end of the train, so that extra brake power was not available on the falling gradient into Chester. The driver had also omitted to carry out a brake test before departure.
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Train collisions
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1930 Air Union Farman Goliath crash
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The 1930 Air Union Farman Goliath crash occurred on 10 February 1930 when a Farman F.63 Goliath of Air Union crashed whilst attempting an emergency landing at Marden Airfield, Kent following the failure of the starboard tailplane. Two of the six people on board were killed. The aircraft involved was Farman F.63 Goliath F-FHMY,[1] c/n 267. The aircraft was built as a F.60 Goliath and registered in April 1921 to Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens, passing in February 1924 to Compagnie Air Union. On 14 November 1925, it had ditched 7+1⁄2 miles (12.1 km) off Boulogne and had been badly damaged. [2] The aircraft was given a complete overhaul, returning to service in 1929. [3] The rebuilt aircraft was classified as a F.63 Goliath. [2]
The aircraft departed Le Bourget at 10:40 am bound for Croydon. It was carrying three French crew and three English passengers. Fifteen minutes after take-off, an engine problem resulted in a return to Le Bourget. No problem was found but the spark plugs were changed as a precaution and the aircraft departed for Croydon again. [1]
After the aircraft had passed Staplehurst, a snapping noise came from the tailplane and the aircraft lost 2,000 feet (610 m) in altitude. [1] The starboard tailplane had failed. [4] One of the mechanics told the passengers that an emergency landing was to be attempted. [5] The passengers were asked to move to the rear of the cabin. [3] Just before 1 pm,[6] as the aircraft attempted to land at Marden Airfield, the pilot cut power to the engines at an altitude of 10 feet (3 m). The aircraft then rose to an altitude of about 100 feet (30 m) and then stalled and crashed. [1] A few seconds later, fire broke out in the wreckage of the airliner. [4] One of the passengers managed to escape on his own. The pilot was pulled from the wreckage by one of the two mechanics. Villagers rushed to the aid of the victims, but the survivors had all escaped from the wreckage by the time the first of them arrived. Two of the passengers, who were returning from honeymoon in Paris, were killed. The injured were taken to the West Kent Hospital, Maidstone. [6]
An inquest was opened by the Cranbrook Coroner on 12 February at Pagehurst Farm, Staplehurst into the deaths of the victims. Witnesses gave evidence of the failure of the starboard elevator. The inquest was adjourned initially to 13 March in the expectation that the crew of the aircraft would be fit enough to attend. [4] The inquest resumed on 28 March at Staplehurst. Evidence was produced to show that the aircraft was airworthy when it departed Paris, and that the actions of the crew were correct. The 1921-built aircraft had been completely overhauled and had returned to service in 1929,[3] following the ditching in 1925. [2] The cause of death in each case was shock and smoke inhalation. [4] A verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned in both cases. [3]
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Air crash
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Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crash
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Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 was a scheduled Iranian domestic passenger flight from Iranian capital Tehran Mehrabad International Airport to Yasuj in southwest Iran. On 18 February 2018, during its approach to Yasuj, the aircraft serving the flight, an ATR 72-212 operated by Iran Aseman Airlines, crashed into Mount Dena in the Zagros Mountains near Noqol village in Semirom county, Isfahan Province. All 60 passengers and 6 crew members on board were killed. According to the interim report, which was published on 18 February 2019 by the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), the accident was caused by multiple factors, with pilot error considered as the main cause. The investigation showed that the crew decided to continue to Yasuj despite deteriorating weather conditions in the area. During its approach, the crew elected to descend below the minimum altitude. The resulting bad weather caused the aircraft to stall. The crew failed to recover the aircraft from the stall and the aircraft crashed onto the mountain. [2]
The crash highlighted the danger of mountain wave and the aviation industry's lack of awareness of the issue. The Iranian CAO published several recommendations to ICAO and the European Aviation Safety Agency to address the hazard that a mountain wave may pose to the safety of a flight. Subsequently,[dubious – discuss] the crash also led to changes of the weather training programs for airliners in Iran. [2]
