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Is India headed towards a locust plague - Down To Earth
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Wildlife & Biodiversity
Is India headed towards a locust plague
Exceptional summer breeding may prompt swarms to remain in the country through end of year, move east & south
By Snigdha Das
Published: Friday 03 July 2020
The Food and Agriculture Organization says a locust plague can be declared only when widespread and heavy infestations occur in one or more years. Photo: Vikas Choudhary / CSE
The global upsurge of locusts is on the brink of becoming a plague, aided by unusually favourable weather for three years and the international community’s failure to curb their growth.
Swarms of locusts took Delhi and the National Capital Region by suprise on June 27, 2020, the first time since the locust plague of 1926-31, according to some estimates.
After spreading to Bihar , the insects have started mayhem in Nepal. By July 2, locusts spread to almost a dozen districts in the Himalayan country where the kharif crop cycle is underway.
Locusts have damaged transplanted paddy, maize, fodder grass and vegetables, according to Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center in Nepal’s Lalitpur. Severe damage has been reported from Dang and Pyuthan districts.
While some swarms have stayed in the Kathmandu valley, some have headed further north towards Ramechaap.
In the past, locusts have invaded Nepal on rare occasions and only during plagues.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO closely monitors the spread of locusts and plays a crucial role in its control operations. It said in a 2014 document that in Southwest Asia, locusts are normally present in southeast Iran and southwest Pakistan during the spring and along the Indo-Pakistan border during the summer.
“During plagues, locust swarms often migrate further north and east than usual ... and occasionally invade countries on the southern edge of the former Soviet Union as well as Nepal and Bangladesh,” the document, The FAO Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in South-West Asia , said.
“This [latest] spread is due to the southwesterly monsoon winds as well as the two days of strong southerly winds over Uttar Pradesh that carried desert locust groups to the northern districts and a few crossed into Nepal lowlands and scattered,” Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer of FAO, said.
Earlier, between the last week of May and early June, when swarms of locusts unusually spread to states as far as Chhattisgarh in the east and Maharashtra in the south, FAO had linked it to the strong northwesterly winds established in the aftermath of the super cyclone Amphan.
Locust officers of India, who are working overtime to chase and destroy the insects, say the widespread invasion this year is also because of the sheer number of the swarms crossing over to India.
Despite control operations in spring-breeding areas, Cressman admitted that the swarms were the result of higher than normal levels of breeding this past spring in Pakistan and Iran. “They will breed in the summer until about October / November in Rajasthan,” he added.
But most locusts have already matured since their arrival as hopper bands or immature adults in India in April. Till mid-June, breeding was underway in Bikaner, Nagaur, Barmer and Jodhpur districts. They are now being joined by spring-bred swarms from Iran and southwest Pakistan.
Over the next four weeks, India should remain on high alert as swarms developed in Somalia will cross the Arabian Sea. They will reach Gujarat and Rajasthan from early July onwards, according to FAO’s June 27 update on desert locusts. These are second-generation swarms that have developed in the Horn of Africa, despite aggressive control operations.
In the past, such spectacular migrations have occurred during upsurge and plague periods. For example, immature swarms crossed the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa to the Caribbean in October 1988, covering a distance 5,000 kilometres in 10 days.
Swarms migrated from West Africa to the British Isles in 1955. From time to time, they have crossed:
The Red Sea to reach from northeast Africa to the Arabian peninsula or vice vesa
The Gulf of Aden to reach from Yemen to Kenya
Northern Africa to reach from Sudan to Morocco
The Sahel to reach from Guinea to Ethiopia; and the Arabian Sea to reach from the Horn of Africa to Indo-Pakistan border
FAO describes the current spread of infestation as an “upsurge” and says a plague is declared only when widespread and heavy infestations occur in one or more years. But this too does not seem far off.
India to see exceptional breeding
Usually, the summer-bred swarms or the monsoon swarms start returning to their spring breeding areas in Iran and southwest Pakistan by September and October. But this year, their migration may not be unidirectional.
In years of exceptional breedings, according to the 2014 FAO document, monsoon swarms may move from the source areas eastwards over northern India from September onwards.
Between 1950 and 1961, monsoon swarms on several occasions moved east to reach western Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and south to reach Gujarat, Mumbai in Maharashtra and Kerala in the months of October, November and December. These years coincide with the plague years of 1949-1955 and 1959-1962 .
Some entemologists fear that this year, locusts might breed in areas outside their traditional territory of the Scheduled Desert Area. Locusts prefer sandy and sandy-loam soil for laying eggs and thrive in areas that are warm, roughly 25-40°C, have ample rainfall and green vegetation.
With the monsoon rains sweeping across all the five states — Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — that currently have locust presence according to FAO, they might breed in pockets where the soil is just right and undisturbed. For example, agriculture officers acknowledge that the Delhi Ridge area and the banks of the Ganga have soil that is suitable for locusts to lay eggs.
When conditions are less favourable, locusts take up to six months to mature. But given the right conditions, they can breed every three months and increase 20-fold in a single generation and about 400 times in six months after two generations of breeding.
This will have a disastrous impact at a time when farmers are about to begin sowing of kharif crops. While locusts only nibble away the leaves of mature trees, they can gobble up entire saplings in a single morning, leaving no trace of vegetation.
The alarming situation has prompted the Indian government for the first time to deploy a dozen drones and a helicopter for locust control in the districts of Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Nagaur in Rajasthan.
It has also sanctioned Rs 14 crore to Rajasthan and Rs 180 crore to Gujarat for the preparation. Officials at the Locust Control Office, Palanpur, in Gujarat say they have stocked up sufficient insecticides and are prepared with vehicle-mounted spraying machines for all evntualities.
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Insect Disaster
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Thai Airways International Flight 311 crash
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Thai Airways International Flight 311 was a flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. On Friday, 31 July 1992, an A310-304 on the route, registration HS-TID, crashed on approach to Kathmandu. At 07:00:26 UTC (12:45:26 NST; 14:00:26 ICT), the aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain 37 kilometres north of Kathmandu at an altitude of 11,500 feet (3,505 m) and a ground speed of 300 knots (560 km/h; 350 mph), killing all 99 passengers and 14 crew members on board. This was both the first hull loss and the first fatal accident involving the Airbus A310. [1][2]
The aircraft's first flight was on 2 October 1987, and it entered service with Canadian airline Wardair under the registration C-FGWD. Wardair was acquired by Canadian Airlines International in 1989 and their operations consolidated and integrated under the Canadian Airlines banner. This Airbus A310-304 formally entered service with Canadian Airlines from 15 January 1990 (with the same registration). It was shortly thereafter sold to Thai Airways International, who took delivery on 9 May 1990 and had it re-registered as HS-TID. [1] The aircraft was powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2A2 turbofan engines. [3][4]
At the time of its destruction on 31 July 1992, the aircraft had been in commercial operations for less than five years. [1] It was piloted by Captain Preeda Suttimai (aged 41) and First Officer Phunthat Boonyayej (aged 52) with a cabin crew of 12 flight attendants looking after its 99 passengers. [5]
Flight 311 departed Bangkok at 10:30 local time. It was scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu at 12:55 Nepal Standard Time. [6] After crossing into Nepalese airspace the pilots contacted air traffic control (ATC) and were cleared for an instrument approach from the south called the "Sierra VOR Circling Approach" for Runway 20. Nepalese ATC at the time was not equipped with radar. [7]
Shortly after reporting the Sierra fix 10 kilometres (6.2 mi; 5.4 nmi) south of the Kathmandu VOR, the aircraft called ATC asking for a diversion to Calcutta, India because of a "technical problem". [8] Before ATC could reply, the flight rescinded their previous transmission. The flight was then cleared for a straight-in Sierra approach to Runway 02 and told to report leaving 9,500 feet (2,896 m). The captain asked numerous times for the winds and visibility at the airport, but ATC merely told him that Runway 02 was available. [citation needed]
A number of frustrating and misleading communications (due partly to language problems and partly to the inexperience of the air traffic controller, who was a trainee with only nine months on the job) ensued between air traffic control and the pilots regarding Flight 311's altitude and distance from the airport. [opinion] The captain asked four times for permission to turn left, but after receiving no firm reply to his requests he announced that he was turning right and climbed the aircraft to flight level 200. The controller handling Flight 311 assumed from the flight's transmissions that the aircraft had called off the approach and was turning to the south, and he therefore cleared the aircraft to 11,500 feet (3,505 m), an altitude that would have been safe in the area south of the airport. The flight descended back to 11,500 feet, went through a 360-degree turn, and passed over the airport northbound. [citation needed]
Seconds before impact, the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) activated, and sounded alarms warning the crew of the imminent collision with the mountains. First officer Boonyayej warned captain Suttimai and urged him to turn the aircraft around, but, possibly due to his frustration from the communications with ATC, Suttimai erroneously stated the GPWS was just giving false reports. The aircraft crashed into a steep rock face in a remote area of the Langtang National Park at an altitude of 11,500 feet (3,505 m), killing all 113 people on board. [citation needed]
Investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Airbus Industrie, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (which assisted with technical details) determined that the aircraft had experienced a minor fault in the workings of the inboard trailing flaps just after the aircraft reached the Sierra reporting fix. Concerned that the complex approach into Kathmandu in instrument conditions would be difficult with malfunctioning flaps and frustrated by ATC and his first officer's inconclusive and weak answers to his questions, the captain decided to divert to Calcutta. [9] The flaps suddenly began to work properly, but the captain was forced to resolve more aspects of the difficult approach himself due to his first officer's lack of initiative. Only after numerous extremely frustrating exchanges with ATC was the captain able to obtain adequate weather information for the airport, but by that time he had overflown Kathmandu and the aircraft was headed towards the Himalayas. [9]
Nepalese authorities found that the probable causes of the accident were the captain's and air traffic controller's loss of situational awareness; language and technical problems caused the captain to experience frustration and a high workload;[9] the first officer's lack of initiative and inconclusive answers to the captain's questions; the air traffic controller's inexperience, poor grasp of English, and reluctance to interfere with what he saw as piloting matters such as terrain separation; poor supervision of the inexperienced air traffic controller; Thai Airways International's failure to provide simulator training for the complex Kathmandu approach to its pilots; and improper use of the aircraft's flight management system. [7]
While trekking up the Himalaya mountain to the crash site, a British investigator from Airbus, Gordon Corps (62), died due to complication of hyperthermia and hypoxia. Corps had over 11,500 flight hours and was a senior test pilot for Airbus. [10][11][12]
Thai Airways retired the flight number 311 after the accident along with its counterpart flight number 312, which had been used for the outbound flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok. These were replaced by flight numbers 319 and 320, respectively. These redesignated flights continued to be operated by Airbus A310 aircraft until this type was retired by the airline and replaced with Boeing 777 aircraft in 2001. The remains of the aircraft can still be seen in Langtang National Park on the trek from Ghopte to the Tharepati Pass. 59 days after the Flight 311 disaster, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashed on approach to Kathmandu killing all 167 onboard. [14]
The crash is featured in the tenth episode of the 17th season of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation). The episode is titled "The Lost Plane".
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Air crash
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Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 crash
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Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 was an aircraft hijacking which took place in Sweden and subsequently in Spain on 15 and 16 September 1972. While en route from Torslanda Airport in Gothenburg to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, three armed members of the Croatian National Resistance (CNR) forcefully took control of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-21 aircraft and redirected it to Bulltofta Airport in Malmö. There was a crew of four and eighty-six passengers on the Scandinavian Airlines System aircraft. Upon arriving at Bulltofta at 17:14, the hijackers demanded the release of seven members of their group, which had been sentenced for the 1971 occupation of the Consulate-General of Yugoslavia in Gothenburg and shooting at the Embassy of Yugoslavia in Stockholm, including Miro Barešić. They threatened to otherwise detonate a bomb. Negotiations followed throughout the evening, night and morning. Six of the seven prisoners agreed to the transfer and were boarded at 04:00. Only a third of the hostages were released and new negotiations followed. All passengers were eventually released in exchange for half a million Swedish krona. The aircraft then left for Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain. There the aircraft was surrounded by the police and the crew released. The hijackers surrendered at 14:47. They were arrested and spent a year in prison in Spain. The hijacking was decisive for the Parliament of Sweden passing the new Terrorism Act in 1973. Two Croatians occupied the Consulate-General of Yugoslavia in Gothenburg on 10 and 11 February 1971, demanding that a Croatian separatist be released from prison in Yugoslavia. After about twenty-four hours they surrendered, without their goals having been met. They were tried for Swedish courts and sentenced to prison. The ambassador of Yugoslavia stated inaccurately that they were part of the Ustaše, a prejudice term which has since stuck in the Swedish coverage and debate. [1]
The Embassy of Yugoslavia was compromised by two Croatians on 7 April 1971, whereby two Croatians shot Ambassador Rolovic and wounded a secretary. They were caught and, along with three others who had participated in the planning, were sentenced to prison. The two who broke in were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. The various participants were sentenced in different prisons. [1] The Government of Yugoslavia demanded that the murderers be sent to Yugoslavia where they could be executed. The issue spurred a political debate concerning terrorism, but it remained at a calm level and was mostly concerned with increased penalties for illegal possession of arms and the possibility of deporting terrorists after their prison sentences were concluded. [2]
Already before the attacks on the diplomatic mission, the hijacking was planned by the group as a resort should they be arrested. [3] The three hijackers, aged 35, 40 and 29, lived off welfare in Gothenburg. They supplemented their income through extorting money from fellow Croatians in Gothenburg, claiming that anyone not paying them was an enemy of Croatia. The 29-year-old was previously sentenced for a robbery and several other violent crimes against both Swedes and Serbs. [4]
Flight 130 was a domestic scheduled service from Torslanda Airport in Gothenburg to Stockholm Arlanda Airport. On board were a crew of 4 and 86 passengers. A few minutes after the aircraft departed at 16:30, two of the hijackers made their way to the cockpit. They pointed their guns at a flight attendant and demanded that the aircraft divert to Bulltofta Airport in Malmö. [1] The pilots followed the orders. [5] The pilot released the hijacking alert at 16:51 and the aircraft landed at Bulltofta at 17:10. [6]
The incident was largely met with disbelief and laughter from the passengers and some of the flight attendants, as they thought it was an exercise. Passengers described two of the hijackers as calm and with a good comprehension of Swedish, while one was clearly nervous and did not understand Swedish. The hijackers calmly answered questions regarding the action and stated that they intended to have the ambassador's murderer released. They then started making references to the Munich massacre ten days earlier and hinted that a similar situation could arise in the aircraft. [7] Passengers described the hijackers as generally friendly. [8]
Once at Bulltofta the Croatians demanded the release of the seven Croatians sentenced after the attacks on the diplomatic missions. In addition, they required that they be allowed free passage out of Sweden for themselves and the prisoners. They made it clear that their intention was to detonate a bomb they had with them if the authorities did not meet their demands within eight hours. [5] At 17:30 one passenger was permitted to leave for medical reasons. At 17:45 the hijackers threatened to detonate their bomb as there were photographers on the runway. Another three passengers were released for medical reasons at 19:00. [6] The passengers were starved until about 20:00, when supplies of food and drink were provided to the aircraft. [8]
The police were informed of the hijacking at 16:55 and immediately scrambled troops to Bulltofta to deal with the situation. Organised by the police superintendent on duty in Malmö, a low-profile police action was ordered, where no police officer should attempt any offensive action without prior orders. Minister of Justice Lennart Geijer was alerted at 18:20. He was vacationing at his cabin in Ystad Municipality, located only kilometers from the airport, and was able to quickly arrive at the scene.
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Air crash
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Sudan’s coup is on shaky ground
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There has never been a more apt time to push for the dismantling of military hegemony and the installing of fully civilian, democratic governance in Sudan. Managing partner of Insight Strategy Partners (ISP), a policy think-and-do tank based in Khartoum, Sudan. Published On 19 Nov 202119 Nov 2021 Sudanese anti-coup protesters gather amid ongoing protests against last month's widely condemned military takeover, in the capital Khartoum on November 17, 2021 [AFP] On October 30, millions of people took to the streets across Sudan to protest against the army’s October 25 coup. The massive protest was perhaps the largest the world has seen outside Hong Kong in recent years. Since then, successive anti-coup protests have drawn large crowds across the country, despite increasing violence from the coup regime. This Wednesday’s protest, where at least 17 protesters were killed, was only the latest chapter in a continuing battle for the political soul, and future, of the country. On the one side, there are myriad civilian forces, including the neighbourhood resistance committees, pro-democracy activists, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. On the other, there are several paramilitary forces, some former rebel armed groups, the remnants of toppled dictator Omar al-Bashir’s patronage network, and most importantly, the military. Since a failed coup attempt in late September, followed by a cavalcade of public conferences, mass protests, and an increasingly fluid political situation, Sudan’s previously highly heterogenous political scene became somewhat bipolar. The October 25 coup followed by consolidations in a newly set-up Sovereign Council has divided Sudan into two distinct camps: those who are anti-coup, and those who are supportive of it. And there is reason to believe, despite the events of the past few weeks, that the anti-coup side has the upper hand. Military fatigue(s) Last month’s coup was orchestrated by four unlikely allies – Head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, his deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo known as “Hemedti”, Minister of Finance Gibreil Ibrahim, and Governor-General of Darfur Mini Minawi. And this “Coup Quartet” is unlikely to remain united, or gain the trust of the Sudanese public, for multiple reasons. The tensions between Burhan and Hemedti are well known and have caused divisions within Burhan’s troops. While the generals are currently acting together, it is clear that they both supported the coup to pursue their own personal interests. The same is true for Ibrahim and Minawi, former rebels, whose insistence that they have not been included in transitional structures and processes despite holding positions within the transitional government provided the pretext for the coup. In this context, the coup appears to be a vehicle to allow its orchestrators to resist the growing pressures on them to cede power and/or financial interest, rather than a mechanism to, as its supporters claim, “correct past mistakes”. In the aftermath of the October 25 coup, Burhan said he dissolved the government merely to avert civil war after civilian politicians “stoked hostility to the armed forces”. He claimed he will appoint a “technocrat” prime minister to rule alongside the military within days and put the country back on the path towards democracy. Burhan has since sworn himself in as the head of a new Sovereign Council and handpicked civilians loyal to him, and the Islamist movement, as civilian members. He and his supporters, however, will have difficulty convincing the Sudanese public, and the international community, that they will deliver democratic gains – in the form of free and fair elections – through such anti-democratic methods. Indeed, there are several outstanding issues that signal the military may have overestimated its governing capabilities. First, it is doubtful that General Burhan will be able to give his coup the necessary constitutional legitimacy to lure any technocrats into participating in the new civilian-military government he has promised to form. Second, with almost all political parties vocally rejecting the coup, it is difficult to see which constituencies the new government can claim to represent, aside from the Islamists, sworn enemies of regional military allies Egypt and the UAE. Third, it is not clear how a “coup government”, even if it includes technocrats, would be able to convince the public that it will meaningfully tackle the difficult issues of transitional justice, corruption, and human rights abuses when the military is largely seen as complicit in all three. Fourth, the military’s regional allies Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who see their relations with Sudan mostly through a security lens, will find it difficult to continue to support the coup, politically and financially, in the face of mounting international condemnation. To overcome these seemingly impossible to resolve issues, the Coup Quartet have been pressuring Prime Minister Hamdok, whose acquiescence they see as a gateway to legitimacy, to join their government. But the prime minister – still under house arrest and undoubtedly aware of the mass detentions and deaths following the coup – unsurprisingly continues to decline their offer. The putschists have also embarked on a crackdown on pro-democracy voices in the Sudanese media and civil society, called for a return to subsidies, and strong-armed groups in the east of the country to comply with orders to open Sudan’s largest port, all to gain the support of the Sudanese public. However, all their efforts appear to have been in vain. The Coup Quartet fails to see that after concerns over civilian autonomy in recent years, the Sudanese people would accept neither a new political dispensation where they have less, not more, power, nor the unconstitutional instalment of a new prime minister more palatable to the military. Now, with the coup on shakier ground, there are some important questions facing Sudan: Should the country go back to the August 2019 agreement? Could it? What will Hamdok’s next move be? Will the positions of other members of the Coup Quartet change? How will different civilian groups be represented in future mediation efforts? Change from below The Sudanese street, an amorphous, but well-organised bloc, has shown in no uncertain terms that it will not readily accept a return to the previous status quo. But it also learned from the 2018 Revolution how important it is to state not only what it stands against, but also what it stands for – and today it is doing just that. The civilians on the streets made their core demand clear: They want a fully civilian government to be set up immediately to take the country out of this crisis. The reasons behind this stance are obvious. First, history: the previous model, which represented a compromise between the military and civilians, has ultimately paved the way to the current crisis. Therefore, many believe alternatives, difficult though they may be to achieve, must be sought. Second, pragmatism: the hybrid government model, and its less-than-perfect decision-making mechanisms, stilted the progress around big-ticket issues, such as transitional justice, the dismantling of al-Bashir’s networks, and the setting-up of important institutions like parliament and key commissions. As a result, many perceive the current crisis as an opportunity to abandon a governance model that was not working. Third, leverage: The civilians have momentum and a fairly united position, so they believe making any compromise, or taking a step back at this point would be ill-advised and a betrayal of the sacrifices made to get to this position. Moreover, the street, which is arguably the most astute political actor in the current Sudanese political scene, senses that the coup is on weak footing, and has been since the start. So far, no political parties bar Gibreil Ibrahim’s Justice and Equality Movement, have avowed the coup and many under consideration for the top job have publicly distanced themselves from the coup, sensing, rightly, that any association with such an unconstitutional move and with the unpopular Coup Quartet, would be a serious political and social misstep. In the face of all this, the only constituency that has backed the coup are deposed Islamists and their economic and security backers, most of whom are returning to the political stage after the coup. Breaking the impasse The generals behind the coup, realising they are on shaky ground, agreed to initial mediation so long as it does not include the FFC political umbrella. As a result, Prime Minister Hamdok emerged as the only visible, if restrained, civilian negotiator in the process. But he eventually engaged the FFC on an offer, effectively ending all mediation. The offer, which would have seen Hamdok installed into the Sovereign Council, would have been widely unpopular, and was refused. Burhan has since gone ahead and fashioned the Council out of military and civilian sympathisers and former rebels who say they were not consulted, but will retain their constitutional positions and push for a return to constitutional order. Meanwhile, resistance committees have pledged to continue with protests and acts of civil disobedience until their demands are met. They acknowledged that the race towards democracy is a marathon, not a sprint – with some even seeing the current crisis as a continuation of the 2018 revolution, against the same actors: the military and the Islamists. The street has shown it is ready and willing to play the long game and unwilling to agree to a compromise that would result in another coup down the line. While the crisis deepens, the international community, in trying to figure out which pressure points to press to reach a solution, should absolutely respect the street’s resolve. Consultations by mediators with pro-democracy protesters seem fixated on yet another civilian compromise that sees the military retain enough power, without meaningfully reforming the very structures and pathways that enable them to hold Sudan’s future hostage. International mediators acknowledge that young Sudanese protesters are critical political actors, who manage to mobilise millions of people without telecoms or internet connections. Nevertheless, many still consider them naive political operatives not realistic about what is possible. Reconciling this disconnect requires international actors to overcome their profound crisis of consultation. Their discussions are often limited to those with political and urban elites whose views often diverge, sometimes radically, from the street. Popular consultations and renegotiations on modalities of power, made in collaboration with the street, may be messy, but this is not the time for political expediency that undermines popular will. Despite the similarity in dynamics to 2019, supporters of democratic transition should be pushing for a new political dispensation, rather than a return to the 2019 agreement. This will require stakeholders and mediators to develop entirely new thinking around reaching solutions that are process, not result, oriented. That requires an approach that centres the locus of popular power where it clearly is: on the streets. There has never been a more apt time to push for the dismantling of military hegemony and the installing of fully civilian, democratic governance in Sudan. The Horn of Africa and Sahel regions, which Sudan straddles, could do with an example of democratic success, amid its current fragility. Ultimately, democratic processes require democratic custodians, and in Sudan, there is already one such custodian: the street.
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Regime Change
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With Kim Kardashian and Kanye West reportedly set to divorce , the billionaire couple could be battling it out for US$2.2 billion worth of assets
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With Kim Kardashian and Kanye West reportedly set to divorce , the billionaire couple could be battling it out for US$2.2 billion worth of assets.
And now Bill and Melinda Gates are gearing up to follow suit after they announced the end of their 27-year marriage on May 3. The couple reportedly did not have a prenuptial agreement and are set to divide their more than $100 billion fortune.
So how do Kimye and the Gates compare to previous celebrity divorces?
Research from OLBG reveals the 10 most expensive celebrity divorces, and some (well, all) of these settlement amounts are truly eye-watering.
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Famous Person - Divorce
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Outbreak Brief 88: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic
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Outbreak Update: Since the last brief (14 September 2021), 3,862,133 new confirmed1 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, including 62,740 new deaths, have been reported globally. To date, a global total of 228,401,433 COVID-19 cases and 4,690,961 related deaths (case fatality ratio (CFR): 2.1%) have been reported from 225 countries and territories to the World Health Organization (WHO). The distribution of cumulative cases (proportion of global cases) from the WHO reporting regions (excluding Africa) are as follows: Eastern Mediterranean Region 13,164,909 (6%), European Region 68,419,751 (30%), Region of the Americas 88,054,178 (39%), South-East Asia Region 42,547,959 (19%) and Western Pacific Region 7,975,252 (3%). In the last seven days, the five countries reporting the highest number of new cases globally are the United States (950,031), Brazil (241,161), India (214,244), the United Kingdom (203,470), and Turkey (189,008). For more detailed information on cases and deaths reported outside of Africa, refer to the WHO COVID-19 dashboard .
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Disease Outbreaks
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1967 Thirsk rail crash
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The Thirsk rail crash occurred on 31 July 1967[2] at Thirsk, Yorkshire, England on the British Rail East Coast Main Line. The 12:00 1A26 express train from King's Cross to Edinburgh and Aberdeen[3] collided at speed with the wreckage of a derailed freight train around 15:17 on that day. Seven people were killed and 45 injured, 15 seriously. Following the accident, three of the four lines (the Up [Southbound] and Down [Northbound] Fast lines and the Down Slow line)[4] were blocked by the wreckage of the collision. The Up Slow line was not damaged and was used by special trains to take the dead and injured to Newcastle upon Tyne. The line was also used later that day for both Up and Down trains to clear other trains stranded in the area by the blockage but was later used only for Up trains, Down trains being diverted via Harrogate over the Harrogate-Northallerton line which, though it had been closed, was re-opened for the purpose. [5] Special bus services were introduced between Leeds and Northallerton and between York and Thirsk to replace local train services disrupted by the accident. Breakdown cranes were ordered from York, Leeds and Gateshead (Newcastle), and the derailed vehicles were cleared from the track by 23:30 on 1 August. Repairs to the track were speedy and the three damaged lines were all open by 16:20 on 2 August, all with an initial speed limit of 20 mph (32 km/h). An extract from The Ministry of Transport report into the accident states:
The 02:40 Cliffe to Uddingston cement train was travelling on the Down Slow line at about 45 mph (72 km/h) - the maximum speed permitted at the time for trains conveying loaded wagons of this type, when the rear axle of the 12th wagon became derailed towards the cess on plain track. As the train proceeded, the derailed wheels moved further towards the cess smashing the timber sleepers in the track until, after travelling some 170 yards (155 m); the coupling between the 11th and 12th wagons fractured and the vacuum hose pipe parted, causing the brakes to become fully applied on both portions of the train. The front portion proceeded along the line for 470 yards (430 m) and then stopped. The 13th to 20th wagons in the rear portion became derailed and went down the embankment, and came to rest mostly on their sides. The 23rd wagon, however, was slewed round more or less at right angles to the line and stopped with its leading end some 2 ft (0.61 m) foul of the Down Fast line. The passenger train was the 12:00 express from King's Cross to Edinburgh, and it comprised 13 coaches drawn by a Type 4 diesel-electric locomotive. It was running under clear signals on the Down Fast line at about 80 m.p.h. (128 km/h) close behind the freight train. The driver saw at a distance of about 600 yd (549 m). what seemed to him to be a cloud of dust and then he saw the cement wagon foul of the line on which his train was travelling. He applied the brakes fully but he could not prevent a collision, and the left-hand side of the locomotive struck the wagon at a speed of about 50 mph (80 km/h). The locomotive and the leading seven coaches were derailed towards the Up Fast line but they remained upright and inline; the rear six coaches remained on the track. The left-hand side of the locomotive was extensively damaged and the driver and second man were fortunate to escape injury. The derailed coaches were all severely damaged but the most serious damage was to the leading coach which had its left-hand side ripped away, and to the next two coaches which were severely torn, all by contact with the wagon. The train was well filled and I regret to report that seven passengers were killed and 45 were injured and removed to hospital where they were detained; the injuries to 15 passengers were serious. The collision was witnessed by a farm-hand working nearby who immediately went to a telephone and summoned assistance. The driver of the freight train also rang the signalman at Thirsk from the telephone on a signal near which his locomotive had stopped, and asked for the emergency services to be sent urgently. These services responded with commendable promptitude and, despite the difficult access to the site, the first ambulance arrived at 15:40; the last of the injured had been removed by 16:30. [6]
After the derailment and separation of his train, the freight train driver ran back to use a telephone[7] on a signal post about 100 yards (90 m) behind his locomotive. He had no time to speak to the signalman before, to his horror, he first heard and then saw 1A26 loom into view and despite heavy braking, strike the fouling wagon. The buffer beam, draw-gear and coupling shackle of this wagon were ripped clean off by the force of the impact and thrown 71 yd (65 m) into an adjacent field. As 1A26 had approached signal D19, the driver was not accelerating as hard as he normally would have been because he was uneasy about the view ahead—he should have been able to see the next signal but it was obscured by a cloud of smoke or dust and he had instinctively backed off the throttle. As he passed D19 he became aware of the cement wagon across his path about 400 yards (365 m) ahead. He made an emergency application of the train vacuum brake and the locomotive air brake. He operated the sanding gear to increase the grip on the rails and shut down the engine of his locomotive to reduce the risk of fire in case the derailed tank wagon contained flammable liquid as he realised he now had no chance to avoid the collision. As he approached the obstruction he became aware of the freight train guard running back towards him waving his hands. The Thirsk signalman averted further disaster by throwing all his signals to danger and sending an "obstruction danger" bell code to the Northallerton and Pilmoor boxes either side, stopping a London-bound express at Thirsk station less than 5 miles (8 km) to the north. 1A26 had come to rest fouling the Up Fast line and this express would have struck the wreckage only a few minutes later. Locomotive DP2[8] was damaged beyond repair and finally cut up for spares in 1970. It was a prototype English Electric Type 4, fitted with a design of traction equipment that subsequently appeared later in 1967 as the Class 50, but using a spare bodyshell from the earlier Class 55 'Deltic' Type 5 programme. Locomotive D283, the English Electric type 4 diesel hauling the goods train was undamaged. The wagon derailment was blamed on excessive wear in the suspension components, thought to be caused by cement dust abrasion, in combination with slight variations in both wheel-set diameter and track alignment. This resulted in a typical "waddling", lateral oscillation of "CemFlo" tank wagons. Furthermore, it was a number of other accidents involving suspected poor riding of CemFlo wagons that resulted in progressively more severe speed restrictions being placed on any trains containing this type. At the Thirsk crash, the oscillation built up to such a state that it eventually threw the rear wheel-set of one wagon off the rails, even though the train was travelling below the maximum 45 mph (72 km/h) permitted for four-wheeled wagons. Indeed, the pronounced waddling of this very train was noted by the signalman at Pilmoor in his log as he recorded its passing about 6 minutes before the derailment. Also at Pilmoor, two men were watching the trains pass. One of them had noted that the leading wheel-set of a wagon "somewhere just forward of the halfway point" had dropped heavily into the gap on a cross-over then rebounded higher than the rest. At the time, although he noted it, he thought little of it, but on hearing of the accident he felt compelled to bring this to the attention of the authorities. Following the accident, wagon LA201 was selected for rolling-road tests at Doncaster having been judged to be in an almost identical condition to LA223 - the first vehicle to derail in the crash. As speed increased, flange-to-flange hunting (moving from side to side) was noted to set in under both laden and unladen conditions.
