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Horn of Africa: History doesn’t have to repeat itself
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Six years ago the world watched in horror when almost 260,000 Somalis starved to death in the Horn of Africa. In 2011, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya experienced the worst drought in 60 years that killed pastoralists’ livestock and withered farmers’ fields. Across the region, more than ten million people were in need of life-saving aid. Today, we are facing a similar outlook. My CARE colleagues across the Horn of Africa are observing the same signs that preceded the 2011 famine in Somalia. A failure of successive rains, also due to one of the strongest El Niño events on record has led to a devastating drought in Somalia and its neighbouring countries. A recent CARE study shows that many poor Somali pastoralists have already lost half or more of their livestock – their main source of income. At the same time, prices for food have risen sharply, some have almost doubled compared to just half a year ago. As a 91-year old Somali man told us: The reduced income and the increasing food prices lead to a vicious cycle, where people have to resort to drastic survival mechanisms: The poorest households told us that they started skipping their meals, many only eat once a day. It’s often women and girls who eat the last and the least. Families have to sell their remaining emaciated livestock for minimal prices. They take their children out of school to find work and help with household chores. In many areas of south central Somalia, Somaliland and in Puntland, colleagues tell me that most of the traditional water sources have dried up and that the average distance to water points is 50 kilometres. In Somalia, women and girls are responsible for herding small livestock and collecting water. Can you imagine sending your daughter 50 kilometres through arid and barren land to collect water? Can you imagine the dangers she might face on the long trek for water? Those who can still afford it spend half their household income on water distributed through trucks. Yet the price for water has skyrocketed, in many areas as much as 400 per cent per barrel compared to the time before the drought. The amount of water available per person per day has dropped to three litres. That is three one litre bottles of water for drinking, washing and cooking. I have been living in the Horn of Africa for over a decade. Often in my life I have seen the dead corpses of cattle, camel and sheep littering the remote pastoral areas in the countries of the Horn of Africa. I have lead the regional response to the food crisis and famine in 2011. Despite repeated early warnings by many organizations such as CARE in 2011, the response to that crisis was too slow, the funds came too late and more than 260,000 people died. Donations started to flow as soon as the TV cameras broadcasted pictures of starving children and desperate Somali families fleeing by the thousands to Kenya. Yet by then, it was already too late for many women, men and children. It is a sad reality for us aid workers that we can call for prevention funds as loudly as we want – we need the TV cameras to broadcast the devastation before the aid machinery gets into full swing. Yet we all know that preventing thousands of deaths is not just a moral responsibility, it is also much cheaper than responding to a full-blown food crisis. The year 2011 was a sobering wake-up call for many of us working in the Horn of Africa. Since then, much has been achieved to break the vicious cycle of food insecurity in the region. Early warning systems in countries like Ethiopia have saved many lives. Resilience building activities have helped families better prepare for times of drought. Yet in 2017, the cumulative effects of repeated droughts are too much to bear for many families and have exhausted their coping strategies. In Somalia, aid workers are still challenged to reach people in need due to the ongoing instability and the security threats by armed groups. In some areas, mainly in south central Somalia, our local partners are the only organizations that are able to deliver humanitarian aid, often in danger for their own lives. CARE Somalia has reached almost 259,000 people with crucial live-saving aid and plans to reach another 350,000 Somalis in the next six months. In Ethiopia, CARE has supported over one million drought affected people with water support, food, seeds and cash. If it does not rain sufficiently in the next months, famine in Somalia is possible again. The weather forecast is not giving much hope, expecting the coming rainy season to be poor. Whether we call it a famine or not, fact is that millions of people across the Horn of Africa already go to bed hungry each night. “We have lost all our livestock. We have no other source of income. We have no other skills. We can’t find or buy water. My children and I, are at a high risk of exhaustion and starvation”, says Rahma Ali, a 31-year old woman from the Sool region in Somalia. We need to act now to help people like
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Famine
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Free exchangeAmerica’s roaring recovery might carry lessons for future recessions
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Editor’s note (August 6th 2021): This article has been updated for the publication of July payrolls figures A COMMITTEE OF eight prominent economists made it official on July 19th. The covid-19 recession, America’s deepest since the Depression, was also its shortest, spanning just March and April 2020. That tests the very definition of a recession, which the National Bureau of Economic Research describes as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months”. A recession it was judged nonetheless, given its breadth and extraordinary depth. The plunge in output in the second quarter of 2020 was more than three times the second-largest quarterly drop in America’s post-war history.
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Financial Crisis
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2004 Ingoldmells bus crash
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At around 17:00 BST on 11 April 2004, a double-decker bus was involved in a collision with a car and a number of pedestrians outside the Fantasy Island amusement park on Sea Lane in Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire. [1][2] The accident killed five pedestrians and injured six more. The bus, a Volvo double-decker operated by Lincolnshire RoadCar, was operating a scheduled passenger service between Skegness and Chapel St Leonards when the driver, 50-year-old Stephen Topasna, lost control of the vehicle on Sea Lane in Ingoldmells. [2][3] The bus veered onto the pavement, striking a number of pedestrians, before swerving back into the road coming to a stop after colliding with a BMW car just beyond a pelican crossing, where it had struck another group of pedestrians. [3]
With five fatalities, the Ingoldmells bus crash was the worst accident involving a bus in the United Kingdom since the M40 minibus crash in 1993. The accident remained the deadliest bus accident in the United Kingdom during the 21st century until it was surpassed by the 2017 M1 motorway crash involving a minibus. The bus was being driven along Sea Lane in Ingoldmells, close to the Fantasy Island amusement park, at the time of the accident. Immediately prior to the accident, driver Stephen Topasna pulled the bus into a bus stop in a lay-by by the side of the road in order to pick up passengers. The accident occurred as Topasna accelerated the bus away from the lay-by; due to pedal confusion, Topasna unintentionally caused the bus to accelerate instead of brake after pulling back into the road, leading to a loss of control. The bus continued to accelerate for 22 seconds after pulling away from the bus stop, reaching a top speed of 41 mph before losing control and mounting the pavement. Passengers on board reported hearing the driver shouting that the bus had no brakes. After losing control, the bus struck a number of pedestrians on the pavement, before veering back into the road. The bus then struck a BMW car in the road, before failing to stop in time for a pelican crossing,[3] striking a group of pedestrians on the crossing before finally coming to a halt 176 metres after setting off. The accident occurred on the busiest day of the year for the amusement park, and the area was busy with pedestrians. In total, the accident killed five pedestrians and injured six more, including two critically. [3] Two people remained trapped underneath the bus for around half an hour after it came to a halt. [1][2] Three people were pronounced dead immediately at the site of the accident; a fourth died several hours later, while a fifth pedestrian died the following day in hospital. [2]
The pedestrians who were killed in the accident were later named as 37-year-old Joanne Warren and her two sons, 5-year-old Jacob Warren and 4-month-old Leyton Warren, all from Leicester; and husband and wife 33-year-old Richard Rhodes and 30-year-old Paula Rhodes from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. [4]
Inquests into the accident were opened on 19 April. [5] Following the accident, the section of Sea Lane on which the accident took place was pedestrianised,[6] following numerous protests[7] and a petition signed by 5,000 people. [8] However, the pedestrianisation of Sea Lane was later criticised for splitting Ingoldmells in half, causing further traffic problems, [9] which resulted in Sea Lane being reopened to traffic again, but with safety measures in place, such as a 20mph zone, speed bumps, crash barriers and new pedestrian crossings. [10]
A memorial stone to the victims of the accident was unveiled on 25 June 2004. [11]
Bus company Lincolnshire RoadCar appeared in court in connection with the accident in February 2005, potentially facing a charge of operating a vehicle with defective brakes, which the company denied.
On 8 August, Lincolnshire RoadCar were found guilty of breaching safety provisions for allowing the driver to operate the vehicle type without proper training and for operating a vehicle with faulty brakes; they were fined £2,000 at Skegness Magistrates Court. [14] The bus had been serviced two days prior to the accident, and an engineer spotted and rectified three faults with the braking system; however, they failed to rectify a fault with the brake slack adjuster. However, it was also confirmed that the faulty brakes had not caused the accident and would have had only a minor effect on the outcome of the accident. [14]
Lincolnshire RoadCar initially planned to appeal the verdict. [15] However, the appeal was dropped in October 2005. [15]
Topasna was later charged with five counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of driving without due care and attention. Topasna admitted the charges upon appearance at Lincoln Crown Court on 18 October 2005, stating that he had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake in a case of pedal confusion. [16] On 9 November, Topasna was sentenced to five years in prison in connection with the accident. [13]
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Road Crash
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Eastern Michigan University fraternity agrees to settlement in sex assault cases
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One of the fraternities being sued in connection to sexual assaults reported at Eastern Michigan University has agreed to a settlement.
Both the national and local chapters of Delta Tau Delta agreed to resolve the matter with a number of survivors who have come forward in cases in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan, according to a filing Wednesday in the federal court.
Todd Flood, attorney for the 24 individuals suing EMU, Delta Tau Delta, two other fraternities and a sorority, said the settlement covers eight survivors -- some who were already suing for reported incidents involving Delta Tau Delta, as well as one who was expected to be added to the legal fight.
The lawsuits accuse EMU and its Title IX office of turning a blind eye to sexual assaults and covering them up, which the school has vehemently denied. The claims against the Greek organizations allege the groups "demonstrated policies and practices of covering up sexual misconduct by its members," in part by failing to report instances of assault.
Flood said he could not release terms of the settlement and details were not listed in a filing Wednesday in federal court announcing the settlement.
“It’s all part of the healing process on multiple levels,” Flood said of the settlement, later adding: "(The survivors) can't exhale completely but it's a start in the right direction for healing."
More: Eastern Michigan faculty passes no-confidence vote in leadership
A representative for Delta Tau Delta could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuits come amid a Detroit Free Press investigation into sex assaults reported at the school, and criminal charges for multiple former fraternity members.
Among those charged: Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Deputy D’Angelo McWilliams, 26, of Canton, and Thomas Hernandez, 24, of Lincoln Park, EMU graduates who were members of Delta Tau Delta and have since been accused of gang rapes on multiple women.
Another man, Dalton Brosnan, 26, is criminally charged with a reported sex assault, according to the lawsuit, to have occurred at Delta Tau Delta.
A friend of McWilliams, Dustyn Durbin, 25, of Frenchtown Township and an ex-member of Alpha Sigma Phi, is also facing charges connected to reported assaults on nine women.
The men have claimed their innocence in speaking to police or through their attorneys.
The school has launched an audit of its Title IX office in wake of the matter, launched numerous programs to quell sexual assaults at the school, including mandatory Title IX training, and launched reviews of Delta Tau Delta and Alpha Sigma Phi.
Alpha Sigma Phi, during the review process, chose to leave school oversight, but remain intact in Ypsilanti. The group cited concerns with a "kangaroo court," but the school said the fraternity didn't wish to participate or adhere to protocol.
Meanwhile, students gathered in front of the fraternity and sorority houses in October, calling for them to disband, and last week one of the women suing Delta Tau Delta made her name publicly known when she addressed EMU's Board of Regents.
Danielle Dunbar, who identified herself as Jane Doe 12 and therefore the woman in Brosnan's case, told regents she remains in the "shackles of PTSD" and called for accountability and transparency at the school.
She said she was raped in the attic of Delta Tau Delta, and was told by school officials it was a "gray area" because it involved alcohol; the school has denied this and other claims of hers in the lawsuit.
"I was silenced and my story was swept under the rug," Dunbar told the regents. "Like so many others, I shouldn't be here. ... I didn't want to be a part of this lawsuit. This is a last resort, a cry for help, a cry for change."
A dismissal for Delta Tau Delta in the lawsuit is expected to be filed within 14 days. The lawsuits will continue against Eastern Michigan University, certain current and former employees, and the other Greek entities.
Darcie Moran is a breaking news reporter and podcaster for the Detroit Free Press. She's served as an investigative reporter and covered justice issues, crime, protests, wildfires and government affairs. Contact Moran: dmoran@freepress.com. Twitter: @darciegmoran .
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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#VaxxFacts: UWC partners with WHO on a new genomic surveillance centre to monitor disease outbreaks beyond Covid-19 in Africa
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The World Health Organization Africa, together with South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI), University of the Western Cape (UWC), is launching a new Regional Centre of Excellence for Genomic Surveillance and Bioinformatics (RCEGSB) in Cape Town. The announcement of this new centre, which will help scale-up sequencing and bioinformatics on the continent for COVID-19 and other diseases, comes as scientists confirm that samples of a new C.1.2 coronavirus strain has been detected in our nine provinces. Speaking at last week’s online World Health Organization (WHO) Africa media briefing, regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said: “Knowing which variants are circulating and where is critical for informing effective response operations.” The centre will support 14 Southern African countries with genome sequencing that will provide invaluable insight into the pathways Covid-19 is using to spread into communities. It will have its own premises in the city, but some technical staff are already based at UWC to work closely with SANBI experts, said Dr Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, Regional Virologist, WHO Regional Office for Africa. “WHO’s aim is to expand it in the near future to be an Emergency Hub for southern countries. Currently, WHO has two Emergency Hubs, in the East and in the West.” Professor Alan Christoffels, Director of SANBI, said it was too soon to raise the alarm about the new C.1.2 coronavirus variant. The variant has been found in 130 cases in 10 countries globally, including five African countries where most of the cases are occurring. South Africa is one of these. “This is less than 3% of all the samples sequenced - it is extremely low. At this stage, while it has been detected in some provinces, this is extremely small in comparison to what we are sequencing (for the delta variant). There is no cause for concern.” He added: “Viruses evolve, so while this variant has been detected, we should wait and monitor it further.” The C.1.2 variant has not yet been declared a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization. “While the variant has some concerning mutations, there’s no evidence yet that it is more transmissible nor that it affects vaccine efficacy,” said Dr Moeti. Dr Gumede-Moeletsi said that while samples had been detected in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, we should “remain calm until we have all the evidence for C.1.2”. The good news is that all vaccines have proven to be effective with any variant of Covid-19, she added. Prof Christoffels said work to mobilise resources throughout Africa to deal with COVID-19 and other epidemics has been ongoing since WHO Africa and Africa CDC announced its continental plan in August 2020. “We have seen a successful rollout of the resources needed to sequence genomes and provide analytical protocols. As a result, we have been building a skill set that has to go beyond COVID-19.” The COVID-19 sequencing laboratory network in Africa produced nearly 40 000 sequencing data. “How we respond to (this virus) will put us in good stead to respond to the other diseases,” said Christoffels. Dr Moeti added: “The third wave has shown us how variants can hijack the efforts to tame the pandemic. Countries must step up surveillance because without genomic information, variants can spread undetected. You can’t fix what you don’t measure.”
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Disease Outbreaks
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Forecasting swine disease outbreaks
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Researchers want to move from monitoring disease in the US pig population to actually forecasting if and when a potential disease will occur, said Kim VanderWaal, DVM, assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Since 2017, VanderWaal and other researchers have worked closely with several production systems in a specific region of the US and have partnered with the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP), she told Pig Health Today. The work was funded by the Swine Health Information Center and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. “For many years, production companies have been reporting the infection status of their sow farms to the MSHMP. So now we have this incredible dataset showing whether any given farm is infected with porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus in a given week. We combine these data with animal movement data, both into the sow farms as well as into neighboring farms, to build a predictive, machine-learning algorithm that actually forecasts when and where we expect there to be high probability of a PED outbreak,” VanderWaal said. The overall goal of the model is to be able to project the likelihood that a sow farm is going to break with PED 2 weeks in the future, she explained. “We forecast this in two different ways. We give a dichotomous yes, it’s going to break, or no, it’s not,” she said. “We also give a continuous probability, ranging from zero-your farm is probably pretty safe-to one, which is danger. “Risk factors can change through time, especially when you talk about things like animal movements,” she added. “We try to account for those changes, as well as changes in the spatial distribution of the disease in other farms through time.” The purpose of the project is to gain a better picture of the current risk for a given farm based on animal movements and current epidemiological landscape, VanderWaal said. “We hope this will enable producers to make better data-informed decisions about interventions or mitigation measures on their farms,” she said. Models help rank different risk factors in terms of predicting whether or not an outbreak will occur, VanderWaal noted. “We feed about 20 different variables into the model, and we let the machine-learning algorithm sort those variables and find the ones that are most relevant for predictions,” she said. “That [information] also tells us a lot about the epidemiology of the disease and what factors are important for influencing between-farm disease transmission.” Some of that information was revealed in an earlier study during the emergence of PED in 2013. The most important factors during the initial phase of the epidemic were animal movements as well as local spread, which was critical knowledge when farms were in close proximity to each other, VanderWaal said. “That’s where we started with the forecasting aspect of this [recent study],” she said. “We focus on the spatial neighborhoods around sow farms and what those neighbors are doing.” The forecasting pipeline has a sensitivity of around 20%, which means that researchers can detect one out of every five outbreaks that occur. “That’s more information than we had before…so it’s a modest improvement,” VanderWaal said. “However, if we try to improve the sensitivity, we basically create more false alarms. The positive predictive value is 70%, which means that for every 10 times the model predicts an outbreak, it’s right seven of those times. Our partners don’t want to get a bunch of false alarms; if you ‘cry wolf’ too often, people stop responding. That’s one of the limitations we’re trying to balance.” Another challenge is that researchers don’t have a standardized database of what biosecurity measures are being taken at what point, or how feed trucks are moving between farms, and anything else that could carry fomites between farms. “We certainly have some missing pieces that we’re unable to quantify; therefore, we’re unable to put [that data] into the model,” she said. Increased participation in the MSHMP is essential for the program to grow, VanderWaal said, because the infection data is a critical component of the model. “As far as animal movement data is concerned, the minimum of what we need is the origin location of the sites, the destination, the dates and the number of animals moved,” she said. “Most systems are recording that information in some format,” she said. “Since November 2019, we have been delivering forecasts on a weekly basis to the partnering companies that were part of the pilot portion of the project. Their sow farms are ranked according to which ones are most at risk in any given point of time. “We’ve had feedback on how [participating farms] are using these forecasts,” VanderWaal said. “One is to basically shore up biosecurity.” Some systems use the ranked list to help remind staff that they need to be extra careful about biosecurity on the higher-risk farms. Conversely, it provides reassurance for lower-risk farms and gives them time to do a cost-benefit analysis and determine when more biosecurity measures need to be implemented. Future research will include a model for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), VanderWaal said, and getting a better handle on the immunology of PRRS. “Given the variable level of immunity across herds and that pigs probably have been exposed to different variants in the past, that might dictate which strains of PRRS may be most successful at invading a particular population,” she said. “We’re doing a lot more work right now to understand the interface between the immunology and the epidemiology to understand which PRRS strains…are most successful, given the immunological profile of the population. “Given the input data, the pipeline should be able to run through all of the necessary analytical steps to generate the data and the model we need to make the predictions,” VanderWaal said. “That’s useful for onboarding new systems [as well as] adapting to new epidemiological contexts.” There is still work to be done in terms of making sure the data is formatted correctly and figuring out how to transfer movement data on a weekly basis, VanderWaal said, but the model has significant value for future herd improvement. “You can learn a lot about the vulnerability of your system to a disease outbreak as well as identify key farms that might be super spreaders in the network, if you have the data,” she said. Make controlling pathogen spread through feed part of your biosecurity protocol Compartments enable ASF-free pigs from North America to move to other global trading partners should an outbreak occur i… Hog futures have been helped by strength in the cattle futures market and a rise in wholesale US pork prices Compartments enable ASF-free pigs from North America to move to other global trading partners should an outbreak occur in the North American zone. Hog futures have been helped by strength in the cattle futures market and a rise in wholesale US pork prices SHIC’s observations in Vietnam as they actively combat African Swine Fever (ASF) in their country Eliminating porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a promising achievement for some commercial herds and a goal for others. Among the challenges is that PRRSV causes a persistent infection in pigs…
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Disease Outbreaks
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2019 Arkansas River floods
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Between May and June 2019, an extended sequence of heavy rainfall events over the South Central United States caused historic flooding along the Arkansas River and its tributaries. Major and record river flooding occurred primarily in northeastern Oklahoma, and the elevated flows continued downstream into Arkansas where the caused additional inundation. Antecedent soil moisture levels and water levels in lakes and streams were already high from previous rains, priming the region for significant runoff and flooding. The prolonged combination of high atmospheric moisture and a sustained weather pattern extending across the continental United States led to frequent high-yield rainfall over the Arkansas River watershed. The overarching weather pattern allowed moisture levels to quickly rebound after each sequential rainfall episode. With soils already saturated, the excess precipitation became surface runoff and flowed into the already elevated lakes and streams. Most rainfall occurred in connection with a series of repeated thunderstorms between May 19–21, which was then followed by additional rains that kept streams within flood stage. Flooding in the Arkansas River basin caused an estimated $3 billion in damage and killed five people. The initial episode of torrential rainfall prompted the issuance of two flash flood emergencies for several counties in eastern Oklahoma on May 20, with numerous water rescues occurring during the event. Several reservoirs in eastern Oklahoma filled over capacity and reached record levels, requiring large releases of water to alleviate the dangerously high storage of water. Repeated rains continued to keep the reservoirs filled, necessitating further releases of water. The prolonged release of reservoir water combined with surface runoff to cause near-record to record flooding along the Arkansas River. Parts of the Tulsa metropolitan area and entire towns near swollen rivers were inundated. In some locations the Arkansas River backed upstream into its tributaries, causing major flooding. The bulge of elevated water levels that began in Oklahoma flowed downstream into Arkansas by May 23, breaching three levees along the Arkansas River and inundating numerous buildings. In Van Buren, the flood was assessed by the United States Geological Survey as a 1 in 200 year flood event. [note 2] Federal major disaster declarations and statewide states of emergencies were declared for Oklahoma and Arkansas. Across the continental United States, 12 months preceding May 2019 were the wettest in 124 years of recordkeeping,[2] in line with a longer-term trend of increasing precipitation and heavy rainfall events due to climate change. [3] Soil moisture and water levels in lakes and streams across the Southern Plains were high heading into May. During the latter half of May 2019, an active weather pattern became established over the United States, characterized by the juxtaposition of pronounced trough over the western half of the country and ridging over the southern and southeastern United States. [4] This configuration was favorable for frequent rainfalls over the Southern Plains,[4] placing the jet stream in a position to draw the warm and moist air mass atop the Gulf of Mexico northward. [1]:4 Atmospheric moisture was also atypically high during this period, with precipitable water content persisting between 1.5–2 in (38–51 mm), thereby increasing the precipitation potential of each individual shower and thunderstorm. [5][4] The first rains associated with the flood occurred on May 18, when a squall line moved across eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Additional showers immediately preceding and succeeding the squall enhanced rainfall totals. [5]:23
Between May 20–21, another storm system moved from the Rocky Mountains into Oklahoma. A warm front associated with the complex moved across the state during the daytime on May 20, followed by a cold front that swept eastwards across the state between the evening of May 20 into the following morning. This produced several episodes of severe thunderstorms enhanced by the confluence of the moist, warm, and unstable airmass ahead of the storm system. [6] Initially isolated thunderstorms over eastern Oklahoma coalesced into a line, with new storm cells training repeatedly tracking over the same locations as the line slowly moved east. The complex combined with another cluster of storms over central Oklahoma and tracked northeast, causing further rainfall before dissipating. Another squall line was generated by the storm system as the associated upper-level low moved into Kansas, sweeping through eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas on the morning of May 21 with its heaviest rains overlapping the same areas affected by the earlier storms. [5]:23 Most of the rainfall associated with the flood event occurred during a 36-hour period between May 19–21 in a region spanning from northeastern Oklahoma to northwestern Arkansas. [1]:1 Lesser rainfall events followed the primary rainfall event, keeping rivers in flood stage into June 2019. [1]:4 On May 22, the approach of an upper-level trough allowed moisture levels to quickly rebound in the wake of the previous day's storms. Several thunderstorms rapidly organized along Interstate 44 in Oklahoma during the late afternoon and moved towards the east-northeast. A surge of warm air and strengthening low-level winds during the nighttime hours instigated additional storm formation over the same areas. [5]:24
Two rounds of showers and thunderstorms affected eastern Oklahoma and the Ozarks between May 24–25, reaping a moist atmosphere characterized by precipitable water levels at least two standard deviations above normal over north-central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas. Widespread 1.5–4 in (38–102 mm) rainfalls occurred across the upper Arkansas River basin. [5]:30 The dominant trough over the western United States persisted, maintaining a southwesterly wind across the Southern Plains along which storms would travel. In the pre-dawn hours of May 26, a bow echo tracked across Oklahoma into Kansas, primarily affecting areas north of Interstate 40 and the Tulsa metropolitan area with severe weather and 1–3 in (25–76 mm) of rainfall. Two more periods of rainfall occurred on May 26, producing 0.5–3 in (13–76 mm) of rainfall along the Kansas–Oklahoma border. [5]:31 More rain fell ahead of a slow-moving cold front between May 28–30 over Oklahoma and Arkansas, with localized totals of 2–4 in (51–102 mm); this event was concentrated further southeast of the earlier rains, primarily affecting southeastern and east-central Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas. [5]:34
The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) estimated that flooding in the Arkansas River basin caused $3 billion in damage, with a 95% confidence interval between $1.8–$5.3 billion. Five people were killed by the floods. [7] Between May 18–30, 6–16 in (150–410 mm) of rain fell along and northwest of a line from Okmulgee, Oklahoma to near Bentonville, Arkansas, with 3–5 in (76–127 mm) of rain occurring at points southeast of this region. [4] The rains also extended into southern Kansas and southwestern Missouri. [5]:35 Rainfall totals of 10–16 in (250–410 mm) were widespread across southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. [4] Some areas of Oklahoma received 22 in (560 mm) of rainfall in total, representing the highest accumulated rainfall during the flood event. [1]:1 Talala, Oklahoma, recorded more than twice its average May rainfall in a single week. [8] While most of the contributing rains fell between May 19–21, river flood crests occurred between May 26–June 4. [1]:1 Within the warning region of the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at least one river was at flood stage between the evening of May 20 and the morning of June 13.
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Floods
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2013 Ethiopian Air Force An-12 crash
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On 9 August 2013, an Antonov An-12 operated by the Ethiopian Air Force crashed while attempting to land at Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. There were six crew on board, of which four perished and two survived with injuries. [1][2]
The flight departed from Dire Dawa International Airport in Ethiopia at 06:00 local time that morning, commanded by Colonel Berhanu Geremew, a highly experienced pilot. [3] It was carrying a cargo of weapons and ammunition. [4] The aircraft was cleared for a visual approach to runway 05 in Mogadishu but crashed to the left of the runway at 07:58 local time. Due to the location of the crash on the airport property, the Rescue Fire Fighting Service led by AMISOM firefighters and SKA airport employees were able to respond to the impact site within 90 seconds. Two crew members were rescued from the aircraft wreckage and transferred to the AMISOM Level 2 hospital with injuries. [5] The other four crew, were killed upon impact. The aircraft was consumed and destroyed by a fire. [2] There was no damage to the airport runway or other facilities. The airport remained closed for nearly 7 hours due to the accident and re-opened to commercial traffic at 14:55 local time. The first departure after resumption of operations was a Turkish Airlines Airbus 321 to Djibouti and Istanbul. The Government of Somalia appointed a 7-person committee to investigate the accident. It contained representatives from the Ministry of Transport, Somali Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority, Somali Police Force, National Intelligence Security Agency, Somali Air Force, SKA International Group and AMISOM. [6] The committee presented a preliminary report that ruled out foul play as a cause of the accident. [7] The final report is due after analysis of the black boxes recovered from the wreckage.
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Air crash
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2005 Togo protests and riots
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The 2005 Togo protests and riots were demonstrations and rioting against the results of the presidential election and Faure Gnassingbe's takeover of power. Protests began in February with protesters demanding new elections and the end of the Gnassingbe dynasty. Around 100 were killed before the elections, but after the 2005 Togolese presidential election around 500 protesters were killed by Togolese Armed Forces, assisted by military-trained Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) militias. Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadéma died on 5 February 2005, and the Togolese Armed Forces immediately installed his son Faure Gnassingbé as president. The Army Chief of Staff, Zakari Nandja, said this was meant to avoid a power vacuum. The following day on 6 February, President of the National Assembly of Togo Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba, who should have taken over as caretaker leader pending elections in 2 months per the Constitution of Togo, was dismissed and replaced by Faure Gnassingbe. The African Union (AU) described this as "a military coup" with both the AU and ECOWAS imposing sanctions on Togo.The Togolese government initially banned all protests for two months. However, about 1,000 people attended an anti-government rally in Lomé on 11 February 2005.
Gnassingbé lifted the government's ban on protests on 18 February and announced that there would be a presidential election in 60 days. Opposition groups called on Gnassingbé to step down and held large protests in Lomé, Aného, Sokodé and Sinkanse. On 25 February, Gnassingbé, citing growing domestic and international pressure, announced he would resign as president, resulting in ECOWAS lifting sanctions. Opposition supporters objected to the appointment of Bonfoh Abass as interim president instead of Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba, accusing Abass of being too close to the Gnassingbé regime.
The United Nations estimated that between 400 and 500 people were killed in electoral violence and mass riots. In May 2017, around 35,000 Togolese citizens fled to Benin and Ghana, citing abductions and
forced disappearances, which were believed to be politically motivated.
The amount of casualties is unclear but unofficial results and tallies are being reported. The United nations and Amnesty international have said that the military killed 150 protesters and the security forces and police killed 400 protesters. Government officials report that there are 22 deaths but opposition figures suggested there were 150-200 deaths. It is still unclear to this day about the casualties. Protesters have been describing the fear they’ve been living in for years and years after, protests started to protest. Anger is still growing on the streets. As of now, an investigation into the violence in Togo has been put in place and protests are banned.
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Riot
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University of Lomé riots
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The University of Lomé (French: Université de Lomé; abbreviated UL) is the largest university in Togo. Located in the city of Lomé, it was founded in 1970 as University of Benin (French: Université du Bénin) and changed its name to the University of Lomé in 2001.
In May 2011, the government of Togo ordered the indefinite closure of University of Lomé after students started riots demanding better conditions and food. The riots began on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, and escalated through the rest of the week culminating in a clash on Friday between students and police which required the use of tear gas to disperse the roughly 500 rioting students. Authorities stated that the rioters were invading lecture halls, assaulting lecturers and other students, and destroying university property. The university was closed on Friday, May 27, 2011. The head of the institution, Koffi Ahadzi Nonon, stated that the students were upset that the university had introduced a new academic system called LMD (translated as bachelor, master, doctorate),for which the students were unprepared. On May 26, 2011, the Embassy of the United States in Lomé, Togo, issued a warden message to U.S. citizens in Togo to avoid the university campus area until the riots had ceased and stating that tear gas may have been used on May 25, against the demonstrators. On June 6, an agreement between the university and the students was reached as students affirmed their commitment to the new LMD academic system and that the university would improve the students' living conditions. On June 15, the head of student organization, the Movement for the Development of Togolese Students or MEET, was arrested for attempting to incite possible violent resistance. The head of Hacam — another student organization — condemned the actions of the head of MEET.
On July 8, students and government representatives signed a formal agreement allowing current students to continue on the classic academic system or switch to the LMD system at their option and which stated that the government would invest 2.4 billion CFA francs (roughly US$4,800,000) into the construction of new lectures halls and versatile teaching blocks at the University of Lomé and the University of Kara.
Coordinates: 6°10′25″N 1°12′57″E / 6.173669°N 1.215866°E / 6.173669; 1.215866
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Riot
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Mom dies saving her children by breastfeeding them for days after shipwreck
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A woman from Venezuela has been praised for making the ultimate sacrifice to save her children, after the boat they were on was wrecked and drifted at sea for four days. Mariely Chacón, 40, was on the vessel Thor with her 6-year-old son and her 2-year-old daughter, for a pleasure cruise from Higuerote to Tortuga Island, in the Venezuelan state of Miranda, according to Univision. The cruise on September 3 turned to disaster for the nine people on board when a large wave split the hull of the vessel. Chacón was left adrift with her children and their 25-year-old nanny, Verónica Martinez. As they floated under the blazing sun, Chacón decided that her children would be saved at whatever cost. She drank her own urine and tried to keep them as hydrated as possible by breastfeeding them. When the exhausted children were finally found by the authorities four days later, they were clinging to the body of their mother in a small lifeboat. Martinez was found in an empty icebox and is in hospital. The children were treated at a clinic in the capital Caracas, according to reports. The five others who were on board are still missing, including Remis Clambor, Chacón’s husband and the father of her children, some friends of the couple and a crew member. A forensic medicine source quoted by the newspaper La República said the mother’s vital organs had collapsed because of electrolyte depletion. This was caused by dehydration possibly accelerated by her breastfeeding. Humberto Chacón, the woman’s father, said the boat voyage was “simply a family trip to entertain the children,” the publication added. Mariely Chacón’s funeral was held on September 11 in the Venezuelan capital and the service was broadcast on YouTube. Many posted on social media to pay tribute to her sacrifice. The journalist Laura Castellanos tweeted, according to a translation: “The Virgin of Coromoto is watching Mariely Chacón Marroquin in Caracas,” adding: “Rest in peace.” Another user wrote that a mother’s love “can do everything.” One user who added the hashtag #MarielyChacon posted: “I did not have the privilege of meeting you,” adding that “your last days of life speak a lot about what was in your beautiful heart, you are a being of light in eternity.” The Venezuelan authorities have admitted there is little chance of finding the missing people alive. However, Emily Dos Santos, twin sister of one of the five, released a video on September 9 saying she still believed they could be saved.
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Shipwreck
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2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis
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The Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political event in Iceland that involved the default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2008, following their difficulties in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposits in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Relative to the size of its economy, Iceland's systemic banking collapse was the largest experienced by any country in economic history. [1] The crisis led to a severe economic depression in 2008–2010 and significant political unrest. [2]
In the years preceding the crisis, three Icelandic banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir, multiplied in size. This expansion was driven by ready access to credit in international financial markets, in particular money markets. As the financial crisis of 2007–2008 unfolded, investors perceived the Icelandic banks to be increasingly risky. Trust in the banks gradually faded, leading to a sharp depreciation of the Icelandic króna in 2008 and increased difficulties for the banks in rolling over their short-term debt. At the end of the second quarter of 2008, Iceland's external debt was 9.553 trillion Icelandic krónur (€50 billion), more than 7 times the GDP of Iceland in 2007. [3][4] The assets of the three banks totaled 14.437 trillion krónur at the end of the second quarter 2008,[5] equal to more than 11 times the national GDP. Due to the huge size of the Icelandic financial system in comparison with the Icelandic economy, the Central Bank of Iceland found itself unable to act as a lender of last resort during the crisis, further aggravating the mistrust in the banking system. On 29 September 2008, it was announced that Glitnir would be nationalised. However, subsequent efforts to restore faith in the banking system failed. On 6 October, the Icelandic legislature instituted an emergency law which enabled the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) to take control over financial institutions and made domestic deposits in the banks priority claims. In the following days, new banks were founded to take over the domestic operations of Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir. The old banks were put into receivership and liquidation, resulting in losses for their shareholders and foreign creditors. Outside Iceland, more than half a million depositors lost access to their accounts in foreign branches of Icelandic banks. This led to the 2008–2013 Icesave dispute, that ended with an EFTA Court ruling that Iceland was not obliged to repay Dutch and British depositors minimum deposit guarantees. In an effort to stabilize the situation, the Icelandic government stated that all domestic deposits in Icelandic banks would be guaranteed, imposed strict capital controls to stabilize the value of the Icelandic króna, and secured a US$5.1bn sovereign debt package from the IMF and the Nordic countries in order to finance a budget deficit and the restoration of the banking system. The international bailout support programme led by IMF officially ended on 31 August 2011, while the capital controls which were imposed in November 2008 were lifted on 14 March 2017. [6]
The financial crisis had a serious negative impact on the Icelandic economy. The national currency fell sharply in value, foreign currency transactions were virtually suspended for weeks, and the market capitalisation of the Icelandic stock exchange fell by more than 90%. As a result of the crisis, Iceland underwent a severe economic depression; the country's gross domestic product dropped by 10% in real terms between the third quarter of 2007 and the third quarter of 2010. [7] A new era with positive GDP growth started in 2011, and has helped foster a gradually declining trend for the unemployment rate. The government budget deficit has declined from 9.7% of GDP in 2009 and 2010 to 0.2% of GDP in 2014;[8] the central government gross debt-to-GDP ratio was expected to decline to less than 60% in 2018 from a maximum of 85% in 2011. [9]
The Icelandic króna had declined more than 35% against the euro from January to September 2008. [10] Inflation of consumer prices was running at 14%,[11] and Iceland's interest rates had been raised to 15.5% to deal with the high inflation. [12]
On the night of Wednesday, 8 October 2008, the Central Bank of Iceland abandoned its attempt to peg the Icelandic króna at 131 krónur to the euro after trying to set this peg on 6 October. [13] By 9 October, the Icelandic króna was trading at 340 to the euro when trading in the currency collapsed due to the FME's takeover of the last major Icelandic bank, and thus the loss of all króna trade 'clearing houses'. [14] The next day, the central bank introduced restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency within Iceland. [15] From 9 October to 5 November, the European Central Bank quoted a reference rate of 305 krónur to the euro. [16]
The Central Bank of Iceland set up a temporary system of daily currency auctions on 15 October to facilitate international trade. The value of the króna is determined by supply and demand in these auctions. [17] The first auction sold €25 million at a rate of 150 krónur to the euro. [18] Commercial króna trading outside Iceland restarted on 28 October, at an exchange rate of 240 krónur to the euro, after Icelandic interest rates had been raised to 18%. [19] The foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Iceland fell by US$289 million during October 2008. [20]
During November, the real exchange rate (discounting inflation) of the Icelandic króna, as quoted by the Central Bank of Iceland, was roughly one-third lower than the average rate from 1980 to 2008, and 20% lower than the historical lows during the same period. [21] The external rate as quoted by the European Central Bank was lower still. [16] On the last trading day of the month, 28 November, the Central Bank of Iceland was quoting 182.5 krónur to the euro,[10] while the European Central Bank was quoting 280 krónur to the euro. [16]
On 28 November, the Central Bank of Iceland and the Minister for Business Affairs agreed on a new set of currency regulations,[22] replacing the central bank's restrictions imposed early on in the crisis. [23] Movements of capital to and from Iceland were banned without a license from central bank. [24] It is estimated that foreign investors hold some €2.9 billion in króna-denominated securities, popularly known as "glacier bonds". [25]
The foreign exchange rules also oblige Icelandic residents to deposit any new foreign currency they receive with an Icelandic bank. [24] There is anecdotal evidence that some Icelandic exporters had been operating an informal offshore foreign exchange market,[26] trading pounds and euros for krónur outside the control of any regulator and starving the onshore market of foreign currency. Hence the Central Bank had to sell €124 million of currency reserves in November 2008 to make up the difference,[18] compared with an estimated trade surplus of €13.9 million. [27]
The last currency auction was held on 3 December. The domestic interbank foreign exchange market reopened the following day with three market makers, all of them government-owned. [28] On the first two days of domestic trading, the króna climbed to 153.3 to the euro, up 22% against the last currency auction rate. [citation needed]
In January 2009, the exchange rate of Icelandic króna against Euro seemed to be more stabilized compared with the situation in October 2008, with the lowest rate at 177.5 krónur per EUR on 1, 3 and 4 January 2009, and the highest at 146.8 on 30 January 2009. [29] In the meantime, however, Iceland's 12-month inflation in January 2009 climbed to a record high of 18.6%. [30]
In September 2008, internal documents from Kaupthing, the largest bank in Iceland, were leaked to WikiLeaks.
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Financial Crisis
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Coronavirus community transmissions in Victoria grow as Fitzroy restaurant fined
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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
A Fitzroy restaurant will have to pay around $10,000 after becoming the first Victorian business fined for breaching coronavirus restrictions, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the state rises by nearly 100 — including four infants.
Police Minister Lisa Neville also this morning put a temporary ban on additional access to firearms and ammunition for recreation and sporting shooters.
The moves came as Victorian health authorities confirmed another 96 coronavirus cases, taking the state's total to 917.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said four of the new cases were pre-school-aged children — three cases in children aged under one year and a one-year-old — bringing the total number of pre-school-aged cases in Victoria to five.
Professor Sutton said it did not appear to be a cluster of cases and the advice on childcare centres staying open had not changed.
"There's no apparent linkage between them but that is being looked at at the moment," he said.
He said overwhelmingly for children under nine the illness was "very, very mild" and deaths were "virtually unheard of". Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said all of the children were recovering in isolation with their families. "One of the cases got it overseas," Ms Mikakos said. "Investigations are continuing into the other three cases. I should stress it's not believed this is a cluster. "It doesn't appear this is one childcare centre or one group of children all known to each other."
The number of suspected community transmissions has increased by six to 32.
"The community transmission will be significant in a few days if we don't get on top of it," Professor Sutton said. "We've seen a 25 per cent increase in a day. This is significant. "We wouldn't want to see that trajectory ongoing."
Ms Mikakos added that six healthcare workers at Eastern Health had tested positive for COVID-19 but could not yet say if they were doctors, nurses or other staff.
In an email to staff, Eastern Health said that none of the six staff were severely unwell and they were currently self-isolating at home.
The ABC understands that at least one of the staff is a doctor.
"We've seen this in many countries around the world that our healthcare workers are at risk," Ms Mikakos said.
"Our healthcare services are alive to those risks, and they work incredibly hard to keep their staff and their patients safe."
Eastern Health introduced temperature testing at its hospitals on Tuesday, including Box Hill Hospital, following the positive tests.
Three health care workers at The Alfred and four at Werribee Mercy Hospital, in Melbourne's west, have also tested positive for the virus.
More than 45,000 tests have been conducted to date and 29 people are in hospital — including four patients in intensive care — while 291 people have recovered.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there were now 4,359 cases of coronavirus in Australia and 19 people had lost their lives.
