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2009 Alaska floods
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The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009. The floods were a result of heavier-than-normal winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall. The resulting high water levels were magnified in places by the development of ice dams which caused catastrophic flooding. The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle, Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm. The winter of 2008–2009 brought unusually heavy snowfall to much of Alaska. Kotzebue, on the Bering Sea coast, received a record 102 inches of snowfall—more than double the average of about 40 inches. [1] In other locations, winter snowfall did not set records but still was heavier than average. Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest city, received 71.5 inches of snow and experienced unusually cold temperatures for the first three months of the year, preventing early melting of the snowpack. [2][3] Snow also fell heavily in Lake Minchumina and the Alaska Range. [4][5] At Eagle, the ice on the Yukon River was 55 inches thick—over 40 percent greater than normal. [6]
By mid-April, concerns were raised that the heavy snowpack would pose a problem if it melted quickly. "There's plenty of snowpack out there to cause problems this year," warned a National Weather Service meteorologist at the time. [6]
In Fairbanks and most of Interior Alaska, temperatures remained below freezing for most of April and temperatures did not hit 50 degrees until April 26. [7] After that date, temperatures rose rapidly. By April 28, the snowpack at Fairbanks International Airport had melted, leaving only snow berms and piles. [7] The next day, Fairbanks recorded a record high temperature of 74 degrees. On April 30, Fairbanks set an all-time high temperature for the month of April when the thermometer reached 76 degrees. Record high temperatures also were recorded at Eagle, Delta Junction, and other towns in central Alaska. [8] In less than one week, central Alaska residents went from skiing to swatting mosquitoes. [9] The warmup was so rapid that on May 1, the Alaska Division of Forestry issued its first wildfire alert of the year. [10] By that date, however, rivers across central Alaska were already flooding. [11]
The Tanana River valley was the first area of Alaska to experience spring flooding. On April 28, the ice on the Salcha River broke up, flowed into the Tanana River, and formed an ice jam. The jam partially dammed the river, flooding low-lying areas of the town of Salcha. [11] High temperatures during the following couple of days added to the ice jam, and several families were forced from their homes by the rising water. Fairbanks North Star Borough officials set up a self-serve sand bag station at the Salcha Fairgrounds, and residents near the river erected impromptu levees. [12] The Salcha ice jam broke loose on April 30, causing flood levels to decline dramatically. Record-high temperatures that day caused jams to form on other rivers in the area, however. [13]
On the Chatanika River, a jam caused a flood that threatened several homes before the ice broke loose and dropped water levels to near normal. [13] By May 1, almost the entire Fairbanks North Star Borough was directly threatened by some sort of flooding. In Fox, small-stream flooding caused a house to be evacuated. Flooding was reported in North Pole and in rural areas of the borough. [14] On May 2, high water on the Chena River swept through Fairbanks, causing flooding in low-lying areas. [15] The high water caused the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider closing the floodgates at the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project, a structure built to protect Fairbanks from flooding. [16] The high water registered just below the threshold to close the gates, however, and they remained open throughout the flood. By May 5, the water receded in Fairbanks and the surrounding area as the Tanana River drained floodwater into the Yukon. [17] The draining high water ripped a barge away from its moorings in the Tanana River near Nenana, causing it to float down the Yukon River until it was arrested by a helicopter. [18]
On May 6, multiple ice jams formed on the Kuskokwim River near the villages of Upper and Lower Kalskag. These jams caused the snowmelt-bolstered river to flood areas around both villages, forcing residents to take action. [19] After the jams broke and flowed downriver, they re-formed near Akiak. The resulting flood caused the evacuation of more than 10 percent of the town's residents to nearby Bethel, while many of the remaining residents sought shelter in the local school. [20]
On May 3, an ice jam formed on the Susitna River, causing flooding that washed out the tracks of the Alaska Railroad. Large chunks of ice also were pushed onto the tracks, making work difficult for crews assigned to repair the rail line. [21] The incident severed rail traffic between Fairbanks and Anchorage until May 7, when track repairs were completed and the railroad resumed service. [22]
On May 3 and May 4, ice on the Yukon River near the Alaska/Canada border began to break up. Open water was seen near the town of Eagle, which is just west of the border. On May 4, a large ice jam developed about 10 miles downriver of Eagle. [23] The high-flowing Yukon, fueled by snowmelt from the high temperatures of the previous week, soon flooded the town. Large chunks of ice were carried over the town's riverbank retaining wall and smashed into stores and buildings. The Alaska Native settlement of Eagle Village was severely flooded and virtually destroyed by marauding blocks of ice.
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Floods
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Martinair Flight 495 crash
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Martinair Flight 495 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operated by Dutch airline Martinair, that crash-landed in severe weather conditions at Faro Airport, Portugal on 21 December 1992. The aircraft carried 13 crew members and 327 passengers, mainly holidaymakers from the Netherlands. 54 passengers and 2 crew members died. [1] 106 of the other occupants were badly injured. The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF, registered PH-MBN, which was built in 1975 carrying the serial number 46924. [2] The aircraft was named Anthony Ruys in honor of one of Martinair's former commissioners. [3] It was delivered to Martinair on 26 November 1975. However, Martinair leased it out to three Asian airlines from October 1979 to September 1981. From then on until the accident, only disrupted by a short lease to World Airways in early 1992, it was solely operated by Martinair again, although it had been sold earlier that year to the Royal Netherlands Air Force for a planned conversion into a KDC-10. [4]
The captain was 56-year-old H. Willem van Staveren, who had been with Martinair since January 1968. He was a DC-10 flight instructor and had a total of 14,441 flight hours. The first officer was 31-year-old Ronald J. H. Clemenkowff. He had been with Martinair for three years and had 2,288 flight hours, with 1,787 of them on the DC-10. The flight engineer was 29-year-old Gary W. Glans, who had been with Martinair for only eight months. However, he had worked for Canadian Airlines and Swissair. Glans had a total of 7,540 flight hours, including 1,700 hours on the DC-10. On the morning of the accident, the plane was delayed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol because of a faulty thrust-reverser. This was not fixed. Nevertheless, the plane took off to Faro at 7:30 am. According to Martinair, the faulty thrust-reverser was not a contributing factor in the accident. A large thunderstorm lay in the immediate vicinity of Faro airport, accompanied by heavy rain, windshear and low cloud. The control tower informed the crew of the thunderstorm activity, in addition to stating that there was water on the runway. Following one unsuccessful landing attempt the crew attempted a VOR/DME procedure approach to runway 11 (now runway 10) during which the aircraft flew through at least two microbursts. According to the Portuguese final accident report, firefighters saw an explosion coming from the aircraft 22 seconds before it crashed. The aircraft landed with a vertical speed exceeding the manufacturer's design limits. Following this hard landing, the starboard main gear collapsed. The starboard wing fuel tank ruptured and the contents ignited. The DC-10 fuselage split in two, coming to rest with the front section lying on its side. There are different opinions about the causes of the air disaster. According to the Portuguese aviation authorities (DGAC), the causes of the air disaster were likely to have been:[1]
The DGAC describes as additional factors:
The Dutch Office for the Investigation of Accidents and Incidents of the National Aviation Authority (RLD) indicated that the probable cause should be as follows:[1]
According to the RLD, additional factors were:
On 14 February 2011, the Algemeen Dagblad reported among other things about a new investigation, which was carried out by researcher Harry Horlings at the request of relatives. [5] According to Horlings, there was no wind shear at the Faro disaster and the pilots had made serious mistakes. [6] According to Horlings, the data from the black box was incomplete in the Dutch report from 1993; the last seconds were missing. [7][8] In the cover letter to the report of the American Aviation Service, in which the data from the black box were presented, it was indicated that the autopilot had been used incorrectly. The report also recommended improving the training of pilots. [9]
The Dutch Safety Board stated that it was unable to respond because the Council had not been able to view and assess the report from researcher Horlings. Attorney Jan Willem Koeleman, who assisted some of the surviving relatives, announced that he would request Martinair to recognize liability and pay additional compensation. [6] On 8 December 2012, Koeleman reported Martinair and the Dutch state to complain before the 21st of that month. After that date the case would be barred. [10]
The case against Martinair, which had meanwhile become part of KLM, finally served on 13 January 2014 in Amsterdam. [11] On February 26, 2014, the court rendered judgment, ruling that additional damages were not necessary. [12]
The case against the State of the Netherlands served on 20 January 2014 in The Hague. [11] On the same day on which the District Court ruled in Amsterdam, 26 February 2014, a decision was also made here by means of an interlocutory judgment. Unlike the court in Amsterdam, the court in The Hague deemed further investigation necessary and wished to hear experts. [12]
In January 2020, the District Court of the Hague ruled that the Dutch state was partly responsible for the accident. [13]
The air disaster at Faro happened a few months after the crash of El Al Flight 1862. Although the crash at Faro was deadlier, it received relatively little attention in the media. Survivors felt that too little was being listened to and their observations during the flight. They united as the "Anthony Ruys Foundation", named after the name of the aircraft. This foundation was dissolved in May 2011. [14]
On 16 January 2016, the EenVandaag program paid attention to the disaster.
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Air crash
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Adelaide Crows fined $50,000 for breaching AFL coronavirus protocols
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A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
The Adelaide Crows have been fined $50,000 for breaching the AFL's COVID-19 protocols after an investigation found five players and three staff were not wearing face masks properly on a commercial flight last weekend.
The AFL and the club investigated the incident after other passengers on the plane, travelling from Sydney to Adelaide, raised concerns.
The fine has been handed down ahead of the team's controversial home game against Collingwood, for which the latter club has been allowed to fly into South Australia despite the state's border restrictions with Victoria.
In a statement, the Adelaide Crows' CEO Tim Silvers apologised for the breach, saying the club had not lived up to its own standards or those of the community.
"We are well aware of our responsibilities and the need to adhere to guidance and protocols put in place by the AFL and health authorities," Mr Silvers said.
"We failed in this area and we would like to apologise to the other passengers on the plane.
"Our club accepts the AFL's penalty and from top to bottom owns this error in judgement."
Mr Silvers said the club had been "complacent" and the incident should serve as a reminder "to be vigilant in playing our part to try and limit the spread of COVID-19".
"It is a privilege to be playing games during these challenging times and we acknowledge the government requirement for people to wear face masks in airports and on all domestic commercial flights," he said.
The Crows' head of football, Adam Kelly, said being sanctioned was "really disappointing" but the club was "first and foremost" apologetic to other passengers on the plane, the AFL and the club's members.
Rules state all domestic passengers must wear masks at all times on planes and in airports unless eating and drinking.
Mr Kelly said the club had no reason to disregard protocols and admitted about eight people were involved — three staff members and five players.
He said the club would take the blame collectively, rather than punishing individuals.
"At the end of the day, we had about 55 people in that travelling party, all of which on that flight could've done something about it if they had seen anyone wearing the masks incorrectly … so we share the blame together," he said.
"I don't think our players believe they're above the rules. What they were was complacent, and at times during that flight they weren't wearing their masks correctly for what were not permissible reasons."
When asked if the players and staff had been asked to put their masks on, Mr Kelly said Virgin Australia representatives had later told the club there were "no issues or concerns raised by any flight attendants".
The incident comes a little over a year after the Crows were penalised for breaching an AFL requirement to train in pairs while in quarantine at a Barossa Valley resort.
Assistant coach Ben Hart was stood down for six weeks over the incident, while 16 players were handed one-match bans.
Two players from the Crows' cross-town rival, Port Adelaide, were also suspended from games after breaching the league's protocols by having visitors at home in August 2020.
Port Adelaide's Peter Ladhams was suspended for three matches and Dan Houston for two matches, while Crows player Billy Frampton, who lived with Ladhams, was cleared of any fault.
Port Adelaide was sanctioned $50,000 for the breach, with $25,000 suspended and the remaining $25,000 deducted from the team's 2021 soft cap — meaning the club had that much less to spend on salaries this year.
In its statement, the AFL said 100 per cent of the Crows' fine would come out of the team's soft cap.
See our full coverage of coronavirus
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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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Jill Biden rubs shoulders with royalty on British visit
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CARBIS BAY, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Jill Biden visited a school in Cornwall with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge on Friday, as senior members of Britain’s royal family joined world leaders for series of events around the G7 summit on Friday.
Queen Elizabeth, her son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and the heir's eldest son Prince William and wife Kate were all due to join the heads of the some of the world's richest nations, gathering for a three-day meeting in southwest England.
At a school visit in Cornwall, Biden, the wife of the U.S. president, and Kate, sat with children in a classroom as they learned about environmental issues, and then watched, chatting and laughing, as the children fed the class's rabbit outside.
"These kids are so smart," Biden said, as she admired their handwriting and they showed her a book about climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
The pair then spoke to a group of childhood experts.
U.S. first lady Jill Biden and Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, react during a visit to Connor Downs Academy, in Hayle, Cornwall, Britain, June 11, 2021. Aaron Chown/Pool via REUTERS
"I wanted to say a personal thank you and welcome to Dr. Biden, it's a huge honour," Kate said as she opened a discussion on early years education, one of the main focal points of her charity work.
Kate, who has three children with William, was also asked about her new niece, U.S.-based Prince Harry's daughter Lilibet who was born last week, and said she hopes to meet her soon. read more For Biden, the trip echoes similar school visits by former U.S. first ladies Melania Trump and Michele Obama on their trips to Britain, although they did not have a royal to accompany them.
The British royals are playing a prominent role at the G7, with Charles and William also hosting an event between business chiefs and the world leaders to discuss how the private sector can work with governments to tackle climate change. read more The queen, who will also take part in an event with Kate after the G7 reception, is also due to meet the Bidens for tea at Windsor Castle on Sunday after the summit has concluded.
“Joe and I are both looking forward to meeting the queen,” the first lady said on Thursday. “That’s an exciting part of the visit for us.”
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In a tin shed in the backstreets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, a barefoot 61-year old Jean-Luther Misoko Nzalayala, aka Socklo, hacks with a machete at a lump of wood that is starting to resemble the neck of a guitar.
Michael Fawcett, the right-hand man to Prince Charles for decades, has stepped down from his role running one of the British royal's main charities, weeks after a newspaper report that said he had offered honours in return for donations.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Aeroflot Flight 4 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 4 (Russian: Рейс 4 Аэрофлота Reys 4 Aeroflota) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Khabarovsk to Moscow with a stopover in Irkutsk that crashed on 15 August 1958, killing all 64 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft. It was the first fatal accident involving a Tupolev Tu-104. [1]
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104A equipped with two Mikulin AM-3M engines registered as CCCP-Л5442 to the Moscow Civil Aviation Directorate of Aeroflot, the national flag carrier. At the time of the accident the aircraft had endured 1041 flight hours and 401 pressurization cycles. [2]
The weather forecast received by the crew for the Khabarovsk-Irkutsk route stated that cumulonimbus and stratiform clouds were present between altitudes of 300–600 meters at Khabarovsk airport, and thunderstorms with rain were present in the Birobidzhan - Magdagachi area. Visibility ranged from 4 to 10 kilometers. The departure from Khabarovsk airport was delayed by 3 hours and 35 minutes, with the passengers and crew not boarding the aircraft until 21:45 local time (14:45 Moscow time). [3]
At 21:50 Flight 4 was instructed to maintain flight at an altitude of 9,000 m (30,000 ft). After flying 150 km (93 mi) en route, the flight encountered towering cumulus clouds with tops too high to safely fly above them. After receiving permission from the controller the crew avoided the clouds before changing altitude as directed by the air traffic controller. While at an altitude of 8,600 m (28,200 ft), the crew requested permission to increase altitude to avoid more cumulus clouds. The air traffic controller gave the flight permission to fly at 11,000 m (36,000 ft) until passing Arkhara where it was to decrease altitude to 9,000 m (30,000 ft). At 11,000 m (36,000 ft) the clouds were still present so the flight was given permission to climb to 12,000 m (39,000 ft). At 22:12 the flight reported passing an altitude of 11,600 m (38,100 ft) and that stars were visible. [3]
At 22:14 the captain reported reaching the altitude of 12,000 m (39,000 ft). The flight crew stated they saw intense cumulus clouds ahead and would return to Khabarovsk if they could not avoid the clouds. At 22:18 the controller contacted Flight 4 but an agitated voice only replied "one minute, one minute". The second attempt at communications at 22:19 was met with the same response, but Flight 4 did not respond to any later calls. Sometime between 22:20 and 22:25 the aircraft crashed into a dense forest 215 km (134 mi) northwest of Khabarovsk airport, impacting the ground at an angle of 60°, leaving a 450 m (1,480 ft) wide debris field. All 64 people on board were killed in the crash. [3]
Investigation showed that the aircraft remained intact until it crashed into the forest, ruling out a decompression. Two Tupolev Tu-16 bombers flying approximately 150–200 km (93–124 mi) north of the route of flight 4 between 11,000 and 12,000 m (36,000 and 39,000 ft) reported the presence of strong updrafts within cumulonimbus clouds. The weight of the Tu-104 at takeoff was 66 tons, which limited the maximum safe altitude for flight to be 11,700 m (38,400 ft) at standard engine power; altitudes of 12,000 m (39,000 ft) could only be safely achieved by the Tu-104 in calm weather. Weather conditions in the Birobidzhan - Arkhara - Magdagachi region were more complex than the description received by the crew described, with cumulonimbus clouds reaching altitudes of over 12,000 m (39,000 ft). In attempts to avoid the clouds the airliner increased altitude to levels unsafe for the aircraft at the current weight, and combined with the updrafts present in the clouds, the aircraft stalled, during which the engines flamed out and the landing gear was extended. The failure of the engines and disorientation of the crew, from accompanied failure of the artificial horizons, rendered recovery nearly impossible. [3]
Secondary causes of the accident were cited as follows:[3]
Later accidents demonstrated that when a Tu-104 flew in certain atmospheric conditions, both clear weather and near thunderstorms, the aircraft was prone to losing longitudinal stability, that could be followed by the landing gear dropping, engine failure, and artificial horizon failure. At the time, the issues with the Tu-104's low stall speed facilitated by weak mechanization of the wing and the other mechanical issues mentioned were not well known. [3]
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Air crash
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2002 United States airtanker crashes crash
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In 2002, two large airtankers – a Lockheed C-130 Hercules and a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer – crashed about a month apart while performing aerial firefighting operations. These crashes prompted a review of the maintenance and use of the entire U.S. large airtanker fleet. Ultimately, the whole fleet (33 aircraft in all) was grounded, dramatically reducing the resources available to fight major wildfires. Both aircraft were owned by Hawkins & Powers Aviation of Greybull, Wyoming and operated under contract to the United States Forest Service (USFS). The crashes occurred in one of the worst fire seasons in the last half century, one in which 73,000 fires burned 7.2 million acres (29,000 km2) of land. [1]
Lockheed C-130A Hercules registration N130HP, call sign Tanker 130, was flying against the Cannon Fire,[2] near Walker, California on June 17, 2002, when it experienced structural failure of the center wing section, causing both wings to fold upward and separate from the aircraft. The fuselage rolled and crashed inverted, killing the three crewmen on board. Unusually, the aircraft was being filmed during the retardant drop and at the moment the wings separated, providing valuable evidence for the subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Tanker 130 had departed the Minden, Nevada air attack base at 2:29 p.m. PDT loaded with 3,000 US gallons (11,000 L) of fire retardant for its sixth drop of the day with a pilot, copilot and flight engineer on board, and arrived at the fire at 2:45 p.m. The aircraft made an initial spotting pass over the drop zone, then flew back for the drop, which was to dispense half of the load of retardant. The drop run required the aircraft to make a perpendicular crossing of a ridgeline and then descend into a valley. A video of the accident shows the aircraft crossing the ridge and then pitching down to begin its drop of the retardant. Near the end of the drop, the nose of the aircraft began to pitch up to level attitude as the descent was arrested. The nose continued to pitch up past level attitude, and at the end of the drop, the right wing began to fold upwards, followed less than one second later by the left wing. Two debris fields were found, one 500 feet (150 m) in length and the other 720 feet (220 m) in length. A post-impact fire in the first debris field consumed major portions of the wing and engine components; there was no fire in the second debris field, which included the fuselage and empennage. [3]
The aircraft, previously United States Air Force (USAF) Serial Number 56-0538, was one of the original C-130A production series and had been built and delivered to the USAF in 1957. It was retired from military service in 1986. In May 1988, the aircraft was acquired from the General Services Administration by the USFS, which in August that year sold it and five other C-130s it had acquired to Hemet Valley Flying Service, for conversion to an airtanker. Hemet then sold the C-130 to Hawkins & Powers. [3] At the time of the crash, the aircraft had logged 21,863 flight hours. [3]
The NTSB investigated the crash and determined that the accident was caused by a structural failure that occurred at the wing-to-fuselage attach point, with the right wing failing just before the left. The investigation disclosed "evidence of fatigue cracks in the right wing's lower surface skin panel, with origins beneath the forward doubler. The origin points were determined to be in rivet holes which join the external doubler and the internal stringers to the lower skin panel. These cracks, which grew together to about a 12-inch (30 cm) length, were found to have propagated past the area where they would have been covered by the doubler and into the stringers beneath the doubler and across the lap joint between the middle skin panel and the forward skin panel. "[3][6]
The second crash occurred on July 18, 2002 near Estes Park, Colorado, also as a result of structural failure, in this case in the wing's spar adjacent to the left side of the fuselage. The aircraft, operating with the callsign Tanker 123, was loaded with 2,000 US gallons (7,600 L) of retardant. [7] At the time of the accident, it was in a left turn to line up for its eighth drop of the day on the Big Elk fire. [8] While still in the 15–20° left bank, witnesses on the ground and in another tanker observed the left wing separate from the aircraft and "fold upwards", followed almost immediately by the initiation of a fire. The aircraft continued to roll left, impacting the ground at a 45° nose down attitude, starting a large fire at the wreck site. Both crewmen were killed in the crash.
The aircraft, a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer registered N7620C, was built during World War II. It had been delivered in July 1945 to the United States Navy, which used it for coastal patrol duties. In 1952, it was transferred to the United States Coast Guard, which operated it until it was retired in 1956. The aircraft was removed from storage and converted to an airtanker in 1958, then was flown by several different companies, the last being Hawkins & Powers. At the time of the crash, the airframe had logged 8,346.3 flight hours. [6][9]
A detailed investigation by the NTSB showed that the wing's lower spar cap had extensive stress fatigue and had fractures through the lower spar cap, vertically up the spar web and into the upper spar cap. The lower wing skin also found signs of fatigue in the area adjacent to the cracked spar cap. [6][9] An examination of two other similar aircraft showed that the area of cracking was hidden from view by other fuselage structure. [9]
Concerns about the safety of older transport aircraft being used as airtankers had been ongoing, long before the 2002 crashes. In the early 1980s, concern about the age and safety issues of World War II and Korean War-era aircraft that were the predominant aircraft used as airtankers led the Forest Service to initiate a program to provide more modern, turbine-powered C-130As to contracting companies. However, this solution quickly became the problem. According to an NTSB advisory,
During a C-130A contract pre-award evaluation in 1991, the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of Aviation Services inspectors concluded that essential inspection and maintenance services critical to sustaining the airplane in an airworthy condition under normal operating conditions were not being accomplished with the C-130A. This prompted the DOI, in 1993, to prohibit the use of the C130A on DOI land. The FAA and the DOI subsequently developed an action plan to address many of the same inspection and maintenance issues seen in the most recent C-130A and P4Y accident investigations. Since that time the DOI has dropped its restrictions on the C-130A....[6]
On August 13, 1994, a 1957-built C-130A, registration N135FF with call sign Tanker 82, crashed near Pearblossom, California while fighting a fire in the San Gabriel Mountains. Eyewitnesses reported seeing an explosion followed by the separation of the right wing at the wing attach point. [12] Due to the extremely rugged terrain, the NTSB recovered only a small portion of the wreckage, and its preliminary conclusion that an explosion caused by a fuel leak led to the wing separation was based largely on eyewitness statements. [13] A subsequent independent investigation in 1997 led by Douglas Herlihy, a former NTSB investigator, reexamined the site and the wreckage, and found no evidence of an explosion, but rather found evidence of structural failure due to fatigue stress. [13][14] The NTSB subsequently reexamined its findings, and found evidence of fatigue cracking "consistent with overstress separation", and ultimately revised its findings.
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Air crash
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2003–2005 Africa locust infestation - Wikipedia
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2003–2005 Africa locust infestation
In 2004, West and North Africa experienced their largest infestation of desert locusts in more than 15 years. A number of countries in the fertile northern regions of Africa were affected.
The increase in Desert Locust breeding activity was noted in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Desert Locust Bulletins [1] in the autumn of 2003 when four unrelated outbreaks occurred simultaneously in Mauritania , Mali , Niger and Sudan . Shortly thereafter, unusually heavy rain fell for two days over a large area that extended from Dakar , Senegal to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco . Some areas in Western Sahara received more than 100 mm of rain whereas they normally receive about 1 mm of rain in a year. Consequently, ecological conditions remained favourable for at least six months and allowed several successive generations of Desert Locust breeding. In such circumstances, locusts increased very rapidly. By early 2004, the threat materialized as swarms of locusts started to form and move north into important agricultural areas in Morocco and Algeria , inflicting damage to crops. The collective fear, expressed by the FAO and news organizations covering the situation, was the potential destruction of a sizable portion of Africa's food supply if control operations could not be mounted quickly and successfully.
Satellite imagery of western Africa detailing the vegetation affected by locusts and drought in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
During the summer of 2004, large numbers of swarms from Northwest Africa invaded the Sahel in West Africa and quickly moved into crops. By then, the threat of a locust plague emerged, creating one of the most dangerous locust situations since 1989. As the year progressed, the swarms migrated over the continent causing devastation, and in November 2004 appeared in northern Egypt , Jordan and Israel for the first time in 50 years. One swarm in Morocco between Tarfaya and Tan-Tan was 230 km long, at least 150 m wide, and contained an estimated 69 billion locusts, which were being used as a food resource by 33 species of birds (Ullman 2006). Swarms also invaded Cape Verde , the Canary Islands , southern Portugal , and Crete . Lack of rain and cold temperatures in the winter breeding area of Northwest Africa slowed down the development of the locusts and allowed the locust control agencies to stop the cycle in early 2005.
National teams in some 20 countries treated nearly 130,000 square kilometres by air and ground. The costs of fighting this upsurge have been estimated by the FAO to have exceeded US$400 million and harvest losses were valued at up to US$2.5 billion which had disastrous effects on the food security situation in West Africa. However a combination of strict pest control measures and a good harvest allowed Africa to avoid a continent-wide food disaster. According to the FAO, while the overall food output for the affected Sahel region has declined, it is still within the range of five-year averages. Nevertheless, some countries lost significant portions of their crops to the locusts, particularly Mauritania , which lost as much as half of its harvest. [2]
The outbreak inspired several works of literature. In March 2007, Andersen Press published Sophie and the Locust Curse, a novel by British children's author Stephen Davies about the devastating impact of the 2004 locust swarm on communities in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso .
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Insect Disaster
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1971 B-52C Lake Michigan crash
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On January 7, 1971, a Boeing B-52C Stratofortress (serial 54-26660) of Strategic Air Command crashed into northern Lake Michigan at the mouth of Little Traverse Bay near Charlevoix, Michigan, while on a low-level training flight. All nine crew members aboard were lost. No remains of the crewmen were recovered. Parts of the aircraft were retrieved from a water depth of 225 feet (69 m) in May and June 1971. The structural remains included parts of the wings, all eight engines, the tail, crew section, landing gear and wheels, plus numerous smaller parts of the plane. Oceans Systems, a Florida-based salvage company, carried out the recovery mission. [1] It remains the deadliest plane crash involving a B-52 Stratofortress in aviation history. Strategic Air Command was formed by the United States Air Force after World War II to provide an active defense against any surprise attack by the Soviet Union. Though it had been an ally against Germany and Japan during World War II, by 1948 the Soviet Union showed a propensity to instigate problems with Britain, France and the United States. In August 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon and by the early 1950s had detonated a hydrogen bomb. The war of words between the two superpowers escalated during 1950s and 1960s into a nuclear arms race. By 1970 the United States was using a "Triad Defense System" composed of nuclear submarines armed with nuclear missiles, land based intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and bombers capable of delivering hydrogen bombs on enemy targets. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber had been designed in the early 1950s by Boeing Aircraft Company to give the United States Air Force the capability of delivering nuclear weapons far inside the territory of Soviet Russia. The planes were to fly at high altitude with enough fuel to hit their target. In May 1960, the Soviet Union made known its capability to shoot such high altitude planes out of the sky by using a surface to air missile to strike CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Russian territory. From that point on, the high-altitude B-52 had to be modified to conduct missions at low level, something it was not intended to be. [2]
The B-52C used on the mission of Thursday January 7, 1971, with the call sign "Hiram 16", had been built in the summer of 1956 as one of thirty-five B-52C bombers. From 1952 to 1962 a total of 744 B-52s of all models were built. By January 1971, all thirty-one remaining B-52Cs were stationed at Westover Air Force Base near Springfield, Massachusetts. The aircraft were more than 15 years old and four of the original thirty-five had been lost to accidents. None of the remaining aircraft had been modified to cope with the structural stress demands of low-level flight. All were used for training in their designed high altitude role and, after May 1960, in the new low-level role. Low-level B-52 missions were typically flown at 300 to 500 ft (91 to 152 m) above ground level. Some of the aircraft stationed at Westover were loaned to other bases during the late 1960s and early 1970s, due to Strategic Air Command being use of later model B-52s in combat in Southeast Asia, beginning with Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965. The crew that flew Hiram 16 on its final mission on 7 January 1971 were all veterans of the War in Southeast Asia. They had been loaned by the Strategic Air Command to assist in that war effort and were back stateside by January 1971 to participate in a Cold War training mission that involved a low level flight over northern Lake Michigan at Bay Shore, Michigan's mobile Radar Bomb Scoring Site. Bay Shore was a radar site operated by Air Force technicians using electronic equipment designed to track, plot, score and at the same time jam the capability of bombers using its associated Olive Branch low level route. Olive Branch routes simulated what a bomb crew would experience over enemy territory. The crew members consisted of aircraft commander Lt. Col William Lemmon, co-pilot Lt. Douglas Bachman, radar navigator Cap. John Weaver, electronics warfare officer Cap. Joel Hirsch, tail gunner Tech. Sgt. Gerry Achey. Navigator instructor Maj. John Simonfy on board to recertify navigators and electronic warfare officers Lt. Douglas Ferguson, Maj. Gerald Black, and Maj. Donald Rousseau. The four extra crew members were on board for a SAC required low-level flight recertification. [3]
After taking off from Westover Air Force Base at 1:30 pm EST, the "Hiram 16" crew completed a mandatory practice refueling procedure with its accompanying KC-135 Stratotanker. A second refueling attempt had to be aborted due to a minor hydraulic leak near the right bulkhead of the crew compartment. By 6 p.m. EST the bomber had successfully completed, and scored as 'positive,' the laying down of two electronic bombs at Bay Shore Ob-9 Route targets Echo and Foxtrot. The bomber then proceeded to circle to its entry spot at the top of Lake Michigan to make its second and final bomb scoring run north to south towards Big Rock Point where targets Delta and Charlie were located. Weather at the time showed broken to overcast skies at 2500', visibility of two miles, with light snow and rime icing in clouds from 2500-6000'. The mishap aircraft was flying below the cloud ceiling at approximately 300'-500' above the water. At 6:32 p.m. EST the bomb crew scored a successful drop on target Delta. The plane's crew was in radio contact with the Air Force Bomb Scoring Site at Bay Shore to confirm the hit. The two crews were both trying to jam each other to recreate likely conditions over enemy territory. Bay Shore radar technicians observed the bomber on its radar until at 6:33 pm EST, when, a mere 20 seconds into the electronic pinging of target Charlie, the radar screen suddenly lit up in a bright flash, then went blank. No verbal contact was heard immediately before or after that loss of radar tracking. The large aircraft had simply disappeared from the radar screen. [4]
Recovery of the B-52C T/N 54-2666 was not accomplished until the end of June 1971. Winter weather and lake surface icing did not allow recovery procedures to continue when started in January 1971. Ocean Systems, a salvage company from Florida, retrieved parts of the plane that included all eight engines in four pods, crew and tail sections, landing gear and wheels, and large sections of the massive wings.
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Air crash
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'Red tide' blamed as whale shark, turtles, dolphins wash up dead on Florida beaches
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Dolphins, manatees and even a whale shark have washed up dead on the Gulf of Mexico beaches because of what locals call the Florida "red tide".
Red tide is the name given to the blooms of a species of microorganisms that have a distinct red colour.
The bloom is an annual event in the waters around Florida and it usually breaks up with the wind and tide; but according to local reports, the current bloom has lasted for up to nine months and has killed more marine life than usual. It is believed a combination of coastal pollution and nutrient-laden water being flushed into the warm waters of the gulf from Lake Okeechobee have caused the particularly severe red tide.
Social media has been inundated with images of dead animals that failed to escape the toxic bloom washing up on the Gulf of Mexico beaches across Florida.
WINK-TV News meteorologist Matt Devitt posted images on his Facebook page of fish, stingrays, manatees, turtles and a whale shark that had died.
"Pictures are recent and within July, most from Lee County," he wrote.
"We've also had issues for Collier, Charlotte, and Sarasota counties too."
According to US network CNN, this year's effect of the red tide on marine life has been unprecedented.
The news agency said about 160.9 kilometres of coastline had been affected so far.
"It's hard to predict more than a few days out [when it will end]," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Michelle Kerr told CNN.
Red tide is not the only algae outbreak that has killed marine life in Florida, with a blue-green algae bloom — that started in Lake Okeechobee — poisoning freshwater rivers in the region.
According to reports, the US Army Corps of Engineers released water from the lake which had poisoned waterways downstream.
The Miami Herald reported the blue-green algae outbreak had grabbed national attention.
"This is horrific what we're enduring now, but it needs to be a wake-up call to people that clean water is important to more than just wildlife," Sanibel's Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife veterinarian Heather Barron told the Miami Herald. "As the person dealing with all these hundreds of dying animals, I'm upset."
She began treating poisoned birds as early as October.
The US Federal Government met with Florida residents in late July to discuss the water quality issue after Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in the area around Lake Okeechobee.
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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Environment Pollution
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The battle raged all day as US-backed Iraqi army units fought the previously unidentified group in orchards on the northern outskirts of Najaf.
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The battle raged all day as US-backed Iraqi army units fought the previously unidentified group in orchards on the northern outskirts of Najaf.
Three Iraqi soldiers had reportedly died in the battle and 21 were injured.
The US military said two of its troops died when their helicopter was shot down, but did not confirm any of the Iraqi casualty figures.
An Iraqi official in the Najaf governor's office told the BBC that 21 Iraqi soldiers had been injured in the clashes, which occurred in a neighbourhood called Zarqa, and the Iraqi army was sweeping the area. Unnamed Iraqi sources said that the insurgents were from a previously unknown militant group calling themselves the Army of Heaven, or Soldiers of Heaven.
Asaad Abu Gilel, the governor of Najaf province, said that the gunmen had been intent on attacking Shia clerics and pilgrims marking the holy festival of Ashura.
"They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles. They are backed by some locals," he said.
Schools attacked
Earlier on Sunday seven Iraqi children died after their schools were targeted - five in Baghdad where a mortar hit a high school and two in a bomb attack at a primary school in Ramadi
Pupils at the secondary school in the mainly Sunni Adil district in west Baghdad were taking a break from lessons when two mortars landed in the yard. The school is in a Baghdad district hit by previous sectarian attacks
Five girls were killed and 20 other pupils injured as the blast blew out classroom windows, spraying the children with debris and shards of glass. It was not clear who fired the mortars but the school is in a district which has been the scene of frequent reprisal attacks by Sunni and Shia extremists. A primary school in Ramadi, north-west of Baghdad, was caught up in the violence when a suicide truck bomber attacked a nearby Iraqi security base. The wave of attacks comes as Iraqi and US forces are gearing up for a security crackdown in a bid to halt the sectarian violence that is claiming hundreds of lives in Iraq every week. Earlier, Iraqi police said 54 unidentified bodies had been found in and around the capital on Sunday alone.
On Saturday, police said 40 bodies were found - such deaths are generally attributed to sectarian violence. The UN says that, on average, just under 100 people die through violence each day in Iraq. The latest violence comes as Shia Muslims mark Ashura, one of their holiest festivals.
Thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq and beyond descended on Karbala to take part in ceremonies marking the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in 680.
In the past the festival has been hit by co-ordinated attacks, so some 10,000 Iraqi police and security forces were on duty in Karbala as part of a tightening of security.
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Armed Conflict
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1981 Moss Side riot
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In July 1981, the inner-city district of Moss Side in Manchester, England, was the scene for mass rioting. By that time, the area had been a key settlement for migrants from the Caribbean for over thirty years. The rioting at Moss Side started at the local police station and later moved into the surrounding streets over two days. Key factors seen as fuel for this riot were racial tension and mass unemployment brought on by the early 1980s recession. Unemployment was at a post-war high across the nation during 1981, but was much higher than the national average in Moss Side. There were also frequent allegations of police officers racially abusing and using excessive force against black youths in the area.
On 8 July 1981, a crowd of more than 1,000 youths besieged the police station at Moss Side, Manchester. All windows in the building were broken, and twelve police vehicles were set on fire. Police reinforcements equipped with riot shields and protective crash helmets were deployed around the station. A second attempt was made by crowds to attack the police station and during this a policeman was shot with a crossbow bolt through his leg. Following the violence, Chief Constable James Anderton of Greater Manchester met with local community leaders including councillors, churchmen and youth workers. Agreements made in this meeting were later disputed. James Anderton stated in his official report about the riots that per request from the community leaders, he ordered his officers to maintain a low profile and avoid further confrontations, to allow the leaders time to ease tension among the young people and disperse the crowds. The community leaders that attended the meeting denied that they had demanded that police withdraw from Moss Side. Anderton later told the Greater Manchester Police Committee that the community leaders had failed to deliver on their promise to restore peace and were simply unable to admit their lack of influence over the people engaged in the rioting. The "low profile" approach of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the efforts of the community leaders failed to stop the rioting which lasted for some 48 hours over two nights, with much burning and looting of shops all the way down Princess Road, Claremont Road and the surrounding areas, including Rusholme. The Moss Side riots ended on the night of 11 July, when Anderton ordered his officers to advance and clear the streets of rioters in a massive show of force. James Anderton had used the previous two days to build up enough officers trained and equipped in public order tactics. A mobile task force of 560 officers in 50 transit vans and Land Rovers had been assembled in local police stations around the area of rioting. As part of the planned dispersal operation, Anderton authorized use of vehicle based rapid dispersal tactics; previously only used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the British Army in Northern Ireland. These tactics involved vehicles containing "snatch squads" being driven at high speed into groups of rioters, with officers then leaping out to make arrests. Over two hours, 150 people were arrested with no police injuries reported. Afterwards, the Moss Side section of Princess Road (a main road south from Manchester centre) was closed for several days while adjacent buildings and gas mains damaged in the riot and fires were made safe. It has been reported that Anderton had earlier given a speech to the assembled officers at Moss Side Police Station encouraging them to restore order as rapidly as possible and promising them his full support in the event of any complaints of excessive force.
Anti-racism campaigner Louise Da-Cocodia helped transport victims of the Moss Side riot to hospital, and later sat on the Hytner inquiry panel investigating the causes of the unrest.
The police response to the riot resulted in a new low in confidence in the police in the local area. The absence of police during the looting on Princess Road followed by a large-scale police response afterward which resulted in the assault and arrest of innocent people, including a local reggae band, drew criticism. Among others, a local community organiser looking to help the injured was stopped and verbally abused by police. County councillor and vice-chair of the police Gabrielle Cox described the events as "the death of the community".] After the riots there were allegations from local residents, community leaders and lawyers that groups of police officers in vans had been observed cruising the streets of Moss Side during the riots, racially abusing and using indiscriminate violence against any young people seen on the streets.
Interviewed in a 1992 BBC documentary on his career following his retirement as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, James Anderton described his strategy during the Moss Side riots:
"When trouble arises and violence occurs on the street, you hit it fast and hard. And that's what we did the following night. We hit the rioters fast and hard with all the force at our disposal-legitimate and lawful force-and we crushed the riots in Manchester in 24 hours." Outside of the affected area, Anderton's handling of riots received praise from the wider media, politicians, and public. The use of snatch squads and vehicles to disperse rioters was unique in British public order policing at that time, and the response of Greater Manchester Police was contrasted favourably with the perceived loss of control and high police casualties during the earlier Toxteth riots. William Whitelaw, the Home Secretary, described the dispersal operation as a "conspicuous success". James Anderton's Greater Manchester Police were the only police force in England at that time equipped with protective riot helmets with visors for use by its officers in public situations. This was unlike the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, and the Merseyside police in Toxteth, who sent their officers to face petrol bombs and missile attacks in traditional helmets and tunics. In a 2006 retrospective on the 25th anniversary of the riots, Manchester Central's Chief Supt Dave Thompson said that the police had simply not met the needs of the community. Academic Gus John said that "police used to criminalise young people for no good reason", and that the community saw the hypocrisy of certain officers who stopped and searched youths in Moss Side while on duty but drank and smoked at the area's illegal shebeens while off-duty. In 1998 during the Lawrence Review Chief Constable David Wilmot of the Greater Manchester Police stated that there was institutional racism in the force. Anderton declined to comment on the 25th anniversary review. [
In the long term, investment totalling £400 million into the community improved conditions in the area. This particularly focused on the Alexandra Park Estate, which had been at the centre of the riots. The estate had poor housing and was a focal point for drug dealing in Manchester. [4] In 2005 Chief Constable Michael Todd established a community-centred policing structure for Moss Side, consisting of dedicated staff of an inspector, four sergeants and 35 constables.