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Train collisions
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Coping Strategies of Ocean Castaways Hold Lessons for the COVID Pandemic
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Shipwreck victims cast adrift for weeks or months exhibit a resilience that serves as a model to weather any extended crisis On April 14, 2002, while routinely patrolling the Indian Ocean, a French Navy vessel spotted a dinghy with two passengers onboard. They had been drifting for 20 days. After being shipwrecked, they had escaped in a seven-meter-long lifeboat. They survived exposure, the blazing sun and a failed motor by drinking rainwater and eating bream that they fished from the sea with harpoons. After drifting 750 kilometers, the passengers’ survival seemed miraculous. Every year, stories emerge of people who manage to endure weeks or months onboard a simple craft. Some of these accounts are legendary, such as a case that was immortalized by French artist Théodore Géricault in his painting The Raft of the Medusa. After a French Frigate called the Medusa ran aground on a sandbank off of what is now Mauritania in 1816, nearly 150 survivors crammed onto an improvised raft. Only 10 survived. The present record for endurance goes to Salvadoran fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga, whose boat was swept offshore by high winds and a storm before running out of fuel. Between mid-November 2012 and late January 2014—a period of 438 days and a distance of 9,000 kilometers—Alvarenga drifted across the Pacific. For the first four months, he was accompanied by a co-worker, who later died. Some shipwreck survivors leave eyewitness accounts, making it possible to explore a fundamental question: Aside from the material requirements for staying alive, how do survivors psychologically cope with such an ordeal? Being shipwrecked is one of the most calamitous experiences that can happen to a human. The initial shock is severe: victims of a shipwreck see their boat sink, feel the icy contact with the ocean and must quickly find a solution. Within a few minutes, they may find themselves in a crude but more or less well-equipped lifeboat—for an indeterminate period of time. They are often alone, lost in the vastness of the ocean, tossed by waves on all sides that obliterate the horizon. When victims are accompanied by other people, they suffer less from loneliness, but the situation comes at the cost of privacy. They cannot be alone even for a second. In an instant, a shipwreck upends all points of reference, whether material, emotional, social or sensory. The feeling is one of awful separation, accompanied by acute anxiety, and sometimes panic, commensurate with a total breakdown of the familiar environment. Once the acute phase of the shipwreck has passed, great uncertainty sets in. For people not used to the sea, living conditions are almost impossible to imagine: the looming risk of death; the confinement; the absolute and unrelieved isolation; the total lack of comfort; the appalling hygiene; the constant humidity; the attack of the salt and sun on the skin; the freezing cold in some cases; the sleeplessness; the seasickness; and the muscle pains from awkward positions—not to mention the lack of water and food. The list is endless. Extreme fatigue follows quickly, accentuated by the dramatic circumstances of the shipwreck. Psychologically, shipwreck victims go through an extremely painful experience. They constantly feel a dull anxiety, which at times turns into terror, depending on unforeseen events, such as the appearance of sharks, the deflation or capsizing of the lifeboat, the onset of disease and the death of a companion. The main risk at the time of the shipwreck is panic. Eventually, however, it evolves into passivity—the castaway’s worst enemy. Passivity is naturally linked to the monotony of life adrift but also to hopelessness, which can set in rapidly and have fatal consequences. After a few weeks, some survivors become indifferent to everything and basically let themselves go. The case of the Marie-Jeanne, a motor launch that broke down off the Seychelles in 1953, is illustrative. The 10 passengers who remained onboard abandoned any attempt to feed themselves or even to fish. They simply waited. On the 74th day, when an Italian tanker found them, only two young men were left alive, collapsed in a corner. Another psychological feature observed in shipwreck survivors is the profound transformation of their connection to reality, which includes an altered perception of time and the blurring of spatial boundaries. An impression of having always lived at sea and being outside of time rapidly takes hold as the present expands, blotting out past and future. “Day followed day without making any impact on our minds,” wrote Maurice Bailey of the 119 days he and his wife Maralyn spent cast away on a life raft in the Pacific in 1973 in their book Staying Alive! On the 104th day, he wrote, “it appeared as though we knew no other life. I had stopped dreaming about our life before or after this misadventure.” Disturbances in the perception of reality often result, including illusions and sometimes hallucinations. Various factors may contribute, such as constantly disturbed sleep, metabolic disorders, fatigue and dehydration, as well as a defense against anxiety and a spiritual identification with nature. This identification may often be enhanced by the experience of an “oceanic feeling,” the sensation of being at one with the universe, which was notably described by Sigmund Freud in his 1929 book Civilization and Its Discontents. Sometimes delusional episodes occur, as in the case of the Medusa. After an initial period of despair and hopelessness, the shipwrecked have no choice but to pull themselves together. Many of them pursue positive and active strategies, although these may be interspersed with phases of deep despondency. The first step often consists of taking stock of the situation and planning what to do next: inventorying food and survival equipment, stowing them in the lifeboat and estimating how long it will be before help comes. This step is essential in the fight against complacency and anxiety in order to develop a sense of regaining control. In the face of danger, castaways’ psychological reaction—especially stress – depends on how they assess their ability to control events and to cope with the situation. “Perceived control” is a subjective ability that varies from one individual to another, but it is also based on objective considerations, such as available materials and food. Consequently, several factors are likely to favor it, such as information about the situation, knowledge of the rules of survival and other castaway stories, and, in particular, rejection of inactivity. Any number of activities may thus restore the feeling of control: collecting rainwater, improving one’s fishing technique, making a fire to cook an albatross or catching a turtle. After her shipwreck off the Solomon Islands in 1990, French sailor Claudine Paré-Lescure escaped in an inflatable dinghy and used the paddles to build a makeshift mast. Although her boat was hard to maneuver, the simple fact of moving forward had a salutary effect on her mood. Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters. Belief in one’s ability to control events and feeling involved in activities are two of the three characteristics of stress resistance proposed in a 1979 study by psychologist Suzanne Ouellette (at the time Suzanne Kobasa), who also employed the term “hardiness.” The third characteristic is anticipating change in a positive way. “Among persons under stress, those who view change as a challenge will remain healthier than those who view it as a threat,” Kobasa wrote. “Persons who feel positively about change are catalysts in their environment and are well practiced at responding to the unexpected.” Indeed, some shipwreck survivors are sailors who are used to competition (such as the Vendée Globe, a major sailing race around the world) and generally manage to see an opportunity to progress with each new challenge they encounter—whether they are dealing with a technological innovation or a hardware glitch. Aside from the feeling of regaining control, the different activities that set a rhythm for the day have another advantage. They help combat the unbearable expansion of the present by creating a segmented perception of time focused on the current experience. Bathing, having breakfast, fishing, tidying up, eating lunch, taking a nap, playing games, sleeping. Establishing these routines is not easy because it means disregarding the condition of being shipwrecked. But it is a healthy reflex. A case in point is the Robertson family, whose schooner was attacked by killer whales in 1972 and who survived for 38 days onboard an inflatable raft and a fiberglass dinghy. The family divided up the tasks. The father, Dougal Robertson, prepared turtle meat and fished. His wife Lyn Robertson took care of the “house” and the children. She encouraged them to keep up their personal hygiene, exercise, write to friends and draw on a piece of sailcloth. In the evening she sang them Johannes Brahms’s “Lullaby” to help them sleep. The Robertsons also invented games, recalled their travels and discussed delicious meals that they would make. These activities kept them busy and distracted their attention from the perils of their situation. More important, daily routines provided structure and the semblance of an organized life, averting the anxiety that would have resulted from jettisoning all the customary rules. Keeping busy, however, is not the only way to regulate the day. Anything that breaks the monotony is useful, observed Xavier Maniguet, a physician and a survival specialist, in his book Survival: How to Prevail in Hostile Environments. “To cope with the apparent nothingness, [the castaway] must structure his landscape,” Maniguet wrote. “Clouds and waves, dawn and dusk, storms and swells, marine and avian life—everything must become an event, an excuse for reflection, an opportunity to act, any and all reasons to break a desperately repetitive cycle.” Nevertheless, the length of time spent adrift and the harshness of the material conditions cause substantial suffering. And resorting to activities or events does not suffice. Another dimension emerges from the accounts of people who have survived extreme situations, whether at sea or in the mountains or even under imprisonment and torture—namely, an astonishing ability to use the imagination and an inner space. In this way, castaways compensate for their hostile environment with thoughts and reveries that carry them to other places or remind them of their loved ones. Mental imagery appears to be very effective for regulating emotions and escaping. There is no need to fantasize about extraordinary adventures. Reality is already sufficiently out of the ordinary, and the humdrum does the trick. Frequent themes are food, particularly meals and menu planning. The late British yachtsman Tony Bullimore, who was shipwrecked during the 1996–1997 Vendée Globe, recounted one of his daydreams in his book Saved: The Extraordinary Tale of Survival and Rescue in the Southern Ocean. “I take the car and drive down Ashley Road in St Paul’s [in England] to meet Ronald, a friend of mine, at the Cambridge for a few drinks,” he wrote.The simple of fact of thinking about family and friends increases the motivation to survive. Sailor Steven Callahan, who lived for two and a half months in a lifeboat in 1982, explained in his book Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea that he “[lowered] the drawbridge to childhood memories” and, as he visualized the rooms of his early years, saw himself back with his toy soldiers. The boundary between revery and hallucination may blur. Some shipwreck survivors report visions of submarines delivering fresh bread and couscous, friends whipping up chocolate mousse in their kitchen or simply fresh water. At other times, people manage to survive psychologically by planning projects. Any idea, even a utopian one, will do: building a boat or a house, gardening or testing out recipes. In a way, thinking about the future is to believe in survival. The Robertsons often imagined what they would do once they returned home, for example—the cat they would get and the restaurant they would open. In addition to imagination, all of a person’s cognitive resources need to be mobilized. Human beings have the ability to manage their emotions by cognitively processing situations and thoughts to lift their mood, limit anxiety and remain hopeful. In 1984 psychologists Susan Folkman and Richard Lazarus developed what is known as the “transactional model of stress and coping.” The idea is that stress does not depend as much on events as on the way they are perceived and interpreted. For this reason, in the face of danger, it is better to avoid focusing all attention on the risk at hand because otherwise it could become overwhelming and trigger acute stress that is very hard to control. Without ignoring the truth, it is possible to emphasize the positive, as sailor Thierry Dubois did during the 1996–1997 Vendée Globe. After his yacht capsized, a plane dropped him a raft that also capsized. As described in Bullimore’s book, Dubois then thought, “Okay. The challenges continue, but the raft is intact.” This attitude often implies a bit of dissimulation, in particular on the part of the group leader. Dougal Robertson believed that his castaway family members were all going to die, yet he later confided having hidden that expectation from them. In daily survival, the objective is to seek a “cognitive correction” to negative emotions and thoughts. The benefit goes far beyond keeping stress at bay. Bullimore found the approach to be a valuable aid against agonizing ruminations about death. When these thoughts began to overwhelm him in the air pocket of his upturned yacht, he remembered two little birds that had taken refuge on it a few days before the shipwreck. One bird died shortly thereafter, and the other one flew off. “Think of the other bird that managed to fly away,” Bullimore recounting telling himself at the time in his book. “The strong survive and the weak perish. I have to be strong. Forget about any self-pity.” Addressing challenges by finding a sort of counterweight is another useful technique, though it is admittedly difficult in an extreme situation. Excruciating hunger may be fought by comparing it with real famine or with the precarious situation in which many elderly people live. In 1966 then British paratroopers John Ridgway and Chay Blyth became the second team ever to row across the Atlantic in an open dory—braving storms, cold and near starvation. As recounted in their book A Fighting Chance, at a low point in their 92-day undertaking, Blyth observed, “What about the thousands of old-age pensioners who have nothing more to eat every day than us[? ]” The same strategy was observed in survivors of the Medusa wreck. And in his book Survive the Savage Sea, Dougal Robertson, who felt guilty for having dragged his children into an adventure, described how he sought to ease his conscience “with the thought that they had derived much benefit from their voyage and that our sinking was as unforeseeable as an earthquake, or an aeroplane crash, or anything.” While they do constitute an essential weapon, these techniques for dealing with painful emotions are only effective when they are accompanied by an altered mindset. People who survive the experience of being shipwrecked emphasize the profound inner transformation of acquiring a new identity—that of a shipwrecked person living on a raft. In other words, it is essential that, at a certain point, castaways accept their situation and the suffering it entails and find a way of resigning themselves to it—but only if it is a “positive resignation.” Contradictory though it seems, this expression has nothing to do with the ordinary meaning of resign but rather underscores the acceptance of constraints, followed by adaptation. The same type of transformation has been observed in astronauts, as recounted by physician Jean Rivolier in his French book L’Homme dans l’Espace (Man in Space). During an experiment conducted by psychologist Michael Novikov in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, five-man crews were isolated in a 50-square-meter room for five to 12 days under very basic hygienic conditions. Some of them were more or less able to accept these conditions, whereas others focused on the negative aspects and suffered accordingly. The experimental findings showed that the positive attitude was more effective, resulting in less stress, fewer negative emotions, fewer conflicts and a greater capacity to work.
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Shipwreck
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San Francisco Streetcar Strike of 1907
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The San Francisco streetcar strike of 1907 was among the most violent of the streetcar strikes in the United States between 1895 and 1929. Before the end of the strike, thirty-one people had been killed and about 1100 injured. Like the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900, the events were associated with progressive civic reform. As the strike loomed, one of the prominent officials of San Francisco's United Railroads, Patrick Calhoun, contracted with the nationally known "King of the Strikebreakers" James A. Farley, for four hundred replacement workers waiting on board ship. The streetcar Carmen's Union struck on May 5, 1907, for an 8-hour day and $3 per day. [1] Farley's armed workers took control of the entire system. The violence started two days later, Bloody Tuesday, when a shootout on Turk Street left 2 dead and about 20 injured. [2]
On May 25, both the pro-labor Mayor Eugene Schmitz and Calhoun were indicted on corruption charges, and on June 13 Schmitz was found guilty of extortion, to be replaced by Edward Robeson Taylor. [2] This development seriously undermined labor's political position, and the Daily News was the only one of the city's newspapers to support the strikers. [3] The action effectively collapsed in November, and officially abandoned in mid-February with the dissolution of Carmen's Union Local 205. Of the 31 deaths from shootings and streetcar accidents, 25 were passengers; 900 of the estimated 1100 injuries were passengers. [4] In 1916 San Francisco labor leader Thomas Mooney would attempt to re-organize the Carmen's Union in San Francisco,[5] a prelude to his notorious trial later that year. Striking workers fell tree to obstruct tracks during strike. Strikebreaking motorman injured after streetcar attacked. Workers blockade tracks to stop the streetcars from running.
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Strike
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2010 Alaska USAF C-17 crash
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On July 28, 2010, a C-17 Globemaster III transport plane of the U.S. Air Force crashed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, while practicing for a flight display at the upcoming Arctic Thunder Air Show. All four crew members on board were killed. It was the first fatal accident of a C-17 aircraft. The subsequent investigation blamed pilot error for the low-altitude stall that led to the aircraft impacting the ground. [1]
On July 28, 2010, the crew was conducting a local training flight in preparation for the upcoming Arctic Thunder Air Show, to be held at the Elmendorf base from 31 July to 1 August. The C-17 is commonly featured in US air shows, highlighting its short takeoff and landing capability. The plane had flown earlier that day with a different crew. [2]
At approximately 6:22 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time (UTC-8), the C-17 took off from Runway 06 at Elmendorf Air Force Base to practice the display routine. After the initial climb followed by a left turn, the pilot executed a sharp right turn. As the aircraft banked, the stall warning system activated to alert the crew of an impending stall. Instead of implementing stall recovery procedures, the pilot continued the turn and the aircraft entered a stall from which recovery was not possible. [3] The plane crashed and exploded in a fireball about two miles from the airfield. The aircraft was a four-engined C-17 Globemaster III built by Boeing. [2] It belonged to the 3rd Wing (3 WG) and operated jointly with the 176th Wing (176 WG) at Elmendorf AFB, located near downtown Anchorage. [4] The aircraft had Air Force serial number "00-0173" and was named Spirit of the Aleutians. The U.S. Air Force has 222 C-17s in service with the active Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard, with the type being based at Elmendorf since June 2007. At the time of the crash, the base had eight of the aircraft, operated jointly by an active duty Air Force organization, the 3rd Wing's 517th Airlift Squadron; and an Alaska Air National Guard unit, the 176th Wing's 249th Airlift Squadron. [5] The mishap was the first fatal crash of a C-17. [2]
The four crew members on board all died; they were Majors Michael Freyholtz and Aaron Malone, pilots assigned to the Alaska Air National Guard's 249th Airlift Squadron; Captain Jeffrey Hill, a pilot assigned to Elmendorf's active-duty Air Force's 517th Airlift Squadron; and Senior Master Sergeant Thomas E. Cicardo, a loadmaster of the Alaska Air National Guard's 249th Airlift Squadron. [4]
A member of the Anchorage Fire Department described how a fireball extended to around 750 feet (230 m) into the air, an estimated 2 miles (3.2 km) from Anchorage. [4] Debris from the crash was spread along 200 feet (61 m) of the Alaska Railroad tracks which carry passenger and freight trains daily through the base area, north to Wasilla, although no trains were scheduled to be passing through at the time of the crash. [2]
Track repairs to the nearby railroad caused freight services to be suspended, and passenger services to be diverted by bus. The air show went ahead as planned as a tribute to the four dead airmen. [2]
The investigation report into the crash was released on 13 December 2010. It blamed pilot error, stating that the pilot's overconfidence in executing an aggressive right-turn maneuver led to a low-altitude stall and subsequent crash, despite the warnings correctly provided by the aircraft's stall-warning system, to which neither the pilot nor any other crew member responded effectively. [1]
The accident displayed significant similarities with the 1994 crash of a B-52 bomber at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. On both occasions, the local USAF unit's chain of command apparently failed to prevent the pilots involved from developing deliberately unsafe flying practices for aerial displays of large aircraft. [6][7][8]
C-17 crashes near air force base in Alaska at Wikinews
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Air crash
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Top Diplomat Highlights Importance of Africa in Iran’s Foreign Policy
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Amirabdollahian and his Namibian counterpart Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah held talks on the sidelines of the 76th UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
In the meeting, the top Iranian diplomat touched upon the importance of Africa in the foreign policy of the new Iranian administration and referred to Namibia as a friendly country by which Iran has always stood during its struggles for independence.
Amirabdollahian referred to his trip to Namibia five years ago, and noted the last meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic Commission was held during that visit.
He said it would be good for such a meeting to be held again as soon as the opportunity arises.
He then touched upon the problems, especially in the financial and banking domain, which have emerged in the good relations between the two countries.
In the meeting, the two sides discussed ways of settling those problems.
Amirabdollahian also invited the Namibia foreign minister to visit Iran, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, for her part, recalled that the Islamic Republic of Iran was among the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with Namibia after the country’s independence.
She referred to the long history of relations between the two countries, and said her government stands ready to further enhance cooperation with Iran in the areas of trade, mines, agriculture, health and pharmaceuticals.
Although US sanctions have created numerous obstacles in the way of mutual relations, she said, Namibia has tried its utmost to keep bilateral ties from being harmed as much as possible as her country attaches great importance to its relationship with Iran.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Coronavirus could cause famines in dozens of countries, UN's World Food Program says
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The United Nations (UN) has warned the coronavirus pandemic may lead to "multiple famines of biblical proportions". As the number of confirmed infections globally passed 2.5 million, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) estimated the number of the world's hungry could nearly double by the end of the year. WFP executive director David Beasley warned the world was "on the brink of a hunger pandemic" if immediate action was not taken. He said the countries at greatest risk were those across Africa and the Middle East. He told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that even before COVID-19 became an issue, he was telling world leaders this year would bring "the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II". "We could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a few months," he said. Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast. Mr Beasley said 821 million people went to bed hungry every night all over the world, 135 million more people were facing "crisis levels of hunger or worse" and a new World Food Program analysis showed that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people "could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020". He said WFP was providing food to nearly 100 million people on any given day, including "about 30 million people who literally depend on us to stay alive". Mr Beasley, who is recovering from COVID-19, said if those people could not be reached, "300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period". He said that figure did not include increased starvation due to coronavirus. He warned that in a worst-case scenario "we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries". The WFP warns that beyond malnutrition, a shortage of food will leave those affected with weaker immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.
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Famine
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TAI Flight 307 crash
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TAI Flight 307 was a scheduled flight operated by Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI) between France and the Ivory Coast via Mali operated by a Douglas DC-7C. On 24 September 1959, the aircraft crashed during its departure from Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, France when it flew into trees. [1] All of the flight crew and 45 of the 56 passengers on board were killed; the other 11 passengers were seriously injured. [1]
The DC-7C arrived at Bordeaux from Paris, making a scheduled stop on its route to West Africa. Following a two-hour stopover, departure from Bordeaux took place at 22:33 GMT. [1] Weather at the time of departure was a 3-knot (3.5 mph) wind and light drizzle that did not significantly restrict visibility. [1] Following takeoff, the aircraft reached an altitude of 30 metres (98 ft), and failed to climb further before flying into a pine forest located 2,950 metres (9,680 ft) from the end of the runway. [1]
The aircraft cut a swath through the forest; some of the passengers were thrown clear of the wreckage as the fuselage broke up, before being destroyed in a post-crash fire. [2] Because of the darkness and a lack of roads in the accident area, rescue workers had difficulty reaching the scene of the crash; their vehicles were unable to approach closer than 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the impact site. [2] Twelve survivors were taken to a hospital in Bordeaux; one later died despite medical care, bringing the total number of deaths caused by the crash to 54. [3][4]
The aircraft involved in the accident, registered F-BIAP, was a Douglas DC-7C airliner powered by four Wright R-3350-30W radial piston engines. Delivered new to Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux on 9 November 1957, it carried manufacturer's serial number 45366. [5]
The Investigation Board appointed to determine the cause of the crash reported that the accident was most likely caused by a combination of factors. Evidence from a reconstructed flight showed that with an increase in speed for a few seconds, the rate of climb of the aircraft will decrease; with a lack of visual references "a pilot may follow a line of flight that will bring the aircraft back near the ground if, during this period, optimum climbing speed is not maintained and the altimeter is not carefully watched". [1]
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Air crash
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Three Ds Mining in court after rock traps man
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A mine company used untested pallet boards to support a roof before a rock fell on a miner, a court has heard. Gwyn Woodland was 57 when he was trapped by a lump of rock weighing more than half a tonne in November 2017. He was taken to hospital with three fractures to his back and stomach pain, has had health problems since and has not returned to work. Three Ds Mining, based at Danygraig Colliery in Crynant, Neath Port Talbot, has denied health and safety breaches. Prosecuting, Alan Fuller said the miners worked in "cramped conditions" which "looked like something from the 18th Century" but they were "trusted and traditional and simple methods that worked". He said guidance was that the traditional system for an underground roof was horizontal bars no less than 2.4in (63.5mm) thick, but that in the summer of 2017 the company had started using pre-cut pallet boards which were as narrow as 0.78in (20mm) thick in some places. Mr Fuller described this as "utterly inadequate", said it "risked the safety of employees", and that the boards had not been tested for strength.AdChoicesADVERTISEMENT He said Mr Woodland had been working on a section of "ragged ground" that was possibly unstable, so used a second post, which he believed would give more support. As he used a pneumatic tool, the rock above gave way and trapped him. Mr Fuller told the court a colleague came to help and was able to break the rock with a sledge hammer, allowing Mr Woodland to crawl out. Mr Woodland was taken home and then taken to hospital by his daughter where it was found he had three fractures in his back. "He has since suffered pain, developed arthritis and has not returned to work," Mr Fuller said. The jury was told that in February 2017 David Jones, who was director of the mine, wrote to the mines inspector to say a group of men were going to take over the mine, but the company would remain the mine's operator. Mr. Fuller added: "It is clear that the company remained the operator and employer of many men at the mine." He said Mr Jones closed the mine on 18 December 2017. The trial at Swansea Crown Court continues.
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Mine Collapses
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Two bombs in Christian areas of the Iraqi capital Baghdad have killed at least 35 people
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Two bombs in Christian areas of the Iraqi capital Baghdad have killed at least 35 people, officials have said.
One device exploded near a Catholic church when worshippers were leaving a Christmas Day service, killing 24. Another bomb ripped through a market, killing 11 more people.
Christian leaders denied that the attacks had targeted worshippers.
Iraq's ancient Christian community has more than halved in recent years, from an estimated population of 900,000. Both blasts happened in the Dora area of Baghdad. The bomb outside St John's Catholic church exploded in a parked car, shortly after a blast at an outdoor market in the mainly Christian al-Athorien district.
No-one has yet admitted carrying out the attacks, which came as Christmas Day services were held across Iraq.
During a service at St Joseph Chaldean church in the Karrada area of the capital, Father Saad Seroub called for peace and security for all Iraqis. Churches have been targeted across the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. An attack by gunmen in 2010 on the Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad left more than 50 people dead.
A surge in sectarian violence this year has claimed the lives of more than 7,000 civilians in Iraq, the highest annual number of fatalities since 2008.
Most of the attacks have targeted Shia civilians and the smaller Sunni population.
The bloodshed escalated in April, after the army raided a Sunni anti-government protest camp.
The conflict in Syria has also prompted a spike in attacks, many involving al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the BBC on Sunday that the Syrian crisis was "feeding terrorism in the region".