Fifty people are in intensive care and 20 people are on ventilators.
On Monday, Victoria Police fined China Bar in Fitzroy $9,913 for breaching a directive that non-essential businesses should close.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said the business had six staff working on Saturday serving customers who were drinking and eating on the premises.
"Sometimes it's the carrot and the stick and now we have a $10,000 stick," Deputy Commissioner Patton said.
He said when questioned on Saturday night, the staff at the Fitzroy restaurant "weren't cooperative, they refused to say how long they had been open and they refused to state why they were open".
"Essentially a 'no comment' response," he said.
"It's the first time we've issued an infringement but it won't be the last. I can assure you.
"We've been fairly lenient, we've issued a lot of warnings but I think now the time for that has passed. "Unless you've been living under a rock or unless you're an idiot, you're quite clear that the restrictions are there … so we are going to be enforcing them from today. "Police [will] use discretion but that's going to be more the exception than the norm." Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast.
Victorians who are caught breaching other physical-distancing measures, such as the limits on people attending weddings or funerals, now face on-the-spot fines of $1,652.
The fines can be applied to anyone leaving the house for "non-essential reasons". That means leaving for anything other than work, education, medical care, exercise or to get food and supplies. The two-person limit in Victoria does not apply to people who live in the same house, and excludes workplaces and schools.
Source: Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, ABC Radio Melbourne
Deputy Commissioner Patton said about 20 people weren't at home when police conducted spot checks. "That's not unusual," he said, adding that they could be visiting a doctor.
He said people who "deliberately" breached isolation rules could be charged with offences under the Crimes Act.
"Conduct placing a person in danger of serious injury, which carries five imprisonment, or conduct placing a person in danger of death, which carries 10 years. These are serious indictable offences. We are open to considering that, these aren't idle threats," he said.
"It might be criminality that we're talking about."
Explaining the firearms restrictions, Ms Neville said the Government was concerned by the increase in attempts to access firearms, adding the coronavirus pandemic had made it an "incredibly stressful time for people".
She said the number of attempts to access certain categories of firearms and ammunition had doubled in the past week from about 1,000 to 2,200.
"We know there are pressures around family violence and also around work and people spending a lot of of time together," she said.
"This applies to sport and recreational users of firearms. It does not impact on primary producers or those who need it like security guards, prison guards, for example."
Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party Victorian MP Jeff Bourman pointed out that gun licences were predicated on applicants having safe storage and described the move as "unmitigated bulls***".
"Do us the courtesy of admitting it's just another shafting of the most law abiding segment of society because it's easy," he said on Twitter.
Deputy Commissioner Patton said the police were continually reviewing crime rates.
He said there had been an overall decline in crime over the past week, but a "slight increase" in commercial burglaries and family violence, which he said police were "really focused on".
Family violence support services in Melbourne have told the ABC that some abusive men have been using the pandemic as a weapon against their partners in "horrendous" forms of abuse.
"We continue to monitor these areas and put resources into specific categories," Deputy Commissioner Patton said.
"We're going to be checking everywhere. And if we see carloads of youths driving around because it's fun to drive around together; $1,652 for each person in that car."
The Brandon Park Coles supermarket and attached Liquorland, in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave, have been cleaned after two employees tested positive for the coronavirus, the supermarket giant said in a statement.
The company had confirmed with the Department of Health and Human Services that the store could continue to trade and the risk of transmission for customers and team members was "very low".
"The individuals need to remain isolated and their close contacts need to be followed up, but the settings themselves, if they're cleaned then they're not a risk to others," Professor Sutton said.
"I'm sure Coles has gone through a very thorough process of cleaning so that anyone passing through there subsequently is not at risk."
The two employees and those who had been in close contact with them have been ordered to self-isolate.
At Kmart at Chadstone Shopping Centre, two casual workers who were on duty on March 28 also tested positive to the virus. The store is closed while cleaning is being carried out.
Chadstone remains open with crowd-control measures in place, but at least half of the centre's shops are closed.
Simon Smith owns a confectionary and chocolate store at the centre and has decided to stay open. He said business was so bad he needed "financially … to take the risk". "I'm down to just one staff [member] and [I've asked her] if she's happy to come into Chadstone," he said.
"She's deciding to come in and help us."
Work has been suspended on the Melbourne Square apartment construction site in Southbank for at least 24 hours after the developer Multiplex was informed on Monday night that a worker had tested positive to COVID-19, the company's regional managing director Graham Cottam said.
See our full coverage of coronavirus
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Organization Fine
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Hartford circus fire
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The Hartford circus fire, which occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the worst fire disasters in United States history. [1] The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that was attended by 6,000 to 8,000 people. The fire killed 167 people[2] and more than 700 were injured. In mid-20th century America, a typical circus traveled from town to town by train, performing under a huge canvas tent commonly called a "big top". The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was no exception: what made it stand out was that it was the largest circus in the country. Its big top could seat 9,000 spectators around its three rings; the tent's canvas had been coated with 1,800 pounds (820 kg) of paraffin wax dissolved in 6,000 US gallons (23,000 l) of gasoline, a common waterproofing method of the time. [2]
The circus had been experiencing shortages of personnel and equipment as a result of the United States' involvement in World War II. Delays and malfunctions in the ordinarily smooth order of the circus had become commonplace; on August 4, 1942, a fire had broken out in the menagerie, killing a number of animals. When the circus arrived in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 5, 1944, the trains were so late that one of the two shows scheduled for that day had been canceled. [3] In circus superstition, missing a show is considered extremely bad luck, and although the July 5, 1944, evening show ran as planned, many circus employees may have been on their guard, half-expecting an emergency or catastrophe. [4]
The next day was a Thursday; the crowd at the 2:15 afternoon performance was dominated by women and children. [2][5] The size of the audience that day has never been established with certainty, but the best estimate is about 7,000. [6]
The fire began as a small flame after the lions performed, on the southwest sidewall of the tent, while the Great Wallendas were performing. [7] Circus bandleader Merle Evans was said to have been the first to spot the flames, and immediately directed the band to play "The Stars and Stripes Forever", the tune that traditionally signaled distress to all circus personnel. [8] Ringmaster Fred Bradna urged the audience not to panic and to leave in an orderly fashion, but the power failed and he could not be heard. Bradna and the ushers unsuccessfully tried to maintain some order as the panicked crowd tried to flee the big top. The only animals in the big top at the time were the big cats trained by May Kovar and Joseph Walsh that had just finished performing when the fire started. [9] The big cats were herded through the chutes leading from the performing cages to several cage wagons, and were unharmed except for a few minor burns. [10] Though most spectators were able to escape the fire, many people were caught up in the hysteria. Witnesses said some simply ran around in circles trying to find their loved ones, rather than trying to escape from the burning tent. Some escaped but ran back inside to look for family members. Others stayed in their seats until it was too late, assuming that the fire would be put out promptly. Because at least two of the exits were blocked by the chutes used to bring the show's big cats in and out of the tent, people trying to escape could not bypass them. The cause of the fire remains unsolved. Investigators at the time believed it was caused by a carelessly flicked cigarette;[11] however, others suspected an arsonist. In 1950, while being investigated on other arson charges, Robert Dale Segee (1929–1997), who was an adolescent at the time of the fire, confessed to starting the blaze. [12] He was never tried for the crime and later recanted his confession. Because of the paraffin wax waterproofing of the tent, the flames spread rapidly, helped by the wind. [9] The waterproofing indeed protected the tent from the rain, but as had been repeatedly shown, it was horribly flammable. Many people were badly burned by the melting paraffin, which rained down from the roof. The fiery tent collapsed in about eight minutes according to eyewitness survivors, trapping hundreds of spectators beneath it. [13] Because of a picture that appeared in several newspapers of sad tramp clown Emmett Kelly holding a water bucket, the event became known as "the day the clowns cried. "[14]
While many people burned to death, many others died as a result of the ensuing chaos. Sources and investigators differ on how many people were killed and injured. Various people and organizations say it was 167, 168, or 169 persons (the 168 figure is usually based on official tallies that included a collection of body parts that were listed as a "victim") with official treated injury estimates running over 700 people. The number of actual injuries is believed to be higher than those figures, since many people were seen that day heading home in shock without seeking treatment in the city. It is commonly believed that the number of fatalities is higher than the estimates given, due to poorly kept residency records in rural towns, and the fact that some smaller remains were never identified or claimed. Additionally, free tickets had been handed out that day to many people in and around the city, some of whom appeared to eyewitnesses and circus employees to be drifters who would never have been reported missing. Some died from injuries sustained after leaping from the tops of the bleachers in hopes they could escape under the sides of the tent, though that method of escape ended up killing more than it saved. Others died after being trampled by other spectators,[15] with some asphyxiating underneath the piles of people who fell over each other. Most of the dead were found in piles, some three bodies deep, at the most congested exits. A small number of people were found alive at the bottoms of these piles, protected by the bodies on top of them when the burning big top ultimately fell down. [16]
On July 7, 1944, charges of involuntary manslaughter were filed against five officials and employees of Ringling Bros.[17] Within the ensuing days, the circus reached an agreement with Hartford officials to accept full financial responsibility and pay whatever amount the city requested in damages. The circus paid almost $5,000,000 to the 600 victims and families who had filed claims against them by 1954. All circus profits from the time of the fire until then had been set aside to pay off these claims. Although the circus accepted full responsibility for the financial damages, it did not accept responsibility for the disaster itself. The five men charged were brought to trial in late 1944, and four were convicted. Although the four were given prison terms, they were allowed to continue with the circus to its next stop, Sarasota, Florida, to help the company set itself up again after the disaster. Shortly after their convictions, they were pardoned entirely. One of the men, James A. Haley, went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years.
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Fire
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Australia's Kaylee McKeown breaks the Olympic record to win 100m backstroke gold in Tokyo
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Rising Australian star Kaylee McKeown is now an Olympic champion, blitzing home to win the 100m backstroke final with an Olympic record time.
Fellow Aussie Emily Seebohm finished fifth, nearly a second behind 20-year-old McKeown, whose time of 57.47 seconds was only 0.02 seconds behind the world record time she set in June this year.
McKeown turned in third position, but made her move in the final 30 metres of the race, finishing ahead of Canada's Kylie Masse and the US's Regan Smith.
"It's definitely something that people dream of — it's something I have dreamed of, too," McKeown told Channel Seven after the race.
"To make it a reality is ... yeah, really amazing."
Competing at her first Olympics, McKeown admitted to feeling the nerves in the lead up to her big moment.
"I'm just thankful I have a good support team," she said.
"A few people before the race came up and said, 'just have all the faith in the world that you have got this'."
McKeown also paid tribute to her father, Sholto, who died of brain cancer last year at the age of 53.
"I hope you're proud, and I keep doing you proud."
Mitch Larkin finished seventh in the men's 100m backstroke final shortly after, which was won by the Russian Olympic Committee's Evgeny Rylov.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Break historical records
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Percy Pilcher crash
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Percy Sinclair Pilcher (16 January 1867 – 2 October 1899) was a British inventor and pioneer aviator who was his country's foremost experimenter in unpowered flight near the end of the nineteenth century. After corresponding with Otto Lilienthal, Pilcher had considerable success with developing hang gliders. in 1895 he made repeated flights in the Bat, and in 1896–1897 many flights in the Hawk culminated in a world distance record. By 1899, Pilcher had produced a motor-driven triplane, which he planned to test at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire on 30 September 1899, however the attempt was delayed by mechanical problems. When he substituted a flight of Hawk, it suffered structural failure in mid-air and he was fatally injured in the resulting crash, with his powered aircraft never having been tested. Research carried out by Cranfield University in the early 2000s concluded that Pilcher's triplane was more or less workable, and would have been capable of flight with design modifications. This raised the possibility that Pilcher could have been the first to fly a heavier-than-air powered aircraft had he survived. Percy Pilcher was born in Bath in 1867, the son of Thomas Webb Pilcher (1799–1874) and a Scottish mother Sophia (née) Robinson. In 1880, at age 13 Pilcher became a cadet in the Royal Navy, and served for seven years. Thereafter he became an engineering apprentice with the shipbuilders, Randolph, Elder and Company, of Govan in Glasgow. [1][2]
In 1891 Pilcher began work as assistant lecturer at Glasgow University and took a growing interest in aviation. He built a hang glider called The Bat which he flew for the first time in 1895;[1]
Later that year Pilcher met Otto Lilienthal, who was the leading expert in gliding in Germany. These discussions led to Pilcher building two more gliders, The Beetle and The Gull. [3] Based on the work of his mentor Otto Lilienthal, in 1895–1896 Pilcher built a glider called Hawk with which he broke the world distance record when he flew 250 m (820 ft) at the grounds of Stanford Hall near Lutterworth in Leicestershire, England. His sister Ella Pilcher was involved with his work, stitching the fabric wings of his planes and assisting with his experiments and test flights. She appears in photos taken at the time of Pilcher's public flights. [4][5]
Pilcher set his sights on making powered flights. He developed a triplane that was to include a 4 hp (3 kW) engine. In order to develop a suitable internal combustion engine to power the aircraft, Pilcher teamed up with the motor engineer Walter Gordon Wilson, and created a company called Wilson-Pilcher. Wilson was later to become credited by the 1919 Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors as the co-inventor of the tank, along with Sir William Tritton. However, construction of the triplane put him heavily into debt, and Pilcher needed sponsorship to complete his work. [2][6]
On 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors, including the eminent Member of Parliament John Henniker Heaton, in a field near Stanford Hall. However, days before, the engine crankshaft had broken and, so as not to disappoint his guests, he decided to fly the Hawk instead. The weather was stormy and rainy, but by 4 pm Pilcher decided the weather was good enough to fly. [7] The canvas on the wings of the Hawk had become saturated by rain, unbeknown to Pilcher, this caused the fabric to contract putting excessive strain on the bamboo frame: Whilst in mid-air, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres (30 ft) to the ground: he died two days later from his injuries, having never regained conciousness, with his triplane having never been publicly flown. [8][2]
He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, west London. The damaged Hawk was given to the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain which exhibited it in that state, then in 1909 it was restored and given on loan to the Royal Scottish Museum in Chambers Street (now the main part of the National Museum of Scotland) which put the glider on display. It was on temporary loan to the 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry, when a November storm caused damage to the building, and to the glider which was repaired before being put on display again in the museum. During World War II it was put in storage. The fabric wings deteriorated, and restoration work was carried out by the Shuttleworth Trust. Pilcher's Hawk was again put back on display in the museum. In 1985 this became part of National Museums Scotland, and the Hawk became part of the collection of its National Museum of Flight at East Fortune. Further major conservation work was completed in the summer of 2016, and it is back again on display in its usual place, suspended above the atrium of the Science and Technology galleries of the National Museum of Scotland. [5][9]
A stone monument to Pilcher stands in the field near Stanford Hall at the point where he crashed, and a full-sized replica of his Hawk glider is also displayed at Stanford Hall. Pilcher is one of the unsuccessful aviation pioneers mentioned in the Marc Blitzstein composition The Airborne Symphony. In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. [10]
Pilcher's plans were lost for many years, and his name was also long forgotten except by a few enthusiasts. When the centenary of the Wright brothers' flight approached, a new effort was made to find the lost work, and some correspondence was found in a private American collection. From this it was possible to discern the general direction of his plans and the basis of his design. Based on Lilienthal's work, Pilcher understood how to produce lift using winglike structures, but at this time a full mathematical description was years away, so many elements were still missing. In particular, Pilcher was stuck trying to design a wing that could lift the weight of an engine, the aircraft itself and the occupant – each increase in wing area increased the weight so much that yet more lift was required, requiring a larger wing – a seemingly vicious circle. Pilcher's breakthrough, thanks to correspondence with another pioneer, Octave Chanute, was to stack smaller, lighter wings one atop the other in an arrangement we know today as the biplane or triplane. This allowed the wings to generate much more lift without a corresponding increase in weight. In 2003, a research effort carried out at the School of Aeronautics at Cranfield University, commissioned by the BBC2 television series Horizon, has shown that Pilcher's design was more or less workable, and had he been able to develop his engine, it is possible he would have succeeded in being the first to fly a heavier-than-air powered aircraft with some degree of control. [11]
Cranfield built a full-sized working replica of Pilcher's aircraft, but, based on wind tunnel tests with a scale model, they made several alterations to Pilcher's original designs, which they speculated Pilcher would have made, including filling in cut-away sections of the wings to increase the wing area, and therefore lift, and adding a swinging seat to aid control of the aircraft through shifting body weight; a refinement developed by Octave Chanute, which they believed Pilcher would have been aware of. They also added the Wright brothers' innovation of wing-warping as a safety backup for roll control. Pilcher's original design did not include aerodynamic controls such as ailerons or elevators. After a very short initial test flight piloted by the aircraft designer Bill Brookes, the craft achieved a sustained flight of 1 minute and 25 seconds, compared to 59 seconds for the Wright Brothers' best flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. This was achieved under dead calm conditions as an additional safety measure;[11]
the Wrights in 1903 flew in a 20 mph+ wind to achieve sufficient airspeed. A monument to Percy Pilcher is located at Upper Austin Lodge to the south of Eynsford, Kent.
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Air crash
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1913 Ais Gill rail accident
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The Ais Gill rail accident occurred on the Settle–Carlisle line in the north of England on 2 September 1913. The proximate cause of the crash was a signal passed at danger, but there were many contributing factors. The two trains involved were both passenger trains, which had left Carlisle railway station in the early hours of 2 September, destined for St Pancras station. The Midland Railway, which owned and operated the Settle-Carlisle line, had a policy of using small engines, and the two locomotives had barely sufficient power to surmount the steep gradients on the line with the heavy trains they were assigned. In theory, the load pulled by the first engine, No. 993 4-4-0, was 13 long tons (13 t) over its maximum limit of 230 long tons (230 t), so the driver asked for assistance from a pilot engine, but was not given one. To make matters worse, the coal with which both engines were supplied had not been properly screened and was full of slack and 'small coal', which did not fire well and tended to clog the grates. The first train left Carlisle at 1:38 am. As it struggled up the gradient to Ais Gill summit, the highest point of the Settle-Carlisle line, the steam pressure steadily dropped to the point where the locomotive's ejectors were unable to generate enough vacuum to hold the train brakes "off", and so the train stopped one-half-mile (800 m) short of the summit. As they cleaned out the grate and tried to build up steam pressure, the driver and fireman made the mistake of telling the guard that they would only be standing for a few minutes. The guard therefore did not protect the train in the rear, which could be done by laying detonators on the rails or walking a considerable distance along the line with a lantern. Meanwhile, the second train, hauled by No. 446 4-4-0, was also struggling, although it had a lighter load. Just short of Mallerstang, a few miles north of Ais Gill, the driver left the cab, to walk round the outside framing and oil some of the working parts while the train was in motion. Even though that procedure was no longer necessary because wick lubricators were in use, drivers apparently continued to do it out of habit and pride. While the driver was out of the cab, the fireman was having difficulty getting an injector to work, so the water level in the boiler was dropping. When the driver returned, both men worked on the injector, and eventually restarted it. While they were distracted by the problem, their train had passed all the signals at the Mallerstang signal box, which were at danger. The crew also missed a red lantern being waved from the signal box by the Mallerstang signalman, and another being waved by the guard of the first train. Shortly after, they looked up from their distractions to see the first train stalled not far in front of them, and far too late to stop. The crash caused an unexpectedly high number of casualties. Even though the last vehicle of the first train was a parcels van, the second train demolished it and ploughed into a third-class coach ahead. The roof of the parcels van slid over the roof of the second engine and sliced into a first class sleeping car behind it. As with many railway collisions in Britain about this time, flammable gas escaping from the cylinders for the gas-oil lighting system ignited and rapidly spread a fire. Fourteen people in the first train died at the scene, and very few remains were later found. Two passengers subsequently died of their injuries. Thirty-eight passengers in the second train were seriously injured. The subsequent inquiry blamed the crew of the first train for neglecting to protect the rear of their train, and the enginemen (particularly the driver) of the second train for failing to proceed with caution knowing that they must have passed several signals without observing them. The Mallerstang signalman was also criticised, although his actions did not contribute to the accident. The section controlled three main signals; the "distant", which could indicate "clear" or "caution", and the "home" and "starting", which could both indicate "clear" or "danger". The signalman had thrown all his signals to "caution" or "danger" after the first train passed. As the second train approached, he thought it was proceeding slowly under caution, and lowered the home signal to allow the train to proceed as far as the starting signal. When he realised that the train was actually steaming hard, he could not throw the home signal back to "danger" until the train had already passed it. The inquiry made several recommendations. Most concerned the enforcement of regulations on drivers, firemen, guards and signalmen to ensure closer attention to their primary duty; the care and safety of trains. The more extensive use of Automatic Train Control (ATC), then under extended trial on the Great Western Railway, was discussed. This would sound a siren in the cab to alert the crew of a train if they passed a signal at danger or caution and then automatically apply the brakes if they failed to acknowledge and cancel the warning. Signalboxes should be fitted with detonator placers, to alert engine crews who missed signals or were unable to observe them in fog or thick weather. Electric lighting was clearly safer than gas oil lighting, and steel-framed carriages were less likely to be crushed than wooden-framed stock. With regard to the issue of lack of motive power, the inquiry found that the Midland's policy was not to use pilot engines on engines that were on or slightly over their weight limit as the time lost in calling up a pilot engine, attaching it to the train and then removing it further along the line was greater than the time lost by a slightly overloaded train unable to keep up to time. The company did not discipline drivers who failed to keep to time because their trains were overloaded. The site of the crash was quite close to the site of the Hawes Junction rail crash which had taken place less than three years earlier, and to which the Midland Railway's small-locomotive policy had also indirectly contributed (in this instance by leading to a large number of light engine movements). The train crash plays an important role in the plotline events of the Kate Morton novel The Forgotten Garden.
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Train collisions
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Winter of Discontent
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The Winter of Discontent took place during 1978–79 in the United Kingdom. It was characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter for 16 years, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country. [1]
A strike by workers at Ford in late 1978 was settled with a pay increase of 17 per cent, well above the 5 per cent limit the government was holding its own workers to with the intent of setting an example for the private sector to follow, after a resolution at the Labour Party's annual conference urging the government not to intervene passed overwhelmingly. At the end of the year a road hauliers' strike began, coupled with a severe storm as 1979 began. Later in the month many public workers followed suit as well. These actions included an unofficial strike by gravediggers working in Liverpool and Tameside, and strikes by refuse collectors, leaving uncollected rubbish in London's Leicester Square. Additionally, NHS ancillary workers formed picket lines to blockade hospital entrances with the result that many hospitals were reduced to taking emergency patients only. [2]
The unrest had deeper causes besides resentment of the caps on pay rises. Labour's internal divisions over its commitment to socialism, manifested in disputes over labour law reform and macroeconomic strategy during the 1960s and early 1970s, pitted constituency members against the party's establishment. Many of the strikes were initiated at the local level, with national union leaders largely unable to stop them. Union membership, particularly in the public sector, had grown more female and less white, and the growth of the public sector unions had not brought them a commensurate share of power within the TUC. After Callaghan returned from a summit conference in the tropics at a time when the hauliers' strike and the weather had seriously disrupted the economy, leading thousands to apply for unemployment benefits, his denial that there was "mounting chaos" in the country was paraphrased in a famous Sun headline as "Crisis? What Crisis?" Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher's acknowledgement of the severity of the situation in a Party Political Broadcast a week later was seen as instrumental to her victory in the general election held four months later after Callaghan's government fell to a no-confidence vote. Once in power, the Conservatives, who under Thatcher's leadership had begun criticising the unions as too powerful, passed legislation, similar to that proposed in a Labour white paper a decade earlier, that barred many practices, such as secondary picketing, that had magnified the effects of the strikes. Thatcher, and later other Conservatives like Boris Johnson, have continued to invoke the Winter of Discontent in election campaigns; it would be 18 years until another Labour government took power. In the late 2010s, after the more left wing Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, some British leftists argued that this narrative about the Winter of Discontent was inaccurate, and that policy in subsequent decades was much more harmful to Britain. The term "Winter of Discontent" is an allusion to a famous quote from Shakespeare's play Richard III. [3]:28
It is credited to Larry Lamb,[4]:254 then editor at The Sun in an editorial on 3 May 1979. [5]:64
The Winter of Discontent was driven by a combination of different social, economic and political factors which had been developing for over a decade. Under the influence of Anthony Crosland, a member of the more moderate Gaitskellite wing of the Labour Party in the 1950s, the party establishment came to embrace a more moderate course of action than it had in its earlier years before the war. Crosland had argued in his book The Future of Socialism that the government exerted enough control over private industry that it was not necessary to nationalise it as the party had long called to do, and that the ultimate goals of socialism could be as readily achieved by assuring long-term economic stability and building out the social welfare state. His "revisionist" views became Labour's perspective on the post-war consensus, in which both they and the Conservative Party agreed in principle on a strong government role in the economy, strong unions and a welfare state as foundational to Britain's prosperity. [6]
In the 1970s, following the surge in radical left-wing politics of the late 1960s, that view was challenged in another Labour figure's book, Stuart Holland's The Socialist Challenge. He argued that contrary to Crosland's assertions, the government could exercise little control over Britain's largest companies, which were likely to continue consolidating into an oligopoly that, by the 1980s, could raise prices high enough that governments following Keynesian economics would be unable to ensure their citizens the opportunity for full employment that they had been able to since the war, and exploit transfer pricing to avoid paying British taxes. Holland called for returning to nationalisation, arguing that taking control of the top 25 companies that way would result in a market with more competition and less inflation. [6]
Holland's ideas formed the basis of the Alternative Economic Strategy (AES) promoted by Tony Benn, then Secretary of State for Industry in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan as they considered responses to the sterling crisis in 1976. The AES called on Britain to adopt a protectionist stance in international trade, including reversing its recent decision to join the European Common Market, and impose no incomes policy to combat inflation. Benn believed that this approach was more in keeping with Labour's traditional policies and would have its strongest supporters in the unions and outside of them vigorously supporting the government against opposition from the financial sector and commanding heights of industry. It was ultimately rejected in favour of the Social Contract and extensive cuts in public spending as the condition of an International Monetary Fund loan that supported the pound. [6]
The left wing of the Labour Party, while critical of the revisionist approach and the Social Contract, was not universally supportive of the AES either. Many thought it did not go far enough, or avoided the issue of nationalisation. Feminists in particular criticised it for its focus on traditionally male-dominated manufacturing jobs and ignoring the broader issues that the increasing number of women in the workforce faced, preferring a focus on broader social issues rather than just working conditions and pay, the traditional areas unions had negotiated with employers. [6]
In 1968 Wilson's government appointed the Donovan Commission to review British labour law with an eye toward reducing the days lost to strikes every year; many Britons had come to believe the unions were too powerful despite the country's economic growth since the war. It found much of the problem to lie in a parallel system of 'official' signed agreements between unions and employers, and 'unofficial', often unwritten ones at the local level, between shop stewards and managers, which often took precedence in practice over the official ones. The government responded with In Place of Strife, a white paper by Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle, which recommended restrictions on unions' ability to strike, such as requiring strikes take place after a member vote and fining unions for unofficial strikes. [7]
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) vigorously opposed making Castle's recommendations law, and Callaghan, then Home Secretary, led a cabinet revolt which led to its abandonment. Callaghan did not believe it would be effective in curtailing unofficial strikes, that the proposals could not pass, and the effort would create unnecessary tension between the government and the unions that were key to its political strength. [8]
After the Conservatives won the following year's election, they implemented their own legislation to address the issue. The Industrial Relations Act 1971, modeled in part on the U.S. Taft-Hartley Act, passed over determined union opposition, included many of the same provisions as In Place of Strife, and explicitly stated that formal collective bargaining agreements would have the force of law unless they had disclaimers to the contrary. It also created a National Industrial Relations Court to handle disputes and put unions under a central registry to enforce their rules. [9]
New Prime Minister Edward Heath hoped that the new law would not only address the strike issue but the steep inflation plaguing the British economy (along with other industrial capitalist economies) at the time, eliminating the need for a separate incomes policy by having a moderating effect on pay increases demanded by unions. Ongoing union resistance to the Industrial Relations Act led to a House of Lords ruling in their favor over demonstrations and widespread unofficial strikes following the Pentonville Five's imprisonment for continuing to picket a London container depot in violation of a court order, which undermined the legislation. Coal miners officially went on strike for the first time in almost half a century in 1972; after two months the strike was settled with the miners getting a 21 per cent increase, less than half of what they had originally sought. [10]
Heath as a result turned to an incomes policy; inflation continued to worsen. Its implementation was abandoned in 1973 when that year's oil embargo nearly doubled prices within months. To meet demand for heat in the wintertime, the government had to return to coal, giving the National Union of Mineworkers more leverage. The government declared a state of emergency that November, and at the beginning of 1974 limited all nonessential businesses to three days of electricity each week to conserve power. Miners, who had seen their rise from two years before turn into a pay cut in real terms due to the inflation the government had not brought under control, voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in late January.
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Strike
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1940 Cochinchina uprising
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Cochinchina uprising (Nam Kỳ khởi nghĩa) was an armed uprising against the French and Japanese by the South Vietnamese (at that time known as Cochinchina) in 1940, led by the Indochinese Communist Party. In June 1940, France was invaded and occupied by Nazi troops. Taking this opportunity, in September of that year, Japanese imperialists invaded the Indochina peninsula then colonised by France. From here, Vietnam was dominated by two foreign powers, the French and the Japanese. The Vietnamese appear to have expected Japanese support for the uprising, given the fact that the Japanese had been aiding most other Southeast Asian nations with the hope that they would support the plan for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Instead the Vietnamese denounced the Japanese as traitors for not helping them to achieve independence from French colonial rule. [1] With the anti-French sentiment and the imitation of the Bac Son revolutionary, many South Vietnamese provinces revolted against the French and Japanese. In Southern Indochina, the French had to deal with claims from Thailand which, backed by the Japanese, demanded territories situated to the Northwest of Cambodia's Tonle Sap and on the right bank of the Mekong River in Laos. Units of Vietnamese troops were sent to the front to fight the Thais. Some of these units stationed in Saigon decided to rebel against being sent to the front. This plan was part of the program of the Party Committee for Cochin-China which from June 1940 on had actively prepared for an uprising. A plan of action was worked out with the aim of combining the actions of military units in revolt with those of worker and peasant organizations throughout Cochin-China. [2] As it so happened, the French did not go to war with Thailand, and thus they could devote their whole strength against the insurgents and easily decimated the South Vietnamese ICP. With this, it can be said that the insurgents who carried out the uprising had initially believed that Thailand would involve themselves in the conflict, causing a distraction to the French, which would help them, unfortunately for them, this would not happen. [3]
In March 1940, the Standing Committee of the Party, headed by Mr. Võ Văn Tần, drafted the outline to prepare for sporadic activities in the anti-French movement, and then prepared for armed uprising. Besides, many demonstrations were held during that time. Self-defense forces and guerrillas which directly led by Võ Văn Tần, Phan Đăng Lưu were formed in big factories in Saigon such as Ba Son, FACI, pier, Cho Quan lamp, In rural areas, most communes had a squadron or even a guerrilla platoon. Popular discontent was on the rise in the South and provided, at least momentarily, an opportunity for the ICP to release its frustration at the events since the previous September. At the root of the unrest in the South was economics. High taxes, a fall in the price of rice, and an increase in unemployment all served to cut the standard of living for the average Vietnamese. Throughout the spring and summer of 1940, peasant riots against French conscription for military service along the Cambodian-Thai border, where the threat of war was high. Peasant protests against conscription took place in several towns and villages throughout the delta. [4]
As the wave of discontent in the South rose, the Party's Regional Committee for Cochin China attempted to ride the crest, concentrating its propaganda on peasants and newly drafted Vietnamese troops. Since the restoration of the Party apparatus in Cochin China in the early 1930s, the regional Party organization under the direction of Stalin School graduate Tran Van Giau had possessed a unique degree of autonomy and under Giau's autocratic leadership was somewhat inclined toward making decisions independent of the national party leadership. Now, with almost all members of the ICP central Committee in the South in jail, regional leaders took matters in their own hands and began to plan for a general uprising in response to the decisions reached at the Sixth Plenum the previous November. After the French surrender to Nazi Germany in June, they hastily convened an expanded Party conference in My Tho, deep in the heart of the Mekong delta and agreed to initiate preparations for the insurrection. By autumn, half the indigenous troops in Cochin China were allegedly sympathetic to the Communists, with ICP sources estimating that up to 30 percent of the entire population of the colony was on its side. [4]
All blacksmiths produced weapons day by day in order to provide ammunition to army. The anti-war movement, combating the soldiers with the slogan "no soldier, no penny for imperial war" took place the people and soldiers community. Due to good military service, most of the 15,000 Vietnamese soldiers in the French army stationed in Saigon were willing to co-ordinate the uprising. [5]
Party leaders in Cochin China, however, were understandably hoping to seek support for the uprising from revolutionary elements elsewhere in the country, and in October they sent Phan Đăng Lưu, representative of the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party, to consult with members of the ICP Regional Committee for Tonkin. North Vietnamese delegates had not been able to attend the Sixth Plenum in November 1939 and were thus not well informed about the Central Committee's plans to move toward a general insurrection against French colonial rule. [4]
Several members of the regional committee, including Truong Cinh, Hoang Van Thu, and Hoang Quoc Viet met with Phan Dang Luu in early November in a suburb of Hanoi. The meeting took place in the immediate aftermath of the abortive revolt in Bac Son, and its decisions reflected an understandable ambivalence about the possibilities of armed uprising. The session reaffirmed the decision of the Sixth Plenum to begin preparations for a future armed uprising against French power, and it affirmed the contention that, if conditions were favorable, a local uprising could be launched in one area of the country even if Vietnamese society as a whole was not in a revolutionary situation. But it condemned what it considered the mistakes committed at Bac Son. The local leadership at Bac Son, it claimed, did not know how to establish revolutionary power, did not know how to conduct propaganda activities and develop revolutionary strength, and, when the battle was over, did not know how to retreat. The decision to abandon the cities for the countryside was termed an error that weakened the Party's urban base. Then, it said, the Party had lost an opportunity to launch a general uprising after French surrendered in June 1940. Finally, it criticized the new united front as vaguely defined and not sufficiently focused on the worker-peasant alliance. Looking to the future, the plenum concluded that Vietnam was not yet in a directly revolutionary situation, but that the revolution could break out in the form of local uprising where conditions were appropriate, leading the way toward a general uprising that would result in a seizure of power in the country as a whole. In perpetration for that moment, the Committee members called for the conservation of the remnants of the Bac Son forces, which were to be reorganized as guerrilla units, and for a revolutionary base in the Viet Bac to wait for the appropriate moment to launch an uprising. [6]
Given the judgments above, it is not surprising that the meeting suspected that conditions for an armed uprising were lacking in the South. Local forces were too small, and units in the Center and the North were in no position to give adequate support. So Phan Dang Luu was informed that an uprising in Cochin China should be postponed until the Central Committee could send a representative to check on the national situation and provide proper leadership. If the uprising should fail in spite of such preparations, the rebels must be prepared to make an orderly retreat and transform the defeated forces into guerrilla units. [6]
The meeting also took steps to reconstitute the ICP Central Committee, which had become nearly defunct as the result of the recent arrest of most of its members in the South. Acting on the authority of the one remaining member, Phan Dang Luu, those in attendance named themselves a new provisional central committee with Truong Cinh serving temporarily as general secretary until new elections could be held. This November meeting of the Regional Committee of Tonkin is thus known in Party histories as the Seventh Plenum of the ICP. [6]
Immediately after the meeting, Phan Dang Luu returned to Cochin China to give his colleagues the bad news that their comrades in Tonkin did not favor a general uprising.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Two men arrested for bank robbery in Hanoi
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MPS - The Hanoi police, in coordination with relevant units and agencies under the Ministry of Public Security, arrested two suspects of a robbery at a bank branch in Dong Da district, Hanoi on July 29, just 36 hours after the incident. Reportedly, at around 10:00 a.m. on July 27, two men with face masks came to the Ngoc Khanh BIDV Branch at No. 27 Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Dong Da district, Hanoi. One of them shot at the roof and asked the bank branch’s staff and clients to stay still. After taking the money, the two men got out of the bank, used their gun to intimidate passersby and ran away on a robbed motorcycle towards Thang Long Boulevard. Under the directions of the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Municipal Police Department, the Dong Da district police quickly investigated and detected the first suspect, who is Phung Huu Manh (born in 1997, residing at No. 5 Truc Khe, Lang Ha ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi). At around 12:00 a.m. on July 29, the police arrested Manh. Further investigating into the case, the Dong Da district police, in coordination with the Criminal Police Division, the Police Office of Cyber-security and Hi-tech crimes under the Hanoi police, the Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, and the Hai Phong Municipal Police Department, tracked down the other suspect. At around 4:30 a.m. on July 29, the police arrested Hoang Ngoc (born in 1978, residing at No. 27 Huynh Thuc Khang, Lang Ha ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi) while he was hiding in Lach Tray street, Hai Phong city. At present, the Dong Da district police, in coordination with specialized units under the Hanoi Municipal Police Department, is collecting more evidence to prosecute the case and the suspects in accordance with the laws.
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Bank Robbery
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2003 California wildfires
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The 2003 California wildfires were a series of wildfires that were active in the state of California during the year 2003. In dry January 2003 has 31 days straight with no rain in Southern California, and wet mid February 2003 arrives in California. In total, there were 9,116 fires[2] that burned 1,020,460 acres (4,129.7 km2) of land. [3][4]
2003 California wildfires resulted in 24 fatalities; many of the victims were killed in their cars while trying to flee. [8][9]
By the time the 14 major fires were extinguished, 24 lives were lost, 3,710 homes were destroyed and 750,043 acres were blackened. In addition, countless miles of power lines were damaged, communication systems destroyed, watersheds reduced to bare scorched soils and thousands of people were forced into evacuation centers, unsure if they would have a home to return to—many did not. "[10]
We had rain in Southern California until end of October 2003 it arrived on Halloween 2003, after the wildfires put out. Below is a list of fires that exceeded 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) during the 2003 fire season. [3] The list is taken from CAL FIRE's list of large fires.
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Fire
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Stunning pictures as Northern Lights become visible over Norfolk
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The northern lights over Sheringham last night. People in Norfolk were treated to one of the best views of the Northern Lights in the country when they became visible. A solar flare entered the Earth's atmosphere on Thursday night, making the sparkling lights - also known as Aurora Borealis - visible over the UK, as the sun was more active than usual. The Northern Lights over Attleborough last night. - Credit: Ray Sturman photography Those on the north Norfolk coast were said to have the best opportunity to gaze upon the astronomical phenomenon, due to low light pollution and a clear view of the north sky. Weatherquest forecaster Chris Bell said: "The best place to see them is up on the north Norfolk coast, I have some buddies who went up to Morston last night and got some great views. "They're only visible to this part of the world as we can see the north sky basically and they're usually quite dim this far south but you can get them by camera. The Northern Lights over Attleborough last night. - Credit: Ray Sturman photography "It depends how active it is, there was one in late February of 2014 that was better to see in Norfolk and people saw that really clearly inland. "Last night was stronger than average, so I think on the north Norfolk coast last night you could definitely see them with the naked eye."
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New wonders in nature
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2009 Messina floods and mudslides
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The 2009 Messina floods and mudslides occurred in Sicily on the night of 1–2 October, mainly along the Ionian coast in the Province of Messina. They also affected other parts of northeastern Sicily and killed a total of at least 31 people,[1] some of whom were swept out to sea. More than 400 people were left homeless, as many houses collapsed. The places which suffered the most damage were Giampilieri Superiore, a small frazione 10 km (6 miles) south of the city of Messina, which was buried in mud; the comune of Scaletta Zanclea; and the frazione of Briga Superiore. [3]
To avoid casualties, when the Messina region received heavy rains in February 2010, the government evacuated one-third of the population most at risk. A mudslide caused property damage, but no casualties. On the night of 1–2 October 2009, a sudden downpour of rain, accompanied by strong winds and lightning, caused large mudslides through the valleys of the northeastern coast. The extreme nature of the weather gave people little time to flee buildings or vehicles; mud rapidly swept down from the surrounding hills and cliffs, clogging the streets of these towns with debris and grime, and carrying away people, cars, and dwellings. [4] Officials reported that 230 mm (9 inches) of rain fell in the space of three hours. [5] In some areas, the mud was 20 m (66 feet) deep. The slide hit so quickly that rescuers later found many people trapped in cars and dwellings. Rail lines were covered with mud and major roads into the area were blocked. One man was found dead in his automobile, which was submerged in mud and water. [6][7][8] Another drowned in the flooded cellar of his country home. [5][9] A man choked to death after taking in mud in when the main piazza was flooded in a suburb of the city of Messina. [9]
A survivor recounted his escape: "I was driving home when suddenly all this stuff came down on top of me and hit me full on. I managed to climb out of the car. It was a terrible experience". [8] Cars were swept along by the mud. [4] Many buildings collapsed; some were partially submerged by mud, and engulfed by water and debris. [5] Some people were washed away into the Ionian Sea. [10][11] At least 100 people evacuated their houses following mudslides. [6]
As of 8 October, seven people were still missing,[1] and at least 450 inhabitants of the comuni were left homeless by the extreme weather. [12] 40 wounded people were hospitalised; at least two of these were said to have serious injuries. ] Messina has been surrounded by mud and standing rainwater. [7] Parts of Sicily were inaccessible for days. [14]
The Italian government declared a state of emergency to mobilize emergency rescue and recovery forces. It was the worst landslide disaster in Italy since 1998 during which 137 people died in Sarno, near Naples. The death toll was expected to rise. [14] The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said that it could be as high as fifty. [17]
Many survivors fled to rooftops, where a helicopter lifted them to safety. [6][8][12] The first batch of evacuees escaped aboard boats; they were taken to the mainland or safe areas by rescue helicopters. [12] Emergency crews dug through mud and used search dogs in an effort to find survivors. [6] The mud covered roads and disrupted assistance efforts, as many rescue crews had to enter areas on foot. [12] Medical teams were rushed to the scene. [4] Bulldozers were also deployed. [5]
One rescue worker described it as "hell". [13] Many survivors sought refuge in a convent. [11] The railway line connecting Messina to the resort town of Taormina was blocked by debris and mud.