The aircraft involved was an ATR 72-212 with MSN 391. It was registered EP-ATS and was delivered to Iran Aseman Airlines in 1993. No serious incidents were recorded during the aircraft's 24 years of service in the airline. [3][4]
An Iranian source reported that the aircraft had recently resumed operations after being out of service for seven years due to a lack of spare parts and that it had technical problems during a flight some weeks before the crash. It was claimed that an Instagram post from Iran Aseman two months prior to the crash, that announced the aircraft was back in service, had been deleted after it crashed. [5]
At the time of the accident, Iran Aseman had six ATR aircraft in its fleet, three of which were in operation. [5]
It was initially reported that 59 passengers and six crew members were presumed to be on board. [5][6][7][3] It was later revealed that there were 60 passengers and six crew members aboard. The flight manifest was consisted of 65 adults and 1 child. There were 60 passengers, 2 security guards, 2 flight attendants and 2 flight crew members. [8]
The pilot of the flight was identified as 62-year old Hojatollah Foladi. He had accumulated a total flying hours of more than 17,000 hours, of which 12,000 hours were on the type. The pilot also had experience of flying in India from 2002 to 2007, before returning to Iran Aseman Airlines. At least 2 flights to Yasuj had been performed 3 months prior to the accident. His flying certificate was deemed as valid. [2][9]
The pilot not flying was identified as 36-year old First Officer Khevah Khalili with a total flying hours of approximately 1,800 flying hours, including 197 hours on the type. [2]
The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Iranian capital Tehran Mehrabad International Airport to Yasuj Airport in Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province in southwest Iran. [10] The flight was supposed to take about 50 minutes. It was operated by Iran Aseman Airlines, the third largest airline in Iran. It took off from Tehran with 60 passengers and 6 crew members on 18 February 2018 at about 04:35 UTC. [11][2]
At 05:49 UTC, as Flight 3704 approached Yasuj, the flight crew asked the meteorological information in Yasuj. Yasuj Tower later informed Flight 3704 about the weather condition and mentioned that the final approach path was clear. The flight later was cleared to descent to FL170 by Tehran and was handed over to Yasuj on 05:53 UTC. [2]
The crew stated that they would continue the approach with FL150. At 05:55, the crew reported that they were 25 miles from the destination airport. Yasuj Tower then told the pilot about the updated condition in Yasuj, stating that clouds were slowly moving to the south. Four minutes later, Yasuj asked the flight again and the crew responded that they failed to receive the signal of Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) from their navigational device. The crew then checked about the weather condition in the area again. [2]
At 06:04 UTC, Yasuj Tower lost communication contact with Flight 3704. Attempts had been made to re-establish communication with the aircraft but failed. [2]
According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the last signal from the aircraft was received just before 05:56 UTC, descending from an altitude of 16,975 feet (5,174 m). [12]
Locals reported that they had heard the aircraft hit the mountain. [13] Iranian authorities in neighboring Shiraz and Isfahan province had deployed two of their helicopters to the crash site. A total of 12 search and rescue teams had been dispatched to Mount Dena, but due to foggy conditions, rescue helicopters could not reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains. [3][14][15][failed verification] Mount Dena, the location of the crash site, is actually a mountain range within the Zagros Mountains; it is 80 kilometres (50 mi; 40 nmi) long with several peaks, the highest of which is 4,409 metres (14,465 ft) above sea level. Spokesman from Iran Aseman Airlines initially stated that all 66 passengers and crews on board had been killed in the accident. However, this statement was later retracted by the airline and the airline later issued a statement saying that it could not "accurately and definitely confirm" that everyone had died in the crash. [16]
In response to the crash, crisis centres were set up in Tehran, Isfahan, Fars and Yasuj. [5] Weather conditions at the crash site, including snow and strong winds, were hampering search and rescue services.
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Air crash
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Tsunami 'mega-rafts' of debris ship hundreds of animal species from Japan to US
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It's an event researchers say has "no known historical precedent" and it is still unfolding.