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Armed Conflict
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Study Club fire
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The Study Club fire killed 22 people and injured over 50[1] in a Detroit, Michigan dance hall on September 20, 1929. [2]
The club was located in the old theater district, at 65 East Vernor Highway, in Detroit. [3][4] Until the fire, the Study Club operated as a speakeasy nightclub, where alcohol was being illegally sold during Prohibition. The fire is a historic case study of disasters in nightclubs, specifically dealing with hazards of flammable materials. The Study night club was not a typical nightclub by modern standards. It consisted of three floors of varied usage and was constructed from a three story retrofitted mansion. The first floor was a kitchen, and the second floor was a restaurant and dance floor. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Prohibition banned the sale, transportation, and distribution of alcohol in the US. The Study Club was widely known to serve alcohol illegally. [5] The Study Club operated under the principle that everything was fixed (which implied law enforcement non-interference with the selling of alcohol). Police officers were indeed consistent club patrons and allowed the club to operate in illegal premises. [5]
The fire occurred Friday September 20, 1929. [3] The official cause of the fire was not determined. [6] It is assumed the fire was caused by a discarded cigarette in the stairwell, which was lined with flammable draperies and decorations, that led to the second floor. The owner of the building believed the fire to be the result of a bomb. [7] The stairwell was the only means of egress for the second floor patrons. Over 20 people[2]
were killed and nearly 50 injured. [1] Some patrons managed to find their way to the roof and escaped by jumping from the building. Most of these only suffered broken bones. [1] Bandleader Al Handler helped get several people out a second-floor window, then followed. [3] Others seeking safety fled to dressing rooms in the building and were found there after the fire. It was reported by survivors that some patrons thought the fire was part of the dancing act. [7] Most windows were blocked with boards and were inaccessible even to fire fighters. The majority of those who died were in their 30s. Most deaths were attributed to suffocation and asphyxiation from toxic fumes emitted from the burning debris, rather than the actual heat from the flames. [1] After the fire, the building's interior was completely destroyed while the exterior appeared undamaged apart from broken windows. The fire escape along the side of the structure was apparently inaccessible and proved useless to trapped patrons. [1] Some estimates reported financial losses to be over US$35,000. [7]
With several more severe fires subsequent to this, the Study nightclub fire has largely gone unreported in peer assessed literature, with the exception that it serves to illustrate fires caused by flammable materials such as decorations. [6] The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) considers the fire and loss of life significant in its list of historic fires. [2]
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Fire
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Aer Lingus Flight 164 crash
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Aer Lingus Flight 164 was a scheduled Boeing 737 passenger flight that was hijacked on 2 May 1981, en route from Dublin Airport in Ireland to London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. While on approach to Heathrow, about five minutes before the flight was due to land, a 55-year-old Australian named Laurence James Downey went into the toilet and doused himself in petrol. [1] He then went to the cockpit and demanded that the plane continue on to Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in France, and refuel there for a flight to Tehran, Iran. [2][3] Upon landing at Le Touquet, Downey further demanded the publication in the Irish press of a nine-page statement which he had the captain throw from the cockpit window. [4]
After an eight-hour standoff (during which time Downey released 11 of his 112 hostages),[5] French special forces stormed the plane and apprehended Downey. No shots were fired and nobody was injured. [6] It emerged that Downey was being sought by police in Perth, Australia, in connection with a $70,000 land fraud incident,[7] and was also wanted in Shannon, Ireland, for alleged assault. [6] In February 1983, he was sentenced, in Saint-Omer, France, to five years' imprisonment for air piracy. [8]
In his statement, Downey claimed to have been a Trappist monk in residence at Tre Fontane Abbey in the 1950s (this was later confirmed by monastery officials),[2] before he was expelled from the order for punching a superior in the face. [3] He then took a job as a tour guide in central Portugal, at a shrine devoted to Our Lady of Fátima, who is said to have appeared before three children and shared with them three secrets. [2] At the time of the hijacking, the third secret was known only to the Pope and other senior figures in the Catholic Church; Downey's statement called on the Vatican to release this secret to the public. [3]
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Air crash
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1971 May Day protests
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Protesters
The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War. These began on Monday morning, May 3rd, and ended on May 5th. More than 12,000 people were arrested, the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. [1]
Members of the Nixon administration would come to view the events as damaging, because the government's response was perceived as violating citizens' civil rights. [2]
By the middle of 1970 many leaders of the anti war movement had come to believe that tactics of mass marches that had been used during the past six years would not end the war, and that more aggressive actions were needed. Rennie Davis and David Dellinger of the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice and Jerry Coffin of the War Resisters League began planning the actions; later in 1970 Michael Lerner joined their number. [3] A group known as the "May Day Tribe"[4] was formed: it was made up of Yippies and others among the more militant members of the anti-war movement. It was decided that small groups of protesters would block major intersections and bridges in the capital, under the slogan, "If the government won't stop the war, we'll stop the government." More than 40,000 protesters camped out in West Potomac Park near the Potomac River to listen to rock music and plan for the coming action. [5]
The Nixon administration secretly canceled the protester's camping permit. U.S. Park Police and Washington Metropolitan Police, dressed in riot gear, raided the encampment. The police gave the campers until noon to clear out. Some protesters abandoned the demonstration and left the city. The remaining protesters, estimated at 12,000, regrouped at various churches and college campuses in the area. [6]
The U.S. government had put into effect Operation Garden Plot, a plan it had developed during the 1960s to combat major civil disorders. Over the weekend, while protesters listened to music, planned their actions or slept, 10,000 federal troops were moved to various locations in the Washington, D.C. area. At one point, so many soldiers and Marines were being moved into the area from bases along the East Coast that troop transports were landing at the rate of one every three minutes at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland, about 15 miles east of the White House. Among these troops were 4,000 paratroopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. Troops from the Marine Barracks lined both sides of the 14th St bridge. These troops were to back up the 5,100 officers of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, 2,000 members of the D.C. National Guard and federal agents that were already in place. [7] Every monument, park and traffic circle in the nation's capital had troops protecting its perimeters. Paratroopers and Marines deployed via helicopter to the grounds of the
Washington Monument. Protesters announced that because the government had not stopped the Vietnam War they would stop the government[4] and told troops, many of whom were of similar age, that their goal was to prevent the troops from being sent to Vietnam. While the troops were in place and thousands held in reserve, the police clashed with members of the May Day tribe. The protesters engaged in hit
and run tactics throughout the city, trying to disrupt traffic and cause chaos in the streets. President Richard Nixon, who was at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, refused to give Federal workers the day off, forcing them to navigate through police lines and May Day tribe roadblocks. Most commuters who tried arrived at their jobs, despite being delayed somewhat. Federal Employees for Peace held a rally the following day in Lafayette Park. While the troops secured the major intersections and bridges, the police abandoned their usual arrest procedures, roaming through the city making sweep arrests and using tear gas. They detained anyone who looked like a demonstrator. By 8 am thousands of people had been arrested, including many who had not been breaking any law. The city's prisons did not have the capacity to handle that many people thus several emergency detention centers were setup including the Washington Coliseum and another one surrounded by an 8-foot-high (2.4 m) fence was set up next to RFK Stadium. The prisoners massed against the fence, pushed it over, and were tear-gassed. No food, water, or sanitary facilities were made available by authorities but sympathetic local residents brought supplies. Skirmishes between protesters and police occurred up until about mid-day. In Georgetown, the police herded the protesters and onlookers through the streets to the Georgetown University campus. The police then engaged in a back and forth with the protesters outside the university's main gate on O Street, lobbing tear gas over the gate each time they pushed the crowd back. Other forms of gas were used including pepper based and one that induced vomiting. Police helicopters also dropped tear gas on the university's lower athletic field where protesters had camped the night before. Numerous people were injured and treated by volunteers on campus. By afternoon the police had suppressed the protest and held more than 7,000 prisoners. [8]
On Tuesday, May 4, another 2,000 people were arrested at a sit-in outside the headquarters of the Justice Department. On Wednesday, May 5, 1,200 more people were arrested at a legal rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, bringing the total to 12,614 people, making this the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. [4][9]
The Justice Department filed conspiracy charges against May Day leader Rennie Davis, as well as against two other activists who had been members of the Chicago 7, John Froines and Abbie Hoffman. The charges were eventually dismissed. Out of the 12,000 demonstrators arrested most were released without charges. Only 79 were eventually convicted. [10] The ACLU pursued a class action suit on behalf of thousands of detained protesters and ultimately the federal courts, recognizing the illegal nature of the arrests, ordered the government to pay a settlement to those arrested, making them some of the only citizens in US history to receive financial compensation for violation of the constitutional rights of free assembly and due process. [11]
Richard Helms, who was Central Intelligence Agency director at the time, said "It was obviously viewed by everybody in the administration, particularly with all the arrests and the howling about civil rights and human rights and all the rest of it...as a very damaging kind of event.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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South African Airways Flight 201 crash
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South African Airways Flight 201 (SA201), a de Havilland Comet 1, took off at 18:32 UTC on 8 April 1954 from Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy, en route to Cairo, Egypt, on the second stage of its flight from London, England to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight crashed at around 19:07 UTC, killing all on board. The flight was operated as a charter by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) using the aircraft G-ALYY[1] ("Yoke Yoke"), with a South African crew of seven, and carrying fourteen passengers. Gerry Bull and other BOAC engineers examined the aircraft for Flight 201. Previously, the same team had examined BOAC Flight 781 (a Comet that had broken up at altitude in January 1954) prior to its final flight. [2]
Flight 201 took off from London for Rome at 13:00 UTC on Wednesday 7 April 1954, on the first leg southward to Johannesburg, arriving at Rome approximately two and a half hours later, at 17:35 UTC. On arrival at Rome, engineers discovered some minor faults, including a faulty fuel gauge and 30 loose bolts on the left wing,[3] which delayed the aircraft's departure by 25 hours before Yoke Yoke was ready to depart for Cairo on the evening of Thursday 8 April. The aircraft took off for Cairo at 18:32 UTC under the command of Captain William Mostert, and climbed rapidly toward its cruising height of 11,000 m (35,000 ft). The crew reported over the Ostia beacon at 18:37 UTC, passing through the altitude of 2,100 m (7,000 ft). The weather was good, but with an overcast sky. Another report was made from the aircraft, first at 18:49 UTC at Ponza, where it reported climbing through 3,500 m (11,600 ft) and another at 18:57 UTC when it reported passing abeam of Naples. At 19:07 UTC, while still climbing, the aircraft contacted Cairo on the long range HF radio and reported an ETA of 21:02 UTC. This was the last message heard from Yoke Yoke as some time later, the aircraft disintegrated in the night sky at around 11,000 m (35,000 ft), killing everyone on board. After repeated attempts at re-gaining contact by both Cairo and Rome air traffic control were made and went unanswered, it was realised that another Comet had been lost. Initial news of the accident was leaked to the press by a German radio station which had been monitoring the radio transmissions. The New York Times wrote that:[4]
Britain today weighed the cost of a stunning blow to her proudest pioneer industry – jet civil aviation – as the crash of another Comet airliner was confirmed. Twenty-one persons, including three Americans, were believed to have died when the plane was lost in the Mediterranean. The discovery of at least six bodies and bits of wreckage floating in the sea about 70 miles [110 km] south of Naples put a pall on the last hopes for the British Overseas Airways Corporation craft, missing since 6:57 o'clock last night. Tonight the Minister of Transport, A. T. Lennox-Boyd withdrew from all Comets the certificate of airworthiness that the aircraft won on 20 January 1952, 'pending further detailed investigations into the causes of the recent disasters.' This second, unexplained Comet crash in three months came less than three weeks after the sleek four-jet de Havilland airliner had been restored to commercial service with about 60 safety modifications. They had been grounded for 10 weeks since the previous Comet crash 10 Jan into the Mediterranean near the island of Elba with 35 dead. Early today they were grounded again. Sir Miles Thomas, chairman of the airline, said the new crash was 'a very great tragedy and a major setback for British civil aviation.' Bull said he found it difficult to accept the fact that the circumstances surrounding the crash of BOAC flight 781 three months earlier had occurred again with the South African Airways flight. [2]
As soon as it heard of the crash, BOAC once again voluntarily grounded all of its Comets as it had done three months earlier after the BOAC Flight 781 disaster. The Italian air-sea rescue services were notified, and searching began at dawn the next day, subsequently involving the Royal Navy carrier HMS Eagle and the destroyer HMS Daring. Some time later that day, a report was received from a BEA Ambassador aircraft of an oil patch some 110 km (70 mi) east of Naples and bodies and wreckage in the water 50 km (30 mi) southeast of Stromboli. The depth of the Mediterranean Sea at the crash site meant that a salvage mission was ruled out as impractical, but if the cause of the BOAC crash was found, it would also explain the SA crash due to the close similarities of the two. At the time of the accident, the investigation into the crash of BOAC Flight 781 was still in progress, but suspicion of the cause of the crash had fallen on the possibility of an engine turbine failure. During the previous grounding of all Comets, modifications had been made to the aircraft, including Yoke Yoke, that seemed to eliminate this possibility. After an extensive multi-year investigation chaired by Lionel Cohen, Baron Cohen, the official document of findings was released by the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, on 1 February 1955, as Civil Aircraft Accident Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Accidents to Comet G-ALYP on 10 January 1954 and Comet G-ALYY on 8 April 1954. The joint investigation of this accident, and of BOAC 781, revealed manufacturer design defects (square windows) and metal fatigue that resulted ultimately in the explosive decompression that caused both accidents. The events of Flight 201 were included in "Ripped Apart", a Season 6 (2007) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday[5] (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world). This special episode examined aviation emergencies that were caused by pressurization failure or explosive decompression; the episode also featured BOAC Flight 781.
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Air crash
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Vale disaster: death toll reaches 58 at Brumadinho dam collapse
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The death count due to a collapsed dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron mine in Brazil has increased from 37 to 58 in two days after the collapse of the mine's dam that unleashed a mudslide on the local town of Brumadinho. The death count due to a collapsed dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron mine in Brazil has increased from 37 to 58 in two days after the collapse of the mine’s dam that unleashed a mudslide on the local town of Brumadinho. When the dam burst on Friday, around 430 people were working in the mine that is located in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. According to Civil Defense spokesperson Col. Flavio Godinho, around 360 people have been found and 305 continue to be missing. Officials have said they are pessimistic that the lost victims will be rescued. A total of 23 people have been hospitalised and of these, 19 victims have been identified. Authorities are still assessing the extent of damage, especially in Brumadinho, which is almost buried under mining waste. On Sunday, the authorities temporarily halted rescue operations due to heavy rains. They placed around 3,000 people under evacuation orders over concerns of a rupture risk at another dam located nearby. The evacuation orders were halted only when the authorities ascertained that the dam was not at risk of a rupture. Authorities expect to restrict the flowing of the sludgy mine waste, called tailings, within two days. The Brazilian National Water Agency is monitoring the tailings due to its high toxicity, and its potential to seep into local water sources. The agency is supplying water to the affected region. The scale of the destruction has prompted a swift response from Vale, with CEO Fabio Schvartsman calling the incident “inexcusable”, and pledging to tighten safety across the company’s operations. “It seems to me that there is only one solution: we have to go beyond any standard, national or international,” said Schvartsman. “We are going to create a safety mattress that is far superior to what we have today.” While Schvartsman has dramatically improved Vale’s financial performance since taking over in 2017, with share prices increasing by 50% over his tenure, the latest disaster demonstrates that the company’s safety performance needs improvement. The company’s shares dropped 8% on Friday as news of the disaster broke. Greenpeace Brazil stated that Vale’s “corporate greed” and “the omission and inefficiency” of the Brazilian government were the reasons behind the Brumadinho disaster, and a similar incident at Samarco in 2015. Four years ago, Vale’s Samarco dam, also in Minas Gerais, collapsed, killing 19 people and unleashing a mixture of mud and tailings into the state’s rivers and waterways. The toxic waste had a total volume equal to 25,000 Olympic swimming pools, and is considered to be among the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s history. While the scale of the Brumadinho disaster is smaller, with the collapsed dam holding 12 million cubic metres of mining waste, as opposed to the 55 million at Samarco, the more recent disaster has a higher immediate cost to human life. Samarco is a joint venture between Vale and BHP Billiton. In 2016, Samarco agreed to pay up to $6.2bn for damages to local people and the environment.
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Mine Collapses
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Braniff Flight 542 crash
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Braniff International Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, registration N9705C, was a scheduled domestic flight from Houston, Texas, bound for New York with scheduled stops in Dallas and Washington, D.C. On September 29, 1959, 23 minutes into the 41-minute flight from Houston to Dallas Love Field, the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air approximately 3.8 miles (6.1 km) southeast of Buffalo, Texas, killing everyone on board. Identifying the cause of the disaster proved difficult, as the accident had occurred before the age of flight data recorders. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and, after interviewing numerous eyewitnesses and examining the debris field, were able to conclude that the initial failure of the aircraft had begun in the left wing. However, even though it was determined that the wing was destroyed by "cycles of reverse bending" or "flutter", the investigation failed to determine how the flutter was caused, and the investigation stalled. In the six months following the accident further progress towards identifying the cause of the flutter was unsuccessful and the case remained unsolved. The breakthrough into unlocking the cause of the accident came after the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 710 on March 17, 1960. This aircraft, another Electra, had disintegrated in mid-air after losing its wings in a similar fashion to the Braniff aircraft. The investigation into the Northwest crash discovered a new phenomenon of harmonic coupling within the wings of aircraft, which in the end was ultimately identified by the CAB as being the cause of both break-ups. The final accident report for Flight 542 was issued on April 28, 1961. Flight 542 was a Lockheed L-188 Electra equipped with four Allison 501-D13 engines. The plane was eleven days old, having come off Lockheed's California manufacturing line on September 18, 1959, and had only 132 hours of flight time. All six crew members – two pilots, a flight engineer and three flight attendants – had little experience with the Electra, having only recently completed their transition training. Flight 542 was originally scheduled to depart Houston for Dallas at 22:15 Central Standard Time (CST) but departed the ramp at 22:37, 22 minutes late. The delay was due to a minor mechanical discrepancy with the number three generator. The plane was given clearance for takeoff at 22:40 and the crew reported they were airborne by 22:44. Following takeoff, Houston Departure Control handed responsibility of the aircraft over to San Antonio. The crew of Flight 542 reported to San Antonio as being over the Gulf Coast intersection at 9,000 feet (2,700 m) at 22:52. The flight reached its assigned altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m) at 22:58. The crew subsequently reported to San Antonio that they had passed the Leona omni at 23:05 and then reported via the Braniff company radio that maintenance was required on the number three generator, which they believed had been insufficiently insulated in Houston. Final communication with the aircraft occurred at 23:07. At 23:09, as the aircraft was on course to the Trinidad Intersection, the left wing and number one (left outboard) engine separated from the aircraft. Pieces of the wing, blown back by the wind–blast, struck and dislodged the horizontal stabilizer. The right wing's planking then broke away and the number four (right outboard) engine tore away. The right wing outboard of the number four engine broke away as well, causing structural damage to the fuselage and triggering the breakup of the aircraft. The fuselage continued to break apart as it fell from the sky. Those who were not killed during the initial break-up of the aircraft were either ejected from the fuselage or trapped within it as it fell. The crash was unsurvivable. Debris from the aircraft was spread out over 13,900 feet (4,200 m) with many of the larger sections of aircraft landing in a potato field southeast of Buffalo, Texas. One of the passengers was George Uffner, a New York organized crime figure and former associate of Arnold Rothstein, Charles Luciano and Frank Costello. In the wreckage there were found loose diamonds valued at $ 200,000 and another undamaged case of diamonds. It was speculated that the diamonds belonged to Uffner.
Civil Aeronautics Board investigators arrived on the scene the morning following the accident. The left wing was found a mile away from the potato field in which most of the other pieces of aircraft lay, and the pieces of the right wing were scattered in a widespread debris field across the countryside. Investigation determined that the break-up of the plane had begun in the left wing and progressed in a catastrophic sequence which ultimately destroyed the aircraft. However, the reason for the disintegration of the left wing proved to be elusive. Tests found that "flutter" had destroyed the wing, however the Electra's wings were supposedly flutter-free. Further tests attempting to re-create the accident by weakening the wing and exposing it to loads greater than any which would conceivably have occurred in the actual flight failed to cause a break-up similar to the one that occurred in Flight 542. Help from teams at Boeing, Convair, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also failed to determine how Lockheed's "flutter-free" wing had simply ripped away during flight, and the investigation stalled, further progress not being achieved for nearly six months. Renewal of interest in finding the cause for the Braniff Flight 542 crash occurred after Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, another Electra model aircraft of the same kind as Flight 542, disintegrated in-flight and crashed near Tell City, Indiana, on March 17, 1960. Following the second crash, CAB Chief Safety Investigator Phillip Goldstein was reported as saying: "The structure was subjected to forces greater than it was designed for. We have definite evidence of a wing failure. Why this wing failure occurred, I don't know." Initial investigations into the second crash proved fruitless but after laborious testing investigators were able to find flaws in the aircraft which included an overly stiff wing, and outboard nacelles responding differently than intended in the design briefs. Further experimentation discovered that flutter in a nacelle can be passed on to even a "flutter-free" wing. Final work in the mystery also found that as the magnitude of the flutter grows, the frequency at which it vibrates decreases. In the case of the two Electra crashes the frequency of the flutter had lowered from five cycles per second to three, the same as the natural frequency of the wing, creating harmonic coupling. This harmonic coupling would have continued to cause ever larger wing vibrations until some part of the structure failed. Contributing to the two aircraft's demise was the stiffness of the wings and severe clear-air turbulence. Final analysis of the CAB, in its official Accident Report:
The final reports into the two accidents were released four days apart, on April 24 and April 28, 1961, respectively, with the Braniff crash report being the later of the two. The two reports were similar and blamed the same forces for destroying both aircraft.
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Air crash
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Amnesty urges immediate relief for famine-hit Madagascar amid severe drought
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More than a million people on the country's parched southern tip are on the brink of famine and some are already dying, the rights watchdog said, as it has been hit by the worst drought in four decades For several decades the South-East of Madagascar has been a victim of the "Kere" phenomenon, as the local population calls it. Kere is the food crisis due to a period of intense drought that causes a sudden stop of the cultivation of crops by the farmers for several months each year. The farmers are left without money and in a situation of "severe malnutrition" or even starvation. AFP Johannesburg, South Africa: Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Madagascar's government and the rest of the world to step up relief efforts for the island nation's drought-hit south. More than a million people on Madagascar's parched southern tip are on the brink of famine and some are already dying, the rights watchdog said. The months-long drought, stoked by climate change, is the worst in four decades, it said in a report released ahead of the UN's climate conference in Glasgow. Amnesty called on rich nations to provide humanitarian aid and offer financial and technical support to help Madagascar adapt to climate change. "The international community must immediately provide the people in Madagascar affected by the drought with increased humanitarian relief and additional funding for the losses and damages suffered," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general. The drought afflicts a region where more than 90 percent of the population live in poverty, leaving many with little choice but to migrate. "It is a grave injustice that impacts of climate change are felt by people in developing countries the most considering that they have contributed the least to the climate crisis," Amnesty said. The United Nations has repeatedly blamed climate change for the drought, which has forced people to boil weeds and cactus to survive.
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Famine
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The prime minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed it was always the intention to sign the withdrawal agreement in January 2020 but “ditch bits” they didn’t like in the protocol.
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Boris Johnson gave personal assurances to Northern Ireland MP Ian Paisley that he would commit to “tearing up” the Brexit protocol that is now the centre of a major row between the UK and the EU, it has been claimed.
The Democratic Unionist party MP made the comments on BBC’s Newsnight just hours after the prime minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed it was always the intention to sign the withdrawal agreement in January 2020 but “ditch bits” they didn’t like in the protocol.
“Boris Johnson did tell me personally that he would, after agreeing to the protocol, he would sign up to changing that protocol and indeed tearing it up, that this was just for the semantics,” Paisley said.
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.
Show
Within 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.
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.
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“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.
“I think it’s appalling that people would even think of representing our country as signing up to an agreement knowing that they weren’t going to implement it – I think it’s appalling,” she added.
Newsnight reported that the reputed exchange between Johnson and Paisley was said to have happened before a key vote on Brexit on 22 October 2019.
At the time, Downing Street felt democracy in the country was being subverted by a proposed law to stop a no-deal Brexit happening. That law, dubbed “the surrender act” by Brexiters, was recently cited by the Brexit minister, Lord Frost, in a speech to the Conservative party conference.
“Of course we wanted to negotiate something better. If it not being to the madness of the surrender act we could have done so. We worried right from the start, the protocol could not take the strain,” said Frost, although at no stage did he say the government entered into the deal with the intention of renegotiating it soon after.
The row over whether the government acted in good faith or not when it signed up to the protocol has caused “alarm” in Dublin but comes on the eve of a potential breakthrough on the protocol.
On Wednesday the EU unveiled proposals to do away with more than 80% of the checks on goods and food, something Paisley said looked like a “significant” climbdown but did not go far enough as it didn’t also offer scrapping the role of the European court of justice.
One possible compromise emerging on the ECJ is to adopt the same dispute mechanism as in the the EU-Swiss treaty.
Anton Spisak, a trade expert at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said: “Under the Swiss treaty, the independent arbitration panel resolves all disputes as a default arbiter. But when questions about EU rules are asked, the ECJ has to offer its view. The independent panel is the one making the ultimate decision, but it has to take the views of the ECJ into account,” he said.
Spisak believes this would be a “credible landing zone” and would make the protocol look more like a “standard international treaty”.
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Tear Up Agreement
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August 2018 uprising in Iran
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Public protests took place in several cities in Iran beginning on 28 December 2017 and continuing into 2018. The first protest took place in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city by population, initially focused on the economic policies of the country's government; as protests spread throughout the country, their scope expanded to include political opposition to the theocratic regime of Iran and its longtime Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. [26] The Iranian public has showcased their fury with a wide repertoire of chants aimed at the regime and its leadership. According to The Washington Post,[27] protesters' chants and attacks on government buildings upended a system that had little tolerance for dissent, with some demonstrators even shouting "Death to the dictator! "—referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—and asking security forces to join them. The protests marked the most intense domestic challenge to the Iranian government since the 2009 presidential election protests. [28] The year 2018 hosted the most serious and biggest opposition demonstrations since 2009, shaking the very pillars of this regime. However, these protests differ from the Green movement in participants, causes, goals, and chants. [29][30] Unlike 2009, the 2017–2018 protests remain leaderless and disorganized. [31][32] While some analysts suggest the protests are a result of unfavorable economic policies adopted by the administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, others say that dissatisfaction with the theocratic regime and the Supreme Leader are the actual causes of the unrest. [2][33][34] Rouhani acknowledged on 8 January 2018 that "people had economic, political and social demands". [9][35][36]
According to Iranian authorities, protests turned violent in some parts of the country, and Iranian state television reported that the protesters attacked police stations and military personnel and installations, and started fires. [37][38] As of 2 January 2018, at least twenty-one protesters and two security force members had been killed. Additionally, 3,700 demonstrators were arrested according to Mahmoud Sadeghi, a reformist lawmaker from Tehran, though official figures were much lower. [16][17][39][18] On 5 January 2018, four special rapporteurs of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the Iranian government to acknowledge and respect rights of protesters and end its blocking of the Internet. [40]
In a backlash against the protests, thousands of government supporters staged pro-government rallies in more than a dozen cities across Iran. [41]
The current Iranian regime came into power following the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the Pahlavi dynasty overthrown in favor of a theocratic Islamic Republic led by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. [42][43]
Since 1989, Ali Khamenei has ruled Iran as Supreme Leader, making him the second-longest serving head of state in the Middle East (after Oman's Sultan Qaboos), as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. [44][45][46][47]
The Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, who was re-elected in 2017, had promised many changes such as a richer economy and open foreign policy but he has little power to change compared to Khamenei in the Iranian government. [9][48][49]
In 2006, following international concerns regarding the government's nuclear program, a comprehensive, international sanctions regime was imposed on Iran. In 2015, Iran negotiated a deal with the great powers of the world in exchange for economic relief. Many Iranians hoped relief from sanctions would result in economic prosperity; however, benefits have not reached the average Iranian. [50] Instead, the benefit from sanctions relief mostly went to state firms and Setad controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,[51][52] estimated by Reuters at $95 billion in 2013. [53][54] In 2017, according to the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, 33% of Iranians lived below the poverty line, and the gap between the rich and poor has deepened. [55] CNN's Hamid Panah argued that these distributional developments in the economy helped stoke the protests. [51] Recent economic hardships have appeared to incite economic protests and shine light on government corruption. [56]
"The initial spark for the protests was a sudden jump in food prices. It is believed that hard-line opponents of Rouhani instigated the first demonstrations in the conservative city of Mashhad in eastern Iran, trying to direct public anger at the president. But as protests spread from town to town, the backlash turned against the entire ruling class." In order to deflect criticism about the economy, Rouhani had been complaining for several weeks about government money going to religious institutions, which are seen as the power base of the hardliners; according to international media reports, analysts believe that hardliners started the protests as a means to embarrass Rouhani. [58] For many Iranians, development had been slow despite the president's promise to restore the economy. [59]
Protesters registered their opposition to cuts to fuel and cash subsidies, contained in the 2018 budget proposal unveiled in mid-December, which caused widespread anger, with the hashtag #pashimanam ("we regret" [i.e., we regret our vote for Rouhani]) going viral across the country. [60] The generous government funding of the Revolutionary Guards remained unaffected,[61] and there were large increases for religious foundations, which are not required to declare how they spend their funds, and are "tied closely to powerful clerics and often serve as machines for patronage and propaganda to build support for their authority. "[57] Furthermore, protesters sought an explanation as to why the government had spent a lot of money elsewhere in the Middle East. [62]
The 2017–2019 events are the largest protest in Iran since the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests. [28]
The protests began in Mashhad on December 28, 2017, and spread to over 140 cities in every province in Iran over a two-week period.. The demonstrations were started by crowds protesting across Iran, including in Mashhad, the second-most populous city. Protests spread to over 70 towns and cities,[63] including Nishapur, Kashan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Kashmar, Rasht, Isfahan, Arak, Bandar Abbas, Ardabil, Qazvin, Hamedan, Sari, Babol, Amol, Shahinshahr, Shahrekord, Shiraz, Khorramabad, Zanjan, Gorgan, Zahedan, Urmia, Dorud, Yazd and Shahrud. [64] According to CNBC, there was widespread protest in 80 cities in Iran. [65]
In some demonstrations, protestors provocatively chanted "Reza Shah, bless your soul", a reference to Reza Shah, the leader of Iran during 1925–41 and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty that was deposed in the 1979 revolution that led to establishment of the current government. [66][67][68][69] Protestors also shouted slogans praising the (deceased) deposed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,[70] and his son and former heir-apparent, the exiled Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran. The protesters called for Khamenei to step down,[3][67] as well as tore down[5] and set fire to posters of Khamenei in Tehran. Protesters also shouted: "Khamenei, shame on you, leave the country alone! "[67] and "death to the dictator". [6] Protesters also chanted "People are paupers while the mullahs live like gods. "[71]
The protests in Iran erupted on 28 December 2017. Several crowds were seen protesting across Iran, including in Mashhad, the second most populous city, as well as a several hundred person protest in Tehran, the capital. There were also protests in Neyshabour, Kashmar, Yazd and Shahroud. [64] The protests were allegedly organised on social media messaging apps. Crowds were seen chanting "We don't want an Islamic Republic!