Damage extended to the capital Palermo, where a hospital was partially flooded, and people were found trapped in their vehicles. [14]
Giampilieri Superiore, a small frazione 10 km (6 miles) south of the city of Messina, was totally buried in mud; the comune of Scaletta Zanclea; and the frazione of Briga Superiore also suffered extensive, irreparable damage. [3]
An investigation into the "culpable disaster" was quickly underway. [12] The origins of this environmental disaster are believed to result from a lack of forestation in the hills and lower valleys, caused by annual summer brushfires. In addition, according to Guido Bertolaso, director of the Italian Civil Protection Service, illegal construction without permits and in defiance of zoning regulations is widespread in Sicily; many lost homes were built illegally too close to or blocking known torrent beds, creating drainage problems.
Residents accused the local administration for having failed to secure the nearby hills from the risk of landslides, following mudslides that occurred in October 2007. These had caused property damage but no casualties.
President Giorgio Napolitano said: "We need a serious investment plan to increase safety – rather than grandiose public works – in this part of the country, or else tragedies like this one will happen again". [21]
As of 4 October, many bodies still have not been recovered from the mud and debris. [22] Some of the victims were small children. Silvio Berlusconi visited the afflicted areas on 4 October and met with some of the people left homeless by the disaster.
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Floods
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Archaeologists excavate traces of 10,000-year-old Mesolithic settlements
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The settlements date from around 10,000 years ago during the early stage of the Butovo culture, described as communities of Mesolithic hunter‐gatherers that mainly occupied the upper Volga catchment of the forest zone of western Russia. During this period, glaciers covering most of Eurasia had already retreated, and the megafauna had mainly gone extinct in the region. Evidence of Mesolithic activity was first identified during the 1970’s and 1980’s, but this is the first time that systematic excavations has been conducted to determine the extent of archaeological remains before the construction of the M12 – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod – Kazan highway. Near the village of Maloye Okulovo, archaeologists studied five sites: Maloye Okulovo – 10, Maloye Okulovo -11, Maloye Okulovo -19, Maloye Okulovo – 20 and Malookulovskaya – 3, covering an area of more than 10,000 square metres. As well as Mesolithic activity, objects of later eras from the Neolithic, Bronze, and Early Iron Age was revealed. The Bronze Age is represented by the short-term settlements of the ancient cattle-breeders of the Fatyanovo culture who came from the west, and the Pozdnyakovsk culture associated with the steppes of southern Russia. Maloye Okulovo -11, Malookulovskaya-3 and Maloye Okulovo -19 were probably seasonal Mesolithic sites, where archaeologists discovered material remains that indicate hunting and fishing by the numerous accumulations of flint artefacts, and a large number of animal and fish bones. At Malookulovskaya-3, the researchers found traces of a possible dwelling where they discovered a hearth and two artificial pits. Within all the sites, a large number of flint artefacts has been unearthed, including arrowheads, scrapers, punctures, and fragments of an axe. Maloye Okulovo-19 also has a large accumulation of waste from flint production, suggesting it was a centre for manufacturing flint tools and weapons. Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Navashinsky detachment of the IA RAS said: “The finds near Maly Okulov fit into the characteristics of the Butovo archaeological culture, which was widespread at that time in the Volga-Oka interfluve. Having received an accurate description of the finds and an understanding of the technology, we will be able to compare the features of this Mesolithic culture with objects from earlier, and later periods of human history and reconstruct technological progress.”
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New archeological discoveries
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Jersey Police sign agreement with JFSC
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The Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and the States of Jersey Police have signed an agreement to share information with each other.
The memorandum of understanding aims to make the co-operation between the two more formal.
It will mean the JFSC tells the police about significant financial crimes that may have been committed.
And the police will tell the commission about breaches to regulatory legislation.
In a joint statement, John Harris, Director General of the JFSC and Mike Bowron, Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police, said: "The commission and the police have long had a close and fruitful working relationship.
"We are therefore delighted to sign this memorandum of understanding which formally puts on record the circumstances in which our organisations will co-operate with each other.
"And, in particular, sets out the type of information which we have agreed to pass to each other to assist in the carrying out of our respective functions."
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Sign Agreement
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Oregon bill might protect structures from tsunami, but residents’ safety is paper thin
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Back when Oregon’s positive cases of COVID-19 could still be counted on two hands, Jay Wilson, the former chair of Oregon’s Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (the earthquake commission), sat in a Sellwood pub as he described to Street Roots a haunting premonition of a different disaster to come. “After returning from Japan in 2011, I was watching people walk around at the Oregon Coast, and I felt like I was in ‘The Sixth Sense,’” Wilson said. “I thought: These people have no idea what’s coming for them.” What’s coming is the “Big One,” a prodigious earthquake and tsunami unleashed by the release of tectonic pressure built up over centuries across the Cascadia subduction zone, a 620-mile fault zone just off the Oregon Coast. But as state scientists, seismic hazard experts and emergency planners pushed for years to incorporate cutting-edge knowledge of coastal hazards into state policy, they encountered fierce opposition from the Legislature’s Coastal Caucus, one of Oregon’s most powerful political alliances. Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, a small, dedicated and chronically underfunded group of scientists, balked at the prospect of a showdown with the caucus’ members, who wield considerable power over state agency budgets. “(The Department of Geology and Mineral Industries) is much more than just earthquake and tsunami stuff,” cautioned an agency staff member during a meeting of the earthquake commission in 2017. “So we have to be very careful about how we put the entire agency at risk for one particular part of our portfolio.” But in an unexpected twist earlier this year, the department’s most vocal critics joined a successful public campaign to preserve the agency’s funding after Gov. Kate Brown proposed it be abolished. Now the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries’ new allies face another decision: Will they embrace the same agency science kept out of state policy for years, if it means an improvement to their latest legislative proposal for coastal resilience? Oregon's House has already voted to pass that proposal, House Bill 2605. It now awaits a vote in the Senate. In many ways, the bill is the delayed payback for a deal that began coming together two years ago. Despite losing his boyhood home, Jin Sato still has a pleasant memory of the afternoon he spent on a hilltop with his elementary school classmates, watching a 9-foot wall of water roll into the bay of Minamisanriku, Japan. Half a century later, as mayor, Sato found himself clinging to the same town’s disaster prevention center roof as a 33-foot tsunami swept most of his employees to their deaths. Still grappling with the lingering trauma and controversy of that day during a 2015 interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting four years later, Sato offered a message to Oregonians: “Protect your life from a tsunami by doing whatever it takes.” But in 2019, Oregon did the opposite. Jeff Soulages, the incoming leader of Oregon’s independent earthquake commission that year, had a controversial proposition for his peers: agree to bless legislation that abolished science-based, statewide development restrictions. The restrictions sought to deter coastal communities from investing in hospitals and schools that were located in tsunami inundation zones, and therefore potentially doomed to become disaster memorials. “There are definitely people in the commission — myself included among them — who feel that moving these essential facilities outside the tsunami line, in its entirety, is really the best option,” Soulages said during a May 14 meeting of the earthquake commission that year. But the best way forward, he argued, was to pursue what he called a “grand bargain.” First, appease coastal politicians by opening the door for construction of critical and hazardous facilities in tsunami inundation zones. Next, mandate higher engineering standards for those structures. Finally, leave the difficult decisions to local communities and let the developers “run the numbers.” Trent Nagele, a member of the earthquake commission and former president of Oregon’s Structural Engineers Association, had a few questions. “The concern that I have,” said Nagele, is “what is the emergency plan for those facilities and how do they continue to operate in a tsunami inundation zone post-event? What’s the access? What’s the roadway? How do people get to the hospital? How do the fire trucks get out of their bunker that they’ve built in the inundation zone? How does that continue to operate? Because the (building code) doesn’t address that at all.” After acknowledging Nagele’s concerns, Soulages replied that he had recently been in conversations with south coastal representatives who “had some very interesting perspectives.” “I think they would like to make those decisions on their own,” Soulages said. “I think that’s really what this is about.” The following month, on June 25, a Coastal Caucus bill sailed through the Legislature and onto Brown’s desk, where it was signed into law with minimal discussion, zero public input, and nearly unanimous, bipartisan support. In addition to negating surface mining permit requirements for the controversial Jordan Cove gas pipeline and export terminal, House Bill 3309 abolished a 1995 law outlining development restrictions in areas destined for a clobbering when the “Big One” inevitably arrives. Brown sent a congratulatory signing statement to House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, noting “public safety and resiliency is a top priority for our state, and as Governor I strongly advocate for all of Oregon’s communities to be prepared in the event of a natural disaster.” STREET ROOTS NEWS: Housing on the Oregon Coast: What about The Big One? Mike Harryman, Brown’s top official in charge of statewide resilience, later described the bill’s passage as “a slap in the face.” But despite his praise for the life-saving legacies of people like Seaside administrator Doug Dougherty, who championed a successful campaign to move an entire school district outside of the tsunami inundation zone, Harryman did little to stop his boss from singing a bill that could allow more schools to be built in areas similar to the location Dougherty fought so hard to leave behind. Harryman can be heard on audio recorded during the state’s earthquake commission meetings pressuring the commission on more than one occasion to limit its advisory role to advancing Brown’s policy priorities and refrain from publicly weighing in on proposals that would compete for funding in state budgets. A few months after receiving those marching orders, the commission received a visit from Wilson, the former earthquake commission chair. “You folks do not take orders from anyone,” Wilson said. “You advise them and it’s your job to advise them. … And if you disagree with them, you better damn tell them why — the public deserves that.” Neither Soulages nor Harryman responded to emailed questions and requests for comment. Jeff Rubin, a former geologist, emergency manager and vice chair of the 2014 Governor’s Task Force on Resilience Plan Implementation, had strong words for H.B. 3309’s sponsors. “Rep. (David) Gomberg, and perhaps the rest of the Coastal Caucus, seem to be betting that they’ll be out of office, dead or both by the time the next tsunami inundates their districts,” Rubin said. “Or just that people won’t remember who made it easier to put more people and resources in harm’s way.” Street Roots contacted 72 of the 90 state lawmakers who originally voted on H.B. 3309 in 2019 — nearly two dozen of whom are no longer serving in the state Legislature. Only a handful responded to questions about whether they felt adequately informed about the issues at hand, whether they still stood by their vote, and whether they had concerns about the lack of scientific rigor underpinning tsunami models being proposed in legislation currently moving through the Capitol. “I neither feel that I was well-informed when I cast that vote nor that Rep. Gomberg was trying to pull a fast one on anybody,” said Sen. Jeff Golden (D-Ashland) in an email. “It was one of those bills that flash by during the heat of the session.” Sen. Chris Gorsek (D-Troutdale) forwarded Street Roots a copy of an email he sent to House leadership after casting the lone dissenting vote against the legislation as it moved out of committee. “I have been told by our committee administrator that there is no civil liability for the state if we do enact this change (and someone is injured or killed as a result),” Gorsek wrote. “But what about our ethical responsibilities to ensure the safety of visitors and the citizens who live in those communities?” Shortly after Gorsek sent those comments, the chief architect of H.B. 3309, Gomberg (D-Otis), sent out a newsletter calling the bill’s forward progress “a quiet victory.” In a phone conversation with Street Roots, Gomberg was a little more circumspect. “To be very candid with you, when the gavel came down, I think some of us had a sense that while we had prevailed, we might have gone a little too far,” Gomberg said. But in a follow-up email he “categorically denied” putting political pressure on agencies or advisory boards. “Instead we immediately crafted legislation to reflect the recommendations we received from OSSPAC (the earthquake commission),” he wrote. Dacia Grayber, a firefighter and paramedic who recently entered the state Legislature in January of this year, said she joined the earthquake commission right after H.B. 3309 passed. “I came at that with really fresh eyes — no ties to the Legislature, no ties to the Coastal Caucus, just kind of my own knowledge,” she said. Dismayed at what she found, Grayber started asking legislators she knew and respected one question that had been weighing on her mind: “Why did you vote for this?” “I got the same answer: ‘It’s a surface mining bill,’” she said. In a phone conversation, Gomberg said he was disappointed by the suggestion that his colleagues didn’t know what they were voting on. “Certainly, late in the session, we looked for a vehicle that we could use to address this problem,” he said. “And we did find a bill which we amended.” The vehicle for that process, also known as a “gut ’n’ stuff,” was a bill co-sponsored by Caddy McKeown. McKeown, a former state representative from Coos Bay, received tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from Jordan Cove and other fossil fuel companies who would turn her backyard into part of what would be the state’s largest climate polluter if built. Several of McKeown’s family members also have financial ties to the project. McKeown’s brother-in-law, Joseph McKeown, owns a vacant industrial disposal site slated to become a temporary workforce housing development. Her husband, Morgan Stanley Senior Vice President Jeff McKeown, previously secured a deal to provide investment advice to a community foundation board responsible for investing millions in anticipated community service payments from Jordan Cove. Their opportunities to personally profit from the project now seem much less likely, given recent indications that the project may be down for the count following decades of battles over state and federal permits. When asked if taking care of the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries surface mining permits for Jordan Cove was one of the problems he wanted to address with H.B. 3309, Gomberg said, “I’d have to look into that.” If Gomberg’s legislation this session, H.B. 2605, passes, the introduction of new essential facilities in inundation zones will require careful oversight from the state’s Building Codes Division, which would be tasked with ensuring they meet safety standards. The earthquake commission endorsed the bill’s approach, despite previously extracting a carefully worded admission from the Oregon Building Code Division’s former director, Mark Long, that the agency lacks adequate resources to support rural communities and often looks the other way even when it believes local building officials are in over their heads. “We have situations that concern us right now, where’s there’s a project going on, and we’re not sure of the ability of those individuals to carry out that program,” Long said during an earthquake commission meeting in 2017. “But they do. And if there’s a complaint, well, we’ll take a look.” Earthquake commission member Nagele asked Long about rumors of lax enforcement he had heard from engineers across the state, and what the implications might be if essential facilities started popping up in rural areas vulnerable to disasters. “I wouldn’t want your takeaway to be that we’re suggesting, or I’m suggesting, there’s direct evidence that we have those problems,” Long replied. In the four years since that conversation, the Building Code Division’s budget narratives to lawmakers identified multiple elements contributing to “ongoing challenges for the division to provide timely and efficient building permit services.” Among the issues: an aging and rapidly diminishing inspection workforce, the inability to find qualified staff members, and legal issues with local communities outsourcing building code programs. In 2018, an ongoing shortage of qualified electricians became so bad that Long took the controversial step of proposing drastically reduced training requirements for inspectors. The agency implemented those changes in January 2019, ignoring warnings from industry veterans and local building officials, who said the move would “dumb down” the state’s inspector workforce and carried “the potential to cause irreparable harm to property and loss of life.” Reached over email, Nagele declined to answer questions about his support for H.B. 3309 in 2019, and whether his recent testimony in favor of H.B. 2605 this session, on behalf of the earthquake commission, meant his previously voiced concerns had been adequately addressed. For unclear reasons, after inundation zone development restrictions had been abolished, the Building Codes Division declined to mandate the adoption of tsunami-resistant construction standards developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers. H.B. 2605 is the second attempt to pass legislation forcing the agency to do so. “This would bring us in line with the same standards being used in California, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii,” Gomberg said during a May 11 meeting of the Senate Committee on Housing and Development. Those states have incorporated American Society of Civil Engineers’ enhanced construction and design standards for buildings into their building codes. But after West Coast scientists started echoing concerns first raised in Oregon years ago, those same states have taken a closer look at where the American Society of Civil Engineers says tsunami-hardened structures should be required. In a presentation to Washington State’s Building Code Council, the state’s Geological Survey and Emergency Management Division expressed several concerns about using tsunami zone maps created during a process that was “not well documented, publicly available or reproducible.” In response, the Building Code Council immediately formed a panel to assess the potential risks and identify a path forward. For several complicated reasons, American Society of Civil Engineers’ tsunami hazard maps tend to both overestimate and underestimate risks in certain areas compared to maps developed by local state science agencies with different methodologies. One consequence of one of those mismatches manifested in Long Beach, Washington, when work on a vertical evacuation structure funded with a federal grant had to be abandoned because of wave modeling that experts said made no sense. According to Tim Walsh, a retired geologist from Washington State’s Department of Natural Resources who worked on the project, American Society of Civil Engineers’ tsunami prediction model resulted in a requirement that the building be roughly 20 feet higher than necessary. But because the American Society of Civil Engineers process is not subject to the same review and public disclosures common for scientific research, it has been next to impossible for Washington to figure out what went wrong and proceed with any future projects in the area. “I don’t know how many different ways we can ask and request and be told no,” said Washington State Emergency Management Division Earthquake Program Manager Maximilian Dixon during a meeting last year. Dixon went on to describe the lack of transparency from the engineers group as “a huge problem” and “unethical.” When the Long Beach project died, roughly a million dollars had already been spent on design work and site investigations, according to Walsh. The only people who seem aware of these flaws in Oregon are the same people who first noticed them — the scientists. Chris Goldfinger, a world-renowned seismic expert and vocal critic of coastal development projects like Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, said that the engineers at the American Society of Civil Engineers ignored extensive critiques provided by himself and scientists with Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries back in 2015. “We gave them a long list of things they needed to fix, but they were already finished,” Goldfinger said. “They expended their budget and didn’t have any time or money or interest in fixing anything.” Goldfinger said that officials in places like the Building Codes Division and state Legislature are much more likely to take what the American Society of Civil Engineers does as something akin to the “word of God.” “They assume there’s a lot backing it up — peer review and things like that. And in this case, that just didn’t happen, for whatever reason.” Gomberg, whose bill would require American Society of Civil Engineers’ tsunami models to be adopted in all coastal areas without their own tsunami-related land use plans, said he had not heard of any concerns with the models. He also said he didn’t have an immediate answer for why Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries’ tsunami hazard maps should not be used instead. “Oregon has gone from being a leader in this area to attacking their own agency,” Goldfinger said. “They should have pinned a medal on them instead of undermining them.” To Wilson, the former chair of the state’s earthquake commission, the successful repeal of protections for coastal communities in tsunami hazard zones represented a perfect storm of failed accountability, justified by a misrepresentation of the truth. “A lie, to say it bluntly, by the Coastal Caucus to say that these tsunami maps were causing economic hardship on local communities and that their hands were tied in terms of having fire stations and police stations where they need to be,” he said. With the help of federal grants, three coastal counties and seven towns have adopted their own tsunami-related land use plans, which include Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries’ tsunami maps and varying restrictions on the development of essential facilities in inundation zones. Asked if he could point to tanking real estate markets, disinvestment or other negative economic consequences in these communities as a result of their land use decisions, Gomberg said he was not aware of jurisdictions prohibiting construction within the tsunami zone. Like what you're reading? Street Roots is made possible by readers like you! Your support fuels our in-depth reporting, and each week brings you original news you won't find anywhere else. Thank you for your support!
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Tsunamis
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Ethiopia suffers a humanitarian crisis
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This report has benefited from the research, analysis and review of a number of individuals, most of whom preferred to remain anonymous. For that reason, we are attributing authorship solely to the World Peace Foundation. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY "They have destroyed Tigray, literally." Mulugeta Gebrehiwot speaking by phone from Tigray January 27, 2021 The people of Tigray, Ethiopia, are suffering a humanitarian crisis that is entirely man-made. This special report from the World Peace Foundation documents how Ethiopian and Eritrean belligerents in the war in Tigray have comprehensively dismantled the region’s economy and food system. We provide evidence of their ongoing actions to deprive people of objects and activities indispensable to their survival—actions that amount to international crimes. We track the process of deprivation conducted in a widespread and systematic manner. We indicate where it is leading: in coming months, to mass starvation and a risk of famine; in the longer term, to sustained food insecurity and dependence on external assistance. All the 5.7 million people in Tigray are affected by this crisis, of whom the United Nations estimates that 4.5 million are ‘in need’. It is, first and foremost, an urgent humanitarian disaster demanding life-saving assistance. The World Peace Foundation urges all the belligerents to place the survival and welfare of the affected people above political and military goals. Regardless of who is responsible for the outbreak of hostilities, the sole reason for the scale of the humanitarian emergency is that the coalition of Ethiopian Federal forces, Amhara regional forces, and Eritrean troops are committing starvation crimes on large scale. This report does not go into legal details, but we believe that accountability for mass starvation crimes should follow. The crisis is also a challenge to the international community, which invested substantial resources and expertise over 30 years in ensuring that the formerly famine-prone provinces of Ethiopia would never again be reduced to starvation—and be a charge on the aid budgets of foreign charities and donors. How are international partners to respond to the willful destruction of a shared project of poverty alleviation and famine prevention by their ‘development partner’? There is a severe deficit of information about the depth and spread of the humanitarian crisis in Tigray today. The established humanitarian crisis information and analysis systems have been disabled. There is not even an agreed figure for the number of people in need of assistance, though we cite the widely-used estimate of 4.5 million. At every stage in the war in Tigray thus far, worst-case assumptions have been proven the most reliable. What we do not yet know has consistently turned out to be more dreadful than what we can document reliably. We have reason to fear that this may be the case for the crisis of forced mass starvation. This report cannot fill the information void. It tries instead to put together what we know about Tigray’s economy and food system with what we know about the processes whereby they are being dismantled. The report draws upon publicly available data and established frameworks of food security analysis. Section 1 draws on existing information to provide a (blurry) snapshot of the current humanitarian emergency in Tigray. This is necessarily incomplete due to lack of access for humanitarian workers and journalists, and because standard food security forecasting breaks down in situations in which armed actors are deliberately causing starvation. The picture is extremely alarming. It points to a massive crisis for which national and international humanitarian actors were sorely underprepared, and to which the response to date is grossly inadequate. We conclude that given the food security status of Central and Eastern Tigray, it is likely that the populations of these areas have been suffering elevated mortality rates over the last two months due to the effects of hunger, acute malnutrition and disease. There are no validated methods for extrapolating mortality estimates from acute food security analysis that we are able to provide, but a figure in the range 50-100 excess deaths per day is credible. Section 2 is a general analysis of the process of creating food crisis, with particular attention to the context of armed conflict. It brings together international law prohibiting starvation with the process of famine creation. The key concept here is that the crime of starvation is defined (in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and drawing on the Geneva Convention) as destroying, removing or rendering useless ‘objects indispensable to survival.’ We explore what this means in reality: not just ‘objects’ such as foodstuffs and medicines, but also activities such as moving freely to obtain these objects or having employment to earn money and purchase them. Section 3 examines the structure of livelihoods and food security in Tigray prior to the outbreak of war. The region was historically a food deficit region dependent on migrant labor, and was the epicenter (with neighboring Wollo Province) of the famine of 1984-85. After 1991, the economy was developed and reconfigured by the government in partnership with international donors, determined that never again should people be reduced to starvation. Tigray became more food secure through the promotion of diversified and sustainable smallholder agriculture, commercial sesame production, artisanal mining, industries, and various components of the Productive Safety Net Program, among other initiatives. This was a major achievement that took three decades to build. The paradox of resilience in Tigray is that this impressive development has exposed the population to new vulnerabilities should those new structures be dismantled. The economy and food system have been hard hit by the hostilities and consequent closure of banks and microfinance institutions and the interruption of government resource transfers, the seizure of land and forced displacement, and massive looting. This looting includes the systematic ransacking of industry and services along with the closure of migrant labor options. This framework provides a more comprehensive picture and indicates the trajectory of the crisis. Achieving basic food security in the next 12-18 months will be extremely difficult for the average Tigrayan, alongside the longterm challenge of impoverishment. Section 4 compiles evidence for starvation crimes committed in Tigray. It is a detailed list based on public sources augmented by some confidential information from interviews. The evidence listed is not intended to identify specific starvation crimes nor to identify specific perpetrators. Rather, it points to evidence indicative of various criminal acts that warrant further investigation.
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Famine
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2008 Guam B-52 crash
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The 2008 Guam B-52 crash was a fatal crash of a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H Stratofortress on 21 July 2008. The aircraft, operating out of Andersen Air Force Base, crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training flight approximately 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of Apra Harbor, Guam. The training flight was to include participation in a local municipal celebration of Liberation Day in Hagåtña. All six crew members aboard the aircraft were killed and the aircraft was destroyed. An investigation by the USAF determined that the crash was likely caused by an improper stabilizer trim setting. The investigation was unable to determine conclusively what had caused the horizontal stabilizer trim to be set improperly, but theorized that the most likely cause was an aircraft system malfunction. On 21 July 2008, a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H Stratofortress crashed into the Pacific Ocean approximately 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of Apra Harbor, Guam,[1] after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base. [2] The aircraft, named "Louisiana Fire" and with the mission call sign of "RAIDR 21", was about to participate in a flyover for the Liberation Day parade in Hagåtña. It crashed at 9:55 am (local time), 21 July, five minutes before they were scheduled to fly over the parade. Air traffic control radar images indicated that the aircraft appeared to be descending rapidly before disappearing from radar scopes at about 2,000 feet (610 m) of altitude. [3]
On 23 July 2008, the USAF announced that there were no survivors, and that the rescue effort had turned to a recovery mission for four still-missing members of the crew of six. [4]
The bomber, assigned to the 20th Bomb Squadron, was, with its crew, on temporary duty at Andersen as part of a four-month rotation. [5] The bomber's unit had replaced Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bombers which had been grounded following the loss of one of them on 23 February that year. The crew of RAIDR 21 were: Major Christopher M. Cooper, aged 33 (aircraft commander), Major Brent D. Williams, aged 37 (radar navigator), Captain Michael K. Dodson, aged 31 (co-pilot), First Lieutenant Joshua D. Shepherd, aged 25 (navigator), First Lieutenant Robert D. Gerren, aged 32 (electronic warfare officer), and Colonel George Martin, aged 51. Martin, a flight surgeon, was the deputy commander of 36th Medical Group at Andersen. He was aboard in the Number 6 crew position to ride along for the Liberation Day "Fly Over". The rest of the crew members were from the 20th Bomb Squadron or the 96th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. While bodies and remains were recovered from the area, Dodson's and Gerren's remains were not recovered. [3][6] A memorial service for the crew was held at Arlington National Cemetery on 14 November 2008. [7][8] A memorial monument was unveiled at Adelup Point on Guam in July 2009. [9]
The USAF worked with the United States Navy and USS John S. McCain to map and retrieve the aircraft's wreckage from the ocean floor. The wreckage did not include a flight data recorder because the aircraft was not equipped with one. [10]
The accident investigation board concluded that the horizontal stabilizer was set at a down angle during the training mission. The cause of the mishap was an improper stabilizer trim setting. Due to the lack of available evidence, no surviving crew members, no radio calls, no other witnesses and lack of a data recorder, the accident investigation board was unable to determine by clear and convincing evidence why the stabilizer trim was mispositioned. The investigation board felt that the most likely cause of this runaway stabilizer trim was a system malfunction that would have led the stabilizer trim to improperly run in a nose-down direction. The improper trim setting occurred somewhere between 14,000 and 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and caused a rapid and uncontrollable descent the experienced crew could not overcome. Based on the descent profile of the mishap aircraft, there was only 34 seconds from the presumed start of the mishap sequence until impact. [11]
The board president, Brigadier General Mark Barrett explained that two factors led to the crash. The first was the "combination of low altitude with a descending left turn of the aircraft". The second was "the late recognition of the serious nature of the situation by the crew". He added, "any experienced air crew could have found it difficult to recognize, assess and recover from the rapidly developing situation involving the stabilizer trim setting." The USAF also conducted a separate safety investigation into the mishap but did not publicly release its findings. [6]
Coordinates: 13°44′27″N 144°17′05″E / 13.7407°N 144.2848°E / 13.7407; 144.2848
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Air crash
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Area of mine where Michael Welsh died while working had been 'unstable' for several shifts, coroner finds
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Area of mine where Michael Welsh died while working had been 'unstable' for several shifts, coroner finds Follow our live coverage for the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic Michael "Digger" Welsh, a much-loved member of the tight-knit Queenstown community on Tasmania's west coast, was drinking coffee and chatting to colleagues after arriving for work at the Mount Lyell copper mine at 5:30am on January 17, 2014. It was the last time Mr Welsh, a married father of five, and a grandfather, went underground. At 7:45am, a mudrush inundated the area where he was working, killing him. Coroner Simon Cooper on Friday released his findings into Mr Welsh's death, and the deaths of Craig Gleeson and Alistair Lucas, who died while working in the same mine six weeks earlier. Mr Welsh and about 30 others had their usual pre-shift safety briefing at 5:45am and were assigned their underground tasks. Mr Welsh's job that day was to "bog", or remove broken rock, at a draw point — an area of the mine where ore is loaded. Before he started the bogging work, Mr Welsh and shift supervisor David Woolley inspected the draw point, and discussed how to best undertake the job. "Mr Woolley said in his evidence that not long after leaving Mr Welsh, he called him on the radio and asked him how he was going. Mr Welsh led Mr Woolley to understand that he had almost finished the job," Mr Cooper said. "This would appear to be the last occasion any contact was had with Mr Welsh." Mr Cooper said fellow loader operator Michael Barnett "immediately knew something was wrong", when he noticed at 7:45am a "heap of mud" near where Mr Welsh had been working. Mr Barnett repeatedly called out Mr Welsh's name on the radio but Mr Welsh did not respond. "Switching to emergency channel 6, Mr Barnett called, 'emergency, emergency, emergency, everyone make their way to the tag board', something he repeated twice," Mr Cooper said. "Mr Barnett then broadcast on the emergency radio channel a message to the effect that there had been a mud rush ... and that he could not find Mr Welsh." Mr Cooper said that after about 30-to-45 minutes of Mr Barnett using his loader to dig away the mud, Mr Barnett said he saw what proved to be the lights of Mr Welsh's loader. Judson Burke, who had joined the search, found Mr Welsh's body, lying face down in the mud, about 8:25am. The loader, which weighted between 60 and 80 tonnes, was pushed back by the mud, its windows destroyed and the cab was full of mud and rocks, Mr Cooper said. Mr Cooper said the draw point had been at least "unstable" for several shifts before Mr Welsh's death. "It remained the subject of regular inspection," he said. "In fact, the very reason Mr Welsh — a highly experienced and highly regarded bogger operator — was allocated to the draw point ... was because it was a problem and he was thought the most capable person available to deal with the issue." Mr Welsh's death came just six weeks after two other workers died while working in the mine. Craig Gleeson, 45, and Alistair Lucas, 25, were carrying out routine maintenance work, when a temporary platform they were working on collapsed and they fell 22 metres down a mine shaft. Like Mr Welsh, both men were much-loved members of the Queenstown community. "Their deaths touched many people deeply," Mr Cooper said. Mr Gleeson, a father of three, had been married to his wife for 18 years. His son, Michael, also worked at the Mount Lyell mine. "Known as Glees, Mr Gleeson was popular with his workmates and recognised by them as very experienced," Mr Cooper said. Mr Lucas was engaged to be married to Emmy-Lou Smith, with whom he had a son, Kobe. "Known to many as Big Al, and others as Soupy, Mr Lucas was evidently a popular, 'larger-than-life' character," Mr Cooper said. "Like Mr Gleeson, he was a member of a mining family. His father Philip was also employed at Mount Lyell." Trade assistant Allan Stuart-Mitchell was near the two men on the day they died. It was his job to hand them tools. Mr Cooper said a 62-kilogram piece of machinery upon which they were working fell about half a metre onto the soft wood, unsecured platform, which gave way. "Neither was anchored by a lanyard attached to a safety harness. The fall from the platform was the direct cause of their deaths," Mr Cooper said. "A horrified Mr Stuart-Mitchell saw all this happen in front of him from a distance of ... about two metres away." Mr Stuart-Mitchell used a nearby telephone to call mine rescuer Robert Butterfield who, with Lachlan Brown, abseiled down the shaft to Mr Gleeson and Mr Lucas. Mr Gleeson had no signs of breath or a pulse. Mr Lucas was responding verbally but, Mr Cooper said, in a way that made little sense. Mr Lucas was pronounced dead on arrival at the Queenstown Hospital. Mr Cooper praised Mr Butterfield and Mr Brown's role in the rescue effort. "It took a considerable amount of personal courage to abseil into the shaft to try to rescue Mr Gleeson and Mr Lucas," he said. Mr Cooper found Mr Gleeson's and Mr Lucas's deaths were "entirely avoidable had basic safety principles been adhered to" and made several recommendations to improve safety. In relation to Mr Welsh's death, he said he could not make a finding that "by reason of any failure to strictly adhere to" controls at ore loading points in the mine resulted in the mud rush that caused Mr Welsh's death, but recommended improvements to risk management tools and decision-making processes. Mine owner Copper Mines of Tasmania said it would consider Mr Cooper's report in detail and implement all recommendations.
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Mine Collapses
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Ethiopia to expel UN officials amid fears of Tigray famine
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Ethiopia is expelling seven senior United Nations officials, just days after the UN's aid chief warned the war-torn northern Tigray region was descending into famine due to the government's blockade of aid deliveries. Among those ordered out of the country are officials from the UN's Children Fund (UNICEF) and UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), organizations coordinating relief efforts and raising concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, which has been racked by war with the Ethiopian government for nearly a year. In a statement on Thursday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the officials "meddling in the internal affairs of the country" and gave them 72 hours to leave the country. Workers carry sacks of wheat for a food distribution, organised by the local NGO Relief Society of Tigray (REST) in Mekele on June 22, 2021. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "shocked" by the decision and that the global body was working to keep staff in the country. If the Ethiopian order goes ahead, it would mark one of the most significant expulsions of senior UN humanitarian officials from any country. Read More International criticisms have been growing over the deteriorating conflict in Tigray and the role of the government in restricting access to aid . On September 17, US President Joe Biden threatened to impose broad new sanctions on Ethiopian officials and other parties to the conflict unless they stopped fighting and opened up humanitarian access. On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the US condemned the expulsions and would not hold back from using sanctions against any group obstructing aid efforts. "It must stop," Psaki said. "The action follows the release of reports warning that hundreds of thousands of people are starving to death in northern Ethiopia. We're deeply concerned that this action continues a pattern by the Ethiopian government of obstructing the delivery of food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies that most to those most in need." Earlier this month, UNOCHA said there was a "de facto humanitarian aid blockade" into the war-torn Tigray region, where at least 400,000 people are facing famine conditions, according to the agency's latest figures. Since July, only 606 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies have managed to enter Tigray -- a small fraction of what is needed to bring humanitarian assistance to 5.2 million people, according to UNOCHA. The UN estimates 100 trucks a day are needed in order to meet the demand. Medical supplies continue to be denied entry into the region by the Ethiopian government, according to the UN.
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Famine
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Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms
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Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was the worst locust infestation in more than two decades. Pakistan's government declared a national emergency on Saturday in response to swarms of desert locusts in the eastern part of the country. Prime Minister Imran Khan made the emergency declaration following a government briefing on the situation on Friday. "We are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades and have decided to declare national emergency to deal with the threat," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday. The desert locusts — large herbivores that resemble grasshoppers — arrived in Pakistan from Iran in June and have already ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops. Favorable weather conditions and a delayed government response have helped the locusts breed and attack crop areas. Their potential for large-scale destruction is raising fears of food insecurity. National Food Security Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar said the locust swarms were currently on the Pakistan-India border around Cholistan and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. "The locust attack is unprecedented and alarming," Bakhtiar told Pakistani lawmakers in a briefing on Friday. "Action has been taken against the insect over 0.3 million acres (121,400 hectares) and aerial spray was done on 20,000 hectares," he was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune. "District administrations, voluntary organizations, aviation division and armed forces are put into operation to combat the attack and save the crops," he added. Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to tackle the issue, adding that protection of agriculture and farmers was the government's priority. "The federal government will take all possible steps and provide required facilities to protect crops from any possible danger with special focus on the danger of locust," Khan said, according to Dawn. The last time Pakistan saw a serious threat of locusts was in 1993. Currently, locust swarms are affecting neighboring India and countries in East Africa. Bark beetles, which reproduce in inner tree bark, have a killer reputation. And while some species of the bug do attack healthy trunks, they generally go for trees that are already diseased, dying or weak. Their role in forest ecology is a hotly contested issue, with some saying they provide an invaluable service and others insisting they are havoc-wreaking pests. The horse chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella) takes its name from the trees it discolors. First observed in northern Greece in the mid eighties, it has since spread to other parts of Europe. Its larvae mine the leaves causing them to turn brown and drop before autumn takes its toll on other tree species. But the damage is not lasting. Come spring, they burst back into green life. The damage caused by plagues of locusts is well documented. Desert locusts in particular can swarm into groups of between 40 and 80 million creatures, devastating crops intended for human consumption. Capable of eating their own weight each day, a swarm as large as the one mentioned above, could devour more than 190 million kilos of plants on a daily basis. With their long eyes and neat architectural design, a lot of people find snails cute and endearing. Not so farmers. These slimy little - and sometimes big - creatures are big eaters and will happily chomp their way through crops, such as lettuces, cabbage and broccoli leaving a trail of holes in their wake. Or in the case of smaller plants, tearing them to shreds. Like so many pests, pea aphids take their name from their victim of choice. Which in this case means peas, though they also have a predeliction for clover and alfalfa. A mere 4 mm in length and only of this world for some 12 days, they suck the juice from their "host" plants, and are capable of killing them in the process. Oh and BTW: females can produce as many as 100 nymphs in their short lives. Termites are more or less synomymous with mounds of earth and unsafe wooden constructions, but they also have a weakness for some plants - most notably maize. They hollow out the roots and base of the plant, first causing it to wilt, but in some cases later, to die. They also affect both tea and coffee plants, African palm oil, rubber and sugarcane. A varied appetite with a destructive outcome. Varroa mites are bad news for honey bees and can wipe out entire colonies. As parasites, they attach themselves to the bee's body and then suck out their host's bodily fluid, thereby weakening their immune systems and rendering them vulnerable to disease. The impact is not only bad for the bees themselves, but for crop pollination. Somalia declares 'national emergency' On Sunday, Somalia declared its locust infestation a national emergency. The locust invasion has swept over the Horn of Africa, devastating crops in one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. "The Ministry of Agriculture... has declared a national emergency in view of the current desert locust upsurge, that poses a major threat to Somalia's fragile food security situation," the ministry statement read. "Food sources for people and their livestock are at risk," the statement warned. The locusts have caused major agricultural destruction and hunger. "Given the severity of this desert locust outbreak, we must commit our best efforts to protect the food security and livelihoods of Somali people," said Minister of Agriculture Said Hussein. "If we don't act now, we risk a severe food crisis that we cannot afford." Strengthened by climate change, the Indian Ocean Dipole has made Australia drier while countries such as Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia become wetter and more hospitable to desert locusts. (31.01.2020) A locust invasion in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has left crops devastated. It is the biggest swarm in decades, with billions of the ravenous insects nibbling their way through the already climate-ravaged region. (24.01.2020) The plague has been described as the worst of its kind in six decades. Vegetation has been severely hit and the industry fears it may be too late to save this year's crop. (11.06.2019)
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Insect Disaster
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Donald Trump's Pledge to Withdraw U.S. From TPP Opens the Door for China
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Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in the Rodeo Arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on Oct. 29, 2016, in Golden, Colo. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images By Charlie Campbell / Beijing November 22, 2016 3:38 AM EST As a former reality-TV star who sent more than 7,000 tweets over his campaign, it was somewhat fitting that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump took to social media Monday to outline the plan for his Administration’s first 100 days. And there was clear showmanship to his pledge, made during that 2.5-minute YouTube video, to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal on his “first day” in office — remarks that provoked consternation among economists while presenting opportunities to rival superpower China. The TPP, which was signed in 2015 between a dozen countries that comprise 40% of the global economy but has yet to be ratified, was “a potential disaster for our country,” said Trump, adding that he would instead “negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry onto American shores.” Read More: How Donald Trump Could Remake Global Trade With a Pen Trump’s remarks will be especially disappointing for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who last week become the first foreign leader to sit down with the President-elect during a 90-minute meeting in New York City. Just hours before Trump’s YouTube clip Abe warned that TPP would be “meaningless” without the U.S. Economists were also downbeat about Trump’s announcement. Simon Rabinovitch, Asia economics editor at the Economist, told the BBC that “though Trump has called it a horrible deal, [TPP] was actually v ery good for the U.S. ” Deborah Elms, executive director at the Asian Trade Center, said the decision was “very depressing news” and “means the end of U.S. leadership on trade and the passing of the baton to Asia.” That baton would be gleefully received by China, which was never a TPP signatory. Beijing instead advocates the rival Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact , which includes Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and 12 other Asian countries — but not the U.S. Read More: Donald Trump Outlines Policy Plans for First 100 Days in Office While RCEP is essentially an extension of free trade under existing parameters, TPP included a raft of regulations that stood to bolster U.S. competitiveness. Proponents of the deal claimed it would enhance labor rights, install minimum wages, put state-owned enterprises and foreign and domestic private companies on an even keel, allow the free transfer of information and safeguard intellectual property rights. “TPP [would be] a good thing in the long run because it sets high standards for international trade and investment,” says Professor Larry Qiu of Hong Kong University’s School of Economics and Finance. He adds that what the world needs is not “more trade and investment … but higher-quality and better-ordered trade and investment.” The risk is that protectionist policies under Trump will allow China to supplant the U.S. as a key market, given the overall trend of ascendant Asian economies is for more free trade rather than less. Read More: Donald Trump Details Plan to Rewrite Global Trade Rules That said, economists in China were more confident than their peers elsewhere. “Trump’s isolationism is a challenge and opportunity for China and Chinese companies,” says Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher for the Institute for International Economics Research at China’s National Development and Reform Commission. “Maybe under the new economic polices issued by Trump, more Chinese companies will enter American market.” Certainly, the end of TPP sounds the death knell for outgoing President Barack Obama’s “pivot” or “ rebalancing ” to Asia. TPP was to be the economic element to a strategy to counter China’s rise through enhanced military, political and economic cooperation with regional allies. Speaking at a meeting of the APEC bloc in Lima, Peru, on Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the need “to continue our involvement in economic globalization … bringing about an Asia-Pacific economy with greater openness.” Read More: Donald Trump’s Victory Is Some of the Best Foreign News China Could Have Hoped For But the question remains over how far Trump’s protectionism goes, with the Republican’s stump pledge to impose 45% trade tariffs on Chinese goods raising the potential of U.S. trade wars with the world’s second largest economy. Zhang says that the 45% tariff is unlikely because the U.S. has a trade surplus with so many countries. “If Trump charges 45% on Chinese goods, what about the tariff for European countries, for Russia, and for Japan?” asks Zhang. “I don’t think Trump would do it. [And] of course, China would fight back. The world would be in chaos.”