In the six years since a massive tsunami struck Japan, at least 289 species of animals have travelled to the US on huge rafts of pollution.
Thousands of non-native marine crustaceans, fish, molluscs and anemones continue to land on the US west coast on rafts of plastic, fibreglass and other debris that was washed out to sea in 2011.
According to a paper describing the phenomenon, published today in the journal Science, as many as 65 per cent of the species are not native to US waters.
Study co-author Professor Jim Carlton from Williams College in Massachusetts fears if any are able to colonise, there could be devastating consequences.
"The immediate concerns are the potential economic and environmental impacts of any given invasion, like the North Pacific sea star in Australia," he said.
"Of the couple of hundred that have no previous history in North American waters, there are some species that are fairly well known in other parts of the world as invasives."
Objects ranging from barges and fishing vessels to plastic bags and buoys were washed out to sea in a "massive debris field" during the 2011 tsunami.
This deluge of flotsam was then sucked into the Pacific trash vortex — a gyre of circulating marine rubbish that brushes the coast of Japan and circulates clockwise around the North Pacific Ocean.
Each spring, as offshore currents pushing off the US coast ease, "spring pulses" of trash wash ashore on the west coast.
The scientists say it is unclear yet whether any animals arriving on the rafts have been able to successfully colonise.
"We are in the establishment window. The lag time between their arriving and becoming established and detected can be a while," Professor Carlton said.
"The Japanese mussels that have been arriving on these rafts have this parasitic hydroid and that's a known pest of shellfish culture in Japan."
Hydroids are small predators related to jellyfish and coral, that are in the polyp phase of their life cycle.
The US west coast supports large oyster and mussel industries.
What has scientists really amazed is the length of time these animals have been able to survive in the open ocean, which they put down to the longevity of the plastic and fibreglass that make up much of the debris.
"Six years at sea [is] four or more years longer than previous documented instances of the survival of coastal species rafting in the ocean," the paper states.
The paper's authors make the case that massive coastal development and climate change are converging to completely reshape the way species are dispersed around the globe.
"If we advance the climate change models that argue that hurricanes and typhoons and other storms will be increasing in frequency and size, then we enter an era in the 21st century where larger and more frequent storms are for the first time interfacing with the densest populations and infrastructure that we've ever had on [our] coastlines," Professor Carlton said.
Professor Steven Chown from Monash University says the research will, "change our view of the world".
"Their research is amazing in actually documenting this pulse event, and then demonstrating that we might have to expect more such large-scale events given the huge increase in infrastructure globally along with, of course, increasingly extreme weather events," he said.
"That's what changes the game for me."
Professor Chown, whose research interests include Antarctica, biological invasions and climate change, says it's not a matter of if, but when these invading species will establish. And he warns the challenges to biosecurity are enormous.
"We know from the ecology of marine invasions that some will [establish], and they'll be hard to detect in the beginning," he said.
"If you think about surveillance operating through borders, checking of cargo detects quite a lot of stuff. But actually doing surveillance along a whole coastline for potential species which could have huge impacts is extremely difficult."
In the US, researchers have enlisted the help of citizen scientists to report and check debris from Japan that washes up on the coast.
Although the amount of material arriving has been declining, they say they are expecting another spring pulse next year.
And while the reduction in pollution washing up in the US is welcome news, scientists fear any species strong enough to survive seven or more years at sea may well have the characteristics of a successful invader.
Get all the latest science stories from across the ABC.
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Environment Pollution
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Xi Jinping’s Remarks on the Sound Development of China’s Digital Economy
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Editor’s note: At a group study session of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo on Oct. 18, President Xi Jinping delivered a speech stressing the sound development of China’s digital economy. Here are the key points of his remarks during the study session.
In the speech, President Xi Jinping said, that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to developing the digital economy, built China’s strength in cyberspace, implemented the national big data strategy, expanded the economic cyberspace, supported internet-based innovations and promoted deep integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the real economy. Beyond that, efforts have been made to build a digital China and a smart society, promote digital industrialization and industrial digitization and develop digital industrial clusters with international competitiveness. China has seen rapid digital economic development with remarkable fruits. In particular, since the Covid-19 outbreak, digital technologies and the digital economy have played a vital role in supporting the fight against the pandemic and work and life resumption.