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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'There is famine in Ethiopia right now,' says UN aid chief
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Over 350,000 people in Ethiopia's conflict-ravaged Tigray region are experiencing dire hunger, finds a new report by the United Nations and other aid groups. "There is famine in Ethiopia right now," United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock warned on Thursday. According to the global Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, which evaluates food insecurity and malnutrition around the world, substantial parts of the Tigray region are currently in an "IPC 5 Catastrophe" status -- its most severe rating. As of May 2021, a total of 5.5 million people in Tigray and the neighbouring zones of Amhara and Afar (more than half of the population) are facing "high levels of acute food insecurity" with 353,000 facing catastrophic levels. The situation is expected to worsen through September, the report also says. USAID distributes supplies to residents in the town of Hawzen, in central Tigray, who hadn't received much-needed aid for two months. A key cause of the desperate food situation in Tigray is conflict, the report found: "This severe crisis results from the cascading effects of conflict, including population displacements, movement restrictions, limited humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihood assets, and dysfunctional or non-existent markets."
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Famine
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Two adults killed and two children injured in Augusta Highway crash at Baroota
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A country trip to buy a birthday present has ended in a tragic road crash, with a grandmother and father dead and two boys seriously injured. The family from Whyalla in South Australia was travelling to Port Pirie yesterday when their ute left the Augusta Highway and crashed into a tree on the other side of the road at Baroota, near Port Germein. Police and emergency services were called to the scene about 3:40pm. The 40-year-old driver, Duane Tee, and his 61-year-old mother Debbie died at the scene. Mr Tee's sons, aged 11 and 14, were taken to the Port Pirie Hospital and then flown to Adelaide. "The 14-year-old boy remains with life-threatening injuries," SA Police Superintendent Bob Gray said earlier today. His condition has since been downgraded to serious but stable, but he is continuing to receive treatment in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. "My understanding is that they left Whyalla to go to Port Pirie to pick up a birthday present, tragically, and the two people who lost their lives were mother and son," Superintendent Gray said. "A wife has lost her husband, she's lost her mother-in-law and she has two of her children who are seriously injured. They live in Whyalla, and Whyalla's a relatively small and intimate community. "It's going to be absolutely devastating. You've got an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old that now have the prospect of going through the rest of their lives without their father and without their grandmother." Superintendent Gray said it was too early to tell what caused the crash. "I implore people to be cautious, drive safely and consider the consequences and implications of your actions when you're using our roads because there are significant and quite often lifelong consequences," he said. The deaths bring the number of people killed on South Australia's roads this year to 60, compared with 55 at the same time last year. Police said they were unaware of any witnesses to the crash, but have asked anyone with dash cam footage to come forward.
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Road Crash
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Wilber Martinez-Guzman pleads guilty to murders, will get life sentence
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RENO, Nev. (KRNV) — Wilber Martinez-Guzman told a judge Thursday he killed four people in northern Nevada, beginning a two-stage legal process that the judge and prosecutors said will avoid two death penalty trials and put the 22-year-old man in state prison for the rest of his life. The Salvadoran man pleaded guilty, after intense questioning by Washoe County District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer in Reno, to two counts of first-degree murder in the January 2019 deaths of Gerald and Sharon David in their Reno home. The Nevada Supreme Court recently ruled that Martinez-Guzman would stand two different trials in both Washoe and Douglas counties despite both district attorney's recommendations. Hicks and Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson initially planned one death-penalty trial for Martinez Guzman, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Sept. 30 that the defendant would have to be tried separately in the two county jurisdictions. Entering a guilty plea will bypass both trials. Wilber Martinez-Guzman pleads guilty to murders, will get life sentence Martinez-Guzman is accused of killing two women in Douglas County and a couple in Washoe County over a two-week span in January 2019. In addition to the murder charges, he also faces more than a dozen burglary charges. Martinez-Guzman pleaded guilty to all counts on October 21, 2021. The state has agreed they will no longer pursue the death penalty and Martinez-Guzman will face life in prison without the possibility of parole under the new agreement. Authorities said Martinez-Guzman stole a .22-caliber handgun from Gerald and Sharon David in southwest Reno on Jan. 4, 2019; shot and killed Constance Koontz, 56, and Sophia Renken, 74, in separate attacks in their Gardnerville homes several days later; and returned to the Davids’ house to rob and kill them Jan 15. Gerald David, 81, and his 80-year-old wife were prominent in the Reno Rodeo Association and had employed Martinez-Guzman as a landscaper the summer before. Martinez-Guzman was arrested in Carson City during a manhunt that had investigators track an Apple watch stolen from Koontz to Martinez-Guzman’s mother. Martinez-Guzman has been held without bail at the Washoe County Detention Facility in Reno. Washoe County sheriff’s detective Stefanie Brady told a grand jury several weeks after Martinez-Guzman’s arrest that he initially denied wrongdoing but later acknowledged through a Spanish interpreter he had “done something that’s unforgiveable.” “He said he needed the money for the meth,” Brady testified. The case drew attention at the time from then-President Donald Trump, who said it showed the need to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border because Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Sentencing has been set for February 28, 2022. Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. right after the status hearing. Watch below:
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Man arrested at teller window during attempted bank robbery, Ocala police say
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OCALA, Fla. – A man is behind bars after he was arrested inside a bank during an attempted robbery, according to Ocala police. Joshua Snavely, 36, was arrested Saturday at a Bank of America branch at 2326 E. Silver Springs Blvd, according to the police report. [TRENDING: What’s next for housing market? | Some Fla. deputies told not to enforce ‘anti-riot’ law | Look up! First supermoon of 2021] Officers said Snavely approached the window and read the teller a prepared note, saying that he was robbing the bank and that she was to give him money. The teller looked to a coworker who then activated the alarm, according to the report. Police said both tellers then went to the back of the bank and called police, offering a description from the surveillance video. When officers arrived at the bank, they said they found Snavely still standing in the same spot in front of the teller window. Police said they found a notepad on Snavely with the robbery note he read to the tellers.
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Bank Robbery
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Italy’s Jacobs wins men’s 100 metres gold at Tokyo Olympics
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Lamont Marcell Jacobs wins gold, Fred Kerley of the US takes silver, and Canada’s Andre de Grasse takes bronze.
Jacobs, 26, timed a European record of 9.8 seconds, with American Fred Kerley taking silver in 9.84 seconds [Andrew Boyers/Reuters]
Published On 1 Aug 20211 Aug 2021
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Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy won the men’s 100 metres gold at the Tokyo Olympics, breaking retired Jamaican star Usain Bolt’s 13-year hold on the event.
Jacobs, 26, timed a European record of 9.80 seconds in Sunday’s final, with American Fred Kerley taking silver in 9.84 seconds in one of the most understated major 100 metres races in recent times.
Canada’s Andre de Grasse, a bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Games, repeated the feat in 9.89 seconds.
The athletes were introduced in a dramatic light show – the stadium floodlights were shut off and 12 projectors cast 3D images of the world, zooming in to the Tokyo skyline, and then the name of each sprinter.
The lights came back on, swiftly followed by a horrendous false start for Zharnel Hughes in lane four, the Anguilla-born Briton not even bothering to question his disqualification.
Dressed in light blue singlet and lycra shorts, the US-born Jacobs, in lane three, made a good start, held his nerve through the drive phase and powered through to the line.
Jacobs joyously ran into the arms of Italian teammate Gianmarco Tamberi, who had just shared gold in the men’s high jump and was waiting at the finish line.
Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy crosses the finish line and wins gold in Tokyo [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]
The race, run in stifling temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit), had a distinctly underwhelming build-up and feel to it as hot favourite Trayvon Bromell bombed out of the semi-finals in which China’s Su Bingtian and Jacobs unexpectedly set Asian and European records, respectively.
The Tokyo Olympics are the first since Athens in 2004 to take place without Bolt, who went on to win three consecutive Olympic 100 metres titles in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, as well as three straight 200 metres crowns.
And for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games, there was no Jamaican in the final, Bolt’s longtime former teammate Yohan Blake failing to qualify from his semi-final.
The field was instead filled with relatively unknown sprinters, with Jacobs’s main claim to fame a European 60 metres indoor title earlier this year.
The 100 metres in Tokyo, and the circus around it, has arguably been a pale imitation of Bolt’s glory years during which the charismatic Jamaican not only dominated the sprints but also captivated a truly global audience.
While the spectacle that Bolt brought to the blue riband event has been missing since his retirement in 2017, so also has been the emergence of a new generation of sprinting hopes.
Many have been lauded as the athlete to fill Bolt’s spikes, but no one has yet lived up to the considerable weight of expectation.
Added to that, the 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Tokyo had no cheering fans because of coronavirus restrictions in the Japanese capital.
Instead, there were sparse pockets of athletes and team officials who did their best to create something of an atmosphere at what is normally one of the most widely anticipated events of the entire Games, commanding a huge worldwide television audience.
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Break historical records
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Great Oulu fire of 1916
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The great Oulu fire of 1916 was Finland’s last urban fire, which left 200 people homeless. [1]
The fire started during the night of July 19 in an outbuilding located at the back corner of Kirkkokatu 39. No reason for the fire was ever determined. The fire destroyed nearly all of the buildings in the city block delimited by the streets of Kirkkokatu, Sepänkatu, Isonkatu and Albertinkatu[1] that the district of Vanhatulli was located on; the block is currently home to Oulu’s Mannerheim Park. The buildings across the streets from the city block were also damaged to varying degrees, which just barely meets the requirements for being an urban fire; otherwise, this would have been classified as a block fire. The buildings located on the corner of Isokatu and Albertinkatu were gutted and had to be razed afterwards. [1]
The fire resulted in the first permanent fire brigade being established in Oulu, even if it was only in 1921 that it was finally established. A proposal to widen the streets was also considered, but it would have cost too much to buy the houses from their owners, so the plan was abandoned. [1]
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Fire
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Donald Trump to withdraw US from Trans-Pacific Partnership
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WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump released a recorded video message Monday evening, in which he outlined several executive actions he plans to take on his first day in office. “I am going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Trump began, vowing to withdraw from the trade agreement with 11 other countries pushed by President Barack Obama. Trump said he will instead negotiate bilateral trade deals that “bring jobs and industry” back to the country. Trump also promised to “cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy – including shale energy and clean coal,” though he did not specific which restrictions he planned to eliminate. This step would create “many millions of high-paying jobs,” he said. Trump vowed to “formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated,” repeating a proposal he made near the end of the election. Notably absent from Trump’s announcement: His campaign-trail promise to build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico. He did say, however, that he would “direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker.” Trump also promised to instruct the Pentagon and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to “develop a comprehensive plan to protect America’s vital infrastructure from cyberattacks, and all other form of attacks.” Trump said he would impose a five-year ban on government officials becoming lobbyists, and a lifetime ban for lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. He made no mention of his previous proposal to introduce term limits for members of Congress. Trump also made no mention of the Affordable Care Act, after repeatedly vowing to repeal and replace it. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the president-elect said he was considering retaining portions of the law. Also missing: Any calls to Congress to take action on Trump’s policies. Trump’s team has been in touch with the offices of House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell legislative priorities, but he made no mention of either congressional leader.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Most stores in malls will remain closed in Mississauga and Brampton under June 11 re-opening plan
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Only parts of malls in Mississauga and Brampton will be open when the Ontario government loosens shopping restrictions this Friday. Under the first phase of Ontario’s plan to re-open, only stores that have a street facing entrance will be allowed to let customers back in…and on a limited basis. This means most of the stores in some of the GTA’s biggest malls will remain closed. Under the new guidelines that will commence on June 11 at 12:01 a.m., essential retail will be able to operate at 25 per cent capacity. Non-essential retail can open at 15 per cent capacity. In both case there will no longer be restrictions on the type of goods that can be sold, meaning no more roped-off areas. As well, masks and other social distancing protocols will be in place in the stores. While some mall shops qualify, the stores that benefit will largely be street level stores in downtown-like shopping districts and stand-alone buildings situated in parking lots. For stores tucked away inside a mall, well, it’s just not their time.
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Organization Closed
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Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike
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The Leadville miners' strike was a labor action by the Cloud City Miners' Union, which was the Leadville, Colorado local of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), against those silver mines paying less than $3.00 per day. The strike lasted from 19 June 1896 to 9 March 1897, and resulted in a major defeat for the union, largely due to the unified opposition of the mine owners. The failure of the strike caused the WFM to leave the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and is regarded as a cause for the WFM turn toward revolutionary socialism. Silver was discovered in Leadville, Colorado in the 1870s, initiating the Colorado Silver Boom. The Leadville miners' strike in 1896-97 occurred during rapid industrialization and consolidation of the mining industry. Mine owners had become more powerful, and they resolved not only to defeat the strike, but also to eliminate the union. The local union lost the strike and was nearly dissolved, marking a turning point for the local union's parent organization, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). The defeat forced miners to re-assess their tactics and their union philosophy. [1]:5–6 Although the federation was birthed as the result of a violent struggle and had engaged in a militant action in the Cripple Creek District in which miners used gunfire and dynamite, the organization's disposition and its Preamble envisioned a future of arbitration and conciliation with employers. [1]:23,26 After the Leadville strike, WFM leaders and their followers adopted radical politics and were open to more militant policies, breaking with the conservative, craft union based American Federation of Labor in the East. [2]
The union local in the Leadville mining district was the Cloud City Miners' Union (CCMU), Local 33 of the Western Federation of Miners. [1]:2 The Leadville strike was the first real test for the Western Federation of Miners, and the first strike into which the WFM poured significant resources. [1]:48,91 Coming just two years after the Federation's victory at Cripple Creek, the Leadville strike represented a significant hope that the mineworkers could solidify their power and continue their dramatic growth. Miners working in the industrial enterprise of underground metal mining often came from non-industrial backgrounds. Placer mining was gradually replaced by lode mining from 1860 to 1910, forcing miners to go deeper underground and resulting in an increasing level of industrialization. Tensions resulted from changing demands for job skills and work discipline. [3]:5–6
By 1900, there were more than 4,000 miners in Leadville. [3]:202 Colorado's annual mining industry death rate in the 1890s was almost six deaths per thousand workers. As a death rate quoted for miners, the statistics were believed understated because they included surface workers as well as underground workers. [3]:196
Before the 1890s, many hard rock mines were owned by the miners who had discovered them. Owners who had been miners were often more sympathetic to the concerns of miners. But the higher cost of industrialization changed that. The typical mine owners of the 1890s started out as bankers, managers, and businessmen who had never entered a mine, and whose primary concern was profitability. [1]:33–34 Lode mining took capital, and investors from the east and west coasts, and even from Europe, were actively courted. When the Colorado Legislature passed a law in 1887 prohibiting foreign ownership of real estate in Colorado, mine ownership was excepted. [3]:17–19
Miners had long believed that they were treated poorly. For example, in 1894 a Leadville mine owner instructed the superintendent of the mine to delay a payday for the miners so that a dividend could be paid to stockholders. [3]:64 The WFM had advocated the eight-hour day since its founding convention in 1893. [4]:177 Some miners had the shorter hours, and public employees and building trades workers in Denver had won the eight-hour day as early as 1890. [3]:204 Yet in 1896, hoisting engineers in Leadville were required to work twelve-hour shifts. [3]:204 Mines were more dangerous as they were dug deeper; it was increasingly recognized that poor working conditions as well as longer hours could be correlated with poor health. [3]:205 In 1889 two Leadville workmen were sent to Denver to testify in favor of a mine inspection bill. Although it passed, it made no difference that year because the legislature failed to fund it. [3]:187–88
During the financial crisis of 1893, the price of silver slumped, and to offset the lower silver price, mine owners cut wages for Leadville miners from $3 per day, down to $2.50 per day. By 1896, mine owners had raised the daily wage of most miners back to $3, but about a third of the workers were still receiving $2.50. In May 1896, representatives of the CCMU asked the mine owners for a wage increase to bring all mine workers back up to the old wage of $3 per day. [1]:2 The union felt justified, for fifty cents a day had been cut from the miners' wages during the depression of 1893. [5]:211
Some believed it was a bad time to demand a wage hike, because the economy hadn't yet fully recovered from the downturn. One mine owner claimed "we have not made a dollar in two years. "[3]:171 But others observed that by 1895, Leadville mines posted their largest combined output since 1889, and that Leadville was then Colorado's most productive mine camp, producing almost 9.5 million ounces of silver. [1]:30,105 The mine owners "were doing a lot better than they wanted anyone to know. "[1]:105 Mine owners Eben Smith and John F. Campion were writing letters discussing mine expansions and upgrading operations, such that "both men seemed, in their writing at least, to remain remarkably unconcerned about their overall financial prospects." Campion was attempting to purchase Italian marble, and other luxuries for his home during the strike. [1]:105
On 26 May 1896, a union committee went to several mine managers to propose that the $3 daily wage be restored to the lower-paid workers, but all the mine managers they spoke to refused. From the start, mine managers and owners took the position that they were meeting and negotiating with miners, and refused to acknowledge that the miners were union representatives. A union committee again met with a group of mine managers on 19 June, and was again rebuffed, although some managers said that they would consider the idea. That evening, a union meeting attended by about 1,200 miners voted almost unanimously that all workers receiving $2.50 per day should go on strike. The strike began that night with the 11:30 shift change, and by the next day, 968 miners had walked out, shutting down a number of mines. The mine owners retaliated with a lockout of all the rest of the Leadville mines, so that by 22 June, the entire mining district was idled, with a total of about 2,250 mine workers out of work. The mine owners turned off the dewatering pumps and allowed the mines to start to fill with water, showing that they were prepared for a long strike.
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In Memorial Day speech, Biden defends ‘imperfect’ democracy
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ARLINGTON, Va., May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden used his Memorial Day speech on Monday to defend America’s “imperfect” democracy, calling for more work to deliver the promise of what he said remained “the greatest experiment” in world history.
In a speech at Arlington National Cemetery touching on voting rights, freedom of speech and efforts to rectify persistent economic and racial disparities, Biden warned that democracy was "in peril" in the United States and around the world in the face of autocratic forces he did not identify.
"Democracy is more than a form of government, it's a way of being, a way of seeing the world. Democracy means the rule of the people," Biden said in a speech to honor one million Americans who have lost their lives in military service.
"The struggle for democracy is taking place around the world - democracy and autocracy. The struggle for decency, dignity, just simple decency," he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden puts a note with the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is his pocket as he delivers the Memorial Day speech during the National Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. May 31, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Speaking in the largely empty Arlington Memorial Amphitheater with the nation still in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden said 7,036 people had died in recent U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving the ideals of the United States and democracy as a vibrant form of government. "They lived for it, they died for it," he said.
"We owe the honored dead ... our full best efforts to perfect the Union for which they died."
Biden has announced plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year after the longest ever U.S. overseas engagement. He has also pointed to what he has describes as autocratic rule in China and Russia as major challenges faced by the United States.
As many U.S. states work to pass laws that critics argue are intended to suppress minority voting, Biden also stressed the need for people to have the right to vote "freely and fairly and conveniently" and for the rule of law to apply "equally and fairly to every citizen, regardless of where they come from, what they look like."
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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Somali Airlines Flight 40 crash
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Somali Airlines Flight 40 was a scheduled domestic Somali Airlines flight on 20 July 1981 from Mogadishu to Hargeisa in Somalia. The aircraft crashed a few minutes after takeoff, and all 44 passengers and six crew on board were killed. On 20 July 1981, Somali Airlines Flight 40, operated by a Fokker F27 Friendship, took off from Mogadishu's Mogadishu International Airport en route to Hargeisa International Airport in Hargeisa. It later returned to the Mogadishu airport for some repairs, before departing a second time. [1] A few minutes after Flight 40 took off again, the aircraft entered an area of heavy rainfall. The flight crew subsequently lost control and crashed near the town of Balad. All 50 people on board were killed,[2] the most fatalities in a single aircraft crash within Somali airspace. [3]
The crash investigation determined that the aircraft had entered a spiral dive after encountering strong vertical gusts. Loads during the dive increased to approximately 5.76 g, exceeding the design stress limits of the Fokker F27 type and causing its right wing to separate. [2] The flight crew were believed to have erred in taking off during known thunderstorm conditions. [4]
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Air crash
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Valley Heights train collision
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The Valley Heights train collision was an accident on the Western Railway line of New South Wales at Valley Heights. The collision was between a moving empty wheat train and the previous empty coal train which was stationary in Valley Heights station. The collision took place in the early hours around 2am. The accident occurred on July 18, 1982. [1]
There was a risk of explosion from the leakage of gas from two cylinders in the guards van. The driver of the wheat train was killed. The guard of the coal train was slightly injured, even though the brake van in which he was travelling was reduced to splinters.
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Train collisions
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1990 Moroccan protests
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The 1990 Moroccan protests was a mass uprising and popular movement that consisted of violent demonstrations and massive anti-Gulf War protests in 1990–1991 in Morocco. Protesters rallied in cities nationwide, starting in Fez, where protesters marched in rioting against bread prices and the gulf war. Tens of thousands took to the streets in organised protests and planned strike actions, protests rallied that quickly turned into an uprising and popular Riots, calling on the fall of the regime. 5 days of massive demonstrations swept small cities in Morocco as they rose up to inflation and high prices. In Tangier, 20 days of strikes and general strikes was pulled out by thousands of workers calling on better wages. No deaths of fatalities was reported during the mass protests in Tangier. Huge student-led anti-government demonstrations and anti-Kuwait invasion protests was sweeping the Arab world, starting in Egypt and inspired protesters in Morocco. 33 were killed during the rioting and the protests was quickly suppressed by the army and the army was deployed to patrol the streets in case of any protest actions and movement. 127-240 were injured during the echoes of anger in the country. Huge marches in support of both sides of the Iraq-Kuwait conflict was held in January–February; at least 100,000+ protesters marched. After the December rioting in Fez, curfews was imposed to quell the mass uprising. [1][2][3][4]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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The Biggest Celebrity Breakups of 2020
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In 2019, several celebrity breakups hit us hard. Michelle Williams and Phil Elverum ended their marriage. Lady Gaga and Christian Carino called off an engagement. Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson split after five years. And Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth concluded a short marriage but very long relationship. There were also some quick, memorable romances that flamed out—among them Demi Lovato and Austin Wilson, Gigi Hadid and Tyler Cameron, and maybe the year’s biggest WTF couple, Kate Beckinsale and Pete Davidson. Sadly for anyone who believes in celebrity love, the disappointments kept coming in 2020. Back in January, Vanessa Hudgens and Austin Butler ended their nine-year relationship. “Vanessa and Austin are officially broken up, and Vanessa has been telling those close to her about their breakup,” a source told Us Weekly at the time. Since then, 2020 has robbed us of Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson, Timothée Chalamet and Lily-Rose Depp, and more of our favorite ships. Below, a list of the ones that were particularly difficult to accept. To cap off 2020, former Bachelor Peter Weber took to Instagram to reveal the end of his relationship with Kelley Flanagan. “Love is a funny thing. It can make you feel on top of the world and it can make you feel a pain you wish didn’t exist. I’m here to share that Kelley and I have decided to go our separate ways,” he captioned a sunset photo of the pair on December 31. “While our relationship was filled with countless beautiful memories, our relationship simply didn’t work out in the end.” Following his tumultuous season finale and short-lived relationship with Madison Prewett, Weber began dating Flanagan, another contestant from his season, in April 2020. “Kelley is someone I will always have a special love for. Someone I have learned more from than she will ever understand,” he continued in the breakup announcement. “Someone I am so thankful came into my life and someone who I will always wish all of life’s greatest blessings on. These moments in life always hurt, but in my opinion that shows you it was worth the time you spent together. Thank you Kelley.” Bachelor in Paradise couple Carly Waddell and Evan Bass have called it quits after three years of marriage as of December 23. “We have made the difficult decision to separate,” the reality stars said in a joint statement, per People. “We will always cherish our time together and continue to have the utmost respect for one another as we focus on what’s best for the future of our family. We greatly appreciate everyone’s love and support and kindly ask that you please respect our family’s privacy as we navigate through this.” Waddell and Bass share two children together: two-year-old Isabella Evelyn and one-year-old Charles Wolf. After three years, Dove Cameron announced on Twitter that she and Thomas Doherty split three months ago. “Hi all. In October, @thomasadoherty and I decided to part ways,” she tweeted on December 11. “The decision was incredibly difficult, but we still have love for each other, and will remain friends. Thank you for allowing us our privacy in this time.” WATCH Jennifer Lopez and Vanessa Hudgens Make 7 Decisions The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki has split from girlfriend Alaina Meyer just one month ahead of their son Avery’s first birthday, per People. The couple began dating in 2018 and announced the birth of their first child together in December 2019. Prior to his relationship with Meyer, Galecki secretly dated his BBT costar Kaley Cuoco for two years. After a 10-year relationship and a 7-year engagement, Booksmart director Olivia Wilde and Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis announced they had parted ways in mid-November. A source told People that the split happened at the beginning of the year. “It’s been amicable and they’ve transitioned into a great co-parenting routine,” the source said. “The children are the priority and the heart of the family’s relationship.” This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson has ended her relationship with actor Jaime Lincoln Smith one year after announcing their engagement, per People. She confirmed her relationship status on November 7 via her Instagram Stories, writing, “And I thought becoming Single was gonna be the only eventful thing to happen to me this year.” Fans of Dancing With the Stars were crushed to learn that pro dancer Gleb Savchenko and his wife were splitting up under difficult circumstances. “Gleb’s ongoing infidelity and a recent inappropriate relationship has created turmoil in our marriage and absolutely torn our family apart,” Elena Samodanova told People in November, sparking online rumors that Savchenko had done more than dance with his TV partner Chrishell Stause, which Stause vehemently denies. “It is unfortunate that this has caused rumors to swirl about my personal life. Having gone through a public split myself, I would not wish this on anyone,” the Selling Sunset star wrote on Instagram Stories, per E! “As you can imagine, the countless hours of training, and dance rehearsals has created a strong supportive friendship, but nothing more. I wish nothing but the best for both Gleb and Elena during this unfortunate time.” Brad Pitt and Nicole Poturalski have split after a few months of dating, Us Weekly reports. “Brad and Nicole have been over for a while now,” a source tells the outlet. “They had a short-lived relationship that was never too serious.” In late October, the “Pretty Girls” rapper took to Instagram to share a number of updates on her life. On the 24th, she posted a cryptic message to her Instagram Stories, writing, “You lost a real 1. People take loyalty for granted & that’s why I’d rather be alone. One thing I’ll never understand is how liars live with themselves. That s–t don’t eat y’all up inside?” according to Us Weekly. She then put it more bluntly, explaining, “What I mean last night was that I’m raising my son alone & I’m not in a relationship.” But the newly single mom is showing off the positives in her life as well as the challenges. Later that day she posted two pictures of herself holding her son, Onyx, on Instagram, marking the baby’s official online debut. Azalea and Carti welcomed their son in June of this year. Taraji P. Henson just revealed that she and fiancé Kelvin Hayden “didn’t work out.” The actor first announced their engagement in 2018, and they were set to wed in April 2020 but postponed it due to the coronavirus. “I haven’t said it yet but it didn’t work out,” Henson shared on the Breakfast Club morning radio show, per People. “I tried. I said, ‘Let’s do the therapy thing,’ but if you’re both not on the same page with that, then you feel like you’re taking it on yourself and that’s not a fair position for anybody to play in a relationship.” She continued, “My happiness is not his responsibility and his is not mine. We have to first learn how to make ourselves happy, to make each other happy. So when one person is taking on the weight of the entire relationship, it’s never going to work. You have to show up. Yes, you want to be understanding, but you can’t lose yourself in that understanding. You have to still stand up for yourself and be there for yourself, but it’s hard to do if the other person isn’t doing that either.” One of Bachelor Nation’s favorite longtime couples is calling it quits. Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum, who met on season seven of The Bachelorette in 2011 and married in 2012, complete with an ABC wedding special, announced their divorce in respective Instagram posts. “It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that, after months of separation, Jp and I have amicably decided to go our separate ways,” Hebert wrote. “We created the most beautiful children and shared memories that will never be forgotten. Our differences have taken a toll on our relationship and after years of attempting to repair the damage, we’ve decided that it is in our family’s best interest to create new and separate lives for our children.” Rosenbaum added, “Please please please know that there is no one to blame, that there’s no event that triggered this decision, that no one is the victim, and that we’ve done absolutely everything we possibly can to try to salvage this marriage.” People reports that Hill and Santos have amicably broken up, a little over a year after getting engaged. Neither of them have commented publicly on the split, but People notes both Hill and his sister, Beanie Feldstein, are still following his ex on Instagram—for whatever that’s worth. The former Real Housewives of New York City star split from boyfriend Paul Bernon “a couple weeks ago,” a source told Us Weekly. Frankel and Bernon have been together since October 2018. It’s also rumored that Frankel’s divorce from Jason Hoppy—whom she married in 2010 before splitting in 2012—has not been finalized. The Queer Eye star broke the news during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “It was postponed because of the pandemic, but now it’s postponed officially,” Brown said. “My fiancé and I, we were together for 10 years, and we broke up about three and a half months ago.” Sienna Miller has reportedly called off her engagement to Lucas Zwirner, according to Us Weekly. The actor and art dealer were first linked in December 2018 and were reportedly engaged in February 2020. Cardi B has filed for divorce from Offset, TMZ reports. The couple secretly wed in 2017. According to the outlet, Cardi is seeking primary physical custody of their daughter, Kulture. Ray J filed divorce papers on Monday, September 14, according to TMZ. This comes on the heels of the couple filing for divorce in May, then reconciling. But it appears the reconciliation didn’t last. After a brief quarantine fling that began in May 2020, this Bachelor Nation couple is no more. “I am just living my best life. We went a separate direction, but I, like, respect him so much and I think he’s an amazing man. I just think that right now, I’m in a different place than he is,” Victoria Fuller explained on the Viall Files podcast on September 9, per Us Weekly. “I’m not moving to Iowa anytime soon, so I just want to focus on me. It’s been so much about other people this year, that I just really want to hone in on what I want to accomplish.” According to the contestant from Peter Weber’s Bachelor season, they’re still in contact. “I still talk to him all the time. I think he’s amazing. We are a lot alike, but I just want to focus on myself right now,” she explained. “I’m not a farmer, but I know a lot about fucking corn now.” In July actors Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg announced their separation, and now Gregg has officially filed for divorce. “After 19 years together, we separated in January, knowing we’d always be a family who loves, values and cares for each other,” the couple announced on Instagram on July 3. “We recently made the difficult decision to divorce, but we remain close and are deeply grateful for the life we’ve shared and the wonderful daughter we’ve raised. p.s. totally crying as we post this.” Glee’s Dianna Agron and Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall have split after three years of marriage, according to Us Weekly. “They have been living separately since last year,” one source told the publication. “[Dianna] is dating.” The couple of 10 months is no more—at least for now. Cyrus confirmed the rumors on Instagram Live. “So today, it came out that me and my boyfriend have broken up. It was confirmed by a ‘reliable source,’ even though no one is reliable in a relationship except the two individuals that are participating in it,” she said. “But, for right now, two halves can’t make a whole and we’re individually just working on ourselves to become the people that we wanna be.” She went on to say they’ve been friends for 10 years and will “continue to be friends.” Olivia Munn and boyfriend Tucker Roberts have split after more than one year together, according to Us Weekly. The couple, who first sparked romance rumors in December 2018, reportedly broke up quietly and “amicably” at the end of 2019—just one month after the X-Men: Apocalypse actor made their relationship Instagram official. It’s been two years since these two fell in love on season 14 of The Bachelorette, but now E! News is reporting the couple has broken up and the engagement is off. There was a recent controversy around Yrigoyen’s “Blue Lives Matter” comments on social media, and they may have been a contributing factor to the split. “Becca is still very upset with Garrett’s comments and the controversy surrounding it,” a source told the outlet. “Their lifestyles don’t mesh anymore. Garrett wants different things, and they came to a realization that they aren’t compatible anymore.” As quietly as they’ve been dating since 2018, Jennifer Garner and her CEO boyfriend, John Miller, have reportedly split. “Jen and John called it quits several months ago. They’ve remained friends. They just started seeing less and less of each other and finally called it quits,” a source told Entertainment Tonight. “She has nothing negative to say about John; they just seemed to drift apart. She says he was an amazing stepping stone in her life.” People confirmed in July 2020 the couple is divorcing after almost five years of marriage. “Sadly, after nearly five years of marriage, Megan and I are filing for divorce. This is a challenging time for all involved, so I ask that you please respect our privacy,” Morgan told the outlet in a statement through his spokesperson. Riverdale star Vanessa Morgan just announced her pregnancy on July 24, but on July 27 People reported that her husband of six months, professional baseball player Michael Kopech, has filed for divorce. A rep for Morgan confirmed to the magazine that Kopech is the father of her unborn child but did not comment further about the split. The couple wed in January but had been together since 2018. The former race car driver and the current quarterback for the Green Bay Packers have split up after dating for two years, Patrick’s rep confirmed to People. The outlet also reports Patrick is no longer following Rodgers on Instagram. It’s not clear exactly when the breakup occurred. On July 10, People reported that Bill Hader and Rachel Bilson have split, according to multiple sources. The SNL favorite and the star of The O.C. went public six months ago when they attended the Golden Globes together back in January.