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Victoria’s secret agreement with China faces federal government scrutiny
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The Commonwealth will probe a third deal between the Andrews government and China to advance public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects, signed separately to Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road deal.
The state government has been forced to hand over details of the memorandum of understanding – which has been kept secret – that Premier Daniel Andrews signed in 2017.
Premier Daniel Andrews in Tiananmen Square in 2015. The document came to light after the Morrison government compelled the state to hand over documents under its new foreign veto laws.
The federal government could order the document be torn up if Victoria fails to adequately explain why the agreement is in Australia’s national interest under the terms of the legislation, which passed Parliament in December.
Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China has raised concerns within national security agencies and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This earlier agreement, signed in 2017 – 18 months before the BRI document – is expected to ring further alarm bells within the federal government, according to foreign policy experts.
Signed by the Victorian government in March 2017, the memorandum of understanding – which it has refused to release – was struck with China’s National Development and Reform Commission, committing it to working with Beijing on infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships.
Chinese officials are likely to closely follow the federal government’s decision on whether to tear up Victoria’s three agreements with Beijing, especially in light of China’s most recent Two Sessions meeting that set the country’s blueprint for the year, but which is largely considered a “rubber-stamp” parliament.
With the coronavirus pandemic largely under control, this year’s meeting focused heavily on the country’s so-called dual circulation strategy, which is designed to simultaneously reduce China’s dependence on the global economy and increase other countries’ reliance on Beijing.
Prompted by the Andrews government deal with China, the Commonwealth in December gave itself powers to cancel or block agreements entered into by states, territories, local governments and public universities with foreign governments if they are deemed to compromise Australia’s national interests.
However, Mr Andrews and some foreign policy experts have previously warned about the potential to further weaken the China-Australia relationship, which is now more fraught than at any time since the 1970s.
The $1.5 trillion Belt and Road Initiative is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policy to invest in infrastructure globally, including roads, railways, pipelines and telecommunications systems. But western governments, including Australia and the United States, increasingly view it as a foreign policy and propaganda tool, as well as a potential debt trap for developing nations.
Foreign policy expert Michael Shoebridge, the director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the ramifications of committing to projects through the public-private partnership agreement had grown in the past three years, with the national security risk further heightened following last month’s political meeting.
“The implications of doing projects under [the public-private partnership] arrangement have grown,” Mr Shoebridge said.
Daniel Andrews visiting pandas during his 2015 China trip.
“Public-private partnerships, and the Belt and Road Initiative, is at the core of Beijing’s plans for a China-centred global economy.
“China talks about PPPs as a way of accelerating and broadening the activities you can do to implement the Belt and Road. It’s a faster way of getting projects delivered, and a way of obtaining alternative finance to government finance.
“But I think a key thing about the way China thinks about public-private partnerships is that they’re still absolutely guided by the government – so it uses private corporations and corporate capital for government purposes.”
Mr Shoebridge said there would be renewed focus on the risks of entering into a public-private partnership agreement with the commission in light of the most recent Two Sessions gathering – the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The gathering brings together China’s leadership and lawmakers to set the blueprint for the coming year and is considered the most important event on the government’s calendar, it also offers a rare glimpse at what President Xi and top officials consider priorities. Discussions this year signalled Beijing’s intentions around technology competition, control over Hong Kong and strategic threats posed by the West.
The Belt and Road Initiative and public-private partnership agreements will be shaped through the lens of this strategy, Mr Shoebridge said.
“The federal government will have to evaluate it based on its merits, but I would be surprised if the national security risks around this memorandum of understanding have anything but risen given the way the Chinese government has operated in the last three years, and with the economic directions outlined in the recent Two Sessions meeting, where the risk of China using economic coercion has grown.”
In a 2018 progress report on “Victoria’s China Strategy”, the government spruiked a deal it had developed with China’s national government to enter into the public-private partnership arrangement.
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The BRI is a web of infrastructure that spans continents, but what is China's motive?
“[This marks] the first time the NDRC has entered into an agreement with a sub-national government on this subject,” the document states.
“Since the agreement was signed, the partnership has strengthened through reciprocal visits. Victorian education providers joined the Premier in Beijing where they were introduced to senior NDRC officials to discuss delivering training on PPPs in Melbourne.” The Victorian government on Tuesday provided a one-line response to a list of questions from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald about the agreement. It refused to provide any details about the contents of the document or any deals that may have been struck as part of the partnership.
“The Victorian government is continuing to work with the Commonwealth in line with the legislative requirements,” a spokeswoman said.
Mr Andrews has previously warned that any federal government decision to cancel his state’s Belt and Road agreement with China would further aggravate the relationship between the countries and adversely affect businesses that were already struggling.
“I don’t think ripping up agreements resets anything. I think it might make a very challenging set of circumstances for farmers, for workers, for businesses, for every Victorian much, much harder,” he said a day after the new foreign veto laws passed Parliament.
“There’s no getting around it – whether you like it or not, this is our biggest customer.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and senior ministers such as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have been critical of Victoria’s dealings with China on the Belt and Road, claiming it undercuts the role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Foreign policy experts say while the language in Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China is innocuous, the involvement of governments from richer jurisdictions such as New Zealand and Victoria make it harder for poorer nations to protect their interests.
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Tear Up Agreement
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2011 Victoria floods
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High intensity rainfall between 12–14 January 2011 caused major flooding across much of the western and central parts of the Australian state of Victoria. Several follow-up heavy rainfall events including Tropical Low Yasi caused repeated flash flooding in affected areas in early February in many of the communities affected by January's floods. [2]
Many of the towns were previously affected by floods in September 2010, however the 2011 event was more severe, affecting at least four times as many properties[3] with thousands of evacuations being called for by the State Emergency Service. As of 18 January, more than 51 communities had been affected by the floods. [4] A total of over 1,730 properties had been flooded. [5] Over 17,000 homes lost their electricity supply. [6] The floods forced VicRoads to close hundreds of roads; and train services were also disrupted. The floods devastated farms with 51,700 hectares of pasture and 41,200 hectares of field crops flooded and 6,106 sheep killed. [1] The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Victorian Farmers Union initially estimated that damages would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars,[5] but the Department of Primary Industries later calculated a damage bill of up to A$ 2 billion. [1]
Kevin Parkyn, a senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology said, "Victoria is experiencing one of its worst flood events in its history" after "a week in which rainfall totals have been smashed in parts of Victoria. "[7] Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Terry Ryan said, "It's the worst flood in western Victoria in their history as far as our records go in terms of the depth of water and the number of places affected. "[8] The Premier of Victoria, Ted Baillieu, has described it as "one of the biggest floods in the state's history. "[9]
The strongest La Niña event since 1973[10] which fuelled the extensive flooding across Victoria in September 2010, brought wetter conditions across eastern Australia including the 2010–11 Queensland floods. An already soaked state had the wettest January in its recorded history in January 2011. A deepening low pressure trough over south-east Australia, fed with tropical moisture from the [[monsoon across the state as well as northern Tasmania, southern New South Wales and eastern parts of South Australia. [11][12][13][14][15]
During the downpour across the state flash flooding occurred in places such as Halls Gap and Beaufort, resulting in damage to businesses and homes. However, it was not until the downpour began to subside (and fair weather returned) that the accumulated water caused waterways across the region gradually to swell. As waterways began to break their banks, evacuations were called. Despite clearing conditions, flooding continued to spread during January and into February 2011 as it developed into what was increasingly described by the media as an "inland sea" across agricultural north-west Victoria. [16]
Rising rivers led to evacuations in many other towns in central and western Victoria:[17][18]
[18][21][22]
[43][44][45]
V/Line temporarily closed all passenger services. [46]
The flooding caused power outages across the state including areas supplied by the Charlton Zone Substation which was directly affected by rising waters. [47][48]
On 18 January, a police diver found the body of a boy who went missing in a flooded billabong, off the Goulburn River, on 17 January at Shepparton in north-east Victoria. [50]
On 5 February, the death of a man after falling off the roof of his Glen Waverley home trying to stem a leak was attributed to the flash flooding. [51]
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) assisted the Victorian State Emergency Service (VICSES) from 14 January 2011. The South Australian State Emergency Service sent a deployment team over to the emergency base in Horsham working up north along the Yarriambiack Creek. The 20-person team made up from units in Adelaide, Mt. Gambier, Murray Bridge, Renmark, Berri and Keith spent 5 days assisting the Victorian SES between 18 January 2011 and 22 January 2011. Premier Ted Ballieu toured flood affected areas on 17 January, announcing an A$7 million relief package, including a A$5 million clean-up fund and a A$1 million public appeal coordinated by the Red Cross. On 18 January, the Federal Government pledged A$4 million in relief funds. [52]
Three platoons from Victoria's 4th Reserve Response Force (4RRF), under the command of Headquarters 4th Brigade, conducted Rapid Impact Assessments (RIA) on townships identified by VICSES since 20 January, to provide information on the impact of the floods on community and private infrastructure. [53]
ADF personnel delivered relief items including almost 200,000 sandbags, various emergency stores, fuel, sand, water and bedding to a number of communities in the flood-affected region. In addition, a RAAF aircraft transported 76,000 ADF sandbags from Townsville and Brisbane to Melbourne on 22–23 January. [53]
By 24 January, RIAs had been completed for the towns of Charlton, Hamilton, Glenorchy, Halls Gap, Rochester, Bridgewater, Carisbrook, Dunolly, Clunes, Creswick, Appin South, Kerang West, Skipton, Newbridge and Horsham. [53]
On 24 January the ADF committed two Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Seahawk helicopters for providing support to Victorian flood relief and recovery efforts in addition to approximately 100 personnel and more than 40 land vehicles. [53]
The Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, toured flood affected areas from 28 January. [54] Victorian Premier Ted Ballieu publicly criticised the Prime Minister for forgetting her home state while she pushed for a controversial flood levy to repair Queensland's flood damage. [55]
In March 2011, the Queen's eldest grandson, Prince William, toured the affected areas in Victoria, as well as those damaged by the floods in Queensland. [56]
In April 2011, Scouts Australia's Victorian Branch replaced its traditional Hoadley Hide hiking event with the Hoadley Project, where hundreds of Venturer and Rover Scouts assisted residents of Charlton, Rochester and Murrabit in the continuing cleanup effort. [57]
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Floods
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World powers have reached a deal with Iran on limiting Iranian nuclear activity in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions
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World powers have reached a deal with Iran on limiting Iranian nuclear activity in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions.
US President Barack Obama said that with the deal, "every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off" for Iran.
And President Hassan Rouhani said the "historic" deal opened a "new chapter" in Iran's relations with the world.
Negotiations between Iran and six world powers - the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany - began in 2006.
The so-called P5+1 want Iran to scale back its sensitive nuclear activities to ensure that it cannot build a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which wants crippling international sanctions lifted, has always insisted that its nuclear work is peaceful. There has been stiff resistance to a deal from conservatives both in Iran and the US. The US Congress has 60 days in which to consider the deal, though Mr Obama said he would veto any attempt to block it.
The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, said the deal would only only "embolden" Tehran.
"Instead of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, this deal is likely to fuel a nuclear arms race around the world," he added.
Israel's government has also warned against an agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "stunning historic mistake" that would provide Iran with "hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine and its expansion and aggression throughout the Middle East and across the globe".
He said he did not regard Israel as being bound by this agreement. "We will always defend ourselves," he added.
In a televised address, Mr Obama insisted the deal would make the world "safer and more secure", and provided for a rigorous verification regime. "This deal is not built on trust - it is built on verification," he said.
Immediately afterwards, Mr Rouhani gave his own televised address, in which he said the prayers of Iranians had "come true".
He said the deal would lead to the removal of all sanctions, adding: "The sanctions regime was never successful, but at the same time it affected people's lives.''
After 12 years, world powers had finally "recognised the nuclear activities of Iran", he said.
The agreement will change the Middle East, perhaps a lot, but at the moment no-one knows exactly how. The biggest question is whether it will reduce or increase the turmoil in the Middle East. Iran and the world's big powers, most significantly the US, now have a habit of working together - but don't assume that will help automatically to resolve the crises and wars that Iran, the US and their allies are involved with in the region.
There is a danger that mutual suspicion will heat up the Middle East's fault lines, especially the cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia - and with it sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims. But the agreement in Vienna removes Iran's nuclear programme from the danger list. Two years ago, as Israel threatened to bomb Iran, it looked likely to lead to a major Middle East war. That in itself is a major diplomatic achievement. Both Mr Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif referred to the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme as an "unnecessary crisis".
Mr Zarif said the deal was "not perfect for anybody'', but that it was the "best achievement possible that could be reached".
Mr Obama, who is trying to persuade a sceptical US Congress of the benefits, said it would oblige Iran to:
Sanctions relief would be gradual, Mr Obama said, with an arms embargo remaining in place for five years and an embargo on missiles for eight years. Separately, the IAEA and Iran said they had signed a roadmap to resolve outstanding issues. IAEA head Yukiya Amano told reporters in Vienna, Austria, that his organisation had signed a roadmap "for the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear programme".
He called the agreement a "significant step forward", saying it would allow the agency to "make an assessment of issues relating to possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme by the end of 2015".
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Sign Agreement
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Police call for witnesses to double fatality on Bussell Highway
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Police are urging anyone who may have witnessed a horrific crash that killed two people on Western Australia's Bussell Highway on the weekend to come forward. The accident occurred near Capel at about 1:00pm on Sunday afternoon when a grey Skoda Yeti driving north collided head on with a Toyota Land Cruiser. The 36-year-old driver of the Skoda and his 31-year-old female passenger died at the scene. The male driver of the other vehicle was taken to Bunbury Regional Hospital and his female passenger was flown to Royal Perth Hospital. Travellers on the Bussell Highway came across the scene before police arrived. South West Police Superintendent Geoff Stewart said anyone who witnessed the scene may need to seek help. "I just encourage anyone who saw [traumatic things] to talk to someone," he said. The Bussell Highway is the major road linking Bunbury to the popular holiday destinations of Busselton and Margaret River. Road works are currently underway to widen a section of the highway between Capel and Busselton that is notoriously dangerous and busy, particularly on weekends and during holidays. In 2019 a survey compiled by insurer RAC labelled the Bussell Highway the riskiest road in regional WA due to its lack of overtaking opportunities and traffic separation. Superintendent Stewart told the ABC he was concerned about the upcoming tourist season, which was expected to be busier than usual. "We're going to see more vehicles and it concerns me greatly," he said. Superintendent Stewart asked people to drive to the conditions, avoid distractions, wear seatbelts and to avoid taking risks behind the wheel. Police will continue to investigate the crash and are urging anyone with information to come forward.
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Road Crash
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Stony Creek in Melbourne's west running red as authorities investigate pollution
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Victoria's environmental watchdog is investigating a discharge that has turned Stony Creek in Melbourne's west bright red, a year after a chemical fire contaminated the water.
Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) said it had received multiple reports about a "red-coloured discharge" in the creek near St Leonards Avenue in Yarraville.
"The discolouration is not naturally occurring and has likely entered the creek through the stormwater system, either as a flowing substance or as a result of run-off from the rain on Saturday," an EPA spokesperson said in a statement.
EPA investigators attended the site on Saturday and Sunday.
EPA manager Stephen Lansdell said the run-off was likely to contain red dye, but the authority was still working to confirm that was the case.
It comes just over a year after a range of chemicals were detected in the creek, including the controversial firefighting foam PFAS, following a massive fire nearby.
The industrial blaze at a warehouse in West Footscray in August 2018 burned for days, spewing toxic black smoke over the surrounding suburbs.
Firefighting foam and chemicals from the building washed into the waterway of Stony Creek at the time, with residents saying thousands of fish were killed.
It was not clear whether the latest discharge was related to the fire.
Mr Lansdell said officers had taken samples from the creek and would test the water against substances from a site they believed could be the source of the discharge.
"If the match is confirmed, EPA will not hesitate to take action in line with the Compliance and Enforcement policy," Mr Lansdell said.
"Clean-up works are expected later today."
Friends of Stony Creek president and Yarraville resident Steve Wilson said the creek had a long history of pollution.
"It's known for its technicolour history as they say," he said.
"I've seen it blue. People have seen it a yellow colour. A cream colour. "White is a very prominent one that's usually from a break in the sewer line or something like that."
He said life was just starting to come back to Stony Creek after the last year's fire, and he was worried the new contamination could hinder its recovery.
"I'm a bit concerned it'll have an effect on the fish down there and slow down their recovery," he said.
"This has been ongoing ever since I've been down there. There's always been these spills down there."
Earlier this month, Melbourne Water released the Stony Creek Rehabilitation Plan, which was developed with the EPA and Maribyrnong City Council.
Mr Lansdell thanked the community members who reported the red colour, saying the reports had been "vital" in tracking the source.
To report pollution to EPA's 24-hour hotline call 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842).
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Environment Pollution
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One killed, two injured in collapse at Knox County mine
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by: Caleb Wethington Posted: Jul 13, 2021 / 01:53 PM EDT Updated: Jul 14, 2021 / 05:43 AM EDT by: Caleb Wethington Posted: Jul 13, 2021 / 01:53 PM EDT Updated: Jul 14, 2021 / 05:43 AM EDT KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — One miner was killed and two other miners were injured in a collapse at a mine in Knox County Tuesday afternoon. Rural Metro Fire, Knox County Rescue, and American Medical Response responded to the Nyrstar Mine in Mascot on Tuesday. Rural Metro spokesperson Jeff Bagwell confirmed one person was killed in the collapse. Two injured workers were brought to the surface by mine rescue personnel. They were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The conditions of the injured miners were not immediately available. Nyrstar operates a processing plant and three underground zinc mines in East Tennessee: Young, Coy and Immel. The three mines are located in and around Knox and Jefferson Counties. The collapse Tuesday marks the second death at the Immel Mine this year. Cody Maggard, a 26-year-old underground chute puller, was fatally injured at the Immel Mine on February 22. Brandon Roski, 35, was killed at the Young Mine in Jefferson County on May 18. Nyrstar released the following statement: Nyrstar regrets to confirm that this afternoon around 12:30pm EST an incident at the Immel Mine within its East Tennessee operations led to a colleague tragically losing his life and two colleagues sustaining injuries while performing their duties. Nyrstar immediately activated emergency protocols and notified the relevant authorities. Next of kin have been informed. The injured employees were transported to hospital for treatment. The possible cause of the incident is not yet known. Nyrstar is undertaking a review of the accident and is cooperating fully with the relevant authorities. Safety remains a priority for Nyrstar. The company extends its deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased employee who had worked at the mine for the past 11 years. Nyrstar is offering counselling and other support to colleagues who have been affected by this tragic incident. The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration will conduct an investigation. This is a developing story. Download the WATE 6 News app for updates sent to your phone.
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Mine Collapses
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U.S. to Withdraw From UNESCO. Here's What That Means.
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Officials announced that the country will leave the international cultural organization in 2018, citing concerns over "anti-Israel bias." Top 5: New World Heritage Sites to Add to Your Travel List The United States will pull out of UNESCO, the international scientific and cultural heritage organization, at the end of 2018, the U.S. State Department announced Thursday morning. UNESCO is best known for the heritage sites and biosphere reserves it designates, but the organization was founded on the broader principles of combating extremism and promoting peace. The organization works on all matters of global development, including gender equality, sex education, clean water, and literacy. The U.S. decision to withdraw, which the U.S. State Department said “was not taken lightly,” stems from financial concerns, what the U.S. sees as a lack of needed reform, and “continuing anti-Israel bias.” In a statement, the U.S. State Department said that it wanted to remain engaged with UNESCO as a non-member observer state, to continue promoting world heritage protection, press freedoms, and scientific collaboration. “At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations agency promoting education for peace and protecting culture under attack,” Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said in a statement. “This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism.” The United States has been involved with UNESCO since its beginning. According to the U.S. State Department, American author Archibald MacLeish—the first American member of UNESCO's governing board—wrote the preamble to the organization's 1945 constitution. But the U.S. and UNESCO have had their disagreements. In 1974, Congress suspended the U.S. contribution to UNESCO's budget after the organization criticized Israel and recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Washington Post reported in 1984. In December 1984, the Reagan Administration withdrew the U.S. from the organization, citing UNESCO's budget and what the U.S. deemed an ideological bent against Israel and free-market capitalism. The U.S. rejoined UNESCO in 2002, but tensions haven't exactly dissipated in the years since. In 2013, the U.S. automatically lost its voting rights at the organization, after missing a deadline to pay its contribution to UNESCO's budget. In 2011, the U.S. stopped paying its annual dues—more than $80 million, more than a fifth of UNESCO's overall budget—in protest of the group's decision to admit Palestine as a member. Foreign Policy's Colum Lynch reports that while the U.S. decision is based in part on capping what the U.S. owes to UNESCO—a sum of more than $500 million—the withdrawal is primarily a reaction to UNESCO's approach to Israel. In July, UNESCO declared the old city in Hebron, a town in the West Bank, a World Heritage Site—but declared it for Palestine, not Israel. Israel contends that Hebron's designation weakens the site's connections to Judaism. In 2016, Israel recalled its UNESCO ambassador after UNESCO's World Heritage Committee adopted a resolution that referred to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites only as a “Muslim holy site of worship.”
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Withdraw from an Organization
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2002 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
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The 2002 IIHF World U20 Championship, commonly referred as the 2002 World Junior Hockey Championships (2002 WJHC), was the 26th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. The tournament was held in Pardubice and Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, from December 25, 2001 – January 4, 2002. Russia won the gold medal with a 5–4 come-from-behind victory over Canada in the championship game, while Finland won the bronze medal with a 5–1 victory over Switzerland. All times local (CET/UTC+1). All times local (CET/UTC+1). France was relegated to Division I for the 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. † Overtime victory. ‡ Shootout victory. Minimum 40% of team's ice time. The following teams took part in the Division I tournament. This group played in Kapfenberg and Zeltweg, Austria between December 9 and December 15, 2001. Germany was promoted to the Top Division for the 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Due to a restructuring of the tournament, no team was relegated from Division I, which in the 2003 tournament consisted of 12 teams in 2 groups. The following teams took part in the Division II tournament. This group played in Zagreb, Croatia between December 30, 2001 and January 3, 2002. All times local (CET/UTC+1). Japan, Denmark, Latvia, and Croatia were promoted to Division I for the 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Due to a restructuring of the tournament, no team was relegated from Division II, which in the 2003 tournament consisted of 12 teams in 2 groups. The following teams took part in the Division III tournament. This group played in Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between January 5 and January 9, 2002. All times local (EET/UTC+2). Due to a restructuring of the tournament, all teams were promoted to Division II for the 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which consisted of 12 teams in 2 groups.
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Sports Competition
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Río Blanco strike
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The Río Blanco strike of January 7 and 8, 1907 was a workers' riot related to a textile strike, near Orizaba in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Following a two-week railroad strike in the summer of 1906, further labor unrest developed among cotton and textile workers in the neighboring states of Tlaxcala and Puebla. Central Mexican textile workers had organized as the Gran Círculo de Obreros Libres ("Great Circle of Free Workers"), and 93 of the factory owners, most of them French, had formed a trade group called Centro Industrial Mexicano. On the other side, a political party called the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) had been established in 1906 and quickly became involved in assertively pressing for industrial and rural reform. At both the French-controlled Rio Blanco textile factory and the American-owned Cananea Copper Company PLM literature was subsequently to be found in the workers' settlements. [1]
After a Christmas Eve lockout by the owners, the administration of President Porfirio Díaz reached a temporary labor settlement. Some workers of the large Río Blanco mill near Orizaba had not joined any strike. Still, they were blacklisted, left locked out of work, and were refused access to provisions from the monopoly company store. [2]
On January 7 a stone-throwing crowd of about 2,000 rioted, with many of the attacks focused on company property. An initial clash between strikers and Rio Blanco employees who were returning to work led to shots being fired and the burning of the company store, though not the actual factory premises. [3] Rurales (mounted police), led by the local political jefe (official) Carlos Herrera, appeared but did not intervene. [4]
On the same day, the mob ransacked the homes of the wealthy, released prisoners from jail, and went afield to Nogales and Necoxtla to burn and loot their company stores as well. By the end of the day, soldiers from nearby Oriziba had killed 18. Hundreds more had been arrested or chased into the surrounding hills. [5]
Federal troops from Mexico City arrived on the 8th on the personal orders of Díaz. Six strike leaders were identified by evening and executed, on the smoking ruins of the company store, the next morning. Conservative casualty figures range from 50 to 70 dead, and hundreds wounded. [6] The relatively liberal Herrera was replaced by a hardline army colonel Francisco Ruiz as jefe. Lurid accounts of railroad wagons being sighted laden with the bodies of dead workers were circulated by political enemies of the Diaz regime. [7]
The Río Blanco incident became linked with the Cananea strike of June 1906 as two symbols of the Díaz administration's corruption, subservience to foreign interests, and civil repression. They became "household words for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans". [8]
The national impact of the strike was significant in terms of damage to the image of the Diaz regime. However local conditions remained essentially unchanged. Within two days about 80% of the employees involved had returned to work and subsequent unrest soon subsided. A military garrison was established nearby but both government authorities and workers adopted a relatively passive stance during the remaining years before the outbreak of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. [9]
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Strike
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2011 Rome demonstration
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On 15 October 2011 about 200,000 people[1] gathered in Rome, Italy to protest against economic inequality and the influence of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund on politics and also against the government of Silvio Berlusconi. [citation needed] The protests began in solidarity with the Spanish protests. [2] Many other protests occurred in other Italian cities the same day. [3]
The demonstrations were endorsed by several political parties, trade unions and civil movements, including: Cobas, Federazione Anarchica Italiana, Youth Federation of Italian Communists, Young Communists, Purple people, Workers' Communist Party, Party of Italian Communists, Communist Refoundation Party, Left Ecology Freedom, Critical Left, the left wing of the Italian General Confederation of Labour, and many others. [4]
On the afternoon the Rome protests turned violent, as hundreds of hooded protesters[5][6] arrived on the scene and broke away from the otherwise peaceful demonstration, setting cars and a police van on fire, smashing bank windows and clashed with police. A Catholic church was ransacked and a statue of the Madonna was thrown into the street where it was stomped on by one of the rioters. [7][8] Two news crews from Sky Italia were also assaulted. [9] Police repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters. [7] At least 135 people were injured, including 105 police officers. Twelve people were arrested the same day,[10] and another one on 17 October. [11]
It was later determined that the damage from the rioting amounted to €1.815 million, with €1 million tied to the Public Works Department. [12]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Locust outbreaks in the Horn of Africa are linked to the ...
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Locust outbreaks in the Horn of Africa are linked to the changing climate
As rainfall increases, plagues expected to rise in frequency
Desert locust outbreaks can devastate crops quickly and across a wide area. David Nunn, Flickr
Hugh Biggar
Since 2018, swarms of desert locusts have devoured vital crops and vegetation in the Horn of Africa, and scientists are drawing ominous links between this new reality, the warming climate and increasingly extreme weather.
“Unusually heavy and widespread rainfall has made this plague more serious, impacting countries that had previously been hardly affected, such as Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda,” says Christiaan Kooyman, a scientific advisor and biopesticide expert in Kenya. “It is fairly certain that climate change has contributed.”
The locust plagues are linked to powerful recent cyclones in the fast-warming western Indian Ocean, with the heavy rains, strong winds and soaked land creating ideal conditions for desert locusts to breed and spread.
The frequency and intensity of these cyclones are increasing. A recent commentary in the journal Nature Climate Change noted that 2019 was a record-setting year for the number of tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean, with eight making landfall. As part of this, the capital of Djibouti received the equivalent of two normal years’ worth of rain in four days. Across the Red Sea, desert lakes formed in a barren, uninhabited region of Saudi Arabia known as the “Empty Quarter.”
Concurrently, the frequency and severity of the locust outbreaks are also on the rise as the species transform dramatically under wet conditions, changing from solitary creatures to social ones that breed exponentially. Kenya, for instance, experienced its worst locust infestation in 70 years in 2019 and East Africa its worst desert locust crisis in 25 years, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
“While desert locusts are an age-old threat, we fear something is changing,” the FAO said in a statement. “If the current trend of increased cyclones continues, then the Horn of Africa is likely to face more locust outbreaks in the future.”
Drawn in by the vegetation and greenery resulting from the rains, desert locusts reproduce and disperse. With wet, warm and sandy soil optimal for laying eggs, several generations of desert locusts have been bred since 2018. The mature winged adults multiply rapidly and driven by the wind can migrate widely in search of food, flying upwards of 150 kilometers (90 miles) in a day. On the ground, the voracious pests, a part of the grasshopper family, can destroy huge amounts of crops. One square kilometer can hold a swarm of 40 to 80 million desert locusts , and in a single day a swarm can eat the same amount as roughly 35,000 people or six elephants.
A swarm of locusts clouds the sky in Madagascar in 2016. Hotel Kaesong, Flickr
Faced with an onslaught of desert locust swarms after a November 2020 cyclone led to an atypically wet December, local communities, NGOs and international and government agencies have fought back both in the air and in the field. The FAO and other groups have partnered with local aviation companies and scouts on the ground to spray pesticides in infested areas. The application of these chemical pesticides has also led to concern about the long-term impact on the environment. Rural farmers have also dug up locust eggs to expose them to birds and other predators, created their own organic pesticides extracted from oil of the neem tree to spray on locusts, and banged on drums and other containers to disturb them.
But these responders face a daunting battle against the swarms, particularly the species Schistocerca gregaria due to its clustering, gregarious nature, which spurs its rapid rate of reproduction. Already, the FAO estimates more than 1.3 million hectares of land with locust infestations have been treated since January, and air and ground control measures continue to roll out. Aid too has been distributed to rural communities hard-hit by the swarms that are now facing a food crisis in addition to the ongoing socioeconomic and public health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic .
Control operations and an anticipated return to drier conditions due to light-to-moderate spring rains are helping to curb the damage from this year’s desert locust outbreak . But officials are remaining vigilant as some new swarms continue to form in advance of the spring planting season in early April.
Looking ahead, experts are urging fixes to systems designed to prepare for and respond to these locust outbreaks. “There is not always long-term thinking around environmental protection with something like desert locusts,” says Monique Bennett, a senior researcher with Good Governance Africa. “There is a good scientific understanding of how to control for locusts, but lack of membership payment by countries within the DLCO-EA means there isn’t sufficient preparation when locusts break out. Governments do not invest in research and readiness when it does arise.”
Read more : Newly seeded with $16 billion, Africa’s Great Green Wall to see quicker growth
Bennett says more regional coordination and funding for preventive measures and regional oversight is needed, particularly for the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA). She also stressed the importance of investing in research and technology, developing early warning systems and stockpiling resources in advance of emergencies. Such preparations can lessen the costs of responding to outbreaks and the impact on food security and livelihoods in a region already experiencing acute hunger and other vulnerabilities.
“The predicted trend is that years of abundant rainfall will increase, though droughts will not likely disappear,” says Kooyman. “It is therefore to be expected that plagues will occur more frequently at least in the central region [of Africa]. If funding were available in time, any locust upsurges could be nipped in the bud by good surveillance and control of locust groups and swarms.”
Most Popular
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Insect Disaster
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Gaisal train disaster
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The Gaisal train disaster occurred on 2 August 1999,[1] when two trains , the Avadh Assam Express and the Brahmaputra Mail, carrying approximately 2,500 people collided at the remote station of Gaisal, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, approximately 19 kilometers from Kishanganj Station. The crash involved such high speeds that the trains exploded upon impact,[2] killing at least 290 people. [3]
The crash occurred at about 1:45 a.m. on 2 August, 1999, when the Avadh Assam Express from New Delhi collided with the Brahmaputra mail at the Gaisal railway station. Through a signaling error at Kishanganj, the Avadh Assam Express from Delhi was transferred onto the same track as the mail train. No one on either train or in the signals and station master's office noticed the error. The staff at intermediate stations between Kishanganj and Gaisal also failed to notice that the Assam express was on the wrong track. As a result, Brahmaputra Mail train crashed headlong into the front of the Avadh Assam Express at Gaisal. [4] The Avadh Assam Express WDM-2 locomotive was thrown high in the air, and passengers from both trains were propelled into the neighbouring buildings and fields by the force of the explosion. Three of the four lines at Kishanganj station were non-operational because a doubling of lines was in progress. Only one line was being used to carry the load usually carried by four: 31 trains per day. Track circuiting and interlocking were also not correctly functioning at the station, because of the work in progress. Track circuiting is an electrical procedure by which the station master, and consequently the train driver, can know that the track ahead is occupied. The signals will remain red, interlocking the track, which effectively means that the series of signals cannot be turned green unless the station master allows. The signals can be changed from the relay room which can only be opened jointly by the station master and the signal inspector. In such a situation, the points in the track have to be set manually by a "cranking" procedure, whereby a crank handle, available at stations, is rotated manually on the orders of the station master for setting the points, which are then clamped and locked. The entire process takes around 30 minutes. The driver B.N. Roy who was heading Avadh Assam Express had already moved the train to downline and on the same track, BC Wardhan heading Delhi bound Brahmaputra Mail was coming. The cause of disaster was duty negligence made by ASM of Kishanganj Railway Station as due to setting wrong points manually on the track by track men, Avadh Assam Express shifted to downline which should have been upline otherwise. At the same time, information was passed to the next station that Avadh Assam Express had been sent to upline from Kishanganj station which was incorrect from the fact that Avadh Assam Express was running on downline track. The convergence point of two trains was at Gaisal Railway station (near to Kishanganj) where both trains collided. According to the witnesses, engine of Avadh Assam express jumped several feet high and engine of Brahmaputra Mail rammed into several buggies of Avadh Assam Express resulting in one of the grim disasters of the Indian Railways. If perhaps the driver of Avadh Assam Express had seen the signal lights by peeping outside from his seat, he could have averted the disaster as on his line, all signals were pointing opposite side green instead of usual front facing green signals. That opposite side green signal was for the driver BC Wardhan of Delhi bound Brahmaputra Mail. Moreover, if station cabin of Kishanganj Railway station could have checked the green signal of upline not turned to red which was supposed to be red in case Avadh Assam Express would have touched upline, this disaster could have been averted. Whenever any train crosses the Advance Starter point of railway station, green signal is turned to red either manually or automatically and again becomes green after train crosses nearby one or two stations. Since Avadh Assam express had not touched the upline, green signals on upline were lighting up green and had not turned red. If perhaps this had been noticed by cabin staff of Kishanganj Railway station on time, trains could have been stopped before Gaisal and this disaster could have been averted. Assistant Station Master (ASM) of Kishanganj station, S P Chandra, later admitted[5] to sending the Avadh Assam Express on the wrong (down) line, causing it to collide with the Brahmaputra Mail on August 1[clarification needed], first presented by a preliminary inquiry report of Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS). Immediately after the incident Chandra absconded and was arrested in Katihar on August 10. The line was blocked by wreckage, and the Gaisal emergency services were utterly overwhelmed, as fire swept through the ruined vehicles and station buildings, killing many of the injured people trapped in the trains. Many vehicles and aid support services had to undertake the 14-hour drive from Calcutta to reach the site, by which time many of those they could have helped were already dead. Those who were picked up by rescuers were taken to hospitals in Kishanganj and Islampur, which were also overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. Heavy rains helped dampen fires the following day, and rescue workers began trying to separate the twelve mangled carriages of the train and identify the bodies contained inside. Many were unrecognizable and never identified. The official death toll released was set at 285 killed and over 300 injured in the crash. Unofficial totals have claimed that over 1000 or even more were killed, including 90 soldiers. This is possible because although there were only 72 seats in each of the seven general compartments that were involved in the accident, all of them were crowded far beyond capacity. Moreover, there were many ticketless travelers who were not included in the official count. Because of the nature of the crash and fire, as well as the large number of ticketless people who may have been on the trains, the bodies could not be separately identified. There has also been speculation that explosives carried on the military train may have been the cause of the explosion following the impact, rather than the trains themselves. This has been denied by the Indian military, but has remained a controversial issue. This was the worst Indian rail disaster since the Firozabad rail disaster in 1995, and is comparable to the Bihar train disaster of 1981, in which as many as 800 people were reported to have died.
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Train collisions
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Former president Mary Robinson has joined former US president Jimmy Carter in North Korea on a mission
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Former president Mary Robinson has joined former US president Jimmy Carter in North Korea on a mission to ease inter-Korean tensions.
They will also assess food shortages and try to revive the stalled nuclear disarmament talks.
The delegation, known as The Elders, also includes former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The group has said it hopes to meet leader Kim Jong-Il and Kim's son and heir apparent Jong-Un, although nothing has been arranged.
North Korea's official news agency announced their arrival in a one-sentence report but gave no details.
The delegation was in China beforehand and will go on to South Korea on Thursday.
Efforts to improve North-South relations are deadlocked, with the North refusing to accept blame for two deadly border incidents last year.
Six-party talks on the North's nuclear disarmament have been stalled since December 2008, and Pyongyang formally quit the forum in April 2009 and staged its second nuclear weapons test a month later.
Late last year the North disclosed a uranium enrichment plant, giving it a potential second way to make atomic bombs and lending renewed urgency to efforts to restart negotiations.
The North's persistent food shortages will also be a key topic, after UN food agencies estimated that 6m people - a quarter of the population - urgently needed aid.
Mr Carter said yesterday: 'It is a horrible situation there and we hope to induce other countries to help alleviate (the food crisis), including South Korea, which has cut off all supplies of food materials to North Koreans.
'When there are sanctions against an entire people, the people suffer the most and the leaders suffer the least.'
Mr Carter first visited Pyongyang in 1994 for talks with founding President Kim Il-Sung after the US and North Korea came close to war over the communist state's nuclear weapons programme.
He visited again last August to secure the release of a detained US citizen but did not meet Kim Jong-Il.
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Diplomatic Visit
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1946 Varto–Hınıs earthquake
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The 1946 Varto–Hınıs earthquake occurred at 05:12:46 local time on 31 May. The earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 5.9 and a maximum felt intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, causing between 800 and 1300 casualties.
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Earthquakes
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COVID School Closures Could Loom Large in Newsom Recall
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As summer vacation came to a close earlier this month, Megan Bacigalupi was ecstatic about sending her kids back to their public schools in Oakland. “Myself, my husband, and, I think, my kids especially are just thrilled to be back with all of their friends in a full classroom and as close to normal as I think they have probably felt in a long time,” she said. Bacigalupi says she was extremely frustrated that her kids had to stay home for almost all of the last school year, even as some private schools and a handful of nearby public school districts began offering some form of in-person learning. So she started OpenSchoolsCA, an organization focused on getting more kids back in the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says Gov. Gavin Newsom wasn’t decisive enough in trying to restart in-person education. “I think he decisively, essentially, with the stroke of a pen, closed schools last spring when it was likely the right thing to do in the immediacy,” Bacigalupi said. "But he took no decisive action to get them back up.” In fact, Newsom never ordered California schools to close, though his March 2020 statewide stay-at-home order essentially had that effect. Bacigalupi says she heard from scores of frustrated parents — many of them progressive Democrats like herself — who signed the petition for a gubernatorial recall election. Bacigalupi says she never had the opportunity to sign the petition, and never sought it out, but understands why other parents did. “I voted for Gov. Newsom when he ran [in 2018]. I have supported Democrats my whole life,” she said. “But I understand parents who are in the same boat as me, who are supporting this purely because of what happened with their kids this year.” Newsom’s handling of education has helped fuel the recall effort, and been a key talking point for recall candidates like Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin. “He’s just saying whatever is necessary to cater to the agenda of the teachers unions who want the outcome of schools being closed,” Kiley said. “And he’ll give whatever rationale it takes to get there.” But, at a recent press conference, Newsom maintained he’s been following the science while also balancing the demands of a massive public education system. “We have been working with our partners in our education system, 1,050-plus school districts. We’re trying to support the needs of 6.1 million public school kids,” Newsom said. “And we’ve been engaged to address the concerns and anxiety around reopening our schools.” Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors Group, which lobbies for school districts across the state, says many districts wanted Newsom to act unilaterally. “Schools that normally don't like the state infringing on their local control were actually hoping the governor would just do a statewide edict that we’re closing schools physically so they didn't have to wrestle with the local politics,” he said. Gordon believes that overall, Newsom handled an unprecedented and complicated situation really well, but that he also found himself trapped in the very tricky position of trying to balance his support for public education with his loyalty to the labor unions that have long backed him. “And where they became this conflict was wanting kids to be back in school, but his own constituencies across labor not wanting to come back,” he said. But Becky Zoglman, associate executive director of the California Teachers Association, points out that teachers and school employees weren’t the only ones concerned about returning to in-person learning — many parents were also very hesitant. “When schools started to reopen, for example, 70% of parents in Los Angeles chose to keep their kids home and that played out in districts across the state,” she said. Newsom continues to face staunch criticism for how he handled — and continues to handle — the return-to-school situation. He was particularly lambasted for issuing strict school COVID guidelines in advance of the 2020-21 school year, but then not being more forceful about reopening schools in the spring when vaccines became widely available. Bacigalupi, with OpenSchoolsCA, says it seems like education was never a priority for Newsom. “Instead of saying, ‘Schools are essential, they must be open, how do we do it?,’ it was, ‘Can we open schools?’” she said. Newsom has also taken heat for sending his own children back to in-person learning at their private school last fall, even as most California public school students were at that point still participating remotely. And even now that most schools are reopening, Newsom is still facing challenges, amid a surge in cases of the highly contagious delta variant. Just this month, he was sued by the Orange County Board of Education over the state’s requirement that all adults and students wear masks indoors in K-12 schools, even if they’ve been fully vaccinated. The California Supreme Court last week declined to hear the case.