Xi highlighted that developing the digital economy is a strategic option to seize opportunities brought by a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. First, the healthy development of the digital economy will be conducive to the building of a new development paradigm. Digital technologies and the digital economy are able to advance the fast mobility of various resource factors and the expedited integration of diverse market entities and help market entities rebuild an organizational model so as to achieve cross-sector development, break space-time limit, extend the industry chain, and unclog domestic and international economic circulations. Second, the healthy development of the digital economy will facilitate the building of a modern economic system. The digital economy of high innovation, strong penetrability and wide coverage is not only a new economic growth point but also a pivot for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, which can be an important engine to build a modern economic system. Third, the healthy development of the digital economy will help the country develop new competitive advantages. In the current era, digital technology and the digital economy are key areas of international competition that can provide prioritized opportunities for the global scientific and technological revolution and industrial change. China should seize these opportunities and pioneer the leading areas for future development. Xi pointed out that efforts must be made to enhance research on core technologies in important areas and adhere to the key of independent innovation. China should give full play to the advantages of its socialist system, the new system of pooling national resources and strengths and the super-large-scale market, so as to improve the ability of basic research and development of digital technology. In addition, efforts are called for to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and accelerate the development of biosecurity-related science and related technologies toward greater self-reliance. These efforts will help firmly grasp the autonomy of the development of the digital economy. Xi stressed that China should speed up the construction of new infrastructure, strengthen its strategic layout and accelerate the building of a high-speed, ubiquitous, intelligent and comprehensive digital information infrastructure that integrates space and ground, and the cloud and the internet, so as to make the main structure transmitting information on economic and social development available. China will comprehensively promote industrial and large-scale applications, focus on making breakthroughs in key software, make the software industry bigger and stronger and enhance the innovation and supply capacity of key software technologies. Xi pointed out that it is necessary to promote the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy, grasp the direction of digitization, networking, and intelligence and promote the digitization of manufacturing, service, agriculture, and other industries. Meanwhile, internet technology should be used to carry out omni-directional and full-chain transformation of traditional industries and improve total factor productivity, thus giving full play to the role of digital technology in magnifying, superimposing and multiplying economic development. China should promote the deep integration of the Internet, big data and AI technologies with industries, and expedite its efforts to cultivate a number of enterprises that apply special, sophisticated techniques to produce unique and novel enterprises that rank top in the respective field. China should promote the development of digital industries in key areas, focus on the strategic high ground, and rely on major technological breakthroughs and development needs, to enhance the competitiveness of the industrial chains in key links, improve the supply chain systems for key industries, and accelerate the replacement of old products and services with new ones.
Xi stressed that China should regulate the development of the digital economy, insist on promoting and laying equal emphasis on the regulation of development and supervision, and in the development of regulation, and ensure the mutual promotion between development and regulation. China should improve the market-access system, the fair competition review mechanism and the fair competition regulation system to establish an all-around, multi-level, three-dimensional regulation system, thus achieving ex-ante, interim and ex-post supervision of all chains and sectors. China should correct and regulate the behaviors and practices that may harm the interests of the people and impede fair competition in the development process, prevent platform monopolies and disorderly expansion of capital, and investigate and prosecute monopoly and unfair competition cases in accordance with the law. China should protect the legitimate rights and interests of platform workers and consumers. In addition, China should intensify its efforts in tax supervision and tax audits.