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Northern lights could be visible in portions of Ohio this week
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Stargazers should keep their heads to the skies for the next several days. There is a potential that the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, could be seen across Ohio. According to the Cleveland division of the National Weather Service, a strong solar storm is moving into the area beginning Wednesday through Friday. If the cloud cover clears favorably, the best opportunity to catch a glimpse of the northern lights would perhaps come on Thursday. So there is a lot of buzz about potential #SolarStorm heading our way. The SWPC issued a G3 Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Thursday, Dec 10th. Yellow line on the map shows the furthest southward potential for the #NorthernLights could be observed. Predictions from the National Weather Service show that the northern lights should be visible in Ohio and in other parts of the country, spanning from Washington state east to Maine and as far south as Nebraska and Iowa. The Space Weather Prediction Center issued Geomagnetic Storm Watches for Dec 9-11th. This means a strong #SolarStorm is heading our way and potentially illuminate the #AuroraBorealis or #NorthernLights in the mid latitudes and #GreatLakes region! The celestial light sensation is caused by collisions between electrons from space with oxygen and nitrogen gas in Earth’s atmosphere, NASA explained.
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New wonders in nature
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Rodéo (riot)
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The rodéo was a technique of rioting which became popular in France beginning in 1981, often associated with youth of North African descent, and the Lyon suburb of Minguettes. Over the summer of 1981, 250 cars were stolen and burned in government housing projects of Marseilles, Lyon, Roubaix, Nancy, and Paris.These riots consisted of stealing cars, driving them in tight circles, and ultimately burning them. Some reports indicate the cars were stolen from more prosperous areas, and taken to depressed neighborhoods to be burned in order to lure police to those areas for street battles.
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Riot
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Only $600 Dollars Will Go To Some Americans From The $900 Billion Financial Aid Package
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Democrats and Republicans announced that they’ve arrived at an agreement for another round of Covid-19 pandemic aid for Americans on Sunday. The $900 billion economic relief package will include a combination of direct payments to people, enhanced unemployment benefits and funds for businesses. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said about the bipartisan financial aid package, “This agreement is far from perfect, but it will deliver emergency relief to a nation in the throes of a genuine emergency.” His counterpart, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader said, “We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time,” and “More help is on the way.” Here’s an overview of the where the money is going:
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Financial Aid
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An ECOWAS mission today finally reached Lomé to negotiate on the demands put forward by the West African block
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Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo: Military action not ruled out© UN/ONUafrol News, 15 February - The Nigerian government will not rule out military actions against Togo if the coup regime in Lomé does not comply with West African demands to step down. In the Togolese capital, meanwhile, the fronts are hardening as the new ruler continue their crackdown on the media and the opposition promises new protest marches.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo: Military action not ruled out
While the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is using diplomatic channels to persuade Togo's coup-makers to step down, its leading member state, Nigeria, is playing it tougher. The Nigerian presidency will not rule out sending troops to Togo if constitutional order is not restored there. Femi Fani-Kayode, spokesman of Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, today was asked whether his country was considering using military force in Togo. "Whatever it takes to ... ensure there is peace, democracy and stability in the West African sub-region, we will do," the spokesman answered. Mr Fani-Kayode did not want to go into details about possible plans to militarily intervene in Togo. He however made it clear that Nigeria had the military capacity to front such an intervention. "No one should test the will of our President," the spokesman declared. Nigeria's President Obasanjo has taken the lead in the West African condemnation of the Togolese power transfer. He was the first African leader to use the term "coup" when referring to the installation of Faure Gnassingbé as successor of his deceased father, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma by Togo's armed forces. ECOWAS as a block has so far not threatened Togo with military action, but presented the new rulers in Lomé with an ultimatum. Togo would be excluded from ECOWAS and sanctions would be imposed if the constitutional was not re-imposed within days. This would include handing power over to Togo's parliamentary speaker and prepare for presidential elections to be held within 60 days. An ECOWAS mission today finally reached Lomé to negotiate on the demands put forward by the West African block. The mission, which includes the Foreign Ministers of Ghana, Niger and Nigeria, are to meet with the current Togolese leader, Mr Faure, tomorrow. Interviewed in Lomé, representatives from the ECOWAS mission emphasised that military threats were not an option at this step. While the international pressure against Mr Faure and the Togolese military is increasing from day to day, so is the internal pressure. A united front of Togo's leading opposition party's has already organised two major protest marches in Lomé, defying a ban by the current authorities. Three persons were killed by police and army forces on Saturday, while at least four were killed on Monday. The opposition however claims more than ten deaths from Monday's protests. The united opposition front today pledged to repeat its protests despite the violent police and army crackdown. According to a statement issued by the protests' organisers, it was now a "necessity to mobilise the population in protest against the coup d'état." The opposition hopes to return Togo back to its constitutional order without a need for foreign intervention. The de facto government of Togo is however striking back by muzzling the increasingly critical Togolese press. During the last week, six independent media have been closed down by the High Council for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC), a government media regulatory body, using different legislation to target the outspoken radio and TV broadcasters.
On Friday, Togolese authorities shuttered four stations that had protested the military coup. Several hours after the stations had closed, a Lomé court ordered them suspended for one month at the HAAC. According to local sources, the order accused the broadcasters of inciting "civil disobedience" and "racial hatred" on the air.
Yesterday, two more broadcasters were closed, 'Radio Carré Jeunes' and 'Télévision Zion'. The HAAC cited alleged unpaid administrative fees. Contrary to those stations closed down on Friday, the two broadcasters do not often carry political commentary.
The Union of Free Radio and Television Stations of Togo (URATEL) is due to meet in the coming days. Local sources said a national one-day radio strike may be organised in protest to the government crackdown on the media. Listeners are also reported to have gathered in front of the sealed radio stations to protest their closure, clashing with riot police on at least one occasion. By staff writers
© afrol News
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Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting
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the US declared to leave TPP
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President Donald Trump shows the Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after signing it in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, Jan. 23, 2017. This Day in Politics By ANDREW GLASS 01/23/2019 12:20 AM EST Three days after being sworn into office as the nation’s 45th president, Donald J. Trump on this day in 2017 fulfilled a campaign promise by signing an executive order pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation free-trade pact. The president called the TPP — which had been negotiated during Barack Obama’s term in office but had never been submitted to the Senate for ratification — “a rape of our country.” The participating countries had approved the trade deal on Feb. 4, 2016, even as the U.S. presidential election campaign gathered momentum. In addition to the United States, the signatories were Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. When Trump withdrew, the agreement could not enter into force. The remaining 11 nations negotiated a new trade agreement called Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which incorporated most of the provisions of the TPP and which entered into force on Dec. 30, 2018. As Trump’s immediate predecessor in office, Obama argued “if we don't pass this agreement — if America doesn't write those rules — then countries like China will.” His views were echoed by Ash Carter, the secretary of Defense, who asserted approval of the TPP would be as valuable to the United States as the launching of another nuclear aircraft carrier. A speed read on global trade news — weekday mornings, in your inbox. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Obama further maintained that the deal’s provisions covering labor rights and environmental protections should have made it acceptable to the Democratic left. The Republican-oriented business lobby, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, also backed the deal. During the campaign, Trump had hammered away at the deal as a poorly negotiated giveaway of American power. He also criticized the TPP agreement for purportedly being too verbose and too complicated, observing that it was “5,600 pages long [and] so complex that nobody’s read it.” Like Trump, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, also opposed the deal, although while serving as Obama's secretary of State, she lauded the TPP as a deal that “sets the gold standard in trade agreements.” However, as a candidate, from her perspective, the political optics were proving toxic: Most labor leaders, traditional Democratic allies, viewed the pact as a threat to manufacturing jobs that weren’t already being siphoned away by automation, prior trade deals and an increasingly global economy. After Trump pulled out, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the decision to withdraw, saying “it will send a troubling signal of American disengagement in the Asia-Pacific region at a time we can least afford it.” But Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Clinton’s chief rival for the 2016 nomination, applauded the move, saying, “For the last 30 years, we have had a series of trade deals … which have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and caused a ‘race to the bottom,’ which has lowered wages for American workers.”
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Xi Jinping sends message to US on China’s rising power in Boao address
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Tony Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
La Trobe University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s muscular speech to the Boao Forum Asia annual conference was clearly designed to send a signal to the United States that China regarded the change of administration as an opportunity for a renewed dialogue on contentious issues.
Xi did not take a backward step in his remarks, which emphasised a shifting international power balance. He avoided directly naming the US in his relatively brief address opening the forum, but America was clearly in his sights.
He wants the Biden administration, and the international community for that matter, to accept China not only as an emerging superpower but also as an equal in addressing global challenges. In a telling statement, Xi said:
Global governance should reflect the evolving political and economic landscape.
This is shorthand for saying that because of its growing weight economically and militarily, China expects to be given its due.
The title of Xi’s speech, Pulling Together Through Adversity and Toward a Shared Future for All, was clearly designed to emphasise China’s global leadership aspirations.
Xi did not make specific reference to widening criticism of China’s human rights abuses in its Xinjiang region, its interference in Hong Kong in contravention of its undertakings to the UK, its pressure on Taiwan, and its assertiveness in the South China Sea.
However, building international displeasure on all these issues formed a backdrop for a speech that warned against countries “bossing others around”. This was a clear reference to the US at the head of a global coalition increasingly exercised about China’s provocative behaviour.
Read more:
Why China's attempts to stifle foreign media criticism are likely to fail
Xi also spoke of the dangers of “decoupling” global economies. He called for greater global integration.
His speech to the Boao forum is more than usually significant this year. It marks an important statement by a Chinese leader early in a US administration, and also comes just days before a climate summit to be hosted by US President Joe Biden.
Xi will participate in the summit along with other world leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The Biden multilateral climate summit could hardly represent a sharper contrast with the “America First” policies of the previous Trump administration.
On the face of it, this is a positive development.
Significantly, Xi devoted a section of his speech to climate issues.
We will build a closer partnership for green development. We will strengthen cooperation on green infrastructure, green energy, and green finance.
Xi’s reference to a green agenda comes days after the US and China resolved to fight climate change “with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.’’
America’s climate czar, John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart resolved to strengthen cooperation in combating global warming in three days of talks in Shanghai.
The Shanghai climate accord, ill-defined though it might be, represents the most positive development in Sino-US relations since the Obama administration left office in 2017. At the very least, it indicates a willingness by Beijing and Washington to work together on issues that require global coordination.
Biden has made it clear he will press for more ambitious greenhouse gas emission targets. He is expected to allude to these at the climate summit that will be held virtually.
Xi’s choice of the Boao Forum for a keynote enabled him to set the stage, from China’s perspective, for his participation in the Biden event, given expectations the US will seek to reassert a global leadership role.
The Boao forum has evolved since it was first held on Hainan Island 20 years ago, to the point now where it is described as the "Asian Davos”.
This is a reference to the World Economic Forum gathering held in the Swiss town of Davos each year, to which political and business leaders gravitate.
The Chinese version is important in the sense Beijing regards it as a counterweight to Davos, which is dominated by Americans and Europeans.
The forum this year has some 2,000 participants. The heads of the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations addressed it by video link.
Read more:
Australia has a great chance to engage in trade diplomacy with China, and it must take it
Prominent American business figures in attendance include Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Blackstone’s Steven Schwarzman, and Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio.
The convening of the forum, after it was cancelled last year due to the pandemic, and amid tensions surrounding the US-China relationship, give the event added significance. The number of high-level attendees underscores the complexities of China’s fractious relationship with the rest of the world.
The world might want to distance itself, given disquiet about China’s various provocations. But the international community can hardly ignore economic realities. China, whose economy is on fire with growth rates in double digits, is contributing about one-third to global growth.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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‘Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse: When You'll Be Able to See It in the Chicago Area
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The eclipse, known as a “Ring of Fire” eclipse, will not be a total eclipse, as the moon is too far away from the Earth to cover the sun completely, according to astronomers. A bright “annulus” will surround the new moon at the midpoint of the eclipse. The best views of the eclipse, which will take place early in the morning of June 10, will be found in Canada just to the north of Lake Superior, according to astronomers. Other areas will be treated to a partial view of the eclipse, including the Chicago area. According to the Adler Planetarium, the eclipse is set to begin before sunrise, which is at 5:15 a.m. on June 10. The eclipse will end at 5:39 a.m., experts say. Because of how early the eclipse will take place, the sun will be less than five degrees above the horizon, meaning that Chicago area residents who want to catch a glimpse of the eclipse will have to find an area with a clear line of sight toward the east-northeast horizon. Even with that view, the eclipse will only cover approximately one-quarter of the sun at its visible peak, according to astronomers. Chicagoans who wake up to see the eclipse are reminded to NEVER look at the sun without using a safe solar viewer. Permanent eye damage can result from looking at the sun, especially during an eclipse. For those residents hoping for another solar eclipse in 2021, there is another one set for Dec. 4, but that one will only be visible from Antarctica.
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New wonders in nature
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Billions of locusts swarm through East Africa after year of ...
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Billions of locusts swarm through East Africa after year of extreme weather
A Samburu man attempts to fend off a swarm of desert locusts flying over a grazing land in Lemasulani village, Samburu County, Kenya, on January 17, 2020. © Njeri Mwangii / Reuters
Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts said Friday.
Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya , in the region's worse infestation in decades.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated one swarm in Kenya at around 2,400 square kilometres (about 930 square miles) – an area almost the size of Moscow – meaning it could contain up to 200 billion locusts, each of which consumes its own weight in food every day.
The locust invasion is the biggest in Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years, and the biggest in Kenya in 70 years, according to the FAO.
The swarm of locusts,now in Kitui County.
Spotted also in parts of Kiambu County. Beyond this point will be irreversible gross damage.
Farmers are in distress!
This is fast becoming a national disaster. @FAOKenya @ggonzzalezz @FAO @IFPRI @kilimoKE @PeterMunya @StateHouseKenya pic.twitter.com/iu7p5ZGiEG
— AWAK - Association of Women in Agriculture Kenya (@AssociationAwak) January 22, 2020
If unchecked, locust numbers could grow 500 times by June, spreading to Uganda and South Sudan, becoming a plague that will devastate crops and pasture in a region which is already one of the poorest and most vulnerable in the world.
This could lead to "a major food security problem", Guleid Artan from regional expert group the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), told a press conference in Nairobi.
The locusts, he said, were the latest symptom of extreme conditions that saw 2019 start with a drought and end in one of the wettest rainy seasons in four decades in some parts – with floods killing hundreds across East Africa.
The FAO says the current invasion is known as an "upsurge" – when an entire region is affected – however if it gets worse and cannot be contained, over a year or more, it would become what is known as a "plague" of locusts.
There have been six major desert locust plagues in the 1900s, the last of which was in 1987-89. The last major upsurge was in 2003-05.
Locusts swarms are now a threat to the #foodsecurity of the entire East Africa subregion.
7 things you need to know about #locusts 🦗👇 pic.twitter.com/72wLJ5jBcw
— FAO (@FAO) January 24, 2020
Not 'the end of times'
Artan said the invasion had come after a year of extremes which included eight cyclones off East Africa, the most in a single year since 1976.
This was due to a warmer western Indian Ocean, a climate condition known as the Indian Ocean Dipole which has conversely led to severe drought in Australia that is experiencing its own extremes: bushfires, hail and dust storms.
"We know East Africa is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. We know this region will see more extremes," he warned.
One expert at the press conference in Nairobi had to reassure attendees that the locust invasion following the drought and floods was not a portent of the biblical "end of times".
The massive swarms entered Kenya in December and have torn through pastureland in the north and centre of the country.
While farmers were relatively lucky as their crops had already matured or been harvested by the time they arrived, herders face another heavy blow as vegetation for their animals is consumed by the voracious locusts.
Artan said the pastoralists were just emerging from three years of drought, and that recovery from a dry spell usually takes them up to five years.
And if the locusts are not brought under control by the start of the next planting and rainy season – typically around March – farmers could see their crops decimated.
As thick clouds of the insects descend on plants and blacken the sky, Kenyans have been seen shooting in the air, banging cans and racing around, waving sticks in desperation to shoo them away.
In eastern Meru, residents accused the government of not doing enough, complaining there were still swarms present despite aerial spraying being carried out.
"They told us that we will not see them again but there are still many of them spotted yesterday and today on trees and vegetation in the farm," said Emmanuel Kubai, a resident of Igembe North where villagers were hurling stones to vegetation to scare them away.
'Bodes ill for the region'
Stephen Njoka, director of the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa, which is based in Nairobi, said Kenya had five aircraft spraying pesticides on swarms, and four others conducting surveillance.
He said the chemicals did not pose a threat to humans and that authorities were doing their best to limit damage to other small insects, pollinators and pastureland.
Similar control operations are under way in Ethiopia and Somalia. However insecurity in Somalia was hampering some spraying operations, the FAO has said.
The species – desert locusts – are notoriously difficult to control as they often occur in remote areas and can move up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) in one day.
According to the regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group, East Africa is already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, with over 19 million people experiencing acute hunger.
Save the Children's regional director for East and Southern Africa, Ian Vale, said in a statement Wednesday that the charity's staff in Kenya were battling "swarms so thick they can barely see through them".
"This new disaster bodes ill for the region in 2020... The erratic weather of 2019 and the decade prior has already severely eroded the capacity of families to bounce back from unexpected crises."
(AFP)
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Insect Disaster
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'They are being exposed': Experts fear lead poisoning makes Fifth Ward one of 'hundreds of Flints'
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Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Sandra Edwards, left, fills information about the home of Willie Holman, right, so the house can get inspected for lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Cookie Straughter places a flyer with information about how homes at Fifth Ward are at risk of having lead painting while doing her rounds, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Cookie Straughter, left, fills information provided by Xavier Calhoun, 29, about the home of his aunt which might have lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston. The home is located at Fifth Ward which is an area that has been identified with homes exposed with lead.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captains Cookie Straughter and Sandra Edwards walk through Fifth Ward passing on information to neighbors about exposure to lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston. The pair goes out every Thursday.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Sandra Edwards, right, fills information provided by Xavier Calhoun, 29, about the home of his aunt which might have lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston. The home is located at Fifth Ward which is an area that has been identified with homes exposed with lead.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captains Cookie Straughter and Sandra Edwards walk through Fifth Ward passing on information to neighbors about exposure to lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston. The pair goes out every Thursday.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Sandra Edwards, center, fills information provided by Xavier Calhoun, left, 29, about the home of his aunt which might have lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston. The home is located at Fifth Ward which is an area that has been identified with homes exposed with lead.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captains Cookie Straughter and Sandra Edwards talk to other Fifth Ward residents about the importance of testing their homes for lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captain Cookie Straughter talks to a Fifth Ward resident about the importance of testing his home for lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston.
Coalition of Community Organizations block captains Cookie Straughter and Sandra Edwards talk to other Fifth Ward residents about the importance of testing their homes for lead, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Houston.
WASHINGTON — Every week, Sandra Edwards goes door-to-door in her Fifth Ward neighborhood, asking her neighbors to take samples of their drinking water to test for a chemical she fears is poisoning their children.
Edwards, 55, can tell from the peeling paint on many of the homes that they haven’t been updated in years, if ever — a telltale sign they likely have lead inside, a neurotoxin that can damage the brain and cause lifelong developmental and behavioral problems in children. One house, next to her own, “looked like a potato chip house it’s so flaky,” she said.
Lead is just one of several toxic chemicals that have contaminated Fifth Ward, a mostly Black and Hispanic section of northeast Houston that is already the site of multiple cancer clusters. Edwards is working with a group of environmental advocates and university researchers to find out how widespread of a problem it is, and get it removed. So far they have found the toxin in water, paint and even the soil.
But often Edwards’ neighbors are taken back by her request, unaware that lead could be in their homes.
“That's what bothers me,” said Edwards, a longtime resident of the neighborhood. “You’re living in bad conditions, you don’t even know your children are being exposed.
“We just endure so much over here.”
RELATED: Turner says buyouts may be solution for residents near Fifth Ward creosote site
Experts say lead is a major problem across much of Texas, especially in older, lower-income areas like Fifth Ward, where infrastructure and homes are outdated and are often badly in need of renovation. The Biden administration estimates Texas has some 270,000 lead water lines, among the most in the nation.
It has emerged as a major environmental justice issue, gaining renewed attention after the Flint, Mich., water crisis began in 2014, when lead seeped into the city’s water after it switched its supply and pipes began to corrode. Lead water pipes are a target of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill moving through Congress. President Joe Biden has vowed to eliminate lead from water, pushing to spend some $45 billion as he claimed there are “hundreds of Flints all across America.”
Fifth Ward is a “classic example” of the communities that need immediate investment, not just to prevent lead poisoning, but a host of environmental and health problems that the president’s infrastructure proposals would address, said Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University who serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
“You can see the communities where the planning or the lack of planning has made communities much more vulnerable to heat, pollution, flooding — you start naming the environmental health disparities and you can map that and show that there is an economic dimension, there’s a social dimension and there’s a racial dimension. And all those things converge,” Bullard said. “So in order for us to address those issues, that means we can’t just say, ‘We’re going to fix the pipes,’ and we’ll be done. We have to start seeing how these things intersect and connect, and these are the investments we need.”
But the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in August included a much smaller investment than the administration has called for: Just $15 billion to replace lead service lines, half of which would be in loans. Experts say that won’t come close to achieving Biden’s goal, even as House Democrats are pushing to spend as much as $30 billion more in a separate spending measure. Replacing all lead water lines in the nation would cost an estimated $60 billion at least, according to environmental groups. And lead is a problem beyond water, often in paint in homes in many low-income communities.
“I certainly don’t think it’s enough money,” said Denae King, a Texas Southern University toxicologist focused on environmental justice who is also working on the project in Fifth Ward. “This is an issue that’s not only in urban areas or larger cities — this is a nationwide issue and we just have not really paid a lot of attention to it.”
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Years after Flint, the extent of the lead problem is still largely unknown and has often been left to grassroots efforts like the one Edwards is a part of in Fifth Ward, located northeast of downtown.
But that’s beginning to change: In Houston, city officials have started offering free water testing to Houston Water customers who are worried they may have lead or copper pipes. Houston Public Works said it believes lead pipes are “extremely uncommon” in the city, but it doesn’t have a good handle yet on how many homes still have them.
“Water pipes are something we use every day but don’t think much about,” Houston Public Works spokeswoman Erin Jones said. “The largest challenge we face is that many people do not know what material their water pipes are made from.”
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Environmental advocates say it’s not unusual for cities to be unsure where the lead pipes are because they’re so old they sometimes date back decades, before good records were kept.
“Hopefully the federal money will change that,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of the Austin environmental group Environment Texas.
Texas, meanwhile, is preparing to begin testing water at schools and child care facilities for the first time under new federal requirements. The Legislature budgeted $7 million for the effort during the last session.
The Trump administration proposed the update to the Environmental Protect Agency’s rules on lead and copper in December, pushing to require water systems to test 20 percent of elementary schools and child care facilities each year. The Biden administration paused the rule earlier this year, saying it was reviewing whether it was stringent enough.
The Houston school district has already been voluntarily testing water fountains and kitchens for lead, an effort it began in 2016 after the Flint crisis. An analysis of that testing data by Environment Texas showed lead was found in drinking water from at least one tap in 87 percent of the district’s schools.
To have your home tested for lead pipes, fill out Houston Public Works' survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/leadcopper.
Texas A&M University researchers who are testing the samples Edwards and others are collecting in Fifth Ward have so far found lead in drinking water in about 30 percent of the roughly 200 homes they have tested. And they’re not just testing water. Edwards and others are collecting paint, dust and soil to test, as well.
Garett Sansom, a research assistant professor at A&M, said it’s too soon in the project, though, to say with certainty how many homes actually have lead or what the concentration is. The study is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.
“The evidence we have so far is suggesting they are being exposed to lead,” Sansom said.