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Three reasons behind Trump ditching Iran deal
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President Donald Trump wasn't always so dead against the Iran deal and it's not a big issue for voters, so why is he pulling out now?
It was a move that had been telegraphed for months, despite last-ditch attempts by US allies and domestic backers of the agreement to convince the president to stick with the status quo.
In his announcement, the president said that he was open to renewed negotiations, putting trust in his ability as a deal-maker to succeed.
"A constructive deal could have easily been struck at the time," Trump said of the 2015 negotiations. "But it wasn't."
Now the president will have his chance to show he can do better. But why withdraw now? Opinion polls show a majority of Americans are in favour of staying in the deal, and, while Mr Trump has said he's simply keeping another promise, this was never an issue that motivated his base the way immigration, trade and the economy did.
Here are three reasons why he grew to hate the deal and made this move.
Mr Trump has, at times, framed his opposition to the Iran deal on very personal terms. He has repeatedly mocked former Secretary of State John Kerry, one of the architects of the agreement, including cracks about a bicycle accident that left him with a broken leg. According to one report, Mr Kerry's efforts to reach out to Iranians in recent days helped push the president further toward abandoning the deal. The president tweeted about it earlier on Tuesday, so the topic was certainly on his mind.
"John Kerry can't get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it!" Trump wrote. "Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your country!"
Since his inauguration, Mr Trump has taken aim at practically every one of his predecessor's signature achievements. Within a week of his inauguration he had pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations. In June he announced his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. He also unwound Obama-era protections for some undocumented immigrants.
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He, and Republicans in Congress, made repealing the Affordable Care Act, which increased government regulation of health insurance markets, a central (albeit largely unsuccessful) focus of his first-year legislative agenda. He's re-imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on Cuba, rescinded proposed controls on power-plant emissions, fuel efficiency standards for new cars and other environmental regulations, and backed repeal of some Obama-era controls on financial institutions.
"With the Paris climate deal dead, the Iran nuclear deal on life support, and Obamacare eviscerated, Obama's only real legacy at this point is the presidency of Donald Trump," writes Sean Davis of the conservative website The Federalist.
And that, it seems, is just the way Mr Trump wants it.
When Mr Trump first ran for president, he was not nearly as critical of the Iran deal as he is now. While saying he thought it was a mistake and poorly negotiated, he suggested that he may be open to keeping the US commitments. "It's very hard to say, 'We're ripping it up,'" then-candidate Trump said during an NBC interview in August 2015. "I would police that contract so tough that they don't have a chance," he said. "As bad as the contract is, I will be so tough on that contract."
His shift to a more vehemently anti-deal view tracks closely with Mr Trump's full-throated support of Benjamin Netanyahu and the hard-line Israeli side of Middle East peace negotiations, after earlier suggesting he could be a impartial "deal-maker" in the region.
"It doesn't help if I start saying I'm very pro-Israel," Mr Trump said in a Republican candidate debate in February 2016, when he was sharply criticised by Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for his professed neutrality in Arab-Israeli negotiations.
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By the following month, Mr Trump told an audience at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual conference that his "number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran" - outlining what he saw as the agreement's failure to address the nation's destabilising influence in the region and the development of its ballistic missile programme. He said there was no "moral equivalency" between the Israelis and Palestinians in peace negotiations and that "the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end" when he becomes president.
And since becoming president, Mr Trump has begun the process of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, threatened new sanctions against Palestinians, continued his condemnations of the Iranian government and now abandoned the nuclear arms agreement with that nation - citing, in part, evidence presented by Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Trump had made motions toward, and then backed away from, formally pulling out of the Iran deal several times over the first year of his presidency. He was reportedly counselled against abandoning the agreement by senior advisers in his administration, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor HR McMaster and Secretary of Defence James Mattis.
Mr Mattis is the only man left standing, and his influence appears to be waning. The other two have been replaced by Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, respectively, and both are considered Iran hawks. Where once the president may have been counselled to be cautious in abandoning US commitments to Iran, this time his instincts - an innate distrust of multilateralism in general and Iran in particular - appear to have been enthusiastically supported. After 15 months Mr Trump has built a foreign policy team that is largely on the same page - his page. Muslim cleric shot dead after Uganda bombings
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Tear Up Agreement
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Nepal Airlines Flight 183 crash
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Wreckage of the aircraft
On February 16, 2014, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed on Nepal Airlines Flight 183 . The three crew members and all 15 passengers were killed in the accident. The plane of the Nepalese airline Nepal Airlines , which had been in service since 1971, had had more than 43,900 flight hours behind it at the time of the accident. The captain had completed over 8,000 flight hours and the copilot over 350 hours. The plane coming from Kathmandu took off at 12.43 p.m. from Pokhara Airport with three crew members and 15 passengers for the onward flight to Jumla . Due to the weather and poor visibility, the pilots did not choose a direct route to the destination airport, but instead switched to a route further south. To avoid the increasingly bad weather, the machine changed its altitude and course several times. The crew finally decided to move to Bhairahawa . For this purpose, the master made a right turn and initiated the descent . Immediately afterwards, at around 1.30 p.m., the aircraft hit a tree and hit just below a ridge for the first time, separating the left wing from the fuselage. After the first contact with the ground, the plane slipped over the ridge and fell on the other side of the mountain. The wreck was found at an altitude of 2192 meters (7190 feet). After an investigation, it was found that both poor coordination and poor weather conditions led to the crash. According to the cockpit voice recorder , the co-pilot warned against changing course at this position. 27.91 83.12Coordinates: 27 ° 54 ′ 36 ″ N , 83 ° 7 ′ 12 ″ E
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Celebrity weddings of 2021: All the stars who got married this year
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December 9, 2021 | 8:20am | Updated After wedding after wedding got postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic, things started to pick up a bit for celebrity nuptials in 2021 as restrictions lifted, gathering sizes increased and the COVID-19 vaccine became available. Here are all the stars — from Hollywood power players to reality-TV royalty — who have tied the knot so far in 2021. Will Forte and Olivia Modling Will Forte revealed he and Olivia Modling secretly got married over the summer. Mary Steenburgen/Instagram “Saturday Night Live” alum Will Forte revealed on December 8 that he and fiancée Olivia Modling secretly got hitched on July 31, saying their “I dos” in a surprise New Mexico ceremony. “We had gotten engaged right before the first COVID lockdown. And so when we were just starting to talk to planners, people were having to shut down their weddings,” Forte told People . “We were in no rush, but every once in a while we would think about, ‘Let’s just do it.’ … It was just a delightful day,” he added. “It was so stressful, the two weeks where we were planning. I can’t imagine having a year or more to stew over wedding plans.” Ben Higgins and Jessica Clarke Enlarge Image Ben Higgins and Jessica Clarke married on Saturday night near Nashville. Former “Bachelor” Ben Higgins married his longtime love , Jessica Clarke, at The Estate in Cherokee Dock near Nashville on Nov. 13. Several members of Bachelor Nation were in attendance, with Wells Adams serving as a groomsman and Nick Viall, Becca Kufrin, Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti also witnessing the bride and groom say “I do.” Paris Hilton and Carter Reum Enlarge Image Paris Hilton and Carter Reum got married Paris Hilton and Carter Reum tied the knot at her late grandfather Barron’s extravagant Bel-Air estate in November. The couple first confirmed their relationship in April 2020 and got engaged in February 2021. The Venture Capitalist popped the question with an emerald-cut diamond ring designed by Jean Dousset. The hotel heiress was previously engaged to model Jason Shaw from 2002 to 2003, Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis in 2005, and most recently actor Chris Zylka in 2018. Ivy Getty and Tobias Engel Enlarge Image Ivy Getty and Tobias Engel said "I do" at San Francisco's City Hall on Nov. 6. Jose Villa/ Vogue Magazine Ivy Getty, the great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, married photographer Tobias Engel on Nov. 6 at City Hall in San Francisco.The billionaire heiress wore a custom John Galliano gown, which was adorned with strategically mirrors, and a veil embroidered with walnuts in honor of her grandmother Ann, who grew up on a walnut farm. “Queens Gambit” star Anya Taylor-Joy served as the maid of honor and the ceremony was officiated by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Jesse McCartney and Katie Peterson Enlarge Image Jesse McCartney said "I do" to Katie Peterson over the weekend. Instagram “Beautiful Soul” singer Jesse McCartney married fiancée Katie Peterson in October at the Santa Lucia Preserve in California. Peterson’s uncle married the pair, and the duo exchanged vows they wrote themselves and even had their beloved pup, Bailey, involved, serving as a flower girl. The “Leavin’” crooner popped the question in September 2019 after seven years of dating. The couple originally had to postpone their wedding because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young Enlarge Image Young and El Moussa couldn't get enough of each other while celebrating Young's bridal shower in September. “Flip or Flop” star Tarek El Moussa and “Selling Sunset” star Heather Rae Young tied the knot on Oct. 23 after dating for two years. The couple reportedly wed at a hotel near Santa Barbara. “I married the love of my life today. My sweet man, my everything. Cheers to forever and then some,” Young wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the pair on their wedding day. “WE’RE MARRIED!!!! Flipped her name for good. ?♥️” Tarek added in a post of his own. The pair started dating in 2019 and got engaged on their one-year anniversary. Freida Pinto and Cory Tran Enlarge Image Frieda Pinto and her husband Cory Tran are seen here flashing big smiles on their wedding day. Freida Pinto revealed on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in October 2021 that she and fiancé Cory Tran secretly tied the knot during quarantine. The “Intrusion” star shared that she and Tran, 34, initially planned to have an Indian-style wedding in Big Sur to honor her heritage, but then “COVID happened.” “We just realized we were going to be planning this for the rest of our lives and probably never doing it,” she explained. “So, we decided one day to go to the Honda Center in Anaheim and just get married.” Sarah Levy and Graham Outerbridge Enlarge Image "Schitt's Creek" star Sara Levy married Graham Outerbridge in October 2021. Instagram “Schitt’s Creek” star Sarah Levy said “I do” to actor Graham Outerbridge at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif, in October 2021. The actress shared photobooth pics of the newlyweds on Instagram, while her younger brother, Dan Levy, shared a snap from the reception . “My sister got married this weekend,” he captioned the photo. “This is absolutely not a photo of us screaming the lyrics to S Club Party on the dance floor. Love you, @sarahplevy.” Anne Burrell and Stuart Claxton Enlarge Image Anne Burrell married Stuart Claxton on Saturday. Instagram Food Network star Anne Burrell married Stuart Claxton in her upstate New York hometown of Cazenovia in October. Burrell wore Carolina Herrera for the nuptials while Claxton wore a black tuxedo by Ralph Lauren Purple Label and orange Nike high-tops. The couple first met on dating app Bumble in 2018. Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula Enlarge Image Amanda Batula and Kyle Cooke wed in September 2021 after postponing their ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instagram “Summer House” co-stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula tied the knot on Sept. 25 at her family’s New Jersey home. The couple were originally set to make it official a year earlier, but had to postpone the event three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality stars met on the first season of “Summer House” and their 2018 engagement aired during the Season 3 finale. Lena Dunham and Luis Felber Enlarge Image Lena Dunham married Luis Felber over the weekend. Getty Images Lena Dunham married Luis Felber in a secret ceremony in September, multiple sources confirmed to Page Six. The “Girls” alum confirmed their relationship in June in a romantic Instagram post for Felber’s birthday. Molly Bernard and Hannah Lieberman Enlarge Image Molly Bernard and Hannah Lieberman Getty Images “Younger” star Molly Bernard announced on Instagram on Sept. 24 that she wed girlfriend Hannah Lieberman in Brooklyn. “WIVES! Perfect day, perfect party,” she wrote. “WHAT A SURREAL JOY TO BE MARRIED TO MY TREASURE!” Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell Lily Collins announced she married Charlie McDowell over the weekend. Lily Collins and director Charlie McDowell tied the knot on Sept. 4 in Colorado. The “Emily in Paris” star, who looked radiant in a Ralph Lauren long-sleeved gown , described the ceremony as “magical.” Collins, the daughter of rock legend Phil Collins got engaged to McDowell — son of Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen last September. Garrett Clayton and Blake Knight Garrett Clayton and Blake wed in September. “Teen Beach Movie” star Garrett Clayton and screenwriter Blake Knight tied the knot in September. The couple said their “I Dos” in a garden party-themed wedding after having to postpone their nuptials multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The pair have been dating for over a decade. Enlarge Image Dog the Bounty Hunter and fiancée Francie Frane wed in Colorado on Thursday. Instagram Dog the Bounty Hunter and Francie Frane tied the knot in an “emotional and intimate” ceremony in Colorado Springs in September surrounded by close friends and family. “We appreciate the support and well-wishes as we begin our life together,” Dog told Page Six in a statement. Alfred Molina and Jennifer Lee Enlarge Image Alfred Molina and Jennifer Lee tied the knot in a beautiful garden ceremony. “Spider-Man” star Alfred Molina and “Frozen” director Jennifer Lee tied the knot in early August in a romantic outdoor ceremony officiated by their “Frozen 2” co-worker Jonathan Groff. Lee later gave Groff a shout-out on Instagram, crediting him for introducing her to Molina. Ally Love and Andrew Haynes Enlarge Image Peloton's Ally Love and Andrew Haynes tied the knot in Mexico. Instagram Peloton instructor Ally Love tied the knot with Andrew Haynes on July 31 in Mexico. The couple had announced their engagement in January. Lady Kitty Spencer and Michael Lewis Enlarge Image Lady Kitty Spencer and Michael Lewis (seen together in 2020) wed in Rome. Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer married fashion billionaire Michael Lewis — who is 30 years her senior — on July 24 at the Villa Aldobrandini in Rome. Lady Kitty donned five wedding dresses for the festivities, which were attended by famous pals like Pixie Lott and Sabrina Dhowre Elba. Her first cousins Prince William and Prince Harry reportedly did not attend. Lady Kitty’s engagement to Lewis was made public in January 2020 — just six months after their first appearance as a couple in the Hamptons. Jenna Ushkowitz and David Stanley Enlarge Image Jenna Ushkowitz and David Stanley pose at their wedding in Los Angeles. For the Love of It, Courtesy of BRIDES “Glee” star Jenna Ushkowitz married her longtime love David Stanley on July 24. The pair exchanged vows in Los Angeles in front of close family and friends. “We were elated and so grateful that we didn’t have to push our wedding and that we got to have the day of our dreams,” the actress told BRIDES . “It was such a gift that we were able to share it with our friends and family.” The two announced their engagement during the pandemic in August 2020 after two years of dating. Issa Rae and Louis Diame Enlarge Image Issa Rae and Louis Diame have tied the knot. “Insecure” star Issa Rae tied the knot with Louis Diame in late July in a private ceremony in the South of France. Rae shared photos from her wedding day with fans on Instagram wearing one of her two custom Vera Wang wedding dresses . Rae confirmed her engagement to Diame in April 2019 after debuting her engagement ring on the cover of Essence magazine. Anna Faris and Michael Barrett Enlarge Image Faris said she only told family members about the wedding after it happened. Getty Images Anna Faris revealed on her podcast that she and cinematographer Michael Barrett secretly tied the knot in a courthouse ceremony in Washington State. “I think we’ve spent the last year in a place of reflection, in a place of kind of prioritization to some degree, a place of anxiety, a place of like, whatever, assessment,” Faris shared. “But I’m looking around, just so, just my fiancé’s right…he’s now my husband.” Derek Fisher and Gloria Govan Enlarge Image Derek Fisher and Gloria Govan, seen here in 2018, tied the knot after a pandemic-related delay. FilmMagic L.A. Sparks coach Derek Fisher and “Basketball Wives LA” star Gloria Govan tied the knot on July 17 at Cielo Farms in Malibu, Calif., after postponing their April wedding due to the pandemic. Govan was previously married to ex-NBA player Matt Barnes — who Fisher said this year that he’s “cool” with , despite their infamous feud. Fisher split from ex-wife Candace in 2015. Bobby Bones and Caitlin Parker Bobby Bones and Caitlin Parker, pictured here at a different wedding, tied the knot over the weekend. Instagram Radio host Bobby Bones and Caitlin Parker got married in an intimate wedding in Nashville in July. “We love home,” he told People . “We picked this place out together — that was really one of the first decisions that we made as a couple. And so she thought, ‘What if we got married here?’” He popped the question to Parker at their home in October 2020 after a year of dating. Ricky Van Veen and Caroline Kassie Enlarge Image Ricky Van Veen and Caroline Kassie kiss at their wedding. Instagram Ricky Van Veen, the multimillionaire ex-husband of “Girls” star Allison Williams, tied the knot on July 11 with Caroline Kassie, who is Chelsea Clinton’s business partner. In one video of the ceremony posted online, Van Veen is seen stepping on a glass, as is customary at Jewish weddings, as friends and family shout “Mazel tov!” The groom’s pals Andy Cohen and John Mayer were among the guests at the intimate outdoor wedding. Van Veen, a CollegeHumor co-founder and the current head of global creative strategy at Facebook, was married to Williams for four years before the two called it quits in 2019 . Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton Enlarge Image Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are pictured at their wedding in Oklahoma. Instagram “The Voice” lovebirds Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton got married on July 3 at Shelton’s Oklahoma ranch. About 40 guests attended the intimate wedding, including their “Voice” pal Carson Daly, who officiated . “It was as elegant and refined and cool as Gwen is, and it was as country and down-home and fun as Blake is,” Daly said on the “Today” show after the wedding. The music superstars began dating in 2015 and announced their engagement in October 2020. Mitch Trubisky and Hillary Gallagher Enlarge Image Mitch Trubisky and Hillary Gallagher wed over July 4th weekend. Courtesty Lauren Gabrielle Buffalo Bills quarterback Mitch Trubisky married longtime girlfriend Hillary Gallagher on July 3 at the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland, seven months after announcing their engagement. The two were first linked in 2019. Paola Fendi and Aram Ahmed Enlarge Image Fashion heir Paola Fendi married Aram Ahmed in an elegant ceremony in Ibiza. Instagram Fashion heir Paola Fendi tied the knot with Aram Ahmed in late June at a 13th-century cathedral in Ibiza. Fendi, an associate vice-president of post-war & contemporary art at Christie’s, and Ahmed later hosted a black-tie reception at luxury hotel Atzaró Agroturismo. A source told Page Six the wedding was “so fun, so elegant, low-key and yet spectacular.” Bella Robertson and Jacob Mayo Enlarge Image Bella Robertson and Jacob Mayo tied the knot. Instagram “Duck Dynasty” star Bella Robertson tied the knot with Jacob Mayo on June 5. Robertson, the daughter of Willie and Korie Robertson, got engaged to Mayo in November 2020 after about six months of dating. Ashley Jacobs and Mike Appel Enlarge Image Ashley Jacobs and Mike Appel revealed that they tied the knot and had a baby on the way. Instagram “Southern Charm” alum Ashley Jacobs said in June that she and Mike Appel were expecting their first child – and had “recently” gotten married in secret . “After a year and half of dating, we can both agree that this adventure we’re on together is just getting started,” Jacobs told People at the time. “We’re a great team, and we can’t wait for what’s ahead! Buckle up!” Enlarge Image Robbie Arnett and Elizabeth Olsen Getty Images “WandaVision” star Elizabeth Olsen seemingly let the cat out of the bag in a June interview with Variety , calling Arnett her “husband” while talking about his decorating job in their bathroom, where she was conducting her chat. The pair got engaged in 2019.
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Event schedule announced for 2021 Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree after twice cancellation
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Organizers of the annual Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree recently announced the schedule for the upcoming 2021 event, which is being held on October 29 and October 30 on Ocracoke Island. The Jamboree commemorates the last days of Blackbeard the pirate, who was killed off Ocracoke on Nov. 22, 1718. After being canceled in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and canceled in 2019 due to Hurricane Dorian, the annual Jamboree is returning to Ocracoke this year, although there are several changes due to the ongoing pandemic, and the post-Dorian landscape. “Ocracoke Island, like everyone else, is climbing out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the island is also recovering from the flooding devastation from Hurricane Dorian in 2019,” stated an earlier update from event organizers. “So, Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree will go on Oct. 29 and 30, but will be scaled back this year.” “This year, too, the festival will focus more on history and colonial life and on family fun. Festival-goers will be urged to eat and drink in any of Ocracoke’s many restaurants.” Friday, Oct. 29 Artist vendors open from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Berkley Manor grounds Friday 7 p.m. inside the Berkley Barn – ‘The Incredible ‘Blackbeard’s Ghost’ Rocky Horror Picture Show!” including a discussion about Pirates and Fake News in 1718. Join us to watch the movie “Blackbeard’s Ghost” (1968) and shout our favorite lines from the movie. Popcorn & sodas for sale. Saturday, Oct. 30: 9 a.m. – The Colonial Village and Brigands Bazaar vendor fair on the Berkley Manor grounds opens as a cannon blast wakes up Ocracoke! Activities for all throughout the day until 6 p.m. 10 a.m. – A Pirate Parade! With anyone who wants to join in and the walking giant Blackbeard puppet and Jimmy Bones. Parade musters at Ride the Wind Surf Shop and parade ends at the encampment. 10:30 a.m. – Motley Tones perform in Community Square. 11 a.m. – A pirate ship (ADVENTURE) invades Silver Lake and is met by the Royal Navy (MEKA II). 11:30 a.m. Inside the Berkley Barn – Kevin Duffus presents a talk: “The Pamlico Pirates—Who were they? What did they do, and why did they do it?” 12 p.m. outside the Berkley Barn – Sword Circle gives a stage fighting demonstration. 1 p.m. inside the Berkley Barn – Kevin Duffus presents: “Who was William Howard—Pirate Quartermaster or Ocracoke owner?” 1:30 p.m. – Motley Tones perform (TBD) 2 p.m. – Three-boat battle in Silver Lake between Blackbeard and Maynard. “Battle of Ocracoke.” 4 p.m. at the Berkley Barn – The Sword Circle demonstrates stage fighting. 5 p.m. inside the Berkley Barn – The 13th Annual Blackbeard Pirate and Royal Navy Memorial Service
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One sent to hospital after explosion at building with propane, officials say
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. seek to previous 12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60% An explosion at an oxygen plant caused a fire on Friday afternoon HICKORY, NC (FOX Carolina) – One person was sent to the hospital after an explosion at a propane and gas services building in Hickory, NC, according to the Hickory Fire Department.
The explosion happened at the James Oxygen building at 30 Highway 321 around 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to fire officials.
Crews were initially sent because of a vehicle fire, but when they arrived, they saw smoke coming out of the building and heard multiple explosions.
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A look at the fire that erupted after an explosion in Hickory, NC
The fire was put out around 3 p.m. and firefighters are taking measures to make sure there are no additional fires.
There’s no word on the injuries of an employee taken to the hospital and the cause of the incident is unknown.
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2017 Finsbury Park attack
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The 2017 Finsbury Park attack was a terror-attack in Finsbury Park, London, England, on 19 June 2017. A van was driven into pedestrians in Finsbury Park, London, by Darren Osborne, causing one death and injuring at least nine people. This occurred near the Muslim Welfare House, 100 yards (90 m) from Finsbury Park Mosque. A man who had earlier collapsed and was receiving first aid died at the scene. The incident was investigated by counter-terrorism police as a terrorist attack. [5][6][7] On 23 June, Darren Osborne of Cardiff was charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder. [8][9] In early February 2018 at Woolwich Crown Court, he was found guilty on both counts[2] and was sentenced to life imprisonment. [10]
Three attacks—described by Prime Minister Theresa May as "...bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism"[11]—had occurred in the UK since March 2017: at Westminster on 22 March, in Manchester on 22 May, and at London Bridge on 3 June. Following these, there were increased reports of revenge attacks against Muslims, and mosques had been targeted as a response to recent Islamist attacks.
The Finsbury Park Mosque has previously attracted negative media attention. The radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was convicted for terrorism-related charges in both the UK and the United States, served as its imam from 1997 to 2003.
The mosque was shut down in 2003. In 2005, it re-opened under a new management team. [27] Since then, it has actively promoted better interfaith community relations.
In December 2015, a man holding a can of petrol attempted to ignite it and throw it into the building. [29]
On 19 June 2017, at approximately 00:15 BST (UTC+1), a hired van rammed several pedestrians at the junction of Whadcoat Street and Seven Sisters Road,[30] 100 yards (90 m) from Finsbury Park Mosque[31] in London. [32]
A group of Muslims had earlier performed tarawih, night time prayers held in the month of Ramadan,[33][34] when they came across a collapsed man at a bus stop. While rendering first aid they were rammed, and ten were injured. The collapsed man, Makram Ali, died at the scene, and post-mortem findings indicated that he died of multiple injuries. [35]
Witnesses said the driver was beaten until the imam of the mosque, Mohammed Mahmoud, calmed down the crowd, prevented them from assaulting the perpetrator,[36] and appealed for the driver to be handed over to police. [37][38] Those beating him were held back by the imam and few other men, and the attacker was pinned down at the scene until police arrived. [39][40][41] Witnesses quoted the driver as saying "I want to kill all Muslims",[42][43] "this is for London Bridge",[44] "I did my bit",[45] "you deserve it"[46] and "kill me". [47] The imam was described by the mosque's chief executive as "the hero of the day", and praised by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. [36]
Officers were called at 00:20 BST, the Metropolitan Police said, describing it as a major incident. [48] London Ambulance Service said eight people were taken to local hospitals and two others were treated at the scene. [49] The suspect was taken into custody shortly after the incident. [50]
Flowers and messages were left close to the scene of the attack and a candlelight vigil was held at 8 pm on 19 June. [51] Flags were flown at half mast in Jersey on 19 June as a mark of respect for people caught up in the Finsbury Park attack. [52] The Penshaw Monument and the Magistrates' Court building in Keel Square in Sunderland was lit up in red, white and blue as a mark of respect following the incident, the Union Flag was also flying at half mast at Sunderland Civic Centre and Burnley Town Hall. [53][54]
Mohammed Kozbar, the Chairman of the Finsbury Park Mosque, expressed condolences and condemnation of the attack via Twitter. [42] The attack was condemned by Christian, Sikh, and Jewish leaders. [30][55][56] Representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain[41] and the Ramadhan Foundation,[57] as well as several local Labour politicians claimed the incident represented rising Islamophobia in the United Kingdom. [58][59]
The incident was described by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, as a terrorist attack. [60] During a visit to the Finsbury Park mosque, Prime Minister Theresa May praised London's multicultural community and promised more security for places of worship and an increase in the efforts against extremism, including Islamophobia. [61] Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn, whose constituency includes Finsbury Park, said he was shocked and that his thoughts were with those and the community affected by the event. [42][62] May and Corbyn both visited the Finsbury Park mosque and community leaders on 19 June. [61][63]
Prince Charles visited Finsbury Park Mosque on 21 June, where he met community leaders and conveyed a message from Queen Elizabeth II. He relayed that she was shocked by the attack, especially considering that the victims had been attending Ramadan prayers. [64]
The reactions to the attack also included responses by political and religious leaders, media and the general public from other nations,[a] as well as international organisations. [b]
Following the attack, Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the Finsbury Park mosque, said that the mosque had received multiple death threats.
Detective Superintendent Mark Gower and Claire Summers received OBEs for their services to the police response to and investigation of terrorist incidents including the Finsbury Park attack as part of the 2019 New Year Honours. [92]
The Metropolitan Police said a 47-year-old male, believed to be the van driver, was detained by members of the public and arrested in connection to the incident. [42][48][93] Witnesses reported seeing three people leave the van involved in the incident,[42] but police later announced that they had only one suspect. [94] Osborne later claimed that an accomplice had been "getting the drinks in" at the time. [95][96] The incident was investigated by counter-terrorism police. [97]
A police spokesperson said the driver would be subject to a mental health evaluation. [98] The van involved in the incident was reported to have been hired in Pontyclun, Wales. [99][100] Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said South Wales Police worked with officers from London on the investigation. [14]
Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement that police had declared the attack a terrorist incident within eight minutes. [101] Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, confirmed that the attack was being treated as terrorism.
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Road Crash
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Tony Blair's 1997 Famine message was ghost-written by aides as he couldn't be contacted
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TONY BLAIR’S HEADLINE-GRABBING admission of the British government’s culpability over the Famine was hastily ghost-written by aides, previously classified documents reveal. The documents, released by the National Archives in the UK, reveal Blair’s then-Private Secretary John Holmes told him that he approved the text of a message that was read at the 150th anniversary commemoration in Cork because the Prime Minister was “not around at the time” the request was made. The speech was made weeks after New Labour swept to power in the UK in May 1997, and was widely praised. Blair never saw the text before it was sent. Holmes personally approved the approximately 200-word missive, which remarked: “The famine was a defining event in the history of Ireland and Britain. “It has left deep scars. “That one million people should have died in what was then part of the richest and most powerful nation in the world is something that still causes pain as we reflect on it today. “Those who governed in London at the time failed their people through standing by while a crop failure turned into a massive human tragedy.” Actor Gabriel Byrne read the speech at the commemoration, as Blair was unable to attend. In the letter, Holmes said: “I tried to clear the principle of this with you this afternoon by telephone, but you were not around at the time. “In order to meet the organisers’ deadline, therefore, and to avoid the impression of a snub, I approved the attached text off my own bat and gave it to our Embassy in Dublin.” While political speeches often have input from aides, Blair’s was significant for the positive reception it received. In his letter to Blair, Holmes anticipated the message “may get quite a lot of publicity”, though he said it fell “well short of an apology” and merely acknowledged that the government of the day “could have done more” to prevent the tragedy which resulted in over 1 million deaths and forced double that number to flee Ireland. “I hope this does not cause you any problems. It should go down well with the Irish, and I cannot see anyone here or in Northern Ireland seriously objecting,” Holmes added. Separate documents released by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland last year contained a restricted letter from Donald Lamont, an official in the British Government’s Republic of Ireland affairs section, dated 2 June 1997, which discussed Blair’s statement on the Famine. “I do not think I could have wished for a better response to the Prime Minister’s statement than that of the Taoiseach reported in your telegram number 178,” it said, adding that The Irish Embassy “have also been warm in their reaction.” The Great Famine lasted from 1845 to 1852. It began after the failure of the potato crop, and worsened when the British Government, who had governed Ireland since 1801, cut relief measures in mid-1847, putting the cost on the Irish tax payers instead. Over one million people died and one and a half million emigrated, mostly to America and Canada. Before the Famine, Ireland’s population was just over eight million. Other documents released today in the UK cover the seven months from May to December 1997, and detail how Blair approached the issue of Northern Ireland. They reveal how Blair held discussions with Sinn Féin in order to negotiate the restoration of an IRA ceasefire, which came into force on 19 July. In October, Blair became the first British Prime Minister since David Lloyd George to meet Sinn Féin. Gerry Adams joked that he hoped he would make “a better job of it”. Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you The meeting included Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, and Siobhan O’Hanlon, and was described as “relaxed from the start”. Beforehand, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble had advised Blair that when he met Sinn Féin he should “keep his hands to himself”, but Blair rejected this advice, as he “had to treat them on a personal basis like anyone else”. The documents also reveal the good relationship between the then-Prime Minister and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Initially, it was thought that the two leaders would not get along as the British Government had liked Ahern’s predecessor, John Bruton. In a letter to Blair, Holmes described Bruton as “nice, straightforward and violently anti-IRA … as good a Taoiseach as we are ever likely to get from a British point of view”. The Tánaiste, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dick Spring, was described as “greener, but not unreasonably so”. Despite the rapport between the two men, the British Government were reluctant to appear too close to the Irish, with Holmes writing: “We must work closely with the Irish, but we and they do not have the same agenda/interest in all areas. They are not neutral, and neither are we.” The release of Irish government documents are not expected for another decade under the 30-year rule. – Additional reporting by PA The famine has never been properly dealt with in Ireland. It lingers in the psychology and attitudes of the Irish mindset when it comes to land and home ownership. We lost 1 million people and 2 million emigrated and died on the journey. In 5 years we lost 25% of our population one of the only countries in the world where our population today is less that it was in the 1850s. Tony Blair 1917 Famine message was ghost-written by aides as he couldn’t give a truck… So what? Very nice of his employee to write a great non apology. Now we can put the irish genocide behind us Do ye really think that figure heads like Blair wrote speeches ? And a speech is all it was – there is no understanding of genocide in England – yes England not UK. When they hold the likes of Cromwell in high esteem what do you expect. Ireland & others are still dealing with the consequences & immensely deep scars even today as a result of Britains colonial atrocities in Ireland (this isn’t my native language, forced partition & division/sectarianism in NI, lower population than 1845) When britain honestly/fully teaches its people about the true extent of its colonial atrocities in Ireland free of whitewashing/apologist input (like Germany teaches the Holocaust) & Its government apply this knowledge in respect of their dealings with Ireland/NI (NIP, GFA ballymurphy massacres etc) then progress will happen. However currently complete ignorance of colonial crimes is the norm in britain & recent current day actions of the british government regarding ballymurphy etc tell us all we need to know. Its about awareness & respect Says a lot. Whitewashing their colonial crimes against humanity in Ireland. A continued lack of full acknowledgement/shame regarding the abomination that was the brutal genocidal occupation of Ireland & the ethnic cleansing campaign (+ its results). The attempted destruction of our culture & language (& forced mutilation of surnames). Forced land confiscations & diabolical sectarian dehumanising laws over decades causing An Gorta Mór killing over a million of our people while they exported thousands of tons of the richest food produced by the same people who were dying horribly. A statue of the Pol Pot mass murderer Cromwell (leading to the deaths of 41% of our population previously) still outside their parliament. Yet they have the gall to believe others should remember their soldiers @Mentis Green: Not sure why your earlier post was deleted or my reply but I’ll repeat it. The death toll from the Irish insurgency and Cromwell’s subsequent campaign to put it down was about 200,000 according to modern historians. That was about 10% of the total population (not 41% as you suggest). It started with the massacre of as many as 12,000 Protestant settlers (men, women and children) in Ulster by the native Irish. By todays standards Cromwell was certainly a war criminal but neither he nor the English had a monopoly on cruelty. Genocide. @Chris OB: possibly time to let it go Chris. Was your great great great granny involved? Now both Stongbow and Alfred the great were a-wholes. I’ll take that pair to my grave. Yes very odd. Again the lowest estimates you wish to use of 15-20% do not supercede larger estimates used by many historians of 600,000 range (40%). Regardless cromwell was still a genocidal mass murderer responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Ireland & yet there is a statue of him outside their parliament, what does that say to the people of Ireland. Settlers? You mean those transported to Ireland during the British ethnic cleansing campaign in Ireland where they forced Irish families from their lands & homes in order to populate areas of Ireland with their colonists with the aim of slowly eradicating the native resistance to occupation & over time population replacement (leading to sectarian hatred & partition in future) Known as a war crime today. “Dick Spring, was described as “greener, but not unreasonably so”.” Irish but not too Irish, thank God! Things can only get better
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Famine
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Authorities identify 2 workers killed in Collin County natural gas explosion
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Authorities said the scene of the explosion was safe but asked people to avoid the area.(KXAS-TV (NBC5))
5:57 PM on Jun 28, 2021 CDT — Updated at 8:15 PM on Jun 29, 2021 CDT
Updated at 11:40 a.m. June 29: Revised to include victims’ names.
Authorities have identified the two workers who were killed in a natural gas explosion Monday afternoon in Collin County.
The names of two other workers who were injured in the explosion were not released.
The Collin County medical examiner’s office said Ethan Knight, 22, of Mesquite and Deric Tarver, 35, of El Campo died in the explosion, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. Monday near State Highway 78 and FM2756 in Farmersville, about 15 miles east of McKinney.
The explosion occurred as employees of Bobcat Construction and Fesco Petroleum Engineers — subcontractors for Atmos Energy — were doing maintenance work on a pipeline, according to the Collin County Sheriff’s Office.
The Railroad Commission of Texas is among the agencies that are investigating the explosion, RRC spokesman Andrew Keese said.
Nearby residents told KXAS-TV (NBC5) that they were surprised and shaken by the blast.
“I’m just very thankful that it didn’t explode my whole neighborhood because that’s always been one of my fears,” said Skylah Spradlin, 22, who was in her front yard at the time.
Atmos said in a written statement that its prayers were with the people affected by the explosion. Information about the condition of the workers who were injured was not released.
Staff writer Praveena Somasundaram contributed to this report.
Tom Steele , Breaking News Producer. Tom has covered breaking news for The Dallas Morning News since 2016. He has worked in a number of other capacities for The News since 2007, and he was previously a copy editor at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla. He has degrees in journalism and economics from Lehigh University.
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Gas explosion
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Students should be allowed to buy cars with financial aid
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As lawmakers sharpen their attention on infrastructure, much of the conversation focuses on reducing reliance on cars. But what about people with no choice? Today, 99 percent of community college students commute to campus — and a sizable number of community colleges aren’t accessible by public transportation . The Biden administration is calling for bold investments in community and technical colleges. Recent proposals include a $62 billion grants fund to support proven strategies for student success, $12 billion for campus improvements and $109 billion for two years of free community college tuition. Community and technical colleges educate 36 percent of college students — for the students who can get there. To be fully successful, the administration’s community college agenda must include automobile access and affordability. The proposed Biden free community college plan covers two years of community college tuition, enabling students to use federal grant aid and federal loans to cover living expenses. When a college is not accessible by public transit — which is the status quo at 37 percent of community and technical colleges — students should be able to use federal financial aid for a car purchase. This seems intuitive, but actually it is illegal. Currently, students are not allowed to purchase a vehicle with federal financial aid funds. Numerous financial advice blogs warn of dire consequences to students who opt to use their financial aid to buy a car , including the revocation of student aid and possible jail time. While these ominous outcomes are unlikely in practice, federal policy is not currently designed to support students who need cars to get to campus. The good news is that the Biden administration can take meaningful steps toward ensuring community college students can get to campus — without congressional engagement. Currently, higher education institutions are prohibited from including the cost of purchasing a vehicle in their cost of attendance (COA). This figure is a college’s “all in” sticker price, and one of the most critical aspects of a student’s college financial aid package. The Department of Education (ED) has the authority to allow car purchase as part of students’ COA. Here’s how this would work: The ED can establish a “car” as an allowable COA category for students at commuter schools. Another option would be to grant schools permission to use professional judgement to adjust COA to allow a student to purchase a vehicle. For a student at any given institution, that school’s COA is a critical number , as it also represents the top limit for the grant and scholarship aid a student can accept to attend a school and the limit for how much a student can borrow from the federal government to support their education. Community college presidents often observe that their students are “one flat tire away from dropping out.” With food and housing insecurity among community college students now in the double digits , few students have cash available to deal with that flat tire. Traditional infrastructure expansion alone will not fix transit accessibility for community college students. Our foundation’s analysis shows that at least 18 percent of community and technical schools are too far from existing public transit systems to be practical for investment. Broadband expansion , while critical for student success, will not fully fix this gap; we’ve seen how online learning isn’t for everyone. Moreover, community and technical colleges provide hands-on training for jobs like nursing, welding or industrial repair work, teaching workforce skills that require students to be physically on-site. The Biden administration recently highlighted that 40 percent of Americans lack access to affordable public transit. Without question, community college students live in this inequitable reality; indeed, current federal financial aid policy exacerbates this divide. We cannot write off prospective college students just because they can’t afford cars. And, routing students to costly private auto loans by pretending cars aren’t a school-related expense doesn’t seem particularly prudent either. The Biden administration has an easy opportunity to ensure that all college students can get to campus. The Department of Education can act on this simple fix today.
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Financial Aid
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Morocco Among Participants in International Israeli Military Exercise
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Morocco joined France, Greece, Jordan, Italy, Israel, the UK, and the US in the Israeli Military Exercise held between July 5-8. Rabat - The landing of a Moroccan military aircraft in the Hatzor airbase ahead of an Israeli military exercise in early July raised a lot of speculation in both Moroccan and Israeli media. Recently surfaced details appear to confirm Morocco's participation in the HD ANNUAL-21 exercise that took place between July 5-8. A C-130 military aircraft of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) landed in the Israeli air base on July 4, the evening before the HD ANNUAL-21 military exercise began. While Israeli media speculated whether Morocco's military presence suggested the North African country’s participation in the event, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson declined to clarify the rumors. According to FAR-Morocco Forum, a reliable source on Moroccan military matters, Morocco’s participation in the military exercise held at the Israeli military base Eliakim was confirmed. In addition to Morocco, special forces from France, Greece, Jordan, Italy, Israel, the UK, and the US participated in the event. “Far-Maroc Forum exclusively received the exercise patch... with a photo of a member of the Moroccan Special Forces with his Greek counterpart within the same exercises,” read a Facebook post from the group. According to reports, the military exercises involved the use of atomic weaponry at short distances, sniper shooting practice, combat situations in residential areas, and the clearing of underground corridors. Despite COVID-19-induced disruptions in most forms of international cooperation, Morocco still managed to have a productive year in terms of military cooperation, most notably hosting the African Lion 2021. Known as the biggest joint military exercise on the continent, this year's event saw the participation of the exercise's co-host, the US, in addition to Brazil, Canada, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Senegal, and Tunisia. Approximatley 7,000 military members trained to respond to a variety of global conflicts such as terrorism, chemical attacks, and cyber warfare.