Xi also pointed out that China should strive to improve the governance system for the digital economy, laws and regulations and policy systems, and institutional mechanisms, as well as raise the modernization of the country’s digital economy governance system and governance capacity. China should also improve the responsibilities of competent departments and regulatory agencies, make the division of work clear and ensure their mutual cooperation. Regulatory technology and means must be improved and enhanced to enable full-process regulation and governance for innovation, production, operations and investment. The responsibilities and obligations of platform-based enterprises should be clarified, and an industry self-regulatory mechanism should be established. Social supervision, media supervision and public supervision should be carried out to promote synergy. Efforts should be made to improve national security systems and institutions. Theoretical research on the development of the digital economy should be strengthened, and countermeasures and suggestions should be put forward on issues involving digital technology and the development of the digital economy. China should actively participate in international cooperation on the digital economy, engage in negotiations with international organizations on topics related to the digital economy, carry out bilateral and multilateral cooperation on digital governance, maintain and improve the multilateral digital economy governance mechanisms, and put forward China’s solutions and spread China’s voice in a timely manner.
Xi pointed out that, as the digital economy is relevant to the overall development of the country, it is important to put a lot of effort into the top-level design and system and mechanism building for the development of China’s digital economy, strengthen situation analysis, seize opportunities, and gain the initiative. Leading officials at all levels should improve their thinking ability and professional competence in the digital economy, build up their skills in developing the digital economy, enhance safety awareness, and promote the digital economy to better serve and integrate it into the new development paradigm. It is also necessary to improve the digital literacy and skills of all people and the whole society, thus laying a solid social foundation for the development of China’s digital economy.
The article is a translation from the Chinese readout of the president’s remarks released by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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2016 New York drought
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The 2016 New York Drought was by some measures the worst drought to affect Western New York and parts of the Finger Lakes Region and Southern Tier on record. [1] By the middle of July, the percent of the state by area that was in a D-2 (Severe Drought) according to the United States Drought Monitor was 23.01%, the greatest amount since the weekly reports began in 2000. Nearly 90% of the state was classified as "Abnormally Dry" or "Moderate Drought". For reference, none of the state has ever been placed in D-4 (Exceptional Drought). [2] Furthermore, The Buffalo News reported on July 22 that it had become the worst drought in the Buffalo area since their main weather station opened in 1943. [3] There was a longer term dry period through the 1960s in New York with greater duration but less intensity. By July the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had placed the entire state in a "drought watch". While the drought is not nearly as severe as other droughts that take place in the west and midwestern United States in terms of duration and crop loss, droughts of this magnitude are rare in the temperate climate of Upstate New York. The drought began with a winter that in many areas in the northeast set a record warm December through February,[4] leading to a weak spring meltoff. [5]
Although May saw decent rainfall, the preceding and following months saw great deficits. Streams and ponds dried or saw near record low flow rates, and the water table lowered significantly in some areas. Many large rivers, including the Genesee River, were running at about 20% of normal, many below the fifth percentile. [6] Historical remains were briefly visible in the Genesee riverbed including a defunct fountain and a cofferdam where trains ran during early 20th century riverbed deepening to reduce flooding, as well as historic building foundations. [7] Some crops began to fail by July, including crops that did not germinate in the dry soil, and production and nutrition was low in crops that did mature. [3] Perennial crops including fruit trees, Christmas trees,[8] and strawberries were also affected,[9] with deeper root crops such as corn about half the normal height by early August. [10] Significant shortfalls in pasture and hay production compounded very low milk prices to put an existential strain on local dairy farms. [11] Due to extensive watering, the 2016 Garden Walk Buffalo was not significantly impacted. [12] In mid July, the state issued a drought watch for the first time since 2002. [13]