A parallel effort there led by the Environmental Defense Fund and researchers at Texas Southern University is using the testing samples to identify for the city homes that might be eligible for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to remove lead pipes or paint.
King, the toxicologist at Texas Southern, said over the last year they have recommended about 60 homes to the city and about 10 were deemed eligible for HUD funding, though none have yet received money or been remodeled.
Sansom is also starting similar work in South Texas, where he said preliminary evidence suggests lead exposure is a major issue, as well. Sansom said it’s likely even more widespread in colonias, which are substandard housing developments, along the border, which often rely on well water.
“It’s looking like it’s a big issue,” he said. “The preliminary evidence is suggesting that lead exposure is a broad problem that is going to require a pretty broad solution.”
But environmental advocates fear the solution coming from Congress will not go far enough.
The Senate-passed infrastructure bill includes $15 billion to address the problem. The House Energy & Commerce Committees approved $30 billion more to be included in a sweeping spending bill known as Build Back Better that Democrats hope to pass with the infrastructure bill. Both pots of money would be targeted toward low-income communities, but both bills have stalled amid dueling demands from moderates and progressives in the party.
“I’m really disappointed these issues were politicized to the point where it’s almost like frozen in time as if people can’t see 20 years from now what opportunities we may have missed in October 2021,” Bullard said. “Because we’ve neglected our cities and our communities, in terms of — the air is bad, the water is bad, neighborhoods are getting hotter and hotter, and these storms are coming fast and furious and much more powerful. The fact is we have to start dealing with these issues.”
ben.wermund@chron.com
Benjamin Wermund is the Houston Chronicle's Washington correspondent. He previously covered federal education policy and national education issues at POLITICO, and before that covered higher education at the Chronicle and K-12 education at the Austin American-Statesman. He's a Texas native and a diehard Spurs fan.
While paying respects at a memorial outside of NRG Park, some attendees raised more questions about the chaotic scene not even 48 hours prior.
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Mass Poisoning
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2018 Papua New Guinea earthquake
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The Papua New Guinea earthquake was a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that occurred in the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea on 26 February 2018 (25 February UTC), at 3:44 a.m. local time (25 February, 17:44 UTC). The earthquake's epicenter was 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the town of Komo. The maximum felt intensity was IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. [1] A total of 160 people were killed and many others were injured. [2][3] An aftershock of M6.0 killed 11 people on 4 March,[4] while another aftershock of M6.7 occurred at 00:13 local time on 7 March,[5] killing at least 25 more. [6] A 6.3 aftershock killed another 4 people on 7 April, more than a month after the first tremors hit the area. Papua New Guinea lies within the complex zone of collision between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate, which converge at a rate of 107 mm per year at the earthquake's location. [1] The Papuan fold and thrust belt, which is responsible for the mountainous New Guinea Highlands, forms the boundary between the Stable Platform area to the south and the Mobile Belt to the north. The Stable Platform consists of little deformed continental crust of the Australian Plate. The Mobile Belt consists of a series of arc terranes and continental fragments previously accreted to the Australian Plate. Current convergence across the fold and thrust belt are estimated at up to 15 mm per year. The thrusting is thick-skinned in type, involving reverse reactivation of much older extensional faults. [7]
The main shock struck at a depth of 23.4 km below the northern slopes of Mt. Sisa, and was followed by a 5.5 Mb aftershock less than 30 minutes later. [1] The Geohazards Management Division in Port Moresby characterized it as "typical for the Papuan fold and thrust belt". [8]
There have been more than 270 aftershocks reported by USGS in total, 68 of which were above magnitude 5, and 6 of which were above magnitude 6. On the morning of 26 February, ExxonMobil announced that they would temporarily shut down the Hides gas field conditioning plant, situated about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the epicenter, in order to assess damage. [10] Officials later confirmed that all of the staff were "safe and accounted for",[11] while the administration buildings, living quarters, and mess hall had all sustained damage. The company was planning on evacuating all non-essential personnel. [12] Flights into the Komo airfield were temporarily suspended until the runway could be surveyed. [8] Sinkholes and landslides were reported across the affected areas, with electricity supplies also being disrupted. [12] On 10 March, ExxonMobil officials announced that the Hides facility will not be operational for at least 8 weeks, a significant economic loss for the country. [13]
Papua New Guinea's largest oil and gas exploration and development company Oil Search also announced it would shut down production in the Southern Highlands until it could ensure the safety of its employees. [12] The Porgera Gold Mine suffered damage to its gas and electricity infrastructure,[12] while landslips blocked the access road to the Ok Tedi Mine and damaged parts of the highway between Tabubil and Kiunga in the Western Province. [14]
A week after the quake, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement officials estimated that at least 7,000 people had their homes destroyed or damaged, and 150,000 people were in urgent need of emergency supplies, with food and clean water among the biggest concerns. Lack of road access and landslides were hampering deliveries in the area. [15] By 7 March the number of displaced people had risen to 17,000, with continuing problems due to damaged roads and communication difficulties. [6]
The first UNDAC situational overview was released on 10 March, prepared in collaboration with local and international agencies. Over 544,000 people were reported to be affected by the quake, with half of them being targeted for assistance, and more than 26,000 displaced across the western parts of the country. [16]
On 15 March, nearly three weeks after the earthquake, UNICEF estimated that 275,000 people were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including 125,000 children. [17]
The quake and its aftershocks caused panic in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia's Papua province. [8] The country's National Board for Disaster Management later confirmed that several buildings were damaged in the Boven Digoel Regency, including a mosque, a military post, and a district office. [18]
A total of 160 people were reported to have been killed, while many others were badly injured. [2][3] Hela Province had at least 80 confirmed deaths, while 45 casualties were reported from the Southern Highlands Province. [17]
On 4 March, a M6.0 aftershock killed 11 people after a landslide buried the small village of Huya. [4] A further 25 people were reported killed by a M6.7 aftershock on 7 March. [6][3] A M6.3 aftershock on 7 April caused more damage, and four people were killed when houses collapsed in Tari. [19]
The government of Papua New Guinea dispatched disaster assessment teams to parts of the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces following the earthquake. Members of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force were also mobilised to assist with the delivery of supplies to affected people, as well as the restoration of services and infrastructure. [12] A state of emergency was declared on 1 March for the provinces of Hela, Southern Highlands, Enga and Western, together with a promise of 450 million kina (about 138 million US$) to help deal with the aftermath of the quake. [20] On 8 March, the country's Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori estimated that reconstruction will cost at least 600 million kina (about 185 million US$). [21] In addition to the four provinces under a state of emergency, Gulf Province was also discovered to be seriously affected in the quake's aftermath. [16]
The Australian government promised $AU 200,000 in aid and sent a C-130 Hercules aircraft for aerial surveys. [22] The first shipment of supplies arrived at Moro Airport on 3 March. [23] Four days later the country pledged a further 1,000,000 US$ in support of vulnerable women and children in the earthquake-affected areas, as well as three CH-47 Chinook helicopters and additional Australian Defence Force personnel. [24]
The New Zealand government sent two Lockheed C-130 Hercules planes carrying hygiene kits, shelter supplies, water containers and tarpaulins. [3][25] The government of China donated over 2.8 million kina (about 880,000 US$) in the weeks after the disaster. [26] On 8 March 40 electricity generators were delivered from Israel. [27][28][29]
The Red Cross released $221,000 in funds and announced it would send first aid, water, mosquito nets and shelters to the stricken areas. [22] ExxonMobil donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts, and allowed the government to use its experts, resources and helicopters in the recovery process,[30] while Santos Limited released a total of $1,200,000 to the Hela Provincial Hospital and aid agencies working in Papua New Guinea.
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Earthquakes
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Marco Polo condo fire
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The Marco Polo condo fire was a high-rise fire that occurred at 2:17pm on July 14, 2017 in the 36-story Marco Polo condominium building at 2333 Kapiolani Boulevard in the McCully-Mōʻiliʻili neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. [5] 4 people were killed, and 13 others (including 1 firefighter) were injured. [3][6] Over 200 units were damaged or destroyed[a] giving the destruction of the building at more than $100 million. [4] Additionally, concern about the abatement of asbestos, which was built into the Marco Polo structure, is under investigation by the state of Hawai'i's Department of Health and Department of Labor's workplace safety division.
The Marco Polo was completed in 1971. [5] A previous fire in 2013 caused $1.1 million in property damage to two apartments, but no injuries were reported.
A fire was initially reported at 2:17pm on the 26th floor of the building,[6] and spread across a dozen apartments on the 26th, 27th, and 28th floors. The bodies of three victims were found on the 26th floor. A fourth victim, who lived 6 floors above the origin of the blaze, had been hospitalized due to smoke inhalation, but died 20 days later on August 3rd. [3] The 7-alarm fire required over 120 firefighters and 15 fire engines from the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) to respond. Firefighters monitored the fire overnight. [5] A shelter for displaced residents was established at ʻIolani School. [6]
An investigation by HFD was unable to conclusively identify the cause of the fire. [1]
More than 200 of the 568 units were damaged. No sprinkler system was installed in the Marco Polo building complex which was built in 1971 and four years before sprinklers became mandatory for new construction in Honolulu. In fact, after a 2013 fire, the Marco Polo building's association obtained an estimate of $8,000 per condo for installation of sprinklers. [17] This would have cost $4.5 million for the entire complex, but the sprinkler system was never installed. [17] More than 300 high-rises across Oahu are not required to have sprinklers. [17][b] However, local and Hawai'i lawmakers were considering making sprinklers mandatory on these older complexes. [17] Both Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Hawai'i state senator Glenn Wakai voiced support for sprinkler installation in older high-rises.
In response to the Marco Polo fire, the City and County of Honolulu enacted Ordinance 18‑14 in May 2018, which would require all buildings ten stories or higher to conduct a safety evaluation and retrofit necessary improvements or retrofit automatic sprinklers. [21] Out of 102 buildings that had conducted a safety evaluation by April 2021, only six had passed. Buildings are required to complete safety evaluations or sprinkler retrofits by the spring of 2024.
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Fire
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In Iceland, 18,000 Earthquakes Over Days Signal Possible Eruption on the Horizon
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The earthquake swarm is the culmination of more than a year of intense seismic activity. It could also herald decades of intermittent volcanic eruptions. By Elian Peltier Volcanoes in southwestern Iceland have been quiet for 800 years, but the period of rest may soon be over: More than 18,000 earthquakes have shaken the area in just over a week, leading scientists to believe that an eruption could be imminent. Geophysicists and volcanologists say the quakes are the culmination of over a year of intense seismic activity, and although most of the tremors have lasted a few seconds, with light shaking, they have rattled residents in the capital, Reykjavik, just 20 miles north of the Reykjanes Peninsula where they have occurred.
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Volcano Eruption
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Great Vancouver Fire
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The Great Vancouver Fire was a conflagration that destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 13, 1886. [1] It started as two land clearing fires to the west of the city. [1] The first fire was further away from the city and was clearing land for the roundhouse of the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. [1] The second fire was clearing land to extend the city to the west. [1] The Great Fire occurred shortly after the township of Granville was incorporated into the City of Vancouver. [1]
The fires spread north east into the city, killing at least 21 people [2] and destroying 600–1,000 buildings (the exact numbers are unknown). [1] Most residents escaped by fleeing to the Burrard Inlet shore or the False Creek shore. [1] Following the recovery efforts, the city of Vancouver continued to grow. [1] The first police force was set up, the first brick buildings were built, and the first fire engine was brought in from the nearby larger town of New Westminster. [1]
European settlement in the Vancouver area began in 1862 after Captain George Henry Richard's 1859 discovery of coal in the Burrard Inlet. [3] The settlement of Granville (later Vancouver) was formed in the mid-1860s between two Burrard Inlet sawmills. [3] It began as shops and hotels providing service to the workers of the mills and later their families. [3] The two sawmills were Moodyville (originally Moody's Mill), opened 1863, on the Burrard Inlet north shore and Hastings Mill (originally Stamps Mill), opened 1867, on the Inlet's south shore. [3] The two mills were the main employers in Granville. [3] In the early 1880s, they employed between 150 and 200 workers, not including loggers and longshoremen. [3] The exact numbers are unknown as many of the workers were transient unmarried men, who worked at a mill for only a few weeks at a time before moving on. [3] To reach Granville required either a nine-mile journey through dense forest from the nearby larger town of New Westminster or a thirty-mile journey via the Fraser River from Fort Langley, the capital of British Columbia at the time. [3]
In 1885 it was announced that Granville would be the west coast terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. [1] The township of Granville was incorporated as the city of Vancouver on April 6, 1886,[2] becoming the fourth city in British Columbia. [4] At the first city council election on May 3, 1886, Malcolm MacLean was elected the city's Mayor. [5] The inaugural meeting of the Vancouver Volunteer Hose Company No.1 was held May 28, 1886. [1] Future Vancouver blocks and streets had been marked out to the west of the city to allow for its anticipated growth. [1] These had been designated by the Canadian Pacific Railway land commissioner Lachlan Hamilton. [1]
Early Vancouver attracted budding entrepreneurs[6] who were very active in the civic politics forming the new city. [6] The population of Granville grew substantially in the early to mid 1880s. [2] The population and economic growth in the area in early 1886 was so significant three new newspapers were established. [1] The mid-1880s also saw a change in the population from mostly unmarried men and some families with First Nations wives to an increasing number of families especially with European wives. [2]
Following the British victory in the Opium Wars, British colonies such as Vancouver received an influx of Chinese migrants from the provinces surrounding Canton, the sole port for foreign trade. [7] Most of these migrants were employed at the Hastings Mill. [1] The Canadian Paciific Railway also brought in Chinese railway workers, employed to establish the CPR terminus. [3]
The main native population in the area at the time of European settlement was the Salish-speaking Squamish people. [3] They had been in the area from Howe Sound to the north to English Bay and Burrard Inlet to the south for at least 500 years. [3] The Musqueam people lived further south but had a presence in the Burrard Inlet area dating back at least 2,000 years. [3] When sawmilling began in 1863, the local Squamish men were hired as unskilled labour. [3] The mission reserve near Moodyville and the Indian rancheria at Hastings Mill were the product of the mill's employment of native people. [3] In 1881 there were at least 500 Squamish at Burrard Inlet. [3] The first nations people were not given the same rights as their British and North American contemporaries. [3] The men were not hired for the higher skilled and higher paid roles at the sawmills while the women were unable to inherit property from their white partners and were often kicked out of their home after his death. [3]
Prior to the fire, Vancouver had experienced three weeks of abnormal heat for late spring. [1] Sunday, June 13, was particularly hot with an offshore breeze from the Pacific Ocean. [1] There was also significant forest deadfall in the area to the East of the city as well as debris from the recent clearing for the expansion of the city which provided fuel to the fire. [1]
The first clearing fire was located to the south-west of the city. [1] The land was being cleared to create the roundhouse for the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. [1] The dry conditions and a Pacific breeze caused the fire to grow out of workers' control throughout the morning and into the afternoon. [1]
The second clearing fire was located at the west end of the city near the intersection of Cambie and Cordova street. [1] The fire was being used to clear land for the expansion of the city. [1] It grew out of control in the early afternoon. [1]
The men working on the clearing fires and volunteers from the town attempted to put out both fires with buckets, wet blankets and shovels. [1] For the first clearing fire, the water came from False Creek, whilst the second fire used the hand-pump well at the newly constructed nearby Regina Hotel. [1] The men attempted to bring both fires under control into the afternoon, however, the breeze turned to a gale and the men at the first fire were forced to give up their efforts and flee to the False Creek shore.
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Fire
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California’s Relentless Droughts Strain Farming Towns
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Sheep graze in a dry field near the town of McFarland in California's Central Valley, August 24, 2016. The Central Valley is the state's agriculture hub producing vast quantities of fruits, vegetables, nuts as well as dairy, beef and lamb but struggled through five years of the last drought. Sandra Chavez was 13 years old when her family’s well went dry in 2014, two years into California’s last major drought. Their tap had stopped running a few times before, but the water always returned the same day, so they didn’t think it was a big deal. This time was different. “We didn’t have water in our house for eight months,” said Chavez, now 20 and a college student. “We had to get tanks of water, fill them up, haul them over in my dad’s truck and fill up buckets of water that we’d have to heat up if we wanted to use it to bathe.” Chavez’s family lives on a small ranch on the outskirts of Porterville in the San Joaquin Valley’s Tulare County, the nation’s top dairy producer. When they tried to get someone to service their well, they learned that there was a waiting list of one to two years, because so many had the same problem. Luckily, her dad found a friend of a friend who digs wells and could help them sooner. But the family had to take out a loan to pay for the work. There is no guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again—to the Chavez family and to tens of thousands of others—as California’s latest drought emergency drags on. On May 10, after two dry winters in a row, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared the second drought emergency in less than a month. The declaration now covers 41 counties, from the Oregon border to the southern Central Valley, which produces more than 250 crops, worth $17 billion a year, and accounts for roughly three-quarters of the state’s irrigated land. Exceptionally warm temperatures in April and early May distinguished “this critically dry year” from all others on California record, the governor’s office said. High temperatures accelerated snowmelt in watersheds that feed California’s major reservoirs, while the bone-dry ground sucked up meltwater that normally rejuvenates rivers and streams. To mitigate severe drought impacts, the governor authorized state officials to direct water flows where they’re needed most. But some observers worry that the drought will aggravate long standing inequities in access to the state’s dwindling water supplies. “The drought is absolutely going to exacerbate existing disparities in a number of ways,” said Jonathan London, associate professor of human ecology and faculty director of the Center for Regional Change at the University of California, Davis. During the last drought, California farmers lost about 30 percent of their surface water allocations, which they replaced largely by pumping groundwater. They are likely to do the same thing this time around. “That’s going to lead potentially to dry wells for low-income people who can’t afford to dig deeper wells,” London said. “It will also potentially lead to toxic groundwater plumes spreading through the valley that could affect people with shallow wells and don’t have a community water system to provide safe drinking water.” Millions of Central Valley residents get their drinking water from wells fed by the same underground aquifers that supply the region’s farms. Aquifers in the Tulare Basin, where Chavez and her family live, have sunk to precariously low levels. That’s because farmers extracted water with little oversight from the early 1900s through 2014, when the state passed a sustainable groundwater management law. By then, however, they had pumped, on average, hundreds of billions of gallons a year more than could be replaced by rainfall and other sources. As a result, more than 2,000 wells went dry in the San Joaquin Valley during the historic drought that lingered from 2012 to 2016. But as many as 65,000 people in the region could lose their access to drinking water because their wells are too shallow to reach the dropping groundwater levels, according to a 2020 report from London’s Center for Regional Change. The valley is one of the poorest regions in the country, “poorer than Appalachia,” London said. And many of those at-risk wells serve mostly people of color, living in unincorporated communities that lie beyond city limits and lack access to essential municipal services, including adequate sewers and safe drinking water. In 2012, California became the first state in the country to recognize access to safe, affordable drinking water as a human right. Yet the historic 2012-2016 drought, which one study concluded was the worst California drought in more than a millennium, revealed disparities not only in who gets the state’s increasingly precious water supplies but in who receives water that’s fit to drink. During the summer of 2014—soon after the Chavez family lost their water in Porterville—some 300 wells went dry in the adjacent town of East Porterville, one of the largest unincorporated disadvantaged communities in the San Joaquin Valley. By the time the drought ended in 2016, about 1,600 domestic wells experienced shortages in Tulare County, according to a 2018 report from the Center for Regional Change. Close to a third of those wells supplied people in East Porterville, where 79 percent of residents are Latino and the poverty rate is more than three times the national rate—in one of the richest agricultural regions in the nation. Other wells were contaminated with nitrates from widespread use of commercial fertilizers and manure, which Tulare County growers applied to nearly 600,000 acres in 2017, according to the latest statistics available. A year after the Chavez family got their well working again, they learned that the water had four times the level of nitrates considered safe. “I had been drinking that water since I was three,” Sandra Chavez said. Now, with the help of the Community Water Center, a nonprofit based in the valley, the Chavez family gets five-to-six five-gallon jugs of water delivered to their home through a combination of state programs and nonprofit organizations. Chavez said she’s grateful for the support, but that it’s not enough for the household, which includes seven foster children her parents care for. California officials have long recognized that nitrate groundwater contamination is widespread. The state Legislature first addressed the issue in 2008, when it asked researchers at the University of California, Davis, to investigate the causes, to “ensure the provision of safe drinking water to all communities.” The researchers determined that 96 percent of nitrate groundwater pollution came from fertilizers and manure applied to crops, and that it contaminated the drinking water of more than a quarter of a million people in the Tulare Lake Basin and the Salinas Valley, where most of the nation’s lettuce is grown. And a 2011 study showed that low-income, predominantly Latino communities in the San Joaquin Valley faced the highest risks of receiving that water. Nitrates cause a life-threatening condition called methemoglobinemia, better known as blue baby syndrome, which blocks oxygen flow in blood. Mounting evidence also links high nitrate exposure to colorectal cancer, thyroid disease and birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. Two years ago, the state created the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program, which has provided bottled water to the Chavez family and others throughout the valley. But it will take years to build the infrastructure needed to connect isolated farming communities to municipal water supplies in cities. Until then, people who rely on wells, or who live in unincorporated towns that lack the customer base to afford effective water treatment, must still resort to bottled water. And if they don’t know the water’s contaminated, as Chavez didn’t for years, they must also bear the health costs of drinking unsafe water. Climate change is already making droughts worse and the state’s winter rainy season shorter and more erratic. Understanding how different people experience vulnerability to drought is critical to ensuring that water policies address historical and current social and environmental inequities. Toward that end, researcher Christina Greene interviewed farmers, farmworkers and other rural residents in the San Joaquin Valley about their perceptions of the 2012-2016 drought. Most people viewed the drought as a result of human actions, said Greene, assistant research scientist at the University of Arizona’s Climate Assessment for the Southwest. But they weren’t referring to human-caused climate change. “By far the dominant discourse is that the drought is because of water regulation,” she said, especially regulations aimed at reducing agricultural diversions to help the state’s threatened smelt and salmon. Several people blamed the drought on environmentalists and the Endangered Species Act. “Drought started in 2008, when the courts ruled in favor of the fish,” a social worker told Greene. Greene heard the same perspective during random conversations in stores. “There’s also a lot of money going into propagating that narrative,” she said, referring to billboards throughout the valley blaming Congress for the “dust bowl” and “flawed laws” like the ESA. Such attitudes are understandable, Greene said. “Their livelihood is completely intertwined with the success of these farms.” But, in contrast to what many people told Greene, recent research puts the lie to the notion that either the state’s native fish or water regulations created the drought. Last year researchers at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley, where the nation’s billionaire tech titans live an hour south of San Francisco, published an analysis of the relative impacts of extreme drought on water allocations from the Tuolumne River, which originates in the Sierra Nevada. They tracked allocations during periods of normal water supply and moderate and severe drought to the San Francisco Bay Area (which is fed by the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that dams the river) and to agricultural regions in the southern Central Valley, which includes prime habitat for Chinook salmon, listed as a species of concern under the ESA. The study results, published in the Journal of Hydrology X, revealed profound differences in how supplies were allocated from 2008 to 2018. Severe drought had no effect on water flows to affluent Bay Area users. By contrast, supplies to less well-off agricultural and urban users in the valley were curtailed by about 30 percent, while flows to the San Joaquin River, which are critical for salmon survival, were reduced by 85 to 90 percent. “We were transporting some of the best water in the world, from the Sierras and Hetch Hetchy, right through the farming communities,” said Iris Stewart-Frey, an associate professor of environmental studies and sciences at Santa Clara University who led the study. Many of those communities have disproportionate rates of poverty and lack access to safe, clean water, she said. ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. You will be redirected to ICN’s donation partner. Only one of the three Chinook salmon runs that the Tuolumne watershed once supported remains, yet the allocation of water during the drought “starved” the river. Not surprisingly, the Chinook population crashed during severe drought, which Stewart-Frey linked to “exceedingly low flows” and warmer shallow waters. The salmon population has not recovered. “We’ve had tremendous increasing demand with the growth of human populations and in agriculture and industries in California,” she said. “And in the process, we’ve dug into our water savings accounts.” Now, after decades of overdrafts, the state contends with increasing water scarcity, even without drought. “We have to face the reality in California that the people who have been overdrawing on the water resources will need to step back,” Stewart-Frey said. And no silver bullet will solve the water crisis. “To fix this, everybody needs to be doing their share,” she said. For Stewart-Frey, that means working toward water-wise agriculture, building wastewater recycling plants and convincing urban users with free-flowing taps to stop wasting water. Major changes will require mustering the elusive political will to adopt approaches that reallocate water and resources to disadvantaged communities and neglected habitat, she said. “It might be that we need a few more droughts to get there.” Last week Gov. Newsom proposed a $5 billion drought-relief package that earmarked $1.3 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, “with a focus on small and disadvantaged communities.” London, of UC Davis, sees the move as a “real victory” for water justice advocates, who he said have the ear of the governor and key leaders in state water agencies. That’s led to a huge shift in state policy over the last five years to address the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. “The devil is in the details to see if the aid does in fact get to the most disadvantaged communities,” he said. But the recent changes give him reason to be hopeful. The big question is whether the investment will be enough to sustain these communities over time, London said. “We could be in for a long period here,” he said, referring to the drought. Critical to any long-term solution, London and others said, is ensuring that affected communities have a seat at the table. That’s how local leaders, working with the Community Water Center and other regional water justice groups, helped many East Porterville residents enter agreements with the city of Porterville to receive water service. “It’s a success story,” London said. “The state did come through to provide drought aid at first, and then the city agreed to extend its service, which is not the case in a lot of other places in the valley.” The drought really just highlighted inequities that have been there all along, said Greene, who heard heartrending stories from affected residents in her research. “We need long-term solutions about how the region wants to look in the future, and that has to come from people who live there.” And that means getting people from the community, beyond representatives of agriculture, to serve on the water boards that govern how the water is used, she said. Sandra Chavez agrees. That’s why she serves as an advisor to the SAFER drinking water program. “My dad and I are really into this issue,” she said, noting that her father tries to keep up with anything to do with water in California. “But there’s a lot of families around me that don’t even know that this is an issue or that they could possibly be drinking contaminated water,” she said. “They think, ‘Well I left my country to come to the U.S. to have a better life.’ They can’t believe this is happening here.” And, Chavez said, it shouldn’t be happening. “We didn’t contaminate our own water. Therefore, it shouldn’t be on us to fix an issue that some of us may not even know about.”
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Droughts
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Drought and conflict leave 8.7 million people hungry in Somalia and South Sudan
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New York, NY, July 31, 2019 — Severe drought and ongoing violence in East Africa has put 8.7 million people in Somalia and South Sudan at risk of severe food insecurity. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is calling for early action and increased support to avert famine, especially in South Sudan and Somalia. The failure of the long rains in Somalia and impact of the war in South Sudan have led to massive displacement, limiting agriculture opportunities, increasing food prices and inflation. After more than five years of conflict, South Sudan remains one of the most food-insecure countries in the world. Almost 7 million people are severely food insecure, the highest in the country’s history, and 21,000 people are likely living in famine conditions. 1.7 million people face acute food insecurity in Somalia, more than double what we saw at this time in 2017. This number is expected to rise to 2.2 million by September. However, the average number of people reached with food assistance from January to May 2019 declined 47% compared to those reached from August to December 2018. Dr. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, Senior Director of Health at the International Rescue Committee, said, “Multiple countries in East Africa where the IRC works, especially Somalia and South Sudan, are facing extremely high levels of hunger. The IRC calls for early action and increased humanitarian support to these countries now in order to avert famine and save lives. Food insecurity hits children the hardest. 860,000 children in South Sudan and nearly 1 million in Somalia are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year. Access to treatment is seldom guaranteed. Globally, roughly 80% of acutely malnourished children do not have access to treatment. To address the treatment gap, the IRC and its partners have developed a new, simplified approach to malnutrition which treats moderate and severe acute malnutrition together in one program, with one therapeutic product. It has the potential to save millions more lives over the next decade. As food insecurity continues to ravage East Africa, now more than ever, innovative solutions to hunger and malnutrition are needed. The humanitarian sector must adopt simplified approaches that expand access to treatment and build capacity at the community level so more children can get the help they deserve.” The IRC has more than 400 staff in South Sudan responding to the increasingly dire food insecurity crisis through our support for health, nutrition, reproduction health and women’s protection and empowerment, child protection, as well as livelihoods. The IRC is one of the largest providers of aid in South Sudan serving more than 900,000 people. The areas of concern, northern (Puntland) and central Somalia, are areas where the IRC is operational and scaling up our programming. The IRC is responding to the current drought supporting families with healthcare for malnourished children, unconditional cash transfers to help people quickly get the support they need, rehabilitation of boreholes and water sources as well as mobile health services to reach deeper into hard hit areas. The IRC will also be watching internal displacement towards urban centers, particularly Mogadishu, Galkacyo and Garowe. As the drought progresses, as people’s resistance begins to break down, we will likely see an increase in movement towards areas where families will anticipate that they can receive assistance. We will also be closely watching for, and responding to, increases in protection concerns, particularly gender-based violence, as displacement increases. The IRC began working in Somalia in 1981 in the aftermath of the Somalia-Ethiopia conflict. Over the years operations faced several interruptions due to insecurity and civil unrest but has been operating continuously since 2007. The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 26 offices across the U.S. helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities.