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Riot
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Daily figure of Covid-19 infections
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Hospital Selayang, Selangor. The 334 deaths brought the country’ total Covid-19 related fatalities to 24,078 so far. (Photo by Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge) KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 22): Malaysia’s total number of Covid-19 related deaths topped 24,000 yesterday (Sept 21) after the nation reported another 334 fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) latest updates. The ministry said the 334 deaths brought the country’ total Covid-19 linked fatalities to 24,078 so far. The MoH added that out of the 334 deaths yesterday, 84 were brought-in-dead (BID) cases, raising Malaysia’s Covid-19-linked BID tally to 4,648 thus far. "Reporting of deaths is backdated, particularly to include deaths where time is needed to ascertain the cause of death. "Therefore, trends should be observed from the series based on the date of death (actual deaths),” the ministry said without specifying the actual daily number of Covid-19 related fatalities that occurred yesterday. The MoH, however, added that the actual daily number of deaths based on the seven-day average stood at 101 yesterday, compared with 124 a day earlier (Sept 20). Yesterday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that the nation reported 15,759 new cases for the day, up from 14,345 the day before. The latest reported daily figure brought the cumulative number of Covid-19 infections in the country to 2.13 million so far, he added.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Guinea’s Coup d’Etat Leader Anointed as President
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October 5, 2021 Topic: Guinea Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: Guinea Coup D'Etat Regime Transition Alpha Conde Mamady Doumbouya Guinea’s Coup d’Etat Leader Anointed as President The September 5 coup in Guinea has been widely condemned abroad and has led to the country’s increasing international isolation. by Trevor Filseth L Mamady Doumbouya, a Guinean soldier who oversaw the country’s coup d’etat against incumbent leader Alpha Conde in early September, has been sworn in as Guinea’s interim president. The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Mohamed V palace in Conakry, the country’s capital, according to Africa Guinee . Doumbouya, a former fifteen-year veteran of the French Foreign Legion who served in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, and Djibouti, becomes Africa’s second-youngest leader, at age 41. The continent’s youngest leader, Assimi Goïta (aged 38) of Mali, also seized power in a coup in May 2021; the two men are reportedly friends. The September 5 coup in Guinea has been widely condemned abroad and has led to the country’s increasing international isolation. Both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have suspended Guinea, and the AU has imposed sanctions, freezing its assets abroad. ECOWAS has demanded that Doumbouya release Conde, who was captured during the uprising, and return Guinea to democracy within six months. Conspicuously, no foreign leaders or dignitaries attended Doumbouya’s inauguration. While Guinea’s ruling military junta has established a roadmap for returning the country to democratic rule, it did not provide a timeframe for doing so. The roadmap explicitly forbade anyone taking part in the country’s transitional government, including both civilian and military officials (and therefore Doumboya himself), from taking part in the next election cycle. Doumbouya has defended his actions in interviews with the international press, arguing that the coup was necessary to dethrone Conde. The former leader, now aged 83, held office since 2010 when he became Guinea’s first popularly elected president. However, Conde’s detractors have argued that he became increasingly dictatorial over time, and steadily removed limitations on his power. The most visible sign of this came in 2020 after he arranged for presidential term limits, enshrined in Guinea’s constitution, to be abolished, allowing him to run for a third five-year term. Protests in the wake of that decision led to the deaths of dozens of Guineans in Conakry. Although Conde won the next election handily, his opponents chalked the result up to voter fraud. Doumbouya also cited extreme corruption and economic mismanagement as peripheral causes for the coup, arguing that these problems could be effectively resolved following a return to civilian rule.
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Regime Change
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Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889
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The Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889 was a conflagration in Bakersfield, California. The fire would burn for three hours and destroyed most of town (later reincorporated as a city). In total, 196 buildings were destroyed, one man was killed and 1,500 people were homeless. The fire marked the transition of Bakersfield from a frontier town to a metropolitan city. Prior to the fire, Bakersfield could best be described as a frontier town. Most of the buildings were constructed out of wood in a low density configuration. Buildings were also set back from the sidewalks. The town did have a network of fire hydrants. Water was delivered by Scribner's Water Tower. The fire started on July 7, 1889. Accounts vary as to the start of it, however, the best supported view was that it began in Mrs. N. E. Kelesy residence (near the intersection of 20th Street and Chester Avenue). She was in the process of preparing Sunday dinner, which was an all day affair. Apparently gas fumes from the stove caught fire, and subsequently caught the house on fire. [1] Smoke was spotted at 9:00 am, and firefighters were quickly dispatched. [2]
At that point, the fire was too large for a single hose connected to a single fire hydrant to handle. More men were dispatched, and a subsequent connection would be made at a neighboring hydrant. It was at this point that a horrific discovery was made. There was not enough water pressure in the line to deliver water to the fire. [1]
The fire jumped to the undertakers building, located next door. Since the town was mostly constructed out of wood, the fire quickly jumped from building to building. The town's fire engine finally arrived, but it took 20 minutes for enough steam pressure to build for operation. At that point, the fire was large enough that little could be done to stop it. [1]
When the fire reached the Southern Hotel, it was hot enough that the solder, used in the indoor plumbing, was liquefied. Because of the updraft created by the fire, the solder flew into the air and rained down on the streets below. Later, the fire jumped to Scribner's Water Tower at a location which firefighters could not reach it. However, the structure was saved when Will Houghton leaned out a neighboring window and threw a bucket of water on it. In the Kern Valley Bank, a bathtub filled with water was used in an attempt to save that building, but the effort failed. After three hours, the fire was extinguished. [3]
The results of the fire were devastating. Fifteen city blocks were destroyed which was most of the city. In total: 147 businesses, 44 homes and 5 hotels were destroyed (a total of 196 buildings). One man was killed in the fire, and 1,500 people were homeless. Property damage was estimated at an even $1 million. The only two structures to survive in the central business district were Scribner's Water Tower and St. Paul's Episcopal Church. [1][2]
The local newspapers were destroyed, however, George Wear (who owned the Gazette) saved a hand press. With that, news about the fire was published. The next day, food began to arrive from neighboring ranches. The water tower would continue to provide drinking water. Haggin and Carr brought supplies from their store in Belleview Ranch, and businessmen from neighboring Sumner also assisted. Later money and clothing began to arrive. Tehachapi even donated $74.50 to assist. Later, assistance began to arrive from Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Fresno. However, by that point, rebuilding efforts were well underway. [4]
After the fire, the Fresno Expositor predicted that the citizens of Bakersfield would not rebuild, and simply drift away. [5] The prediction was understandable. The town did not have direct rail access. The Southern Pacific Railroad was constructed to the east, through Sumner. With the importance of the railroad, it was believable that Sumner would become the dominate town. The city leaders would act in a completely opposite direction than the Fresno newspaper predicted. Instead of moving away, they started planning a town three or four times bigger than the one which was destroyed.
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Fire
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1978 British Army Gazelle downing crash
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On 17 February 1978, a British Army Gazelle helicopter, serial number XX404, went down near Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, after being fired at by a Provisional IRA unit from the South Armagh Brigade. The IRA unit was involved at the time in a gun battle with a Green Jackets observation post deployed in the area, and the helicopter was sent in to support the ground troops. The helicopter crashed after the pilot lost control of the aircraft whilst evading ground fire. Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Douglas Corden-Lloyd, 2nd Battalion Green Jackets commanding officer, died in the crash. The incident was overshadowed in the press by the La Mon restaurant bombing, which took place just hours later near Belfast. By early 1978, the British Army forces involved in Operation Banner had recently replaced their ageing Bell H-13 Sioux helicopters for the more versatile Aérospatiale Gazelles. The introduction of the new machines increased the area covered on a reconnaissance sortie as well as the improved time spent in airborne missions. [1] In the same period, the Provisional IRA received its first consignment of M60 machine guns from the Middle East, which were displayed by masked volunteers during a Bloody Sunday commemoration in Derry. [2][3] Airborne operations were crucial for the British presence along the border, especially in south County Armagh, where the level of IRA activity meant that every supply and soldier had to be ferried in and out of their bases by helicopter since 1975. [4]
The Royal Green Jackets had been in South Armagh since December 1977, and had already seen some action. [5] Just a few days after arrival, two mortar rounds hit the C Company base at Forkhill, injuring a number of soldiers. In the aftermath of the attack, two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were wounded by a booby-trap while recovering the lorry where the mortar tubes were mounted. [6] Two days later,[6] a patrol near the border suffered a bomb and gun attack, leaving the commanding sergeant with severe head wounds. [5] The sergeant was picked up from the scene by helicopter. [6] He was later invalided from the British Army as a result of his injuries. [5]
On 17 January 1978, a Green Jackets observation post deployed around the village of Jonesborough began to take heavy fire from the "March Wall", which drew parallel with the Irish border to the east, along the Dromad woods. The soldiers returned fire, but the short distance to the border and the open ground prevented them from advancing. [7]
The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Corden-Lloyd, along with Captain Philip Schofield and Sergeant Ives flew from the battalion base at Bessbrook Mill to assess the situation and provide information to the troops. They were escorted by a Scout helicopter with an Airborne Reaction Force (ARF), comprising a medic and three soldiers from the 2nd Bn Light Infantry. [8] While hovering over the scene of the engagement, the Gazelle received a barrage of 7.62 mm tracer rounds. [8] The pilot lost control of the aircraft during a turn at high speed to avoid the stream of fire. The Gazelle (serial number XX404) hit a wall and crashed on a field,[9] some 2 km from Jonesborough. [7] According to the crew and passengers of the Scout, the Gazelle hit the ground twice after losing power, with its rotor blades trashing into the soil following the second impact, and then cartwheeled across the field. The Scout landed the ARF still under IRA fire. The soldiers rushed to the wrecked helicopter, some 100 metres away from the site of the initial crash. [8]
Corden-Lloyd was killed[10] and the other two passengers were wounded. The machine came to rest on its right side. The pilot remained trapped inside the wreckage, but he survived thanks to his helmet. [9] The IRA later claimed they had shot at the helicopter with an M60 machine gun. [11][12] The IRA unit vanished into the Dromad woods to the Republic of Ireland. [7] Some Gardaí witnessed the attack from the other side of the border. [11]
The gun battle and Gazelle shootdown was displaced from the headlines by the deaths of twelve civilians in the La Mon restaurant bombing on the same day, some of whom were burned to death. [13] Initially the British Army downplayed the IRA's claim as published by An Phoblacht,[13] that the helicopter was shot down, on the basis that no hits were found on the wreckage, but finally they acknowledged that the IRA action had caused the crash. [10]
The death of Corden-Lloyd, a former Special Air Service officer,[14] was deeply regretted by the British Army, who regarded him as promising. [15] He was awarded a posthumous mention in dispatches "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Northern Ireland". [16] In 1973, Irish republicans had accused Corden-Lloyd and his subordinates of brutality against Belfast Catholics during an earlier tour of the Green Jackets in 1971, at the time of Operation Demetrius. [17][18]
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Air crash
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Reba McEntire reacts to Kelly Clarkson's divorce from her former stepson Brandon Blackstock: 'I love them both'
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Reba McEntire isn't taking sides in Kelly Clarkson's divorce against talent manager Brandon Blackstock. McEntire was married to Blackstock's father, Narvel Blackstock, from 1989 to 2015, briefly making her Clarkson's stepmother-in-law.
Explore the topics mentioned in this article
Reba McEntire isn't taking sides in Kelly Clarkson's divorce against talent manager Brandon Blackstock. McEntire was married to Blackstock's father, Narvel Blackstock, from 1989 to 2015, briefly making her Clarkson's stepmother-in-law.
Clarkson filed for divorce from McEntire's former stepson, with whom she shares two children, in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage. The former couple were married in 2013, two years before McEntire's own split.
Speaking to Extra, the country star offered a diplomatic response when asked if she was giving Clarkson advice amid her marital breakup.
"You know, I love them both," McEntire said. "Brandon’s my stepson, Kelly’s my good friend… I am pulling for both of them. I hope they’re happy and healthy and pull though this. I pray everyone gives them the encouragement they can because they need it right now, both of them do. I love the both of them with all my heart.”
That echoes similar comments made in a separate interview with Entertainment Tonight, in which she said, "I ca't play favorites" over the split.
"I've been a friend of Kelly for a long time," she said. "Brandon's been my son forever, it seems like. Although he's my stepson, I still love him like he's my blood. So I'm praying for them both.
Clarkson and McEntire have collaborated many times, including being co-headliners on 2008's 2 Worlds 2 Voices tour. Clarkson paid tribute to her former in-law at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018, the same year they performed a duet at the Academy of Country Music Awards. And this May, the newly single Clarkson sang a cover of McEntire's "How Blue" on her eponymous talk show.
"I’ve been a fan of Reba since I was a little girl," Clarkson told her viewers. "Her voice has always felt nostalgic for me. Even as an adult, there’s something about her tone and her storytelling that just feels like home.
“Sometimes when we meet our heroes, it doesn’t always pan out how you hope. But meeting Reba — being friends with her, and eventually becoming family — has been one of the highlights of my life, truly,” she continued. “So thank you so much for listening to me vent as an artist. Thank you so much for comforting me on the phone through my tears, like a friend. And thank you for being a really rad grandma for my kids.”
McEntire also addressed her own love life in her interview with Extra, musing on the possibility of one day marrying her boyfriend, actor Rex Linn.
"We’ve talked about it and giggled about it," she shared. "We thought, ‘Man if we ever had a ceremony, we would have to have a 2 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 6 o’clock and an 8 o’clock ‘cause we have so many friends, acquaintances and family.”
The singer is also releasing some of her most adored songs in a 3-part box set, ‘Revived Remixed Revisited,’ which is out Oct. 8.
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Famous Person - Divorce
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Two dead, 2 critical after high levels of carbon monoxide found inside Nashville home
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Police said two people have died and two others were hospitalized after high levels of carbon monoxide were found inside a Nashville home.
Posted at 8:45 AM, Apr 16, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-16 11:20:50-04
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Police said two people have died and two others were hospitalized after high levels of carbon monoxide were found inside a Nashville home.
Metro Police said they were called to a residence on Dickerson Pike Friday morning and found multiple people unresponsive.
Officers found a generator in the living room and called Hazmat crews to check for hazardous materials. They said high levels of carbon monoxide were found.
Two adults were pronounced dead at the scene. Two others were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in critical condition.
Police said although carbon monoxide was found, it's not yet clear if that's the cause of death. That will have to be determined by the Medical Examiner.
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Mass Poisoning
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Richmond, Indiana explosion
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The Richmond, Indiana, explosion was a double explosion which occurred at 1:47 PM EST on Saturday, April 6, 1968, in downtown Richmond, Indiana, United States. The explosions killed 41 people and injured more than 150. The primary explosion was due to natural gas leaking from one or more faulty transmission lines under the Marting Arms sporting goods store, located on the southeast corner of the intersection of 6th and Main (US 40) streets. A secondary explosion was caused by gunpowder stored inside the building. The explosion was due to a natural gas leak from a cast iron gas main which exploded outside Marting Arms. The pipe, which had become perforated as a result of corrosion, belonged to the Richmond Gas Corporation. [1] The gas itself was ignited by a gunshot in the firing range. [2] It was uncertain what precisely had ignited the gunpowder, owing to the damage caused by the explosion and fire. Gas had been smelled leaking in the area around Marting Arms for days before the explosion, and local stores would open doors to allow the fumes to ventilate out and leave buildings. A report by the U.S. Bureau of Mines found that, around this time, the Richmond Gas Corporation had found fifty-five gas leaks in its pipes, seven of which were "exceptionally large...creating hazardous conditions." The gas company had found a smaller leak between Marting Arms and a neighboring store. The perforated pipe was removed by Richmond Gas workers during the post-explosion cleanup, but the company refused to allow bureau investigators to examine it. The gas company eventually provided the pipe for examination upon the order of the Indiana Public Service Commission. Safety checks after the explosion found twenty gas leaks in the city over the next two months, although some of these may have been caused by the explosion. [1]
397 civil lawsuits were filed against Richmond Gas Corporation, the City of Richmond, and Marting Arms pursuant to the explosion, but only one – on behalf of decedent Blaine Scott Reeves – made it to trial. The gas company was found solely liable by a jury in Connersville, Indiana, where the case had been tried after the company requested a change of venue. Richmond Gas appealed the verdict based on alleged trial errors and on its claim that the award of $250,000 was excessive. On October 1, 1973, the First District Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled against the gas company and upheld the verdict. [3] The corporation settled the remaining lawsuits for a reported $5 to $10 million. In 1990 Richmond Gas Corporation was acquired by Indiana Energy, Inc. (which merged into Vectren in 2000, which merged into CenterPoint Energy in 2019). Twenty buildings in and near the site of the explosion were condemned as a result thereof. Ultimately, Main Street through downtown Richmond was closed to traffic and a downtown promenade was built in 1972 (later expanded in 1978). This five-block pedestrian mall was converted to allow the street to be reopened to traffic twenty-nine years after the explosion, in 1997, as part of an urban revitalization effort. Since 1972, US 40 has been re-routed to by-pass Main Street through downtown Richmond. On the day of the explosion, the ongoing nationwide riots, resulting from the assassination of Martin Luther King two days earlier, overshadowed the casualties in Richmond from "something preventable". Many people have attested that the aftermath brought together the townspeople to work together and overcome their grief and rebuild. The 1968 Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act, Pub.L. 90–481[4] enacted into law on August 12 of that year, imposed tougher federal regulations on the gas network as a response to the disaster. [1]
A simple curved brick memorial honoring those lost in the tragedy, who ranged in age from 8 to 72-years-old, was erected downtown, with metal lettering:
In memory of the forty-one persons who lost their lives in the tragic downtown explosion April 6, 1968, and with everlasting gratitude to those who helped give rebirth to this city. The memorial stands at the south-west corner of South Fifth and Main Streets on the grounds of the Wayne County Courthouse annex. [5]
In 2018, on the 50th anniversary of the explosion, a stone monument honoring those who died in the explosion was dedicated at the Wayne County Historical Museum. [6][7]
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Gas explosion
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Guatemalan mudslides push storm Eta's death toll near 150
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GUATEMALA CITY/TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The death toll from torrential downpours unleashed by storm Eta leapt on Friday as Guatemalan soldiers reached a mountain village where around 100 people were killed by a landslide, adding to dozens of other dead in Central America and Mexico. Many of those who lost their lives in the village of Queja in the central Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz were buried in their homes after mudslides swallowed around 150 houses, army spokesman Ruben Tellez said. The devastating weather front brought destruction from Panama to Honduras and Mexico, which between them have registered more than 50 flood-related deaths. Tellez said it was not the first time disaster had struck the remote corner of Alta Verapaz. The area around Queja appeared to be the site of a huge landslide on a road pass a decade ago, which killed dozens, he said. “Now with all this phenomenon it collapsed again,” he added. Photos of the Queja landslide showed a lengthy strip of brown mud peeled from the lush green hillside. A video shared by the army showed soldiers trying to get to Queja having to haul themselves through a morass of mud with the aid of a guide rope. The army said about 100 people are believed to have died in Queja alone, though searches for survivors continue. Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei hinted the death toll could be higher, with the number of dead and missing in Queja estimated at about 150. Footage from another part of Guatemala showed boats ferrying villagers in flooded regions and rescue workers carrying children on their backs, wading through water up to their hips. ‘CATASTROPHIC FLOODING’ One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta on Friday dumped more torrential rain across swaths of Central America. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned “catastrophic flooding” in the region would continue. Rescue operations across Honduras and Guatemala have been slowed by destroyed roads and bridges, forcing authorities to bring in the military and use helicopters and speedboats to rescue people stranded on top of their houses. “This is the worst storm Honduras has seen in decades. The damage will undoubtedly be significant,” said Mark Connolly, UNICEF representative in Honduras, who estimated about 1.5 million children there will be affected. Across the border from Guatemala in the Mexican state of Chiapas, flooding has killed 19 people, many swept up by rivers whose banks burst, state authorities said. North of Chiapas in Tabasco state, the deluges killed two more people, the federal government said. In Honduras, flooding has killed 23 people and two are missing, the government said. Many remained trapped on their roofs, the National Risk Management System said. “We have been without food for two days ... waiting to be evacuated,” William Santos, sheltering on top of a banana packing plant with about 300 people in northern Honduras, told Reuters. Eta hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday blowing furious winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kph). It weakened to a tropical depression inland but the rain continued. Bad weather is hampering rescue efforts. “We have a lot of people trapped we have not been able to reach,” said Guatemalan President Giammattei. The devastation harked back to Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America in 1998. The high winds and heavy rain have damaged thousands of homes in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, whose government has not yet detailed the human cost of the storm. Two miners were reported killed in Nicaragua, while in southern Costa Rica a landslide killed a Costa Rican woman and an American man in a house. Eight others, including at least three children, died in flooding near the Costa Rican border in Panama’s Chiriqui province, authorities said. In Honduras, about 16,000 people have been rescued in the northern Valle Sula region, authorities said. Over 5,000 people were evacuated in Guatemala, officials said. On Friday evening, Eta was off Belize’s coast in the Caribbean, churning towards Cuba and Florida, the NHC said. But remnants of the weather system will continue to hammer parts of Central America with flooding, it added. Flash flooding was also possible across Jamaica, southeast Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Cuba.
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Mudslides
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2015 South African xenophobic riots
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On 11 April 2015, several South Africans attacked foreigners in a xenophobic attack in Durban, South Africa, which extended to some parts of Johannesburg. Several people, both foreign and South African alike, were killed with some of the killings captured on camera. In South Africa, there is a sentiment prevalent among a sizable portion of unemployed South Africans that immigrants and expatriates from other parts of Africa who reside in South Africa are responsible for the high unemployment rate that South Africa has. This sentiment sometimes results in such South Africans attacking African expatriates and foreigners, as happened in 2008, with the ultimate goal of driving them out of South Africa. This sentiment is exacerbated by comments from public figures in support it. In this case, some have said it was sparked by an alleged statement by the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini demanding that all foreigners leave South Africa and "go back to their countries", leaving South Africa more jobs for the unemployed youth of South Africa.
Locals looted foreigners' shops and attacked immigrants in general, forcing hundreds to relocate to police stations across the country. The Malawian authorities subsequently began repatriating their nationals, and a number of other foreign governments also announced that they would evacuate their citizens. More than 300 people were arrested. On 18 April 2015 a photographer from the Sunday Times, James Oatway, photographed a brutal attack on a Mozambican man. The man, Emmanuel Sithole, died from his wounds. Four suspects were arrested within days of the publication of photographs in the 19 April edition of The Sunday Times of the murder of Mozambican street vendor Emmanuel Sithole in Alexandra township the previous day.Sithole's name is not included in the official list of seven victims killed in the April 2015 attacks, including an Ethiopian, a Mozambican, a Bangladeshi, a Zimbabwean and three South Africans who were all killed in KwaZulu-Natal.
Despite the government's insistence that Sithole's murder was not xenophobic, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was deployed in Alexandra township following the publication of the images. On 23 April several thousand demonstrators marched through central Johannesburg to protest against a spate of deadly attacks on immigrants. They sang songs denouncing xenophobia and carried banners that read "We are all Africans" as migrant workers crowded balconies, shouting their support.
In all seven people including were reported dead as a result of the violence. The dead included both South Africans and foreigners. After the incident over 5,000 people took part in a rally held in Durban to show their displeasure with the attacks.
Following this incidents many African countries had strained diplomatic relations with South Africa. Nigeria recalled its High Commissioner in South Africa following this event.
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Riot
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Op-ed: Weighing the options to continue or end expanded unemployment benefits
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The response to Covid-19 has marked a historic expansion in the size and coverage of government support for people experiencing unemployment. As we near the end of expanded federal unemployment insurance benefits, state governors now face a choice of whether to continue them. To that point, the Biden administration urged states with high unemployment to use American Rescue Plan funds to continue unemployment assistance to workers past Sept. 6. So, what are the pros and cons of expanded UI benefits for American households? Expanded UI benefits during Covid-19 prevented spending declines for the majority of people who lost their jobs, providing valuable support to the economy as overall demand was contracting sharply. Despite sweeping changes in daily life, UI boosted demand even when the bulk of the population — those still employed — cut spending and increased savings. Here’s a look at other stories impacting the financial advisor business. Directing fiscal stimulus towards the unemployed has offered a reliable “bang for the buck.” JPMorgan Chase Institute examined more than 2 million job loss events since the Great Recession and found that the spending response out of UI payments is robust and stable across disparate economic conditions. Unemployment benefits are especially effective at preventing steep cuts to spending among workers with lower levels of income and liquidity. The stark differences in spending outcomes for the unemployed during the pandemic relative to the Great Recession show the power of safety nets. The boosts to UI were in fixed dollar amounts, which meant more to lower-income households. This targeting may have been particularly effective during the current crisis, since losses were initially skewed towards relatively lower-paying jobs. Additionally, the relative stability in the spending response out of UI payments highlights the usefulness of UI in steadying demand during a recession. We estimate that households spent approximately 35 cents out of every dollar of UI payments in the month they were received last year. This is only modestly smaller — approximately 4 cents to 5 cents per dollar — than the estimates over the Great Recession and expansion years, respectively, despite the sweeping changes affecting daily life. UI can boost demand even when those still employed may be increasing savings in response to uncertainty. We have found that before the pandemic, household spending drops considerably when UI benefits expire. These results point to the likelihood of a decline in spending among jobless workers when they lose their UI benefits after this weekend. However, the drop in spending may not be as severe for those who are able to quickly find jobs, and conventional wisdom is that the removal of UI benefits will push a return to work for many people. The resulting change in employment depends on how many workers were dissuaded from finding a job by UI benefits themselves, rather than other factors. The potential disincentive to look for a new job is the primary economic downside to expanded UI benefits. As of May, UI supplements did not appear to play a large role in deterring people from returning to work. In early September, roughly 33% of UI benefit recipients will lose the $300 UI supplement but will still receive weekly benefits. The other two-thirds of UI benefit recipients — including the long-term unemployed and gig workers — are slated to lose their benefits entirely. This may have a more pronounced effect on job finding. Before the pandemic, we found a 38% increase in job finding when UI recipients lose their benefits entirely. But the circumstances of this recession are markedly different, as is the pool of beneficiaries. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which expanded UI coverage to self-employed workers, has been a significant addition to the economic safety net. PUA has accounted for roughly 40% of total claims and is insuring the income losses of workers who appear to be lower-income and younger than traditional UI recipients. Overall, allowing UI benefits to lapse entirely may indeed nudge some back to work, but those losing full benefits are more likely to be lower-income, more financially vulnerable workers. One thing we know is that good data leads to good policy. As we continue to evaluate financial trends among American households, these types of unique data insights will be essential to better understand consumer spending and finances and how to achieve a successful and inclusive economic recovery.
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Financial Crisis
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ASM to propose COVID-19 Student Relief Fund for direct student aid
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University of Wisconsin student leaders announced plans Friday to create a COVID-19 Student Relief Fund dedicated to aiding students financially struggling amid the pandemic. The Associated Students of Madison will propose legislation Jan. 26 to sponsor the creation of a COVID-19 Student Relief Fund, according to a press release from ASM Chair Matthew Mitnick and District 5 Alder Max Prestigiacomo — an effort coordinated by them as well as Dane County District 5 Supervisor Elena Haasl. ‘Money’s just tough:’ students employed in campus area share how pandemic has impacted payCOVID-19 outbreaks have forced many businesses to adapt to different means of providing goods and services, including those in downtown Read… The legislation sponsored by the authors of the press release — four additional city council representatives, State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and several other ASM representatives — would allocate funds between $2 million and $4 million to students affected financially by the pandemic, Mitnick said in an interview with The Badger Herald. The fund would directly aid students with rental assistance and utilities. While all UW students are eligible to apply for funds, students who demonstrate unexpected losses of income, severe rent burden or participation in scholarship programs that serve underrepresented students would receive priority status, Mitnick said. Students not eligible for funds from the federal CARES Act would also receive priority status — including undocumented students, DACA recipients and international students. The legislation would permit Mitnick to add $500,000 of unspent funds to an existing budget component from fiscal year 2021 in the ASM internal budget. In addition to the $500,000 in the ASM budget, the legislation calls on the ASM Reserve Board to devote 90% of the reserve’s funds into the same budget item. The Tenant Resource Center will be responsible for allocating the funds through an application process. Mitnick said ASM already has a contract with the TRC, meaning this legislation would extend the TRC additional funds to remedy students’ pandemic-related financial needs through their existing infrastructure. While the UW Office of Financial Assistance currently has around $9 million in funds from the CARES package, individuals who have not filled out FAFSA are not eligible for funds due to certain federal conditions. Mitnick said many of the students left out of the package need assistance the most. The Tuition Dilemma: students, universities grapple with budget cuts, increased tuitionWhen COVID-19 hit, the world came to a standstill along with the funding for hundreds of universities across the United Read… “This is really a pot of money all students are eligible for, but priority is being placed on those groups who have been left out of the process, who public policy has failed,” Mitnick said. “This is a way to provide greater housing security during such a difficult time.” Mitnick said individuals from across the city and county have been involved in the effort. Five campus-area city council representatives — District 4 Ald. Mike Verveer, District 5 Ald. Shiva Bidar, District 2 Ald. Patrick Heck, District 13 Ald. Tag Evers and Prestigiacomo — have agreed to distribute district-wide mailers about the fund to student residents. While there has been some discussion with Dean of Students Christina Olstad and directors from the UW Office of Financial Aid about the relief fund, Mitnick said he still expects some push back. Mitnick said university programs such as UW Rec Well and the Wisconsin Union have been pushing for ASM to allocate funds to their programs as a way to give segregated fees back to serve students. Believing direct administration of funds through the TRC is the most effective use of the unspent budget, Mitnick said he hopes the administration formally endorses the plan as the best way to aid students. “Time and time again, we see the university try to use segregated fees as a way to mitigate financial mismanagement,” Mitnick said. “That should never be the case … We don’t want to use trickle-down economics approaches toward helping out other units when we just need to focus on our own.” Even if the legislation passes, Mitnick said there is a possibility Chancellor Rebecca Blank could veto the fund allocation from the Reserve Board given the amount of the transfer. Blank has agreed to meet with ASM Feb. 9. UW predicts $100 million loss due to COVID-19 pandemicThe University of Wisconsin is expecting a $100 million loss due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, according to the Wisconsin Read… Additionally, the amount allocated to the fund from the Reserve Board will be further discussed at their next meeting Jan. 29, which Mitnick said will ultimately determine the total size of the fund. Even with potential roadblocks ahead, Mitnick said he believes the community support for the legislation will help resolve conflicts. “In terms of a coalition brought together for this, I feel like we will be able to get this passed … I urge my colleagues in student council to advocate for this fund and for the administration to work in tandem with us on providing this together as a joint effort,” Mitnick said. This article was published Jan 15, 2021 at 12:25 pm and last updated Jan 15, 2021 at 2:30 pm
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Financial Aid
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1933 Palestine riots
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General Arthur Grenfell WauchopeHigh Commissioner and Commander-in-chief(1932–1938) Sir Harold MacMichaelHigh Commissioner(1938–1944) Lt.-General John DillGOC (1936–37) Lt.-General Archibald WavellGOC (1937–38) Lt.-General Robert HainingGOC (1938–39) Major-General Bernard MontgomeryCommander, 8th Infantry Div., 1938–39 Air Commodore Roderic Hill AOC, Palestine and Transjordan(1936–1938) Air Commodore Arthur HarrisAOC, Palestine and Transjordan(1938–39) Admiral Dudley PoundCommander-in-Chief, British Mediterranean Fleet(1936–1939)
Political leadership Mohammed Amin al-Husayni (exiled) Raghib al-Nashashibi (defected) Izzat Darwaza (exiled)
Local rebel commanders Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad (General Commander) † Arif Abd al-Raziq Regional Commander (exiled)Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir (Regional Commander) Yusuf Abu Durra Regional Commander) Fakhri 'Abd al-Hadi (defected)Abdallah al-Asbah †Issa Battat †Mohammed Saleh al-Hamad †Yusuf Hamdan †Ahmad Mohamad Hasan †Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (exiled)Wasif KamalAbdul Khallik †Hamid Suleiman Mardawi †Ibrahim NassarMustafa Osta †Mohammad Mahmoud Rana'anFarhan al-Sa'di Hasan Salama
Arab volunteer commanders:
Fawzi al-Qawuqji (expelled)
Sa'id al-'As †
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later came to be known as The Great Revolt (al-Thawra al- Kubra)[10] or The Great Palestinian Revolt (Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra), was a nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a "Jewish National Home". [12] The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000, that year,-the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935 - and with the growing plight of the rural fellahin rendered landless, who as they moved to metropolitan centres to escape their abject poverty found themselves socially marginalized. Since 1920 Jews and Palestinians had been involved in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks, and the immediate spark for the uprising was the murder of two Jews by a Qassamite band, and the retaliatory killing by Jewish gunmen of two Arab labourers, incidents which triggered a flare-up of violence across Palestine. A month into the disturbances Hajj Amin al-Husseini declared 16 May 1936 as 'Palestine Day' and called for a General Strike. The revolt was branded by many in the Jewish Yishuv as "immoral and terroristic", often compared to fascism and Nazism. Ben Gurion, however, described Arab causes as fear of growing Jewish economic power, opposition to mass Jewish immigration and fear of the English identification with Zionism.
The general strike lasted from April to October 1936. The revolt is often analysed in terms of two distinct phases. The first phase was one of spontaneous popular resistance which was only, in a second moment, seized on by the urban and elitist Higher Arab Committee (HAC), which gave the movement an organized shape and was focused mainly on strikes and other forms of political protest, in order to secure a political result.By October 1936, this phase had been defeated by the British civil administration using a combination of political concessions, international diplomacy (involving the rulers of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan and Yemen and the threat of martial law. The second phase, which began late in 1937, was a peasant-led resistance movement provoked by British repression in 1936 in which increasingly British forces were targeted as the army itself increasingly targeted the villages it thought supportive of the revolt. During this phase, the rebellion was brutally suppressed by the British Army and the Palestine Police Force using repressive measures that were intended to intimidate the whole population and undermine popular support for the revolt. A more dominant role on the Arab side was taken by the Nashashibi clan, whose NDP party quickly withdrew from the rebel Arab Higher Committee, led by the radical faction of Amin al-Husseini, and instead sided with the British – dispatching "Fasail al-Salam" (the "Peace Bands") in coordination with the British Army against nationalist and Jihadist Arab "Fasail" units (literally "bands"). According to official British figures covering the whole revolt, the army and police killed more than 2,000 Arabs in combat, 108 were hanged, and 961 died because of what they described as "gang and terrorist activities". In an analysis of the British statistics, Walid Khalidi estimates 19,792 casualties for the Arabs, with 5,032 dead: 3,832 killed by the British and 1,200 dead due to intracommunal terrorism, and 14,760 wounded. Over ten percent of the adult male Palestinian Arab population between 20 and 60 was killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled. Estimates of the number of Palestinian Jews killed range from 91 to several hundred.
The Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine was unsuccessful, and its consequences affected the outcome of the 1948 Palestine war. It caused the British Mandate to give crucial support to pre-state Zionist militias like the Haganah, whereas on the Palestinian Arab side, the revolt forced the flight into exile of the main Palestinian Arab leader of the period, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – Haj Amin al-Husseini.
Economic factors played a major role in the outbreak of the Arab revolt. Palestine's fellahin, the country's peasant farmers, comprised over two-thirds of the indigenous Arab population and from the 1920s onwards they were pushed off the land in increasingly large numbers into urban environments where they often encountered only poverty and social marginalisation.Many were crowded into shanty towns in Jaffa and Haifa where they found succor and encouragement in the teachings of the charismatic preacher Izz ad-Din al-Qassam who worked among the poor in Haifa. The revolt was thus a popular uprising that produced its own leaders and developed into a national revolt.
World War I left Palestine, especially the countryside, deeply impoverished. The Ottoman and then the Mandate authorities levied high taxes on farming and agricultural produce and during the 1920s and 1930s this together with a fall in prices, cheap imports, natural disasters and paltry harvests all contributed to the increasing indebtedness of the fellahin. The rents paid by tenant fellah increased sharply, owing to increased population density, and transfer of land from Arabs to the Jewish settlement agencies, such as the Jewish National Fund, increased the number of fellahin evicted while also removing the land as a future source of livelihood. By 1931 the 106,400 dunums of low-lying Category A farming land in Arab possession supported a farming population of 590,000 whereas the 102,000 dunums of such land in Jewish possession supported a farming population of only 50,000. [35] The late 1920s witnessed poor harvests, and the consequent immiseration grew even harsher with the onset of the Great Depression and the collapse of commodity prices.The Shaw Commission had warned in 1930 identified the existence of a class of 'embittered landless people' as a contributory factor to the 1929 disturbances,and the problem of these 'landless' Arabs grew particularly grave after 1931, causing High Commissioner Wauchope to warn that this 'social peril ... would serve as a focus of discontent and might even result in serious disorders. '
Although the Mandatory government introduced measures to limit the transfer of land from Arabs to Jews these were easily circumvented by willing buyers and sellers. The failure of the authorities to invest in economic growth and healthcare for the general Palestinian public and the Zionist policy of ensuring that their investments were directed only to facilitate expansion exclusively of the Yishuv further compounded matters. The government did, however, set the minimum wage for Arab workers below that for Jewish workers, which meant that those making capital investments in the Yishuv's economic infrastructure, such as Haifa's electricity plant, the Shemen oil and soap factory, the Grands Moulins flour mills and the Nesher cement factory, could take advantage of cheap Arab labour pouring in from the countryside. After 1935 the slump in the construction boom and further concentration by the Yishuv on an exclusivist Hebrew labour programme removed most of the sources of employment for rural migrants. By 1935 only 12,000 Arabs (5% of the workforce) worked in the Jewish sector, half of these in agriculture, whereas 32,000 worked for the Mandate authorities and 211,000 were either self-employed or worked for Arab employers.
The ongoing disruption of agrarian life in Palestine, which had been continuing since Ottoman times, thus created a large population of landless peasant farmers who subsequently became mobile wage workers who were increasingly marginalised and impoverished; these became willing participants in nationalist rebellion. At the same time, Jewish immigration peaked in 1935, just months before Palestinian Arabs began a full-scale, nationwide revolt. Over the four years between 1933 and 1936 more than 164,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine, and between 1931 and 1936 the Jewish population more than doubled from 175,000 to 370,000 people, increasing the Jewish population share from 17% to 27%, and bringing about a significant deterioration in relations between Palestinian Arabs and Jews.
The advent of Zionism and British colonial administration crystallised Palestinian nationalism and the desire to defend indigenous traditions and institutions.Palestinian society was largely clan-based (hamula), with an urban land-holding elite lacking a centralized leadership.Traditional feasts such as Nebi Musa began to acquire a political and nationalist dimension and new national memorial days were introduced or gained new significance; among them Balfour Day (2 November, marking the Balfour Declaration of 1917), the anniversary of the Battle of Hattin (4 July), and beginning in 1930 May 16 was celebrated as Palestine Day.The expansion of education, the development of civil society and of transportation, communications, and especially of broadcasting and other media, all facilitated notable changes. The Yishuv itself, at the same time, was steadily building the structures for its own state-building with public organizations like the Jewish Agency and the covert creation and consolidation of a paramilitary arm with the Haganah and Irgun.
In 1930 Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam organized and established the Black Hand, a small anti-Zionist and anti-British militant band. He recruited and arranged military training for impoverished but pious peasants but also for ex-criminals he had persuaded to take Islam seriously and they engaged in a campaign of vandalizing trees planted by farmers and British-constructed rail lines,[47] destroying phone lines and disrupting transportation. Three minor mujāhīdūn and jihadist groups had also been formed that advocated armed struggle; these were the Green Hand (al-Kaff al-Khaḍrā) -active in the area of Acre-Safed-Nazareth from 1929 until 1930 when they were dispersed; the Organization for Holy Struggle (al-Jihād al-Muqaddas), led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and operative in the areas of Jerusalem (1931-1934); and the Rebel Youth (al-Shabāb al-Thā'ir), active in the Tulkarm and Qalqilyah area from 1935, and comprised mainly of local boy scouts. )
The pressures of the 30s wrought several changes, giving rise to new political organizations and a broader activism that spurred a far wider cross-section of the population in rural areas, strongly nationalist, to join actively in the Palestinian cause. Among new political parties formed in this period were the Independence Party which called for an Indian Congress Party-style boycott of the British, the pro-Nashashibi National Defence Party, the pro-Husayni Palestinian Arab Party the pro-Khalidi Arab-Palestinian Reform Party, and the National Bloc, based mainly around Nablus.
Youth organisations emerged like Young Men's Muslim Association and the Youth Congress Party, the former anti-Zionist, the latter pan-Arab. The Palestinian Boy Scout Movement, founded early in 1936, became active in the general strike. Women's organisations, which had been active in social matters, became politically involved from the end of the 1920s, with an Arab Women's Congress held in Jerusalem in 1929 attracting 200 participants, and an Arab Women's Association (later Arab Women's Union) being established at the same time, both organised by feminist Tarab Abdul Hadi.
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Riot
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19 August 2018 Lombok earthquake
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On 19 August 2018 a major earthquake struck with high intensity on the northeast corner of Lombok (Sambelia and Labuhan Lombok settlements) and northwest Sumbawa (Poto Tano settlement) at 22:56 local time, a few km to the east of the series of quakes that had been rocking the area for the past 3 weeks. It was measured at Mw 6.9 (USGS), at a depth of 25.6 km. [1] The Indonesian BMKG announced that it was a new major earthquake and it was not an aftershock. The earthquake occurred on the same overall structure, the Flores Back Arc Thrust Belt, however according to scientists it happened on a different thrust fault as there are many individual structures within the belt. [2] There were 14 deaths and 1800 homes have been damaged, half severely, due to this event, including deaths on Sumbawa, following 2 deaths from the previous Lombok quake roughly 24 hours prior. [3] Heavy tiles fell from the local mosque, and 143 patients were being treated outdoors in makeshift tents for injuries on Sumbawa. [4]
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Earthquakes
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Aeroflot Flight 2 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 2 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot from Vitim Airport in the Sakha Republic to Irkutsk International Airport near Irkutsk. On 20 July 1977, the Avia 14 operating this flight crashed into trees outside the airport shortly after takeoff. Thirty-three passengers and all six crewmembers were killed, while one passenger survived. The Air Accident Investigation Commission concluded the cause of the accident was the use of a runway unsuitable for takeoff. At the time of departure the wind was from 120 degrees at 3 meters per second, it was raining and the runway had standing water on it. The pilot in command elected to take off from runway 34 with a quartering tail wind, and to use the left (west) side of the runway as it was drier there. Lined up 35 meters to the left of center, the crew commenced the takeoff. 225 meters from the start of the takeoff run the left main landing gear tires ran over a runway edge marking cone. 120 meters further down the runway the crew rotated the aircraft and 105 meters further ran over another cone. 100 meters further and almost completely off the runway, the right main landing gear tires ran over a third cone. The aircraft was still accelerating with the nose up when a fourth cone was flattened. 945 meters from the beginning of takeoff, the airliner lifted off and flew 185 meters before striking the airport perimeter fence with its tail. Flying another 200 meters at an altitude of 14 meters, the aircraft impacted trees at the edge of a forest, losing part of its left wing tip and outermost aileron. After the impact with trees, the aircraft was able to climb to 25–30 meters altitude, but after flying 300 meters further with a high pitch angle the aircraft stalled, rolling to the right, pitched over and descended rapidly. Rolled 50–55 degrees right and at a negative pitch angle of 45–50 degrees, the aircraft crashed into the forest 500 meters from the end of the runway, 225 meters to the left of center. The impact and post-crash fire killed all on board except a 21-year-old passenger who survived with injuries.
Construction of the Avia 14 involved, serial number 806109, was completed at the Avia aircraft factory on 28 June 1958 as a 14-32, the 32-seat variant of the Avia 14. Two days later it was purchased by Czech Airlines and registered OK-MCP. On 28 October 1975 the airliner was acquired by the Soviet Union and re-registered as CCCP-52096 to Aeroflot and converted to an Avia 14M. At the time of the accident the aircraft had sustained a total of 20,464 flight hours and 20,467 takeoff and landing cycles.