By late July, the area under the severe drought widened slightly to 26.82% despite widespread rains that exceeded an inch in parts of Western New York. [14] The 215-foot (66 m) Taughannock Falls slowed to such a minimal flow that hiking the nearly empty riverbed of Taughannock Creek was permitted in Taughannock Falls State Park. [15] On July 27, The Ithaca Journal reported that the Ithaca water supply reservoir was critically low, within a month of running dry, as areas creeks reached record lows. [16] With many locations receiving less than half and as low as a third the normal amount of spring-summer rain, local wells ran dry. Anecdotally, rainfall was less than a quarter of normal with the drought being the worst in at least a half century. [10] On August 3 the DEC, under direction of governor Andrew Cuomo, moved the entire Western portion of the state to drought warning, while the rest of the state remained under a drought watch. [17]
Statistically, it was the fifth driest spring-summer (March–July) period in Buffalo (9.07 inches) since record keeping began in 1871, with 1941 (9 inches), 1915 (8.92 inches), 1898 (8.34 inches), and 1934 (7.75 inches) eclipsing it. However, this does not account for the mild winter or the above average temperatures and low humidity of the 2016 summer. Additionally, the rain was intermittent in larger amounts versus multi-day periods of slower, soaking rain. [5]
On August 8, a tropical system featuring high humidity and moisture was forecast to bring several inches of rain to Upstate New York over several days from Wednesday through the weekend, including enough moisture to produce up to two inches on the first day. [18] The August 11 drought monitor report (valid up to Tuesday August 9) showed the area of severe drought increasing to 29.5%, covering nearly all of the state from Syracuse west and again setting a weekly report record, though it did not account for widespread rainfall of one half to two inches that took place on Wednesday August 10. [19] Nonetheless, the drought continued as many locations were at a nearly 10 inch deficit for the year. The August 16 drought monitor report showed that while the severe drought area declined slightly, six percent of the state was upgraded to D3 (Extreme Drought), a first for the state during the summer[20] (about 3% of state around New York City saw D3 drought in spring 2002)[21] The area was a long narrow strip from Lake Erie to the northern half of Seneca County, roughly along the I-90 corridor, as well as a spot in the southern Finger Lakes. [20] The Extreme Drought area remained the same for the next two weeks, other than the removal of the western fringe in Erie County. The September 6 report saw the D3 Extreme Drought area double to nearly 10% of the state,[22] with the main area and spot to the southeast being connected. Also during this time (August 29),[23] the United States Department of Agriculture designated 15 New York counties as drought disaster areas, qualifying some local farmers for low interest loans. The counties are Cayuga, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wyoming and Yates. Some surrounding counties were also eligible for the loans, available for eight months after August 29. [23] In all about 18,000 farms covering 3.7 million acres are eligible for the funding when four related drought counties in Pennsylvania are included. [24] New York State and agricultural representatives toured drought-stricken areas in early September. They included Senator Tom O'Mara, Senator Patty Ritchie New York State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball. [8][25]
In combination with also being one of the warmest summers in the area,[26] including a sunny June and July and the hottest August on record for Rochester, the drought was worse than rainfall data would suggest, making it possibly the worst drought on modern record when the two factors were considered together. [27]
The drought continued through the middle of October, with about 5% of the state in the Finger Lakes still under D-3 Extreme Drought as of October 18. However, a several day pattern of rainy weather later that week dropped up to 6 inches (150 mm) of rain in some areas, and several inches over much of the affected central New York area. [28][29] The record rainfall effectively quelled the severe drought at least at surface level; however, the vast majority of the state remained "abnormally dry" or "moderate drought", with the Finger Lakes region and Western New York, as well as downstate, still in a substantial drought. The drought at this point was expected to last through January. [30][31] After the first week of November, about 80% of the state was considered to be in a moderate drought, and about 23% in a D-2 Severe Drought, mainly in the southeastern Finger Lakes and downstate and central Long Island areas. By the mid November report, parts of the Hudson Valley were back into D-3 Extreme Drought category, as part of an ongoing drought in the tri-state (New York-New Jersey-Connecticut) New York metropolitan area that was also expected to last through winter. [32]
Early winter in western New York saw several snowstorms as well as several inches of rain, though according to the drought monitor, much of the region where the drought was worst was still classified as abnormally dry or even moderate drought, though topsoil conditions were soggy. The Cheektowaga office of the National Weather Service reported an above average 6.17 inches of rain from December first to mid January, but snowfall was about ten inches short at 33 inches for the same period. [33] The winter went on to be one of the warmest on record, with below average snowfall, but plenty of rainfall, effectively ending the drought in western New York. The drought was officially announced to be over in March 2017.
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Droughts
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