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Famine
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What Tiger's latest flurry of activity means for his recovery, according to a doctor
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Tiger Woods seems to be sending mixed signals. On one hand, he’s imploring people to temper expectations, that he’s a long way off from competing at the PGA Tour level and, if we take him at his word, that he’s not sure he’ll ever get to that point. But then he kept on hitting balls throughout Hero World Challenge week. And, most notably, he’s committed to returning to golf (kind of) in next week’s PNC Championship , less than 10 months after his horrific car accident. There’s a camp of followers that believes Woods will factor in this year’s Masters. There’s another that’s still skeptical he’ll ever return to top-level competition. Woods’ status as a sporting icon also clouds the picture; because the golf world so desperately wants him back, any positive sign—that initial swing video, or his range sessions, or his PNC plans—can easily be mistaken for concrete evidence that the comeback train’s trundling toward glory. What, then, is actually going on? How close is Tiger to returning to the PGA Tour? And what should we make of his recent flurry of activity? “It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” says Dr. Ara Suppiah, founder of the Functional Sports Medicine Institute and a Golf Digest contributor. “But let’s start with the actual injury—or, at least, what we know about the injury. We know his weight bearing bone in his lower right leg, the tibia, was broken in multiple places and that a rod was inserted to bring those pieces together. We know he had multiple fractures to the bones in his foot and ankle, which needed pins or plates.” On the night of his accident, Woods’ initial injuries were described as “comminuted open fractures to both the tibia and fibula” by Dr. Anish Mahajan, CEO of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Woods also required surgical release of the covering around the muscles in his leg to relieve pressure due to swelling. Tiger noted during his press conference last week that amputation of the leg was on the table. Suppiah says: “Amputation would only be an option if the wound was not healing properly—say, if it was infected—or if blood flow to the leg was an issue. We also know that he is in pain every day. “Now, if you take those injuries and try to construct a golf swing, there will be a number of issues. One is that the affected limb, his right, may be shorter than the unaffected limb. That will result in wear-and-tear that is different than what he’s used to and can impact the knee, hip and lower back.” How much of an issue that might be, Suppiah said, would determine the length discrepancy. He did note, however, that shoe technology has improved drastically and that Woods could easily have a customized shoe made to ensure his pelvis is level and mitigate the impact. “He’ll need to turn on his right leg on the back swing and then push off it to use the ground force and generate speed in the through swing. How much he’s able to do that will largely depend on how much pain there is. He can clearly make 10 swings, but can he make 200? We still don’t know.” Suppiah suggested the ankle will play a crucial role in determining how much and how quickly Woods might be able to return to tour-level competition. “Will the ankle swell up when it exerts force on an uneven surface? When you have surgery, with the injuries he has suffered, invariably there will be a loss in the range of motion in the ankle and foot joint. The ankle is a bit like the wrist; it has to be able to move in multiple directions to withstand and create force. How much of that can he do?” The PNC Championship’s format won’t provide a full picture of Woods’ prospect, Suppiah says, due to its format. There are just two days of competition. Woods will drive around the course, which is flat to begin with, in a cart. He will not have to hit every tee shot and can pick up when he’s out of a hole or faced with a dicey lie. “Swinging on a level playing surface is very different from walking on hilly courses, terrain, rough. He’s not close to that yet. Now, this is very, very positive. It’s definitely a huge step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. If he is having pain every day, that’s a huge load. It’s not just pain—it’s suffering. It’s the mental agony of dealing with chronic pain. That is exhausting.” Woods was recovering from a microdiscectomy procedure to his lower back at the time of the accident. That December 2020 operation was the fifth he’s had on his back but first since a career-saving spinal fusion surgery in April 2017. Suppiah does not foresee the back being an issue at least initially. “Any back injury, when you take pressure off the back and rest it, will be better. I don’t know what happened to the back when he had that accident. The car rolled over, and forces were strong enough to break his leg and his ankle, which means he would’ve been in a precarious position. But the back is not being spoken about right now. Even if it was, in the nine months when he was recuperating, it should’ve healed fully. “Tiger is a savant of the golf swing. If he can walk, he can find a way to swing the golf club. If you took any other average person, who’s not as fit or as driven or doesn’t have the team behind him, you’d be looking at a significantly longer recovery time. But he’s a supremely fit athlete with a drive that is unseen in most everybody. That’s why he is able to do this.”
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Famous Person - Recovered
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Where to see the total lunar eclipse and ‘super flower blood moon’ in May 2021
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A total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021 will make the full "supermoon" appear to be a rusty-reddish color in some parts of the United States. All eyes will be on the sky on Wednesday, May 26, because a total lunar eclipse will occur as the full “ supermoon ” starts to set in the early morning. Although the lunar eclipse will look impressive in some parts of the United States, because the moon will turn a reddish-brown “blood” color , sky watchers in other parts of the nation — including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — will miss out on the big event. For us folks in the eastern U.S., “it’s just gonna look like a full moon,” said Amie Gallagher, director of the planetarium at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerset County. It all comes down to the timing, Gallagher said, noting that the lunar eclipse — when the full moon moves across the Earth’s shadow — will start to happen in our region just after the moon sets in the west-southwestern sky. People in other time zones in the United States, where it’s still dark outside and the moon is still visible in the sky, will get to see a good show, according to Gallagher and other astronomy experts. “Unfortunately, those who live in the eastern third of the United States will see little or nothing of this event, because when the visual show begins to get underway, the moon will either be approaching its setting or will have already set,” says Space.com . “Those who live in the central and especially the far-western states have the advantage of seeing at least the first half of the eclipse, if not most of it, before moonset,” the astronomy website noted. “Along a slice of the U.S. Pacific Coast, as well as the southern and western parts of Alaska and all of Hawaii, the umbral phase of the eclipse will be visible from start to finish.” A total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021 will make the full "supermoon" appear to be a rusty-reddish color in some parts of the United States. Pictured here is a lunar eclipse seen from Marseille in southern France in January 2019. AP The good news: Even for people who don’t get to see the lunar eclipse, they will get to see a supermoon — a moon that will be slightly bigger and brighter than a typical full moon, because its orbit will be closer to the Earth during its fullest phase. So, the May “flower moon” — which some people are calling a “ super flower blood moon ” — will look 99% full on Tuesday night, May 25. It will be completely full Wednesday night, May 26, and 98% full Thursday night, May 27. (Thanks to MoonGiant.com for those percentages.) Some experts say the May supermoon will be the largest one of the year. More big sky events Another big moon, the third and final supermoon of 2021 , is coming on June 24. Also, a partial solar eclipse should be visible from New Jersey on June 10. While it won’t be as dramatic as the “ Great American Solar Eclipse ” that dazzled the nation in August 2017, people in the Garden State should still be able to see the moon block a sizable portion of the sun early in the morning, Gallagher said. It won’t be a total solar eclipse, because the moon won’t be big enough in the sky to fully block the sun’s rays and turn daylight to darkness, Gallagher noted. Instead, it will be an annular solar eclipse , with the moon a little farther away from the Earth. As a result, the moon will appear slightly smaller in the sky and block most, but not all, of the sun’s face — leaving a bright outer ring of the sun visible in the sky. In the New York region, the June 10 solar eclipse will start at 4:38 a.m. when the moon starts moving in front of the sun (which won’t be rising until 5:24 a.m.), says TimeAndDate.com . “The eclipse will be over at 6:30 a.m.” An important safety tip from AccuWeather: “ Proper eyewear is a necessity for this event (on June 10). Looking at the sun without a specially-made solar filter can lead to permanent eye damage.”
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New wonders in nature
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Two killed, several others injured in Bauchi gas explosion
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At least two persons have been reported dead with several others severely wounded following an explosion from a gas cylinder at a welder workshop in the town of Azare, Katagum local government area of Bauchi State.
According to an anonymous eyewitness account, a trailer that was parked at the welder’s shop for repairs went up in flames killing the driver and one other person instantly inside the trailer garage along Jama’are road on Monday afternoon.
He explained further that the driver of the trailer drove into the garage with the intention of effecting some repairs at the workshop of a welder before a gas cylinder exploded and spread to where the trailer was parked.
“Following the explosion, the flame spread and torched people around the garage causing fear as people ran for cover. The driver tried to move the trailer out of the garage but failed due to the intensity of the flame and died in the process. It was reported that the Fire service could not immediately get to the place,” he said.
Vanguard reports that at least eleven people were seriously burnt and are receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Center in Azare and the General Hospital.
The Public Relations Officer of Bauchi Police Command, Ahmed Wakil did not respond to calls put across to his line.
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Gas explosion
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1994 eastern seaboard fires
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The 1994 eastern seaboard fires were significant Australian bushfires that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the bushfire season of 1993–1994. Some 20,000 firefighters were deployed against some 800 fires throughout the state, and along the coast and ranges from Batemans Bay in the south to the Queensland border in the north, including populated areas of the city of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast. The fires caused mass evacuations of many thousands of people, claimed four lives, destroyed some 225 homes and burned out 800,000 hectares (2,000,000 acres) of bushland. [1][2] The firefighting effort raised in response was one of the largest seen in Australian history. From 27 December 1993 to 16 January 1994, over 800 severe fires burned along the coastal areas of New South Wales, affecting the state's most populous regions. Blazes emerged from the Queensland border down the north and central coast, through the Sydney basin and down the south coast to Batemans Bay. The 800,000 hectare spread of fires were generally contained within less than 100 kilometres from the coast, and many burned through rugged and largely uninhabited country in national parks or nature reserves. [3]
The New South Wales fires began on the north coast on Boxing Day, and by January 2, the Clarence Valley region was facing its worst fires since 1968. The shires from Coffs Harbour to Tweed Heads and inland to Casino and Kyogle were declared a State of Emergency on January 7, as 68 fires raged. [4]
On 29 December, the Dept of Bushfire Services was monitoring more than a dozen fires around the state, and homes were threatened in Turramurra by a fire in the Lane Cove River reserve, and a scrub fire had briefly cut off the holiday village of Bundeena in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. [5]
On the south coast, fires ignited at Pretty Beach in the Murramarang National Park on 5 January, threatening Bendalong and Manyana, where hundredsd were evacuated. Other fires lit in the Morton National Park, and areas near Ulladulla and Sussex Inlet, where a house was lost on 7 January, while buildings burned at Dolphin Point, Ulladulla and the Princes Highway was cut near Burril Lake. The towns of Broulee and Mossy Point came under threat from a fire west of Mogo. Thousands of homes under threat in Batemans Bay and surrounds was considered safe by 10 January. The Waterfall fire forced evacuations in Helensburgh. [6]
Flames first struck the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south on 5 January, when a fire, probably deliberately lit, burned out of the north east corner of the Royal National Park damaging houses at Bundeena and along Port Hacking. Back burning protected property, but nearly all 16,000 hectares of the national park was burned. Homes were lost at Menai, Illawong, Bangor and Alfords Point. On Saturday the 8th, the fire swept into the suburbs of Como and Jannali where more than 100 building would be destroyed, including two schools a church and a kindergarten. [7][8] The Como/Jannali fire burnt 476 hectares and destroyed 101 houses - more than half of the total homes lost in New South Wales during the January emergency period. [9] Also on 8 January, fires had reached to within 1.5km of Gosford city centre, and some 5000 people had been evacuated over that weekend with homes destroyed at Somersby and Peats Ridge. [10]
A fire was reported in the northern end of the Lane Cove National Park on 6 January. The blaze went on to consume 320 hectares of the Park and burn down 13 houses in 48 hours, racing down the river valley impacting West Pymble, West Killara, Lindfield, Macquarie Park, and the Northern Suburbs Crematorium. [11]
By Friday, January 7, fires were raging to the north and south of Sydney and in its suburbs, leaving only local resources to be sent against suspicious fires that broke out in isolated country on the Bells Line of Road in the Blue Mountains, and spread quickly. By the following day, the Mount Wilson fire was raging out of control out of the Grose Valley, with 30 metre high flames, it consumed homes at Winmalee and Hawkesbury Heights. Roads through the Mountains were cut. On Sunday the "Battle of Bilpin" wave after wave of helicopters dumped water and saving further property loss, before conditions eased on Monday allowing massive back burning operations. [12]
The Age newspaper reported on 7 January that one quarter of NSW was under threat in the worst fires seen in the state for nearly 50 years, as hundreds of firefighters from interstate joined 4000 NSW firefighters battling blazes from Batemans Bay to Grafton. Fires in the Lane Cove River area at Marsfield, Turramurra, West Pymble and Macquarie Park were threatening hundreds of homes, and the fire in the Royal National Park south of Sydney raged toward Bundeena, where rescue boats evacuated 3100 people caught in the path of the fire. With the Prime Minister Paul Keating on leave, Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe, ordered 100 soldiers to join firefighting efforts, and placed a further 100 on standby. [13]
A suspicious fire ignited at Cottage Point in Kuringai Chase National Park on 7 January and spread to burn down 30 houses and 10,000 hectares of the Park, with 3000 elsewhere. Major backburning protected the surrounding suburbs but smothered Sydney in smoke. [14]
By 9 January, more than 16,000 people were on standby for evacuation from the Lower Blue Mountains. Thousands of people were sleeping on the football field at the Central Coast Leagues Club, after the evacuation of Kariong, Woy Woy, Umina, Ettalong and Brisbane Waters. Much of Gosford, Kariong and Somersby had been evacuated, along with Terrey Hills. Homes at Menai, Sutherland, Chatswood, Lindfield, Turramurra, Macquarie Park and Sydney's northern beaches had been lost. 60 fires were burning on the north coast, as firefighters battled infernos over 30 hectares from Coffs Harbour to the Queensland border. Fires were approaching towns in the Blue Mountains including Blackheath and in the Shoalhaven, including Ulladulla. [15]
By 15 January, about 450 square km had been burned in the Gosford area and fires in the Gospers Mountain/Wollemi National Park and west of the Kulnura and Mangrove Mountain were still causing ongoing concern for Gosford. Arsonists had lit blazes in the area, including a Mangrove Mountain fire threatening the city. [16]
Thirteen houses were destroyed in suburbs around Lane Cove National Park and 42 were destroyed around Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Garigal National Park and the Royal National Park, 9 houses including a Youth hostel were destroyed in Hawkesbury Heights in the Blue Mountains. Over 20,000 volunteer and professional firefighters from New South Wales and interstate fought the blazes. This was the largest fire suppression effort yet undertaken in Australian history. [17][18]
Four people were killed by the fires, including three firefighters. A woman was killed in Como Jannali seeking shelter in her pool, while volunteer Robert Page was killed by a tree falling on his tanker in the Double Duke Forest near Grafton; volunteer Norman Anthes from Lithgow died mopping up the Mount Horrible fire near Lithgow and 17 year old volunteer Clinton Westwood died in a tanker crash. [19]
The 1994 (NSW): Report of the Select Committee on Bushfires, Parliament of New South Wales, Legislative Assembly and 1996 (NSW): Recommendations from the New South Wales Inquiry into 1993/94 Fires, NSW State Coroner's Office. J.W. Hiatt. examined causes of the fires. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Blue Mountains were full of dry undergrowth in January 1994, having not had a significant bushfire for 20 years.
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Fire
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Two days after a deadly gas-related explosion and fire at a home in Maynard, Massachusetts, two leaks were reported in the town, fire officials said Saturday.
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Two days after a deadly gas-related explosion and fire at a home in Maynard, Massachusetts, two leaks were reported in the town, fire officials said Saturday.
Neither of the Saturday morning leaks are believed to have posed a risk to the public, Maynard fire Chief Anthony Stowers said in a news release.
The first leak was reported, thanks to the smell of gas, about 9 a.m. near Thompson Street, behind Building 5 of the Mill and Main office complex, fire officials said. While firefighters were there, they were called to the smell of gas on nearby Chandler Street. In both cases, Eversource was called. Their representatives found gas leaking from a regulator and repaired the leak after isolating it, the department said.
In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.
While gas readings indicated there was no danger to residents in the leaks discovered Friday morning, fire officials said, they urged residents to always call 911 to report the smell of gas or a gas-related emergency. In a statement Saturday, Eversource called the two gas leaks "minor," committed to continued inspections and referred to Thursday's deadly fire:
Eversource crews have remained in the Maynard area since Thursday afternoon’s event working with state and local agencies as we investigate what happened. During our check of the system, our crews discovered and repaired two minor gas leaks, and they will continue inspections throughout the area.
We are deeply saddened by the loss of a resident in the Park Street fire on Thursday and thank the first responders for their heroic efforts.
We will continue reaching out to neighbors and customers to update them as we complete our check of the system over the coming days.
On Thursday afternoon, firefighters had been called about the smell of gas coming from a home on Park Street. Crews who arrived at the building found smoke coming from its front and side windows and, in the basement, a man dead, Stowers has said. Two Maynard police officers and a firefighter were also injured in the blaze but are expected to survive, the fire chief said. Dozens of Eversource workers were on scene Thursday night and Friday morning, digging a hole in front of the home. Fire officials said Friday evening the utility was inspecting supply lines throughout the town as a precaution. The state fire marshal's office is investigating. "We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of a resident and the injuries suffered by the emergency responders in the Park Street fire yesterday," Eversource said in a statement Friday. "We will remain in the area to continue monitoring and will work with state and local agencies as we investigate what happened."
The Maynard Fire Department told town residents that Eversource would be making precautionary inspections to look for gas leaks.
In a Facebook post, the department noted the approach from Eversource was precautionary, adding, "This is not the same type of problem that occurred in the Merrimack Valley."
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Gas explosion
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TAROM Flight 3107 crash
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TAROM Flight 3107 was a charter flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 that, on 30 December 2007, during the takeoff procedure, hit a service car carrying out repair work on lighting equipment on the runway at Henri Coandă International Airport in Otopeni, Romania. [1]
Flight 3107 was a charter flight from Bucharest's main Otopeni airport to the holiday destination Sharm el-Sheikh's main airport in Egypt. Just before 11:00 in the morning a team of maintenance workers entered runway 08R at OTP to do maintenance work on the runway's center lights. The maintenance team consisted of four workers and two vehicles. Two of the workers were working at about 600 meters from the threshold and the other two workers were working at about 1500 meters from the threshold. Visibility at the time was poor due to thick fog. At 10:49 the maintenance team contacted the control tower to get approval for starting the cleaning operations of the center lights. Just under ten minutes later, the tower approved the start of the work. At one point, the workers were required to leave the runway to allow an aircraft to take off, but they were cleared to begin work again shortly afterwards. Then, at 11:25:13, Flight 3107 was cleared to enter runway 08R for takeoff, and just over a minute later they were cleared for take off. Between 11:26:40 and 11:26:50 the control tower asked the maintenance workers if the runway was clear but got no reply. At 11:27:04, accelerating for takeoff, at a speed of about 90 kts, the Boeing 737 hit a car 600 meters past the runway threshold with the number 1 engine and with the left landing gear. [clarification needed]
The aircraft ran off the left side of the runway and came to rest 137 meters left of the center line and 950 meters from the threshold. [2] The passengers were evacuated via the emergency chutes. [3]
Nicolae Ghinescu, the pilot in command of Flight 3107, who had over twenty-two years of flying experience, told journalists that "during the takeoff procedure, after 400 or 500 meters, we met a car-obstacle, and we could not avoid it." he said. "The car was unsignalized nor had beacons lit, and two people tried to move the car to clear the runway, but it was too late". [4]
The Boeing 737 used for flight 3107 was written-off, being damaged beyond repair following collision with the maintenance car and veering off the runway. The crash was the 17th loss of a Boeing 737-300. [5]
Pictures with YR-BGC:
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Air crash
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Pontypridd railway accident
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On Monday 23 January 1911, a collision between a passenger train and a coal train on the Taff Vale Railway line at Hopkinstown, outside Pontypridd in Wales, resulted in the loss of eleven[1] (twelve according to the official report)[2] lives. The accident, also known as the Hopkinstown rail disaster or the Coke Ovens collision, occurred at 9:48 am, when the 09:10 passenger train from Treherbert to Cardiff, heading towards Pontypridd and carrying about 100 people, rounded the bend at Gyfeillion Lower signal box with a clear signal ahead. The train collided with a stationary coal train that was using the same line. The impact caused the underframe of the front carriage to rise up and pierce the carriage directly behind it. [3]
On 24 January a preliminary hearing was conducted at the New Inn Hotel in Pontypridd, where interviews were held and witness statements were taken. On the following Thursday a coroner's inquest was opened at Pontypridd Police Court. The inquest heard conflicting reports from signalmen Hutchings of the Gyfeillion Lower and Quick of the Rhondda Cutting Junction, the other signal box in control of the stretch of line where the accident took place. Due to lack of definite evidence an open verdict was returned; though the fireman of the coal train was censured for not alerting the signal box of the stationary train's position as he was required to do under Rule 55. The Board of Trade enquiry, subsequent to the inquest, concluded that Hutchings had not, in fact, given the "Train Entering Section" signal for the coal train after Quick had accepted it, and Quick had subsequently accepted the passenger train, having forgotten that he had accepted the coal train earlier. Hutchings was also criticised for not replacing his signals to "Danger" as soon as he was aware of the conflict – if he had done so, the driver of the passenger train would have had about 30 seconds to observe the danger signal, and, even if he had been unable to stop the train, its speed would have been greatly reduced and the collision much less severe. A contributory factor was the use of two-position block instruments, which did not have distinct "Line Blocked" and "Line Clear" indications. If a three-position instrument had been used, Hutchings would not have offered the passenger train forward (and Quick would not have accepted it) while the instrument was still showing "Line Clear" for the coal train.
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Train collisions
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Virgin Galactic launches third successful spaceflight
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Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered plane, carrying two pilots, soared into the upper atmosphere on its third mission to reach space Saturday morning. The success cues up Virgin Galactic to begin launching paying customers within the next year as the company works to finish its testing campaign at its new headquarters in New Mexico. Spaceplane VSS Unity reached an altitude of 55.45 miles, according to the company. The US government recognizes the 50-mile mark as the edge of space. The company tweeted Saturday morning that the spaceflight carried technology experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. News of Virgin Galactic's test flight appeared to encourage investors earlier in the week, as they sent shares soaring more than 14% on Wednesday. Saturday's flight comes after Virgin Galactic's last spaceflight attempt ended abruptly when the rocket engine that powers the space plane, called VSS Unity, failed to ignite, setting the company's testing schedule back by months. Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 2004, has spent years pledging to take groups of customers on brief, scenic flights to suborbital space. But the company has faced a series of complications and delays, including a 2014 test flight crash that left one pilot dead. Nonetheless, Virgin Galactic has already sold tickets for $200,000 to $250,000 to more than 600 people. And the company said it expects to see broad interest when ticket sales reopen -- tickets that will be sold at a higher price than previously. Recently, the company installed a new CEO, former Disney executive Michael Colglazier, and has been pledging to slowly ramp up to commercial operations over the next year or so. It's also focused on constructing a new line of planes, called SpaceShipIII, and is angling to one day fly about 400 flights each year from its New Mexico spaceport.
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New achievements in aerospace
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PECO, Exelon Distribute $250,000 in Ida Relief Funding
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PHILADELPHIA PA – Montgomery County residents adversely affected by Tropical Storm Ida are expected to be among those who can benefit from $250,000 in contributions from PECO Energy and Exelon Corp. to several local and regional organizations offering assistance in storm recovery operations. The companies said Tuesday (Sept. 21, 2021) they are donating a combined $100,000 to the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, to pay for essential supplies, overnight shelter stays, and first aid for persons and families in need. Additionally they are giving another $100,000 to groups across Montgomery, Chester, Philadelphia, and Bucks counties that are providing temporary housing, food and supplies, and financial assistance as victims continue to rebuild following storm damage. Named to receive funding in Montgomery County are the Montgomery County Emergency Fund, Horsham Community Center, Barren Hill Fire Company, and Plymouth Whitemarsh High School. Chester County recipients are the Brandywine Health Foundation Healthcare and Economic Relief Fund, the Chester County Food Bank, and the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art’s Emergency Relief Fund. Remaining funds will be allocated to counties, including Delaware, and other community partners as needs arise, the companies said.
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Financial Aid
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Wall Street roared back (despite hawkish hold by Fed) on hopes of government bailout for China’s debt-laden Evergrenade
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Dow Future made a 4-month low around 33478.00 Monday on the concern of China’s Evergrenade (EG) as well as U.S. Treasury debt default, and Fed’s potential advance notice for QE tapering & liftoff. But Dow Future recovered to around 34747 by Thursday on the buzz of the Evergrenade debt restructuring (as an SOE). As per a report, China’s real estate giant Evergrenade will pay the scheduled interest payment on 23rd September and the Chinese government may control the debt-laden company as an SOE (as highly expected). On Wednesday, Evergrande’s main unit Hengda Real Estate Group said the company will make a coupon (interest) payment for onshore bonds due 23rd September. But it’s not clear, whether Evergrenade will be able to pay interest to its dollar bondholders. As per the report: https://asiamarkets.com/imminent-china-evergrande-deal-will-see-ccp-take-control/ A deal that will see China Evergrande restructured into three separate entities is currently being finalized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and could be announced within days. State-owned enterprises (SOE) will manage the restructure, effectively transforming the property developer into an SOE. The Chinese source said: “The deal is being designed to protect Chinese nationals who have bought apartments from Evergrande, like the ones you see protesting on the streets and also those who have invested in Evergrande’s wealth management products. But the big thing is stemming any widespread economic flow-on effects that insolvency would cause on the China economy”. But on Thursday, Dow Future also wobbled after another report suggested China may not bailout EG completely. The WSJ report said: “Chinese authorities are asking local governments to prepare for the potential downfall of China Evergrande Group, according to officials familiar with the discussions, signaling a reluctance to bail out the debt-saddled property developer while bracing for any economic and social fallout from the company’s travails. The officials characterized the actions being ordered as “getting ready for the possible storm,” saying that local-level government agencies and state-owned enterprises have been instructed to step in only at the last minute should Evergrande fail to manage its affairs in an orderly fashion. They said that local governments have been tasked with preventing unrest and mitigating the ripple effect on home buyers and the broader economy, for example by limiting job losses—scenarios that have grown in likelihood as Evergrande’s situation has worsened. Evergrande faces a series of bond payments in the coming weeks, including one closely watched deadline Thursday for interest payment on an offshore bond. Local governments have been ordered to assemble groups of accountants and legal experts to examine the finances around Evergrande’s operations in their respective regions, talk to local state-owned and private property developers to prepare to take over local real-estate projects and set up law-enforcement teams to monitor public anger and so-called “mass incidents,” a euphemism for protests, according to the people. Spokespeople for Evergrande and the information office of China’s cabinet, the State Council, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.” Evergrenade said it had resolved payment of a yuan-denominated domestic bond, but made no mention of dollar bond commitments. Even Fed Chair Powell and other prominent global central banks including BOJ, RBA, BOE, and SNB are all concerned about any EG dominos effect and thus they are in close contact with PBOC, which assured about no ‘Lehman Moment. Fed always maintains close coordination with PBOC despite the so-called cold war between U.S. and China. And China’s housing market is quite big, but there is also a huge leveraging. Thus China has to act in a balancing way to preserve financial and social stability. China is in a deleveraging drive for a long to avoid any future ‘Lehman’ or ‘Minsky’ moment. On U.S. debt limit, on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen again begged Congress, this time along with some of her Democratic predecessors to raise the limit well in time for the sake of America’s credibility: “For 232 years, our nation has consistently paid all of its bills, in full and on time. Unshakeable creditworthiness has long been a wellspring of strength for our nation, and protecting it is a sacrosanct responsibility. No Congress or President has allowed our country to default. We recognize that in recent years, as our politics have become more polarized and divisive, addressing the debt limit has become more contentious and politically fraught. This makes it all the more important that Congress and the Administration begin the process to extend the nation’s borrowing authority without delay. As former Treasury secretaries, we write to express our deep sense of urgency that Congressional leadership, working with the Administration and the President, move swiftly to initiate and complete a viable legislative process necessary to raise the debt limit. Failing to address the debt limit, and allowing an unprecedented default, could cause serious economic and national security harm. Even a short-lived default could threaten economic growth. It creates the risk of roiling markets, and of sapping economic confidence, and it would prevent Americans from receiving vital services. It would be very damaging to undermine trust in the full faith and credit of the United States, and this damage would be hard to repair. Short of actual default, even delaying resolution until the default is imminent can be detrimental. This would be true in any circumstances, but it is particularly true now as the timing of borrowing needs is especially uncertain, given the impact of the pandemic and the policy actions enacted by Congress in response. An accidental default could occur if the debt limit is not raised in time. And there is no viable way to manage payments across the federal government to prevent default if there are insufficient resources available absent action on the debt limit. Moreover, postponing action to raise the debt limit until too close to the deadline undermines confidence in our political system at home and abroad”. So far, the market is confident that despite the political drama, the U.S. debt limit will be raised at the last moment and the U.S. will not default like China’s EG. Dow Future was already corrected even before Fed in anticipation of a hawkish hold (advance notice of QE tapering and liftoff. And thus Dow not reacted much to Powell’s QE tapering timeline of mid-2022 and liftoff by Dec’22. Thus Dow roared back on short covering and value buying on easing of EG debt crisis tension. Also, there may be active from the U.S. PPT (plunge protection team led by NY Fed trading desk/DIIs), which will never allow more than 5% correction in SPX-500 from any recent/cyclical high. In any way, Fed already acknowledged substantial further progress on inflation for the QE tapering condition. The question is now about whether Fed also sees substantial further progress on maximum employment to announce the inevitable QE tapering by Dec’21. On Thursday, all focus was also on U.S. jobless claims, which serves as a proxy for the unemployment trend. The U.S DOL flash data shows the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits (UI) rose to 351K in the week ending 18th Sep, from an upwardly revised 335K in the previous week, higher than the market expectations of 320K and the highest in last 4-weeks amid Delta and IDA disruptions. The latest weekly initial jobless claims are also higher than the prior week amid a combination of unfavorable seasonal factors and a surge in initial claims applications, which was delayed in the prior week due to IDA Hurricane disruption. Also, extended PUA expiration on 6th Sep may have caused some distortion along with mandatory vaccinations requirement to join the physical workplace. The continuing jobless claims in the U.S., which measure unemployed people who have been receiving unemployment benefits for a while (more than a week under UI), surged to 2845K in the week ending 11th Sep, from an upwardly revised 2714K a week before (post-COVID low) and above market expectations of 2650K. The number of Americans applying for help from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) scheme, which covers uninsured workers that do not qualify for regular initial claims (UI), dropped to 15.162K in the week ending 18th Sep, from the previous week's level of 28.456K. The latest initial PUA claim is the lowest on record after the 6th September expiration of enhanced PUA. It seems that higher initial jobless claims (UI) as a result of lower initial PUA claims. Overall, as per continuing jobless trend, the unemployment rate may fall below 5% in September and by Nov’21, the U.S. employment may reach the mark of 155000K, which may be seen as substantial further progress on Fed’s maximum employment condition for QE tapering and Fed may announce the same in its Dec’21 meeting with start from Jan’22. Although Fed/Powell does not define clearly any numerical target for maximum employment goal (inclusive based) to keep the policy action option open-ended, on Wednesday, Powell virtually acknowledged the substantial further progress (from Dec’20 levels) has almost met and barring any unforeseen situation, the Fed is on course to formally announce QE tapering by Dec’21 meeting (along with fresh SEP and rate hikes dot-plots). Further on the economic front, on Thursday, the Markit flash data shows that U.S. Composite fell to 54.5 in September from 55.4 in August and the lowest sequential growth since Sep’20. Both manufacturing (60.5 vs 61.1, a 5-month low) and services (54.4 vs 55.1, a 14-month low) eased. Markit said: New order growth fell to the slowest since Aug’20 and challenges finding suitable candidates and difficulties retaining employees were reflected in firms reporting only a fractional rise in employment for a second month. Input costs rose the most in four months to the second-highest rate ever and output price inflation hit an all-time high. Optimism at private-sector firms was robust in September. Business confidence was often linked to hopes of improved client demand and the removal of supply chain blockages. “The pace of US economic growth cooled further in September, having soared in the second quarter, reflecting a combination of peaking demand, supply chain delays, and labor shortages. The slowdown was led by the cooling of demand in the service sector, linked in part to the Delta variant spread. However, while manufacturers have seen far more resilient demand, factories face growing problems in sourcing enough supplies and labor to meet orders. Supply chain delays show no signs of easing, with another near-record lengthening of delivery times in September. Hence factory output growth also weakened and order book backlogs rose at a record pace in September. The upshot is yet another month of sharply rising prices charged for goods and services as demand outpaces supply, and higher costs are passed on to customers.” Overall, Markit pointed out a stagnation/stagflation-like situation amid stalled/slowing economic growth and higher inflation. The economic recovery is now hampering amid lower productions (supply chain issues, labor shortage), signs of cooling of demand, Delta disruptions (negative for consumer-facing service industry/contact based service) and elevated inflation (increasing pricing power by the manufacturer/service provider). The U.S. real GDP growth may moderate in Q3CY21 Technically, Dow Jones (DJ-30/Dec Future) now needs to sustain above 34800 zones for a further rally; otherwise, expect some correction again. Similarly the ‘do or die’ levels for SPX-500 (S&P-500) are now around 4480, while for NQ-100 (Nasdaq-100), it’s 15355-425 zones.