The Air Accident Investigation Commission placed most of the blame on the captain for deciding to take off from a runway with a large amount of standing water on it and attempting to use only part of the runway. A lack of caution by air traffic controllers in allowing the use of a wet runway with a tail wind and incomplete weather information were also determining factors in the crash.
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Air crash
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Indonesia's Semeru volcano erupts spewing hot clouds days after deadly earthquake
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Indonesia's Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring ash and smoke more than 5 kilometres into the sky above Java, just days after 49 people were killed in a deadly earthquake on Indonesia's Sulawesi island. No evacuation orders have been issued so far on Java, the country's most densely populated island, but the National Disaster Mitigation Agency warned villagers living on the mountain's slopes to be alert for ongoing volcanic activity. Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati said people around the river basin on the slopes of the mountain should beware of high rainfall intensity that can trigger lava floods. Some people believe volcanic eruptions are caused by fate, but science has another explanation. Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre did not raise Semeru's alert status, which already had been at the third-highest level since it began erupting in May. The volcano spewed hot ash for 3,000 meters in early December, triggering panic among villagers. Government seismologists monitor more than 120 active volcanoes throughout Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 250 million people. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes. On Sulawesi island, rescue operations were underway following a magnitude-6.2 earthquake that killed at least 49 people and injured hundreds on Friday. Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment hampered rescue operations focused on eight locations in the hardest-hit city of Mamuju, where people were still believed trapped under the rubble, said Saidar Rahmanjaya, who heads the local search and rescue agency. Cargo planes carrying food, tents, blankets and other supplies from Jakarta landed late Friday (local time) for distribution in temporary shelters. Still, thousands of people spent the night in the open fearing aftershocks and a possible tsunami. The National Search and Rescue Agency's operations director, Bambang Suryo Aji, said rescuers recovered three more bodies in the rubble of collapsed homes and buildings in Mamuju late Saturday, raising the death toll to 49. A total of 40 people were killed in Mamuju, while nine bodies were retrieved in neighbouring Majene district. At least 415 houses in Majene were damaged and about 15,000 people were moved to shelters, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati. Bodies retrieved by rescuers were sent to a police hospital for identification by relatives, said West Sulawesi police spokesperson Syamsu Ridwan. He said more than 200 people were receiving treatment at the Bhayangkara police hospital and several others in Mamuju alone. Another 630 were injured in Majene. Among those rescued was a young girl who was stuck in the wreckage of a house with her sister. The girl was seen in video released by the disaster agency on Friday crying for help. She was now being treated in a hospital. She identified herself as Angel and said that her sister, Catherine, who did not appear in the video, was beside her under the rubble and was still breathing. The fate of Catherine and other family members was unclear. The quake set off landslides in three locations and blocked a main road connecting Mamuju to Majene. Power and phone lines were down in many areas. Mamuju, the capital of West Sulawesi province with nearly 75,000 people, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. A government office building was almost flattened by the quake and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge collapsed and patients with drips laid on folding beds under tarpaulin tents outside one of the damaged hospitals. Two hospitals in the city were damaged and others were overwhelmed. Many survivors said that aid had not reached them yet due to damaged roads and disrupted communications. Video from a TV station showed villagers in Majene, some carrying machetes, forcibly stopping vehicles carrying aid. They climbed onto a truck and threw boxes of instant noodles and other supplies at dozens of people who were scrambling to get them. Two ships were headed to the devastated areas from the nearby cities of Makassar and Balikpapan with rescuers and equipment, including excavators. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Friday that he instructed his Cabinet ministers and disaster and military officials to coordinate the response. On Thursday, a magnitude 5.7 undersea quake hit the same region, damaging several homes but causing no apparent casualties. It was followed by more than 30 aftershocks, including the deadly quake. In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Palu on Sulawesi island set off a tsunami and caused soil to collapse in a phenomenon called liquefaction. More than 4,000 people were killed, including many who were buried when whole neighbourhoods were swallowed in the falling ground. A massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. ABC/wires
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Volcano Eruption
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Mariana Trench submarine dive finds manmade rubbish at sea's deepest point
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On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a United States explorer saw something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: rubbish.
Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer and Texas-based investor, said he made the unsettling discovery as he descended nearly 10,928 metres to a point in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench that is the deepest place on Earth.
Mr Vescovo also saw angular metal or plastic objects, one with writing on it.
"It was very disappointing to see obvious human contamination of the deepest point in the ocean," he said.
Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 100 million tonnes of it now found in the world's oceans, according to the United Nations.
Previous analysis of tiny deep-sea animals in the Mariana Trench found the ocean depths contain high levels of pollution.
In the past three weeks, the expedition has made four dives in the Mariana Trench in Mr Vescovo's submarine, DSV Limiting Factor, collecting biological and rock samples.
According to Five Deeps Expedition, their scientific team identified at least three new species of marine animal during the dive series, which also went to the bottom of the Indian, Southern and Atlantic oceans.
A type of long-appendaged amphipod was discovered at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench.
In the Java Trench, the deepest point of the Indian Ocean, researchers identified a gelatinous animal — thought to be a stalked ascidean, otherwise known as a sea squirt — which they said does not resemble anything seen before.
"It is not often we see something that is so extraordinary that it leaves us speechless," said chief expedition scientist Dr Alan Jamieson.
"Amongst many other rare and unique observations, the stalked ascidean was a really significant moment."
Mr Vescovo is the first person to make multiple dives to the depths of the Mariana Trench, where on one occasion he spent four hours on the bottom.
His latest dive went 16 metres lower than the previous deepest descent in the trench in 1960.
"It is almost indescribable how excited all of us are about achieving what we just did," Mr Vescovo said after arriving in Guam after the completion of the dives.
"This submarine and its mother ship, along with its extraordinarily talented expedition team, took marine technology to an unprecedented new level by diving — rapidly and repeatedly — into the deepest, harshest area of the ocean."
Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron was the last to visit in 2012 in his submarine, reaching a depth of 10,908 metres.
The first-ever expedition to Challenger Deep was made by the United States Navy in 1960.
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Environment Pollution
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Rescuers search deep mud for hundreds missing after Brazil waste dam collapse
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Brazilian firefighters and Israeli rescue workers moved carefully Monday over treacherous mud, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, in search of survivors or bodies, four days after a dam collapse that buried mine buildings and surrounding neighbourhoods with iron ore waste. The confirmed death toll rose to 65, with 279 people still missing, according to the fire department in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, where the tailings dam for a Vale mining operation is located. The death toll was expected to grow "exponentially" on Monday after no one was found alive Sunday, the department said. That stood in contrast to the first two days of the disaster, when helicopters whisked people out of the mud. Search efforts were extremely slow because of the treacherous sea of reddish-brown mud that surged out when the mine dam breached Friday afternoon. It's as much as eight metres deep in some places. To avoid the danger of sinking and drowning themselves, searchers had to carefully walk around the edges or slowly crawl out onto the muck. Rescue teams Monday morning focused their searches on areas where a bus was immersed and the company cafeteria, where many workers were eating lunch when the dam ruptured. At the scene of the disaster, helicopters looking for bodies took off and landed nonstop. On the ground, dozens of rescuers with tracking dogs were searching for bodies through the mountains of mud. More than 100 Israelis equipped with specialized rescue technology joined the 200 Brazilian firefighters in the search. Rescue efforts had been suspended for about 10 hours Sunday because of fears that a second mine dam in the southeastern city of Brumadinho was at risk of failing. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by afternoon civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk. Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable. Still, it was slow going for the search teams, and residents were on edge and some started searching on their own for relatives. A Catholic priest for a church now being used as a command centre for rescuers said many of his parishioners are believed to be buried in mud. "It's going to be difficult to rebuild our hearts," said the priest, Rene Lopez. "It's an open wound for all of the people in Brumadinho." And there was mounting anger directed at Vale, the area's largest employer, amid questions about an apparent lack of a warning siren ahead of Friday's collapse. "The company didn't take care of the people," said Josefa de Santos, who has friends and neighbours among the missing. "I heard the cries of people asking for help, everyone was running and screaming. The siren didn't go off at all, it was horrible." In an email, Vale told The Associated Press that the area has eight sirens, but "the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible" when the dam burst. Senator Renan Calheiros called for Vale's board of directors to step down, and Attorney General Raquel Dodge told reporters that Vale executives could be held responsible. "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 neighbourhood of Parque Cachoeira, eight kilometres from where the dam collapsed. For many, hope was evaporating. "I don't think he is alive," Joao Bosco said of his cousin Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. "Right now, I can only hope for a miracle." The carpet 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 UN report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals." Vale SA is the world's largest producer of iron ore, the raw ingredient for making steel. Over the weekend, courts froze about $3 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims. Vale, which owns mining interests in Ontario, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, is bracing for the financial impact of the disaster. Its American depository shares plunged 18 per cent Monday on the New York Stock exchange on fears of liability costs. Its stock, listed in Brazil, also plunged. Dividends for shareholders have been suspended, as have managers' bonuses. Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in Minas Gerais, causing 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, that disaster 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. Other residents quietly noted that Vale was the main employer in the area. "The company is responsible for a new tragedy, but it's the principal employer," said Diego Aparecido, who has missing friends who worked at Vale. "What will happen if it closes?" 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, toured the area Sunday. She said Congress should bear part of the blame for not toughening regulations and enforcement. "All the warnings have been given. We are repeating history with this tragedy," she told the AP. "Brazil can't become a specialist in rescuing victims and consoling widows. Measures need to be taken to avoid prevent this from happening again."
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Mine Collapses
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1948 Litang earthquake
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The 1948 Litang earthquake (1948年理塘地震) occurred on May 28, 1948 at 07:11 UTC. It was located near Litang, China. Now situated in the Sichuan Province, Litang County was then called Lihua (or Lihwa) (理化) County and belonged to the defunct Xikang (or Sikang) Province. The earthquake had a magnitude of Mw 7.2,[1] or Ms 7.3. [2]
This earthquake caused more than 800 deaths. More than 600 houses collapsed in the areas around Litang and Daocheng. Landslides, ground fissures and sandblows occurred in the region. The intensity of the earthquake reached MM X. [2] Some of the aftershocks caused additional damage. [3]
The earthquake occurred in the middle segment between Litang and Dewu (德巫) of the Litang-Dewu fault zone (理塘-德巫断裂带). [4] Litang Fault, situated in the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block (川滇菱形块体), is a NW-trending fault and dominated mainly by left-lateral shear movement. The average horizontal slip rate of the Litang Fault is about 3.2 to 4.4 mm/yr on the Litang-Dewu segment and about 2.6 to 3.0 mm/yr on the segment to the north of Litang. [5] A study of Wang et al. estimated that the Litang fault has a left-lateral strike-slip rate of 4.4±1.3 mm/yr and an extension rate of 2.7±1.1 mm/yr. [6] The focal mechanism was recognized to be a left-lateral slip on a plane striking northwest (315°) for a distance of about 75 km. The released seismic moment was estimated to be about 7.4×1019 Nm. [7]
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Earthquakes
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Northwest Airlink Flight 2268 crash
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Northwest Airlink Flight 2268 was a commuter flight between Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan, just outside Detroit. The flight was operated by Fischer Brothers Aviation, doing business as Northwest Airlink, and was operated by a CASA C-212 aircraft. On March 4, 1987, the plane crashed while attempting to land. Nine of the 19 passengers and crew on board were killed in the accident. [1][2]
Northwest Airlink Flight 2268 was crewed by captain David W. Sherer (45) and first officer Shawn D. Manningham (25). [1]
At 2:30 p.m. after being cleared for a visual approach to Runway 21R and while just 60–70 feet above the ground, Flight 2268 banked left in a descent and then rolled right. The twin-engine turboprop aircraft struck the ramp area inside and to the left of the runway threshold, flipping over, and then striking a catering truck before bursting into flames. [3]
Nine of the 19 people on board the aircraft died, including both pilots. Autopsies determined the cause of death to be smoke inhalation and burns. Federal investigators said the nine victims may not have died if their seat cushions had been treated with fire retardant. [4] Three people on the ground were also injured in the accident. [1]
The job of investigating the crash was made difficult due to the aircraft having neither a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. [5]
Shortly after the investigation was started, it was learned that Captain Sherer had been cited twice for unsafe flying. Records showed that had his license suspended for 15 days in 1979. [6]
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was "the captain’s inability to control the airplane in an attempt to recover from an asymmetric power condition at low speed following his intentional use of the beta mode of propeller operation to descend and slow the airplane rapidly on final approach for landing. Factors that contributed to the accident were an unstabilized visual approach, the presence of a departing DC-9 on the runway, the desire to make a short field landing, and the higher-than-normal flight idle fuel flow settings of both engines. The lack of fire-blocking material in passenger seat cushions contributed to the severity of the injuries. "[1]
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Air crash
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Chinese weightlifter Xi breaks his own world record and wins gold in 73kg weightlifting
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Japan news 28/07/2021 Chinese weightlifter Shi Qiong, who won gold in the 73kg weightlifting category, celebrates his success during his participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday. Photo: Ergard Garrido/Reuters. TOKYO (Reuters) – Chinese weightlifter Shi Qiong broke his own world record in the men’s 73kg weightlifting event at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday, claiming his second straight gold medal at the Games. The 27-year-old lifted 364kg in total, breaking his previous world record of 363kg set at the 2019 World Championships. Shi maintained a strong performance during the competition, breaking the Olympic record for snatching at the second attempt and again at the third. Xi, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 69kg weight category, also broke the Olympic record for jerk at the first attempt. Venezuelan Julio Ruben Mayura Bernia took the silver and Rahmat Irwin Abdullah of Indonesia took the bronze. (Prepared by Ashraf Hamed for the Arab Newsletter) (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions –https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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Break historical records
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One person dead, two injured in slide at copper and gold mine near Kamloops
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Two New Gold employees received non-life threatening injuries and received medical care while one contract driller is dead. One person is dead and two others were injured after an underground mudslide at New Gold’s New Afton copper and gold mine near Kamloops early Tuesday morning. In a news release, the company said at about 1:40 a.m. three individuals were caught in the slide. The B.C. Coroners Service confirmed one worker died. Two New Gold employees received non-life-threatening injuries and received medical care, the company said. New Gold says mining has been suspended while authorities and the company investigate. Sarah Morris with B.C. Emergency Health Services confirmed seven paramedic crews were called just after 2 a.m., and transferred two patients for further care. She says both workers were released from hospital. An RCMP spokeswoman says police secured the scene and are investigating to determine if there is anything criminal about the incident, while the coroner and WorkSafeBC are also at the scene. B.C. Mines Minister Bruce Ralston said, in a statement, that he was saddened to hear of the death and injuries at the mine. “A contractor was one of three workers at the mine who became trapped by an unexpected underground mudslide. While the other two were rescued and transported to hospital, the third individual is presumed dead,” said Ralston. “I send my sincerest condolences to the individual’s family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time.” Ralston added that work at the mine site has been suspended and the chief inspector of mines has started an investigation and is in contact with RCMP and the coroner’s office. “As always, our top priority is the health and safety of all British Columbians,” said Ralston.
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Mine Collapses
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This start-up turns locust swarms in Kenya into animal feed
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Environment The Bug Picture has worked for the last six weeks in Kenya to pilot a program that pays farmers to collect locusts from their fields in exchange for cash. Since late January, The Bug Picture has been paying people in rural Kenya to harvest locusts on their land. The insects are then ground up into protein-rich food for livestock. Courtesy of The Bug Picture Most people associate a swarm of desert locusts with destruction. The Bug Picture, an insect-protein company, sees something else — an opportunity. The start-up has worked for the last six weeks in Kenya to pilot a program that pays farmers to collect locusts from their fields in exchange for cash. Related: Coronavirus — and locusts — threaten Kenya's food security Desert locusts are nutrient rich. They have a protein content comparable to meat products. Courtesy of The Bug Picture Parts of East Africa have seen the worst locust outbreak in 70 years over the past 14 months, devastating food sources and costing billions of dollars in crop damage. A report out last week from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is calling for cautious optimism in the region, saying there has been a decline in swarms. Related: New ICARUS tracking system helps scientists unlock mysteries of migration But insect-protein entrepreneurs are already planning for the next outbreak. Locust collectors weigh their insects in the morning after a night of harvesting. Courtesy of The Bug Picture “Our locust project is getting people thinking about locusts in a different way,” said Scilla Allen, a project manager with The Bug Picture, with headquarters in Rwanda. The company has been turning insects into animal feed and compost since 2018. Over the past six weeks, the company collected more than 4 tons of locusts, and they’re still hunting for more, with plans to scale up. Their main business is raising black soldier flies as animal feed, but since January, they’ve focused on locust collection with funding from Danida, a Danish humanitarian emergency relief fund. Once The Bug Picture locates a swarm, they follow it and reach out to the affected community. “We issue bags and we issue big plastic sheets,” Allen said. They teach people the best way to capture locusts, waiting until the coolest part of the night, when the insects rest on vegetation, immobilized by the cold. “And you can literally shake the tree, and they will fall from the tree onto a black sheet, and then you just pour from the sheet into the sack,” Allen said. Related: Here's how to convert your lawn into a bee pollinator habitat Some people pick the locusts by hand. Allen says in their pilot, families were able to harvest hundreds of pounds of locusts in one night. “We walk away with the locusts, and they walk away with the money." “We walk away with the locusts, and they walk away with the money,” Allen said. One family made $90 in a night, which represents about a month's wages for an informal worker in the region. Allen and the team then bring the locusts to a facility where they are ground up and eventually milled into protein-rich food for livestock. Related: Meet the fastest ants in the world: Saharan silver ants “Locusts are extremely rich in protein. ... It’s comparable to that of most meat-based protein products and way higher plant-based protein products.” “Locusts are extremely rich in protein,” said Chrysantus Mbi Tanga, a researcher at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, in Nairobi. “It’s comparable to that of most meat-based protein products and way higher plant-based protein products.” Tanga and his colleagues have been researching how to get locusts into the food system for years. With increased efficiency and organization, people in locust-infested areas could capture locusts in an early phase of their development, before they cause devastation. Related: As the climate changes, migratory birds are losing their way “They could remove a huge amount of locusts even before they start swarming,” Tanga said. “This option can be a very good way of controlling locusts.” There would also be less need for pesticides that harm local insect biodiversity, Tanga said. If produced on a large scale, insect-based livestock feed could replace expensive soy and fishmeal impacts, saving the Kenyan economy millions of dollars a year. Courtesy of The Bug Picture To scale up, farmers need better tools, Tanga said, such as hand-held, fuel-powered vacuum pumps, which could suck up hundreds of pounds of locusts in a matter of hours. His organization has been developing vacuum technologies, as well as collapsible traps. With government support, Tanga said that in outbreak years, locusts could become a substantial food source for the country’s livestock, replacing expensive imported soy and fish protein. Feeding insects to livestock in greater amounts could also save the country hundreds of millions of dollars, according to research by Tanga and others. “The potential for harvesting locusts to improve food systems is massive,” Tanga said. “This is a huge resource, which we are currently not taking advantage of.” While the latest outbreak cannot be directly attributed to climate change, studies show that increased storm activity and changing rainfall patterns may increase the severity of locust swarms in the region. Locusts are dried and milled into nutrient-rich meal which can be fed to livestock or added to compost. Courtesy of The Bug Picture Locusts, by nature, are hard to predict. They don’t swarm every year, but The Bug Picture founder Laura Stanford said she wants the project to grow and spread to other countries where locusts have been a problem, such as India, Pakistan, Somalia and Ethiopia. “We have proven the concept that we can view these locusts as a seasonal crop that comes through every few years,” Stanford said. “It might not be as large a disaster next year or later this year, but when it does come, we've got those learnings.”
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Insect Disaster
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Southwest Gas says 'human error' led to pipe explosion at Chandler print shop
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On Aug. 26, multiple crews responded to Ray and Rural roads around 9:30 a.m. after Platinum Printing exploded. Four men were hurt in the blast, including the two brothers, Andrew and Dillon Ryan, who own Platinum Printing. The Arizona Burn Center said all four had burns across their bodies ranging from 16% to 30%. They suffered propane flash burn injuries to their arms, hands, thighs and legs. An employee at Platinum Printing, Parker Mildebrandt, was also badly burned and was in a coma, according to a family spokesperson.
Wife thanks fire crews, medical team treating husband hurt in Chandler explosion
According to statements released by Southwest Gas, the cause of the leak and explosion was due to premature degradation in a certain type of natural gas pipe, the Driscopipe 8000, that was purchased by Southwest Gas between 1980 to 1999. A Southwest Gas spokesperson says the pipe at the location of the explosion was installed in 1999.
Multiple crews responded to a building that exploded in Chandler near Ray and Rural roads Thursday morning.
Source: 3TV/CBS 5
Southwest Gas says that degradation in this pipe type has a low risk of happening, but when it does, it causes the pipe to be susceptible to leaks under specific conditions. The spokesperson said one of those conditions is when certain sizes of the pipe are exposed to prolonged periods of "no-flow conditions," meaning pressurized inactive pipelines, and are exposed to prolonged elevated temperatures, like those experienced in Maricopa County.
Southwest Gas determined the Driscopipe 8000 to be at-risk after a 2014 garage explosion at a home in Gilbert. At that time, Southwest Gas began an initiative spanning several years to replace or abandon any pipe sections that were at risk. Southwest Gas states that an "error in the construction records misidentified the type of gas pipe" used near Platinum Printing, which resulted in that pipe section not being included in the replacement efforts. Southwest Gas is in the process of investigating how that error occurred. "We are confident that we are taking all appropriate measures to protect against any similar instances of human error in reporting,” the company said in a statement.
"It brings me back to that, and to a certain extent, anger that this happened again to somebody else," said Jason Nelson, who was badly burned in a gas leak explosion too. Nelson's body was 80% burned in his Gilbert garage back in 2014, when this same kind of pipe caused a gas explosion. He's had 47 surgeries since, and spent a year in the hospital.
A happy Fourth: Gilbert man burned in garage blast goes home
Even in the darkest of hours, Tammy Yohe always believed her husband would pull through.On July 4, Jason Nelson is home again, some five months after a natural gas explosion burned 80 percent of his body.
"It brings me back to what happened in my accident, except it’s four people this time instead of one. Thank God it wasn’t an apartment complex or a daycare," Nelson said. "A family shouldn’t have to go through this again."
Tom Ryan is the attorney representing brothers Dillon and Andrew Ryan, and he says he wants answers. "There's a lot to it, going all the way back to the manufacturer. It's something of a Russian stacking doll problem. We will be pursuing everybody up and down the line to recover from this," said Ryan.
Ryan says the damage goes much further than the loss of their family business. "That was their sole source of income. And that’s before we start talking about the terror and the horror that inflicted on the children, the wives, the parents," Ryan said.
The Southwest Gas spokesperson said prompt actions are being taken to implement a new plan that includes extensive leak inspections, including mobile leak patrols and walking leak patrols of similarly sized pipe installations of all pipe types installed in 1999-2001. Southwest Gas claims this type of inspection identifies pipe leaks for repair before they become hazardous or even noticeable. The plan will also prioritize the abandonment of inactive services installed between 1999-2001, and will include a review of construction records for installations done during that timeframe.
Southwest Gas continues to investigate but encourages anyone who suspects a gas leak to leave the area immediately and call 911 and Southwest Gas at 1-877-860-6020 from a safe location.
A Valley attorney representing Milledebrandt provided the following statement regarding Southwest Gas's initial findings:
As you know there is a history of incidents involving Driscopipe 8000 and desert environments. A repair, replace, remediation process was supposed to have been completed by South West Gas. As a result of their failure to comply three young men have been horribly burned. I spoke with my client Parker Milldebrandt this morning. As expected he is in pain. However he is extremely grateful for the care he is receiving and the support from family and friends. Most of all he is happy and filed with gratitude and love for the birth of his daughter Rilee who entered the world yesterday. Baby Rilee and mother Sierra are both doing well.
Arizona's Family has followed up with the Chandler Police Department for an update regarding their investigation into the explosion. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also investigating.
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Gas explosion
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London builders' strike (1859)
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The London builders' strike of 1859 was a strike and resulting lock out of building trade workers across London. The action did not result in any changes to working conditions, but it led to the formation of new, national trade unions in the United Kingdom. In London, building trade workers had secured a maximum ten-hour working day in 1834, but despite several efforts to reduce hours either to nine per day, or to work only half days on Saturday, barely any further progress had been made. The sole exception was the strong Operative Society of Masons (OSM), whose members were generally able to finish work at 4 on Saturdays. [1]
In 1856, building workers in Manchester secured the right to finish work at 1 on Saturdays, and this inspired those in London to start a new campaign for shorter hours. In order to gain the support of both the OSM, the Operative Bricklayers' Society (OBS), and the unorganised carpenters, a Central Board agreed in 1858 to campaign for the nine-hour working day, the movement being led by George Potter. An initial petition was refused by employers, at which point Potter organised a permanent "Conference" to continue the campaign. [1]
The Conference began meeting in September 1858, and began attracting representatives of other building trades: painters, plasterers, and builders' labourers. The OSM walked out, preferring to campaign for an early finish on Saturdays, but soon returned, and R. W. Grey of the OSM became chair of the Conference. [1]
In its early period, the Conference tried to persuade employers of their case by presenting "memorials" to them, and it also published "Live and Let Live", an essay by Evan Daniel in support of its cause. These tactic proved unsuccessful, and in March 1859, the Conference called delegate meetings across London, where Potter spoke. It organised a ballot of affiliates, offering three options: further agitation, which received 1,395 votes, arbitration, with 1,157 votes, and strike action, which had just 772 votes. [1]
Further agitation proved equally unproductive, and in June and July, the OBS and the carpenters both voted in favour of a strike, but the OSM and its leader, Richard Harnott, remained opposed, as did the smaller unions. The Conference decided to organise a petition to employers. One petition was presented to Trollope of Pimlico, which decided to sack the leader of the delegation which presented it, a member of the OSM. The OSM then sparked into action, withdrawing all its members from work for Trollope, and on 21 July the Conference made this a strike of all building workers at Trollope's, demanding both the reinstatement of the sacked worker, and the nine-hour day. [1]
The employers, working together as the Central Master Builders' Association, united to oppose the strike, all the larger firms locking out trade unionists within two weeks, leading to 24,000 people finding themselves without work. They would only take on employees who signed the Document, which declared that signatories would not hold membership of a trade union. Very few workers, even among non-unionists, would agree to sign this, and the Conference sent representatives to the rest of the country in an attempt to stop the deliveries of building supplies to London. To their surprise, the Conference's position was backed by some newspapers, including Reynolds' Weekly Newspaper, the Weekly Mail, and the Morning Advertiser. The master builders changed approach, asking workers to make a verbal declaration rather than sign the Document, but this too was unsuccessful. [1]
Harnott arrived in London in September, and attempted to persuade the master builders to drop their Document, in exchange for abandoning the nine-hours policy which he had never supported. Only one company agreed to this, and while work recommenced there, Harnott left the city in defeat. Potter, by November, was ready to follow Harnott's approach, formally calling off the strike at Trollope's, and dropping the nine-hours claim, but the master builders were hopeful of success in the winter months, when less building work could be conducted, and continued their lockout. [1]
By the end of the year, only the OSM had the funds to continue regular strike pay to its members, with the OBS managing some payments. A new Builders' Labourers' Union was founded, but had no funds to pay its striking members, and other striking workers were either unorganised, or members of very small, local unions. However, Potter was able to secure substantial donations from trade union organisations around the country, with the Amalgamated Society of Engineers leading the way by donating £3,000 (equivalent to £302,716 in 2019).[2]. As a result, although the labourers were defeated in December, the other unions remained solid. [1]
The master builders finally withdrew the Document on 7 February 1860. Although the unions had not advanced their position from the previous year, the experience led workers to form stronger, national unions in the unorganised trades: the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, National Association of Operative Plasterers, Amalgamated Society of House Decorators and Painters and United Operative Plumbers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland were all formed over the next few years, as were the London Trades Council and The Bee-Hive trades union newspaper. [1][3]
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Strike
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Banja Luka incident crash
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The Banja Luka incident, on 28 February 1994, was an incident in which six Republika Srpska Air Force J-21 Jastreb single-seat light attack jets were engaged, and four of them shot down, by NATO warplanes from the United States Air Force. U.S. F-16 fighters southwest of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina successfully engaged and destroyed several Bosnian Serb warplanes which had attacked a Bosnian factory, while suffering no casualties of their own. It marked the first active combat action, air-to-air or otherwise, in NATO's history. [5]
In February 1994, the 526th Fighter Squadron, "Black Knights", based at Ramstein AB, Germany, was attached to the 401st Operations Group (Provisional) operating out of Aviano AB, Italy, as part of NATO's Operation Deny Flight. On 28 February, a flight of two 526th F-16s, "Knight 25" and "Knight 26", were crossing over Croatian airspace to conduct Close Air Support training near Sarajevo, Bosnia, when they detected six unidentified radar contacts eastbound in the No Fly Zone. These contacts were not immediately visible to the NATO AWACS aircraft flying over Hungarian territory because of distance and hilly terrain. After several minutes, AWACS was able to establish contact south of Banja Luka at 6:35 a.m. Two other 526th Squadron F-16s, Black 03 and Black 04, were vectored to the area and intercepted six J-21 Jastreb and two J-22 Orao aircraft that were bombing the "Bratstvo" military factory at Novi Travnik. [6]
In accordance with the UN and NATO rules of engagement, orders to "land or exit the no-fly zone or be engaged" were issued twice, but both warnings were ignored. While warnings were issued, the violating aircraft dropped bombs over their target, which was left in flames. In such circumstances NATO has a "single key", meaning that only one clearance was needed, so the Combined Air Operations Center was immediately able to clear the F-16s to attack. The Bosnian Serb Jastrebs headed northwards, back to their base. At 6:45 a.m., the NATO fighters engaged their opponents. Captain Robert G. Wright fired an AIM-120 AMRAAM, downing the first Jastreb which was flying at 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). The remaining Jastrebs dropped to a few hundred metres, flying at low level to use the mountainous terrain to hide from radar and make their escape back to Udbina. Wright pressed on, closing to within AIM-9 Sidewinder range. He engaged two aircraft with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, shooting them both down. After he had expended all his missiles and low on fuel, Wright handed over the chase to his wingman, Capt. Scott O'Grady, who had been flying 'top cover' above his flight leader. O'Grady dropped down to engage and fired an AIM-9M; the missile locked on and near explosion of the warhead triggered by the proximity fuse severely damaged the tail of the targeted Jastreb. Black flight was now approaching "bingo fuel", the point at which a plane will not have enough fuel to return, so they pulled off to refuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker circling in orbit over the Adriatic. At the same time the other pair of F-16Cs, "Knight 25" and "Knight 26",[7] had been vectored to the area by the AWACS. At 6:50 a.m., "Knight 25", piloted by Capt. Steve "Yogi" Allen, managed to get in behind a single Jastreb flying at a very low altitude. He launched a Sidewinder, downing another J-21 Jastreb. Knight 25 flight turned back hard to the south, where Knight 26, Col. John "Jace" Meyer, established radar lock on another aircraft fleeing to the northwest. After a minute of pursuit, radar contact was lost and the flight broke off the attack. Low on fuel, Knight 25 and 26 returned to the tanker over the Adriatic. After refueling, they resumed combat air patrol over Bosnia. One remaining Serb aircraft was able to land as it ran out of fuel at Udbina Air Base in the Serbian Krajina in present-day Croatia. The USAF credited three kills to Captain Robert Gordon "Wilbur" Wright,[8] flying F-16C-40 #89-2137/RS,[9] using an AIM-120 AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinders; and one kill using an AIM-9 Sidewinder to Captain Stephen L. "Yogi" Allen[10] flying F-16C-40 #89-2009/RS[11] of the same unit. The Bosnian Serbs acknowledged the loss of five aircraft in the incident; the discrepancy probably stems from the fact that an additional aircraft crashed after being hit by a missile explosion[12] while trying to escape in low-level flight. [13]
This engagement was the first wartime action conducted by NATO forces since its formation in 1949. The Bosnian Serb pilots involved in the incident were:
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Air crash
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Debt crisis
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The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that has been taking place in the European Union (EU) since the end of 2009. Several eurozone member states (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus) were unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like other eurozone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The eurozone crisis was caused by a balance-of-payments crisis, which is a sudden stop of foreign capital into countries that had substantial deficits and were dependent on foreign lending. The crisis was worsened by the inability of states to resort to devaluation (reductions in the value of the national currency). [3][4] Debt accumulation in some eurozone members was in part due to macroeconomic differences among eurozone member states prior to the adoption of the euro. The European Central Bank adopted an interest rate that incentivized investors in Northern eurozone members to lend to the South, whereas the South was incentivized to borrow because interest rates were very low. Over time, this led to the accumulation of deficits in the South, primarily by private economic actors. [3][4] A lack of fiscal policy coordination among eurozone member states contributed to imbalanced capital flows in the eurozone,[3][4] while a lack of financial regulatory centralization or harmonization among eurozone states, coupled with a lack of credible commitments to provide bailouts to banks, incentivized risky financial transactions by banks. [3][4] The detailed causes of the crisis varied from country to country. In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to sovereign debt as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. European banks own a significant amount of sovereign debt, such that concerns regarding the solvency of banking systems or sovereigns are negatively reinforcing. [5]
The onset of crisis was in late 2009 when the Greek government disclosed that its budget deficits were far higher than previously thought. [3] Greece called for external help in early 2010, receiving an EU–IMF bailout package in May 2010. [3] European nations implemented a series of financial support measures such as the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in early 2010 and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in late 2010. The ECB also contributed to solve the crisis by lowering interest rates and providing cheap loans of more than one trillion euro in order to maintain money flows between European banks. On 6 September 2012, the ECB calmed financial markets by announcing free unlimited support for all eurozone countries involved in a sovereign state bailout/precautionary programme from EFSF/ESM, through some yield lowering Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). [6] Ireland and Portugal received EU-IMF bailouts In November 2010 and May 2011, respectively. [3] In March 2012, Greece received its second bailout. Both Spain and Cyprus received rescue packages in June 2012. [3]
Return to economic growth and improved structural deficits enabled Ireland and Portugal to exit their bailout programmes in July 2014. Greece and Cyprus both managed to partly regain market access in 2014. Spain never officially received a bailout programme. Its rescue package from the ESM was earmarked for a bank recapitalisation fund and did not include financial support for the government itself. The crisis has had significant adverse economic effects and labour market effects, with unemployment rates in Greece and Spain reaching 27%,[7] and was blamed for subdued economic growth, not only for the entire eurozone but for the entire European Union. It had a major political impact on the ruling governments in 10 out of 19 eurozone countries, contributing to power shifts in Greece, Ireland, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belgium, and the Netherlands as well as outside of the eurozone in the United Kingdom. [8]
The eurozone crisis resulted from the structural problem of the eurozone and a combination of complex factors. There is a consensus that the root of the eurozone crisis lay in a balance-of-payments crisis (a sudden stop of foreign capital into countries that were dependent on foreign lending), and that this crisis was worsened by the fact that states could not resort to devaluation (reductions in the value of the national currency to make exports more competitive in foreign markets). [3][4] Other important factors include the globalisation of finance; easy credit conditions during the 2002–2008 period that encouraged high-risk lending and borrowing practices; the financial crisis of 2007–08; international trade imbalances; real estate bubbles that have since burst; the Great Recession of 2008–2012; fiscal policy choices related to government revenues and expenses; and approaches used by states to bail out troubled banking industries and private bondholders, assuming private debt burdens or socializing losses. Macroeconomic divergence among eurozone member states led to imbalanced capital flows between the member states. Prior to the adoption of the euro, Southern eurozone member states grew rapidly (with rising wages and prices) whereas Northern eurozone members grew slowly. Despite these different macroeconomic conditions, the European Central Bank could only adopt one interest rate, choosing one that meant that real interest rates in Germany were high (relative to inflation) and low in Southern eurozone member states. This incentivized investors in Germany to lend to the South, whereas the South was incentivized to borrow (because interest rates were very low). Over time, this led to the accumulation of deficits in the South, primarily by private economic actors. [3][4]
Comparative political economy explains the fundamental roots of the European crisis in varieties of national institutional structures of member countries (north vs. south), which conditioned their asymmetric development trends over time and made the union susceptible to external shocks. Imperfections in the Eurozone’s governance construction to react effectively exacerbated macroeconomic divergence. [9]
Eurozone member states could have alleviated the imbalances in capital flows and debt accumulation in the South by coordinating national fiscal policies. Germany could have adopted more expansionary fiscal policies (to boost domestic demand and reduce the outflow of capital) and Southern eurozone member states could have adopted more restrictive fiscal policies (to curtail domestic demand and reduce borrowing from the North). [3][4] Per the requirements of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, governments pledged to limit their deficit spending and debt levels. However, some of the signatories, including Germany and France, failed to stay within the confines of the Maastricht criteria and turned to securitising future government revenues to reduce their debts and/or deficits, sidestepping best practice and ignoring international standards. [10] This allowed the sovereigns to mask their deficit and debt levels through a combination of techniques, including inconsistent accounting, off-balance-sheet transactions, and the use of complex currency and credit derivatives structures. [10] From late 2009 on, after Greece's newly elected, PASOK government stopped masking its true indebtedness and budget deficit, fears of sovereign defaults in certain European states developed in the public, and the government debt of several states was downgraded. The crisis subsequently spread to Ireland and Portugal, while raising concerns about Italy, Spain, and the European banking system, and more fundamental imbalances within the eurozone. [11] The under-reporting was exposed through a revision of the forecast for the 2009 budget deficit from "6–8%" of GDP (no greater than 3% of GDP was a rule of the Maastricht Treaty) to 12.7%, almost immediately after PASOK won the October 2009 Greek national elections. Large upwards revision of budget deficit forecasts due to the international financial crisis were not limited to Greece: for example, in the United States forecast for the 2009 budget deficit was raised from $407 billion projected in the 2009 fiscal year budget, to $1.4 trillion, while in the United Kingdom there was a final forecast more than 4 times higher than the original. [12][13] In Greece, the low ("6–8%") forecast was reported until very late in the year (September 2009), clearly not corresponding to the actual situation. Fragmented financial regulation contributed to irresponsible lending in the years prior to the crisis. In the eurozone, each country had its own financial regulations, which allowed financial institutions to exploit gaps in monitoring and regulatory responsibility to resort to loans that were high-yield but very risky. Harmonization or centralization in financial regulations could have alleviated the problem of risky loans. Another factor that incentivized risky financial transaction was that national governments could not credibly commit not to bailout financial institutions who had undertaken risky loans, thus causing a moral hazard problem. [3][4]
The European debt crisis erupted in the wake of the Great Recession around late 2009, and was characterized by an environment of overly high government structural deficits and accelerating debt levels.
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Financial Crisis
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1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes
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The 1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes occurred slightly more than eight hours apart on 17 December. Their epicenters were located in the east of the Chilean Tierra del Fuego Province, close to the Argentine border on the island of Tierra del Fuego. The two shocks measured 7.7 and 7.6 on the moment magnitude scale and were the most powerful ever recorded in the south of Argentina and one of the most powerful in austral Chile. They were felt with intensities as high as VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and affected the settlements of Punta Arenas and Río Gallegos.