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Military Exercise
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2010 Belarusian protests
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Alexander Lukashenko
Independent
Alexander Lukashenko
Independent
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 December 2010. [1] The election was originally planned for the beginning of 2011. However, the final date was set during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Belarus on September 14, 2010. [2]
Of the ten candidates, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner by the Central Election Commission with 79.67% of the votes. Andrei Sannikov received the second-highest percentage. [3][4] After a protest was violently suppressed by riot police the night after the election,[5] hundreds of protesters and seven presidential candidates were arrested by the KGB – including runner-up Sannikov. [6]
Western countries decried the election as a farce and an egregious affront to democracy and human rights. The United States and the European Union called for the release of all imprisoned former candidates, but took no further action except a travel ban on Lukashenko. By contrast, countries such as Syria,[7] China,[7] Vietnam,[7] and Russia[8] congratulated the re-elected incumbent. During protests in the aftermath of the 2004 referendum and simultaneous 2004 parliamentary election, there were several arrests of protesters against the election and referendum results and reports of opposition candidates being beaten by police. [9] More demonstrators were arrested during further protests in the aftermath of the 2006 presidential election, the so-called "Jeans Revolution". [10]
[11] During Lukashenko's presidency Belarus has never held a poll seen as fair by Western monitors. [12]
The new constitution, enacted in 1994, has been amended twice: the first amendment – in 1996 – increased the power of the presidency and established a bicameral parliament. In 2004, the two-term presidential limit was abolished. According to the OSCE, the executive branch of the Belarusian government has significant authority over the other branches; though Article 6 of the constitution of Belarus includes the principle of separation of powers. It has also stated that the Belarusian political system is composed of weak political party structures with no opposition deputies in the previous parliament. [13]
The election was called by the House of Representatives on 14 September. [13]
President Lukashenko (who had been serving his third term), when addressing the press in February 2007, stated that his health permitting, he would run in 2011. [14] According to the result of a referendum in 2004, Lukashenko was declared the first President of Belarus and therefore had no term limits. On May 4, 2010, in an interview with Reuters, he stated: "I have not yet decided whether I will run [...] There are no factors now that would force me to refuse to participate". [15][16]
Alaksandar Milinkievic, of the "For Freedom" movement (Руху "За Свабоду"), initially announced his bid,[25] but canceled it in September. [42]
The run-up to the campaign was marked by a series of Russian media attacks upon the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko. [43] NTV television broadcast throughout July a multi-part documentary entitled 'The Godfather' highlighting the suspicious disappearance of opposition leaders Yury Zacharanka and Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasoŭski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski during the late 1990s, as well as highlighting a statement Lukashenko had made seemingly praising Adolf Hitler. [44] Lukashenko referred to the media attack as "dirty propaganda". [45]
Campaigning officially began on November 19, with candidates holding one-to-one meetings across the country and beginning their TV and Radio broadcasts via Belarusian state media. [46] Every candidate was entitled to make two 30-minute broadcasts on Belarusian TV and Radio until 4 December, and could take part in a live media debate. [47]
In the first week of September 2010, candidate Andrei Sannikov's[48] campaign press secretary Aleh Byabenin was found hanged. Biabienin had been a key member of Sannikov's campaign, and was also director and co-founder of Charter97 – an opposition group and website and one of the few outlets for information on opposition candidates during the election. [49] The official investigation ruled the death as suicide, but Sannikov expressed suspicion; saying that Biabienin had been in good mental health, there was no suicide note, and there were unexplained injuries on the body. [49]
The Central Election Commission said that all nine opposition figures were likely to get less than half the vote total incumbent Lukashenko would get. [50] No independent verification of the government polls were allowed. The Central Election Commission of Belarus (CEC) said it was ready to cooperate with the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in monitoring the election. [51]
The CEC issued a warning to Uladzimir Nyaklyayew's "Say the Truth!" movement for violating the Electoral Legislation when his organisation gathered signatures of ineligible constituents for "subscription lists. "[52]
On 15 December 2010, Andrei Sannikov filed two legal complaint applications with the Central Election Commission, demanding they withdraw the registration of Alexander Lukashenko; and also remove Lidia Yermoshina – the chairperson of the CEC – from office. In both cases, Sannikov cited that their positions were illegal. Jarmošyna was a member of Lukashenko's political team, compromising her neutrality; and was under international scrutiny for purportedly rigging the previous election. He also brought up that Lukashenko ignored his own guidelines on how much time presidential candidates were allowed to speak on television (two appearances for 30 minutes each). Lukashenko also had "propagandistic meetings" at places not included on the Minsk City Executive Committee list where meetings could be held – Lukashenko held a large event at the Palace of the Republic and funded it with the state budget against the rules. [53] The complaints were ineffective. [53]
A large protest rally was organized the evening after the election at October Square in the center of downtown Minsk. This square had historically been the site of large protests, such as the violent suppression of the Jeans Revolution that took place after the disputed 2006 presidential election. However, riot police had cordoned off the square before the event, and people instead gathered at the nearby Liberty Square. While walking to the rally with about a hundred other people, presidential candidates Uladzimir Nyaklyayew and Mikola Statkevich were attacked by armed men dressed in black. [12][54] Nyaklyayew was beaten to unconsciousness and hospitalized for head injuries. Statkievič later claimed they were attacked by Belarus special forces. [55][56]
During the rally up to 40,000 people[57] protested against Lukashenko, chanting, "Out!," "Long live Belarus!" and other such slogans. [58] A group of protesters tried to storm a principal government building, smashing windows and doors before riot police pushed them back. [59] Candidate Vital Rymasheuski blamed "drunk provocateurs" for the violence.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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2001 Quebec uprising
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The 2001 Quebec uprising was a mass uprising, marked by riots and popular civil protests, against the 3rd Summit of the Americas from 21 to 22 April in Quebec City. Mass protests was met with tear gas and grenades was thrown by police, who claimed demonstrators were storming buildings. Protests ceased on 22 April. [1]
Quebec has been a centrepiece for the summit, and has seen harsh police repression and police brutality during previous movements, and is known for its national independence movement and nationalist movement for deep independence. In 1968, 1974, 1986 and 1996, movements occurred throughout the state. Protesters marched for their rights and an end of the 3rd Summit of the Americas. [2]
Police claimed that their actions were justified in protecting delegates from "red-zone" attempts to break through the fence, as well as to violent protesters destroying property and attacking the police, the media, and other protesters. [3]
Many protesters accuse the police of excessive force, claiming that the police's abundant use of tear gas and rubber bullets was both completely disproportionate to the scale of violence, and primarily directed at unarmed, peaceful demonstrators with dispersal of violent protesters an afterthought. A number of protesters were severely injured by rubber bullets; also, tear gas canisters were fired directly at protesters on numerous occasions, in violation of the protocols governing their use. They also criticize the actions of prison authorities. Altogether, the anti-globalization movement describes the actions of the police in Quebec City as an attempt to suppress dissent. [4]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Carbon monoxide poisoning a big concern ahead of Texas winter storm
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Updated: 10:48 AM CST February 11, 2021
BEAUMONT, Texas — A winter storm is coming, and officials across Texas are preparing for the impacts from heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from DFW to Beaumont.
The storm could mean widespread power outages and officials are issuing a warning about an increase in carbon monoxide deaths as people fire up generators to try and stay warm.
Carbon Monoxide poisoning is already a concern during cold weather because people are more like to use gas furnaces and heaters, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Many across Southeast Texas already have generators on hand from hurricane season. During Hurricane Laura in 2020, at least a dozen deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning in Texas and Louisiana , including at least five in the Beaumont area. The Medical Center of Southeast Texas reported more than 20 hospitalizations from carbon monoxide poisoning in a 24 hour period following the storm.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas, which can cause sudden illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Many of the poisonings were from people improperly using generators in garages and other closed spaces.
RELATED: Generator safety tips following power outage
"We recommend having a battery-operated carbon monoxide detector in the home to alert residents of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide," Allison Stock, a toxicologist said in a CDC report. "But carbon monoxide detectors are not the primary way to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.”
Tips if you use a generator during the winter storm:
Never use a generator inside a home, garage or enclosed area
Keep generators outdoors, away from vents, doors and windows
Turn off generator and let it cool before refueling
"Be careful with the generators," Kedric Gant told 12News after losing his father to CO poisoning following Hurricane Laura. "If this is not a sign to be careful with them, then i don't know what will be."
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Mass Poisoning
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2009 Riga riot
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2009 Riga riot was a civil unrest in Riga, Latvia on January 13, 2009. The opposition and trade unions organized a rally requesting dissolution of the parliament. [1] The rally gathered some 10–20 thousand people. The rally was because of the recent economic crisis that struck Latvia in 2009 and made more than almost 70% of the Latvian population either poor or unemployed. Once one of the growing economies in Europe, Latvia was struck in 2009 by the crisis. In the evening the peaceful rally turned into a riot. Fifty people were injured and 100 arrested for overturning police cars and looting stores. [2] The crowd moved to the building of the parliament and attempted to force into it, but was repelled. [3]
On February 20, the cabinet of Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis was dissolved and Godmanis resigned his position as head of the government. [4]
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Riot
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Securitas depot robbery
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The Securitas depot robbery was a large heist in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 18:30 GMT and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when the criminals left the depot with over £53 million cash. It was the UK's largest cash robbery and the gang left behind another £154 million only because they did not have the room to take it. After abducting the manager of the depot and his family, the gang forced entry to the depot. Armed with weapons including AK-47 assault rifles and a Škorpion submachine gun, the gang tied up fourteen members of staff and left with £53,116,760 in used and unused Bank of England sterling banknotes. Most of the getaway vehicles were found in the following week, one containing £1.3 million in stolen notes. Another £7 million was recovered in Welling and, by June 2006, over 30 people had been arrested in relation to the crime. At trial in London, five people were convicted and received long sentences, including Emir Hysenaj, the inside man. Lee Murray, the alleged mastermind of the heist, was arrested in Morocco having incriminated himself in a recording on his mobile phone, which he had abandoned at the site of a car crash. He successfully fought extradition to the UK and eventually was imprisoned in Morocco. As of 2016, £32 million had not been recovered. On Tuesday 21 February 2006, the manager of the Securitas depot, Colin Dixon, was driving his silver Nissan Almera on the A249. At about 18:30, he was pulled over just outside Stockbury, a village northeast of Maidstone in Kent, by what he thought was an unmarked police car, due to the flashing blue lights behind the front grill. [2][3] A man approached him in high-visibility clothing and Dixon got into the other car, whereupon he was handcuffed. He was driven west on the M20 motorway to the West Malling bypass, where he was tied up and transferred into a white van which took him to a farm in Staplehurst. [2]
At the same time, Dixon's wife and eight-year-old son were being taken hostage at their home in Herne Bay, after they answered the door to men dressed in police uniforms. The men claimed Dixon had been involved in a car accident before abducting the two and holding them at the Staplehurst farm with the manager. Dixon was told at gunpoint that failure to co-operate would put him and his family in danger. [4]
At around 01:00 on Wednesday 22 February 2006, Dixon, his wife, and his son were taken in a white van to the Securitas depot in Tonbridge. Upon being let in by Dixon, a member of the gang forced staff at gunpoint to open the gates to admit the van and other vehicles. The gang members' faces were hidden by balaclavas and they were armed with handguns, shotguns, AK-47 assault rifles and a Škorpion submachine gun. The family and 14 members of staff were tied up and locked in cash cages. [4][2]
The gang filled a 7.5 tonne white Renault lorry with £53,116,760 in used and unused Bank of England sterling banknotes. Another £154 million would not fit in the lorry and was left behind when the gang departed at around 02:15. [4][1] At 03:15 staff triggered an alarm which called the police. The hostages were all unharmed but shaken. [4][5] The Bank of England was reimbursed £25 million by Securitas the same day, and assured the public that Securitas would make up any additional losses. [6]
The following day (Thursday 23 February 2006) Securitas and their insurers offered a reward of £2 million for any information about the heist, which Crimestoppers stated was the largest reward ever offered in the UK. [7] Kent Police said the heist had been meticulously planned by organised crime and that at least £20 million had been stolen, possibly as much as £50 million. [7] By the evening of 23 February 2006, two arrests had been made in Forest Hill, south London. A man aged 29 and a woman aged 31 were detained at separate houses on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery. [3][8] A third person, a 41-year-old woman, was arrested at a branch of the Portman Building Society in Bromley on suspicion of handling stolen goods. [8]
Also on the Thursday, police discovered a number of the vehicles involved in the robbery including a former Parcelforce van thought to have been used in the abduction of Colin Dixon and his family, which was found abandoned at the Hook and Hatchet pub in the village of Hucking, near Maidstone. [4] Dixon's Nissan Almera was found in the car park of the Cock Horse pub in Detling. [4] A Volvo S60 and a red Vauxhall Vectra, the cars believed to have been mocked up as police cars, were found near Leeds Castle. [2] The next day, Friday 24 February, metal cages thought to have been used to transport the money were recovered in a field near Detling. [3] Police recovered a white Ford Transit van from the car park of the Ashford International Hotel, after a tip-off from a member of the public. The van and its contents were removed for forensic examination, and on 26 February 2006, it was announced that the van contained £1.3 million, along with guns, balaclavas and body armour. [9][3]
On the evening of Saturday 25 February 2006, forensic teams and armed police officers raided the houses of Lea Rusha and Jetmir Bucpapa in Southborough near Tunbridge Wells while neither were at home. In Rusha's house police discovered shotgun shells and hand-drawn plans of the depot. [10] On the afternoon of the next day, Kent Police challenged Rusha and Bucpapa on the street in Tankerton, near Whitstable. They fled in a blue BMW 3 Series coupe. The car was halted; some witnesses say police marksmen shot out a tyre while others say a "stinger" device was used. The driver and another man were arrested. [11][3][2] On 27 February 2006, two individuals were detained by police in the Greenwich area of London by armed officers. The following day, the white 7.5 ton Renault Midlum lorry believed to have been used to transport the stolen money was recovered by police. [3][12] The same day, Kent police raided Elderden Farm in the Staplehurst area, conducting extensive forensic searches of the surrounding land and buildings and seizing vehicles. [3][12]
On Thursday 2 March, police raided a car yard in Welling and discovered £7 million in cash. [13] On the same day, three people appeared at Maidstone Magistrates' Court. John Fowler (a car dealer and the owner of Elderden Farm) was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, handling stolen goods, and three charges of kidnapping; Stuart Royle was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery; and Kim Shackleton was charged with handling stolen goods.
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Bank Robbery
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Lupeni Strike of 1929
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The Lupeni strike of 1929 took place on 5 and 6 August 1929 in the mining town of Lupeni, in the Jiu Valley of Transylvania, Romania. Near the end of 1928, miners' leaders in the Jiu Valley had begun agitating for an extension of their collective work contract. Their demands included (in conformity with new legislation adopted under international pressure) an eight-hour workday, a 40% raise for those who worked at furnaces and in pits, the provision of food and boots, and an end to children working underground. The two sides could not reach an agreement. A trial ensued, and as the ruling of a court in Deva was not to the miners' liking, they appealed to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Also during 1928, the Lupeni miners had organised themselves into an independent union, led by Teodor Munteanu and a certain Moldoveanu. The union was not communist. Its leaders were closely aligned with the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), which wished to strengthen its relations with workers. (After the strike, the opposition press asserted that the union had very close links with the PNȚ and that its members had taken part in a large electoral demonstration in Alba Iulia in May 1928.) During the first months of labour agitation, the union asked members to await the high court's ruling. However, communist agitators were active in the spring of 1929 in the Jiu Valley,[1] and the workers grew increasingly desperate as their conditions failed to improve and the court's ruling was delayed. On the morning of 5 August, following a decision by the mine owners not to allow the union to pay each employee a days' wages from its own funds, some 200 workers met and decided to strike. About 3,000 men from the Elena and Victoria mines went on strike, going together to the Carolina and Ștefan mines. The situation quickly spun out of control, and the union leaders told the Deva authorities that they were no longer responsible for their members' actions. The strikers then decided to occupy the power station controlling the mines' pumping machinery. A radical group went inside, forcing the men there to stop their work, endangering the lives of 200 miners still underground (who had refused to join the strike) and causing a power outage for the entire Jiu Valley. The engineer Radu Nicolau, the power station's manager, told to leave his station, was stabbed when he refused and had to be hospitalised. The other power station employees were forcibly evicted and the guard beaten. Some authors see these actions as having had an air of sabotage, thus considering it very likely that communist agitators played an important role in radicalising the miners. [2] The local authorities took no action on the first day; indeed there were just 18 gendarmes in the vicinity. On the morning of 6 August, the leading authorities of Hunedoara County came to Lupeni, accompanied by 80 troops from the 4th frontier guards regiment and some 20 gendarmes. The mining company attempted to start the power station with strike-breakers in order to prevent the mines from being flooded and those underground from being asphyxiated,[3] but the strikers maintained a cordon around the works. (A prosecutor later reported that the men inside the power station were "armed with stakes, iron bars, bludgeons and revolvers and were awaiting the authorities with aggressive poses".) The public prosecutor made a final demand that the strikers withdraw from the power station; the strikers replied with a howl of defiance. Some 40 gendarmes now present advanced, trying to intimidate the strikers. According to later testimony, the workers then threw objects toward the gendarmes, wounding those in the first line. [4] When a striker fired a revolver, the 80 troops fired warning shots into the air. As the miners' aggressiveness was undiminished, the troops fired 78 bullets into the crowd (without orders, as established by an enquiry), some lodging in the power station's chimney. When the firing ceased, dozens of men lay on the ground; the rest, panic-stricken, fled quickly. Work at the station resumed immediately; troops and gendarmes guarded the station and all mine buildings. Different sources give different numbers of dead and wounded: 16 dead and 200 wounded;[5] 22 dead and 58 wounded;[6] 30 dead and over a hundred wounded;[7] 32 dead and 56 wounded;[8] 40 dead (including two troops);[9] 58 dead and hundreds wounded. [10]
A more detailed report states that 13 miners died instantly and seven more in the following hours, with 23 hospitalised and gravely wounded. 30 were recorded with light wounds, but others went home undetected. 15 gendarmes were wounded and 10 soldiers, one gravely (knifed in the neck). The chief mechanic at the power station died of his wounds in hospital. Some 40 miners were arrested. On 9 August, the 20 miners (or 22[11]) were buried under tight security, with only their closest relatives allowed to be present; the graves were closely guarded for a time so as to prevent new disturbances. Three miners died in the following days. The government paid the families of those who had been shot. [12]
After the strike was repressed, various motives were ascribed to it. At the time, the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) was in power; D.R. Ioanițescu, President of the Chamber of Deputies, blamed the extreme poverty of the underpaid workers and "possibly" Hungarian propagandists. (A majority of the dead were ethnic Hungarians.) Another member of the government blamed the mine directors; he alleged that the repeated refusals of the bosses to yield to the workers' demands and their dismissive assertions that they were led on by provocateurs of the banned Romanian Communist Party had driven them to desperation. Notably, this was not an isolated incident; nineteen strikes had taken place in the Valley between 1924 and 1928. The Social Democrats, allies of the government, mainly blamed the mine directors but also charged that Communist agitators had misled the workers. The mines belonged to a group of bankers from the National Liberal Party (the Peasants' bitter rivals), and one of their owners was Gheorghe Tătărescu, a minister in the previous government. The following commentary appeared in the right-wing newspaper Universul just after the strike: "The troops only did their duty. The fault does not lie with them. They fired.
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Strike
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Havørn Accident crash
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The Havørn Accident (Norwegian: Havørn-ulykken) was a controlled flight into terrain of a Junkers Ju 52 aircraft into the mountain Lihesten in Hyllestad, Norway on 16 June 1936 at 07:00. The aircraft, operated by Norwegian Air Lines, was en route from Bergen to Tromsø. The pilots were unaware that they were flying a parallel to the planned course, 15 to 20 kilometers (9.3 to 12.4 mi) further east. The crew of four and three passengers were all killed in what was the first fatal aviation accident in Norway. The aircraft landed on a shelf on the mountain face. A first expedition found four bodies, but attempts to reach the shelf with the main part of the aircraft and three more bodies failed. A second party was sent out two days later, coordinated by Bernt Balchen and led by Boye Schlytter and Henning Tønsberg, saw the successful salvage of the remaining bodies. The air service between Bergen and Tromsø was started by Norwegian Air Lines on 7 June 1936. [1] It was operated with Havørn, a Junkers Ju 52, registration LN-DAE, which had been bought from Deutsche Lufthansa. [2] On 16 June 1936 at 06:30 Central European Time, the flight departed from the water aerodrome in Sandviken, Bergen. On board was a crew of four and three passengers,[3] and a load of 13 bags of 50 kilograms (110 lb) of post. [4]
The aircraft's captain was Ditlev Pentz Smith. Aged 27, he had started flying for the Norwegian Army Air Service in 1930, and later become a civilian pilot for Widerøe. He was considered one of the country's most renowned pilots and was active with competition flights. He was assisted by First Officer Erik Storm, aged 32, who had a background from the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. [5] The reserve pilot was Peter Ruth Paasche, aged 21, and the radio operator was Per Erling Hegle, aged 28 and a trained mechanic. [6] All four had been chosen to regularly fly the Bergen–Tromsø route. [5][6] The three passengers were Inspector Sven Svensen Løgit, Consul Wilhelm Andreas Mejdell Dall[7] and journalist Harald Wigum of Bergens Tidende. [8]
The weather report, which had been delivered orally by meteorologist-on-duty of the Forecasting Division of Western Norway at the airport,[9] stated wind from southeast at 5 to 15 kilometers per hour (3 to 9 mph), overcast and clouds down to 200 meters (700 ft), although it could be even lower certain places. The visibility was 4 kilometers (2.5 mi). [3] The last radio contact between the aircraft and the airport in Bergen was at 06:54, when Hegle reported clouds at 1,000 to 1,500 meters (3,000 to 5,000 ft) elevation and between 4 and 10 kilometers (2 and 6 mi) visibility. He reported that the aircraft held a course towards Krakhellesundet, which was procedure during such weather conditions, and that the aircraft was south of Sognesjøen. [1]
However, the aircraft was not where the pilots thought it was—instead it was 15 to 20 kilometers (9.3 to 12.4 mi) further east. [9] Eyewitnesses reported that after it had crossed Sognefjorden, it had changed course westward and started to ascend. At 07:00, a loud crash was heard, although there were no eyewitnesses to the crash itself. The aircraft had followed a parallel, but more eastern, course and had hit Lihesten, a mountain rising up from Lifjorden, at 600 meters (2,000 ft) above mean sea level. [1] The aircraft caught fire and was highly visible from the surrounding area. Parts of the aircraft fell to the foot of the mountain, and the wreckage was scattered across the base of the mountain. [10] The controlled flight into terrain was the first fatal aviation accident in Norway. [3]
Several locals rushed to the foot of the mountain, and at 08:30, Sheriff Kaare Bredvik arrived at the scene. Two corpses were found immediately, but were so scorched that they could not be identified until at hospital. [10] There were rumors of survivors as movement had been spotted on the mountain side. Bredvik had difficulty communicating with his superiors in Sogn Police District, and had to contact them via Bergen. From there, the press was also alerted, and several locals became ad hoc correspondents. The home of Deputy Mayor Hans A. Risnes was used as a base of operations. However, searching was made difficult by the lack of any radio connection at the foot of the hill. Eventually a "shouting relay" was created, allowing messages to be sent effectively. A party of experienced mountaineers, who had many times succeeded at getting sheep down from shelves, attempted to reach the wreck, which was located on a shelf 100 meters (300 ft) above the foot. Despite three attempts the first day, they did not succeed at reaching the aircraft. [4]
Chief of Police Alf Reksten arrived in the afternoon and took over responsibility. Later, the ship Mira, belonging to Bergen Steamship Company (BSD), arrived with two doctors, two nurses, material from the Red Cross, specialist police officers, fire fighters, representatives from the airline and Norway Post, and journalists. [4] The sister aircraft Najaden arrived later in the afternoon with relatives of the dead and journalists; its main objective was to search for survivors, but there was no possibility for it to land on the mountain and so could not help with the salvaging. Later a Widerøe aircraft arrived as well, which transported DNL's technical director Bernt Balchen, Captain Eckhoff, who worked for the aviation authorities, and Gjermundson from the insurance company. The three, along with Reksten and Bredvik, became the investigation commission. [11]
After Balchen had investigated the accident site from the plane, a party of five climbers started at 18:00 to climb the mountain side. When they reached the shelf, they found two bodies, a large amount of post and parts from the plane, including a wing. The bodies were sent down the mountain side. They then attempted to climb further up to the main wreck where the last three bodies were presumed to be, but this was deemed too dangerous by Balchen, and the operation terminated. Mira returned to Bergen at 02:00. [11] The following day, four people attempted to climb down the mountain face to reach the wreck.
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Air crash
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Singapore plans global maritime decarbonisation centre
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Posted on April 22, 2021 Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority plans to set up a global maritime decarbonisation centre in the country and launch a maritime decarbonisation blueprint to 2050, outlining long-term strategies for the sector. The port of Singapore is the world’s largest bunkering hub, and the city-state is positioning itself as a leader in the race to decarbonise the maritime sector. One of the proposals from the International Advisory Panel on Maritime Decarbonisation — which was set up by the private sector-led Singapore Maritime Foundation with support from the MPA — was to establish a global maritime decarbonisation centre where “a cluster of like-minded stakeholders can coordinate, drive and cataylse maritime decarbonisation solutions”, said transport minister Ong Ye Kung at the 15th Singapore Maritime Week, which begins today. The centre will be set up by the MPA, with support from industry participants. The MPA will also launch a public consultation exercise by the end of this year to collect views on the maritime decarbonisation blueprint 2050. “The blueprint will outline Singapore’s long-term strategies for a sustainable maritime Singapore,” Kung said. Separately, Kung said that Singapore supports a global action plan to introduce a non-discriminatory levy on marine fuel consumption to fund research into cleaner marine fuels and maritime decarbonisation. He also reiterated that Singapore will continue to invest in LNG bunkering as it is the most practical transitional fuel, with zero-carbon fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen “quite a distance away”. Demand for alternative, low-carbon bunker fuels is expected to rise substantially in the coming years with the International Maritime Organization’s goal of at least a 40pc reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and 70pc by 2050 compared with 2008 levels. Source The South Pacific Ocean nation Vanuatu announced Saturday its intention to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from the adverse consequences of climate change. Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Bob Loughman warned that the climate crisis is… Louisiana is getting larger. The state is adding miles of new land to slow down powerful storms. Over the last few decades, Louisiana has lost miles of coastline, making communities more vulnerable to storms. This newest line of defense will essentially act as a “speed bump” when storms rage in from the Gulf of Mexico…. Read More New research using high resolution mapping technology looks at the global impact of wastewater on coastal ecosystems. The study, carried out by scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), was just published in the journal PLOS ONE. Human sewage can spread disease from bacteria as well as introduce detrimentally large amounts of nitrogen… Read More By Noah Silberschmidt, CEO and Founder, Silverstream Technologies Shipping’s clean technology market is growing more complicated in the rush to decarbonize, says Noah Silberschmidt, CEO and Founder of Silverstream Technologies. Proof of performance is critical to choosing between the growing range of solutions. Shipping needs solutions to support its decarbonization goals. But many new… Read More Leading coastal and marine ecologists, economists and maritime engineers from 38 organisations across Europe, Turkey and Israel gathered in Barcelona between 2 and 5 November 2021 for the official kick-off meeting of the new project. It is one of the just four projects, among 180 candidates, funded by the so-called Green Deal call of the… Read More
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Organization Established
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The US Withdrawal From the Open Skies Treaty
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The almost certain collapse of the Open Skies Treaty following United States’ decision to withdraw and inevitable Russian reaction is yet another example of the gradual dismantling of the network of arms control and confidence-building regimes created after the end of the Cold War. What led to this point and what might US President Biden do to keep US-Russian nuclear arms control from perishing completely? VCDNP Senior Fellow Nikolai Sokov addresses these and other questions in his new article in Pathways to Peace and Security, an academic journal published by the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO).
In the article, Dr. Sokov argues that the crisis in arms control, including the Open Skies Treaty, did not appear suddenly, but rather manifested slowly over several US presidents. The US and Russia had traded allegations of violating the treaty for some years, including violations related to the treaty itself and other reasons such as Open Skies flights over disputed territory. The decreased priority placed on arms control by the United States was compounded by the belief that weak arms control regimes were preferable to limitations on US activities and that the US was sufficiently advanced to remain ahead of any competitors, including Russia.
While arms control issues are more effectively addressed through detailed, difficult negotiations and compromises, Dr. Sokov notes that the evolving US approach to perceived treaty violations by Russia amounted to an ultimatum to Moscow to admit to violations and address them based on the US’ preference. He explains Russia’s decision to follow suit by withdrawing from Open Skies as driven both by political motives and, in cost-benefit terms, by concerns that the United States would keep access to data on Russia collected under the treaty through the US NATO allies.
Dr. Sokov expressed the view that it is too early to tell what US President Biden’s policies will be on arms control. On one hand he observes that President Biden’s quick decision to extend the 2010 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was a positive step. On the other hand, the Biden administration has announced that it will not be returning to Open Skies. In his view, the demise of the Open Skies Treaty is all but a forgone conclusion. Whether it can be replaced by a new mechanism in the future remains to be seen but does not appear likely.
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Tear Up Agreement
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PFAS chemicals: Katherine residents want answers on contamination in water supply, pool
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The Northern Territory town of Katherine is contaminated.
Its bores are contaminated, its drinking water is contaminated, even its local pool is contaminated.
"Who knows how high these [chemical] levels have been for my kids' whole lives, and the majority of my life?" Merlyn Smith, a mother of two, said.
It is per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS chemicals, that have made her so fearful.
The contamination in Katherine, 270 kilometres southeast of Darwin, is from chemicals used in firefighting foam at the nearby Tindal Airbase in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Recent water restrictions are keeping PFAS levels in the town's water supply within the accepted threshold, while the levels in the pool fall just within the deemed safe guidelines.
"I've lived here for 30 of my 33 years, so I'd say that's my entire lifetime and only four months of that have I been drinking it under the safe guidelines," Ms Smith said.
Some residents relying on bore water have PFAS level readings well above the guidelines.
The impact on human health from different PFAS chemicals is not clear, although laboratory tests have suggested they may cause cancer in animals.
Katherine is just one affected site in a major ongoing Australian public health issue.
In other PFAS-affected parts of Australia — for example, Williamtown in NSW and Oakey in Queensland — people are being offered mental health and counselling services, and blood tests to check their levels of contamination.
But so far the Department of Defence has resisted offering the same services to Katherine residents.
"Even if they don't want to blood test the whole town, maybe they could at least do tests on the people who have contaminated bores and have been consuming that water, especially over a fairly long period of time," resident Bob Cavenagh said.
He has lived on his property near the airbase for the last 28 years.
In March, the Department of Defence tested the tank that holds Mr Cavenagh's bore water, which returned a reading of 1.89 micrograms of PFAS per litre — 27 times higher than the recommended guideline of 0.07 for drinking water.
Subsequent tests of his bores showed levels of 1.45 micrograms per litre, almost 21 times higher than the maximum acceptable drinking water level.
"The fact they knew about it [PFAS contamination] in 2004 and nothing came out until 12 years later, that's my biggest issue," Mr Cavenagh said.
"Because if things could have been prevented, they should have been prevented."
Mr Cavenagh said Defence had helped to pay for repairs to his rainwater tank earlier this year, and supplied more tanks for his adjacent properties.
He is one of dozens of residents with contaminated bores to whom Defence now supplies drinking water.
But he is still apprehensive about how the chemicals could affect him, and said information from Defence was not always clear.
"They haven't just come out and said, 'don't eat your tomatoes', or 'don't eat your mangoes'. How do we know they're not contaminated?"
In the past few years, two of Mr Cavenagh's dogs have died from large throat tumours.
"I'm not saying the water caused that, but that's the second dog that we've had the same issue with," he said.
"It may be just a coincidence, maybe there's something else to it. It would be nice to know."
Defence and representatives from the Northern Territory Government have been holding community consultations in the town, but Ms Smith said they had not been helpful.
"We were just dismissed and fobbed off with, 'well, it's under the interim guidelines now, your drinking water'."
Ms Smith and her mother have started a Facebook group to offer support to fellow residents and provide information they said authorities were not giving them.
The local community radio station is also trying to fill in the blanks and has started a series dedicated solely to PFAS in the town.
Katherine Community Radio host Meg Geritz said there was a sense of mistrust in the town and authorities needed to assign a dedicated person in the community to field people's questions. "The community are getting snippets of information," she said.
"They can't build a whole picture, so people are becoming quite alarmed when maybe they don't need to or not alarmed enough when they should be taking steps to protect themselves."
Geritz said the feeling in the community was mixed, with some not even aware what is going on, and others scared.
"Some people I've spoken to have sat there in front of me and cried, they're absolutely petrified and they don't know what to do," she said.
Defence maintains the town's water is safe to drink and plans to bring in a treatment plant to reduce PFAS levels in the drinking supply.
It is yet to respond to further questions.
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Environment Pollution
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EU Plans to Ease Capital Rules for Insurers to Provide €120 Billion Economic Boost
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The European Union proposed changing the bloc’s capital rules for insurers on Wednesday to release 120 billion euros ($141 billion) for repairing an economy hit by COVID and to meet climate goals without eroding policyholder protection. Britain, which is home to the world’s biggest commercial insurance market and left the EU last December, has also begun reviewing the capital rules known as Solvency II. It will scrutinize how changes by Brussels could affect London’s competitiveness. The EU also proposed a framework for the swift and orderly closure of insurers in trouble to avoid destabilizing the financial system, mirroring a similar move with banks following the global financial crisis that led to taxpayer bailouts. Anticipating concerns it was rowing back on rules, the EU said Solvency II would remain the “gold standard.” “This is not a revolutionary change, these are gradual but important changes,” EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness told reporters. “This isn’t a gift to the insurance industry.” The Solvency II capital rules were introduced for the 10.4 trillion euro sector in 2016, and are applied by insurers like Allianz, Generali and AXA. They were due a routine review but the need to rebuild an economy hit by the pandemic and invest in green infrastructure to meet net zero carbon targets added a sense of urgency. The persistence of very low interest rates undermining the business models of insurers also needed addressing, along with the need to better tailor Solvency II rules to smaller, less risky insurers. ‘Wrong Direction’ The rule changes, which need approval from EU states and the European Parliament, would release 90 billion euros in the short term and a further 30 billion euros in the long term. Sven Giegold, a German Green Party member in the European Parliament, said the proposals go in the “wrong direction” by ignoring advice from EU regulators, and maintain or even expand “lobby-driven” exceptions to the rules. Olav Jones, deputy director general for Insurance Europe, an industry body, said he welcomed EU acknowledgement of the need to reduce capital requirements, but only a “significant and permanent” cut in capital would allow insurers to increase support for the economy and regain global competitiveness. Brussels proposed easing the impact of the so-called volatility adjustment, which mitigates the impact of short-term market moves on insurer solvency. It also wants to make it easier for insurers to benefit from preferential capital treatment worth around 10.5 billion euros from investing in long-term assets to green the economy. The risk margin or money needed to transfer the business to another undertaking in a crisis, will also be reduced. EU insurance watchdog EIOPA will conduct centralized climate stress tests of the sector, with insurers also required to conduct long-term climate scenario analysis, it said. The Commission decided not to propose an EU-wide harmonization of national insurance guarantee schemes, saying it could entail significant costs for insurers and there was a need to focus on economic recovery. ($1 = 0.8524 euros) (Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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Financial Crisis
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Britannia Airways Flight 226A crash
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Britannia Airways Flight BY226A was an international charter flight from Cardiff, Wales, UK, which crashed on landing at Girona Airport, Spain, on 14 September 1999 and broke apart. Of the 236 passengers and nine crew on board, two were seriously injured and 41 sustained minor injuries. One of the passengers who had apparently sustained only minor injuries died five days later of unsuspected internal injuries. The Boeing 757-204 aircraft, registration G-BYAG, was damaged beyond economical repair and scrapped. [1]
The holiday charter flight was landing at night, through thunderstorms with heavy rain at 21:47 UTC (23:47 local). Several preceding flights had diverted to Barcelona and this was planned as BY226A's alternate. The weather prior to the landing approach was reported as:
Surface wind 350/6 kt, visibility 4 km, thunderstorm with heavy rain, cloud 3–4 octas at 1,500 feet, 1–2 octas cumulonimbus at 3,000 feet, 5–7 octas at 4,000 feet, temperature 20 °C/ dewpoint 20 °C, QNH 1010 mb, remarks recent rain. The crew initially executed the VOR/DME non-precision instrument approach procedure to runway 02. Upon becoming visual, the crew determined that the aircraft was not adequately aligned with the runway and initiated a missed approach. A change in wind direction now favoured the opposite runway, so the aircraft was positioned for an ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach to runway 20. The aircraft descended below cloud and became visual with the runway at around 500 feet (150 m) above ground level. At a late stage in the final approach, the airfield lighting failed for a few seconds. [2] The aircraft touched down hard, bounced, and made a second heavier touchdown causing substantial damage to the nosewheel and its supports. This caused further damage to the aircraft systems, including loss of electrical power, interference with controls and an uncommanded increase in thrust. The Boeing 757 left the runway at high speed, approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) from the second touchdown point. It then ran 343 metres (1,125 ft) across flat grassland beside the runway, before going diagonally over a substantial earth mound adjacent to the airport boundary, becoming semi-airborne as a result. Beyond the mound it hit a number of medium-sized trees and the right engine struck the boundary fence. The aircraft then passed through the fence, re-landed in a field and both main landing gears collapsed. It finally stopped after a 244-metre (801 ft) slide across the field, 1,900 metres (6,200 ft) from the second touchdown. Damage was substantial: the fuselage was fractured in two places and the landing gear and both engines detached. Despite considerable damage to the cabin, the crew evacuated the aircraft efficiently. However, three of the eight emergency exits could not be opened and several escape slides did not inflate (though with the fuselage sitting on the ground this was not a great problem). The tower controller, aware shortly after touchdown that something was amiss, activated the emergency alarm. However, the emergency bell did not ring. Fire crews were alerted by a dedicated telephone line and went to the threshold of runway 20 and drove along the runway looking for the aircraft, without success. The search spread to the sides of the runway and the overshoot area. The wreckage was eventually located 18 minutes after the accident. There was a further 14 minutes delay while the fire crews tried to gain access to the site. In all, transfer of passengers to the terminal building was not completed for an hour and ten minutes. There were no immediate fatalities and the injuries were few: two serious and 42 minor. However, one passenger, who had been admitted to hospital with apparently minor injuries and discharged the following day, died five days later from unsuspected internal injuries. [3]
Airport authorities were criticised after the accident, particularly for the fact it took rescue crews more than an hour to reach and evacuate the scene. Indeed, at least one passenger actually walked across the airfield to the terminal to seek help. [4][5]
The accident was investigated by the Spanish Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC). In its final report, the CIAIAC's finding was:
It is considered that the most probable cause of the accident was the destabilisation of the approach below decision height with loss of external visual references and automatic height callouts immediately before landing, resulting in touchdown with excessive descent rate in a nose down attitude. The resulting displacement of the nose landing gear support structure caused disruption to aircraft systems that led to uncommanded forward thrust increase and other effects that severely aggravated the consequences of the initial event. [6]
The following contributing factors were also determined:
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Air crash
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Emirates Flight 521 crash
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Emirates Flight 521 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Thiruvananthapuram, India, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates,[2] operated by Emirates using a Boeing 777-300. [3] On 3 August 2016, the aircraft carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew[4][5] crashed while landing at Dubai International Airport. [6][7][8][9][10][11]
All 300 people on board survived the accident; 32 were injured, 4 were seriously injured. [1] An airport firefighter died during the rescue operation and another seven firefighters were injured. [1][11] The accident is the only hull loss of an Emirates aircraft. [12]
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 777-31H[note 1] with the registration A6-EMW, serial number 32700, and line number 434. It was equipped with two Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines and was thirteen years old, having made its first flight on 7 March 2003. [13] It was delivered new to Emirates on 28 March 2003, and had logged more than 58,000 flight hours in 13,000 cycles before the crash. [1]:14
The captain was a 34-year-old UAE national who had been with Emirates since March 2001 and had logged 7,457 flight hours, including 5,123 hours on the Boeing 777. [1] The first officer was 37-year-old Jeremy Webb, an Australian national who had been with Emirates since October 2014 and had 7,957 flight hours, with 1,292 of them on the Boeing 777. [1][14]
On 3 August 2016, Flight EK521 took off from Trivandrum International Airport (TRV) at 10:34 IST (05:04 UTC), 29 minutes after its scheduled departure time. It was scheduled to land at Dubai International Airport (DXB) at 12:24 GST (08:24 UTC). [15]
The approach and landing were normal from the air traffic control (ATC) point of view, with no emergency declared according to ATC recordings at the time. [16][17] The crew reported that they were going around, after which the tower instructed them to climb to 4,000 feet, which was acknowledged by the crew. Shortly after, the tower instructed the next flight to go around and alerted emergency services. [16] Wind shear and an ambient temperature of 48 °C (118 °F) were reported. [13]
The accident occurred at 12:37 GST (08:37 UTC). Significant wind shear affected the aircraft's airspeed through late final approach, and the aircraft touched down onto the 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) long runway 12L at a point approximately 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) beyond the threshold, at a speed of 162 knots (300 km/h; 186 mph). [1] Two seconds later, the cockpit RAAS issued a "LONG LANDING" [note 2] warning and the crew initiated a go-around. [1] Six seconds after main-wheel touchdown, and with the nose-wheel still off the runway, the aircraft became airborne again after rotating to climb attitude. The flap setting was reduced to 20°, and the undercarriage was selected to retract, but the engine throttle remained unchanged because activation of go-around automation is inhibited after touchdown. The aircraft attained a maximum height above the runway of 85 feet (26 m) with its indicated airspeed decreasing, before commencing to settle back towards the ground. Twelve seconds after becoming airborne the crew manually advanced the throttles to maximum, but the aircraft continued to sink and it impacted the runway with its undercarriage in a partially retracted state three seconds later. [1](pp81-86)
The aircraft first impacted with the underside of its rear fuselage and skidded about 800 metres (2,600 ft) along runway 12L with its landing gear partly retracted as it turned to the right about 120 degrees. [1] As the aircraft skidded down the runway, the number 2 (starboard) engine detached and slid along the wing's leading edge toward the wingtip. [1] Firefighting appliances were at the aircraft less than 90 seconds after it came to rest (which was 33 seconds after the initial impact) and started to fight fires at several locations as all 300 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. [1][19] Videos from inside the aircraft, taken on passengers' cellphone cameras, showed the passengers failing to evacuate, instead giving priority to carry-on luggage, resulting in an overly long evacuation and heavy criticism. [20] Nine minutes after the aircraft came to a stop, with only the aircraft captain and the senior flight attendant still on board (checking for any remaining passengers), there was an explosion as flames reached the aircraft's center fuel tank. The explosion resulted in the death of a firefighter,[1](p36–38) a Ras al-Khaimah resident named Jasim Issa Mohammed Hasan. [21] Thirty-two of the aircraft's occupants were injured, including the captain and the senior flight attendant, who evacuated after the explosion; the senior flight attendant was the only person among the passengers and crew seriously injured, suffering from smoke inhalation. [16][1](p7) In addition, seven firefighters were injured,[1](p7) several of the firefighters suffering from heat stroke. [1][22] The explosion spread the fire to the aircraft's cabin; it took firefighters 16 hours to bring the fire under control. [1] The airport was closed during and following the accident, which resulted in many diverted flights. [23]
The aircraft carried 282 passengers and 18 crew members. [24]
The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) carried out an investigation into the accident,[26] assisted by Emirates; the aircraft's manufacturer Boeing; and Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the 777's engines. [27] In addition, the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a five-person team to join the other investigators. [28] The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were removed from the aircraft the day after the accident. [22][29] A preliminary report into the accident was published in September 2016,[8][30] and an interim statement in August 2017. [31] A preliminary report found that the pilot attempted to take off again after briefly touching down, and that the plane ultimately hit the runway as its landing gear was still retracting. [8]
The final report was released on February 6th, 2020. [32][1] In the report, the following was noted in the causes section:
The flight crew did not effectively scan and monitor the primary flight instrumentation parameters during the landing and the attempted go-around. The flight crew were unaware that the autothrottle (A/T) had not responded to move the engine thrust levers to the TO/GA position after the Commander pushed the TO/GA switch at the initiation of the FCOM ̶ Go-around and Missed Approach Procedure. [33]
Following the accident, the airport was closed for 5+1⁄2 hours; many flights were diverted to nearby airports such as Abu Dhabi International Airport, Sharjah International Airport, and Al Maktoum International Airport. [34] The closure led Emirates and flydubai to cancel several of their flights,[35][36] and also affected 23,000 passengers at the airport. [37] Dubai International Airport resumed operations at 18:30 local time,[38][39] at restricted capacity, utilizing only one runway and maximizing the use of the runways at Al Maktoum International Airport. [37] Arriving aircraft were prioritized over departure flights. [40] The damaged runway was repaired and reopened at 17:45 local time on 4 August,[40][41][42] and the airport resumed normal operations on 6 August, 72 hours after the accident. [43][44]
On 11 August, eight days after the crash, Emirates provided US$7000 in compensation for each of the 282 passengers. [45]
Emirates changed the flight number of the Trivandrum to Dubai service to EK523. [46]
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Air crash
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FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1982
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The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1982 took place 19–28 February 1982 in Oslo, Norway at the Holmenkollen ski arena. This was Oslo's record-tying fourth time hosting the event after previously doing so in 1930, the 1952 Winter Olympics, and 1966. The Nordic combined 3 × 10 km team event and the ski jumping team large hill events were added to these championships. It was also the year in which cross country competitions had the freestyle (or skating) technique debuted and that electronic timing returned to scoring the results in tenths of a second after Sweden's Thomas Wassberg edged out Finland's Juha Mieto by 0.01 seconds in the men's 15 km event at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The timing of the event in tenths of a second has continued as of 2011 in all Nordic skiing events. 23 February 1982
20 February 1982
Bill Koch, who developed the freestyle technique used in cross country skiing, was the first American to medal at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. 27 February 1982
25 February 1982[1][2]
22 February 1982
19 February 1982
26 February 1982
24 February 1982
19 February 1982
24 February 1982
21 February 1982
28 February 1982
26 February 1982
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Sports Competition
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Most of Alberta has high chance of seeing northern lights this weekend
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Most of Alberta could be in for a spectacular showing of the northern lights this weekend as a solar storm makes its way towards Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Saturday evening to early Sunday morning. Andy Kale, a research associate in the department of physics at the University of Alberta, told CTV News Edmonton the storm is the result of a large coronal mass ejection and solar flare that occurred Thursday. "That travels a little bit slower," Kale said. "That flare should reach us Saturday." Kale described the solar flare emission as the sun burping, spewing charged particles that fall to the Earth's atmosphere causing what we see as the northern lights. According to the NOAA forecast , the peak of the storm is expected Saturday night and early Sunday morning, with conditions ranging from minor to strong. Solar activity is expected to last all weekend, giving opportunities for the aurora to appear Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday night, should conditions align. "The sun has decided to come trick-or-treating with us," Kale said, as he laughed. A CME associated with Thursday's solar flare is expected to reach earth tomorrow. A G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watch is in effect for Saturday and Sunday, and may drive the aurora over the Northeast, to the upper Midwest, to WA state. According to Kale, anyone north of the 50-degree line of latitude — so north of about Medicine Hat, Alta. — has a good chance of seeing the aurora borealis this weekend. Just two weeks ago Edmontonians were enraptured by the aurora borealis. Kale said that storm was only a G2, with solar storms classified from G1 to G5 — with G5 being the highest. This weekend could peak as a G3, meaning it could be even more spectacular. "We're starting to see solar activity ramping up again," Kale said. "We're exiting what we call a solar minimum, a period where solar activity is quiet.