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Earthquakes
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8 years after he killed his girlfriend, Olympic runner Pistorius is up for parole
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Photographers take photos of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius as he appears at a bail hearing for the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb 20, 2013. Eight years after he shot dead his girlfriend, Pistorius is up for parole, but first he must meet with her parents as part of the parole procedure. Themba Hadebe/AP hide caption Photographers take photos of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius as he appears at a bail hearing for the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb 20, 2013. Eight years after he shot dead his girlfriend, Pistorius is up for parole, but first he must meet with her parents as part of the parole procedure. CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Eight years after he shot dead his girlfriend, Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius is up for parole, but first he must meet with her parents. Pistorius, a world-famous double-amputee athlete who competed at the 2012 Olympics, has been eligible for parole since July after he was convicted of murder for shooting model Reva Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet door in his home on Valentine's Day 2013. Pistorius was convicted of murder in 2015 and ultimately sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison. He became eligible for parole under South African law after serving half his sentence. A parole hearing for Pistorius was scheduled for last month and then canceled, partly because a meeting between Pistorius and Steenkamp's parents, Barry and June, had not been arranged, lawyers for both parties told The Associated Press on Monday. Corrections department officials scheduled the parole hearing for October but it was called off when a full report on Pistorius' time in prison wasn't available, said Julian Knight, a lawyer for Pistorius. The date for a new hearing has not yet been set, Knight said. Also, Barry and June Steenkamp want a face-to-face meeting with Pistorius before he is considered for early release from prison, as is their right under South Africa's victim-offender dialogue policy. The Steenkamps have previously said they want to challenge Pistorius on why he shot their daughter and they would get to do that, with victim-offender meetings aimed at achieving some kind of closure for families of victims of crimes. "They (Barry and June) feel that Reeva has got a voice. They are Reeva's voice, and they owe it to their beloved daughter," said Tania Koen, the Steenkamps' lawyer. The Steenkamps will also be allowed to make recommendations to the parole board, although Koen wouldn't say if they will oppose Pistorius' release. "We have discussed it," Koen said, but declined to give details. The opinion of victims' families is considered by a parole board when deciding whether to release an offender, but it's not the only criteria. The 34-year-old Pistorius could be taken from where he is incarcerated at the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in the capital, Pretoria, to the Steenkamps' home city of Gqerberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) for the victim-offender meeting because, according to Koen, Barry Steenkamp is unable to travel due to his health. Pistorius lawyer Knight said it might "turn out" that way but the corrections department would decide. Knight said he was hopeful that the meeting between Pistorius and the Steenkamps, which must happen before a parole hearing, could take place by the end of the year. It was a "huge surprise" for the Steenkamps when corrections services officials contacted them last month to say that Pistorius is eligible for parole, Koen said. They believed he would only be eligible in 2023, she said. "(It) opens a lot of wounds, or rips off the plasters they had put on those wounds," Koen said. The confusion over when he would be eligible emanated from Pistorius' long and protracted murder trial and two subsequent appeals by prosecutors. Pistorius went on trial in 2014 and his case was only finalized in 2018. The multiple Paralympic champion was initially found guilty of culpable homicide — an offense comparable to manslaughter — for shooting Steenkamp with his licensed 9 mm pistol. He claimed at his trial it was a tragic accident and he mistook her for a dangerous intruder. Prosecutors appealed the manslaughter finding and secured a murder conviction. Pistorius was sentenced to six years in jail for murder, but prosecutors again appealed what they called a shockingly light punishment for murder. The Supreme Court of Appeal then more than doubled his sentence in 2017. Knight later sought clarification over the sentence from the Supreme Court to see if the time Pistorius had already served in prison for culpable homicide should count toward his parole. It did, Knight said, meaning Pistorius could be considered for parole two years earlier than courts had initially indicated. Knight said he believed Pistorius had met the requirements to be released early. "From what I have observed of him he has been a model prisoner while he has been in prison," Knight said. "My view is that he does meet the requirements to be placed on parole but the procedures must be followed." Knight said a parole board could impose a range of conditions on Pistorius if he is released, like only being allowed to leave home to go to work during the week, and only for a limited time on weekends to buy groceries and attend church.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
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British Airways Flight 38 crash
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British Airways Flight 38 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China to London Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom. On 17 January 2008, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft operating the flight crashed just short of the runway while landing at Heathrow. [1][2][3] There were no fatalities. Of the 152 people on board, 47 sustained injuries, one serious. [4] It was the first time in the aircraft type's history that a Boeing 777 was declared a hull loss and subsequently written off. [5][6]
The accident was investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and a final report was issued in 2010. Ice crystals in the jet fuel were blamed as the cause of the accident, clogging the fuel-oil heat exchanger (FOHE) of each engine. This restricted fuel flow to the engines when thrust was demanded during the final approach to Heathrow. [7] The AAIB then identified the rare problem as specific to Rolls-Royce engine FOHEs and Rolls-Royce developed a modification to its FOHE; the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) mandated all affected aircraft to be fitted with the modification before 1 January 2011. [4][8]
British Airways Flight 38 (IATA code "BA 38") is a scheduled passenger flight from Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) in China to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom, a 8,100-kilometre (4,400 nmi; 5,000 mi) trip. The aircraft involved in the accident was a 150-tonne Boeing 777-236ER, registration G-YMMM (manufacturer's serial number 30314, line number 342), powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 895-17 engines. [9] The aircraft first flew on 18 May 2001 and was delivered to British Airways on 31 May 2001. [10] It had a seating capacity for 233 passengers. [11] On board were 16 crew members and 136 passengers. The crew consisted of Captain Peter Burkill (43), Senior First Officer John Coward (41), First Officer Conor Magenis (35), and 13 cabin crew members. The captain had 12,700 total flight hours, with 8,450 in Boeing 777 aircraft. The senior first officer had 9,000 total flight hours, with 7,000 in Boeing 777 aircraft. The first officer had 5,000 total flight hours, with 1,120 in Boeing 777 aircraft. [12]
Flight 38 departed from Beijing at 02:09 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It flew over Mongolia, Siberia and Scandinavia, at an altitude which varied between 34,800 and 40,000 ft (FL348–400, between 10,600 and 12,200 m), and in temperatures between −65 °C (−85 °F) and −74 °C (−101 °F). [13] Aware of the cold conditions outside, the crew monitored the temperature of the fuel, with the intention of descending to a lower and warmer level if there was any danger of the fuel freezing. [14]
This did not prove necessary, as the fuel temperature never dropped below −34 °C (−29 °F), still well above its freezing point. [Note 1]
Although the fuel itself did not freeze, small quantities of water in the fuel did. [Note 2]
Ice adhered to the inside of the fuel lines, probably where they ran through the struts attaching the engines to the wings. [17]
This accumulation of ice had no effect on the flight until the final stages of the approach into Heathrow, when increased fuel flow and higher temperatures suddenly released it back into the fuel. [18] This formed a slush of soft ice which flowed forward until it reached the fuel-oil heat exchangers (FOHEs)[Note 3] where it froze once again, causing a restriction in the flow of fuel to the engines. [20][21]
The first symptoms of the fuel flow restriction were noticed by the flight crew at a height of 720 feet (220 m) and 2 miles (3.2 km) from touchdown, when the engines repeatedly failed to respond to a demand for increased thrust from the autothrottle. In attempting to maintain the instrument landing system (ILS) glide slope, the autopilot sacrificed speed, which reduced to 108 knots (200 km/h) at 200 feet (61 m). [1] The autopilot disconnected at 150 feet (46 m), as the co-pilot took manual control. [4] Meanwhile, the captain reduced the flap setting from 30 degrees to 25 degrees to decrease the drag on the aircraft and stretch the glide. [4][22]
At 12:42, the 777 passed just above traffic on the A30 and the airport's Southern Perimeter road and landed on the grass approximately 270 metres (890 ft) short of runway 27L. [4] The captain declared an emergency to air traffic control a few seconds before landing. The decision to raise the flaps allowed the plane to miss the ILS beacon within the airport perimeter avoiding more substantial damage. [4]
During the impact and short slide over the ground, the nose gear collapsed, the right main gear separated from the aircraft, penetrating the central fuel tank and cabin space, and the left main gear was pushed up through the wing. The aircraft came to rest on the threshold markings at the start of the runway. A significant amount of fuel leaked, but there was no fire. [1] One passenger received serious injuries (concussion and a broken leg), and four crew members and eight passengers received minor injuries. [1][2][3]
The London Ambulance Service stated that three fast response cars, nine ambulances and several officers were sent to the scene to assess the casualties. Those injured were taken to the nearby Hillingdon Hospital. [23]
Willie Walsh, the British Airways Chief Executive, released a statement praising the actions of the "flight and cabin crew [who] did a magnificent job and safely evacuated all of the 136 passengers ... The captain of the aircraft is one of our most experienced and has been flying with us for nearly 20 years. Our crews are trained to deal with these situations. "[24] He also praised the fire, ambulance and police services. All flights in and out of Heathrow were halted for a short time after the accident. When operations resumed, many long-haul outbound flights were either delayed or cancelled, and all short-haul flights were cancelled for the rest of the day. Some inbound flights were delayed, and 24 flights were diverted to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. In an attempt to minimise further travel disruptions, Heathrow Airport received dispensation from the Department for Transport to operate some night flights. [2] Even so, the following day (18 January) a total of 113 short-haul flights were cancelled because crews and aircraft were out of position. [25]
On the afternoon of 20 January 2008, two cranes lifted the aircraft onto wheeled platforms and removed it from its resting place. [26] It was towed towards Heathrow's BA maintenance hangars base for storage and further inspections by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).
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Air crash
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Apodaca prison riot
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Events:
Topics:
The Apodaca prison riot occurred on 19 February 2012 at a prison in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico. [3] Mexico City officials stated that at least 44 people were killed, with another twelve injured. [3] The Blog del Narco, a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously, reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 70 people. [8] The fight was between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two drug cartels that operate in northeastern Mexico. [9] The governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina, mentioned on 20 February 2012 that 30 inmates escaped from the prison during the riot. [10] Four days later, however, the new figures of the fugitives went down to 29. [11] On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office of Nuevo León confirmed that 37 prisoners had actually escaped on the day of the massacre. [12] One of the fugitives, Óscar Manuel Bernal alias La Araña (The Spider), is considered by the Mexican authorities to be "extremely dangerous," and is believed to be the leader of Los Zetas in the municipality of Monterrey. [13] Some other fugitives were also leaders in the organization. [14]
The fight broke out around 2:00 am local time between inmates in one high security cell block and inmates of another security cell block. [15][16] The guards of the prison allowed the Zeta members to surge from Cellblock C into Cellblock D and attack the Gulf Cartel members, who were sleeping. [17] A guard was taken hostage during the melee, and mattresses were set on fire. [18] Security personnel regained control of the prison by 6:00 am. [3] Each cell block contained roughly 750 inmates, with members of rival drug cartels normally separated. [15] Not all the prisoners were able to be counted, but by the time the dead prisoners were counted, the public security spokesperson speculated that the riot may have been started as a cover for a jail break. [15] It was later confirmed that the riot and brawl "served as cover for a massive jailbreak" for the members of the Zetas drug cartel, who attacked the Gulf Cartel inmates. [19]
According to The Wall Street Journal and El Universal, the mass murder in Apodaca is the deadliest prison massacre in Mexico's history. [20][21] Milenio news, in addition, mentioned that the prisons in the state of Nuevo León are plagued with violence, and that they are "under the control of the criminal groups" that operate in the area. [22] The Apodaca prison was built to house 1,500 inmates, but had around 3,000 incarcerated at the time of the riot. [16] After the split of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in early 2010, both groups have been battling for Monterrey and other areas in northeastern Mexico. [23] And although no firearms were used in the fight between the two groups, the fact that their turf war goes as far as to Mexico's prison system only "emphasizes the bitterness of their rivalry. "[24] More importantly, however, the massacre, and the involvement of the prison guards in the escape, highlights the problems facing Mexico's—and the rest of Latin America's prison system. [24]
The prison riot is believed to have started when members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas clashed in the prison, using sharp-edged knives, stones, burning devices, and possibly firearms to kill rival cartel members. [25] A prison spokesperson denied that firearms were involved. [15] Some of the dead were strangled, thrown out of windows, stabbed, beheaded, hanged, bludgeoned, and crushed. [16][26] An investigation was immediately launched into whether some of the 17 prison guards on duty colluded in the fight by unlocking the doors between the two wings of the prison. [16] The prison director, the director of security, and the supervisor on duty were all detained for questioning. [15] When the riot ended, 44 inmates who were reportedly members of the Gulf Cartel were killed. [27] Moreover, 30 inmates of the Los Zetas drug cartel were allowed to escape by the prison guards, and government sources reveal that the fugitives were high-ranking members in the organization, former police officers, or drug dealers. [28]
Since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led offensive against the cartels in Mexico in 2006, Mexican prisons have turned into battlefields for rival cartels, often leading to violent fights and frequent deaths. [20] Many prisons are essentially run by one cartel or another. [20] Eric Olson of the Mexico Institute at Wilson Center remarked, "The strategy has been to arrest a lot of people, but when you warehouse prisoners in prisons that are overcrowded and poorly managed, you are likely to have this kind of warfare breakout inside prisons. "[20] The Apodaca prison riot was the third riot to result in 20 or more deaths since October 2011. [20] And according to the writers of InSight Crime, Mexico's prison system is slipping into anarchy, with inmates slaughtering each other at alarming rates;[29] below is a quote from a newspaper, which sums up Mexico's penitentiary system and its problems:
"Gang violence and break-outs are common in Mexico's notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system." Fifteen days before the massacre, the family members of the fugitives claimed that the inmates had planned out the prison break. [31] And as the investigations began, officials in northern Mexico reported that Los Zetas, with the help of several jail guards, helped the 30 fugitives escape from the prison. [32] Four days after the incident, however, the figures went down to 29, because they had "recounted" one of the fugitives. [11] Other sources mention that one of the 30 fugitives was actually killed in the massacre. [33] The governor speculated that the jailbreak "was planned. "[34] And Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for the state of Nuevo León, does not discard the possibility that Óscar Manuel Bernal Soriano alias La Araña may have been the major leader in the riot and escape in the prison. [35] The Attorney General of Mexico and the National Human Rights Commission are leading the investigations. [36][37] Investigations indicate that the directors of the prison accepted between $40,000 and $15,000 pesos, and the guards around $6,000 pesos, in bribes each month. [38] By 16 March 2012, it was confirmed that Óscar Manuel Bernal, alias La Araña, was allowed to hold "parties with musical groups and women. "[38]
El Universal mentioned on 24 February 2012 that the family members of the prisoners claimed that the inmates had certain "privileges" inside the jail, like holding big parties, sexual orgies with prostitutes, and "special permissions" from the authorities of prison in Apodaca. [39] The mother of one of the prisoners said that his son had claimed that the prison was "under the control of the narcos (drug traffickers)," and that they were often given permission "to leave the prison and come back after they had finished doing their business. "[39] Another witness claimed that the guards were also directly involved in the weekly escape of the prisoners and the "drug trafficking business" inside the prison walls. [39] The prison, they said, was under the "law of Los Zetas," and it only cost the prisoners up to $40,000 Mexican pesos (about $3120 U.S. dollars) to operate freely inside the prison. [39] In addition, it cost the Zetas more than $2.5 million pesos a year to bribe the officials in the prison. [40]
CNNMéxico published an article exposing the number of prison fights in Mexico since the start of the Mexican Drug War in late 2006, as well as the figures behind each prison (population and capacity), and the number of federal prisons in the country. [41]
On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office Nuevo León corrected the figures of the inmates who managed to escape the prison during the massacre, confirming that the actual prisoners who escaped were 37—not 29—as previously stated.
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Riot
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When Saif Ali Khan said Virat Kohli-Anushka Sharma were ‘acing marriage’, but Kareena Kapoor wanted attention too
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Saif Ali Khan once cited Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma as the exemplar of an ideal marriage. He said it in 2019 while speaking to his wife, Kareena Kapoor Khan, on her chat show What Women Want. Virat and Anushka, who got married in an intimate ceremony in Italy in 2017, welcomed daughter Vamika in January this year. Saif and Kareena, meanwhile, welcomed their second son last month. On the show, Kareena had asked Saif to name a celebrity couple who was ‘acing marriage’. While maintaining that it would be difficult to judge from the outside, he went on to say, “I like Virat and Anushka. I think they look really nicely balanced together. They seem happy. Maybe it’s because my parents (cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and actor Sharmila Tagore) had a similar balance that I kind of appreciate that. A movie star and a cricketer…different worlds.” Kareena protested that Saif could have named them as well: “But why aren’t you saying that we are also acing marriage, yeah? Not just Virat and Anushka!” He replied that it was ‘not good to praise’ one’s own self. “No, but that’s okay. We are at least setting some kind of goals, I think, in some way,” Kareena said, as Saif chimed in, “Nazar na lage (to protect us from the evil eye), perhaps that’s why. Also read | Rana Daggubati on battling heart problems and kidney failure: ‘My films taught me to overcome the problems’ Saif also said that instead of idolising celebrity marriages, people should look up to ‘the non-famous person next door who has managed to send his kids to school’. “A nice, balanced middle-class life is also worthy of adulation in that sense. But unfortunately, we only know celebrities or we want to give examples,” he added. Saif and Kareena fell in love on the sets of their film, Tashan, and got married on October 16, 2012. They have two sons -- four-year-old Taimur and a one-month-old whose name is yet to be revealed.
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Kaylee McKeown breaks swimming world record, using father's death as motivation
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Swimmer Kaylee McKeown says the death of her father 10 months ago inspired her to break the 100-metre backstroke world record on Sunday at the Australian Olympic trials.
The 19-year-old McKeown posted a time of 57.45 seconds at the South Australian Aquatic Centre to improve on the previous mark of 57.57 set by American Regan Smith in 2019.
McKeown's father Sholto died last August from brain cancer.
"With COVID and the passing of my dad in August last year, it has been a huge, huge build-up to these trials," she said.
"And I have turned it into a bit of a hunger and motivation behind me. I use it every day that I wake up. I know it's a privilege to be on this earth and walk and talk. So, to get up and do that tonight is not really for me but my family."
McKeown last month set a then-Commonwealth and Australian record of 57.63. Just before Sunday's final, her coach Chris Mooney signaled the world record was a target.
McKeown's record sets up a highly anticipated showdown with American star Smith at next month's Tokyo Olympics.
"It's just whoever comes up on the day, you never know what can happen in five, six weeks' time," she said.
Emily Seebohm finished second in 58.59 to qualify for her fourth Olympics.
WATCH: Kylie Masse: 'I'm excited to see what I can do' at Tokyo Olympics:
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Break historical records
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Puget Sound fishermen's strike of 1949
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Puget Sound fishermen's strike of 1949 was a labor strike by fishermen in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest has an abundance of natural resources and beauty. One of those resources, fish, has a lot of meaning to the working-class people of the area. The fishing industry is special in the fact that its successes and failures are directly connected to the natural cycle of the fish and the pressures that mass profiting can put on that cycle. With that being said, fishing is a much regulated industry. In the years after World War II the fishing industry employed between 33,000 and 50,000 fishers on 11,000 to 14,000 boats and these fishers sold their fish to 500 to 700 processors across the Pacific Northwest coast. [1] The fishermen's catch and distribution of the fish caught was concentrated in major ports that included cities such as San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle, and Bristol Bay (Alaska). [1]
As with many working class labor industries in the early half of the 20th century, the fishing industry was rife with labor unions. The International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America (IFAWA), a Pacific Coast trade union, was one of them. The IFAWA had a very short lived life, and is not well known, talked, or written about. The IFAWA came to be in May 1939 and consisted of six combined fishing unions, was affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and represented fishery workers in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. [1] The union represented fishery workers from every part of the fishing process, from the fishermen catching the fish all the way to the workers that canned the fish in canneries. [1]
The decisions and rulings laid down from Office of Price Administration (OPA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), during and after World War II, had direct effect on the fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest and the IFAWA. The OPA had set price ceilings for fish caught during World War II and the FTC's anti-monopoly division concluded that the IFAWA was a group of businesspersons concluding to raise the prices of the fish that they sold. [1] The IFAWA needed more power and backing to fight these rulings. With the IFAWA reaching over 22,000 members after World War II, they merged with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and became a division of the ILWU in January 1949. [1] The merger made sense because the ILWU and IFAWA were both based within the same ports and cities. Joseph Jurich was made head of the fishermen's union of the IFAWA division within the ILWU, which was headed by Harry Bridges. [2]
The price that packers, or distributors, of fish were willing to pay to fishermen for catching them was at the forefront of the IFAWA's mind and decision making in every year. However, in 1949 the negotiations between the IFAWA and the packers reached a breaking point. This breaking point came to be in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Strikes and 'tie-ups' would be littered throughout the entire year of 1949 in the area, and came during every fishing season that year. [3] The negotiations between the packers and the IFAWA on the prices would happen before the season started and lasted until the IFAWA was satisfied with the offer. From March to June in 1949 the Puget Sound area fishermen and IFAWA decide to oppose the packers offer for what they would pay for herring. [3] They never came to a full agreement on a price and only 125 out of 500 fishermen would contribute their services that year after a limited deal was reached in Alaska. [3] These holdouts would continue throughout the year, as disagreement between the parties came at every new fishing season. The biggest of these would be during the salmon runs. During this time in 1949 there were two separate salmon fishing seasons, one from July to late September and another from October to November. [3] In June and July the salmon fishermen, tendermen, and canners all elected to vote down offers from the packers. [3] Bob Cummings, secretary of Local 3 of the IFAWA reported to the Seattle Times that the offer of 18 cents per pound for sockeye salmon and 8 cents for pink salmon from the Columbia Rivers Packers' Association was rejected; the fishermen wanted 30 cents, the same as the previous year, for sockeye and 16 cents for pinks, compared to 12 cents last year. [4] Also during July there was a tie-up, lasting 23 days, on the Columbia River and short strike by the Alaska Fishermen's Union, a member of the IFAWA, against the Alaskan Salmon Industry. [3]
The tie-ups and strikes carried over into the fall salmon runs in the Puget Sound area. The major strike came during October at 4 am on Wednesday October 5th, 1949 the IFAWA voted to go on strike against the packers, who were offering 8 cents per pound for dog salmon and 15 cents per pound for silvers, the IFAWA, according to Bob Cummings wanted 14 and 20 cents respectively. [5] The offer by the packers was a decrease of over 22% from the previous year and picket committees were formed in the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Anacortes, Everett, and Bellingham. [3] This was the first time the IFAWA had chosen to go on an all out strike. [3]
For the average wage earning fisherman the strike was difficult. The main point of the strike was for the average fishermen to earn a higher wage in the long-term, and they saw $50 fines for not participating in picket line duty. [3] The average fisherman in 1949 made only a few thousand of dollars a year and made most of those dollars during only certain parts of the year, so when the IFAWA chose to go on strike they either had to join or get evicted from the union. [3] Since the canneries were also a part of the IFAWA the fishermen with boats of their own could not even sell fish they caught during the strike because they were not running. [3] The strike carried on however. On October 12, Bob Cummings reported to the Seattle Times that the IFAWA had rejected another offer from the packers but they were open to negotiations. [6] There were many minor negotiations and disputes settled throughout October 1949, between packers and local fishermen of IFAWA in the Puget Sound but the strike carried on into the depths of fall. By the end of October and into late November, the end of the salmon runs, many of the major packers began to give in including the Whiz Fish Company, Washington Fish and Oyster Co., and Farwest. [3] A pact was reach on October 27 according to the Seattle Times via Bob Cummings, and less the one third of the normal fishing fleet was dispatched to fish for the rest of the fishing season that ended on November 20. [7]
Overall the strike of 1949 in the Pacific Northwest was a success for the fishermen. The Local 3, a part of the IFAWA, in the Puget Sound was at the height of its membership at the time but overall after the strike the union was low on resources and combined with the ILWU. [3] The imports of Canadian fishermen at this time were a big hit to the IFAWA and the packers now had more reasons to reject their offers in future years on prices for fish. [3] The IFAWA was all but disbanded by 1957 and hardly anything has been heard of them since. [1] The fishermen of the Puget Sound were fighting for a "living wage" and received it but it was lost in the wash with the combining of the ILWU and IFAWA, however the strike of 1949 deserves its place in history.
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Strike
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Prosecutors Seek 45-Day Prison Sentence For Bradley Rukstales, First Illinois Resident To Plead Guilty In Capitol Insurrection
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Prosecutors Seek 45-Day Prison Sentence For Bradley Rukstales, First Illinois Resident To Plead Guilty In Capitol Insurrection CBS 2's Charlie De Mar's Exclusive Interview With Rukstales Was Presented As EvidenceBy CBS 2 Chicago Staff November 4, 2021 at 9:57 pm Filed Under: Bradley Rukstales , Capitol Insurrection , Capitol Riot , Charlie De Mar , January 6 CHICAGO (CBS) — Federal prosecutors have asked for a 45-day sentence for Bradley Rukstales – a former tech CEO who pleaded guilty to charges in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Rukstales’ exclusive interview with CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar has been presented as evidence against the defendant. A partial transcript of the interview Rukstales gave to De Mar the day he got back from Washington, D.C. is listed in the federal sentencing memo. READ MORE: High Winds Lead To Downed Trees, Damaged Cars Throughout The Chicago Area Rukstales, of Inverness, pleaded guilty to his role in the riot in August . He had been the chief executive officer of Schaumburg-based tech company Cogensia. He was fired by the company the same day he was hit with federal charges for his role in the riot. “It turned into chaos,” Rukstales said of the riot when he talked to De Mar on Jan. 7. He added: “I had nothing to do with charging anybody or anything or any of that. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time – and I regret my part in that. That’s all I’m comfortable saying.” De Mar then asked Rukstales if he was inside the Capitol the day before. Rukstales said he was. As Capitol Police retreated down a flight of stairs that winter day, federal prosecutors said chairs tumbled down behind them. Rukstales is accused of throwing one of those chairs. Charging documents say he “picked up one of the chairs at the bottom of the stairwell, and threw it in the direction of where the officers had retreated down the corridor.” As police yelled for people to leave, one of the officers brushed up against Rukstales from behind — his arm stretched out toward officers. “The officer immediately turned around, brought Rukstales to the ground, and he and another officers dragged Rukstales behind their defensive line to be arrested,” the charges alleged. It took at least three officers to get Rukstales under arrest after he refused to comply with orders to leave the building, prosecutors said. Rukstales was initially charged with unlawful entry in D.C. Superior Court, and federal prosecutors also later charged him with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. “Everything that happened yesterday, I think, was terrible. I’m sorry for my part in it,” Rukstales told De Mar on Jan. 7.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Death and state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq crash
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The state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was held on 19 August 1988 in the Shah Faisal Mosque located in Islamabad, Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who was also serving as the President of Pakistan, was killed in a C-130 Hercules plane (Registration: 23494, call sign: Pak-1), crashed near the Sutlej river on 17 August 1988. [1] Several conspiracy theories exist regarding this incident, as other high-profile civilian and military personnel also died in the crash including the Chairman Joint chiefs General Akhtar Abdur Rehman and the United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, and the military attaché, Brigadier General Herbert M. Wassom. [1]
The official announcement of Zia's death was announced by Ghulam Ishaq Khan, then-Chairman Senate acting as the Acting President, simultaneously via radio and television transmission on 17 August 1988. The Government of Pakistan announced to hold the state funeral given the Zia-ul-Haq who was buried with military honors in a specially crafted white marble tomb, adjacent to Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The funeral was attended by 30 heads of state, including the presidents of Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iran, India, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates as well as the Aga Khan IV and representatives of the crowned heads of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Key American politicians, U.S. Embassy staff in Islamabad, key personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces, and chiefs of staff of the Army, Navy, Air Force also attended the funeral. On 17 August 1988, President Zia ul-Haq, with his senior delegation, arrived in Bahawalpur where he was joined by the two American Christian missionaries to visit the local convent to condole the death of an American nun murdered in Bahawalpur a few days before making a brief stop at the Tamewali Test Range. [1]
After witnessing and viewing the live fire demonstration of the U.S. Army's M1 Abrams at the Thamewali Test Range, President Zia and his delegation left by army helicopter. [1] The demonstration was organized by Major-General Mahmud Ali Durrani, then-GOC of the 1st Armoured Division of the Armoured Corps as the American M1 Abrams, the standard U.S. Army's weapon system was expected to join the services with the Pakistan Army. [1]
At 3:40 p.m. (Pakistan Standard Time) on 17 August 1988 the VIP flight took off from Bahawalpur Airport. On board the C-130 plane were a total of 30 people (17 passengers and 13 crew members); with Zia-ul-Haq was the United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphel, General Herbert M. Wassom, the chief of the U.S. military mission in Pakistan, and a group of senior officers from Pakistan army. The plane had been fitted with an air-conditioned VIP capsule where Zia and his American guests were seated. It was walled off from the flight crew and a passenger and baggage section in the rear. The aircraft departed Bahawalpur early, ahead of a storm. For 2 minutes and 30 seconds, it rose into a clear sky. Takeoff was smooth and without problems. At 3:51pm (PST) Bahawalpur control tower lost contact, and the plane plunged from the sky and hit the ground with such force that it was blown to pieces and wreckage scattered over a wide area. Witnesses cited in Pakistan's official investigation said that the C-130 began to pitch "in an up-and-down motion" while flying low shortly after takeoff before going into a "near-vertical dive", exploding on impact, killing all on board. There were many investigations into this crash but no satisfactory cause was ever found. His funeral was held on 21 August 1988 in the capital of Islamabad, just 70 hours after the crash. [3] It was held with full military honors that included a sounding by light artillery of a 21-gun salute. During the ceremony, nearly 1 million mourners chanted "Zia ul-Haq, you will live as long as the sun and moon remain above." He was buried in a 4-by-10-foot dirt grave in front of the Faisal Mosque that Zia ordered the construction built of in honor of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and the friendship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. [4] In attendance was his successor President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, high-ranking military and civilian officials, as well as foreign dignitaries such as President Yang Shangkun of China, President Hussain Muhammad Ershad of Bangladesh and former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz. [5][6]
Washington sent a team of United States Air Force officers to assist the Pakistanis in the investigation, but the two sides reached sharply different conclusions. Mrs. Ely-Raphel and Brigadier-General Wassom's widow were both told by U.S. investigators that the crash had been caused by a mechanical problem common with the C-130, and that a similar incident had occurred to a C-130 in Colorado which had narrowly avoided crashing. Mahmud Ali Durrani also blamed the C-130 which he said historically had issues. [7]
Robert Oakley, who replaced Arnold Raphel as U.S. ambassador following the crash and helped to handle the investigation, has also expressed this view. He has pointed out that 20 or 30 C-130s have suffered similar incidents. He has identified the mechanical fault as a problem with the hydraulics in the tail assembly. Although USAF pilots had handled similar emergencies, the Pakistani pilots were less well equipped to do so, lacking C-130 experience and also flying low. [8]
Ronan Farrow indicates that the FBI had a statutory authority to investigate the event but was ordered by George Shultz "to stay away". [9] Also, the CIA did not investigate. [9] Air Force investigators who had been at the crash site ruled out mechanical failure but their report was not made public. [9]
Some weeks after the crash, a 27-page summary of a secret 365-page report was released by Pakistani investigators in which they said that they had found evidence of possible problems with the aircraft's elevator booster package, as well as frayed or snapped control cables. Analysis by a U.S. lab found "extensive contamination" by brass and aluminium particles in the elevator booster package, but the report said "failure of the elevator control system due to a mechanical failure...is ruled out". It cited the aircraft-maker Lockheed as saying that "even with the level of contamination found in the system, they have not normally experienced any problems other than wear". [8]
The report concluded that the contamination of the elevator booster package might at worst have caused sluggish controls leading to overcontrol but not to an accident. In the absence of a mechanical cause, the Pakistani inquiry concluded that the crash was due to an act of sabotage. They found no conclusive evidence of an explosion on the aircraft, but said that chemicals that could be used in small explosives were detected in mango seeds and a piece of rope found on the aircraft. They also added that "the use of a chemical agent to incapacitate the pilots and thus perpetuate the accident therefore remains a distinct possibility". [8]
Journalist and author Mohammed Hanif, who became head of Urdu-language service at BBC, told American journalist Dexter Finkins that, while working in London after 1996, he "became consumed" with determining how Zia was killed. Hanif "made phone calls and researched the lives of those around Zia", attempting to assess possible perpetrators—"the C.I.A., the Israelis, the Indians, the Soviets, rivals inside the Army". He stated he was "met with silence". "No one would talk—not Zia’s wife, not the Ambassador’s wife, no one in the Army.... I realized, there’s no way in hell I’ll ever find out. "[10] Hanif later wrote the novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes which humorously describes four assassinations all occurring simultaneously.
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Air crash
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Banat Air Flight 166 crash
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Banat Air Flight 166 was an Antonov Antonov An-24 (registration YR-AMR) chartered on 13 December 1995 from Romavia by Banat Air. It was due to fly from Verona, Italy, to Timișoara, Romania, when it crashed shortly after take-off, killing all eight crewmembers and 41 passengers. It later emerged that the aircraft was severely overloaded and its wings were contaminated with ice and snow. The accident was the 116th loss of an Antonov 24. [1]
Whilst parked in parking spot B6 at Verona-Villafranca Airport, snow fell continuously and the outside temperature was 0 °C. After forty-one passengers boarded Flight 166 to Romania, the pilot declined to have the plane deiced. At just past 19:30 local time, the aircraft taxied to the end of runway 23; however heavy traffic delayed the departure. When the Banat Air flight was cleared for takeoff, the outside temperature was below the freezing point. Shortly after lifting off, the aircraft reached its maximum speed. Banking to the right, the airspeed dropped dramatically, and so the pilot applied nose down elevator, causing the speed to increase again. Continuing their right hand bank, the flight crew again applied nose up elevator. The speed then dropped significantly, and the plane banked at sixty seven degrees. The pilots were unable to regain control of the plane and it struck the ground right-wing first, breaking up and bursting into flames. Investigators concluded that there were multiple causes for the accident, including the disruption of airflow over the wings due to ice formation on the wings, due to the plane taking off without being de-iced. They also determined that spatial disorientation and the plane being overloaded by about 2000 kilograms played key parts in the accident.
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Air crash
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Pan Am Flight 816 crash
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Pan Am Flight 816 was an international flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco, California, via Tahiti, French Polynesia and Los Angeles. It was operated by a Pan Am Boeing 707-321B bearing the registration N417PA and named Clipper Winged Racer. [1] On July 22, 1973, at 10:06 P.M. local time, the Boeing 707 took off from Fa'a'ā International Airport in Papeete. Thirty seconds after takeoff, the airliner, carrying 79 passengers and crew, crashed into the sea. The pilot was Robert M. Evarts of Grass Valley, California, 59, who had 25,275 flight hours. Evarts's copilot was Lyle C. Havens, 59, from Medford, Oregon, who had 21,575 flight hours. The flight engineer was Isaac N. Lambert, 34, of Danville, California (9,134 flight hours). The navigator was Frederick W. Fischer, 32, of Rochester, New York. He had 3,961 flight hours. When the aircraft had reached an altitude of 300 ft (91 m), it began to descend, banking left. The increasingly excessive bank caused the 707 to crash into the sea and sink off Papeete. [1] Because the turn was made towards the sea at night, no visual references were available. [1]
The sole survivor of the accident was a Canadian citizen. At the time, he said he had no memory of the actual crash, but "woke up" in the water. Many private vessels sortied from Papeete harbor that night, with more joining at first light to aid in the search for survivors. The bodies of several of the flight attendants were the only ones recovered. Although no official cause was determined, it is believed that an instrument failure during the climb out turn may have contributed to the accident. [1][2] Speculation at the time also focused on a catastrophic windshield failure, as well as a gyro horizon malfunction. [3] The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are believed to have sunk in 2,300 ft (700 m) of water, and were never recovered. [1]
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Air crash
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Jockeys Recovering From ‘Awful Incident’ During Hong Kong International Races
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Zac Purton was one of three jockeys to be hospitalized after a fall in Sunday's Hong Kong Sprint Lyle Hewitson has been released from ICU and says he is “no pain at all” after being involved in a frightening fall which led to four horses coming down during the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin on Sunday. South Africa's three-time champion jockey was one of three riders taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital after his mount Amazing Star broke down and fell, bringing down three other horses who were unable to avoid him. Zac Purton, who suffered four fractured ribs and a broken nose, and Yuichi Fukunaga (broken collarbone) were also hospitalized while Amazing Star and Naboo Attack had to be put down. The fourth jockey involved, Karis Teetan, was unscathed. Hewitson, 23, suffered a fractured hip, sustained cuts to his elbow and head trauma but said there were “no issues to worry about”. He said: “I'm in no pain at all just lying in my hospital bed. I only feel pain when I need to adjust or move as it refers straight to/from my pelvis area where the fracture is. “The doctors are happy with it saying it's a convenient fracture that will heal without surgery and without issues. I've got some stitches on my left elbow as well. My CT scans on my head are stable. I just need some rest and rehab now.” Hewitson's news was welcomed by Purton, Hong Kong's four-time champion jockey, who admitted he had initially feared for his colleague. “It was an awful incident,” he said, speaking to Australian broadcaster Andrew Bensley. “I was worried for Lyle Hewitson because he was the first one to go in front of me. When he hit the ground, he just lay there like a pancake. “He didn't bounce at all and that's normally a pretty bad sign when that happens, whereas I was able to roll a little bit. Even though I was in a bad spot, and a bit of pain, I was a little bit worried about how Lyle hit the ground. Because I was in so much pain I couldn't go over to see him or check on any other riders.” Purton was optimistic about his own situation and said he hoped to leave hospital on Monday. He said: “I feel pretty good. I've got four fractured ribs, three on one side, one on the other. I have a fractured nose, which probably doesn't mean anything because it was always a bit wonky anyway and I have a bit of a sore wrist so I'm waiting to get an MRI on that. I am pretty lucky really.” Purton, who was riding the favorite Lucky Patch, said there was no way of avoiding Amazing Star. “I had nowhere to go and I had no time to react, it happened that quick,” he said. “I was quite close up behind him. When he went there was only one place for me to go and that was straight over the top of him. The two horses following us as well had no option either. They were in that running line and the domino effect happened.” He added: “I have a really big haematoma on my right biceps and I have a mark on my right wrist where there is an imprint of a shoe so the horse has stepped on my bicep then my wrist and that's where I felt the pain initially. “Then I've got another mark on my left thigh muscle where I must have been hit or stepped on. Then I have the ribs where the horse has either kicked or squeezed me to the ground. I was winded quite badly and I have a bang mark on my right foot.” Fukunaga, who was riding Pixie Knight, has been released from hospital and returned to Japan. Pixie Knight was reported to have suffered a fracture to his left front knee.
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Famous Person - Recovered
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Paisley says Johnson told him he ‘would sign up to changing that protocol and indeed tearing it up’
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Paisley says Johnson told him he ‘would sign up to changing that protocol and indeed tearing it up’
Referring to Cummings’ claims that they needed to go to the country with a flawed deal to help with “whacking [Jeremy] Corbyn” in the election of 2019, Paisley added: “That comment has been verified by another source much closer to Boris Johnson within his own government.”
“So, the fact of the matter is, I do believe, that the government didn’t really want this to happen to Northern Ireland and they took a short-term bet.”The shadow international trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, said it was “shameful” for the UK to start playing “fast and loose” with other countries in regard to international law.
Quick GuideWhat is the Northern Ireland protocol?ShowWithin the UK’s Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU, the Northern Ireland protocol lays out arrangements that effectively keep Northern Ireland in the single market, drawing a customs border between it and the rest of the UK, with checks on goods passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. headtopics.com
That means there is no requirement for checks across the UK's land border with Ireland. The 1998 Northern Ireland peace deal requires keeping the land border open and that there be no new infrastructure such as cameras and border posts.However. both the British government and the European Union recognise that the implementation of this deal has triggered the disruption of supply chains, increased costs and reduced choice for consumers in Northern Ireland.
The rules means that goods such as milk and eggs have to be inspected when they arrive in Northern Ireland from mainland Britain, while some produce, such as chilled meats, cannot be imported at all. This is because the EU does not want to risk them entering the single market over the land border and then being transported on.
What is article 16?Article 16 is an emergency brake in the Irish protocol, that allows either side to take unilateral action if the protocol is causing “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist”, or diversion of trade. Serious difficulties are not defined, giving both sides leeway for interpretation.
This would launch a process defined in the treaty as “consultations … with a view to finding a commonly acceptable solution”. Article 16 is meant to be a temporary timeout, not an escape hatch.Was this helpful?Thank you for your feedback.“I think we step down as a country, we don’t have the same international reputation, if our word isn’t our bond,” she told Sky News. headtopics.com
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Tear Up Agreement
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Varig Flight 797 crash
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Varig Flight 797 was a flight from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 3 January 1987, the Boeing 707-320C crashed while landing, killing all 12 crew members and 38 of the 39 passengers. [2] After an engine failure, the pilot decided to return but misjudged the approach and stalled the aircraft. It crashed onto a rubber plantation in the midst of the jungle, 18 kilometres (11 mi; 9.7 nmi) from the airport at a speed of 400 kilometres per hour (250 mph). Many passengers who survived the initial crash perished in the inferno that followed. The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 707-379C, registered as PP-VJK, which first flew in 1968. It was powered by four Pratt & Witney JT3D-3B turbofan engines. PP-VJK was Varig's final passenger Boeing 707, and the aircraft's final flight with Varig, having already been sold to the Brazilian Air Force. [2]
The flight crew consisted of captain Júlio César Carneiro Corrêa (38), first officer Nélson Figueiredo, and flight engineer Eugênio Cardoso. [3]
On 2 January, during the aircraft's penultimate flight to Abidjan, the fire alarm for the outer left (No. 1) engine sounded. Another airline, Air Afrique, which performed maintenance for Varig, inspected the engine and determined that it was a false alarm. In the early morning hours of darkness on 3 January, the aircraft departed Port Bouet Airport in Abidjan. 20 minutes after departure and 200 kilometres (120 mi; 110 nmi) from Abidjan, the fire alarm for the no. 1 engine sounded a second time. Flight engineer Cardoso reported high fuel temperatures in the engine, but the other engines were functioning normally. As a precaution, captain Corrêa shut down the faulty engine and decided to return to Abidjan. [3]
Cardoso then reported a fuel leak on engine no 1, though the crew had difficulty identifying it. A flight attendant reported that a passenger had observed engine no. 1 emitting fire. As the aircraft flew over Abidjan, the tower controller at Port Bouet Airport cleared the flight to land on runway 03, the closest available runway. Even though the weather was suitable for a visual approach, captain Corrêa requested to land on runway 21 instead, as it was equipped with an instrument landing system (ILS). However, this approach required additional maneuvers, including a left turn onto a 270 degree heading. The crew (possibly in an attempted to prevent asymmetric thrust) decided to delay extending the flaps and the landing gear until turning past the VHF omnidirectional range. With the flaps retracted, the aircraft flew faster to prevent a stall. [3]
During the turn, the stick shaker (stall warning) was activated and the ground proximity warning system emitted several "bank angle" warnings. The aircraft rolled 90 degrees to the left, stalled, and crashed on a rubber plantation in the midst of the jungle 18 kilometres (11 mi; 9.7 nmi) from the airport at a speed of 400 kilometres per hour (250 mph). [3][4][5][6][7]
Nationalities of the persons on board:[7]
Three people (all passengers) initially survived, though one died several hours later. Four days after the disaster, a British passenger died of his injuries onboard a Swiss aircraft while arriving in Paris; he was going to be transferred to a burn unit in a Paris suburb. [8] The sole survivor, identified as an Ivorian university professor, had burns on less than 20 percent of his body. [9] While being interviewed by investigators, the professor said that more people had survived the initial impact but died of burns. [10] He also stated that he managed to drag the British passenger who initially survived, away from the wreckage of the aircraft. The sole survivor died of a heart attack on 4 March 2015 at the age of 72. [11]
This article about an aviation accident is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Air crash
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Faster Horses Festival Ends In Tragedy After 3 Attendees Found Dead From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
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Three men were found dead in a camping trailer as a result of what is believed to be acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Author:
NEWS
Faster Horses Festival in Lenawee County, Michigan ended in tragedy for four attendees over the weekend.
First responders were called to the scene of the three-day music and camping festival by a concerned friend of one man in his early twenties. After arriving, the emergency responders entered the man's camping trailer, which was being shared amongst a group of five attendees, all of whom were unconscious.
Three of the attendees were pronounced dead at the scene and the remaining two were transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition. The cause is believed to be acute carbon monoxide poisoning. The suspected catalyst is a generator that may have been in close proximity to the camper.
Richie Mays II, 20 (left) and Kole Sova, 19 (right), were pronounced dead at after being found unresponsive at the Faster Horses music festival.
Detroit Free Press/Jerry Sova
By Lennon Cihak
18 hours ago
"It's absolutely tragic," said Lenawee County Sheriff Troy Bevier. "And we would caution anybody to make sure if they are using a generator—if it's camping or if your power goes out—it is in a well-ventilated area."
According to USA Today , Faster Horses does permit the use of generators on campgrounds, but includes a warning.
"Campsites are very close together, so we request that all Festival campers be considerate of their camping neighbors when utilizing a generator," the festival's guidelines read. "To avoid excessive amounts of carbon monoxide and noise, please 'pipe up' internal generators. This will allow the exhaust to be released above the RV and not into your neighbors' camping area."
Separately, a fourth casualty was recorded in relation to the Michigan music festival. Law enforcement is seeking assistance in identifying a man last seen with the victim, Melissa Donna Havens, whose body was found on the camp grounds Saturday. The Detroit News reports the subject is described as a man in his thirties with short black hair, a short beard, and wearing a gray hoodie.
As a camping safety precaution it is recommended attendees carry a portable carbon monoxide detector on-hand to mitigate the risk of contamination.
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Mass Poisoning
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Crown drops charges against Cape Breton man accused of murder in Annapolis Valley
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The Crown has withdrawn all charges against one of two people accused of murdering a Hants County man in May 2020. Brandon Michael Doucette, 28, of L’Ardoise, Richmond County, was charged with second-degree murder, criminal negligence causing death and four firearm-related offences in the death of Robert Campbell of Falmouth. Doucette was released from custody Tuesday after appearing in Kentville provincial court via a video link from the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Pictou County. Prosecutor Dan Rideout told the court the Crown continually assesses the evidence in cases and had determined there was no realistic prospect of conviction on the charges against Doucette. Doucette and three other individuals were arrested last May, a year after Campbell’s body was found in a burned-out van in St. Croix, Hants County, on May 24, 2020. The van matched the description of a vehicle that was seen leaving the scene of a home invasion on Ridge Road in Melanson, Kings County, a few hours earlier. Rebecca Elizabeth Moir, 37, of Five Islands, Colchester County, is charged with second-degree murder, criminal negligence causing death, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized possession of a firearm and breaching a firearms prohibition. Moir’s preliminary inquiry in provincial court is set for 10 days beginning Oct. 3, 2022. She was granted bail in July and placed on house arrest at Holly House, a Dartmouth facility for women, operated by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia. The inquiry will determine if there is sufficient evidence for the charges to proceed to Nova Scotia Supreme Court for a jury trial. It will also give defence lawyer Ken Greer a chance to test the strength of the Crown’s case. Two Kings County men - Darroll Murray Atwell, 43, of Robinson Corner and Devyn Adam Dennis, 27, of Bishopville - are charged with break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence, interfering with human remains, arson and two counts of obstruction of justice. Atwell and Dennis were initially accused of being an accessory after the fact to murder, but those allegations were withdrawn this fall and replaced with the obstruction charges, which relate to the events in both Kings and Hants counties. The pair were granted bail in Supreme Court back in the spring. They’ve waived their right to a preliminary inquiry and have a six-week trial slated for Supreme Court in Kentville beginning May 2, 2022. When RCMP announced the arrests last May, they said all four people charged were known to Campbell, 51. A police spokesman said no stone was left unturned in the year-long investigation. Campbell, who was survived by a daughter, was retired from the Canadian Armed Forces. He was a master corporal in the army, served with the West Nova Scotia Regiment and the Royal Canadian Regiment, and did a peacekeeping tour in Cyprus. Contacted later Tuesday, Rideout said he couldn’t elaborate on the Crown’s decision to drop the charges against Doucette “because we still have the outstanding prosecution” against Moir. “Mr. Doucette was adamant that he wasn’t involved in the death of Mr. Campbell, and the Crown has conceded that there’s no evidence to contradict him,” defence lawyer Scot Stanfield told The Chronicle Herald. “This is a young man with no criminal record. He just spent six months in jail for allegations that there was no evidence to support.” On Wednesday, the Crown took issue with the defence lawyer’s remarks about the evidence, saying they were “incorrect.” “The Crown simply conceded there wasn’t a realistic prospect of conviction, which is necessary to proceed with a prosecution,” Rideout said. Doucette got bail in October, only to be re-arrested the following day because of a miscommunication about the residency requirement in his release order. Port Hawkesbury RCMP charged him with breaching his release conditions, but that matter was withdrawn Tuesday as well.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
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Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 304 crash
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Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 304[1] was operated by a Vickers Viscount 700 aircraft owned by Trans-Canada Air Lines. On July 9, 1956, the No. 4 propeller of the aircraft tore loose from its engine over Flat Rock, Michigan in the United States, during a flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec; one blade of the propeller sliced through the passenger section of the cabin, killing one passenger and injuring four passengers and one flight attendant. The aircraft diverted to Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, and the pilots carried out an emergency landing. The accident was the first to involve a Vickers Viscount aircraft in scheduled service, and was the first instance of a propeller loss on a turbo-prop aircraft. Trans-Canada Air Lines was the first North American airline to accept delivery of the Viscount. [2] Unlike the piston engined aircraft (such as the Douglas DC-6 and the Lockheed Constellation) commonly flown by North American airlines, the Viscount was a quiet aircraft whose engines produced a minimum of vibration. Since the Viscount's Rolls-Royce Dart engines ran so much more smoothly than piston engines did, engineers at Vickers believed propeller loss would be unlikely. [3]
On the morning of July 9, while the aircraft was cruising at flight level 190 over the town of Flat Rock, Michigan, the No. 4 engine on the aircraft experienced a drop in RPM. The engine then sped to 14,000 RPM, significantly above the engine's normal cruise figure. As pilots attempted to feather the propeller, the engine sped up even more, the aircraft's indicated airspeed decreased, and the pilots declared an emergency and began an immediate emergency descent, depressurising the cabin as they did so. [2][4] Less than a minute later and as the aircraft descended through 9,000 feet, the propeller attached to the No. 4 engine broke loose. One of the four propeller blades penetrated the passenger cabin and cut through the first row of seats, immediately killing a young woman travelling with her two small children. The blade also injured a family of three sitting across the aisle from the victim and a flight attendant who had been standing at the front of the cabin. The children of the victim were not injured. [2] The pilots eventually landed the aircraft at Windsor, Ontario; they learned only after landing that there had been casualties in the passenger cabin. One small section of the blade remained in the cabin, while the main section of the blade and the other three blades from the propeller were found on the ground in the vicinity of Flat Rock. [3]
Canadian accident investigators found that a bevel gear in the oil pump drive had failed, shutting off lubrication to the propeller. This caused the propeller to decouple from the engine, allowing it to windmill at high speed. Moreover, during the emergency descent, the pilots had allowed the aircraft's airspeed to increase too close to the maximum allowable. [5] This put significant strain on the windmilling propeller and in all probability caused it to fail in flight. [3] The possibility of the bevel gear drive failing causing the propeller to windmill had not been foreseen by Vickers engineers, and there was therefore no mention of it in the training or operations manual. [3]
The accident forced aircraft designers and engineers to rethink their assumption that turbo-prop aircraft would be less likely to suffer propeller loss. [6]
The aircraft was a four-engined Vickers Viscount that first flew in the United Kingdom in 1955. It was delivered new to Trans-Canada Air Lines on 21 June 1955. [7] It was sold to a private American operator in January 1964 before being sold to Air Inter in France in June 1965. [7] It was withdrawn from use at Orly Airport in October 1974 before being broken up and scrapped during 1975. [7]
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Air crash
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More women diagnosed with endometriosis amid greater awareness of the impact of severe period pain
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Ms Stefanie Lim, 30, underwent surgery for endometriosis, a condition where lining typically found in the uterus grows outside of it. (Photo: Stefanie Lim)
LinkedIn
SINGAPORE: For about three years, Ms Stefanie Lim would feel such intense pain before, during and after her period that she would often have to take strong painkillers typically prescribed for those recovering from surgery.
At its worst, she would not be able to function and would take medical leave from her job as an account manager and “sleep it off”, the 30-year-old told CNA. Sometimes, she would have to run to the toilet as her bowels would be “triggered".
She visited at least 10 doctors, including specialists, hoping to get to the root of the problem. Each time, painkillers were prescribed, she said.
“Finally I actually met a general practitioner, not even a specialist but a GP who took me seriously and then she was the first one who told me what endometriosis was because she suspected that,” Ms Lim said.
“I was like what? What is that? Can you spell it? I have never heard of that at all.”
Commentary: Period pain may need attention but seen as normal or something to put up with
A further check at the National University Hospital (NUH) confirmed that Ms Lim was suffering from endometriosis, a condition where cells from the lining of the womb are present in an “abnormal” location.
“If these cells are present in the abnormal location, they will also respond to hormones, and they will bleed and cause various disease, for example, a cyst or nodules,” said Dr Ma Li, associate consultant at NUH's Division of Benign Gynaecology Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
These locations include the bowels, the ovaries and fallopian tubes, she said.
After having surgery to excise the endometriosis in December last year, Ms Lim said she has not had pain related to her period. She is on long-term hormone medication.
“Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent disease. So even after surgery removal, it is recommended to take hormonal medication to prevent a recurrence," Dr Ma Li explained. "Patients not on any hormonal medication increase the risk of recurrence for endometriosis."
MORE DIAGNOSED WITH ENDOMETRIOSIS
There has been a rising trend in the number of people diagnosed with the condition.
From 70 to 80 patients a month in 2019, an endometriosis clinic at NUH has been seeing 100 to 110 patients per month so far this year, with more than half being severe cases, said Dr Ma Li.
The clinic, which was set up in 2015, sees patients as young as 12 years old.
There were also more cases at the Astra Laparoscopic & Robotic Centre For Women and Fertility Clinic. Associate Professor Fong Yoke Fai sees 10 to 20 patients with endometriosis weekly, double the number he saw about eight years ago.
Assoc Prof Fong said this could be due to an increase in awareness of the condition among younger women, as well as improved diagnosis with better and more available tools. It could also be a result of fewer women having children or having them at a later age.
"It is well known that both pregnancy and breastfeeding are protective against endometriosis ... Women in our society are not only marrying and embarking on pregnancies later, but are also having fewer children as well," he said.
"It may well be this factor that contributes the most significantly to the increased incidence of endometriosis in our modern population."
Is heavy menstrual bleeding normal? And what does eating pineapple have to do with it?
When menstrual cramps affect a woman's quality of life, or when she needs to take medical leave to ride out the cycle, it is a sign that she could have endometriosis, said Dr Ma Li.
Symptoms include heavy menstrual bleeding marked by having to change more than five to six sanitary pads per day.
“If the pain is worsening by each month, and duration of the pain is getting longer and longer, or if the patient has other pain, for example, pain with passing motion, pain in passing urine or pain in sexual intercourse, or increased bowel frequency at the time of menses, these are the screening symptoms for endometriosis,” she added.
(Illustration: Pixabay/Sookyoung An)
It can also cause fertility problems. Dr Ma Li noted that 40 to 50 per cent of patients with endometriosis are diagnosed with infertility.
“This is the group of patients, potentially, if we can diagnose early, then intervene early, they may be able to escape the problems (of infertility),” she said, adding that there are online self-assessment tools like endosupport.sg that women can use to check if they have symptoms associated with endometriosis.
DELAYED DIAGNOSIS
Doctors said that globally, diagnosis for the condition is typically made seven to 10 years after the onset of symptoms.
Singapore fares better, according to a local study. Patients here take up to four years to be diagnosed with endometriosis from the onset of symptoms, said Assoc Prof Fong, who was involved in the study.
The study, published in 2017 in the Taiwanese Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, looked at 709 laparoscopic operations performed for endometriosis at NUH between 2000 and 2007.
There are various reasons for delayed diagnosis, including the perception that period pains are "normal", said doctors.
“There is the cultural belief that you will grow out of your pain as you get older, or it will improve when you get married and have children. Yet many women continue to have pain or struggle with fertility issues when they are older,” said Assoc Prof Fong.
Dr Ma Li similarly said: “In Asian cultures, quite a number of women do think that this is normal to have pain during period, and they were told from young by parents or grandparents that once you get pregnant or once you deliver that the pain will be gone.
“So they just think it's normal, and don't see doctors, which leads to a significant delay in diagnosing endometriosis.”
(Art: Chern Ling)
The doctors added that knowledge on the condition is lacking.
“Awareness is sadly lacking among the general population, among doctors and even specialists themselves. Many get dismissed even when they get to the GP for a pain injection during their menses. Some are told ‘it’s all in the head’ or to just ‘accept it’. Others are even told by specialists that it is normal," Assoc Prof Fong said.
According to Dr Ma Li, the NUH clinic sees other patients like Ms Lim who are “only given painkillers”. The doctors may then increase the dosage of painkillers when patients return to them, without referring them to specialists, she added.
“When painkillers have failed to take effect, then that's the time that they (patients) have to seek a specialist opinion and realise that they have endometriosis,” she said.
Dr Anthony Siow, obstetrician and gynaecologist at Gleneagles Hospital, said that the delay is also because endometriosis is only confirmed at surgery and many women with endometriosis pain can have a normal ultrasound or even MRI.
Dr Siow, who mainly sees women for a second or third opinion on endometriosis management, said: “From what I gather from these women, previous doctors have ‘played down’ menstrual cramps and just treated them with pain medication.”
INCREASING AWARENESS
Endometriosis should be treated as early as possible for the “primary reason” of improving the quality of life of the patients, said Dr Siow.
He said research has shown that endometriosis is associated with irritable bowel, autoimmune disease, inflammatory conditions and chronic fatigue. Because of the pain and the impact on their lives, women can have feelings of depression.
Early diagnosis is also important to prevent the condition from getting worse, he noted.
“It is assumed that endometriosis progresses from mild to severe with time, leading to chronic pain and subfertility; but in practice, there have been women recovering from endometriosis, after pregnancy and with changes in diet and lifestyle,” he said.
Early diagnosis also reduces the risk of ovary cancer, he added.
NUH completed outreach to 1,500 primary care doctors in 2020 to increase awareness among general practitioners on diagnosing endometriosis, Dr Ma Li said.
“Primary care doctors are encouraged to refer these women to specialists early,” she said, adding that NUH has been conducting endometriosis awareness campaigns for eight years.
Assoc Prof Fong said that the misconceptions surrounding the disease prompted him to the Endometriosis Awareness Campaign in 2012, which has since become an annual affair.
There is now an endometriosis support group started among patients, he added.
“We have to recognise that impact of endometriosis extends beyond just the patient - it is not just simply a ‘woman’s disease'. It affects the social and economic impact of the patient, her family and close ones who have to suffer along with her, her marital life and fertility issues,” he said.
“Generating greater awareness will help the patient suffering from endometriosis to step out and not suffer in silence.”
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Famous Person - Sick
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State unemployment claims rise in N.C. following expiration of federal pandemic programs
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The number of North Carolinians filing initial unemployment-insurance claims rose nearly 70% in the second week following the expiration of two key federal pandemic relief programs. The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that North Carolina had 7,110 claims for the week that ended Sept. 18, compared with a revised 4,210 the previous week. What remains available is a maximum of 13 weeks of regular state UI benefits — the lowest amount offered by any state — that provide a maximum weekly benefit of $350, although the average claimant receives about $235. By comparison, the state’s highest weekly total for claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been 172,745 for the week that ended March 28, 2020. The American Rescue Plan Act offered federal UI benefit programs until Sept. 4. As of Sept. 5, nearly 178,000 jobless North Carolinians no longer had $300 in weekly federal benefits to rely on to pay their bills or feed their household. U.S. Labor listed 30,140 North Carolinians drawing regular state benefits as of Sept. 4. Pouring salt into an open wound for individuals without work: Once the 13 regular state benefit weeks run out, N.C. claimants have to wait another 39 weeks before they can file again. “One thing to remember is that although all of the enhanced federal benefits expired, that expiration is for benefit weeks starting after the week ending on Sept. 4,” said John Quinterno, principal with South by North Strategies Ltd., a Chapel Hill research company specializing in economic and social policy. “People with eligible claims for prior weeks still are eligible for benefits for those weeks. “That might include people who lost a job at the very end of August, or those with prior claims that are pending or under administrative review for some reason,” Quinterno said. In the latest U.S. Labor report, North Carolina was 14th in the number of unemployment filings, up eight spots from last week. The extended programs include: pandemic emergency unemployment compensation (PEUC); pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA); federal pandemic unemployment compensation (FPUC); and mixed earners unemployment compensation (MEUC). As of Sept. 7, the PEUC program had provided $1.75 billion and PUA program $1.23 billion. The N.C. Division of Employment Security has paused its semiweekly UI claims update Tuesday following the expiration of the federal programs. U.S. Labor listed North Carolina with 123,673 PEUC recipients as of Sept. 4, as well as 453 initial PUA claims as of Sept. 11 and 42,363 continuing PUA claims as of Sept. 4. The number of initial PUA claims is down from 1,603 on Aug. 28. As of Sept. 7, North Carolina had received $13.27 billion, with regular state benefits of $2.03 billion, while federal and state extended benefits are at $11.24 billion. By far the biggest factor in UI benefit payments has been the federal pandemic unemployment compensation (FPUC) program at $7.31 billion. That represents about 55% of all UI benefit payments. Also as of Sept. 7, there have been 1.54 million individual claims filed in North Carolina, with DES determining that just more than 1 million claimants have been eligible for state or federal UI benefits. Federal guidelines require a separate application for each unemployment program. Overall, there had been at least 3.83 million state and federal claims filed as of Friday. Nationally National UI claims went up by 16,000 to 351,000 for the week that ended Sept. 18. The 312,000 claims for the week of Sept. 4 represented the lowest weekly claims count for the pandemic. There were 11.25 million people nationwide with an active claim as of Sept. 4. About 2.71 million workers drew state benefits and 8.54 million received federal benefits. Mark Hamrick, chief economist analyst for Bankrate.com , said Thursday that some of the national increase in UI claims is related to natural disasters in California and Louisiana. “As the Federal Reserve’s collective economic forecasts released Wednesday suggested, further progress on the unemployment rate may not be as promising this year as earlier hoped largely as the delta variant pushes some economic activity into the future,” Hamrick said. “We’re witnessing a virtual Twilight Zone where the job market is both described as having slack and is tight at the same time, given high levels of unemployed and a record number of job openings.” Gus Faucher, chief economist with PNC Financial Services Group, said Thursday that “the next few months will be a complex period of transition for the economy, with lots of crosswinds.” “The job market is in a weird spot, with employment still more than 5 million lower than the precrisis period, but also with severe labor scarcity reflected in record job openings and surveys of businesses,” he said. Faucher projects that recipients of the two expired federal UI programs will boost the labor supply, “as the unemployed come under more pressure to find jobs.” “An upside scenario would see unemployed workers rapidly placing into job openings; with a tight labor market, they could find better jobs than precrisis, earning more and producing more,” he said. “A downside scenario would see health concerns and childcare issues slow the return to the labor force; lost unemployment benefit income would weigh on consumer spending and the overall recovery.”
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Financial Crisis
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Name released in fatal Hwy. 51 crash
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Police have identified the man killed Wednesday in a crash south of Minocqua as Arnold P Wiesener, 68, of Hazelhurst. Dispatchers took a 911 call at about 6:37 p.m. Wednesday reporting the crash, on Hwy. 51 at County Road D in the town of Hazelhurst. Police say Wiesener was driving west in a 1973 Opel Classic 2-door sedan was traveling westbound on County D and entered the intersection of Hwy. 51 and County Road D. A man driving a 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 was traveling southbound on Highway 51 when he struck Wiesener’s vehicle. Wiesener died at the scene. The State Patrol Reconstruction Team, Hazelhurst Fire, Cassian Fire, Minocqua Fire, Little Rice Fire, Oneida County Ambulance and the Oneida County Highway Department assisted the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office.
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Road Crash
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Airlines PNG Flight 1600 crash
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On 13 October 2011, Airlines PNG Flight 1600, a Dash 8 regional aircraft on a domestic flight from Lae to Madang, Papua New Guinea, crash-landed in a forested area near the mouth of the Gogol River, after losing all engine power. Only four of the 32 people on board survived. [1][2] It was the deadliest plane crash in the history of Papua New Guinea. [3]
The subsequent investigation found that the flight crew had inadvertently retarded the power levers below the lowest position allowable in flight (known as flight idle), causing both propellers to overspeed and leading to a complete loss of engine power. A 'beta lockout' mechanism that would have prevented the overspeed even in case of erroneous power lever setting was available but not installed on the accident aircraft. Installation of such mechanism became subsequently mandatory on all DHC-8 aircraft worldwide. [4]
On the afternoon of 13 October 2011, the Airlines PNG Dash 8 was conducting a regular public transport flight from Lae Nadzab Airport, to Madang Airport. On board were two flight crew, a flight attendant, and 29 passengers. The plane departed from Nadzab at 16:47 local time. The captain, 64-year-old Australian Bill Spencer, had logged 18,200 hours of flying experience, of which 500 on the Dash 8. The first officer was 40-year-old New Zealander Campbell Wagstaff, with 2,725 hours logged, of which 390 on the type. [5][6] Spencer was the handling pilot. The aircraft climbed to 16,000 ft with an estimated arrival time at Madang of 17:17. Once in the cruise, the flight crew diverted right of the flight planned track to avoid thunderstorms and cloud. The planned route required a steep descent into Madang and, although the aircraft was descending steeply, the propellers were left at their cruise setting of 900 rpm, causing the airspeed to increase. Neither pilot noticed the airspeed increasing towards the maximum operating speed (VMO); as they were "distracted by the weather". When the aircraft reached VMO as it passed through 10,500 ft, with a rate of descent between 3,500 and 4,200 ft per minute, the VMO overspeed warning sounded. [7]
Spencer asked Wagstaff to increase the propeller speed to 1,050 rpm to slow the aircraft down. He raised the nose of the aircraft in response to the warning and this reduced the rate of descent to about 2,000 ft per minute, however, the VMO overspeed warning continued. [7]
Wagstaff recalled Spencer moving the power levers back "quite quickly." Shortly after the power levers had been moved back, both propellers oversped simultaneously, exceeding by over 60% their maximum permitted speed of 1,200 rpm and seriously damaging both engines. The noise in the cockpit became deafening, rendering communication between the pilots extremely difficult, and internal damage to the engines caused smoke to enter the cockpit and cabin through the air conditioning system. [7]
The emergency caught both pilots by surprise. There was confusion and shock on the flight deck. About four seconds after the double propeller overspeed began, the beta warning horn started to sound intermittently, although the pilots stated afterwards they did not hear it. [7]
The left propeller speed reduced to 900 rpm (in the governing range) after about 10 seconds, before overspeeding again. During this second overspeed, the left engine compressor speed increased above 110% of its nominal value, suffering severe damage. Almost simultaneously, the right propeller went into uncommanded feather due to a malfunctioning beta switch in the propeller control unit, while the engine was still running at flight idle. Wagstaff then told Spencer that the right engine had shut down. He then asked to Spencer if the left engine was still working. Spencer replied that it was not working. Both pilots then agreed that they had "nothing". [7]
On the order of Spencer, Wagstaff made a mayday call to Madang Tower and gave the aircraft's co-ordinates. However, instead of checking emergency checklists and procedures, their attention turned to where they were going to make a forced landing. [7]
The aircraft crash-landed near the banks of the Gogol River tail-first at 114 knots, with flaps and landing gear retracted. During the impact sequence, the left wing and tail became detached. The wreckage came to rest 300 metres from the initial impact point and was engulfed by fire. The front of the aircraft fractured behind the cockpit and came to rest inverted. Of the 32 occupants of the aircraft, only the two pilots, the only flight attendant, and one passenger out of 29 survived. [8]
The aircraft involved was a twin-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-8-102 with Papua New Guinean registration P2-MCJ, first flown in 1988. It was fitted with two turboprop engines Pratt & Whitney Canada PW121 and constant-speed propellers. [9]
The plane was carrying 29 passengers, mostly Papua New Guineans, with one reported to be a Malaysian-Chinese national, who was the only surviving passenger. Most of the passengers were parents trying to attend thanksgiving ceremonies ahead of their children’s graduation at Divine Word University in Madang. [10]
An investigation was carried out by the Accident Investigation Commission of Papua New Guinea (AIC) with assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The final report was issued on 15 June 2014. The AIC found that the pilot in command pulled the power levers beyond the flight idle gate and into the ground beta range, while attempting to slow the aircraft down during descent in bad weather. Ground beta (the propeller's reverse pitch range) should only be used for decelerating or reversing on the ground, as in flight it can cause uncontrollable propeller overspeed and damage to the engines. [7][11]
The mechanism that alerts pilots that they are selecting beta range had been the subject of previous investigations and it was found that a manufacturer-approved service centre had a history of releasing defective parts back to operators. Following a number of previous incidents of inadvertent selection of Ground Beta range on Dash 8 aircraft, that resulted in serious damage to engines, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration mandated that an additional safeguard was required to be fitted to aircraft operated by U.S. airlines. This system, called a Beta Lockout, was developed by the manufacturer and completely prevents inadvertent selection of Ground Beta range while airborne at high speeds, but operators outside the U.S. were not notified or required to fit the modification.
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Conditions are ripe for repeat of 1970s stagflation and 2008 debt crisis
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The United States could plunge into an immediate recession if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling and the country defaults on its payment obligations this fall, according to one analysis released Tuesday. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, found that a prolonged impasse over the debt ceiling would cost the U.S. economy up to 6 million jobs, wipe out as much as $15 trillion in household wealth, and send the unemployment rate surging to roughly 9 percent from around 5 percent. Lawmakers in both parties agree that the debt ceiling must be raised to avoid economic calamity, but their standoff over how to do so has intensified. Despite the national debt increasing by close to $8 trillion under President Donald Trump, Republicans have been adamant that they will refuse to help Democrats increase the debt ceiling, in opposition to President Biden’s spending plans. The Treasury Department has said it will exhaust its “extraordinary measures” to pay the U.S. obligations sometime in October, giving lawmakers little time to act to head off calamity. Democrats unveil new plan to fund government, suspend debt ceiling as major showdown with GOP looms “This economic scenario is cataclysmic. … The downturn would be comparable to that suffered during the financial crisis” of 2008, said the report, written by Zandi and Bernard Yaros, assistant director and economist at Moody’s Analytics. The debt limit is the maximum amount of debt that Treasury can issue to pay the country’s bills. It was suspended from 2019 through the beginning of last month under a deal reached during the Trump administration. If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, Treasury would be unable to pay debts as they come due. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said earlier this week that such a default would be unprecedented in U.S. history. Moody’s “best estimate” is that this date is Oct. 20, although Treasury has not given a more precise day. At that point, Treasury officials would face excruciating choices, such as whether to fail to pay $20 billion owed to seniors on Social Security, or to fail to pay bondholders of U.S. debt — a decision that could undermine faith in U.S. credit and permanently drive federal borrowing costs higher. Failure to raise the debt limit would have catastrophic impacts on global financial markets. Interest rates would spike as investors demand a higher rate of return for the risk of taking on U.S. debt given uncertainty about repayment. An increase in interest rates would ripple through the economy, raising costs not only for taxpayers but also for consumers and other borrowers. The value of the U.S. dollar would also decline long term as investors questioned the security of purchasing U.S. treasuries. The cost of auto and home loans would rise. White House rules out concessions on debt ceiling while GOP refuses to help avert financial crisis “Stock prices would be cut almost in one-third at the worst of the selloff, wiping out $15 trillion in household wealth,” the Moody’s report finds. The market would rebound once the impasse is resolved, but some amount of the losses would be permanent. “Treasury yields, mortgage rates, and other consumer and corporate borrowing rates spike, at least until the debt limit is resolved and Treasury payments resume.” Both parties remain confident a debt ceiling breach will be avoided. Both White House officials and GOP lawmakers have insisted in recent days that the debt ceiling will be raised or suspended. But they are sharply divided over how that will occur. Republicans have insisted that Democrats should increase the debt limit on their own, because they are pushing trillions of dollars in new spending priorities. But Democrats have rejected that approach because current national debt levels, which require raising the debt ceiling, are due to an array of policy priorities from both parties. The debt ceiling would have to be raised or suspended regardless of the spending package being pursued by the Biden administration. The path forward is unclear. Congressional Democrats on Monday unveiled a plan to package the debt ceiling suspension with funding the federal government — which would otherwise shut down at the end of this month — along with emergency funding for disaster relief and Afghan refugee resettlement funds. Republicans are expected to block the measure, with even moderate GOP senators saying they will vote against that package as long as it includes raising the debt ceiling. Democrats will then face a choice about their next steps. Even resolving the matter before the debt ceiling is breached could hurt U.S. taxpayers and the American economy in the long term. The budget battles over the debt ceiling of 2011 and 2013 under the Obama administration created financial uncertainty and deflated business investment, costing the U.S. economy as much as $180 billion and 1.2 million jobs by 2015, according to Zandi and Yaros. Historically, both parties have come together to ensure the debt ceiling gets raised. Turning it into a political pawn would jeopardize international faith in the U.S. government, driving the cost of borrowing higher, even if it is not breached. “Brinkmanship around this whole process will be reflected in higher cost to taxpayers,” Zandi said in an interview. “There is a cost to doing this in a way that is not at least somewhat bipartisan.”
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Financial Crisis
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Ant McPartlin 'forking out £100,000 to pay for mates to attend his wedding'
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The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star will be signing off a huge bill as he is reportedly paying for 100 guests to stay at a £1,000 per night hotel at his nuptials Alex Jones Calls Out Ant McPartlin Over Cameraman Faux Pas Ant McPartlin will be looking at an even higher bill than anticipated following his wedding as he is reportedly shelling out a fortune to ensure his close friends can all attend his big day. The 45-year-old television host is due to become a husband for the second time when he ties-the-knot with 43-year-old PA Anne-Marie Corbett next weekend. And it sounds like Ant won’t be sparing any expense as he is reportedly planning to fork out over £100,000 on hotel bills to cover friends and family who want to attend. While it is possible the bill could soar even higher, if the lucky guests opt to send room service costs to the TV star as well. Details of Ant McPartlin and Anne-Marie Corbett's upcoming wedding suggest the TV host will pay a fortune so his guests can stay at a luxury hotel A source whispered to the Mail on Sunday: “a grand stately home-turned-hotel in Hampshire will host a star-studded reception for Ant and his fiancee Anne-Marie Corbett on August 6 and 7.“ The report goes on to claim: “Ant is paying for 100 friends to stay at £1,000 per night and has told them to send the spa bill to his £5,000 per night honeymoon suite.” While the report also states that the accommodation for the big even is: “more expensive than The Ritz.” A report has suggested Ant will pay for 100 guests to stay at a £1,000 per night hotel on his big day ( Image: Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock) The reports of a high-cost wedding is at odds with previous reports which suggested the Saturday Night Takeaway star – who has been engaged to Anne-Marie since last Christmas – was hoping for something low-key. Reports last month suggested the pair were keeping the guest list to their closest friends and family members, with Ant’s TV partner, Declan Donnelly, acting as best man at a low-key wedding. A source previously said: “Neither of them want the razzmatazz of a showbiz wedding" and that Ant and Anne-Marie were aiming to avoid the “glare of the spotlight”. Declan Donnelly is to fulfil Best Man duties at Ant's wedding next weekend The freshly leaked plans, however, hint at a far more lavish event than previously expected. Last year, it was reported Ant had handed over more than half his personal fortune to first wife, Lisa Armstrong, following their bitter divorce. The TV host had married the 44-year-old make-up artist in 2006 – before he brutally walked away from their marriage after Lisa stood by him through drink and drug struggles. Ant and Dec set to launch 'life-changing game show with unique twist' Reports in January last year claimed Ant had given Lisa – who he confessed back in 2017 he had put “through hell” before he confronted his addiction problems by entering rehab – £31 million of his £50 million fortune. Ant’s personal and professional life were rocked as his marriage collapsed as he was involved in a drink-drive incident March 2018. With his second marriage now on the very near horizon, Ant has already braced himself for a future of happiness with a stag do. Ant's 11-year marriage to Lisa Armstrong collapsed in 2018 Back in June, the star rounded up 15 close pals – including best man, Dec – for a round of gold at Bearwood Lakes golf course in Sindlesham, Berks, as he enjoyed an alcohol-free bachelor party. A source said at the time: “Ant was having the time of his life, he and Dec were laughing and joking all the way around. “You could tell there was friendly competition between them, but they were still whooping each other on when one of them played a specially good shot."
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Gulf Hotel fire
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The Gulf Hotel fire claimed 55 lives in the early-morning hours of September 7, 1943 in downtown Houston, Texas. This fire remains the cause of the worst loss of life in a fire in the city's history. The hotel was located on the northwest corner of Louisiana and Preston Streets and occupied the upper two floors of a three-story brick building, with a variety of businesses occupying the first floor. [1] It was an inexpensive hotel near the city's bus depot, and reportedly had 87 beds, most divided from one another by thin wooden partitions, and 50 cots available for half the price of a bed. [2] Second floor rooms could be rented $0.40 USD a night and cots in a communal space on the third floor could be rented for $0.20 USD a night. [1] That night the guest log showed 133 names registered. [3] It was later reported that most of the registered guests were either old, crippled, or drunk. [4]
Shortly after midnight, the desk clerk was alerted to a smoldering mattress and bed sheet in a room on the second floor, that was thought to have started due to careless smoking. [5] The clerk and a few guests thought they had extinguished the burning mattress and moved it to a closet in the second floor hall. Moments later, the mattress erupted in flames. The fire spread quickly through the second floor and headed toward the third. There were two exits from the hotel, both on the Preston side, one an interior staircase, the other an exterior fire escape. Witnesses described the confusion they experienced during the fire, with one stating; "I'm looking for my friends. I called to them in the room next to mine when I woke up, but the smoke was choking me and I couldn't see. "[1]
The fire department's central station was located only a few blocks away at Preston and Caroline Streets. The alarm was received at 12:50 a.m. Deputy Chief Grover Cleveland Adams was the first to arrive at the burning hotel where he summoned a general alarm as he witnessed flames shooting from windows and the roof. It took two hours for firefighters to get the fire under control. [1]
Ted Felds of Harris County's Emergency Corps arrived at about the same time and noticed many men on the fire escape, including a few on crutches, who were slowing the progress of others behind them still trying to escape. [3] The evacuation on fire escapes soon became disorganized as one had soon become blocked by the fire, causing many to panic and use any means possible to reach the street. [4] Police Homicide Captain C.A. Martindale, responded to the scene and later told reporters that he saw a man running down the fire escape, with his clothing fully engulfed in flames before he jumped off the fire escape and kept running. [6]
A city detective H.P. Blanchard, reportedly watched a naked man leap from the third floor of the hotel and then hit an awning before landing on the street. [4] Two men died at the scene after jumping from the hotel's windows. There were 15 other fatalities in area hospitals. Firefighters recovered 38 bodies from the burned out building. In all, 55 people died in the fire and more than 30 were injured. Donations through the Red Cross, helped make sure that the deceased victims were given proper burials. [1] A mass funeral was held for 23 victims of the fire who were never identified and they were buried at the South Park Cemetery in Houston. [7]
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1986 Commonwealth Final
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The 1986 Commonwealth Final was the third running of the Commonwealth Final as part of the qualification for the 1986 Speedway World Championship. The 1986 Final was run on 8 June at the Belle Vue Stadium in Manchester, England, and was part of the World Championship qualifying for riders from the Commonwealth nations. [1]
After being missing from the World Championship from 1981 to 1985, the Commonwealth Final returned to the calendar in 1986. Riders qualified for the re-introduced Final from the Australian, British and New Zealand Championships. m - exclusion for exceeding two minute time allowance •
t - exclusion for touching the tapes •
x - other exclusion •
e - retired or mechanical failure •
f - fell •
ns - non-starter •
nc - non-classify
This motorcycle speedway competition-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Sports Competition
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NJ Gov. Begins Afghan Refugee Assistance Task Force
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On Friday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed Executive Order No. 256 to establish a task force to handle Afghan refugee assistance. The task force will be moderated by New Jersey Department of Military and Veteran Affairs Brigadier General Dr. Lisa Hou. It will coordinate the state’s efforts to properly prepare for and respond to the arrival of Afghan refugees and Special Immigration Visa holders. “Our newly established task force will make efforts to welcome refugees and their families to their new lives in the United States and New Jersey,” Murphy said. Deanna Garcia for Documented. In other local immigration news… NY Immigrants Receive Grants from Excluded Workers Fund Documented heard about many obstacles New York immigrants faced as they tried to apply for the Excluded Workers Fund. But despite difficulties, some applications are beginning to be approved. Wilmer recently learned he would receive $15,600 from the program. He said he couldn’t believe it when he got the confirmation email. Wilmer insisted that immigrants who need help filling out the application should not go to notaries and accountants. Instead, they should reach out to local organizations, watch videos on YouTube or to even reach out to him. Wilmer plans on using the money to cover all the struggles he and his wife endured during the pandemic. Listen to the audio here . Deanna Garcia for Documented. Advocates Fight for Afghan Refugees to Resettle in New York New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said helping Afghans refugees resettle in the state is a high priority of her new administration. Now, immigration advocates are calling on her to take action to match her words. They explained on a Zoom call led by the New York Immigration Coalition that the federal government is depending on a lesser-known humanitarian parole process as it rushes to bring Afghans to the U.S. “Bringing them here isn’t enough,” said Karen Andolina Scott with Journey’s End Refugee Services, calling on the administration to also ensure immigrants “have access to citizenship down the road, access to benefits, access to health care.” PIX11 News City Council Gives $1M to Mexican Studies Institute Moises Quintero, who immigrated from Mexico at four years old, was accepted into three graduate programs in prestigious colleges after receiving an undergraduate education thanks to CUNY’s Mexican Studies Scholarship Fund. The scholarship provides about $7,000 to not only Mexican American students, but any CUNY student who does academically well. For the Mexican Studies Institute’s 10th anniversary coming in February, the New York City Council gave the scholarship fund an early birthday present of $1 million. José Higuera López, the institute’s deputy director, said will use the funds to increase the enrollment of Mexican and Mexican American students at CUNY, promote Mexican and Mexican American studies and partner with community organizations to empower Mexican immigrants. The Riverdale Press
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Instances of lead poisoning in Rhode Island children rose during pandemic
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No level of lead in the blood is safe and lead poisoning in children can contribute to lifelong cognitive problems that can manifest in lowered attention levels and academic achievement.
Associated Press
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CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — The number of children in Rhode Island who tested positive for lead poisoning for the first time rose last year, which is the first time it has increased, according to state Health Department data.
The 22 percent increase in children testing positive for lead poisoning for the first time comes even as fewer children were tested last year, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
Four cities accounted for 69 percent of the recorded elevated lead levels – Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket. Those cities are also where 74 percent of children of color in the state live.
Central Falls had the highest portion of children with blood lead levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter, which is the reference level set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The city has an older housing stock, which matters because many homes predate the 1978 ban on lead in house paint. No level of lead in the blood is safe and lead poisoning in children can contribute to lifelong cognitive problems that can manifest in lowered attention levels and academic achievement.
The rise in incidents coincides with the pandemic when the vast majority of children stayed home, Michelle Almeida, the CDC lead program manager and evaluator for the state Health Department, told the newspaper.
One mother in Central Falls has three children who have been poisoned by lead, and has twice had inspectors come to identify the source of the lead at their home and remediate it.
A pediatrician in Central Falls, Dr. Beata F. Nelken, told the newspaper the statistics underestimate the incidents of lead poisoning in children in the community. She urged the city and state to take urgent action to remove lead hazards from homes.
“Why are we using these kids as the canaries in the coal mine?” Nelken said. “It’s the wrong approach. We know we have lead in the paint, the pipes, the food, the toys, and our dust.”
Central Falls has hired a bilingual housing inspector and plans to distribute information about how to make homes lead-safe in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The city also has brought the owners of 200 properties that do not have a lead-safe certificate to court to connect them with the the state’s lead-safe program.
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Mass Poisoning
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Tokyo Olympics: American Ryan Crouser wins shot put gold, breaks his own Olympic record
Updated: Aug. 05, 2021, 12:09 a.m. |
Published: Aug. 04, 2021, 11:46 p.m.
Ryan Crouser, of United States, reacts after winning the final of the men's shot put at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)AP
By The Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — Ryan Crouser broke his own Olympic record on his way to defending his shot put title Thursday on a hot day in Tokyo.
On his last attempt, Crouser went 23.30 meters (76 feet, 5½ inches) to earn the first track and field gold medal for the American men at the Tokyo Games. U.S. teammate Joe Kovacs finished second and Tomas Walsh of New Zealand was third.
The 28-year-old Crouser went 22.52 meters when he won at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Crouser is already the world-record holder after breaking a 31-year-old mark on June 18 at the U.S. Olympic trials. His attempt that evening went 23.37 meters.
In the stifling heat at the Olympic Stadium, Crouser took the lead on his first attempt and saved his best for his final one. He clapped his hands — sending chalk dust into the air — and celebrated. He even donned his cowboy hat for the occasion.
His family and friends gathered for a watch party in Redmond, Oregon. Wearing “Crouser” shirts, they let out the largest cheer of all when the commentators announced those magical words: “Gold Medalist.”
He was competing with a heavy heart after his grandfather recently died. On a piece of paper, Crouser had a heartfelt message: “Grandpa. We did it. 2020 Olympic champion!”
By Pat Graham
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Break historical records
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Active Covid-19 Cases Drop to 3,01,640, Lowest in 187 Days
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India added 31,923 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,35,63,421, while the active cases declined to 3,01,640, the lowest in 187 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 4,46,050 with 282 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The active cases comprise 0.90 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.77 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said. As many as 15,27,443 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 55,83,67,013. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.09 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for last 24 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.11 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 90 days, according to the ministry. News18 Evening Digest: Germany Struggling with 4th Covid Wave, Shoaib Akhtar Wants Pak vs NZ in Finals & Other Top Stories Lack of Free Covid Tests, Slack in Vaccination: Why Europe Is Back as the 'Epicenter' of Pandemic The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,28,15,731, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 83.39 crore. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23. The 282 new fatalities include 142 from Kerala and 48 from Maharashtra. A total of 4,46,050 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,38,664 from Maharashtra, 37,668 from Karnataka, 35,400 from Tamil Nadu, 25,085 from Delhi, 24,039 from Kerala, 22,888 from Uttar Pradesh, and 18,691 from West Bengal. The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. "Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
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UPDATE: Death Toll Rises To Five In Lagos Gas Explosion
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Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, revealed this while speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident on Friday morning.
Five persons have so far lost their lives in the gas explosion that occurred on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, in the Maryland area of Lagos State, on Thursday night.
Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, revealed this while speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident on Friday morning.
PHOTONEWS: Huge Fire Raging Around Sheraton Hotel, Total Gas Station In Ikeja Area Of Lagos After Explosion pic.twitter.com/JMcpNvZoNA
He said three people died instantly at the scene of the incident which occurred around 11 pm on Thursday, while the other two died in the hospital.
Bamgbose-Martins said, “Lives were lost. We had about 13 people rescued but we understand that out of the 13 people, we’ve lost two of them which means that we’ve only rescued 11. We’ve recovered three bodies again this morning. They’ve started moving them away from here.”
Bamgbose-Martins also said that investigation is ongoing, adding that a special committee by the state government, which has agencies of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as members is working to end gas explosions in the state.
Similarly, the spokesman for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Nosa Okunbor, confirmed that five persons lost their lives in the explosion.
See Also
Accident
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4 Months Ago
Also, the Director-General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr. Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyitolu assured Lagos residents that efforts had been put in place to prevent secondary explosion in the area.
“Ongoing post-disaster assessment by our responders has unearthed 3 yet-to-be-identified male bodies in the rubble. First responders (LASEMA Respond Unit Fire) have returned to the scene to avert any secondary explosion.
“Members of the public are encouraged to take alternative routes as much as possible. Further, update to follow,” Oke-Osanyintolu said.
Over 22 vehicles were burnt in the inferno that followed the explosion while the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation Plaza was badly damaged.