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New wonders in nature
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2006 Kolkata leather factory fire
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The 2006 Kolkata leather factory fire was a deadly industrial fire that occurred in West Bengal, India, on 22 November 2006. The fire broke out in a leather bag factory located in the Tannix International, Topsia, in the South 24 Parganas district in Greater Kolkata area, and generated a wave of criticism of the poor safety standards in place among the country's sweatshops. The industrial fire claimed the lives of at least ten people, who were unable to escape because the doors were locked shut illegally. Authorities, in response to local residents' angry criticism, admitted that the emergency response to the accident was substandard. Two separate investigations were launched. One inquiry focused on the fire itself, while the other sought to ascertain criminal responsibility for the disaster as well as the operation of the illegal factory. [1] The results of both are either pending or have yet to be released to the general public. Investigators confirmed that the site of the fire had been used as an illegal factory to manufacture leather bags. [1] The factory was located on the third floor of a four-story building,[2][3] which also featured residential units. [4] Investigators determined that the first and second floors of the structure housed additional illegal factories. [3] The factory destroyed in the fire was found to be owned and operated by Tenex Exports,[3] and all of the people who were killed or injured in the fire slept in the factory at night, a situation that is not considered unusual in India. There was had just one emergency exit, and 40 workers were housed in the structure at the time of the fire,[5] and the owner had locked the factory at night to prevent workers from running away with leather goods. [6] The building was located in the Tannix International, Topsia, in the South 24 Parganas district of Greater Kolkata region. [2][5]
The fire broke out in the factory at around 2:30 IST,[2] as workers slept. Once they became aware of the blaze, the employees found they were unable to break through the factory's locked doors. Five fire tenders were sent to the scene,[2] but by the time they arrived, local residents had broken down two locked gates and already rescued the surviving workers. [3] These impromptu Rescue efforts were delayed however, when an individual carrying keys to open the door nervously dropped them while attempting to open the gate. [3] At least 10 people were dead by the time rescuers reached the factory's interior,[7] with a further eighteen injured. The survivors, many suffering from burns over 70 percent of their bodies, were taken to the National Medical College and Hospital, where victims had to be left on the floor due to a shortage of beds. [8] The hospital did not have a burns unit, and the only treatments available at the hospital were ointments and saline drips. The patients were eventually moved to other hospitals. [5] Local MLA Javed Khan later said that the death toll is actually at least twelve, but there has been no official confirmation of this. [2][9] The Rapid Action Force was also deployed to maintain calm. [2][8]
People living in the vicinity of the illegal factory said that the number of deaths might have been reduced had the fire service responded promptly. They claimed that the fire brigade failed to send personnel or equipment to the scene until more than an hour after the brigade first received word of the fire. Residents also claimed that it was only after the police arrived and requested fire service backup that any help was sent. [2] In addition, some on the scene reported an inadequate number of ambulances. [9] The city's mayor admitted to this lapse the following morning. [9] Local people also complained that the victims should never have been taken to the Calcutta National Medical College, but that they should have been transported directly to hospitals with burns units. [10]
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire as well as the reason the building had been locked from the outside. [10] To this end, the building was inspected by the KMC, and was subsequently scheduled to be demolished on Thursday, 23 November. However, the structure is standing as of 2007[update]. [5] Although no actual cause of the fire has been established, it has been noted that large quantities of inflammable materials, such as adhesives, were stored inside the building. [2] It was also revealed that the factory experienced a similar fire two years previously, but on that occasion there were no fatalities. [6]
A separate criminal investigation focused on the illegal factory itself. [1] Almost all factories and homes in the area were illegal and unauthorised,[5] and do not follow building codes and sanctions. [6] Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said action would be taken against the owners of the factory and house, and Superintendent of Police of South 24 Parganas S. N. Gupta said that the owners of the building would be arrested. [8] Investigation has shown that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) issued notices to the building on three separate occasions, in 1988, 1989, and 1992, yet took no further action. It has been shown, however, that the KMC also approved trade licences for two businesses to operate from the building. [5] The owner of the building, Khurshid Alam, has had a police complaint filed against him by the fire department for illegal construction charges. Mohammed Sagir Ahmed and Mohammed Asif, the owners of Tenex Exports, also face related charges. [3] Both investigations are ongoing. The day after this tragedy, workers in the unorganized leather industry of Topsia area held protest rallies demanding compensation for the relatives of the deceased workers, better working conditions and a probe into the fire mishap. [11] The mayor of Kolkata convened an all-party meeting to discuss the incident and also promised to initiate a drive demolish illegal constructions in the area. [11] The labour inspectors inspected the building and declared the factory as illegal. [11] Even though the building was declared illegal and unsafe, a month later, the police raided the house and found that another leather factory was operating behind closed doors in the ground floor of the building. [12] The civic officials issued a notice to stop any work in the building. [12] Though local residents alleged that clandestine work started in the building with the help of local MLA, Javen Khan, Khan himself blamed it rather on the police. [12]
In 2008, two more fire mishaps occurred in the leather industries in the area, one in the month of March and the other in June: a total of nine people got injured in these two incidents. [13] Even though fire safety licenses and insurances for the workers of the leather factories were made mandatory after the fire incident of 2006, none of the authorities—the municipal corporation, the services department of the state government, and the police—ensured that these were actually followed by the factories.
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Fire
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Seattle Mardi Gras riot
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The Seattle Mardi Gras riot occurred on February 27, 2001, when disturbances broke out in the Pioneer Square neighborhood during Mardi Gras celebrations in Seattle, Washington. There were numerous random attacks on revelers over a period of about three and a half hours. There were reports of widespread brawling, vandalism, and weapons being brandished. Damage to local businesses exceeded $100,000. About 70 people were reported injured. Several women were sexually assaulted. One man, Kris Kime, died of injuries sustained during an attempt to assist a woman being brutalized. It was Seattle's second serious rioting incident in three years, the first being the 1999 World Trade Organization's Minister Level Conference On World Free Trade. Large crowds and some disturbances occurred during Mardi Gras leading up to the events of Fat Tuesday. The police department's lack of intervention during the disturbance led to allegations of police misconduct. Responses during and after the event by both the Mayor and Chief of Police were met with intense scrutiny. The violence led to a moratorium on large Mardi Gras celebrations in the city and tarnished the neighborhood's reputation. Pioneer Square was often described as the center of Seattle's nightlife at the time with its numerous bars and clubs. The neighborhood had been the site of Mardi Gras celebrations since 1977; with more than 90 civilians and 30 officers injured during disorders in 1979. Festivities on the Friday and Saturday leading up to 2001's Fat Tuesday were broken up by police with the city's bicycle patrol at the forefront of squashing festivities. On Saturday, the Seattle Police Department estimated a total between 4,000 and 6,000 people gathered in the area after midnight. The crowd pelted the officers with rocks and bottles after a suspect was arrested for carrying a handgun. Windows were also smashed before the crowd was dispersed through the use of pepper spray, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades. The heavy-handed tactics led to complaints from event goers.Up to 2,000 people gathered in the neighborhood on Sunday evening with fewer incidents. Celebrations were also violent in Austin, Fresno, and Philadelphia that year.
Over 4,000 party goers initially filled the neighborhood and its bars on Tuesday evening. Police estimated large crowds began forming in the central plaza at 9:00 pm and eventually spilled into the surrounding streets. The celebrations included drinking, dancing, and women baring their breasts for beads.Throngs of men began groping the women as they exposed themselves.Police estimated that the crowd swelled to anywhere between 5,000 and 7,000 people as the evening continued.
Sporadic fighting broke out at about 10:40 pm. Police donned riot gear and formed lines but rarely entered the crowd. Some arrests were made at the periphery of the neighborhood's main square. Cars were vandalized and overturned. Small fires were set and the windows of business were shattered.Police were then notified that young men were brandishing handguns and other weapons towards people. By midnight, groups roved through the crowd randomly attacking people along the stretch of Yesler Way between First and Second Avenues. Paramedics were not able to reach some victims due to the lack of police control in the area. [8]
The police stood by and did nothing as a group assaulted a female teenager; when a bystander, Kris Kime, attempted to protect her, the group beat him to death. [9][10] Witnesses said Kime was struck and knocked to the ground as he tried to help the frightened woman who had fallen in the melee. Kime died of massive head injuries. About 70 others were reported injured with 2 suffering gunshot wounds.
At 12:30 am, 25 to 30 young men advanced on a line of police. The police retreated while bottles and other debris were thrown. A team of bicycle officers made a quick charge toward the crowd with pepper spray before retreating. Fighting escalated with little police interference until shots were fired from within the mass of people at 1:30 am. With the assistance of an armored vehicle, police advanced on the crowd with tear gas, pepper spray, and flashbangs. The crowds were finally dispersed shortly after 2:00 am.
The day after the riot, local newspapers carried a picture of a black man with brass knuckles engaged in an assault which came to symbolize the riot. [13] An editorial in The Stranger said the incident was racially motivated and that much of the violence was directed at white civilians.Witnesses said gangs of black youth yelled racially charged slurs and sought white victims. Some eyewitnesses said that most of the attackers were black but that race was not a factor in who was victimized. According to the Seattle Weekly, police did not initially see the attacks as solely or even predominately racial violence.
Racial issues overshadowed the sexual assaults that took place.
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Riot
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Ryan Crouser defends shot put gold with three Olympic records
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TOKYO – Arkansas volunteer assistant Ryan Crouser successfully defended his Olympic gold medal with a stellar performance that was capped with an Olympic record throw of 76 feet, 5 ½ inches (23.30), just two and three-quarters of an inch shy of the world record he set in June.
For the first time in Olympic history in any individual event the same three medalists from 2016 repeated their exact finish in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. American Joe Kovacs claimed silver with a toss of 74-3 ¾ (22.65) while Tomas Walsh of New Zealand earned bronze with a mark of 73-8 ¾ (22.47).
Crouser, who set an Olympic record of 73-10 ¾ (22.52) to win in Rio, promptly improved it to 74-11 (22.83) in the opening round as the seventh thrower among the field of 12. The next best effort in the first stanza was a 72-9 ¾ (22.19) by Kovacs.
In the second round, Crouser launched the shot put 75-2 ¾ (22.93) to set another Olympic record while the next best mark behind him was a 72-9 (22.17) by Walsh.
A mark of 75-0 (22.86) was produced by Crouser in round three. Then he became the eighth and last thrower for the following three rounds as the field of 12 was reduced to eight.
While Crouser didn’t improve in the fourth and fifth stanzas, he continued to surpass 73 feet with marks of 74-7 ¼ (22.74) and 73-11 ½ (22.54).
Meanwhile, Kovacs improved to 74-3 ¾ in round four while Walsh registered his top mark in round six.
Down the final throw of the competition, Crouser delivered his massive throw of 76-5 ½ to cap a successful defense of his Rio Olympic gold medal. In doing so, he became just the fourth person to win consecutive Olympic shot put titles.
It’s previously been accomplished by Tomasz Majewski of Poland (2008, 2012), Parry O’Brien of United States (1952, 1956), and American Ralph Rose (1904, 1908).
The amazing series generated by Crouser in the final, which averaged 75-0 ½ (22.87), means he now has seven of the top nine marks in Olympic history. Kovacs has two of the marks among the top nine with his runner-up effort and a final round 74-1 ¾ (22.60).
In the men’s 4×100 relay prelims, Denmark placed seventh in a national record of 38.16, but the foursome running didn’t include Razorback Kris Hari, who was recently injured during a training session. Overall, Denmark ranked 10th among the 16 teams that competed.
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Break historical records
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1982 European Karate Championships
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The European Karate Championships are organised by the European Karate Federation each year. [1]
Events from 1966 to 1996 were organized by the European Karate Union. In 1961, Jacques Delcourt was appointed President of French Karate, which was at that stage, an associated member of the Judo Federation. In 1963, he invited six other known European federations (Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) to come to France for the first-ever international karate event. Great Britain and Belgium accepted the invitation. [2]
By 1965, the European Karate Union was created with Jacques Delcourt voted in as President. [3] The following year the first European Karate Championships were held in Paris. The event drew roughly three hundred spectators and was shown live on television. It drew criticism for being too violent as there were many facial injuries. The EKU council had differing opinions about the cause(s) of the injuries. With opinions ranging from excessive violations of rules to lack of conditioning and blocking skill, this problem was addressed in some part, at the first referee course held in Rome. At that time, the refereeing rules were harmonised using the JKA rules as a basis. [4]
EKU Championships (1966–1992) and EKF Championships (since 1993). [5] Para Karate was added to championships since 2018. [6][7][8][9][10]
The following reflects the all-time medal counts as of the 2021 European Karate Championships:
The following reflects the all-time medal counts as of the 2021 European Karate Championships:[11][12][13]
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Sports Competition
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Donald Trump signs executive order withdrawing US from Trans-Pacific Partnership
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US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders withdrawing America from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and stopping the federal government from hiring any more workers. In an Oval Office ceremony, Mr Trump delivered on his campaign promise to formally withdraw from the TPP, which was negotiated by Barack Obama between 12 countries, including Australia. Mr Trump, who has previously argued the agreement would harm the US economy, said the order was a "great thing for the American worker". But the move was basically a formality, since the agreement was unlikely to receive approval from the US Congress. It's been referred to as 'the dodgiest deal you've never heard of' and now, Fact Check answers your questions on the TPP. Mr Trump, who wants to boost US manufacturing, said he would seek one-on-one trade deals with countries that would allow the US to quickly terminate them in 30 days "if somebody misbehaves". "We're going to stop the ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country and taken companies out of our country," the Republican President said as he met with union leaders in the White House's Roosevelt Room. The accord had been the main economic pillar of the Obama administration's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific region to counter China. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe reiterated their commitment to the TPP, despite Mr Trump's opposition, in a phone call last night. Australia's Trade Minister Steve Ciobo yesterday said the Federal Government was willing to work with the other 10 participating countries to find a way forward for the TPP. "If it comes to pass that we need to make small changes in order to capture the benefits of the TPP and not have the United States as part of it, well then, so be it," he said.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Bathurst artist Rachel Ellis wins Cowra Regional Art Gallery Calleen Art Award
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BOLD COLOURS: Rachel Ellis has won the 2021 Calleen Art Award with her painting Claret Ash, Bathurst. Photo: SUPPLIED BATHURST'S Rachel Ellis is the winner of the Cowra Regional Art Gallery Calleen Art Award 2021. Rachel's painting Claret Ash, Bathurst 2021 was selected and announced by the award judge Wayne Tunnicliffe, head curator in Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW. The Calleen Art Award was established in 1977 with a focus on painting and supporting innovation, creativity and originality. We're Live and Kicking ARTS OutWest is pleased to present a series of Sunday Sessions featuring original music artists from the Central West. The first Live and Kicking session features two fine singer-songwriters, Darren Smith and Clinton Hoy, at The Vic Hotel in Bathurst this Sunday, November 14. Doors open at 2pm for 3pm show. Arts OutWest's Live and Kicking program is a series of live, local music events across the Central West in 2021-2022, funded by the Australian Government's Live Music Office. All events and venues will run under COVID-safe rules. Blokes Don't Talk 2MCE and Bathurst Theatre Company's Blokes Don't Talk has been named a finalist in the Excellence in Digital Media and Excellence in Innovative Programming and Content categories of the CBAA Community Radio Awards. Blokes Don't Talk is a series of monologues written by Vince Melton for the Bathurst Theatre Company and 2MCE-fm. The series was produced in partnership with the Bathurst Theatre Company, 2MCE-fm and micro-funding from Arts Out West. You can still enjoy the podcast via the 2MCE website. It is much recommended listening. Regional arts funding THE NSW Government has announced $3.4 million in funding for the Regional Arts Network in 2021-22. The RADO network is pivotal in supporting and facilitating outstanding arts and cultural outcomes for communities across regional NSW. Arts OutWest is one of the 14 RADOs to receive funding. New show at BMEC A WOMAN. A dog. A campervan. And 4500 kilometres of wide-open road. An allegory for a country that's lost its heart by award-winning Darwin playwright Mary Anne Butler. Bathurst's own Lingua Franca in collaboration with BMEC present this truly regional story. Starring theatrical powerhouse Kate Smith, with original live music by Central West icons Smith & Jones. It's on Friday and Saturday, November 19-20. Book tickets on the BMEC website. The show is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
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Awards ceremony
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SASB and IIRC complete merger to form Value Reporting Foundation
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The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and the International Integrated Reporting Council finalized their merger Wednesday to form the Value Reporting Foundation and unite their environmental, social and governance reporting frameworks. They plan to continue to develop tools to help organizations with ESG reporting and bring together staff across four continents. They also intend to work with the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation as it prepares to launch an International Sustainability Standards Board as part of a technical working group. SASB and the IIRC announced their merger last November after committing in September to working with other ESG standard-setters like the Global Reporting Initiative, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board and the Carbon Disclosure Project to harmonize their different standards and frameworks (see story). Under the umbrella of the Value Reporting Foundation, they plan to support business and investor decision-making with three main resources: integrated thinking principles, the integrated reporting framework, and SASB standards. “It’s important to note that SASB standards and the integrated reporting framework are already complementary tools,” said Value Reporting Foundation CEO Janine Guillot, who was formerly CEO of SASB, during a press conference Wednesday. “Many companies already use them together. And the reason they’re complementary is because the integrated reporting framework provides principles-based guidance for how a report should be structured and what kind of content it should include, and then the SASB standards provide more detail. They provide the industry-specific topics and metrics for use in an integrated report. So there’s already very close alignment between the IR framework and the SASB standards. The IR framework uses a concept called ‘six capitals.’ The SASB standards use a concept called ‘five sustainability dimensions.’ Those things are very similar, but what we want to do is fully harmonize those over time to make it very easy for companies and businesses to use both the SASB standards and the IR framework together.” SASB and the IIRC have worked together in the past with other standard-setters as part of a group called the Corporate Reporting Dialogue, but now they will operate in a unified way. “This is an idea that instantly made good logic and good sense to both of the organizations, and we joined this, recognizing that together we could accomplish more of our shared ambitions together than we might have if we continued to operate independently,” said Value Reporting Foundation co-chair Bob Steel. “People put their egos in their back pockets, and we really focused on coming together in order to accomplish a mission that we believe is much bigger and better than either of us could have achieved on our own, and we’ve done that with a really wonderful spirit.” As ESG investment funds grow in popularity and climate change risks become more apparent across the globe, the various sustainability groups have come under pressure from international financial regulators to align their standards more closely. The Securities and Exchange Commission has expressed interest under the Biden administration in requiring companies to do more disclosure of climate risks using common reporting standards. But the competing standards can be confusing to investors and enable companies to pick and choose which ones to abide by to promote themselves as responsible stewards of the environment. The IFRS Foundation’s proposal to create an International Sustainability Standards Board, which it would oversee alongside the International Accounting Standards Board, is an attempt to address this problem. The G-7 finance ministers endorsed the creation of the ISSB in a statement last Friday, saying, “We encourage further consultation on a final proposal leading to the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board ahead of COP26,” referring to an upcoming United Nations climate conference. The new Value Reporting Foundation plans to play a role in the future ISSB. “For far too long, stakeholders have been saying that traditional financial reporting, while it’s important, is just not meeting their needs on its own,” said Value Reporting Foundation co-chair Richard Sexton. “There have been many organizations and initiatives. It does sometimes feel like alphabet spaghetti, but they are very important. And three in particular that Janine touched on: the creation of the ISSB, the International Sustainability Standards Board, under the auspices of the IFRS Foundation, is absolutely critical, as is the issuance of directives by the EU driving implementation within the EU and acting as a beacon more broadly, but equally important is that the SEC is now thoroughly engaged in consultations. All of these are very positive indeed, but now we need to move to focus on implementation. The integrated reporting framework, integrated thinking and the SASB standards are all very well established and widely implemented and, importantly, complementary ways of addressing some of the challenges. We are very confident that by bringing them together into a single global organization, we contribute to clarity and simplicity as well as that continuing momentum that’s needed to transform the entire system.” The new group received a number of statements of support. “Both the IIRC and SASB are celebrating their 10-year anniversaries,” said Charles Tilley, CEO of the IIRC until the completion of the merger, and who is now board director and senior advisor to the Value Reporting Foundation. “Over those 10 years we both built solid support, changing the way countless businesses and investors think about how value is created, preserved or eroded over time. Together, as the Value Reporting Foundation we can go further and faster, working with our partners toward a globally agreed system that supports much-needed sustainable development around the world.” Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, is a prominent backer of SASB and now chair emeritus of the Value Reporting Foundation. “We’re seeing a lot of great progress on sustainability disclosure and integrated reporting, especially when it comes to the risks and opportunities around climate change,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “This merger is another important step forward toward a stronger, more resilient economy — and a brighter, safer future.” "We are virtually at the door of having a globally accepted comprehensive corporate reporting system,” said Mervyn King, chair emeritus of the Value Reporting Foundation and a former chair of the IIRC, in a statement. “I am excited and confident that the endeavors of the Value Reporting Foundation will take us closer to the opening of that door to what I call the end game.”
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Notorious PNG bank robber jailed
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Papua New Guinea's most notorious criminal has been sentenced to 30 years in jail over one of the country's biggest bank robberies. In 2008, William Kapris and his accomplices kidnapped the manager of Bank South Pacific's Madang branch and held his family hostage. Then, dressed as policemen, they went to the bank and stole $1 million. The National Court sentenced Kapris to 30 years in jail for several offences, including armed robbery, conspiracy and kidnapping. Eleven others were also handed prison sentences for their roles in the heist. Kapris is already serving time for attempted murder, two jailbreaks and the robbery of a gold refinery. He is also facing charges over a second bank robbery. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Bank Robbery
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YouTube fined $250 million for collecting kids' data without parents' consent
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Google's video site YouTube has been fined $US170 million ($250 million) to settle allegations it collected children's personal data without their parents' consent.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Google $US136 million ($200 million) and the company will pay an additional $US34 million ($50 million) to New York state to resolve similar allegations.
The fine is the largest the agency has levelled against Google, although it is only a fraction of the $US5 billion ($7.4 billion) fine the FTC imposed against Facebook this year for privacy violations.
A former Cambridge Analytica employee has spoken out about the misuse of Facebook data. Here's what happened and how it connects to the Trump campaign.
The FTC has been investigating YouTube for the way it handles the data of kids under the age of 13. Young children are protected by a federal law that requires parental consent before companies can collect and share their personal information.
YouTube has said its service was intended for ages 13 and older, although younger kids commonly watch videos on the site and many popular YouTube channels feature cartoons or sing-a-longs made for children.
The FTC's complaint details Google's mixed messages about who the site is geared for, and includes as evidence Google presentations made to toy companies Mattel and Hasbro, in which YouTube is described as the "new Saturday Morning Cartoons" and the "#1 website regularly visited by kids."
"YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients," FTC chairman Joe Simons said in a statement.
Yet when it came to complying with the law protecting children's privacy, he said "the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids".
"There's no excuse for YouTube's violations of the law."
YouTube has its own app for children, called YouTube Kids. The company also launched a website version of the service in August.
The site says it requires parental consent and uses simple math problems to ensure kids aren't signing in on their own.
YouTube Kids does not target ads based on viewer interests the way the main YouTube service does.
The children's version does track information about what kids are watching in order to recommend videos. It also collects personally identifying device information.
The settlement was approved in a 3-2 vote by the FTC, with Mr Simons and the two other Republicans voting for, while the two Democrats opposed it.
Commissioner Rohit Chopra, a Democrat, noted it was the third time since 2011 that the agency had sanctioned Google for privacy violations.
YouTube "baited kids with nursery rhymes, cartoons, and more to feed its massively profitable behavioural advertising business," Mr Chopra said in a tweet.
"It was lucrative, and it was illegal."
He said in his dissent that the settlement offered no individual accountability, insufficient remedies and a fine amount that "still allows the company to profit from its lawbreaking".
A coalition of advocacy groups that last year helped trigger the FTC's investigation said in a joint statement on Wednesday (local time) that the outcome would reduce the amount of behavioural advertising targeting children.
But they said it did not go far enough to hold Google accountable.
"We are gratified that the FTC has finally forced Google to confront its longstanding lie that it wasn't targeting children on YouTube," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Centre for Digital Democracy.
But he said the "paltry" fine sent a signal that politically powerful corporations did not have to fear serious consequences for breaking the law.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, made a profit of $US30.7 billion ($45 billion) on revenue of $US136.8 billion ($201 billion) last year.
The Federal Government has increased scrutiny of big tech companies in the past two years, especially questioning how the tech giants collected and used personal information from their billions of customers.
Many of the huge Silicon Valley companies are also under antitrust investigations aimed at determining whether the companies have unlawfully stifled competition.
YouTube has faced a number of child safety issues this year.
In one case, comments that paedophiles left on innocuous family videos of kids pushed YouTube to turn off comments on nearly all videos featuring kids.
The FTC's fine against YouTube now needs to be approved by a federal court in Washington.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis
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Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Food insecurity and malnutrition are the key factors behind the number of people in need. 16.2 million people will go hungry this year (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 3 or higher), including 5 million are just one step away from being declared a ‘famine’ (IPC Phase 4), including nearly 50,000 thousand people have already faced famine-like conditions (IPC Phase 5) in the first half of 2021. At least one child dies every ten minutes of malnutrition and diarrhea – roughly 2.25 million children under 5– are enduring acute malnutrition this year. Over and above, more than a million cases of pregnant and lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021 Malnourished children Muhammed Zulqarnain, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Yemen, said: "The country is at a brink of famine. Two-thirds of all Yemenis are Hungry, and nearly half do not know when they will next eat". “The human-made crisis is literally deepening in Yemen. A poignant story in which a family had to sell the medications received as a humanitarian aid to afford food for their children instead. Severe hunger therefore has become a daily reality of Children below 5 to have become the first victims-facing the specter of death at such an early age”. Zulqarnain continues “To detect malnutrition cases among children under-5 years of age, Islamic Relief -Yemen is supporting Ministry of Public Health and populations to provide treatment and preventative nutrition services through 155 health facilities and 489 food distribution points across seven governorates in Yemen. In 2020, 130,000 acutely malnourished children and mothers received urgent treatment through our Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme for nutrition rehabilitation, while our preventative programme (Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme) served 305,038 children and mothers”. “In the meanwhile, our Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme for nutrition rehabilitation is renewing the hope of 45,718 acutely malnourished children and mothers by the provision of essential treatment, while our preventative programme is still serving 134,594 mothers and children under 2 years with preventative nutrition services”. With no stability across the country, Yemen’s children and their families will continue to plunge deeper into hunger and malnutrition unless there is a swift action even more necessary, particularly on the economy, humanitarian funding and humanitarian access to stave off the risk of famine**.** 2.7million people – out of a population of – displaced in 2016, since then the number of IDPs has been scaling up to over 4 million due to the protracted conflict. Muhammed Zulqarnain stated that “In 2020, we continued distributing food and cash/vouchers, reaching over 2.3 million people per month. 42,000 displaced people were provided with (food, hygiene and dignity) through our emergency kits in five governorates (Sana’a, Hodeida, Dhamar, Amran and Raymah), as well as flood-affected populations in three governorates (Sana’a, Dhamar, Amran). Islamic Relief –Yemen provided Covid-19 isolation centers in four governorates (Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al-hudaidah and Dhamar) with emergency masks, gloves and medical equipment to healthcare workers. Despite the ongoing expansion of conflict areas, we continued to reach those most affected with emergency assistance, referring any cases that needed further help”. Childhood trauma 2507 schools destroyed, damaged or utilized for non-educational purposes, which left 2 million children out of school in Yemen. Zulqarnain also said" Not only did Islamic Relief -Yemen have alleviate the suffering of 34,300 children in 2020, but also protected and eased their lives through the payments received on a monthly basis to cover their food, education, health and sometimes shelter needs and other projects coping with in Sana’a, Sa’ada, Aden and Taiz governorates”.
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Sydney McLaughlin Breaks Her Own World Record in 400m Hurdles to Win Olympic Gold
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Coming off the final hurdle, Sydney McLaughlin charged past reigning Olympic champion and fellow American Dalilah Muhammad to win gold in the women’s 400-meter hurdles in 51.46 and lowered her own world record by .44 seconds.
"I saw Dalilah ahead of me with one to go," McLaughlin said after the race. "I just thought 'Run your race'. "The race doesn't really start till hurdle seven and I just wanted to go out there and give it everything I had."
Muhammad, who got out hard in the race and led through a majority of the race, took second in 51.58 and got under the previous world record of 51.90 that McLaughlin took from her at the U.S. Olympic Trials. 21-year-old Dutch star Femke Bol ran a personal best of 52.03 for a new European record and bronze.
McLaughlin is just three years into her professional career and Wednesday morning’s final easily makes her one of the greatest hurdlers in American history.
In 2016, McLaughlin was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic track team since 1972 and thrived in the spotlight as one of the sport’s rising phenoms with a list of more records and national honors than some entire high school teams.
“I made the mistake in 2016 of letting the atmosphere get to me [and didn't make the final]," McLaughlin said. "But this time I stayed in my bubble and did the same things I had been doing before."
She went back to school and competed at Union Catholic High School (NJ) for a whole year after the Rio Games, which basically made every race a battle for second for other high school kids. In 2018, she went off to college at the University of Kentucky for a year, where she broke the NCAA record in 52.75 at the SEC Championships and then won an NCAA title before signing a professional contract with New Balance.
As a pro, McLaughlin’s continued improving while chasing Muhammad as the United States’ top star and reigning Olympic champion. At the U.S. Championships in 2019, Muhammad ran 52.20 for the win and broke the world record of 52.34 by Yuliya Pechonkina, which had stood since 2003. McLaughlin was .68 seconds back. Their next duel came at the world championships in Doha, where Muhammad lowered her own world record to 52.16 and McLaughlin took silver in 52.23 to become the second-fastest woman of all time.
When the pandemic hit, Mclaughlin continued training but did not race once in 2020. She went 611 days between the 2019 world championship final and her first 400-meter hurdles race on June 6th.
The start of this year saw some changes for McLaughlin who decided to switch coaches from 2004 Olympic 100 meter hurdles champion Joanna Hayes to Bobby Kersee, who coached all-time greats Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence Griffith Joyner and Allyson Felix. Those three have a combined 20 career Olympic medals, including 12 golds.
She spent much of the spring focusing on shorter speed and ran five 100 meter hurdle races and notched personal bests in four of the races and got down to 12.65, which puts her in the top 20 of the world this year.
“This is his 11th Olympics he’s coaching," McLaughlin said, "He has been around the block a few times and knew what it was going to take to get me to this point. He just changed my perspective on how I approach the race, so yeah, I owe it all to him... I knew he saw something different in me than a lot of people did. He knew how to get me there. Our relationship goes far beyond track because Bobby is such a great person and he sees me off the track, which allows me to be the best I can be on the track."
Under the new approach, McLaughlin cruised through the rounds of the U.S. Olympic Trials before taking .26 seconds off Muhammad’s world record and becoming the first woman under 52 seconds with a 51.90 victory. Muhammad was the first to congratulate McLaughlin after the finish and in post-race interviews, the 21-year-old was quick to acknowledge that the world record would not have been possible without Muhammad pushing her.
“Every question is going to be, 'am I happy or am I unhappy with silver?'" Muhammad said after the race. "But that's not how I feel at all. I've had an amazing year and to finish with 51.5 and shattering my personal best is absolutely amazing."
"Just like the men's race, all three of our times would have won any Olympics, any other year," she added. "I'm so proud to be part of that history and even more proud of my teammate Sydney. I'm just happy it's a one-two final for the USA and today I'm happy with second."
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Break historical records
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Desert Locusts Plague West Africa - NPR
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Desert Locusts Plague West Africa
Swarms of desert locusts many miles long descended on West Africa this summer and fall -- the worst invasion of these voracious pests in more than 15 years. NPR's Richard Harris ventured to Senegal to find the locusts, and talk to farmers who have suffered the consequences of this invasion.
The life-cycle of the locust is truly remarkable. Locusts start off as ordinary green grasshoppers, who actually prefer to be alone. But if the young "hoppers" are crowded too close together, it triggers a change in their body and their behavior. They grow and shed their skins, eventually mutating into leaner, meaner locusts.
With food to eat and sufficient moisture, the mature locusts lay eggs in the soil -- and when the eggs hatch, there's a 400-fold increase in their numbers. The crowds turn into swarms that continue the cycle. In a few generations, the locust population can number in the billions and single swarms can stretch for miles. Each bug can eat its own weight in vegetation in a single day, and hundreds can pack into one square yard of ground.
In the past few years, the rains have been abundant in Senegal and other nations on Africa's West Coast. That's good news for farmers, but also a perfect breeding ground for locusts.
Harris teams up with Carl Castleton, an entomologist for the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, who's touring West Africa to study the locust problem. They examine first-hand the Biblical devastation wrought by the pests -- whole peanut fields, Senegal's biggest cash crop, denuded to the bare soil by flying swarms of locusts.
Not far from the banks of the Senegal river, the Radio Expeditions team is suddenly in the midst of a swarm of three-inch-long insects, like flying shrimp.
"They're a beautiful beast, with dark pink legs, spotted wings... they're very soft to the touch," Castleton says. "If they survive, they'll be heading north into Mauritania. Maybe some of the individuals we see here might make it as far north as Morocco and reach sexual maturity... You're talking about an insect that's quite capable of moving 500 miles in a day."
The fight against the desert locust is truly a war -- Senegal has mobilized its army against the insect invaders, neighboring countries have formed strategic alliances, and there's even an air force in the form of squadrons of crop dusters, dropping pesticide on the swarms.
Critics say the fight against the locusts got off to a slow start, mostly because international donors didn't listen when biologists first warned that the swarms were coming. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization raised the alarm more than a year ago, but donor nations wanted hard evidence of a crisis.
So the swarms grew unchecked, as did the price tag to control them. In October 2003, the U.N. food agency said $9 million would be enough to prevent a massive invasion. But nobody came up with the money, and now the price tag is closer to $100 million.
Exterminating locusts has gone high-tech, with close coordination of aerial spraying and pesticides that narrowly target the insect to decrease harm to humans. But at best, the spraying kills about 85 percent of a swarm. Castleton expects that plenty of locusts will escape to breeding grounds to the north, and they'll return next year to Senegal and other countries in the Sahel region of Africa.
Related NPR Stories
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Doug Ford Says He's "Proud" Of Ditching Ontario's Green Energy Deals
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In a new effort to combat how much Ontarians spend on resources, Doug Ford's green energy decision has seen the province cut ties with the renewable sector. Ford said on Thursday, November 21 that he's "proud" of the move, which ends hundred of deals. Ford's government acknowledges that this could potentially cost taxpayers more than $230 million.
Ford took the chance to dismiss any talk that his government was wasting public money. His comments come a day after his provincial government spent $231 million to scrap 750 renewable energy programs in Ontario.
It was assured by Ford that cancelling those 750 deals, which were signed by the previous Liberal government, will ultimately save cash.
"I'm so proud of that," said the Premier on Thursday in terms of his decision.
"I'm proud that we actually saved the taxpayers $790 million when we cancelled those terrible, terrible, terrible wind turbines that really for the last 15 years have destroyed our energy file."
When contacted by Narcity, the Press Secretary of Ford's office, Ivana Yelich, stated: "Premier Ford was elected on a promise to put an end to the previous Liberal government's disastrous changes to Ontario's electricity system that led to skyrocketing electricity rates for Ontario families and businesses."
See on Instagram
Later on Thursday, Ford doubled down on his view on wind turbines, saying, "if we had the chance to get rid of all the windmills, we would."
According to the Canadian Press, the government believes the province doesn't need those green power agreements and suggests it was driving up electricity rates.
Just a few weeks ago, Ontario Hydro rates were raised and bills have started to look a bit more expensive as winter makes its way into the province.
Ford's government doesn't have the final price of cancellations as of yet. However, the cost will include the decommissioning of a wind farm which was already under construction in Prince Edward County.
However, industry officials have gone against those savings because, according to them, the cancellations will lead to job losses for small businesses.
Meanwhile, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath described Ford's comments as "ridiculous." She also called on Ontario's auditor general to investigate the cancelled contracts and fees.