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Gas explosion
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Scientists want to eradicate “Black Death” in Africa using Covid-19 vaccine technology
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These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroom—defining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. These are some of our most ambitious editorial projects. Enjoy! Our emails are made to shine in your inbox, with something fresh every morning, afternoon, and weekend. Scientists at the University of Oxford who were behind the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine have launched a phase 1 trial to test a new vaccine against plague. Centuries after causing one of the worst pandemics in history, the infectious disease (sometimes referred to as “Black Death” or pestilence) continues to afflict parts of Africa, which today accounts for 90% of all reported cases. Though plague can be successfully treated with antibiotics, there is no vaccine for the disease, and it is still endemic in several countries. Worldwide, more than 3,000 people experienced the disease, and close to 600 people died from it between 2010 and 2015, according to the World Health Organization. The African countries most affected are the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Madagascar, followed by Mozambique, Uganda, and Tanzania. The vaccine under development is based on the viral vector approach used in the successful AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. It contains a harmless common-cold virus from chimpanzees that has been genetically engineered to transport genes into body cells. They then deliver instructions that trigger an immune response in the body against the disease. Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease can take different clinical forms, including bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. The bubonic plague (the most common) and the septicaemic plague are transmitted by infected fleas frequently carried by rats. The pneumonic form, the most infectious, can spread from person to person through airborne droplets from coughing and breathing. While the bubonic form has a case-fatality of 30-60% if not treated, the septicemic and pneumonic forms has a case-fatality ratio of 30-100% if left untreated. From the 14th century on, the disease spread through Europe, north Africa, and Eurasia, eventually killing millions of people. The phase-one trial is funded by Innovate UK, which is part of the UK Research and Innovation, a branch of the government. It will involve at least 40 participants from age 18 to 55, with the aim to determine how effective it is in protecting against the disease, and assess any side effects. The biggest outbreak of plague in recent times happened in Madagascar in 2017. Normally the island nation sees between 200 to 700 cases annually. The recent outbreak recorded 2,119 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of plague, including 171 deaths in four months, according to WHO. The outbreak was contained after the organization responded with $1.5 million in emergency assistance, and 1.2 million doses of antibiotics. These were used for treating those infected with the disease, and the more than 7,000 people who had contact with them. This year between January and March, 37 suspected cases have been reported in Madagascar with at least 21 confirmed to be the bubonic form of the plague. During this period, approximately 9 deaths were recorded. The DR Congo has recorded an average of around 100 cases of plague annually since 2013, with a surge in incidences, across a greater geography, since 2019. Last year as the country battled the Covid-19 pandemic, the total number of cases was over 450. This week UNICEF raised concerns that the disease is making a comeback through a combination of poverty and continuing insecurity, particularly in the eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for almost all the cases and deaths in the country. Between 2020 and 2021, there were 578 cases and 44 plague-related deaths in the province, according to UNICEF. As of June this year, there have been a total of 117 suspected cases and 13 deaths reported in the DR Congo with 10 deaths suspected to be due to pneumonic plague, according to WHO. This form of the disease is particularly concerning as it is the only version that can be transmitted from person to person. “‘The coronavirus pandemic has shown the importance of vaccines to defend populations from the threat caused by bacteria and viruses,” Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said in a statement. “Plague threatened the world in several horrific waves over past millennia, and, even today, outbreaks continue to disrupt communities. A new vaccine to prevent plague is important for them and for our health security.”
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Disease Outbreaks
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Canada's Damian Warner strikes gold in Olympic decathlon
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On a steamy night in Tokyo, Damian Warner was as cool as can be, recording the highest score ever in Olympic decathlon on his way to Canada's first gold medal in one of the Games' oldest and most storied events.
"It's been a long two days. When you go through the whole battle of the decathlon and finally finish and you get the result you were looking for, there is no greater feeling. This is a dream come true," Warner said.
"I've never been in this position when one of my dreams came true. I don't even know how to react right now," added Warner, who at 31 years old was the oldest competitor in this 21-man field.
Warner, whose 9,018 points are also a new Olympic record, made it known from the beginning of this two gruelling, two-day event that he was the man to beat in Tokyo and deserving of the unofficial title of "the world's greatest athlete."
In the 100 metres, the first of 10 decathlon events, Warner put down a blistering 10.12 seconds, a time that would have nearly qualified him for the men's 100-metre final a few nights ago. He followed that up by soaring 8.24 metres in the long jump, which would have been enough for a bronze in the men's long jump.
On Thursday, the London, Ont., native added an Olympics-best time of 13.46 seconds in the 110-metre hurdles and a personal best in the pole vault, an event that has given him problems in the past.
He capped off the competition running the 1,500 metres in four minutes 31.08 seconds to cement the gold.
Add it all up and it was a performance for the ages and will surely become one of the great moments in Canada's Olympic history.
"I'm just grateful. Throughout my whole career, I've just felt like the luckiest athlete in the world," Warner said. "I came from a situation where I really didn't have any goals or dreams and lucky enough I found coaches who believed in me and made sure I was on the right path.
"There were ups and downs just like every athlete has and it's just kind of a storybook ending."
In decathlon, 9,000 points is the holy grail for a competitor, only achieved three times previously.
France's Kevin Mayer, the silver medallist Thursday night, has the highest score ever, recording 9,126 in 2018.
"Nine-thousand points is one of those magical barriers. Earlier this year in Austria, I missed it by five points. I thought then that I blew the opportunity," Warner said. "Fortunately, I got another shot. I almost let it go in the 1,500 but I fought as hard as I could and … and I joined that club with only four other guys."
Fellow Canadian Pierce LePage, of Whitby, Ont., finished fifth in his Olympic debut.
"[LePage]'s in a similar position as me in my first Olympics where I finished fifth," Warner said. "He has nowhere but up to go; he's a once in a lifetime talent. Watch out for that guy."
Michael Smith, who competed in the decathlon in three Olympics for Canada, never thought he would see what Warner achieved.
"It's like Mike Weir winning the Masters. It's like Wayne Gretzky winning the Stanley Cup. This is the pinnacle of sport. Golf is awesome, hockey is awesome, but track and field is bigger," said Smith, an analyst for CBC Sports in Tokyo.
"It's the best of the best, it's the top of Mt. Everest. Nine thousand points, only the fourth man in history to do it."
Warner won a bronze medal in Rio in 2016. Fellow Canadian decathlete Dave Steen captured the bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The idea that the decathlon champion is the world's greatest athlete goes back more than 100 years. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, after American Jim Thorpe's decathlon victory, King Gustav of Sweden told Thorpe: "Sir, you are the world's greatest athlete."
What Warner accomplished was achieved amid brutally stifling conditions, with temperatures creeping toward 40 C on both days. Night brought little relief, with heavy, humid air trapped inside of the cavernous stadium.
"It was kind of advertised that these were going to be the hottest Games ever. I am at my third Olympics, and I can verify that these are the hottest ones in which I have competed," Warner said.
For Warner, his performance so far in Tokyo is remarkable considering what it took to get here.
All athletes faced hurdles during the pandemic, but few (who weren't hockey players) had to shift their training to a hockey arena.
After Western University, where the 31-year-old had been training, shuttered its facilities because of COVID-19, Warner was without a home only nine months before Tokyo.
His coach, Gar Leyshon, eventually made an arrangement with the City of London for Warner to continue training at the city's nearly 70-year-old Farquharson Arena.
There, his coach fashioned a makeshift pole vault area, brought in the necessary pads for high jump and cobbled together a ring of discus and javelin.
The arena was 55 metres long, meaning Warner could only run full speed for 40.
"I think that to be a good decathlete, you have to be adaptable because the only certain thing that there is going into a decathlon is that something's going to go wrong," Warner told CBC Sports.
In Tokyo, Warner could do no wrong. Everything he touched turned to gold.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
Reporter
Jamie Strashin is a native Torontonian whose latest stop is the CBC Sports department. Before, he spent 15 years covering everything from city hall to courts and breaking news as a reporter for CBC News. He has also worked in Brandon, Man., and Calgary. Follow him on Twitter @StrashinCBC
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Break historical records
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As Etna erupts and lights up the sky, mud pools to indicate its next move
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Fountains of lava from Mount Etna have regularly lit up the Sicilian night sky since December, and scientists say that mud pools several kilometres from Europe's tallest active volcano hold the key to predicting what it will do next. The current cycle of eruptions - just like the other 200 or so that the Sicilian mountain had produced since 1998 - have posed no risk to the human settlements that surround it, but volcanologists are leaving as little as possible to chance should circumstances change. "When Mount Etna is ready to produce new cycles of activity with strong eruptions, the very first signs of the excess pressure of gas in the deep magma reservoirs are observed right here," said Salvatore Giammanco, standing next to the Salinelle mud pools in the town of Paterno. Giammanco, a senior researcher at the national institute of Geophysics and Volcanology - Etna observatory, says the magmatic gas, mostly carbon dioxide, mixes with methane that comes from underground hydrocarbon reservoirs, bringing water and mud to the surface. "We can predict what Mount Etna wants to do by looking at the amount of gas which is emitted and the proportions of magmatic gas and hydrocarbons." Giammanco is expecting Mount Etna to rumble on for several more months before returning to a more dormant state. In the meantime, he'll carry on keeping a close eye on the mud. Get our Daily News Capsule
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Volcano Eruption
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Molo fire
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An oil spill ignition appeared in Molo, Kenya, on January 31, 2009, and resulted in the deaths of at least 113 people and critical injuries to over 200 more. The incident occurred when an oil spill from an overturned truck burst into flames as onlookers attempted to obtain remnants of the spilled fuel for personal use. Rescuers suggested the cause to be static electricity, an accidentally-discarded cigarette, or an individual angered at a police blockade who sought vengeance. [1] Police have described the carnage as Kenya's worst disaster in recent times, occurring in a country hit by frequent fuel shortages and just days after a supermarket fire killed 25. [2]
In June 2009, another similar accident occurred, when an oil tanker fire killed at least four and injured nearly 50 people at Kapokyek village near Kericho. The victims were siphoning fuel from the tanker that had fallen off the road. [3]
The fire was the second such disaster in Kenya that week, following the deaths of at least 25 people in a Nairobi supermarket when a branch of Nakumatt caught fire. The Kenyan media has been criticizing the government for its poor safety standards and inadequate disaster preparation. [4] Following that blaze, the Daily Nation reported that Nairobi's three million inhabitants were served only by one fire station situated close to a traffic-choked business district. [5]
This article about disaster management or a disaster is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This Kenya related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Fire
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Solar eclipse tomorrow is viewable in Michigan, with one city up to 78 percent visible
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There is a solar eclipse occurring at the start of our day tomorrow, Thursday, June 10, 2021. We will be able to view it, using safety first, if we have the correct positioning of our view. This will be a partial solar eclipse here in Michigan. The path of totality will be northeast of Michigan, in northeast Canada. The eclipse starts before sunrise, and will be occurring when we get our sunrise here in Michigan. Mike Murray, astronomer at the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City, MI, says the eclipse will only last for about 35 minutes after sunrise here in Michigan, from around 5:45 a.m. to 6:35 a.m. You’ll have to be up a bit before sunrise and have an unobstructed view to the northeast. Murray also reminds us strongly that we can’t look at the sun. We will damage our eyes. We have to look at the eclipse through solar eclipse glasses or what’s called a pinhole viewer . You can also look at the LCD screen of a good camera, but you cannot look through the camera lens. The best viewing of the solar eclipse will be along the Lake Huron shoreline in northeast Lower Michigan, such as Alpena, Oscoda and Harrisville. In those areas you will have a great view across Lake Huron. Map from timeanddate.com shows the percent of the sun that will be covered with the moon's shadow. Statistics are for Alpena, MI. (map provided by timeanddate.com) Timeanddate.com says Alpena will have a 78 percent partial eclipse. Lansing will have a 45 percent partial eclipse, and Benton Harbor a 31 percent partial eclipse. John Robert Williams , commercial photographer in Traverse City, shares great sunrise and sunset photos with us on the Michigan Weather Facebook page . He says you’ll need to have very elaborate camera equipment to get a great picture of the eclipse. Williams says the rare photographer with a 700 mm lens and some special light filters could get a picture of the eclipse. I mentioned that sunrises often have a “natural light filter” of their own with moisture and pollution on the horizon, and Williams admits that may help you get a picture of the eclipse. He also reminds us to just look at the LCD screen, and not through the camera. He also warns you can fry your camera if you leave it looking at the sun too long. Here’s what Mike Murray shows as the look of the solar eclipse at Bay City and Kalamazoo. Simulation of solar eclipse at Bay City on June 10, 2021. (image provided by Mike Murray) Simulation of eclipse amount at Kalamazoo on June 10, 2021. (image provided by Mike Murray) Now you can decide if it’s worth you getting to a clear view looking east-northeast right at sunrise tomorrow. Hopefully we will get a few good pictures on the Michigan Weather page.
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New wonders in nature
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Gray has been announced as one of the top 50 women's college basketball players on the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Watch List Tuesday afternoon
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has been announced as one of the top 50 women's college basketball players on the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Watch List Tuesday afternoon. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team and the Most Outstanding Player Award. Gray is one of seven players from the Big 12 represented on the list, joining Queen Egbo (Baylor), Lauren Heard (TCU), Ashley Joens (Iowa State), Ayoka Lee (Kansas State), Jordan Lewis (Baylor) and NaLyssa Smith (Baylor). Last season, Paige Bueckers of Connecticut took home the coveted trophy. Gray earns her way onto the Preseason Watch List for the second straight season. The three-time All-American has been named a unanimous Preseason All-Big 12 selection and a Cheryl Miller Award Watch List nominee heading into the 2021-22 season. The super senior announced her return for her fifth season in March, after finishing the 2020-21 campaign fourth in the conference in scoring (19.8 ppg), eighth in rebounding (8.2 rpg), 10th in field goal percentage (.438) and fifth in blocked shots (1.6 bpg). Gray was the only power five player in the nation to average over 19 points, eight rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, garnering WBCA Coaches All-America Honorable Mention and All-Big 12 First Team Honors. Last season, she was named a top 10 finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award. "There is no doubt that Vivian should be included in a list like this," said Lady Raider head coach Krista Gerlich . "She is one of the best players in the nation. Returning for her super senior year, I think she has positioned herself to be in the tops of these awards and it goes to show her hard work is paying off. It's great to see her get this special recognition." The 2021-22 Lady Raider basketball season tips off Thursday, Nov. 11 against Southeastern Louisiana at United Supermarkets Arena. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced the week of the "Elite Eight" round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2022 John R. Wooden Award will be presented by Wendy's following the NCAA Tournament in April.
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Awards ceremony
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Protests against the 2011 military intervention in Libya
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Beginning on March 19, 2011 and continuing through the 2011 military intervention in Libya, anti-war protests against military intervention in Libya were held in many cities worldwide. According to an article by Fabíola Ortiz on March 25 on the online magazine Upside Down World, two small protests were organized in Brazil against the decision for military intervention in Libya. [1] On March 18, during the visit of Barack Obama to Brazil, a protest of about 200 people from social movements, the Workers' Party, the Brazilian Communist Party and the Democratic Labour Party was held in Rio de Janeiro. The demonstration was peaceful until it reached the U.S. consulate, when two molotov cocktails were thrown (injuring the building's security guard). The Military Police reacted by firing rubber bullets into the gathering, hurting a Rádio CBN reporter. Fourteen protestors were arrested. [2][3]
In response to the US military intervention in Libya a demonstration was held in Chile's capital, Santiago, on March 20 protesting the visit by Barack Obama. Left-wing political parties, professors, students, human rights activists and other Chilean people participated in the demonstration. [4][5]
On March 20, between 70 and 80 people (members of communist or anarchist German groups and immigrants) demonstrated in Hamburg against the attack on Libya under the banner "Yes to the revolt, No to the intervention". [6] On March 21 nearly 200 people met in the city center of Duisburg, convoked by several leftist groups in a protest against the war in Libya and against nuclear power. [7] Fifty demonstrators met in Tübingen on March 23, asking for an end to air raids in Libya. [8][9]
On March 20, about 5000 supporters of the Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ)—mainly high school and university students[10]—protested outside the parliament building in central Athens against the government's support for the NATO-led intervention in Libya. They carried anti-government banners and placards that read "The imperialists out of Libya" and "US-EU-NATO kill people", shouted anti-intervention slogans and torched the flag of Europe. [11][12]
On March 20 a similar protest was held on Crete, in which Communists marched to the Souda Bay naval base which provided command and logistical support to the NATO-led intervention. [10][12] The protesters demanded closure of the NATO base. [11]
On March 27 hundreds of Muslim demonstrators, led by the Aba-Saleh Society, held a protest march in Lucknow. The rally began at Dargah Hazrat Abbas and ended at Roza-e-Kazmain. Speaker Maulana Ameer Haider addressed the crowd, denouncing the United States-led military action in Libya and Saudi Arabia's involvement in Bahrain. The protesters chanted slogans against the US-led military forces and branded them "killer of innocents". [13]
On March 26, Libyans living in Rome held a demonstration at the Republic Plaza in central Rome to protest the military intervention. The demonstrators held placards, displayed the flag of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, shouted slogans and displayed pictures of Muammar Gaddafi. [14][15]
On March 25, thousands of Malians demonstrated in Bamako (the capital of Mali) to protest against the NATO-led military operation in Libya. The crowd marched first to the French embassy and then to the embassy of the United States. Protesters shouted "Down with Sarkozy! Down with Obama! "[16][17] The demonstration, organized by Islamic groups in the nation, brought traffic to a halt in the Bamako city center. [18]
From March 19 to March 24, three demonstrations were organized in Nicaragua to protest the military intervention. In the March 24 protest (the third since the beginning of the military operation in Libya) hundreds of supporters of president Daniel Ortega marched in Nicaragua's capital, Managua. The rally, organized by Ortega's followers and called the "Nicaraguan Solidarity Committee with Libya", started from the embassy of Libya and ended outside the headquarters of the United Nations Development Program. Leaders of the demonstration called the military intervention "imperialist military aggression backed by the UN". Protesters shouted "No war", "Yes to peace", displayed banners with pictures of Gaddafi, chanted slogans in support of Gadhafi and attacked the United States. [19]
On March 20 an anti-war protest against NATO intervention in Libya was held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, in which protesters burned a replica of the flag of the United States. [20] On March 21, the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) reported that peace organizations in the Philippines had joined Islamic protesters to condemn the UN-backed air strikes in Libya. Jolly Lais, spokesperson for the Muslim group Bangsamoro National Solidarity Movement (BANGSA), said "This brazen military aggression betrays the double standard by which the United Nations uses". The left-wing political party Bayan Muna called the airstrikes "a brutal act of armed intervention against a sovereign nation". [21]
On March 25, Philippine Muslims protested the military action after Friday prayers at a mosque in Manila. The anti-war protesters displayed pro-Libya placards reading, "Appeal to U.S. Save Humanity Stop Bombing to Libya". [22][23]
Russian youth groups Nashi and Stal demonstrated outside embassies of several western countries to protest the military intervention in Libya. They picketed in front of the British, French and American embassies and the NATO mission in Moscow. Oleg Sokolov, leader of Stal, described the western intervention as a "massacre" and said "it is clear that the West's real intention is not to bring democracy to Libya". [24]
Interfax reported that Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard of United Russia), a pro-Kremlin youth group and the youth wing of United Russia, planned to picket embassies of the United States, Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France on March 23. [25] Activists of Molodaya Gvardiya took part in a flower-laying ceremony in front of the Libyan embassy in Moscow to commemorate the victims of the NATO attack in Libya. [26]
On March 20 an anti-intervention protest was held in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, in which protesters carried pictures of Muammar Gaddafi and Josip Broz Tito. [27] On March 26, a second anti-intervention protests was held in the center of Belgrade at the Republic Square by Libyan students studying in Serbia and a Libyan-Serbian friendship organization. Protesters carried the flag of Libya and pictures of Gaddafi. [28]
On March 27, a third anti-intervention protest was held in Belgrade. About 200 people, including Libyan students and expatriates, demonstrated at the Manjež park. The protesters chanted slogans ("Support from Serbia", "A true friend of Serbia and Libya", "Libya and Serbia", "NATO killers"), displayed photos of Gaddafi and carried placards opposing NATO. [29]
On March 20, 400 people protested in Barcelona against the NATO intervention affirming "support to the Libyan people, nor NATO or Gaddafi" and "no more blood for oil". One of the organizers of the protest, Pere Ortega, believed the military intervention will make Gaddafi's posture stronger.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Round Oak rail accident
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The Round Oak railway accident happened on 23 August 1858 between Brettell Lane and Round Oak railway stations, on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. The breakage of a defective coupling caused seventeen coaches and one brake van, containing about 450 passengers, of an excursion train to run backwards down the steep gradient between the stations, colliding with a following second portion of the excursion. 14 passengers were killed and 50 injured in the disaster. In the words of the Board of Trade accident inspector, Captain H. W. Tyler, it was at the time "decidedly the worst railway accident that has ever occurred in this country". On 23 August 1858 the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway ran a special day excursion from Wolverhampton to Worcester and back. It was intended to be for school children and their teachers only, but this ruling was not adhered to and the train was packed with roughly equal numbers (about 750 of each) of children and adults. The train left Wolverhampton at 9.12 AM, comprising 42 four-wheeled coaches and four brake vans. Braking of the train was supplied entirely by manual application of brakes on the engine (and tender) and the four brake vans (each van manned by a guard). [a]
Guard Cooke was in the rear brake van of the train, together with six passengers, who should not have been there. Cooke and his passengers were drinking and smoking in the van, and Cooke invited passengers to apply the van handbrake. [1] Correct operation of the brake was necessary, not only to slow the train, but also to control the tension in the carriage couplings. There were three separate breakages of couplings ahead of the rear brake van on the outward journey: at Brettell Lane and Hagley both the main screw couplings and side safety chains failed, and at Droitwich it was found that another screw coupling was failed, but its associated side chains had held. Cooke made temporary repairs on all three occasions. To repair the first two breakages, Cooke managed to find spare three-link or screw couplings; but at Droitwich he was only able to patch up the side chains, which were not designed to hold the full weight of a train. On arrival at Worcester, the train was examined by the inspector of rolling stock: the repaired/replaced side chains were replaced by four-link goods couplings before the return journey, but no attempt was made to repair or replace failed centre couplings: these were difficult to access, and the inspector considered that a re-made screw coupling was weaker than the goods couplings (which he considered adequate). On the return journey, the excursion train was divided into two portions: the first, with Guard Cooke in the rear brake van, comprised 28 coaches and two brake vans pulled by one locomotive as far as Stourbridge where a second locomotive was attached; and the second comprised 14 coaches and two brake vans, hauled by one locomotive. There was a 1 in 75 rising gradient between Brettell Lane and Round Oak, and the line was worked on the interval system, in which trains were allowed to follow the previous train without positive confirmation that it had reached the next station, relying instead on it having been an adequate (specified) time interval ahead at the last station. The first train reached Round Oak at about 8.10 pm; as it drew to a halt a foreman-platelayer heard a loud 'snap' as the coupling behind the eleventh coach broke and 17 coaches and the rear brake van began to roll back down the incline towards Brettell Lane. The booking clerk at Round Oak, seeing the runaway, attempted to telegraph Brettell Lane to give warning, but he was unable to attract the attention of the clerk there. The second train had reached Brettell Lane about eleven or twelve minutes behind the first, and therefore was clear to proceed to Round Oak. The line ran in a series of curves, limiting forward visibility, the night was dark, there were no lights in the coaches, excursion trains did not have to have a red light on the rearmost vehicle,[2] and smoke was blowing across the line from neighbouring factories; consequently the crew of the second train did not see the runaway coaches until they were about 300 yards away. The second train had virtually drawn to a standstill when the runaway coaches collided with it. The locomotive of the second train remained on the rails and was only superficially damaged; the same was not true of the runaway coaches. Cooke's brakevan and the two coaches next to it were, in the words of the inspector "broken all to pieces", killing 14 passengers and badly injuring 50 more. The accident was investigated by Captain Tyler of the Railway Inspectorate; there was also a coroner's inquest on those who had died in the crash. [b] Tyler showed by experiment that when a string of carriages matching the runaway train section was allowed to run back down the incline for quarter of a mile before the brake was applied, application of the brake then brought the carriages to rest well before the site of the collision. Furthermore, he considered that the severity of damage showed that no braking at all had been applied to the runaway. The brakescrew on the runaway brake van had been bent in the collision, and the nut was at the bottom of the working section of the screw, indicating that the brake had been off at the time of collision. Tyler therefore rejected Cooke's evidence that he had applied the brake as the train was arriving at Round Oak; the coupling had failed when he released the brake, but he had reapplied the brake on becoming aware of the breakaway; this had initially had some effect, but the runaway had then skidded down the incline with gathering speed. [c] Instead, Tyler thought, Cooke had left the brake van as it arrived at Round Oak, without applying the brake, an obviously necessary precaution against a 'rebound of the buffers' (a shock loading on couplings as coaches hit and bounced back from the coach ahead): consequently a screw coupling had failed (the failed coupling had a grossly defective weld, as did many of the couplings examined on other coaches in the train) and the side chains had in their turn been unable to resist the shock loading. Cooke, thought Tyler, had been unable to regain the brakevan as the portion of the train to the rear of the failed coupling ran away but had either travelled down on the runaway or run after it sufficiently fast to reach the collision site soon after the collision. [3][d]
A very few words will suffice for summing up, in conclusion, the causes of this accident. A man was selected by the company for the important duty of head guard to a heavy train who proved to be anything but trustworthy and careful, and who, in not performing that duty with the attention that it required, caused the fracture of a defective coupling, and permitted the greater part of his train to run backwards down a steep gradient, on which it came into violent collision with a following train. Tyler had not restricted his criticism to Cooke. The best insurance against failure of couplings was the selection of intelligent men of known character and steadiness for the execution of responsible duties. Cooke had worked for the company as a goods guard for eight years, and had acted as a guard on excursion trains over several summers. It cannot for a moment be supposed that a man habitually trustworthy should on this occasion only have so far forgotten himself as to invite the passengers into his van, to smoke and drink with them, to employ them at his brake handle, and four times to fracture the couplings in one day by his carelessness; and if the company or their officers were not aware of his character previously, then it can only be said that they ought to have been aware of it, and that they ought to have used an amount of circumspection that would have prevented them from appointing a careless man, as he proves clearly to have been, to such important duties
For a train of 28 carriages, two brake vans were inadequate, more than 28 carriages were needed to hold a thousand pleasure-seeking excursionists without over-crowding, and to maintain good order in a thousand pleasure-seeking excursionists more was needed than two guards (who had their normal duties to perform). The accident would not have been avoided or mitigated by specifying a longer interval between trains, or by a greater use of the telegraph. Tyler also noted two points which, whilst having no bearing on the accident, were, he felt, indicative of 'a want of proper discipline in the administration of the company'
A coroner's inquisition was also held. In his summing up, the coroner directed the jury as follows
Almost all the scientific witnesses agreed in thinking that if Cook, the guard, had applied his brake in a proper manner when the carriages separated at the Round Oak Station, he would have stopped the train and have prevented the collision, and thus have avoided the death of the unfortunate deceased. If you believe that Cook could have done that in the ordinary performance of his duties, as guard on that occasion, and did not do so, Cook will have been guilty of manslaughter[5]
The jury duly found that Cooke should be charged with manslaughter. [6] The case was considered by the Grand Jury at Staffordshire Assizes in November 1858. In his charge to the Grand Jury, Mr Baron Bramwell took a very different view of the case, and of the law, from the coroner:
It did so happen that persons in the situation of Cook were made scapegoats of, in order to mollify public indignation at such occurrences, though he would not say such was the case on this particular occasion. He might also say that it was a very easy thing for scientific gentlemen to get quietly into a train and make experiments, with the knowledge that the result could bring them into no trouble, and then to say what they could do about stopping a train. This was very different from what a man would do in the hurry of the moment, and under such circumstances in which Cook was placed. If the guard mismanaged his brake, not from want of any intention or opportunity, but because he became frightened, it might show that the man was unfit for his situation, but it could not make him guilty of manslaughter. "His lordship, having observed … that there was evidence to show that the guard was doing his best to stop the train by applying the brake, went on to remark that"
when a man had a duty to perform, if he performed it negligently, and death ensued in consequence, he was liable for the consequences; but a man was not guilty of manslaughter merely because he did not do that which a stronger or more clever or cool-headed person would have done under similar circumstances. There must, in fact, be culpability or something blameable in the prisoner to warrant the grand jury in finding a true bill[7]
The grand jury found no case to answer; Cook was then charged on the basis of the coroner's inquisition, but no evidence was offered and he was duly acquitted. [e] Reporting this, the Worcestershire Chronicle noted "This result entirely fulfils our prognostications as to the failure of this unfounded and unjustifiable prosecution. "[7]
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Train collisions
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2007 Parapan American Games
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The 2007 Parapan American Games, officially the III Parapan American Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, celebrated in the tradition of the Parapan American Games as governed by the Americas Paralympic Committee, held from August 12 to 19, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Organized by the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee (CO-Rio) and the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (BPC), it marked the first time that the Parapan American Games were staged in the same city and followed directly after the Pan American Games. [1][2]
The official bid was submitted in August 2001 during the XXXIX Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) General Assembly held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In April 2002, following delivery of Federal, State and City Government and BOC letters confirming country, state, city and Brazilian sport compliance with the applicable Games regulations, PASO announced the approval of Rio de Janeiro’s bid. The Bidding Committee then submitted a detailed bid file for the Games. The document was prepared and developed with the assistance of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), which had been commissioned by Rio de Janeiro's City Government. In the running to host the 2007 Pan American Games, Rio de Janeiro faced off with the city of San Antonio, United States; which previously beat Houston, Miami, and Raleigh to become the American candidate. According to PASO statute and regulations, the host city was selected by direct voting during the XL PASO General Assembly held in Mexico City, Mexico, on August 24, 2002. The candidate city that received the simple majority of votes from representatives of the 42 member National Olympic Committees (NOCs) would be awarded the right to host the competition. The
announcement was made by PASO President Mario Vázquez Raña. Rio de Janeiro received 30 votes against 21 from San Antonio. Marked by a professional strategy that included the showing of city and project videos, Rio de Janeiro's campaign convinced the majority of voters, accounting for a total 51 votes. The 39-member Brazilian delegation erupted into boisterous celebration celebrating the country's highest achievement in terms of sporting event organization. [3]
The 2007 Parapan American Torch Relay introduced the first torch relay in the history of the Parapan American Games. It took place on August 11, 2007 and lasted only one day. The route spanned a total of 20 kilometers. [1]
25 nations competed at the Games. [4]
* Host nation (Brazil)
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Sports Competition
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Victoria's environmental laws questioned after asbestos and eagle-killer cases
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It is 30 years since Victorian legislation was changed so illegal polluters could be sent to jail, and environmental lawyers like Brad Jessup believe it is time authorities finally put that power to use.
"They need to come down hard on someone," said Mr Jessup, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School.
"And someone big."
Like the magistrate in the recent Corkman Irish Pub case, in which two developers were fined for dumping asbestos from a demolition in the middle of suburbia, he believes more needs to be done to stop industrial polluters.
The Environment Protection Act's offence of aggravated pollution attracts a maximum jail term of seven years and was added to the act in 1988.
But the state's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has told the ABC it has no record of prosecuting anyone using that provision — one of the few laws at its disposal that allow for prison, and the only one directly related to polluters. "Our Prosecutions Register (which goes back to 2001) shows no cases which include Section 59E," an EPA statement said.
"They [the EPA] go for the easy targets, the easy wins," Mr Jessup said, and that means settling for lower penalties than they might be able to push for if they worked a case harder.
While they won the Corkman case, it was an outcome that frustrated Magistrate Richard Pithouse, who told the developers he would have thrown them in jail if he could have.
Instead, he imposed a $605,000 penalty — the third-largest in the EPA's history. But there are some who believe that is a small price to pay.
"It's sometimes the case that people [will] just factor the costs of fines and penalties into the cost of doing of business," said lawyer Brendan Sydes, the CEO of Environmental Justice Australia.
"The possibility of imprisonment ups the ante [and would send] the really strong message that pollution harming the community, harming the environment isn't acceptable.
"The Corkman hotel is a fairly extraordinary situation, but not an isolated incident."
The EPA said it "lays the most relevant charge or charges in a case" and noted aggravated pollution is "only one of many offences" it can use to prosecute.
"EPA wants all prosecutions to send a strong message to the community that our environmental and public health shouldn't be put at risk for commercial or personal gain," CEO Cathy Wilkinson said.
Last week's sentencing of a farm worker who killed hundreds of eagles on properties in Victoria's east has also come under fire, despite it being the first time a person has been jailed for such an offence.
Murray James Silvester pleaded guilty to killing 406 of the protected birds over an 18-month period.
Other protected species including a kookaburra, ravens and a raptor were also found dead.
Silvester was sentenced to 14 days jail, and fined $2,500 for the mass poisoning.
Per bird, it equates to less than an hour behind bars and a payment of around $6 a head.
Outrage on social media was summed up by Paul Dutton on Twitter, who wrote that "Aboriginal kids have been jailed for longer for stealing fruit".
"The penalties seem light, given the number of eagles killed here," said Mr Sydes.
"The maximum jail term is a relatively low six months, but even given that, the 14 days does seem fairly low."
In addition to stronger penalties being introduced, Mr Sydes would also like to see the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) develop a stronger enforcement culture.
"Increasing the number of prosecutions and pursuing investigations more vigorously would assist in developing a culture where this sort of action is just not acceptable."
However, he acknowledged the significance of a jail term being delivered.
"It's a positive that the crime has come to light [and] that there has been proceedings taken," he said.
A DELWP spokesperson said the department was "committed to holding those that break the law to account". "This is a serious sentence that means the individual involved has to serve an immediate term of imprisonment, something that may not have happened if a larger monetary penalty alone was pursued, due to the individual's circumstances.
"The magistrate made it clear that if the accused didn't plead guilty and had not shown remorse and provided assistance to the authorities, a larger custodial sentence would have been considered."
A new suite of environmental protection laws — which have been described as prevention focused — come into effect in 2020, and the EPA is hopeful they can boost its enforcement capabilities.
"We know that penalties may not always meet community expectations," the EPA's Dr Wilkinson said.
"Which is why the organisation worked with the Government to overhaul the EPA Act and bring it into line with the value Victorians place on the current and future health of their environment."
She said the new act gave the EPA stronger powers and increased penalties for a number of offences.
Intentional or reckless breaches of the general environmental duty could result in five-year jail terms, she said, and repeat illegal dumpers faced two years behind bars.
Financial penalties will also increase, with corporations liable for payments of $3.2 million — double the current limit — in the most serious instances.
When asked why the public should be confident offenders would be imprisoned under the news laws, given the EPA's record under the existing law, Dr Wilkinson said the "decision on penalties rests with the presiding magistrate or judge, who acts within the penalty options available in the relevant legislation and within their jurisdiction".
Offence of aggravated pollution
A person who intentionally, recklessly or negligently pollutes the environment or intentionally, recklessly or negligently causes or permits an environmental hazard which results in:
(a) serious damage to the environment; or
(b) a serious threat to public health; or
(c) a substantial risk of serious damage to the environment; or
(d) a substantial risk of a serious threat to public health—
is guilty of an indictable offence.
Penalty:
In the case of an individual, a fine of 2,500 penalty units or 7 years imprisonment or both.
In the case of a body corporate, a fine of 10,000 penalty units.
Mr Sydes was hopeful the new laws would have an impact.
"We're kind of entering into new territory, where there's now a new set of expectations around how the whole range of sanctions available under the new Environment Protection Act might be utilised," he said.
However, Mr Jessup was less convinced. He said the current laws already had plenty of muscle, and perhaps their biggest problem was that they were not properly enforced — a similar criticism to those levelled at financial regulators during the recent banking royal commission.
"The EPA is frightened to take on big business … and I think they need to bite the bullet," he said, noting how unusual it was for a law to be in place for three decades and never be used.
"So maybe before we change the law, we need to actually have a go at using some of the provisions that exist within the law right now."
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Environment Pollution
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Ukraine Air Alliance Flight 4050 crash
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On 4 October 2019, Ukraine Air Alliance Flight 4050 crashed due to fuel exhaustion on approach to Lviv International Airport, during a flight from Vigo, Spain to Istanbul, Turkey via Lviv, Ukraine, killing five people, and three people were seriously injured. The aircraft was an Antonov An-12. The crash is currently under investigation. [1]
The accident aircraft was an Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft, powered by four turboprop engines, registered as UR-CAH and built in 1968 with msn. 8345064. [1]
The aircraft departed Vigo-Peinador Airport in Spain, bound for Istanbul International Airport in Turkey, with eight people aboard, seven crew and one passenger, which was a cargo escort. Flight 4050 was a cargo flight, carrying 10 t (10 long tons; 11 short tons) of cargo, with the intention to stop-over on Lviv International Airport, in Ukraine for refuelling, before continuing to Istanbul. The aircraft was approaching Runway 31, on heading 310, in difficult weather conditions; although there was little wind, vertical visibility was only 60 m (197 ft), while visibility near the ground was 250 m (820 ft) and Runway Visual Range (RVR) was 800 m (2,625 ft). The crew declared an emergency and started to perform an emergency landing, but failed to reach the runway. The aircraft impacted the ground at 7:10A just 1.5 km (1 mi; 1 nmi) before the Runway 31 threshold, close to the village of Sokilnyky. The cockpit section broke off on impact, then the cargo shifted, crushing and killing 5 occupants. [2]
At 7:29L the crew member called and reported the aircraft performed an emergency landing. At 7:40L the wreckage of the aircraft was located 1.5 kilometers from Runway 31. By 9:00L it was determined there were eight people aboard. Three of them were found seriously injured and they were taken to the hospital. Three bodies were also found, while two were still missing. Later two missing bodies were found, all dead. It was finally determined five people perished in the crash, at least four of them were crew, and the sole passenger, a cargo escort. [2]
Data from:'[2]
Initially it was reported that there were three crew and one passenger, all four killed, but it was eventually corrected by the ministry. The ministry also confirmed that the aircraft was carrying ten tons of cargo. Lviv's mayor noted that the aircraft performed the emergency landing due to fuel exhaustion. Ukraine's NBAAI opened officially investigation of the accident on October 9, four days after the crash. The on site work of the commission took place between October 5 and 7. In this action two black boxes were recovered and were in good condition and able to provide data. The other information, such as air traffic control communication, radar data, weather information, emergency service response and ground based navigation aids at the airport were also collected. The investigation is currently in progress. [2]
The day after the crash Ukraine Air Alliance was banned from operating flights in European Union airspace. On 7 October 2019, State Aviation Administration of Ukraine announced that air operator's certificate of Ukraine Air Alliance was terminated effective 5 October 2019, 00:00 UTC[3] after an accident. [4]
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Air crash
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1976 swine flu outbreak
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In 1976, an outbreak of the swine flu, influenza A virus subtype H1N1 at Fort Dix, New Jersey caused one death, hospitalized 13, and led to a mass immunization program. After the program began, the vaccine was associated with an increase in reports of Guillain-Barr Syndrome, which can cause paralysis, respiratory arrest, and death. The immunization program was ended after approximately 25% of the population of the United States had been administered the vaccine. Richard Krause, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1975 to 1984, writes that the government response to the swine flu outbreak was considered to be too fast. [1]
This chronology is heavily influenced by the official history of the affair, published in 1978 by the National Academies Press: The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease. [2]
In January 1976, several soldiers at Fort Dix complained of a respiratory illness diagnosed as influenza. The next month, Private David Lewis, who had the symptoms, participated in a five-mile forced march, collapsed and died. The New Jersey Department of Health tested samples from the Fort Dix soldiers. While the majority of samples were of the more common A Victoria flu strain, two were not. The atypical samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, which found evidence of swine influenza A related to the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide. [2]
The Center for Disease Control (now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) verified the findings and informed both the World Health Organization and the state of New Jersey. On February 13, CDC Director David Sencer completed a memo calling for mass immunization for the swine flu. The CDC Assistant Director for Programs of the Center for Disease Control, Bruce Dull, held a press conference on February 19[3] to discuss the flu outbreak at Fort Dix and, in response to questions from reporters, mentioned the relationship of the flu strain to the 1918 outbreak. [4]
US President Gerald Ford was officially informed of the outbreak memo on March 15[2] and the suggested immunization program. He met with a "blue ribbon" panel that included Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. [5] Ford then made a televised announcement in support of the mass immunization program. A hearing was held before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and C. Joseph Stetler, a drug company spokesman, requested government indemnity for the vaccine manufacturers. [6] Pharmaceutical companies Sharp & Dohme (Merck & Co.), Merrell, Wyeth, and Parke-Davis also refused to sell doses to the government unless they were guaranteed a profit, a concession that the government also eventually made. [7]
The House Appropriations Committee reported out a special appropriations bill, including $135 million for the swine flu immunization program, which was approved on April 5. Two days later, the World Health Organization held a conference to discuss the implications of a swine flu outbreak for poorer nations. [2]
On April 8, an official from the Federal Insurance Company informed Merck & Co., a manufacturer of the swine flu vaccine, that it would exclude indemnity on Merck's product liability for the swine flu vaccine on July 1, 1976. T. Lawrence Jones, president of the American Insurance Association, informed the Office of Management and Budget that the insurance industry would not cover liability for the vaccine unless the government extended liability protection. The chairman of Merck wrote a memo a day later, April 13, to various government agencies, including the White House emphasizing the "duty to warn". In May, other vaccine manufacturers including Marion Merrell Dow, Parke-Davis, and Wyeth, were notified of indemnity problems by their respective insurers. Assistant Secretary Theodore Cooper (HEW) informed the White House on June 2 that indemnity legislation would be needed to secure Merrell's cooperation. In June, other vaccine manufacturers requested the same legislation. A little more than two weeks later, the Ford administration submitted a proposal to Congress that offered indemnity to vaccine manufacturers. [2]
Bruce Dull stated at a flu conference on July 1 that there were no parallels between the 1918 flu pandemic and the current situation. Later that month, J. Anthony Morris, a researcher in the Food and Drug Administration's Bureau of Biologics (BoB), was dismissed for insubordination and went public with findings that cast doubt on the safety of the vaccine,[2] which was produced in fertilised hens eggs. [8] Three days later, several manufacturers announced that they had ceased production of the vaccine. Later that month, investigations into alleged swine flu outbreaks in other parts of the world found no cases of the strain. On July 23, the President sent a letter that urged Congress to take action on indemnification. [2]
In early August, an outbreak of illness in Philadelphia was thought to be related to swine flu. [9] It was later found to be an atypical pneumonia that is now called Legionnaires' disease. On August 6, Ford held a press conference and urged Congress to take action on the indemnification legislation. Four days later, both houses of Congress passed the legislation. [2]
Merrill became the first company to submit samples to the FDA's Bureau of Biologics for safety testing, which approved it on September 2. Merck made the first shipment of vaccines to state health departments by September 22. The first swine flu inoculations were given at the Indiana State Fair. In October, three people died of heart attacks after they had received the vaccine at the same Pittsburgh clinic, which sparked an investigation and the recall of that batch of vaccine. The investigation showed that the deaths were not related to the immunization. The President and his family received their immunizations before the television cameras. [10] On November 2, Ford lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter. [2]
Also in early November, Albert Sabin published a New York Times editorial, "Washington and the Flu. "[11] He agreed with the decision to create the vaccine and to be prepared for an outbreak but criticized the "scare tactics" that had been used by Washington to achieve that. He suggested to stockpile the vaccine and to have a wait-and-see strategy. [2]
By 15 December, cases of Guillain-Barr syndrome (GBS) affecting vaccinated patients were reported in 10 states, including Minnesota, Maryland, and Alabama. [12] Three more cases of Guillain-Barr were reported in early December, and the investigation into cases of it spread to eleven states. On December 16, a one-month suspension of the vaccination program was announced by Sencer. William Foege of the CDC estimated that the incidence of GBS was four times higher in vaccinated people than in those not receiving the swine flu vaccine.
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Disease Outbreaks
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2010 Pakistan floods
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The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and, Balochistan regions of Pakistan, which affected the Indus River basin. Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was affected by floods, with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province facing the brunt of the damage and casualties (above 90% of the deaths occurred in that Province). [5][6][7][8] According to Pakistani government data, the floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000. [1]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$460 million (€420 million) for emergency relief, noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen. Only 20% of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010. [9] The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough, and the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water. [10] The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. [11] Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$4 billion (€2.5 billion), and wheat crop damages were estimated to be over US$500 million (€425 million). [12] Total economic impact may have been as much as US$43 billion (€35 billion). [3][4]
The floods were driven by rain. [13] The rainfall anomaly map published by NASA showed unusually intense monsoon rains attributed to La Niña. [14] On 21 June, the Pakistan Meteorological Department cautioned that urban and flash flooding could occur from July to September in the north parts of the country. [15] The same department recorded above-average rainfall in the months of July and August 2010[16] and monitored the flood wave progression. [17] Discharge levels were comparable to those of the floods of 1988, 1995, and 1997. [18] The monsoon rainfall of 2010 over the whole country was the highest since 1994 and the second highest during last 50 years. [19]
A research by Utah State University[20] analyzed conditional instability, moisture flux, and circulation features and the results support a persistent increase in conditional instability during the July premonsoon phase, accompanied by increased frequency of heavy rainfall events. The increased convective activity during the premonsoon phase agrees with the projected increase in the intensity of heavy rainfall events over northern Pakistan. Large-scale circulation analysis reveals an upper-level cyclonic anomaly over and to the west of Pakistan[21]–a feature empirically associated with weak monsoon. The analysis also suggests that the anomalous circulation in 2010 is not sporadic but rather is part of a long-term trend that defies the typical linkage of strong monsoons with an anomalous anticyclone in the upper troposphere. An article in the New Scientist[22] attributed the cause of the exceptional rainfall to "freezing" of the jet stream, a phenomenon that reportedly also caused unprecedented heat waves and wildfires in Russia as well as the 2007 United Kingdom floods. [23]
In response to previous Indus River floods in 1973 and 1976, Pakistan created the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) in 1977. The FFC operates under Pakistan's Ministry of Water and Power. It is charged with executing flood control projects and protecting lives and property of Pakistanis from the impact of floods. Since its inception the FFC has received Rs 87.8 billion (about US$900 million). FFC documents show that numerous projects were initiated, funded and completed, but reports indicate that little work has actually been done due to ineffective leadership and corruption. [24]
Monsoon rains were forecast to continue into early August and were described as the worst in this area in the last 80 years. [25] The Pakistan Meteorological Department reported that over 200 millimetres (7.9 in) of rain fell over a 24-hour period in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. [26] A record-breaking 274 millimetres (10.8 in) rain fell in Peshawar during 24 hours;[27] the previous record was 187 millimetres (7.4 in) of rain in April 2009. [28] On 28 July, the same heavy rains contributed to the crash of Airblue Flight 202 in the Margalla Hills. On 30 July 500,000 or more people had been displaced from their homes. [25] On 30 July, Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, stated that 36 districts were involved, and 950,000 people were affected,[29] although within a day, reports increased that number to as high as a million,[30] and by mid-August they increased the number to nearly 20 million affected. [31]
By mid-August, according to the governmental Federal Flood Commission (FFC), the floods had caused the deaths of at least 1,540 people, while 2,088 people had received injuries, 557,226 houses had been destroyed, and over 6 million people had been displaced. [24] One month later, the tally had risen to 1,781 deaths, 2,966 people with injuries, and more than 1.89 million homes destroyed. [1]
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial minister of information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said "the infrastructure of this province was already destroyed by terrorism. Whatever was left was finished off by these floods. "[32] He also called the floods "the worst calamity in our history. "[33] Four million Pakistanis were left with food shortages. [34]
The Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, was closed after a bridge was destroyed. [35] The ongoing devastating floods in Pakistan will have a severe impact on an already vulnerable population, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In addition to all the other damage the floods caused, floodwater destroyed much of the health care infrastructure in the worst-affected areas, leaving inhabitants especially vulnerable to water-borne disease. [36] In Sindh, the Indus River burst its banks near Sukkur on 8 August, submerging the village of Mor Khan Jatoi. [34] Law and order disappeared, mainly in Sindh. Looters took advantage of the floods by ransacking abandoned homes using boats. [37]
In early August, the heaviest flooding moved southward along the Indus River from severely affected northern regions toward western Punjab, where at least 1,400,000 acres (570,000 ha) of cropland were destroyed,[34] and toward the southern province of Sindh. [38] The affected crops included cotton, sugarcane, rice, pulses, tobacco and animal fodder. Floodwaters and rain destroyed 700,000 acres (3,000 km2) of cotton, 200,000 acres (800 km2) acres each of rice and cane, 500,000 tonnes of wheat and 300,000 acres (1,000 km2) of animal fodder. [39][40] According to the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, the floods destroyed 2 million bales of cotton, which increased futures prices. [41][42] 170,000 citizens (or 70% of the population) of the historic Sindh town of Thatta fled advancing flood waters on 27 August. [43]
By mid-September the floods generally had begun to recede, although in some areas, such as Sindh, new floods were reported; the majority of the displaced persons had not been able to return home. [1]
Heavy rainfalls of more than 200 millimetres (7.9 in) were recorded during the four-day wet spell from 27 to 30 July 2010 in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab based on data from the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
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Floods
| null | null |
Britain left the European Union on Friday after 47 years of membership
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Published Friday, January 31, 2020 2:26AM EST Last Updated Friday, January 31, 2020 8:04PM EST With little fanfare, Britain left the European Union on Friday after 47 years of membership, taking a leap into the unknown in a historic blow to the bloc. The U.K.'s departure became official at 11 p.m. midnight in Brussels, where the EU is headquartered. Thousands of enthusiastic Brexit supporters gathered outside Britain's Parliament to welcome the moment they'd longed for since Britain's 52%-48% vote in June 2016 to walk away from the club it had joined in 1973. The flag-waving crowd erupted in cheers as Big Ben bonged 11 times -- on a recording. Parliament's real bell has been silenced for repairs. In a message from nearby 10 Downing St., Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Britain's departure "a moment of real national renewal and change." But many Britons mourned the loss of their EU identity, and some marked the passing with tearful vigils. There was also sadness in Brussels as British flags were quietly removed from the bloc's many buildings. Whether Brexit makes Britain a proud nation that has reclaimed its sovereignty, or a diminished presence in Europe and the world, will be debated for years to come. While Britain's exit is a historic moment, it only marks the end of the first stage of the Brexit saga. When Britons wake up on Saturday, they will notice very little change. The U.K. and the EU have given themselves an 11-month "transition period" -- in which the U.K. will continue to follow the bloc's rules -- to strike new agreements on trade, security and a host of other areas. The now 27-member EU will have to bounce back from one of its biggest setbacks in its 62-year history to confront an ever more complicated world as its former member becomes a competitor, just across the English Channel. French President Emmanuel Macron called Brexit a "historic alarm signal" that should force the EU to improve itself. "It's a sad day, let's not hide it," he said in a televised address. "But it is a day that must also lead us to do things differently." He insisted that European citizens need a united Europe "more than ever," to defend their interests in the face of China and the United States, to cope with climate change and migration and technological upheaval. In the many EU buildings of Brussels on Friday, British flags were quietly lowered, folded and taken away. This is the first time a country has left the EU, and many in the bloc rued the day. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lamented that "as the sun rises tomorrow, a new chapter for our union of 27 will start." But she warned Brexit day would mark a major loss for the U.K. and said the island nation was heading for a lonelier existence. "Strength does not lie in splendid isolation, but in our unique union," she said. Johnson insisted post-Brexit Britain would be "simultaneously a great European power and truly global in our range and ambitions." "We want this to be the beginning of a new era of friendly co-operation between the EU and an energetic Britain," Johnson said in a pre-recorded address to the country broadcast an hour before Britain's exit. In a break with usual practice, independent media outlets were not allowed to film Johnson's speech, which the government recorded Thursday at 10 Downing St. Johnson won an election victory in December with a dual promise to "get Brexit done" and deliver improved jobs, infrastructure and services for Britain's most deprived areas, where support for leaving the EU is strongest. On Friday, he symbolically held a Cabinet meeting in the pro-Brexit town of Sunderland in northeast England, rather than in London. Johnson is a Brexit enthusiast, but he knows many Britons aren't, and his Conservative government sought to mark the moment with quiet dignity. Red, white and blue lights illuminated government buildings and a countdown clock projected onto the prime minister's Downing Street residence. There was no such restraint in nearby Parliament Square, where arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage gathered a crowd of several thousand, who belted out the patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory" as they waited for the moment that even Farage sometimes doubted would ever come. "This is the single most important moment in the modern history of our great nation," Farage told the crowd. "The war is over," said Farage, who often describes Britain's relationship with Europe in martial terms. "We have won." Londoner Donna Jones said she had come to "be part of history." "It doesn't mean we're anti-Europe, it just means we want to be self-sufficient in a certain way," she said. But Britons who cherished their membership in the bloc -- and the freedom it bought to live anywhere across of 28 countries -- were mourning. "Many of us want to just mark our sadness in public," said Ann Jones, who joined dozens of other remainers on a march to the EU's mission in London. "And we don't want trouble, we just want to say, well you know, we didn't want this." Britain's journey to Brexit has been long, rocky -- and far from over. The U.K. was never a wholehearted EU member, but actually leaving the bloc was long considered a fringe idea. It gradually gained strength within the Conservative Party, which has a wing of fierce "euroskeptics" -- opponents of EU membership. Former Prime Minister David Cameron eventually agreed to hold a referendum, saying he wanted to settle the issue once and for all. It hasn't worked out that way. Since the 2016 vote, the U.K. has held fractious negotiations with the EU that finally, late last year, secured a deal on divorce terms. But Britain is leaving the bloc arguably as divided as it was on referendum day. By and large, Britain's big cities voted to stay in the EU, while small towns voted to leave. England and Wales backed Brexit, while Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain. Candlelit vigils were held in several Scottish cities, government buildings in Edinburgh were lit up in the EU's blue and yellow colours, and the bloc's flag continued to fly outside the Scottish Parliament. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit was "a moment of profound sadness." "And here in Scotland, given that it is happening against the will of the vast majority of us, that sadness will be tinged with anger," she said in a speech in Edinburgh. Sturgeon's Scottish National Party government is demanding the right to hold a referendum on independence from the U.K., something Johnson refuses to grant. London, which is home to more than 1 million EU citizens, also voted by a wide margin to stay in the bloc. Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "heartbroken" about Brexit. But he insisted London would remain that welcomed all, regardless of "the colour of your skin, the colour of your flag, the colour of your passport." Negotiations between Britain and the EU on their new relationship are due to start in earnest in March, and the early signs are not encouraging. The EU says Britain can't have full access to the EU's single market unless it follows the bloc's rules, but Britain insists it will not agree to follow an EU rule book in return for unfettered trade. With Johnson adamant he won't extend the transition period beyond Dec. 31, months of uncertainty and acrimony lie ahead. In the English port of Dover, just 20 miles (32 kilometres) across the Channel from France, retiree Philip Barry said he was confident it would all be worth it. "My expectation is that there may be a little bump or two in the road but in the end it will even out," he said. "Somebody once said: short-term pain but long-term gain."
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Aeroflot Flight 5463 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 5463 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Chelyabinsk to Almaty which crashed on 30 August 1983 while approaching Almaty. The Tupolev Tu-134A collided with the western slope of Dolan Mountain at an altitude of 690 m (2,260 ft). As a result of the accident, all ninety people on board were killed. Crew error was cited as the cause of the accident. [1]
Having received the information about the aircraft's location, air traffic control (ATC) gave an erroneous instruction to turn. The crew also mistakenly chose a heading of 199 degrees instead of 140. ATC subsequently gave the proper heading, but instructed the crew to descend to 600 m (2,000 ft), whereas the minimum safe altitude for the surrounding terrain was 4,620 m (15,160 ft). [1] Knowing that the aircraft was on collision course with mountainous terrain and having the right to ignore the ATC in this situation, according to the Soviet flight regulations, the crew chose to make a turn instead, continuing their descent to 600 m (2,000 ft). [1] Having informed ATC of their situation, the crew received a ground proximity warning. Instead of making an urgent climb, the crew delayed any attempt to climb until 1–2 seconds before impact. [1]
The aircraft crashed into Dolan Mountain, at an altitude of 690 m (2,260 ft), 30 km (19 mi; 16 nmi) from Almaty airport, disintegrating and catching fire. [2] At the time of the accident there was cumulo-nimbus cloud cover at an altitude of 3,000–4,500 m (9,800–14,800 ft) with cloud tops of 7,000–8,000 m (23,000–26,000 ft) and a visibility of 10 km (6.2 mi; 5.4 nmi). [1]
The crash of Flight 5463 was attributed to the following causes:[3]-
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Air crash
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Beni Suef Cultural Palace fire
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The Beni Suef Cultural Palace fire occurred in Beni Suef, Egypt, on September 5, 2005 and killed 46 people. The Cultural Palace was overcrowded at the occasion of the Amateur Theatre Festival when a burning candle lit paper scenery on the stage and started a conflagration. A stampede erupted towards a single exit. Fire extinguishing equipment was locked in a distant room, and fire engines and ambulances arrived late and unprepared[1] People died both from burns and in the stampede. [2]
In the aftermath the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, resigned, a move that was later revoked by President Hosni Mubarak. In May 2006 eight cultural bureaucrats were convicted for negligence and received ten-year prison sentences. [2]
The fire drastically affected the theatrical community of Egypt who had come to the Cultural Palace on that day for the festival. September 5 has been named the National Day of Theatre in remembrance.
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Fire
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Banks’ 2021 Reality: A ‘Revenue Recession’ In The Midst Of An Economic Recovery
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After Biden’s stimulus, the era of small states, low taxes and balanced budgets suddenly looks to be over Last modified on Thu 8 Apr 2021 22.16 BST A wealth tax to help pay for the cost of fighting the pandemic. An international agreement to prevent a race to the bottom on corporate tax. An insistence that recovery from the second severe crisis in just over a decade should be green and inclusive. A conviction that governments should spend whatever it takes to fend off the threat of mass unemployment, paying no heed to the size of budget deficit. There’s nothing startlingly new about any of these ideas, which have been knocking around for years, if not decades. What is different is that these are no longer just proposals put forward by progressive thinktanks or marginalised Keynesians in academia, but form part of an agenda being pursued by the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury under Joe Biden’s presidency. This matters. From the 1980s onwards, the IMF and the US Treasury forged what became known as the Washington consensus: a set of beliefs that was foisted on any country that ran into economic difficulties and came looking for help. The one-size-fits-all approach involved cutting public spending and taxes, and privatisation, to create incentives for risk-taking entrepreneurs, and making inflation the overriding goal of economic policy. These policies inevitably caused pain, but it was thought the “tough love” approach was worth it. It has been quite a different story in the buildup to the IMF’s spring meeting this week. Biden’s fast-tracking of a $1.9tn stimulus package through Congress, including direct payments to struggling American families, was significant in two ways. First, at about 10% of the annual output of the US economy, it was much bigger than the emergency support provided by Barack Obama after the global financial crisis of 2008. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it contained no promises of future deficit reduction. Austerity has no part in the thinking of the Biden administration, and nor does the idea that demand fuelled by borrowing inevitably leads to higher inflation. The next phase in Biden’s plan is to spend a further $2tn on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This will be funded by reversing some of Donald Trump’s cut to corporate tax rates, which will be opposed by Republicans in Congress but not by the IMF. When asked about the projected increase this week, the fund’s economic counsellor, Gita Gopinath, said Trump’s corporate tax cut had not done much to boost investment. Moreover, Gopinath was positively enthusiastic about the idea of a global minimum corporate tax rate, something the US has traditionally been wary of but which it now supports. For the past year, the IMF has been trying to increase the financial firepower of its member countries through currency reserves known as special drawing rights. Trump’s concern that Iran would secure these rights meant there could be no progress while he was in the White House. Under Biden’s treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, the deadlock has been broken and a $650bn special drawing rights allocation has now been announced. If the old Washington consensus believed in small states, low taxes and balanced budgets, the new Washington consensus believes in activist governments, inclusive growth and a green new deal. Until relatively recently, the only outpost of the multilateral system that supported such ideas was the UN’s trade and development arm in Geneva. That is no longer the case. This week’s regular IMF update on the state of the global economy emphasises how the pandemic has made pre-existing inequalities worse. That’s true within countries, where the virus and its economic consequences have been toughest on the poor, the young, women and ethnic minorities. It is also true between countries, with the central banks and finance ministries in advanced nations having far more scope to mitigate the impact of lockdowns than those in poorer parts of the world. Both the IMF and its sister organisation, the World Bank, are clear that there can be no final victory in the battle against Covid-19 until everybody is vaccinated. The problem is not simply that developing countries lack sufficient doses; it is that their health systems are underpowered and lack the trained staff to deliver treatments. Similarly, if the world is to make the transition to a zero-carbon future, developing countries need to be included. That means extra financial resources. All this at a time when fears of a new developing-country debt crisis are rife. Make no mistake, the IMF is still no soft touch. The conditions imposed as the price for financial support are often draconian, and critics note the disconnect between the right-on rhetoric of the IMF’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, and the policies imposed by her organisation’s missions to struggling countries. Meanwhile, pushback against what Biden has been doing has come from both left and right. Some of the president’s critics accuse him of not being nearly radical enough; others are convinced that all the money creation by the US Federal Reserve and the deficit spending by the US Treasury will inevitably mean much higher inflation. Conjuring up the ghost of economist Milton Friedman, they say it will all eventually end in tears. For now, though, it is the Friedmanites who look marginalised, with the pandemic accelerating a shift in economic thinking that has been gestating over the past decade. Biden’s approach to running the economy – spending freely and taking a tough line with China – has more in common with that of his immediate predecessor than it does with Obama. The shift in attitudes has partly been caused by a lack of results. Austerity did not lead to the surge in private investment and faster growth that was promised. Instead, the 2010s were a lost decade of stagnant living standards, which explains why Bidenomics is a big hit with American voters. Crises also encourage experimentation. Furlough schemes to subsidise the wages of those unable to work are not the same as a basic income, but they are similar enough to get people used to the idea. Necessity rather than ideology explains why Rishi Sunak has spent more than £400bn in the past year on emergency support programmes in the UK, but a Labour chancellor would have done much the same. There is a sense in which history is repeating itself. It took more than a decade after the end of the first world war for the realisation to dawn that the gold standard was finished. It was the second rather than the first oil shock that opened the door to the economics of the new right in the 1980s. Those who thought that the financial crisis would result in a challenge to the Washington consensus were not wrong. The old nostrums are indeed being questioned. It has just taken 10 years longer than they were expecting, that’s all.
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Financial Crisis
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Pakistan lost the 1971 war, but its project of Islamist violence won the larger conflict
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What did India gain from the 1971 victory? It now faces a country with an uncertain future in the East and a Pakistan that is ever more committed to using violence. Fifty years ago, on 16 December 1971, Lieutenant-General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, the Commander of the Pakistan Eastern Command, signed the Instrument of Surrender at Ramna Race Course in Dacca, which was signed and accepted by Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of India’s Eastern Command. Pakistan’s surrender terminated the military dimension of the conflict, also known as the India-Pakistan War of 1971. Oddly, while there are some biographical accounts, which are often blatantly self-serving, there are relatively few empirically robust accounts of this conflict, most of which focus upon the visible dimension of the war: between Pakistan and India. The moniker elides and even eclipses several distinct wars that culminated in Pakistan’s surrender. These other battles continue to cast shadows over the region that are as long as—if not longer—than those of the 1971 conflict between Pakistan and India. Pakistan learned the most dangerous lessons of the war. It concluded that repressing and exploiting disgruntled minorities is a viable tool of domestic statecraft while proxy war is an effective tool of foreign policy. Bangladesh has not become a viable secular democracy and appears ever less likely to do so. And India, despite decisively defeating Pakistan, was never able to build upon that victory to impose a settlement of the Kashmir issue in line with Delhi’s equities while continuing to wrestle with fundamental questions about defence reforms and modernisation. In retrospect, while it may have lost that particular battle in December 1971, in many other ways, Pakistan and its project of Islamist violence seem to have won the larger and enduring war. Also read: Govt and military owe India an authentic history of the 1971 Bangladesh War. Rest is mythology The wars The first was a domestic conflict between Pakistan’s ethnic majority Bengalis, who dominated East Pakistan, and the ruling elite in West Pakistan. This conflict was apparent as early as 1952 when Bengalis began mobilising to force the State to recognise Bengali as a national language. On 21-22 February that year, the Pakistani armed forces murdered several students as well as numerous others in indiscriminate fire. This internal conflict precipitously expanded after the ruling junta of General Yahya Khan refused to convene Parliament following the 1970 elections in which the East Pakistan-based Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, decisively defeated Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party. The consequences of these elections were monumental because the victors were tasked with writing Pakistan’s third constitution. Mujibur Rahman’s party, under the banner of the Six Point Agenda, had long advocated for greater federalism; separate convertible currencies; fiscal responsibility to be delegated to the federating units; as well as the right to maintain a separate militia. Each of these demands came in response to the west’s cultural, economic, and linguistic oppression; exclusion from the military and bureaucracy; as well as consistent and calibrated efforts to deprive Bengalis of their legitimate share of political power. The political elites in the West, spearheaded by General Yahya and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, wanted a strong federal government and found the Awami League’s Six-Point Agenda to be a thinly veiled demand for outright cessation. Despite winning too few seats to veto any constitution offered by the Awami League, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto refused to let his party participate in any convening of Parliament and made absurd demands for a power-sharing agreement. After Mujibur Rahman refused to cede and insisted upon the Awami League’s right to form the government, General Yahya Khan commenced Operation Searchlight, which was a brutal and thuggish military operation to disarm the Bengalis. As refugees began fleeing into India, the second phase of the war began: a proxy war between India and Pakistan. With the monsoon looming, India had few military operations at hand. Given the riverine terrain of Bangladesh, any military operation had to wait until the monsoon was over. To ensure that China would not intervene on its client’s behalf, India would have to wait until winter when snow would preclude Chinese movements through the mountain passes. In addition to these meteorological and geographical constraints, India was ill-equipped to undertake military action in the spring of 1971. India used the summer to reposition forces from the west to the east and construct necessary infrastructure to support military operations while seeking diplomatic support from Russia and imploring the United States to counsel Pakistan to end what was clearly ethnic cleansing in East Pakistan. US President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, were unmoved by India’s requests even though the United States did provide a significant amount of aid to subsidise in some measure the enormous and growing cost of caring for the refugees who continued to pour into India. Initially, while the refugees were both Hindu and Muslim, it increasingly became clear from West Pakistani forces’ violent actions that most of the refugees were Hindu Bengalis. At Independence, about one in four Pakistanis were non-Muslim minorities, most of whom were Bengali Hindus in East Pakistan. The Nixon administration was unconcerned about the mounting atrocities because it was commencing an unprecedented diplomatic overture to China, and it chose Yahya Khan to be its mediator. Despite popular opinion, the Nixon administration had two other Europe-based alternatives to Yahya Khan. Journalist-turned-scholar Gary Bass makes a compelling case that Nixon chose Yahya both because he and Kissinger had a deep personal affection for him – and even compared him to General Ulysses Grant of the American Civil War – and because they had a personal, visceral, and deeply misogynistic hatred for India’s Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. However, even after Nixon had secured a personal connection to China and no longer needed Yahya’s intercession, Nixon refused to make the slightest appeal to Yahya to cease what Archer Blood, the American Counsel in Dhaka, and other dissenting US State Department officials described as a “genocide.” The Nixon administration even beseeched China to feign intervention in the hopes of deterring Indian involvement in the war. As India prepared for the larger war, the proxy war continued and intensified. Throughout the summer it trained and equipped the Bengali Resistance while also mentoring the shambolic, disorganised, and ineffective Bengali political elites. As India supported this rag-tag collection of non-state actors to challenge Pakistan’s formidable armed forces, Pakistan too worked through a number of Islamist militant organisations, including the notoriously violent student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. By the end of the summer, India was providing artillery support to Bengali insurgents who battled Pakistani State and non-state combatants. East Pakistan became a killing field. While it is unpopular to say so, the Bengalis, in and out of the resistance, also victimised non-Bengali and even Bengali “collaborationist” non-combatants in the East. This renders any actual assessment of the war’s non-combatant casualties impossible with extant data, which is deeply problematic. Pakistanis wish to undercount the atrocities. Bangladeshis wish to over-count them. India, for its part, does not declassify documents pertaining to the war at all. While one may disagree with some of Sarmila Bose’s conclusions in her book, Dead Reckoning, her critique of extant data and analytical methodologies are insightful. The third conventional war officially commenced on 3 December when Pakistan’s Air Force conducted preemptive strikes on forward Indian airbases and radar installations. This, too, was a formality given the growing intensity of the proxy war before the official onset of the bilateral confrontation. When the war ended on 16 December 1971, Pakistan was vivisected with East Pakistan emerging as an independent Bangladesh. Some 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered to the Indian Armed Forces and were taken to India as POWs. Pakistan lost more than half of its population and about 15 percent of its territory. However, 61 percent of the 54,500 square miles (1,41,154 sq km) of land lost in the East was arable, in contrast to a meagre 21 percent of the 310,000 square miles (8,02,896 sq km) it retained. All said and done, the Pakistan Army was reviled for losing the East, which allowed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to ruthlessly rule the west until General Zia-ul-Haq ousted him in a coup in July 1977. Also read: Indira Gandhi convinced world before 1971. She and Manekshaw both knew timing was key Who won the Forever War? India successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed the July 1972 Simla Agreement with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. This agreement formally concluded the war. Despite being the clear victor, India bizarrely acquiesced to most of Pakistan’s demands, including relinquishing 5,800 square miles (15,022 sq km) of the territory it had captured in the west, the repatriation of the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war, assurance that Bangladesh would not conduct war crimes trials against Pakistani military personnel, and the inviolable viability of its long-standing, if baseless, claims on the disputed disposition of Kashmir. India and Pakistan respectively retained the territory seized in Kashmir and a new Line of Control was defined where the Cease Fire Line once stood. India’s aims at Shimla were modest despite vivisecting the country, most notably securing Pakistan’s commitment to resolving outstanding disputes peacefully and bilaterally. Indian participants aver that Bhutto had agreed to make the Line of Control the de jure border when times were more propitious to do so. He argued that this would require time, given the public outrage over the outcome of the war, and that to cede Pakistan’s long-nursed position on Kashmir would be political suicide. Some Indian interlocutors justify India’s appeasement of Pakistan as a strategic decision to not impose a “Treaty of Versailles”-like condition upon Pakistan. India also interpreted the 1972 agreement as a potential victory because Pakistan’s agreement to settle disputes bilaterally obviated any scope for the United Nations or other bilateral or multilateral involvement in outstanding issues. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan has never honoured its commitment to resolve outstanding disputes peacefully nor did it ever move to make the Line of Control the de jure border. Pakistan now claims that no such agreement was ever considered and continues its unending effort to change maps in Kashmir through low-intensity conflict, proxy war, and terrorism. Not only has Pakistan never abided by this agreement, but the Pakistan that emerged from the 1971 War ironically was also stronger despite losing a significant amount of valuable territory and more than half of its population. The Pakistan that survived was more defensible, more ideologically coherent, had significantly fewer non-Muslim minorities, and strategically positioned to extract rents by collaborating with the United States on occasion while actively furthering its own agenda at the same time. Unfettered by the problematic Bengalis, Pakistan was able to seek financial, diplomatic, and political support from the Gulf State Monarchies, which, in turn, enabled Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to fulfil his dream of developing, in his own words, an “Islamic bomb.” Bhutto also began jihad in Afghanistan in 1973 following the ouster of King Zahir Shah by his cousin, Mohammad Daoud Khan. Khan began an aggressive liberalising campaign and brutally oppressed any opposition among the Communist and Islamist ranks alike. Bhutto, along with the ISI, deftly organised the Islamists who fled to Pakistan into seven effective guerrilla groups. Pakistan did this with its own meagre resources because doing so was critical to securing its enduring interests in Afghanistan. The United States would not become involved in the conflict until many years later, despite Pakistan’s frequent requests. In fact, in 1979, President Jimmy Carter sanctioned Pakistan for its progress in nuclear reprocessing, thanks in large measure to Bhutto’s perseverance. Once President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, he began securing waivers for those sanctions, which came through in 1982 after which the United States–along with Saudi Arabia and China–provided massive overt and covert resources to Pakistan. In fact, throughout the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the United States continued funding Pakistan even though US officials understood it was still advancing its nuclear weapons programme. When the United States reimposed sanctions in 1990, Pakistan was once again able to resurrect its strategic importance in the wake of 9/11. While ostensibly working with the United States, Pakistan received over $34 billion even while actively supporting myriad terrorist organisations such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network and working to undermine US efforts in Afghanistan. While benefiting from American assistance, Pakistan amassed the world’s fastest-growing nuclear stockpile and has likely exceeded that of France while also developing battlefield nuclear weapons. Pakistan remains both able and willing to undermine India’s quest for hegemony in South Asia and beyond. During the same period, those who struggled to free the Bengalis of East Pakistan from West Pakistan’s project of subordinating ethnic identity to that of an army-sponsored project of political Islam and establishing an independent Bangladesh on the principles of secular democracy failed to create a durable democratic state with a broad consensus on secularism. Within a few years, Mujibur Rahman and most of his family were murdered in a bloody coup. He left behind a legacy of corruption and authoritarianism that resembled that of Pakistan’s own civilian autocrat, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. After a tumultuous power struggle, by 1977, General Ziaur Rahman was in control of the country. He removed secularism from the Constitution and began reviving the Jamaat-e-Islami, which the Awami League had illegalised because of its extensive collaboration with Pakistani forces in committing countless atrocities. By 1988, Bangladesh’s next military leader, General Hussain Muhammad Ershad declared Islam to be the state religion and further resurrected the political salience of Jamaat-e-Islami. When Bangladesh returned to democracy in 1990, the two main political parties vied for power and the right to rule rather than the privilege of governing. While the right-of-centre Bangladesh National Party, “led” by Khaleda Zia (the widow of Ziaur Rahman) is reviled for its explicit reliance upon the Jamaat-e-Islami among other regressive Islamist parties, the Awami League, “led” by Sheikh Hasina (the daughter of Mujibur Rahman) has also courted Islamist parties for the purposes of retaining control. Hasina long ago instituted one-woman rule secured through electoral malfeasance, misuse of legal instruments to harass her opponents, and other oppressive state tactics to silence her growing number of increasingly vocal critics across broad swathes of civil society. Even though Bangladesh’s Supreme Court declared the constitutional amendments of previous military dictators illegal and presumably restored the principle of secularism as a fundamental tenant of the Constitution, Hasina has retained Islam as the state religion even as religious minorities continue to suffer persecution under her watch. India’s desire to create a secular and democratic Bangladesh and forestall an emergence of another “Pakistan on the East” has not come to fruition and is unlikely to in any policy-relevant future. Also read: Two yrs before 1971 war, RAW’s RN Kao told Indira Gandhi to be ready for Pakistan partition Is India any safer? Is India safer today than it was before vivisecting Pakistan in December 1971? India now faces a country with an uncertain future in the East and a Pakistan that is ever more committed to using violence in pursuit of its policies at home and abroad while enjoying complete immunity from consequences and impunity to continue with its sanguinary tactics to force its will upon Afghans as well as Indians–especially Kashmiris. While Britain’s unwillingness to adopt coercive policies towards Pakistan can be explained by the political power of British Pakistanis, the Americans have consistently demonstrated that they have little will or interest in constraining Pakistan even as the latter continues to engage in nuclear coercion and proxy warfare under its ever-expanding nuclear umbrella. Thus, while India and the United States continue to forge important breakthroughs in their bilateral relationship–inclusive of defence, intelligence, and space cooperation–India has had very little success in weaning the Americans off of their inexplicable belief in Pakistan’s indispensability in managing security in South Asia even though Pakistan is the principal progenitor of this very insecurity. It seems as if no Pakistani outrage is ever enough to persuade Americans to see Pakistan as the enemy it is, rather than a problematic ally that can be motivated through a magical concoction of inducements. If the discovery of Osama Bin Laden in an Abbottabad safe house, a short distance from the presumably hallowed Pakistan Military Academy, wasn’t an adequate motivation, one would have thought that defeating the US-led forces in Afghanistan through its unstinting support for the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network among numerous other terrorist groups should have. Instead of availing of a diminished logical dependence upon Pakistan to maintain the war in Afghanistan and adopting a coercive and punitive approach–perhaps in line with the US approach to Iran–Washington in fact facilitated the handover of Afghanistan to Pakistan via its proxies, the Taliban. Moreover, with the American embassy in Kabul closed, the US seems poised to continue its reliance upon Pakistan’s ostensible expertise in catching the very snakes it continues to farm. Pakistan never suffered any punishment or consequence for the relentless persecution of its Bengali population and indeed learned a very important lesson. Namely, it can continue to violently harass, harangue, oppress and even kill its own domestic critics–often with American weaponry. The world is so numb to Pakistan’s barbarism that it no longer registers significant outcry beyond the limited purview of human rights organisations. While Pakistan has learned lessons, the United States has learned nothing. Americans will continue to work with Pakistan, motivated by short-term-policy prerogatives. Sadly, the US will do so even at the expense of long-term American security interests because Pakistan invests the fungible American and international assistance into the very assets its uses to coerce the international community: nuclear weapons and terrorists. In turn, India continues to struggle with defence reforms; the deafening silence of nonexistent inter-ministerial debates about what kind of threats India will face; the kinds of defence requirements it needs to manage if not confront those threats; and how to source these systems much less integrate them. China continues its belligerent rise along India’s borders and within India’s near and distant strategic environment. Worse yet, China is doing so by working through India’s nemeses: Pakistan and the odious Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It’s hard to escape the discomfiting conclusion that Pakistan, despite losing the battle for East Pakistan in 1971, continues to win the wars. Christine Fair is a professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of In Their Own Words: Understanding the Lashkar-e-Tayyabaand Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War. She tweets @cchristinefair. Her website is christinefair.net . (Edited by Prashant)
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Regime Change
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2019 Philippines Beechcraft King Air crash
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On 1 September 2019, a Beechcraft King Air 350 crashed into a tourist resort in Calamba, Laguna, Philippines while performing a medevac flight from Dipolog to Manila. [2] All nine occupants aboard were killed in the crash. [3]
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the aircraft with registration RP-C2296, which had taken off from Dipolog Airport in Zamboanga del Norte at 1:40pm local time (UTC+8), was bound for Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila when it lost radar contact with air traffic control (ATC) at around 3.10pm, while flying 37 miles (60 km) south of Manila. [4][5][6][7] Witnesses nearby reported that the aircraft trailed smoke before plummeting onto the ground. [5]
The aircraft crashed and bursted into flames at the privately owned Agojo Resort in Pansol, Calamba, Laguna near the foothills of Mount Makiling, killing all nine occupants aboard and injuring two others on the ground. [8] Among the dead were a patient being transported and his wife. [9]
Debris from the aircraft landed in separate locations of the subdivision. [10] A number of residential houses were destroyed in the blaze,[5] and a nearby resort had a wall damaged in the fiery crash. [4] The accident occurred during the country's monsoon season, when a small number of tourists visit Pansol's resorts compared to the dry season which ended in June. [7]
Following another aircraft crash of an IAI Westwind II at Ninoy Aquino International Airport just months after the accident, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) grounded the entire Lionair fleet while both crashes were still under investigation. [11]
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board (AAIIB) were dispatched to the scene to investigate the accident. [12] The aircraft's cockpit voice recorder, which was badly damaged, was retrieved from the crash site and was brought to Australia for analysis. [13]
The CAAP said that it has partial information to determine the cause, but would release its final report once the AAIIB has concluded its investigation. [12]
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Air crash
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2020 Minneapolis false rumors riot
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The 2020 Minneapolis false rumors riot was a reaction to the suicide of a black man who was being pursued by police for his alleged involvement in a homicide on August 26, 2020, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Unfounded rumors that Minneapolis police officers had shot the man quickly spread on social media, and set off protests, rioting, and looting in Minneapolis, which came as the city was still dealing with the aftermath of protests and riots following the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, by a white Minneapolis police officer three months prior.] The homicide suspect on August 26—38-year-old Eddie Sole Jr. of Minneapolis—died after he shot himself in the head as he was near a bus stop along Nicollet Mall. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office later listed his manner of death as a suicide,which was also confirmed by surveillance video footage.
Violence and looting the night of August 26 led to 132 arrests,damage to 72 properties in Minneapolis and Saint Paul,[3] four fires in Minneapolis,[3] and the injury of two police officers. Minnesota government officials amassed nearly 1,000 members of law enforcement and 400 Minnesota National Guard troops took keep the peace and calmness prevailed after August 27.Three Minnesota residents were later convicted of federal charges for an arson attack on the Target Corporation headquarters building during the riot.
The initial cause of civil disorder was the suicide of a homicide suspect in downtown Minneapolis on August 26, 2020. The homicide was the 52nd of the year in the city. Many residents were still on edge from the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, when the Minneapolis Police Department had mischaracterized Floyd's death as due to "medical distress" in early statements about the incident. Protesters reacting to news of a new shooting death, that video later showed was a suicide, did not trust initial police accounts of the incident. Posts on social media websites suggested that Minneapolis police were responsible for the man's death.
The civil disorder also came as part of the larger Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police brutality in 2020. Late at night on August 15 in Minneapolis, a group of approximately 50 people marched to the city's fifth police precinct station in what was initially described as a peaceful protest, but it became violent when people threw rocks at windows, threw paint on the building, and shot commercial-grade fireworks at police officers, before fleeing the scene. The August 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, an African American man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by a police officer, led to protests and unrest that spilled into Minnesota. On August 24 in Minneapolis, a 100-person protest over Blake's shooting took place in the city's downtown area, and after the main protest group disbanded, some protesters broke windows and threatened to breach a jail facility, resulting in 11 arrests. One Minneapolis police officer suffered a broken hand during a confrontation with a demonstrator.
In Minneapolis by August, the downtown workforce was at 85 percent of prior capacity, with many business closed and people working from home due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, and with fewer people on the street there were concerns about the perceptions of crime and lack of police presence.
Eddie George Gordon, a 61-year-old from Rush City, Minnesota, died from multiple gunshot wounds while inside a parking ramp near 10th Street North and Currie Avenue West at 2 p.m. on August 26 in downtown Minneapolis. Police sources believed he had been in an altercation with a man and woman, who both fled the scene on foot. Police apprehended the female suspect, but the male suspect fled. At 6 p.m. the police had tracked him down on Nicollet Avenue and closed in for an arrest. The male suspect was later identified as Eddie Sole Jr., a 38-year-old from Minneapolis. As police forces advanced to make an arrest, Sole Jr. shot himself in the head while standing on a sidewalk outside the entrance to a Target store, just before officers reached him. Within an hour of the suicide a large crowd had gathered at the scene.
The encounter between Sole Jr. and the police quickly sparked social media rumors about the manner of his death.At a Black Entrepreneur State Fair event on the other side of the Mississippi River in Father Hennepin Bluff Park, nearly one mile (1.6 km) away from where the death occurred, a DJ announced to the crowd that police were covering up a death with a suicide story. A group marched across the Stone Arch Bridge to downtown to protest what they believed was a police shooting. That evening protesters swelled into the city's downtown area and reached what was estimated as a crowd of 500 people.
Police denied that they had fired weapons at Sole Jr. during pursuit and released a surveillance video of his apparent suicide to quell rumors that it was an officer involved shooting. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo sent text messages to several racial justice advocates seeking help in circulating the video, such as to Nekima Levy Armstrong who attempted to contain the spread of false information.However, some in the crowd downtown began breaking windows at nearby businesses, resulting in property destruction and looting at many stores and restaurants. As the scene downtown became more violent some in the crowd urged others stop the destruction, including a person on a megaphone who shouted, "We have the video — the man killed himself! "
At 9:30 p.m. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey publicly requested assistance from the Minnesota National Guard to restore order. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated troops just before 11:00 p.m. and the first troops arrived downtown just before midnight. Frey imposed a citywide curfew overnight, and both Walz and Frey declared a state of emergency.
Destruction overnight reached a total of 72 property locations in Minneapolis and four locations in neighboring Saint Paul. In Minneapolis, four businesses were set on fire, including a downtown restaurant and three other businesses located miles away from the city's downtown area. The rioting in downtown Minneapolis mostly stretched along Nicollet Mall from 5th to 12th streets, though it spread to a gas station and liquor store near Loring Park.The rioting also an effect beyond downtown Minneapolis. Several businesses in south Minneapolis, Uptown, and Dinkytown were vandalized and looted, as was a liquor store in the suburb of Brooklyn Park.
Two Minneapolis police officers were seriously injured during the unrest and hospitalized, but the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. One of the injuries, captured on a bystander's video, showed an officer being hit in the head by a trash can lid and becoming unconscious.Some bystanders cheered when the object hit the officer.
To prevent further rioting and looting, officials put in place a curfew for the second night, from the hours of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day. Nearly 1,000 members of law enforcement and 400 Minnesota National Guard troops amassed in the metro area to prevent more lawlessness. Thirty people were arrested that night, all for curfew violations. Calmness prevailed after August 27.
State and local officials declined to issue a curfew for Friday, August 28. However, Minneapolis city officials extended the state of emergency through the weekend to allow for possible curfews, if needed to address unrest.
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Riot
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Justice News
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David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, speaks during a news conference Nov. 22, 2021, to announce indictments in USA v. Patricio et al, Operation Blooming Onion, a human trafficking investigation naming 24 defendants on felony charges including human smuggling and document fraud. With Estes are (from left) Katrina Berger, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Office of Homeland Security Investigations; Michael Imperatrice, Resident Agent in Charge, Savannah HSI Office; Jessica Moore, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Division for the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service; Rafiq Ahmad, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General; Henry Deblock, Savannah Area Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection; George "Will" Clarke, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent, FBI Savannah; John Britt, Savannah/Jacksonville Team Leader, U.S. Postal Inspection Service; David Lyons, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Georgia; Maj. Fred Cole, Chief Deputy of the Coffee County Sheriff's Office; and Capt. Marcus Dunlap, Coffee County Sheriff's Office.
INDICTMENT: USA v. Patricio et al, Operation Blooming Onion: 521cr9.pdf
WAYCROSS, GA: Two dozen defendants have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges after a transnational, multi-year investigation into a human smuggling and labor trafficking operation that illegally imported Mexican and Central American workers into brutal conditions on South Georgia farms.