"Every jurisdiction around the world is trying to figure out how to bring more renewables onto their electricity grids," Horwath said, per CP.
"This government is taking us backwards and costing us at the very least $231 million in tearing these energy contracts."
There are stories everywhere. If you spot a newsworthy event in your city, send us a message, photo, or video @NarcityCanada on Twitter and Instagram.
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Tear Up Agreement
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Darling Krishna-Milana Nagraj Wedding: Sandalwood Celebrity Couple Ties the Knot [Marriage Photos]
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Sandalwood celebrity couple Darling Krishna and Milana Nagaraj have tied the knot on Sunday, 14 February. The wedding had the presence of their family members, well-wishers and relatives. The wedding was held at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Sunday, 14 February. A special wedding mantapa was erected for the marriage, which was held as per the Hindu customs. What the Couple Sported for the Wedding? The couple looked stunning in the traditional outfits that they sported for the precious moments of their lives. She wore a golden wedding saree and light-blue designer blouse with traditional wedding jewellery. Whereas the boy donned traditional headgear with sky blue sherwani and white dhoti. The elaborate ceremony was started with 'mehendi ceremony' on Wednesday, 10 February. Darling Krishna with some of the members from Love Mocktail that includes Amrutha Iyengar had travelled to the bride's hometown of Hassan. They had their sangeet ceremony on Saturday and the wedding celebration will come to an end with the reception to be held on Sunday evening. For the sangeet ceremony, Milana wore maroon and golden party attire, while the boy was seen in the black coat and white trousers. Guest List: The celebrity couple has personally met the stars and invited them for their wedding. Shivaraj Kumar, Ravichandran, Yash, Puneeth Rajkumar, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, Tamannaah Bhatia, Kiccha Sudeep and Darshan are the prominent names from film industry who the couple has invited.
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Famous Person - Marriage
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“He Just Didn’t Know”: Texas Man Dies of Possible Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
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0 TEXAS – While Texas temperatures are back to near normal after the recent historic storm, life for some has changed drastically, including those who lost loved ones to weather-related causes of death such as hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning, and car accidents.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating more than a dozen weather-related deaths across the county.
Two of those victims are Garland residents Jose Anguiano, 28, and his roommate Arnulfo Escalante, 41. Both are believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning after they were found dead in their apartment with a gas-powered generator inside.
The two were last seen alive February 17 when they gave their next-door neighbors extension cords to share the electricity. Those neighbors later asked police to serve a welfare check on the men after they became unresponsive.
“The neighbors heard the generator running all night on Wednesday, and then Thursday morning they didn't hear it anymore,” said Belinda Serrano, a friend of Anguiano.
Serrano believes the two men likely died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside apartment after police said the two were found near the generator with its key in the on position, extension cords connected, and out of gas.
The family next door they were sharing the generator with has young children and Serrano said Anguiano wanted to make sure they didn’t go without. When she learned how in his last hours he was trying to help those in need, she says it’s a final reflection of his generous spirit.
“Jose always helped people in need – [he] wasn’t a selfish person, always a great guy,” she said. “He was always loving, he was always caring. If he saw that you were in need or in trouble he would always try to help on his own.”
Not as acquainted with Escalante, Serrano feels confident neither he nor Anguiano knew the dangers of carbon monoxide.
“Jose was a very smart person, he was always careful,” said Serrano. “I don't know what made him put that generator inside the house. The only thing I can think of is he just didn't know – he didn’t know the dangers of carbon monoxide. I think he just got to the desperate point, he needed electricity.”
As she remembers her friend, Serrano hopes others will learn from Anguiano and Escalante’s deaths.
According to the CDC, every year at least 400 people die in the U.S. from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
A full death toll from February's storm could take months to determine while officials are still counting fatalities from a wide range of factors, investigators warn an accurate total may never be known.
Serrano, along with those who loved the men, is now trying to raise money for funeral expenses and to send their bodies back to their families in Mexico. Both Anguiano and Escalante were originally from Zacatecas, Mexico.
Anguiano called North Texas his home for the last seven years. An avid soccer player, he loved to sing and worked hard to financially support his parents in Mexico.
“If you met him, you would automatically love him. He was always a friendly person. If they could give you what he had, he would,” said Serrano.
If you have an interesting story or an issue you’d like to see covered, let us know about it. Share your ideas with DFW Reporter Lupe Zapata: Lupe.Zapata@Charter.com
Date set back for Texas officer on trial for murder of Black woman in home.
The violence inflicted upon Amanda Johnson and her death came as a surprise to her family.
Fatal drag race crash update.
A crew member says she had raised safety concerns in the past about the assistant director who authorities say handed actor Alec Baldwin the prop gun.
Photos shard on social media showed an officer fist-bumping a protester. Children said to be "fending for each other."
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Search for survivors continues as death toll from Brazil dam collapse hits 58
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Civil firefighter Leoncio Valverdes rescues caged birds and removes them from the area two days after a dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. Brazilian officials on Sunday suspended the search for potential survivors of a dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company was also at risk of breaching (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Leo Correa This combo of satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe shows an area northeast of Brumadinho, Brazil on June 2, 2018, top, months before a dam collapsed and covered the area, below, seen on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. Brazilian officials suspended the search on Sunday, Jan. 27, for potential survivors of the Jan. 25 dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company, Vale, was also at risk of breaching. (DigitalGlobe, a Maxar... Rescue try to reach a cow stuck in a field of mud, two days after a dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday. Brazilian officials renewed the search Sunday for potential survivors of the collapse that has killed at least 58 people. AP Photo A volunteer walks next to a partially destroyed home, two days after a dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. Brazilian officials on Sunday suspended the search for potential survivors of a dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company was also at risk of breaching. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Andre Penner Emerson dos Santos stands on the debris of her mother's house in Brumadinho, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. Rescuers in helicopters on Saturday searched for survivors while firefighters dug through mud in a huge area in southeastern Brazil buried by the collapse of a dam holding back mine waste, with at least nine people dead and up to 300 missing. Dos Santos' mother was not in the house and survived the tragedy. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Leo Correa A cow sits stuck after a dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. Brazilian officials on Sunday suspended the search for potential survivors of a Jan. 25 dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company was also at risk of breaching. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Andre Penner This combo of satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe shows fields and farm homes just northeast of Brumadinho, Brazil on June 2, 2018, top, months before a dam collapsed and covered the area, below, seen on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. Brazilian officials suspended the search on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019 for potential survivors of the Jan. 25 dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company, Vale, was also at risk of breaching.... A couple with missing relatives look at the flooded area, after a dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. An estimated 300 people were still missing and authorities expected the death toll to rise during a search made more challenging by intermittent rains. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Andre Penner A helicopter takes of carrying a rescued body that was found in the mud, after a dam collapse near Brumadinho, Brazil, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. Rescuers in helicopters searched for survivors while firefighters dug through mud in a huge area in southeastern Brazil buried by the collapse of a dam holding back mine waste, with at least nine people dead and up to 300 missing. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Leo Correa BRUMADINHO, Brazil — Brazilian rescue crews returned to mud-covered flats Sunday to resume the search for hundreds of people missing in the wake of a dam collapse after the operation was suspended for several hours over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach. The Civil Defense office in Minais Gerais state raised the confirmed death toll to 58, with up to 300 people still missing following the avalanche of iron ore waste from a mine Friday. Earlier Sunday, authorities stopped the search and evacuated several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the second B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk. “Get out searching!” a woman yelled at firefighters near a refugee set up in the center of Brumadinho. “They could be out there in the bush.” Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable. Even before the brief suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Friday’s dam collapse was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the missing had died. There was also mounting anger at Vale and questions about an apparent lack of an alarm system Friday. Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens Sunday, but no such alert on the day the dam collapsed. “I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren,” she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for. Several others made similar complaints when interviewed by The Associated Press. In an email, Vale told the AP that the area has eight sirens in the area, but “the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible” in the dam that collapsed. “I’m angry. There is no way I can stay calm,” Sonia Fatima da Silva said as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. “My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if it’s bad.” Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometers (miles) and burying much in its path. She was one of dozens of people in Brumadinho who desperately awaited word on their loved ones. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said that by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads. Some residents barely escaped with their lives. “I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise,” said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, 5 miles from where the dam collapsed. Pedrosa, 45, and her parents dashed to their car and drove to the highest point in the neighborhood. “If we had gone down the other direction, we would have died,” Pedrosa said. “I cannot get that noise out of my head,” she said. “It’s a trauma ... I’ll never forget.” In addition to the dead, 23 people were hospitalized, according to the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive. For many, hope was evaporating. “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.” Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as “distressing, maddening.” “Time is passing,” she said. “It’s been 24 hours already. ... I just don’t want to think that he is under the mud.” The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation. According to Vale’s website, the waste 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.” Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims. Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate it, saying “someone is definitely at fault.” Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture. Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, 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 nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. 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. The Folia de S.Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that the dam’s mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to “decreased risk.” Conservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful. On Twitter, new Brazilian President Jair 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 the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation. Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and presidential candidate, said such tragedies should be deemed “heinous crimes,” and that Congress should bear part of the blame for not toughening regulations and enforcement.
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Mine Collapses
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2002 Mindanao earthquake
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The 2002 Mindanao earthquake struck the Philippines at 05:16 Philippine Standard Time on March 6 (21:16 Coordinated Universal Time on March 5). The world's sixth most powerful earthquake of the year, it registered a magnitude of 7.5 and was a megathrust earthquake. It originated near the Cotabato Trench, a zone of deformation situated between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Sunda Plate, and occurred very near to the Philippines' strongest earthquake for the 20th century, the 1918 Celebes Sea earthquake. The entire country is characterized by a high level of volcanic and seismic activity. The earthquake was responsible for 15 deaths and roughly 100 injuries. Up to 800 buildings were damaged as a result, many from a flood generated by landslides and falling debris. Like the 1918 event, a tsunami soon followed. The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the Cotobato Trench; the magnitude of this megathrust earthquake was 7.5, the sixth strongest of the year. [1] It occurred in a zone of geologic deformation along the Sunda and Philippine Sea Plates, which converge at a rate of 6 centimeters (2 in) each year. [2] The Philippines sits on several microplates between two convergent plates, the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Tectonic activity in the country includes both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Because of subduction of the Eurasian Plate to the west, volcanic activity occurs along the Manila Trench and the Sulu Trench, often of powerful caliber. 13 percent of recorded eruptions in the Philippines have been deadly, as the country is responsible for the world's most deaths in volcanic eruptions. [3] Seismicity as well has been powerful: in the last 50 years, more than half of the country's major earthquakes have reached magnitude 7.0 or greater. The earliest known major shock was in 1976, killing some 8,000 people. The Mindanao event was the fourth of seven major events since 1975. [4]
Killing 15 and injuring roughly 100, the earthquake damaged as many as 800 buildings throughout the southern and central parts of Mindanao. It spawned landslides in South Cotabato Province which flowed through the crater lake on Mount Parker, creating a widespread flood. These large flows of water surged past homes – sweeping them away – and enveloped at least nine districts of the Province. It also created local tsunamis reaching a maximum height of 3 meters (10 ft) at Kiamba, Maitum and Palimbang. [5] The earthquake was powerful enough to knock over concrete walls and fences. Sending debris raining down on people, the earthquake rocked homes and sent objects flying off of shelves. [6] The earthquake was responsible for the destruction of a major road. [7]
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Earthquakes
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Road crashes claim four lives in 'horrific period' as police plead with SA drivers to take care
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Road crashes claim four lives in 'horrific period' as police plead with SA drivers to take care Crashes on South Australia's roads have claimed four lives in less than 24 hours, prompting police to plead with drivers to slow down as this year's death toll continues to surge. The fatalities include an elderly pedestrian who died in hospital today after she was hit on Friday, and a driver whose car hit a power pole this afternoon at Tantanoola in the state's south-east. Emergency services were called to that crash scene on Mile Hill Road just before 1:30pm. The car had hit the pole with such force that the concrete and metal structure had split and fallen across the road. A 32-year-old man from Millicent was the car's only occupant and was killed at the scene. His death has taken the state's annual road toll to 51, compared to 30 at the same time last year. South Australia Police Superintendent Bob Gray said the past 24 hours "could only be described as an horrific period". "Every collision on our roads this year that's ended in a fatality was totally 100 per cent avoidable, and that's the concerning thing for police," he said. "Take responsibility and don't be complacent on our roads because you could be the next person — a police officer has to knock at your door and tell someone who loves you that you won't be coming home." Yesterday, another young man from the south-east was killed when the car he was driving hit a tree at Glenburnie, near Mount Gambier. The crash happened on Fairbanks Road, close to the local saleyards, about 5:45pm and the 23-year-old Mount Gambier man died at the scene. "At this point in time it seems that speed was a major factor in that collision," Superintendent Gray said. "Twenty-one per cent of people who have lost their lives [this year] have been exceeding the speed limit. Speed's been a factor." Late last night, a 56-year-old woman was killed when her car hit a tree at Onkaparinga Hills in Adelaide's south. Emergency services were called to the scene, at Upper Penny's Hill Road and Piggott Range Road, just after 11:10pm. A 78-year-old Belair woman died today after she was hit by a car on Main Road at Blackwood just after midday on Friday. The woman was taken to the Flinders Medical Centre in a critical condition but police said she had succumbed to her injuries. An 82-year-old Goolwa man remains in a critical condition after his car hit a tree just before 4:00pm on Sunday near Finniss on the Fleurieu Peninsula. "Enough people have lost their lives and been seriously injured," Superintendent Gray said. "Police are pleading with motorists and road users to please be responsible."
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Road Crash
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His 7yo daughter went missing after the 2011 tsunami. So Norio spent years digging through rubble to find her
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His 7yo daughter went missing after the 2011 tsunami. So Norio spent years digging through rubble to find her Long after rescue teams gave up searching for survivors from the March 2011 tsunami, farmer Norio Kimura continued to painstakingly dig for his seven-year-old daughter, Yuna. On this day 10 years ago he lost his father, wife and youngest daughter as a massive wave engulfed Japan's north-eastern Tohoku region and plunged it under water. But he still wonders "what if". "Local volunteer firemen came to search here on March 12, the day after the disaster," Mr Kimura tells me along the coast near to his home and where his father's body was found. "They heard voices — there's a strong chance that it was my father's and that means there's a possibility that he was still alive." In the days following the earthquake, three reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant melted down, making the area too dangerously radioactive to search in. His father's body was found roughly six weeks later. They found his wife's body three months later at sea. But his daughter Yuna — who was with Mr Kimura's father at the time — was nowhere to be found. "There used to be huge piles of rubble around here, I searched with volunteers for about three years but we couldn't find her," he said. "I continued to search thinking I would do this until I died and then I thought I must get an outcome for all of the volunteers who came to help. "The biggest purpose was to find Yuna — but I also felt I wanted to give back to the volunteers by making sure we found her." In 2016, five years after the disaster, he asked for help from the Environment Ministry — which brought in heavy machinery to clear some of the rubble. Mr Kimura spoke to the ABC's Mark Willacy at the time, and said he would never find peace until he knew what happened to his little girl. Within a month there was a breakthrough — they found Yuna's pink scarf and some of her remains in rubble near where his father was found. "I started to think after she was found that there was a possibility that she did not die from the tsunami," he said. "That she died [ultimately as a result] of the nuclear plant explosion [preventing search and rescue in this area]. "I felt angry when I thought that." Mr Kimura said Yuna was the only person in her school to die in the tsunami. But the meltdown made this area a no-go zone and few have come back. Mr Kimura believes his father picked up Yuna from the school and went back to their home before the tsunami hit. But he left Yuna's older sister at the school — and she survived the tsunami. He wants to know why. Sadly, he will never get an answer. Since then, what has continued to bring him solace is the abandoned school Yuna used to attend. These days the exterior is overrun with weeds — though Mr Kimura tries to mow it every now and then and has planted a flowerbed outside Yuna's classroom. To this day, the school is almost identical to how it looked 10 years ago just after the quake hit. The sun has warped the books but the chalk remains on the board and the kids' backpacks and musical instruments all remain. Mr Kimura feels his next mission is to preserve this building for himself and future generations — and so others can never forget what happened. "This is where I can feel Yuna was alive," he said from outside her classroom. "I want this place to be kept. It's the school closest to the plant and must be kept so people realise we're living in a world where nuclear disasters can happen — and ask if it's worth the risk." His hometown of Okuma is at a crossroads — some areas have had evacuation orders lifted and people have started to return, other parts remain desolate and overgrown. The places that have been abandoned are destined to become a storage site for contaminated dirt removed from other parts of the prefecture. More than 10 million cubic metres of contaminated dirt will be placed into interim storage before eventually being moved out of the prefecture in the 2040s. We visit one of the nearby interim storage facilities — it's a bustling hive of heavy machinery. Takahiro Hasegawa from Japan's Environment Ministry said he understood the frustration and distrust of residents very well, noting that he had been working on this issue for the last 10 years. "We've signed contracts with 90 per cent of the residents in this area [to purchase their properties] and we are dismantling the buildings one by one," he said. "The houses left will be dismantled." But Mr Kimura can't bear the idea that the area where Yuna might rest could eventually be covered in concrete and turned into soil storage. No decision has yet been made on what will happen to Yuna's school or what's most likely her final resting place. Officials are well aware of the sensitivities surrounding Mr Kimura's story and are being as accommodating as possible. For now, he just wants to continue sharing his story as widely as possible. It's been a long road to recovery for Fukushima. But the government hopes the area will become a symbol of national revival ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It's encouraging residents to return with financial aid as it decontaminates land. However, lingering worries about the nearby nuclear plant, lack of jobs and poor infrastructure are keeping many away. Almost 12,000 people used to live in Mr Kimura's hometown of Okuma. Now, it's closer to 3,000 despite evacuation orders being lifted in several parts of the town. And very few young people are returning. With another 30-40 years until the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant is decommissioned, the region continues to face significant challenges. But the unrelenting resilience of this region — and people like Mr Kimura — seems unstoppable.
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Tsunamis
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Canada's Damian Warner wins gold in decathlon, sets Olympic record
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The 31-year-old from London, Ont., smashed the Canadian and Olympic record and became the fourth man in history to break the elusive 9,000-point barrier at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
Warner capped off the gruelling 10-discipline event with a fifth-place finish in the 1,500 metres - an event he jokingly said he loathes - to finish with 9,018 points, bettering the previous Olympic record of 8,893 points, shared between Ashton Eaton of the United States (2016) and Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic (2004).
World record-holder Kevin Mayer of France won silver with 8,726 points while Australian Ashley Moloney took bronze with 8,649. Pierce LePage of Whitby, Ont., who'd been flirting with bronze through the first eight events, finished fifth with 8,604.
The gold was a long time coming for Warner, who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and silver at the 2015 world championships.
"I remember sitting on the ground after and being disappointed," Warner said. "I just had the bronze medal but I was like, 'This is not what I wanted.' I wasn't proud to be an Olympic bronze medalist. We worked really hard since then to get to this point. I knew that when I went out there, I was like, I'm just going to give it my all and I'm going to finish strong."
The camaraderie in the event was evident when Warner staggered across the 1,500 finish line and was wrapped in hugs by Mayer and Moloney. Warner posed for photos, wearing the Canadian flag like Superman's cape. He went up into the crowd to hug a teary-eyed coach Gar Leyshon.
Warner was excellent from start to finish. He tied his decathlon world mark in the 100 metres, and then set Olympic decathlon records in the long jump and 110-metre hurdles. He cleared a personal best 4.90 metres in the pole vault on Thursday afternoon.
The track and field community considers the Olympic decathlon winner the "world's greatest athlete."
Canadian Dave Steen won bronze at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, then Warner captured bronze in 2016 in Rio.
Just 14 hours after racing to gold in the men's 200 final, Andre De Grasse, meanwhile, ran a sizzling anchor leg to put Canada's 4x100 relay into Friday's final.
Jamaica had the fastest time on the morning with 37.82, while China ran 37.92 for second place over Canada in a decision that was determined by thousandths of a second in a photo finish.
Aaron Brown, who was sixth in Wednesday's 200 metres, ran the lead-off leg, followed by Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney. Racing for the seventh time of these Games, De Grasse took the baton from Rodney in about fifth place, before churning down the home stretch to cross the line alongside China.
Warner is also a world silver medallist, and he said watching Canada's Andre De Grasse win gold in the 200 metres on Wednesday night was inspiring. Like Warner, De Grasse had won numerous silver and bronze on the world stage before earning his gold.
Warner is coming off an extraordinary winter that saw him train in an empty, unheated hockey arena that his coaches converted to a multi-events facility after COVID-19 shut down the University of Western Ontario fieldhouse. He and his coaches built a long jump pit, brought in a pole jump pit, built a throwing circle and laid down a 40-metre section of track.
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Break historical records
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Winners of 2021 Kerala State Film Awards declared, find full list here
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‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ won the Best Film award, with its writer-director Jeo Baby being crowned Best Screenwriter. Jayasurya and Anna Ben won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. (From left) Stills from Vellam, Kappela and The Great Indian Kitchen. KOCHI: The results of the 51st Kerala State Film Awards were declared on Saturday afternoon, October 16, 2021, honouring the best of Kerala’s cinema and artistes from the year 2020. The jury of this prestigious awards committee was chaired by actress and director Suhasini Maniratnam, a Tamil Nadu State Film Awardee. Other jury members of this year's Kerala Film Awards include South Indian filmmakers Bhadran, P Sheshadri, musician Mohan Sithara, cinematographer C K Muraleedharan, sound designer M Harikumar, and critic and screenwriter N Sasidharan. The results were declared by the minister of Kerala Film Development Corporation, Saji Cheriyan, along with the Chalachitra Academy in an event hosted in Thiruvananthapuram. ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ won the award for Best Film, with its writer-director Jeo Baby being crowned Best Screenwriter. The Best Actor award went to Jayasurya for his performance in ‘Vellam’, and the Best Actress award was given to Anna Ben for her work in ‘Kappela’. Sidhartha Siva won Best Director. Sachy directorial ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ won best popular film. The director of ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, Jeo Baby, said he was extremely happy and would like to dedicate the award to all the women in this society. "While making the film, we really want to send it to film festivals. The reason is that we were sure that it is a topic that needs to be discussed. Beyond our expectations, the film was well-received by the audience all over when it was released online," said Jeo. However, Jeo did not hesitate to convey his disappointment in Nimisha Sajayan not getting the Best Actress award for the film. "I really expected that Nimisha will get an award for the movie as she has enacted her character to utmost perfection," he added. This year, the Kerala State Film Awards selected its winners from a pool of over 80 films. The full list of winners is as follows:
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Awards ceremony
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Nailsea school closed by flooding to reopen by end of month
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Pupils at Ravenswood in Nailsea, Somerset, were sent home a day after the term started when the deluge poured into classrooms and damaged the electrics. Another downpour days later causing further damage. The council said pupils, who have unique and complex needs, should be able to return on September 29. Councillor Catherine Gibbons, executive member for children’s services at North Somerset Council, promised a review and said the authority would learn lessons from the incident, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. She told a full council meeting on Wednesday: “I can’t thank the school enough for the way that they responded, the way they managed to get the children out and set up remote learning again for those who could do it. “These are children with anxieties, for whom change is difficult to deal with, and therefore having prepared your child to go back to school, having talked them through what’s going to happen and then suddenly find that the school is closed and they’re going to be doing other things was very challenging.” The flooding was caused by damage to a temporary roof covering in place as part of work, which started in the summer and was due to end in October, to upgrade the main school structure. Powered by Contextual Related Posts Headteacher Mark Senior described the damage as “catastrophic”. It affected the primary classrooms, post-16 buildings, sensory room, discovery room and creative arts department. Councillor Gibbons told the council meeting: “Parents have asked how the children will be supported to catch up lost learning. “The team has advised to focus for now on their wellbeing and make sure that when they go back to school they feel safe and comfortable, and look at the academic side of catching up once they feel that that’s okay.”
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Organization Closed
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OC reports lowest COVID hospitalizations since the end of July
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SANTA ANA (CNS) — Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped again while 13 more deaths were recorded, according to figures released Friday by the Orange County Health Care Agency. The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals dropped from 313 Thursday to 308 Friday, with the number of patients in intensive care declining from 87 to 76, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The last time hospitalization rates were this low was the end of July. The county has 22.6% of its ICU beds available and 66% of its ventilators. The 13 latest deaths recorded consisted of 12 in August and one in December. There have been 5,384 coronavirus deaths in Orange County since the start of the pandemic, including 39 this month. The death toll for August stands at 148. That marks a stark contract with the rest of the summer. The death toll for July was 22, with 19 in June, 23 in May, 46 in April, 199 in March, 615 in February, 1,580 in January -- the deadliest month of the pandemic -- and 976 in December, the next deadliest. Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, deputy county health officer, said 94% of the people who died in August were unvaccinated. "And none of the 94% were even partially vaccinated," Chinsio-Kwong said. Without vaccines the death toll from this summer's surge, which was fueled by the more contagious Delta variant, would have been higher, Chinsio- Kwong said. "We could have been losing more people to Delta if we didn't have the vaccination rates we have," she said. Chinsio-Kwong noted that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed the death toll from the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic which occurred when the U.S. population was about 106 million, slightly less than one-third of the 2020 figure of 331 million. "In this day and age we expect with all the advances in technology and in medicine that we wouldn't have such a devastating pandemic with such a devastating amount of people who have died," Chinsio-Kwong said. "Unfortunately, a lot of that was people who didn't believe in the pandemic or had fears and were hesitant to get vaccinated... This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated." Eight of the people who died from COVID-19 last month who were vaccinated and at least 65 years old, Chinsio-Kwong said. Seven were older than 75 and one who was between 65 and 74 was in a skilled nursing facility, she added. "It tells a harrowing story and it should encourage anyone to get vaccinated," Chinsio-Kwong said. All Orange County residents who died from COVID-19 in September were not fully vaccinated, Chinsio-Kwong said. One had received one of two doses of Moderna vaccine and the others did not receive any doses, she added. The OCHCA also reported 356 new infections Friday, raising the cumulative total to 295,227. Since the start of the pandemic, 9,626 homeless people have tested positive for the virus in the county, and 255 have died, according to the county. About 3,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered Tuesday for the newly eligible ages of 5 to 11. Nearly 1 million children 5 to 11 will have received their first COVID-19 vaccination shot by the end of Wednesday, the Biden administration said. Inspectors found that between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5 that 93% of bars, 94% of nightclubs and 100% of lounges were in compliance with vaccination rules. The case rate per 100,000 residents increased from 7.2 last week to 7.3 Tuesday. The government has committed to buying an additional 1.4 million courses of Merck’s COVID-19 pill if it’s granted emergency authorization by the FDA.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Venezuelan general strike of 2002–03
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The Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, also known as the oil strike or oil lockout, was an attempt by the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chávez to force a new presidential election. It took place from December 2002 to February 2003, when it faded. The government fired over 18,000 PDVSA employees for "dereliction of duty" during the strike[1] and arrest warrants were issued for the presidents of the striking organizations. The main impact of the strike derived from the stoppage of the oil industry, in particular the state-run PDVSA, which provides a majority of Venezuelan export revenue. The strike was preceded by the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt in April 2002, and a one-day strike in October 2002. After April's coup d'état attempt, conflict simmered throughout the rest of 2002. On 14 August the Supreme Tribunal of Justice absolved four military officers involved in the April coup. This set the scene for further actions by the military. [2][3]
On 21 October a one-day general strike (paro) took place (two general strikes had taken place in December 2001 and in April 2002[4]), aimed at forcing the resignation of Chávez or at least the calling of new elections. [5] On 22 October 14 military officers who had been suspended for participating in the coup, led by General Enrique Medina Gómez, occupied Plaza Francia in Altamira, an Eastern Caracas neighbourhood, and declared it a "liberated territory". [6] They said they would not leave until Chávez had resigned, and called on their colleagues in the military to rise against the government. [7]
In early November, there was a major clash of government and opposition demonstrators in downtown Caracas; and, in the middle of the month, a shootout which resulted in three deaths occurred in Caracas' Plaza Bolivar between the Metropolitan Police and the National Guard. [8]
The Coordinadora Democrática, led by the business federation Fedecámaras and the trade union federation Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV), called for a fourth paro cívico, which turned out to be the most serious, and is known as the 2002–2003 oil strike, to begin on 2 December 2002. The opposition also called a recall-referendum-petition-signature-gathering day for 4 December. [9] Initially the strike had a mixed response, with affluent eastern Caracas seeing most shops closed, while downtown and western Caracas was busy; many business owners either supported Chávez or put their business above politics. Early attempts to block a crucial navigation channel in Lake Maracaibo, in order to paralyse the oil industry, were foiled by the navy. The National Electoral Council voted to hold a non-binding recall referendum on 2 February, but the Coordinadora Democrática chose to ignore it. [10] On 4 December the captain of a large oil tanker named for the beauty queen Pilín León anchored in the Lake Maracaibo shipping channel and refused to move. The rest of PDVSA 13-ship fleet was quickly similarly grounded. Combined with the PDVSA management walkout, this effectively paralysed the Venezuelan oil industry. [11]
The key element of the paro was the stoppage of production at the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which was effected by management's locking workers out of facilities, along with the shipping shutdown. Many low and mid-level employees ignored the strike and reported for work. [12] Unlike the previous strikes, this oil strike included not only the PDVSA management but also substantial parts of its operational staff, including virtually all of its marine flotilla captains. Within days the company was paralyzed. Petroleum production soon fell to one-third normal; Venezuela had to begin importing oil to meet its foreign obligations; and domestically, gasoline for cars became virtually unobtainable, with many filling stations closed and long queues at others. [13] Many privately owned businesses closed or went on short time, some out of sympathy for the strike, others because of the fuel shortage and economic paralysis. As long waits for gasoline became common, airlines cancelled many domestic flights, banks limited their opening hours, and many shops were shut despite it being peak Christmas shopping season. The Coordinadora adopted the slogan "2002 without Christmas, 2003 without Chávez". [14]
The private television networks gave enormous coverage to the near-daily protest rallies and strike activities, as well as daily updates by the Coordinadora Democrática. They also "canceled regular advertisements and ran pro-strike, anti-Chávez spots around the clock." Venevisión's president openly declared solidarity with the strike. [14][15] A media war between the private networks and the state-run Venezolana de Televisión resulted, with for example the private networks declaring all universities and schools closed, while on VTV the Minister for Education declared them open. [16]
Large pro- and anti-Chávez marches were held in the first weeks of the strike. On 6 December a Portuguese taxi driver named João de Gouveia killed three and injured 28 at Plaza Altamira. The opposition blamed Chávez, and the killings "energized and radicalized the opposition movement". [14] On 9 December the opposition declared the strike to be of indefinite duration, and said that only Chávez's resignation could end it. [14]
As shortages of gasoline and later basic foods took hold, the government responded by developing an informal emergency import network with the support of other governments in the region. [17] Chávez also took an increasingly hard line with PDVSA in an attempt to break the strike. On 12 December he fired four PDVSA executives leading the strike; he had previously fired them and others in April before the coup, but reinstated them after the coup. He continued to dismiss striking executives and managers on a daily basis; 300 were gone by early January. [18] Attempts to use the navy to take over the key Pilín León tanker were initially thwarted by a lack of a qualified crew. On 19 December a team of retired seamen took command, and worked for two days to restart the ship, eventually successfully returning it to port. The departing crew "had sabotaged the ship, leaving behind hard-to-notice traps in the computer system and elsewhere that could set off an explosion. "[19] Gradually, the government restarted oil production by promoting lower-level employees, typically loyal to Chávez or at least opposed to using the company with political purposes. The company was also split into eastern and western parts, with the eastern Caracas headquarters, where striking executives and managers were concentrated, being heavily reduced. [20] Efforts to restart production were hampered by sabotage, which included changing electronic safety limits and the use of remote computers to interfere with reactivation attempts. [21]
By New Year, the strike was beginning to unravel, despite the still increasing scarcity of consumer goods. More and more small and medium businesses re-opened; many small businesses had never closed in the first place. [22] "small- and medium-sized businesses reopened their doors, admitting that the strike now threatened to turn into a 'suicide watch' that could well bankrupt their businesses for good. "[23] The Coordinadora attempted to promote a tax boycott (which the television networks supported); the government pointed out that tax evasion was a crime.
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Strike
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Tokyo Olympics: India’s 4x400m relay team breaks Asian record but fails to qualify for final
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India’s digital transactions have skyrocketed 19 times in the last seven years: Prime Minister Modi The quartets of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Tom Noah Nirmal, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob ran for 3 minutes and 25 seconds, finishing 4th in the second heat. India missed the final of eight teams. Because they finished in 9th place overall.
Well done boy ✌??? # New Asian record by Ind4x400m relay team at Tokyo2020 3: 00.25 #OlympicGames Missedqua… https: //t.co/P8CnEEg6kk
— Indian Athletics Federation (@afiindia) 1628250512000
The first three of each of the two heats and the next two fastest will be in the finals.
4x400m Men’s Relay Team Split Timing # Ind3: 00.25 (Asia Record) Anas-45.6s Noah Nirmal Tom-45.0s Arokia Raj… https: //t.co/RrCfzG01po
— Indian Athletics Federation (@afiindia) 1628252237000
The early Asian record was the name of Qatar, who recorded 3: 00.56 while winning the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games. Tokyo Olympics: India’s 4x400m relay team breaks Asian record but fails to qualify for final
Source link Tokyo Olympics: India’s 4x400m relay team breaks Asian record but fails to qualify for final
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Break historical records
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Bill Clinton says he is ‘glad to be home’ after hospital admission
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Former US president releases video thanking staff at California hospital where he was treated for infection Bill Clinton has released a video saying he is on the road to recovery after being hospitalised in southern California for six days to treat an infection unrelated to Covid-19. Clinton, 75, who arrived home in New York on Sunday , said he was glad to be back and that he was “so touched by the outpouring of support” he had received while in hospital last week. An aide to the former US president said he had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream but was on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition. Clinton thanked the doctors and nurses at the University of California , Irvine medical center. Clinton has faced health scares in the years since he left the White House in 2001. In 2004, he had quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. He returned to hospital for surgery for a partially collapsed lung in 2005, and in 2010 he had a pair of stents fitted in a coronary artery. He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that resulted in him losing weight and reporting improved health.
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Famous Person - Recovered
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1949 MacRobertson Miller Aviation DC-3 crash
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On 2 July 1949 a Douglas DC-3 aircraft departed from Perth, Western Australia for a night flight of 441 nautical miles (817 km) to Carnarvon. The aircraft climbed to a height of about 500 feet (150 m) and then spiralled almost vertically to the ground, killing all 18 people on board. It crashed about a mile north of Perth airport and burned for over an hour. At the time, it was the worst civil aviation accident in Western Australia. [Note 1][2][3][4]
The aircraft was the airliner Fitzroy, registered VH-MME and operated by MacRobertson Miller Aviation. [Note 2][3][7] On 2 July 1949 it was about to conduct the regular passenger service from Perth to Darwin, Northern Territory which departed about 2 am to allow passengers to connect with the twice-weekly Sydney-London flight operated by Qantas. [8] The first stop was to be Carnarvon in Western Australia. [Note 3] On board were three pilots, an air hostess and 14 passengers. [Note 4] The aircraft took off at 2:14 am in driving rain. [10] Visibility was about 10 miles (16 km). [11]
The aircraft climbed unusually quickly after it left the runway. It was observed to climb to a height of about 500 feet (150 m) and then roll and spiral vertically to the ground. [8][12][13]
The aircraft crashed in a clear area between huts at the South Guildford housing camp, a former Army camp where 70 huts were being used to house civilians. [Note 5][15][16][17] As a result of the aircraft diving vertically to the ground, the wreckage was mostly confined within an area that was no larger than 60 feet (18 m) square. [Note 6] The aircraft narrowly missed the surrounding huts with wreckage coming to within 12 feet (4 m) of one hut, and within 5 paces of the front verandah of another. One propeller was found about 210 feet (64 m) from the wreckage. [1][2][3]
An intense fire erupted inside the fuselage. The first fire-fighting equipment to reach the site was the fire tender from the airport, crewed by one fireman only. The fireman[Note 7] laid a foam blanket around the burning wreckage and sprayed foam on the fire. [13] He used all the foam without extinguishing the flames. Two other fire tenders from neighbouring areas arrived to assist. It was 90 minutes before the fire was extinguished. [3][18][19]
After sunrise, police, firemen and undertakers worked for an hour to remove the bodies of the 18 people killed in the accident. All the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Several of the bodies were still sitting in an upright position. The bodies of the 3 pilots in the cockpit were half-buried under a mass of charred newspaper. The aircraft was carrying the Perth daily newspaper to towns in the north-west of the state. [10] Police and two officers from the Department of Civil Aviation sifted through the wreckage in the rain, searching for items to help identify the victims and for clues as to the likely cause of the tragedy. [Note 8][16]
The Department of Civil Aviation immediately appointed a panel of two to investigate the accident. [Note 9][20] Examination of the wreckage showed that the flaps and undercarriage were retracted and both engines had been producing high power at the time of the crash. All trim tabs were in typical positions for takeoff and all control cable runs were intact. Nothing was found in the wreckage to indicate any prior defect or failure that might have caused the aircraft to crash or the pilot to lose control. The setting of the automatic pilot could not be determined due to destruction of the forward fuselage. [23] The investigation initially focussed on possible failure to remove one of the flight control chocks, defective flight instruments, misuse of the wing flaps, structural failure of the tailplane, defective elevator control system, misuse of the automatic pilot, and incorrect loading. [24]
Control chocks for the left aileron, one elevator and the rudder were found correctly stowed in the remains of the aircraft's rear fuselage compartment. Searchers were unable to find the chock for the other elevator or the right aileron, either at the crash site or on the ground between the runway and the crash site. On the morning after the accident an MMA apprentice found the missing elevator chock on the tarmac close to where VH-MME was positioned for an engine test run the previous afternoon. [23] The investigators carried out a flight test on a DC-3 to determine what effect, if any, was caused by installing an aileron chock on the elevator. They found there was no effect and the presence of the chock did not prevent the pilot having full control of the elevator. [21]
Staff of the Department of Civil Aviation calculated the most likely position of the centre of gravity on the fatal flight and found it was about 3.3% of Mean Aerodynamic Chord behind the rear limit. [Note 10] They carried out some flight tests in a DC-3 with its centre of gravity 4.7% of MAC behind the rear limit and found there was a loss of longitudinal static stability that made it difficult to trim the aircraft for a constant airspeed but the low-speed flight handling qualities had not deteriorated seriously. They concluded that the incorrect position of the centre of gravity did not adequately explain the accident and there must have been some other cause, possibly highly unusual. [24] The investigation ended without determining the cause. [25][26]
In August 1949 the City Coroner, R. P. Rodriguez, conducted an inquest into the deaths of the 18 people on board the aircraft. [12]
A dispatch officer with MacRobertson Miller Aviation[Note 11] observed the aircraft take off normally, then climb to an almost vertical position, roll over and dive vertically towards the ground, twisting as it did so. [12] Written evidence from the aerodrome control officer[Note 12] on duty in the control tower stated that he observed the aircraft turn through 180 degrees as though in a spiral turn or spin. [12]
Some witnesses who lived at the South Guildford housing camp believed one of the aircraft's engines had failed by the time of the crash. The City Coroner was satisfied both engines were operating normally during the takeoff and up until the time of the impact. [11][12]
A medical officer[Note 13] conducted post-mortem examinations of the bodies. He confirmed there was no indication of alcohol in the bodies of any of the pilots.
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Air crash
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Cayce, South Carolina train collision
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On February 4, 2018, the southbound Amtrak Silver Star No. 91 passenger train from New York City to Miami collided with a stationary CSX Transportation freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, just south of the state's capital of Columbia on CSX's Columbia Subdivision. Two Amtrak crew members were killed and 116 other crew and passengers were injured. [1][2]
The collision happened at around 2:35 a.m. in Cayce, about 4 miles southwest of Columbia. An Amtrak Silver Star passenger train with 139 passengers and 8 crew on board was traveling south from New York to Miami when it collided with CSX train Q210-03 (Cayce, SC-Smyrna, TN), an empty Autorack train. The Silver Star was hauled by GE P42DC locomotive No. 47, while Q210-03 was headed by two GE AC4400CWs, Nos. 130 and 36. [3] As a result of the collision, the lead engine and "several cars" of the Amtrak train derailed, killing 2 crew members and injuring 116 of the 147 people on board. The lead locomotive of the CSX train was severely damaged, and has since been scrapped. Injured passengers were taken to several local hospitals, but none had life-threatening injuries, according to a Lexington County spokesman. [2] There were at least two fuel leaks from the trains, with an estimated 5,000 US gallons (19,000 L) of fuel spilled before a hazardous materials team was able to contain the area. [1]
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Railroad Administration, and CSX Transportation began investigations shortly after the accident. [1][2]
On July 23, 2019, NTSB publicly announced that Amtrak's and CSX Transportation's failure to properly assess and mitigate the risk of conducting switching operations during a signal suspension, coupled with a CSX conductor's error, led to the collision of the Amtrak train with the CSX train. [4] Amtrak locomotive No. 47 was severely damaged and was deemed a total loss, and CSX locomotive No. 130's cab and front area was completely destroyed. No. 36 suffered minor damage and is expected to be put back into service. Both No. 130 and No. 36 were towed to the nearest CSX shop, where No. 130 was cut up and scrapped. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that his thoughts and condolences were with the victims of the accident. He thanked those involved in the rescue effort. [5]
According to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, it appeared that the CSX train was stationary and on the correct track, while the Amtrak train was on the wrong track. [1] ABC News reported that a switch was incorrectly lined and locked for a siding track instead of the main track for which Amtrak had the authority to occupy. [6] Amtrak chairman Richard Anderson said that the signaling system in the area was not working due to a signal suspension (for signal maintenance purposes) and that trains were being dispatched manually by CSX dispatchers. [5] He later told press that CSX was responsible for the wreck because a switch was lined and locked off the mainline towards the siding. [7]
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Train collisions
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