The newly unsealed, 54-count indictment in USA v. Patricio et al. details felony charges resulting from Operation Blooming Onion, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. The multi-agency investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations and other federal agencies, spans at least three years, and the 53-page indictment documents dozens of victims of modern-day slavery while spelling out the illegal acts that brought these exploited workers into the United States and imprisoned them under inhumane conditions as contract agricultural laborers, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
“The American dream is a powerful attraction for destitute and desperate people across the globe, and where there is need, there is greed from those who will attempt to exploit these willing workers for their own obscene profits,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Estes. “Thanks to outstanding work from our law enforcement partners, Operation Blooming Onion frees more than 100 individuals from the shackles of modern-day slavery and will hold accountable those who put them in chains.”
“OCDETF Operation Blooming Onion maximized the expertise of multiple law enforcement agencies and leveraged analytical and coordination support from OCDETF’s International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) to target an international criminal organization engaged in human trafficking and visa fraud,” said OCDETF Director Adam W. Cohen. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s leadership of this multi-agency law enforcement effort positions us to disrupt and dismantle the operations of transnational criminal networks that pose the greatest threat to our communities and to the Nation.”
As described in the indictment, investigators from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the FBI began investigating the Patricio transnational criminal organization in November 2018. The indictment alleges that in or before 2015, the conspirators and their associates “engaged in mail fraud, international forced labor trafficking, and money laundering, among other crimes,” fraudulently using the H-2A work visa program to smuggle foreign nationals from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras into the United States under the pretext of serving as agricultural workers.
The activities took place within the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Georgia; the Middle District of Florida; the Southern District of Texas; and Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and elsewhere. The conspirators required the workers to pay unlawful fees for transportation, food, and housing while illegally withholding their travel and identification documents, and subjected the workers “to perform physically demanding work for little or no pay, housing them in crowded, unsanitary, and degrading living conditions, and by threatening them with deportation and violence.”
Exploitation of the workers included being required to dig onions with their bare hands, paid 20 cents for each bucket harvested, and threatened with guns and violence to keep them in line. The workers were held in cramped, unsanitary quarters and fenced work camps with little or no food, limited plumbing and without safe water. The conspirators are accused of raping, kidnapping and threatening or attempting to kill some of the workers or their families, and in many cases sold or traded the workers to other conspirators. At least two of the workers died as a result of workplace conditions. In the Southern District of Georgia, these activities were alleged to have taken place in the counties of Atkinson, Bacon, Coffee, Tattnall, Toombs and Ware as farmers paid the conspirators to provide contract laborers.
The conspirators are alleged to have reaped more than $200 million from the illegal scheme, laundering the funds through cash purchases of land, homes, vehicles, and businesses; through cash purchases of cashier’s checks; and by funneling millions of dollars through a casino.
Then, as the continuing investigation into the conspiracy moved forward in late 2019, the indictment alleges that three of the conspirators attempted to intimidate and persuade a witness to lie to a federal grand jury and deny any knowledge of the illegal activities of the Patricio organization.
More than 200 law enforcement officers and federal agents from around the United States convened in the Southern District of Georgia to execute more than 20 federal search warrants at target locations.
Those indicted in USA v. Patricio et al. and their charges include:
Maria Leticia Patricio, 70, of Nichols, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; two counts of Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Daniel Mendoza, 40, of Ruskin, Fla., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Nery Rene Carrillo-Najarro, 56, Douglas, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; 14 counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Antonio Chavez Ramos, a/k/a “Tony Chavez,” 38, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; four counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
JC Longoria Castro, 46, Vidalia, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; four counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Victoria Chavez Hernandez, 38, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Enrique Duque Tovar, 36, of Axon, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; nine counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Jose Carmen Duque Tovar, 58, of Axon, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; nine counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Charles Michael King, 31, of Waycross, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Stanley Neal McGauley, 38, of Waycross, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Luis Alberto Martinez, a/k/a “Chino Martinez,” 41, of Tifton, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Delia Ibarra Rojas, 33, of Lyons, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; three counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Juana Ibarra Carrillo, 46, of Alma, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Donna Michelle Rojas, a/k/a “Donna Lucio,” 33, of Collins, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; three counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Margarita Rojas Cardenas, a/k/a “Maggie Cardenas,” 43, of Reidsville, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; three counts of Forced Labor; Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering; and Tampering with a Witness;
Juan Fransisco Alvarez Campos, 42, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Rosalvo Garcia Martinez, a/k/a “Chava Garcia,” 33, of Haines City, Fla., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering; and Tampering with a Witness;
Esther Ibarra Garcia, 63, of Dade City, Fla., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; three counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Rodolfo Martinez Maciel, 26, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; three counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Brett Donavan Bussey, 39, of Tifton, Ga., charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; four counts of Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering; and Tampering with a Witness;
Linda Jean Facundo, 36, of Tifton, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Gumara Canela, 34, of Alma, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; 14 counts of Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering;
Daniel Merari Canela Diaz, 24, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering; and,
Carla Yvonne Salinas, 28, of Laredo, Texas, charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud; Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.
The charges of Conspiracy to Engage in Forced Labor, and Forced Labor, each carry statutory penalties of up to life in prison, while the charges of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, Mail Fraud, Money Laundering Conspiracy, and Tampering with a Witness each carry statutory penalties of up to 20 years in prison. Each of the charges also include substantial financial penalties and periods of supervised release after completion of any prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Criminal indictments contain only charges; defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The case was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Operation Blooming Onion also is designated as a Priority Transnational Organized Crime Cases.
Agencies investigating Operation Blooming Onion include Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Fraud Detection and National Security; the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and Wage and Hour Division; U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service; the FBI; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and the U.S. Marshals Service, with assistance from the Georgia National Guard; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; the Georgia State Patrol; the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office; the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office; the Tattnall County Sheriff’s Office; the Bacon County Sheriff’s Office; and the Tift County Sheriff’s Office. The case is being prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney and Human Trafficking Coordinator Tania D. Groover, and Assistant U.S. Attorney and Criminal Division Deputy Chief E. Greg Gilluly Jr., and Assistant U.S. Attorney Xavier A. Cunningham, Section Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit.
If you believe you have information about a potential trafficking situation call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking. All reports are confidential and you may remain anonymous. Interpreters are available. The information you provide will be reviewed by the National Hotline and forwarded to specialized law enforcement and/or service providers where appropriate.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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nzherald.co.nz
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates and wife Melinda split. Video / NZ herald
It's a well-known fact that Bill and Melinda Gates' three children will not inherit the billions of wealth amassed by Microsoft.
Instead, the couple's three children – Jennifer, 25, Rory, 21, and Phoebe, 18 – will be left US$10 million each.
But the divorce of Bill and Melinda, announced earlier this month, could change that.
Celebrity divorce experts say the legal team Melinda has employed to help her navigate her split from the Microsoft founder – including some of America's top trust and estate lawyers – could help her wrangle more from the divorce.
High-profile divorce lawyers Harriet Newman Cohen and Martha Cohen Stine, told the New York Post that it was "most unusual for trust and estate lawyers' names to be listed on a divorce filing".
Newman Cohen and Cohen Stine are not involved in the Gates' divorce but are well-versed in high-profile divorces and have previously represented New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the ex-wives of Harvey and Bob Weinstein, NBA star Paul George, actor Laurence Fishburne, Howard Stern's ex-wife and the former wife of Louis CK.
"Bill Gates proudly announced to the world he was leaving US$10 million to each of his three children, and that the rest of the billions will be left to charity," Newman Cohen said.
"Now that Melinda has control – maybe she wanted to leave more to her children than US$10 million each. Maybe she didn't agree."
Melinda is being represented by top divorce lawyer Robert Cohen of Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich – whose clients have included Michael Bloomberg and Ivana Trump.
She has also listed estate planning lawyer Loretta Ippolito of Paul Weiss, as well as the firm's Bruce Birenboim, who has represented Citigroup and the NFL.
Over the years, Bill has spoken about how much he planned to leave his children.
In a 2016 interview on British breakfast show This Morning, the Microsoft boss said his children were "proud" of his decision to dedicate most of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Our kids will receive a great education and some money so they are never going to be poorly off but they'll go out and have their own career," he said.
"It's not a favour to kids to have them have huge sums of wealth. It distorts anything they might do, creating their own path."
Gates' squeaky clean image as a philanthropic family man is getting murkier by the day, two weeks after he and Melinda announced their divorce.
Since then, the problems that likely led to the end of the couple's marriage have continued to emerge.
Stories of Gates' allegedly awkward behaviour with female employees, weekend retreats with ex-girlfriends and a little-known connection to Jeffrey Epstein have all emerged – with reports suggesting the Microsoft founder was up to much more than tirelessly building his tech business and charity.
A spokeswoman for Gates has strongly denied any wrongdoing on his behalf.
An investigation by The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported Microsoft board members decided it best that Gates step down from its board in 2020 after an internal investigation found a prior romantic relationship with one of the company's engineers was "inappropriate".
The female Microsoft engineer wrote a letter to the board in late 2019, alleging she and Gates had been in a sexual relationship for years.
"Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000," a Microsoft spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.
"A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern."
Gates' spokeswoman said the affair had "ended amicably" and his decision to step down from Microsoft's board in March 2020 was not linked to the investigation and instead linked to him wanting to focus more on his philanthropic work.
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Famous Person - Divorce
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India, Pakistan become full members of SCO
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As an SCO member, India is expected to have a bigger say in pressing for concerted action in dealing with terrorism as well as on issues relating to security and defence in the region.
India on Friday became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), ending an administrative process that began two years ago. India’s membership at the SCO was announced by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who also welcomed Pakistan as a new member into the organisation.
“India and Pakistan are now members of the SCO. It is a very important moment for us,” President Nazarbayev said, concluding the two-year accession process. New Delhi has acceded to a set of 38 documents covering a range of activities of India in the organisation.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers in 2005 and began the administrative process of joining the organisation, which began in 2001 in Shanghai, in 2015.
Friday’s ceremony however, comes in the backdrop of India-Pakistan tension over cross-border terrorism and India’s objection to China’s Belt and Road Initiative which passes through territories that India claims.
Fight against terror
Highlighting India’s concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India’s arrival into the organisation would boost the fight against terrorism. “Terrorism is a major threat to humanity. I have full confidence that the India-SCO cooperation will give a new direction and strength to the fight against terrorism,” he said.
Earlier, President Xi and Mr. Modi met on the sidelines of the summit in Astana following which Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar described the bilateral ties between the two countries as a “factor of stability” in the age of global instability.
Dangal praised
Both leaders discussed the Kailash Mansarovar yatra, trade and investment issues, industrial parks, counter terror cooperation and parliamentary exchanges. “There was a fairly detailed discussion on cultural cooperation. President Xi in fact spoke very highly of Indian films. He said the film Dangal was doing well in China and that they were looking forward to the next International Day of Yoga (June 21),” said Mr. Jaishankar.
Mr. Modi also held a bilateral with the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirzyoyev and discussed medical tourism and trade between the two countries.
Mr. Modi also held an important meeting with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan.
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Join in an Organization
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2006 Progressive Enterprises dispute
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The 2006 Progressive Enterprises Dispute was an industrial dispute between New Zealand supermarket company Progressive Enterprises and employees represented by the National Distribution Union and the EPMU. On 25 August 2006, over 500 employees at Progressive's four distribution centres (in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch) began a 48-hour strike supporting a demand for a national collective agreement involving an eight percent wage increase and pay parity between the four centres. On 26 August 2006 the company locked out the strikers indefinitely, suspending operations at its distribution centres, with suppliers delivering goods directly to the supermarkets and also setting up amateur small scale distribution centres in car parks of Countdown supermarkets. [1] The dispute was resolved on 21 September 2006 when Progressive Enterprises agreed to pay parity and a 4.5% wage increase. [2]
In 2003 Progressive closed its Auckland and Christchurch distribution centers and rehired the redundant workers on lower pay,[3] the closures ended the former national agreement and resulted in a NZ$2.50 per hour pay gap between the four sites. [4]
On 25 November 2005 Progressive Enterprises was bought by Australian retailer Woolworths Limited, the country's largest private employer. On Friday 25 August 2006 workers at the Progressive Enterprises distribution centres began a 48 hour long strike in support of a nationwide collective agreement with equal pay rates and existing allowances combined into a site allowance of up to $2.50, an 8% pay rise and an extra week service leave. [5] On the 28th they voted unanimously to extend the strike. Union organiser Stan Renwick stated "This strike has become much more than a fight between distribution workers and Progressive, it's becoming a fight between the communities of Mangere, Palmerston North and Christchurch and $1.1 billion dollars of Australian profit,"[6]
Following the strike the company locked out the workers indefinitely, calling the union demands unrealistic. On the 11th day of the lock out TVNZ reported that gaps on the shelves at Progressive owned supermarkets were becoming the norm. The company stated that it was confident it could keep most shelves stocked, though most customers interviewed by ONE News had noticed gaps. [7] That same day a spokesperson for the company told the Gisborne Herald that there were certainly empty gaps on shelves at most supermarkets, although this was not having an impact on sales, with customers substituting out of stock items for different brands. [8]
One National Distribution Union employee has claimed that the company was paying more than three times what it would normally pay for distribution during the lock-out. [9]
As the dispute entered its third week the locked out workers started to feel the effects of missing three pay cheques, one locked out worker, Virginia Watson, told TVNZ that she was now relying on donations to feed her kids "It's really starting to hurt. The kids haven't had a decent meat and vegetable meal to eat for over a week now, been pretty hard for them. "[10] Progressive Enterprises estimated that the workers had collectively lost over $2 million in wages during the dispute. [11]
On 24 October The Press reported that the dispute "took a toll on Australian parent company Woolworths, which reported flat sales in New Zealand for the first quarter"[12]
Progressive Enterprises workers, along with supporters, kept up continuous around-the-clock pickets at the distribution centres, as well as going out on "flying pickets" targeting the temporary distribution points set up by the company at supermarkets and distribution firms where people are handling goods that would normally be handled at the distribution centers. [13] at the Palmerston North distribution centre. A permanent presence was set up at the site, with tents, a power generator, fridge, barbecue and portaloo. A representative from the Postal Workers Union added a letterbox to the campsite, saying that postal workers would deliver messages of solidarity sent directly to the picketers. [14] Numerous arrests were made during the dispute, on 28 August union negotiator Stan Renwick was arrested,[15] in Lower Hutt three picketers who were not employed by Progressive Enterprises were arrested at a Countdown supermarket after a stand off with a truck driver. [16] During the third week of the dispute ten people were arrested on the picket line in Auckland after truck tires were punctured during a clash between picketers and a moving truck, National Distribution Union organiser Ingrid Beckers, who was one of the people arrested, told the New Zealand Herald that the truck had driven dangerously through the picket line and that the driver unwound his window and swung a metal pole around. According to Senior Sergeant Cornell Kluessien "Some were charged with disorderly behaviour, some with obstructing police and some with obstructing a roadway. "[17]
At a special affiliates meeting of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, the organisation representing 350,000 New Zealand union members, a resolution was passed condemning the lock out and supporting the claims of distribution workers, resolving "That each union, separately and collectively, will continue to take every possible action to support the NDU, the EPMU and their distribution worker members to achieve a fair settlement of their dispute". [18]
The Maritime Union of New Zealand issued a statement pledging "financial, practical and moral support for the workers and their pickets"[19] and threatened to stop unloading supermarket goods at the wharves. [20] They also worked to gain international support for the locked out workers, including from the International Transport Workers Federation, which represents 4,500,000 transport workers in 142 countries. Maritime union members voted to each contribute one hour of pay to the locked out worker fund each week until the dispute was settled. [21]
Over $425,000[22] was raised by the unions to support the locked out workers, a big part of this was $30,000 a week from one Auckland workplace with 1500 unionised staff[23] and large donations from Australian unions the Maritime Union of Australia, the Transport Workers' Union and the Rail Tram and Bus Union. On 18 September representatives of these unions travelled to New Zealand to join the picket likes. [24]
At an executive board meeting held in Singapore on 14–16 September, the ICFTU-APRO, part of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions representing 30 million workers in the Asia-Pacific region condemned what it saw as "This heavy-handed pressure by a major corporate employer to force low-paid workers to relinquish their right to bargain collectively as guaranteed by ILO Conventions and New Zealand law. "[25]
Business lobby groups Business New Zealand and the Employers and Manufacturers Association both expressed concern that the dispute reflected a new style of ideological union claims, such as the claim for a national collective agreement. Employers and Manufacturers Associations Chief Executive Alasdair Thompson told National Radio "If they were to pull this off, then it could well lead to other situations where other employers who operate nationally see this sort of thing tried out against them. "[26]
Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly stated "I think the Progressive dispute is a very public way station of a trend towards more of this. The claim's not just about money, it's about structural stuff and bargaining issues that employers will find quite difficult to agree to," and claimed that if unions continue this approach to negotiations it would undoubtedly lead to more industrial disputes. [27]
An editorial in the Nelson Mail called the dispute "a disturbing reminder of the past, when unions had the power to shut down an entire industry - and sometimes used it. "[28]
The government did not make any official statement about the dispute, however one individual cabinet minister, Steve Maharey, whose electorate includes the Palmerston North distribution centre made a token donation of $200 to the unions locked out worker fund. EPMU leader Andrew Little challenged all members of parliament to match or beat this donation, though none did. [29]
The opposition National Party put out a press release critical of the workers, mistakenly calling the industrial dispute a 'strike' when it was actually a lockout. [30]
The Green Party urged the public to boycott Progressive Enterprises supermarkets until the dispute was resolved. The party's industrial relations spokesperson Sue Bradford stated in a press release "The Green Party is totally behind the locked-out workers. The right to form national collective agreements is a basic one which workers in many other industries have successfully attained. It is appalling to see Progressive Enterprises applying such brute economic force to prevent its workers from negotiating one,"[31]
The Alliance supported the locked out workers by donating $500 and encouraging members of the party to match that donation. It also criticised the Labour government for remaining silent during the dispute. [32] and The Workers Party produced and distributed a bulletin supporting the locked out workers, and encouraging the public to donate to the locked out worker fund. [33]
Socialist Worker raised $250 at a community picket of Foodtown Onehunga, and its activists in the Solidarity Union manned the picket line most days during the strike. [citation needed] The Workers' Charter newspaper published extensive coverage in its pages, also helping to raise the need for workers to challenge the ERA's anti strike laws and deliver illegal solidarity strike action to support those locked out. [citation needed]
Both sides of the dispute claimed victory when an agreement was reached between the company and the two unions representing its employees on 21 September. The majority of workers in Auckland and Palmerston North voted to accept the company's offer, however, the vote in Christchurch was close. [34] The unions did not achieve one collective agreement for all three centres but NDU secretary Laila Harre said the terms were the same; "The most important thing for these workers was using their national bargaining power to deliver equal pay for equal work and they've done a stunning job of that,"[35] The agreement allowed for a 4.5% pay rise and pay parity between the four distribution centres by the end of 2008. Different sites' shift and roster systems were preserved but the system of allowances was streamlined to comprise a single base rate.
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Strike
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Kaley Cuoco is reportedly ‘doing fine’ amid divorce from Karl Cook: ‘She has a big career and puts that first in her life’
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Kaley Cuoco is reportedly "doing fine" amid her divorce from Karl Cook as he returned to social media for the first time in a month — and made it clear he won't be discussing the split.
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Kaley Cuoco is reportedly "doing fine" amid her divorce from Karl Cook as he returned to social media for the first time in a month — and made it clear he won't be discussing the split.
The 35-year-old actress, who announced Friday that she's divorcing for the second time, is in Berlin making Season 2 of The Flight Attendant and she "is doing fine," an insider told People magazine. She was pictured on Tuesday leaving her hotel, in a purple top, black bottoms and slides, for the set.
"She has a big career and puts that first in her life," the insider said. "It's basically a [matter of] growing apart and each pursuing separate interests."
The source said the pair — united at first by their love of horses — "haven't spent that much time together recently." The person explained, "She has a lot going on in her career now and loves her work. Their relationship is just following different paths. A marriage doesn't work if you rarely see the other one."
The insider noted that Cook has been focused on his career as an equestrian and was away last winter from Cuoco's home in L.A. to ride in Florida. That's been the case in their relationship all along. One year into their marriage, the Big Bang Theory alum said she had no problem living apart from Cook. The COVID quarantine forced them to be under the same roof, which she initially said was a good thing.
"Karl is a lifelong equestrian with a thorough love of horses," another source told People. "His jumping career has picked up recently, and he did well over the summer."
Cook returned to social media on Tuesday for the first time since the couple announced they are divorcing. He acknowledged that it had been a while since he posted — over a month —noting he had been "dealing with some stuff."
A post shared by Karl Cook (@mrtankcook)
“It’s been awhile since I posted anything," Cook said in one of his "walking and talking" videos, which he often does on horseback. "I’ve been dealing with some stuff."
He continued, "I guess most importantly if you’re just watching this to hopefully hear me saying something about what’s been going on in my life, you can tune out because I’m not going to,” he went on to talk about bourbon and riding.
A post shared by Kaley Cuoco (@kaleycuoco)
Over the weekend, Cuoco returned to the NYC set of Meet Cute — the film she's making with Pete Davidson — to film some scenes. She was reportedly seen walking and holding hands with Davidson while the cameras rolled.
There have been unconfirmed rumors of a budding romance between the pair, as Davidson recently split from Phoebe Dynevor in August after five months together.
A post shared by Kaley Cuoco (@kaleycuoco)
Over the weekend, Cuoco also removed mention of her soon-to-be ex-husband Cook from her Instagram bio. She's also since shared new photos from the set of The Flight Attendant to Instagram.
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Famous Person - Divorce
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Wincrest Nursing Home fire
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The Wincrest Nursing Home fire took place on Friday, January 30, 1976, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The fire occurred when an arsonist set a wardrobe closet on fire at the Wincrest Nursing Home building, located at 6326 N. Winthrop Avenue. The alarm sounded at 11:30 a.m. and the fire was put out at 1:30 p.m. Although the building itself sustained minor smoke, fire and water damage, 23 people died from smoke inhalation. A 21-year-old housekeeper was arrested by authorities and was charged with multiple counts of arson. [1]
The fire was described as the worst of its kind in Chicago's history, and caused the Board of Health to enact changes. [1]
In its design plan, the building complex consisted of 28 rooms, which could accommodate 88 residents. The original brick building was demolished in 1966 as part of a three-stage construction project and was replaced by a three story building and a garden. The complex was finally completed in 1973. [2]
The original nursing home complex was a 1,906 sq ft (177 m²) brick building consisting of two floors. In 1959, a second building was added to the rear which includes a garden. The addition increased the size of the complex to 5,179 sq ft (481 m²). The addition was built with precast concrete floor and roof slabs connected to steel beams and columns. In 1966, the brick building was removed and was replaced by a three story building; at the same time, a third floor was added to the original building constructed in 1959. Overall, the second addition expanded the complex to 9,466 sq ft (879 m²). In 1973, a third building was added with a 10 ft (3 m) corridor connecting to the existing building complex. The third building also consisted of three floors and had a floor area of 3,613 sq ft (336 m²). The construction of the third building, consisted of precast concrete floor slabs, metal roof deck on steel bar joists. All of the buildings were covered with a 5/8 inch fire rated plasterboard. [2]
After the entire complex was finished in 1973, it had nursing area, lounges, and a small kitchen with no cooking appliances, closets and bathrooms on the all three floors. The complex also had a laundry room, boiler room, storage room and chapel lounge which is located in the third building of the complex. [2]
In the design plan, the nursing home complex only had two stairways. The first stairways are located in the first building, near the lobby area and the second stairway is located in the second building. Both stairways had doors that have wire mesh windows and are operated by hydraulic door closers. The complex also had only one elevator which also located in the first building across from the lobby stairway. The exterior walls of the building consisted of brick and concrete blocks surrounded by gypsum board. The interior walls also consistent of gypsum with the outer wall finish consisting of paint, wallpaper, ceramic tile and vinyl. Overall, the entire structural system of the building complex consisted of a reinforced concrete foundation and floor slabs up to 8 inches (200 mm) thick. All of the floor slabs are supported by fire resistant columns and beams. [2][3]
All of the patient rooms, lounge areas, and chapel on all three floors had a natural ventilation system (i.e. open windows). The restroom area, enclosed garden area, nurses offices and other rooms in the building complex were ventilated by heater, air conditioner and ceiling fans. All of the buildings electrical system were composed of system II required emergency exit signs and corridor lighting system. The system operated an automatic transfer switch which operates the emergency lights in case of power failure. The third floor of the building complex had battery powered emergency lighting. [3][4]
The nursing home was equipped with a manual and automatic fire alarm system that is connected directly to the fire alarm office of the Chicago Fire Department. The alarm system was designed to give out a code or box number of the alarm station when activated. The manual fire alarm system consisted of two pull fire alarm boxes located on each floor and one fire alarm box located at the entrance of the building. The automatic fire alarms are activated by heat sensors which are located on the third floor, both stairways and in the storage closet. The automatic fire alarm system also consisted of smoke detectors. On the third floor, three fire extinguishers and two public address loud speakers were installed. [4][5]
The Wincrest Nursing Home was inspected by three departments (health, building and fire) on a monthly basis. The last inspection occurred on January 8, 1976 (21 days before the fire). All inspections showed no code or health violations. [5]
At the time of the fire, the building was occupied by 83 residents, three nurses, 2 aides and eleven office, kitchen and maintenance staff. 28 of the residents were in the chapel room on the third floor of the building. [6]
Fire was reported in room 306 by a nurse's aide who pulled the fire alarm box. The alarm was received by the Chicago Fire Department at 11:43 A.M (CDT). Attempts to put out the fire by staff proved to no avail. The first fire engine arrived at the scene of the fire 3 minutes and 40 seconds later as nursing home staff evacuated the burning building.
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Fire
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2009 Jeddah floods
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The 2009 Saudi Arabian floods affected Jeddah, on the Red Sea (western) coast of Saudi Arabia, and other areas of Makkah Province. [2][3] They have been described by civil defence officials as the worst in 27 years. [4] As of 3 January 2010, some 122 people had been reported to have been killed,[1] and more than 350 were missing. [2] Some roads were under a meter (three feet) of water on 26 November, and many of the victims were believed to have drowned in their cars. At least 3,000 vehicles were swept away or damaged. [2][5][6] The death toll was expected to rise as flood waters receded, allowing rescuers to reach stranded vehicles. [7]
More than 70 millimetres (2.76 inches) of rain fell in Jeddah in just four hours on 25 November. [2][5] This is nearly twice the average for an entire year[8] and the heaviest rainfall in Saudi Arabia in a decade. [9] The flooding came just two days before the expected date of the Eid al-Adha festival[4] and during the annual Hajj pilgrimage to nearby Mecca. [10] Business losses were estimated at a billion riyals (US$270 million). The poorer neighbourhoods in the south of Jeddah were particularly hard hit,[11][12] as was the area around King Abdulaziz University. The university was closed for vacation at the time of the floods, preventing even higher casualties. [13]
The city of Jeddah is situated on the Red Sea coast, beneath the northern escarpment of the Red Sea Rift known as the Jabal al Hejaz, which reaches 600–1,000 metres (1,800–3,000 feet) in the region. The population of the city is about 3.4 million (2009 estimate) in an urban area of 1,765 km2 (681 sq mi), giving a population density of 1,900 hab./km2 (5,000 hab./sq. mi.). The climate is arid, with most rainfall occurring between November and January, usually as thunderstorms. [14]
At least eleven wadis converge on the city,[11] and localised flooding is common after rain. The municipality is currently investing 1 billion riyals (US$270 million) in storm drains, but the cost of a full system is estimated at an additional 3 billion riyals (US$800 million). [15] In November 2009, only some 30% of the city was protected against flash flooding and then, often with only one-inch (25-millimetre) pipes. [15]
25 November was the first day of the annual four-day Hajj pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites in and around Mecca, for which Jeddah is the main entry point for foreign pilgrims arriving by air or sea. The number of foreigners, as well as Saudi citizens,[16] was slightly lower than in previous years, possibly because of health fears due to the pandemic of H1N1 influenza. However, over 1.6 million are still believed to have made the hajj, with 200,000 coming from Indonesia alone. [9]
According to the Saudi Interior Ministry, none of the flood victims were taking part in the pilgrimage. [2][3] However, the main Haramain expressway between King Abdulaziz International Airport and Mecca was closed on 25 November, stranding thousands of pilgrims. Parts of the 80-kilometre (50 mi) highway were reported to have caved in, and the Jamia bridge in eastern Jeddah partially collapsed. [4] The highway remained closed on 26 November amid fears that the bridge would collapse completely. [6]
Rain was unusually heavy in Mecca on 25 November,[10] as well as in nearby Mina, where many pilgrims stay in vast tent cities. The weather had improved by 26 November, and pilgrims had to face "scorching heat" on the plain of Mount Arafat for the second day of the Hajj. [9][17] Hassan Al-Bushra, an epidemiologist at the Cairo office of the World Health Organization, said "there is no evidence" that the rain would worsen the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, a view shared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [17]
Coordinates: 21°30′N 39°11′E / 21.500°N 39.183°E / 21.500; 39.183
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Floods
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Investing in national public health institutes for future pandemics: Lessons from Nigeria
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Guidance for the Brookings community and the public on our response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) » Learn more from Brookings scholars about the global response to coronavirus (COVID-19) » Below is a Viewpoint from Chapter 2 of the Foresight Africa 2021 report, which explores top priorities for the region in the coming year. This year’s issue focuses on strategies for Africa to confront the twin health and economic crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic and emerge stronger than ever. Read the full chapter on support for public health. Through the tragic deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the upending of our normal ways of life, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a global failure to invest in pandemic preparedness. Going forward, global and national leaders must consider strategies to build resilience to such crises, especially mechanisms for coordinated, well-planned responses led by national public health institutes (NPHIs). Nigeria, in particular, has some of the largest burdens of public health challenges in the world. In between the 2014 Ebola crisis and the current COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria has responded to large, multiple, and sometimes concurrent outbreaks of Lassa fever, yellow fever, meningitis, monkeypox, measles, and cholera. The combination of the country’s tropical climate, population density, socioeconomic realities, and high cross-border movement provides a conducive environment for the emergence and re-emergence of infectious disease outbreaks. In response to these ever-present threats, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), as the country’s national public health institute, leads the strengthening of its core health security capacity. Its key components include public health laboratory services, emergency response activities, disease surveillance, and risk communications (see Figure 2.3). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had already been building on lessons from responding to Ebola and subsequent outbreaks to strengthen our health security. For example, in 2016, the NCDC established a National Incident Coordination Center for coordination of outbreak preparedness and response activities, and followed this with the establishment of similar structures at the state level. Not only have such public health emergency operations centers enabled better coordination of public health emergencies, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they have strengthened the role of state governments in coordinating international partners supporting outbreak response. Then, in 2017, we operationalized the NCDC National Reference Laboratory and subsequent laboratory networks to reduce our dependence on other countries for disease diagnoses. Nigeria, like most African countries, has recorded far fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19 compared to countries outside Africa. At the same time, to prepare for a potential outbreak, we have increased financing from the government and the private sector to scale up our country’s health security capacity. Between February and October of 2020, we increased the number of molecular laboratories with capacity to test for the virus from five to 70. The initial five laboratories were part of the NCDC’s network of laboratories for other diseases. We have successfully deployed the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS)—a digital tool for real-time disease reporting and surveillance—in all states and Local Government Areas. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, SORMAS had been deployed in 14 states with more than half of the states in Nigeria reporting outbreak data using Microsoft Excel. One key area of progress that has been made in Africa since the West African Ebola outbreak is the emergence and growth of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (ACDC). The ACDC has led several initiatives contributing to improved capacity in the NCDC as well as strengthened collaboration among countries in the region on managing risks and responses to health challenges. Epidemiologists from the NCDC are part of the ACDC’s roster of personnel deployed during outbreak response activities in Africa. Through this effort, the growing capacity in Africa’s health security is led by Africans. Furthermore, the ACDC has provided training opportunities for Nigerian epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, risk communications officers, and other public health officers. COVID-19 is not the first pandemic of the 21st century, nor will it be the last. With climate change and several other environmental factors impacting the world today, vectors and animal reservoirs are spreading into new areas and having increased contact with humans, putting us at further risk. Given their immense potential to protect and heal, we should be building and strengthening these science-led organizations. The only way that we can control the next pandemic is by re-building, starting now, and investing in NPHIs.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Northern Bank robbery: The crime that nearly ended the peace process
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The robbery of Belfast's Northern Bank is one of the most audacious thefts in UK history. Armed raiders took £26.5m from the vaults at the headquarters on Donegall Square, quietly loaded it into crates inside a white lorry and drove away into the night. The crime had huge political ramifications for the Northern Ireland peace process, coming at a particularly delicate time in the negotiations. Despite its notoriety - and the numerous arrests in connection with the robbery over the past four years - no one has been brought to justice. On December 19 2004 a group of masked and armed gang members arrived at the homes of two Northern Bank executives, Chris Ward and Kevin McMullan, in Poleglass and Loughinisland. Posing as police officers to gain entry, they held the men and their families at gunpoint. Ward was transferred to McMullen's house while his family remained captive in their home. McMullen's wife was taken to a forest south of Belfast where she was held hostage. Ward and McMullen were told to go to work at Donegall Square West on Monday and behave as if nothing was wrong, otherwise their families would be killed. When the bank closed that evening, the two men led the gang members to the underground vaults and opened them. At 7pm, a white van was loaded with crates filled with cash. It returned an hour later for a second collection. The haul included £10m of uncirculated Northern Bank sterling banknotes, £5.5m of used Northern Bank sterling notes, £4.5m of circulated sterling notes issued by other banks, and small amounts of other currencies, largely euros and US dollars. It was one of the largest amounts of money ever taken in a bank robbery in the UK. A few hours later, McMullen's wife escaped from the forest. Despite suffering from exposure, she managed to raise the alarm at about 11.45pm. By this time the gang had made its getaway. As the hunt for the gang continued stretched into weeks, then months, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) - along with the British and Irish governments - claimed the IRA was involved. Sir Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, issued an interim report blaming the IRA. He strongly denied the report was published because of political pressure. "These cases are extremely complicated. The robbery itself was carried out by a competent group of criminals … This was a particularly brutal crime, people were extremely badly treated and assaulted by the gang,'' he said. Sinn Fein insisted the IRA had not carried out the robbery and Sinn Fein officials had not known of or sanctioned it. Amid the prolonged political slanging match, there was not enough evidence to prove the involvement of any single group. The biggest series of arrests was made in February 2005 when seven suspects, including a member of Sinn Fein, were questioned. They were later released. Police recovered £2m - including £60,000 of Northern Bank notes - during raids in Cork and Dublin. Around $100,000 in US banknotes was found in the toilet of the police athletics association's Newforge country club. The PSNI confirmed the money was taken during the Northern Bank heist, but said the stash was likely to have been "planted to distract detectives" investigating the robbery and "divert attention from events elsewhere". In total, 10 people have been arrested and three have been charged in connection with the robbery. However, to the frustration of detectives, no one has been charged with actually carrying it out. To this day, the robbers themselves remain unknown.
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Bank Robbery
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Beresfield railway station
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Beresfield railway station is located on the Main Northern line in New South Wales, Australia. It opened on 31 July 1925, serving the western Newcastle suburb of Beresfield. [2]
On 23 October 1997, Beresfield was the site of a major rail accident, when a FreightCorp coal train passed a red signal and collided with the rear of another coal train standing on the same track. Six people were injured, including the station master and a passenger who jumped from the platform moments before the collision. The crash resulted in dozens of coal wagons tumbling over the platform and across the tracks, blocking all four tracks and destroying most of the station. [3][4][5] Three 82 class locomotives were destroyed. [6]
In 2002, Beresfield was fully redeveloped, receiving new easy-access facilities, station signage and booking office. [citation needed]
Beresfield has one island platform with two faces. It is serviced by NSW TrainLink Hunter Line services travelling from Newcastle to Maitland, Muswellbrook, Scone, Telarah and Dungog. [7]
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Train collisions
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The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Europe, warning of a "high threat" of attacks in countries including France and Germany.
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The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Europe, warning of a "high threat" of attacks in countries including France and Germany.
Previously it had advised only of a "general threat" but an FCO spokeswoman said the safety of Britons abroad was of major concern.
The US has also advised vigilance in Europe because of the threat of an unspecific al-Qaeda attack.
The UK's threat level, as set by the Home Office, remains severe. The FCO spokeswoman said: "Like other large European countries, [France and Germany] have a high threat of terrorism, which is reflected in our updated travel advice.
"We therefore attach great importance to providing information about personal safety and security overseas to enable people to make informed decisions about travel."
On its website, the FCO said: "Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers."
The new level is the highest the FCO records and is based on information from a variety of sources including the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, security and intelligence agencies, diplomatic and media reports, local knowledge and embassy reports.
In the UK the highest level that can be reached is critical - when an attack is expected imminently. The current threat level indicates an attack is "highly likely".
Security sources have warned of an al-Qaeda plan to send teams of gunmen to crowded places to kill civilians.
They said cities in the UK, France and Germany were thought to be targets for the militants, in attacks analysts feared could be similar to the 2008 atrocities in Mumbai.
Responding to the US warning, which referred to the whole of Europe, including the UK, Home Secretary Theresa May said: "The first and most important duty of this government is the protection and security of the British people and visitors to the UK."
In a statement issued on her behalf, Ms May said: "As we have consistently made clear, we face a real and serious threat from terrorism. Our threat level remains at "severe" - meaning that an attack is highly likely. "We work closely with our international partners in countering terrorism and the US advice is consistent with our assessment.
"I would urge the public to report any suspicious activity to the police in support of the efforts of our security services to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity." Foreign Secretary William Hague said the updated travel guidance from the US "reinforces the need for vigilance". "We can't comment on the specifics but the need for vigilance is very strong," he said.
The US state department advised Americans to take care while in tourist areas.
The department did not specify a country, issuing the updated guidance for the whole of Europe.
A White House spokesman said: "From the day we became aware of this latest plot, the president made clear we need to do everything possible to disrupt this plot and protect the American people. Whether the State Department issues a travel alert is the decision of the State Department but this alert is responsive to the President's direction that we spare no effort."
Bin Laden 'linked to Europe plot'
British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Home
US Department of State
Home Office
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
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Sign Agreement
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When Nawaz Sharif’s grandson Junaid Safdar’s wife Ayesha turned heads in Sabyasachi lehenga on wedding day
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Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s grandson Junaid Safdar married Ayesha Saif Khan in a private ceremony in London on August 22. Junaid Safdar is the son of Maryam Nawaz, who is Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. The wedding was held at the luxurious Lanesborough hotel. Ayesha Saif Khan’s father Saifur Rahman is the former chief of Pakistan’s Accountability Bureau. For her wedding, Ayesha stunned in an exquisite lehenga choli designed by celebrated fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. The powder-pink blouse featured floral motifs while the lehenga was adorned with a thick zari border set with beads and sequins. She rounded off her bridal attire with a sheer dupatta that had floral prints and an elaborated frilled zari border. Junaid was dressed in a black tuxedo, complete with a bow tie, and a white pocket square. To accessorise her attire, Ayesha wore traditional gold jewellery and carried a potli bag. After the ceremony, Junaid Safdar was photographed with Nawaz Sharif, the groom's uncle Hussain Nawaz, and party member and former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Nawaz Sharif served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Pakistan, having served a total of more than 9 years. Sabyasachi Mukherjee is an acclaimed fashion designer in India and has designed costumes for actors in films such as Guzaarish, Baabul, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and English Vinglish. ALSO READ: Britney Spears announces her engagement to boyfriend Sam Asghari Click here for IndiaToday.in’s complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Flood warning, inundated streets, schools shut for second day as rain batters Chennai Poonam Pandey's husband Sam Bombay arrested for assaulting her Congress eyes women power in UP, to reach out to 5 crore voters ahead of polls Kohli should not leave captaincy of India ODIs and Test team: Virender Sehwag How Dengue has led to big health crisis in India | All you need to know BJP leader Sambit Patra lashes out at Congress over new Rafale report Stubble burning in UP, Haryana, Punjab causes air pollution in Delhi Delhi continues to battle severe air, water pollution post Diwali Sameer Wankhede's wife hits out at Nawab Malik over recent allegations Man shot dead in Srinagar terror attack worked for late Makhan Lal Bindroo’s relative Covid vaccines for children | Explained Madhya Pradesh: Fire in Bhopal's govt hospital kills 4 infants
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Examples of Horizontal Integration
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Horizontal integration is the merger of two or more companies that occupy similar levels in the production supply chain. However, they may be in the same or different industries. The process is also known as lateral integration and is the opposite of vertical integration whereby companies that are at different stages in the production supply chain merge. Here are three textbook examples of horizontal integration undertaken by companies that sought to strengthen their positions in the market and enhance their production or distribution stage. One of the most definitive examples of horizontal integration was Facebook's acquisition of Instagram in 2012 for a reported $1 billion. Both Facebook and Instagram operated in the same industry (social media) and shared similar production stages in their photo-sharing services. Facebook sought to strengthen its position in the social sharing space and saw the acquisition of Instagram as an opportunity to grow its market share, reduce competition, and gain access to new audiences. Facebook realized all of these through its acquisition. Instagram is now owned by Facebook but still operates independently as its own social media platform. The estimated value of Instagram as of 2018 per Bloomberg. Facebook's horizontal integration of Instagram was truly historic with a return of 100% in just over six years. Another notable example of a horizontal integration was Walt Disney Company's $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006. Disney began as an animation studio that targeted families and children. However, the entertainment giant was facing market saturation with its current operations along with creative stagnation. Pixar operated in the same animation space as Disney, but its (digitally) animated movies used cutting-edge technology and an innovative vision. The deal is now widely considered to have literally and figuratively reanimated Disney, expanded its market share, and boosted its profits. The 1998 merger of two major oil companies, Exxon and Mobil, was the biggest in corporate history at the time. The integration combined the first and second largest energy corporations in the United States. Officially, Exxon bought Mobil for $75.3 billion, and the purchase enabled Exxon to gain access to Mobile's gas stations as well as its product reserves. Thanks to the pooling of resources, increased efficiency in operations, and streamlining of procedures, today, ExxonMobil is one of the biggest oil companies in the world. The Daily Records lists it as the third largest in terms of production as of 2019, while Oil&GasIQ, a platform for thought leadership to professionals in the hydrocarbons sector, cited Exxon as the fourth largest in terms of production in 2018. Horizontal integration can allow companies to quickly expand their reach and expertise while reducing costs. When implemented correctly, horizontal integration can increase the market share and power of two companies. The companies can merge synergies, product lines, and enter new markets. Horizontal integration also reduces the level of competition in the market while boosting the revenue of the participants who otherwise may not have prevailed in a fierce market environment independently. Through integration, the parties involved can share institutional knowledge while reducing expenses. Mergers based on horizontal integration are subject to heavy scrutinization because they can often result in a monopoly where one company dominates the market. The examples show that, in many cases, horizontal integration pays off as those involved can widen their reach and eliminate weaker competitors. Companies can gain institutional knowledge, expertise, and strengths that they may lack from another firm. Ultimately, integrating firms reduce their costs while increasing revenues.
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Organization Merge
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