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Financial Crisis
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2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea
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That the 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea originated in viral resurgence from a survivor infected 5–7 years ago requires local and scientific accounts of past outbreaks to be revisited. Many past EVD epidemics hitherto considered as independent zoonotic spillovers may have originated from similar flare-ups even after decades, prompting reconsideration of EVD more as an endemic disease over long timescales and wide areas than as a series of discrete epidemics, and accounting for increasing outbreak frequency. Key assumptions in analysis of phylogenetics and of the ecology and drivers of Ebola virus (EBOV) spillover from wildlife hosts such as bats need to be reassessed. More collaborative, respectful approaches with local communities are needed to understand the origins of outbreaks, to address them and to support rather than stigmatise sufferers and survivors. Introduction New research finds that the 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea originated in viral resurgence from a persistently infected survivor from the major 2013–2016 epidemic 5–7 years ago prompting an urgent need to re-evaluate whether past EVD epidemics hitherto considered as independent zoonotic spillovers may have had similar origins. Here, we reconsider local accounts from the West African epidemic that trace its origins to people, dismissed until now as implausible. We thus reinterpret existing scientific accounts of other alleged spillovers, finding that several past outbreaks probably originated in persistent infections over even longer latency. By recalibrating the balance between ‘spillover’ and ‘flare-up’, we suggest that EVD manifests less as a series of discrete epidemics and more as an endemic disease in humans over long timescales and wide areas, helping to account for the increasing frequency of episodes.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Libya’s rival factions on Friday agreed to Dec. 16 as a target date for signing a United Nations-backed national unity government agreement meant to end their conflict
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Libya’s rival factions on Friday agreed to Dec. 16 as a target date for signing a United Nations-backed national unity government agreement meant to end their conflict.
The U.N. has been negotiating for a year to get Libya’s two rival governments and armed factions to end their war that has plunged the North African state into chaos four years after rebellion ousted Muammar Gaddafi.
Successfully signing an agreement would open the way for the international community to support Libya in the fight against Islamic State, which has gained ground in the chaos and controls the western city of Sirte.
But hardliners in both camps have been resisting a deal. Several past deadlines to sign have fallen through after opponents balked at details or demanded more concessions from their rivals.
“There was a wide consensus that only through rapid signature of the Libyan political agreement the country can be brought back to unity,” U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler said in Tunisia after two days of talks.
“Many problems remain, but this has to be solved by the new government in place. That’s what governments are there for,” said Kobler. He briefed the United Nations Security Council on the situation later on Friday.
The 15-member council said that a unity government must be formed swiftly to counter the threat of Islamic State militants.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, council president for December, said the body remained prepared to sanction those “who threaten Libya’s peace, stability and security.”
For more than a year, Tripoli has been controlled by an armed faction called Libya Dawn, a coalition of former rebel brigades from Misrata and other armed factions in the capital, after they battled to force out rivals.
They set up a self-styled government and reinstated the old parliament, known as the General National Congress. The internationally recognized government and the elected House of Representatives were forced to operate out of the east.
Both factions are backed by loose alliances of former rebel brigades, tribal fighters and former Gaddafi soldiers, including Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who has been appointed armed forces commander by the government in the east.
Helping to bring those military factions on board, training up a national army and providing assistance in dealing with Islamic State will be where the international community will look to help Libya if a unity government is formed.
Libya’s oil output is also now at less than half of the 1.6 million barrels per day that it produced before Gaddafi fell, leaving the central bank and state oil company struggling to manage an economy heavily dependent on crude.
“The time has come to sign the agreement,” Libya’s U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the Security Council.
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Sign Agreement
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U.S. warns SpaceX its new Texas launch site tower not yet approved
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A SpaceX SN15 starship prototype is seen as it sits on a transporter after Wednesday's successful launch and first landing from the company's starship facility, in Boca Chica, Texas, U.S. May 6, 2021. REUTERS/Gene Blevins WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned Elon Musk's space company SpaceX that its environmental review of a new tower at its Boca Chica launch site in Texas is incomplete and the agency could order SpaceX to take down the tower. An FAA spokesman said on Wednesday that the agency's environmental review underway of SpaceX’s proposed rocket assembly "integration tower" is "underway," and added that "the company is building the tower at its own risk." A May 6 letter from the FAA to SpaceX seen by Reuters said recent construction activity on one of the two proposed towers "may complicate the ongoing environmental review process for the Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program." The FAA letter said the tower could be as high as 480 feet. Based on the environmental review, the FAA could order SpaceX to take down the tower. "It is possible that changes would have to be made at the launch site, including to the integration towers to mitigate significant impacts," the May 6 letter said, adding the FAA learned of the tower's construction "based on publicly available video footage." SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment but Musk has repeatedly criticized the FAA and the U.S. regulatory system. SpaceX told the FAA in May that it did not believe the review was necessary because it only intends to use the "integration tower for production, research, and development purposes and not for FAA-licensed or -permitted launches," the FAA said. But the agency said description in documents "indicates otherwise." The FAA cited a SpaceX document that the towers would be used to integrate the Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle. "Super Heavy would be mated to the launch mount, followed by Starship mated to Super Heavy," the FAA letter said quoting SpaceX's May 5 submission. The FAA and Musk have clashed on several occasions. On June 29, Musk lamented the delay of the launch of Transporter-2 mission in Florida. He tweeted "an aircraft entered the ‘keep out zone’, which is unreasonably gigantic. There is simply no way that humanity can become a spacefaring civilization without major regulatory reform." Earlier this year, the FAA said SpaceX's December launch of Starship SN8 violated its license requirements. Effective March 12, the FAA began requiring an agency safety inspector at all SpaceX launches to "ensure compliance with federal regulations to protect public safety." FAA Administrator Steve Dickson spoke with Musk on March 12 for 30 minutes to stress "the FAA’s role in protecting public safety by ensuring regulatory compliance. He made it clear that the FAA expected SpaceX to develop and foster a robust safety culture that stresses adherence to FAA rules," the agency said in April.
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New achievements in aerospace
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Earthquakes and tsunamis in Indonesia in 2018
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Indonesia was hit with several major earthquakes and tsunamis in 2018 with the first major ones striking off Lombok on 29 July 2018 with the magnitude of 6.4 and followed by a 7.4 magnitude earthquakes, tsunami and liquefaction in Central Sulawesi on 28 September 2018, damaging hundreds of thousands of houses in both areas and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. On 22 December 2018, another tsunami hit Carita Beach in Banten Province and the coast around the Sunda Strait, specifically in Pandenglang, South Lampung and Serang districts. The tsunami was generated when part of the Krakatau volcano collapsed into the sea and displacing large quantities of water. Based on government reports, more than 1,600 houses were severely damaged or destroyed and more than 600 were medium- or lightly damaged, displacing more than 16,000 people. The disaster also killed more than 400 people and injured more than 14,000. More than half of the casualties was recorded in Pandegnlang district. According to Government reports, the event was recorded four times in four different locations with tidal waves reaching a height of 0.3 to 0.9 metres. The highest wave hit Serang sub-district with a height of 0.9 m. BMKG issued high-tide warning before the tsunami struck for the mentioned area. A tsunami early warning was not issued as the cause of the tsunami was not an earthquake, to which the current system monitors and responds. BPBD, together with the military, police, the national search and rescue agency (Basarnas), local government offices, Ministry of Social Welfare Volunteers (Tagana), Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) volunteers and the community provided emergency response support to the affected people. The response was locally coordinated in a command post, along with the establishment of field kitchens and displacement sites. Heavy equipment was dispatched to clear debris to ease evacuation and response efforts. COVID-19 Pandemic The Indonesian Ministry of Health since 10 March 2020 activated 132 referral hospitals in 33 provinces for COVID-19 case management. The government also established an emergency hospital for COVID-19 quarantine and treatment in Galang Island of Riau Islands Province as part of the initial response. On 13 April 2020, the Government declared a state of emergency for COVID-19 as a non-natural disaster in Indonesia. The number of confirmed cases has continued to increase significantly since the announcement of the first two cases in March 2020. Based on Indonesia Ministry of Health data as of 31 December 2020, more than 765,000 have tested positive, of which more than 22,000 cases have been fatal. The declaration allowed the government to invoke powers to ease entry of international aid, as well as to generate or allocate funds to respond to the pandemic. A COVID-19 acceleration Task Force was also formed, with the Head of BNPB (National Agency of Disaster Management) leading the task force. Task forces have also been established for 25 provinces, of which 11 provinces have declared an emergency status. The task force is assigned to lead the prevention, response and recovery activities, as well as to employ experts to support the responses. The task force is also required to consult the policy plan with the head of the national task force. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also issued a temporary restriction to export antiseptics, materials for masks manufacturing and personal protective equipment (PPE). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health released guidelines to large-scale social restrictions (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar, PSBB). The guidelines restrict public activities in certain provinces that have been hit by COVID-19. The regulation also became the basis for closing of schools and offices; restrictions on religious activities in communal areas, activities in public spaces and facilities, social and cultural activities; limitation of public transport modes and private vehicles; and other restrictions concerning defence and security aspects. All 34 Provinces in Indonesia identified with positive cases: the top five highest numbers being in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Banten, East Java and Central Sulawesi provinces.
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Tsunamis
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Justice News
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BOSTON – A Reading man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston today in connection with a scheme to defraud an elderly relative of her interest in a three-family home and a separate scheme to defraud the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance.
Giorgio “George” Fiorenza, 51, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for April 7, 2022. Fiorenza was charged in August 2020.
Between August and September 2017, Fiorenza defrauded an elderly relative into unknowingly signing a deed conveying her interest in a property she owned with Fiorenza’s spouse and forged the victim’s name on another document necessary to convey title to the property, both of which were recorded in the Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Fiorenza then took out a $750,000 loan in his spouse’s name and secured by the property, and subsequently caused the lender to foreclose on the property.
Between April and June 2020, Fiorenza filed claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) in the names of third parties and fraudulently diverted some of the funds for his own use. PUA was a temporary federal unemployment insurance program created when Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in March 2020 in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. The PUA program, which in Massachusetts was administered by the Department of Unemployment Assistance, provided unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who were not eligible for other types of unemployment benefits. Among other things, Fiorenza filed a PUA claim using a victim’s identity, directed the proceeds of the claim to an account in his spouse’s name, and did not disclose to the victim or her husband that she had qualified for assistance.
The charge of wire fraud provides a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of aggravated identity theft provides a mandatory sentence of two years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen A. Kearney and David M. Holcomb of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus .
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form .
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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1800s-Era Shipwreck Discovered Near Port of St. Augustine
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The Maritime Executive When Tropical Storm Eta passed over Florida earlier this month, it helped to uncover the remains of a wooden shipwreck buried under a dune along Crescent Beach near the port of St. Augustine. The wreck is likely the remains of a merchant ship from the 1800s, according to the St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP). A local resident was walking along the beach on Saturday and saw the exposed timbers. Returning on Sunday, he saw more of the timbers uncovered by the waves, and he reached out to LAMP's director, Chuck Meide. The LAMP team began inspecting and documenting the shipwreck on Sunday. The LAMP team thinks that the ship was likely an American merchant ship carrying basic commodities, like hardware or flour. Over 70 percent of all known historic shipwrecks lost in Florida are merchant vessels that were engaged in coastal trade, moving goods from one port to another along the Atlantic coast. Dating the ship is difficult, but Meide believes it to date back to the 1800s. “Everything we’ve seen on it so far fits that hypothesis - wooden planking, wood timbers, iron fasteners. They look quite similar to other ships from the 1800s that we have seen.” According to LAMP and the Fort Matanzas National Monument, the wreck could be the remains of the merchant vessel Caroline Eddy. "In late August 1880 the Caroline Eddy left Fernandina bound for New York with a cargo of lumber. She sailed into a hurricane, was driven south and went ashore near Matanzas. Her crew survived after clinging to the rigging for two days and a night," the national monument's staff said in a social media update. As the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, LAMP has helped to identify several shipwrecks over the years. Its team will continue their survey work and take samples of the timbers and iron work from the site. Students from nearby Flagler College will also be working with LAMP to document and record the shipwreck, gaining field experience in archaeology. “[St. Augustine's] maritime past is America’s story as the nation’s oldest port, dating back to the first Spanish landing in 1565. The St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program is committed to saving our maritime history and passing these stories on to our future generations,” said Kathy Fleming, the museum's executive director.
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Shipwreck
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Atlanta sit-ins
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The Atlanta sit-ins were a series of sit-ins that took place in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Occurring during the sit-in movement of the larger civil rights movement, the sit-ins were organized by the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, which consisted of students from the Atlanta University Center. The sit-ins were inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins, which had started a month earlier in Greensboro, North Carolina with the goal of desegregating the lunch counters in the city. The Atlanta protests lasted for almost a year before an agreement was made to desegregate the lunch counters in the city. In February 1960, during the civil rights movement in the United States, four African American college students refused to leave their seats at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, starting the Greensboro sit-ins. These sit-ins inspired similar activity in other cities throughout the Southern United States, collectively referred to as the sit-in movement. In Atlanta, student activists from the city's six historically black colleges and universities began to organize and discuss possible protest activity in the city. Student leaders Julian Bond and Lonnie C. King Jr. (both students at Morehouse College)[1] pushed for similar sit-in action in the city. However, before any activity commenced, the student leaders were called before a meeting of the Council of Presidents of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), who officially endorsed the sit-in activity, but urged the student leaders to announce their plans in writing beforehand. [2] Shortly thereafter, the students formed the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR, led by King and Spelman College student Herschelle Sullivan) and wrote An Appeal for Human Rights, which was published in The Atlanta Constitution, the Atlanta Daily World, and The Atlanta Journal on March 9, 1960. In the document, the students outlined their opposition to segregation and their plans to "use every legal and nonviolent means at our disposal to secure full citizenship rights as members of this great Democracy of ours.”[2][1] The appeal was attacked by Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver as a "left wing statement... calculated to breed dissatisfaction, discontent, discord, and evil," and Georgia's two U.S. Senators (Herman Talmadge and Richard Russell Jr.) both also opposed the sit-ins. [3] Meanwhile, Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield thanked the students for voicing their opinions, but took no immediate steps to address the problems they brought up. [2]
The sit-ins began on March 15,[4] about a week after the publishing of the appeal. [2] At 11 a.m. that day, approximately 200 students targeted numerous establishments across the city, including cafeterias in the Atlanta City Hall, the Fulton County Courthouse, and the Georgia State Capitol. Additionally, Morehouse students Charles Black and A. D. King (a brother of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.) led students to the cafeteria at Terminal Station. [1] Overall, ten lunch counters and cafeterias across the city were targeted,[2] with 77 of the 200 involved students arrested, including Black and Bond. [1] Despite this, the sit-ins remained peaceful, with the organizers calling them a success and temporarily suspending them during negotiations with representatives from Atlanta's business community. However, the business representatives were unwilling to compromise, and sit-ins continued until May, when they were more or less suspended due to summer vacation. During this time, little progress was made. [2]
Protest planning started again in late summer 1960 after classes at the colleges were back in session. COAHR decided to postpone the sit-ins until October in order to coincide with the 1960 United States presidential election, hoping to bring national attention to the protests. [2] Additionally, there had been developments the previous spring that would affect the next round of sit-ins. In April 1960, civil rights activist Ella Baker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had talked to student activists in North Carolina and helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),[5] which would establish their headquarters in Atlanta in the fall. [1] Following this, the COAHR would work in conjunction with the SNCC,[2] with plans to hold larger protests in the city. [1]
In early October, Lonnie King asked Martin Luther King Jr. (no relation) if he could participate in the sit-ins, hoping that his presence would increase attention on the protests. Martin agreed, and on October 19, he participated in a massive wave of sit-ins across the city. Martin and Lonnie went to the lunch counter inside Rich's department store, where both of them were promptly arrested. [2][1] In total, 50 protestors, including A. D. King, were arrested during the first day of protests. [2] Martin Luther King's arrest drew national attention,[1] and this attention may have contributed to increased protest turnout, with over 2,000 protestors performing sit-ins at 16 locations the following day. [2] Protests continued into the next month, and on Black Friday of that year, AUC students were joined by some white students from Agnes Scott College and Emory University. The next day, about 100 members of the Ku Klux Klan, dressed in their regalia, held a counter protest in front of Rich's. [1]
The sit-ins continued throughout the holiday shopping season, and by the end of the year, a report noted that there had been a 13% decrease in sales that year compared to 1959, indicating that the sit-ins were having an economic impact. [2] The following year, the protest leaders announced a new plan to overcrowd the jails, with over 100 protestors arrested in February. [6] Around this time, Sullivan announced that COAHR was planning to extend the protests until at least Easter and were additionally seeking help from U.S. President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in desegregating the city. On February 19, a planned rally at the county jail was called off by COAHR after A. T. Walden and William Holmes Borders, prominent leaders in the black community at that time, instead asked protest leaders to meet with them at Wheat Street Baptist Church to discuss the future of the protests. Following this, Walden began to negotiate with business officials (including Atlanta Chamber of Commerce leader Ivan Allen Jr.) regarding terms for an end to the strike. [7] On March 7, Lonnie King and Sullivan attended a meeting where they were told that an agreement had been reached wherein lunch counters and restaurants would be desegregated after the public schools were integrated in Fall of that year in exchange for an end to the sit-ins. Student leaders were unhappy with the terms of the agreement, in particular the fact that the desegregation would not be immediate. [2] In anger, King Sr. told Lonnie King, "Boy, I'm tired of you! This is the best agreement that we can get out of this". [8] The students ultimately acquiesced, and the sit-ins ended. [2] The agreement, while lauded by The Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Daily World, was considered unpopular among many African Americans in Atlanta. [9]
One notable effect of the sit-ins in Atlanta was the straining of the relationship between the established black elite in the city, who were more conservative in their approach to the civil rights movement, and younger activists who were more assertive and less willing to compromise. For instance, older leaders in Atlanta had originally been opposed to the sit-ins,[4] and King Sr. had been opposed to his son's involvement with the sit-ins. [10] On March 10, a meeting was held at Warren Memorial Methodist Church, attended by about 1,500 people, to discuss the agreement. There, notable leaders such as Borders, King Sr., and Walden were criticized and heckled by many, leading King Jr. to give an address promoting unity. [2]
In October 1961, following the integration of the school system, the lunch counters and restaurants in Atlanta were desegregated. By this point, over 100 cities throughout the Southern United States had already desegregated their eateries, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia highlights later sit-in actions in Savannah and Rome, Georgia to argue that "Atlanta actually lagged behind many of its neighbors in desegregating local institutions". According to historian Stephen Tuck, desegregation in the city would remain "piecemeal and sporadic" until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Aeroflot Flight 1080 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 1080 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Kostanay, Kazakhstan, that crashed at night shortly after takeoff on 7 October 1978. All 38 passengers and crew were killed in the crash which occurred when one of the engines failed due to icing during initial climb out. At the time, the crash was the second worst in the history of the Yakovlev Yak-40, which had entered operational service with Aeroflot just ten years prior. [1][2]
The Yak-40 involved in the accident, registration CCCP-87437, had entered service in 1974 and had just shy of 6,300 operating hours on the airframe at the time of the accident. Flight 1080 was being operated by the Kazakh Civil Aviation Administration under Aeroflot. It had 34 passengers, which included four children, and four crew on board during the flight of 7 October 1978. The crew consisted of two pilots, a flight mechanic, and a stewardess. It was flying a domestic route from Sverdlovsk-Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Kostanay Airport in northern Kazakhstan. [3] On the night of the accident, the sky was cloudy and there were light rainy conditions in addition to an air temperature of 5 °C. At 19:48 YEKT on 7 October 1978, Aeroflot Flight 1080 commenced its takeoff roll on runway 26 at Sverdlovsk-Koltsovo Airport. Due to the presence of a crosswind and the fact that the aircraft was loaded beyond its maximum weight capacity, it took off at a speed of 205 km/h (110 kn). At 19:50, the crew reported to air traffic control that its left engine had failed. Just one hundred meters off the ground, the aircraft began turning to the left. At 19:51, controllers observed a flash and a fire on a forested hillside close to the airport. The aircraft had struck trees while it was still 23 meters (75 ft) in the air and hit the ground shortly after, destroying the airframe and detaching the flight's tail and rear stabilizers. All 38 people aboard Flight 1080 were killed in the catastrophe. [4]
The Soviet State Research Institute of Civil Aviation accident commission determined the crash to be the fault of the crew. The aircraft was loaded beyond its specified limits, consequently requiring additional thrust on takeoff. The crew failed to take into account icing conditions which were present at the time of the accident. All three engines had been affected by a buildup of ice. The left engine failed shortly after takeoff and the right and middle produced insufficient levels of power. The commission also cited air traffic control's failure to point out nearby terrain after giving the aircraft clearance to turn left after takeoff at an altitude of just one hundred meters as a contributing factor to the accident. [4]
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Air crash
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1996 Belgian Air Force Hercules accident crash
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The 1996 Belgian Air Force Hercules accident is an aviation accident that occurred on 15 July 1996 at Eindhoven Airport, the Netherlands. [1] The disaster involved a Belgian Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft and resulted in the death of 34 passengers. The incident is known as the "Hercules disaster" (Dutch: Herculesramp) in the Netherlands and Belgium. At 6:02 PM local time, the transport aircraft crashed at Eindhoven Airport with a total of 41 people on board: Four Belgian crew members and 37 young members of the Fanfarekorps of the Royal Netherlands Army. As the aircraft was coming in to land at Eindhoven, it encountered a flock of birds; it overshot, but lost power and crashed into the ground; a fire broke out, which destroyed the cockpit and forward fuselage, killing 32 people on board. The Eindhoven airfield fire service were not initially aware that the transport aircraft was carrying passengers - it was thirty minutes before they realised the truth, by which time most of them had died in the post-crash fire. [2] Following the accident, the Royal Netherlands Air Force officer who commanded the Eindhoven airbase, the officer responsible for air traffic and the officer commanding the fire department were relieved of their duties. [2] The investigation established that the passenger information, which was listed on the flight plan, was not transmitted to the destination airport; the investigation recommended that the flight plan procedure be amended. [3]
The cause of the accident was the ingestion of common starlings[4] into the two left engines, which caused the plane to go out of control during landing. Coordinates: 51°27′00″N 5°22′28″E / 51.4500°N 5.3744°E / 51.4500; 5.3744
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Air crash
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2011 East Africa drought
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Between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. [7] Said to be "the worst in 60 years",[8] the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. [6] Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. [9] Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis. [8][10][11][12]
According to FAO-Somalia, the food crisis in Somalia primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists. [13] Human Rights Watch (HRW) consequently noted that most of the displaced persons belonged to the agro-pastoral Rahanweyn clan and the agricultural Bantu ethnic minority group. [14] On 20 July, the United Nations officially declared famine in two regions in the southern part of the country (IPC Phase 5), the first time a famine had been declared in the region by the UN in nearly thirty years. [15][16] Tens of thousands of people are believed to have died in southern Somalia before famine was declared. [15] This was mainly a result of Western governments preventing aid from reaching affected areas in an attempt to weaken the Al-Shabaab militant group, against whom they were engaged. [17][18]
Although fighting disrupted aid delivery in some areas, a scaling up of relief operations in mid-November had unexpectedly significantly reduced malnutrition and mortality rates in southern Somalia, prompting the UN to downgrade the humanitarian situation in the Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabele regions from famine to emergency levels. [19] According to the Lutheran World Federation, military activities in the country's southern conflict zones had also by early December 2011 greatly reduced the movement of migrants. [20] By February 2012, several thousand people had also begun returning to their homes and farms. [21] In addition, humanitarian access to rebel-controlled areas had improved and rainfall had surpassed expectations, improving the prospects of a good harvest in early 2012. [19]
By January 2012, the food crisis in southern Somalia was no longer at emergency levels according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). [22] The UN indicated in February 2012 that indirect data from health and relief centers pointed to improved general conditions from August 2011. The UN also announced that the famine in southern Somalia was over. [23] However, FEWS NET indicated that Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity persisted through March in several areas on account of crop flooding and ongoing military operations in these areas, which restricted humanitarian access, trade and movement. [24]
Aid agencies subsequently shifted their emphasis to recovery efforts, including digging irrigation canals and distributing plant seeds. [23] Long-term strategies by national governments in conjunction with development agencies were said to offer the most sustainable results. [25]
Weather conditions over the Pacific, including an unusually strong La Niña, interrupted seasonal rains for two consecutive seasons. The rains failed in 2011 in Kenya and Ethiopia, and for the previous two years in Somalia. [7][26] In many areas, the precipitation rate during the main rainy season from April to June, the primary season, was less than 30% of the average of 1995–2010. [27] The lack of rain led to crop failure and widespread loss of livestock, as high as 40–60% in some areas, which decreased milk production as well as exacerbating a poor harvest. As a result, cereal prices rose to record levels while livestock prices and wages fell, reducing purchasing power across the region. [28] Rains were also not expected to return until September of the year. [7] The crisis is compounded by rebel activity around southern Somalia from the Al-Shabaab group. [11]
The head of the United States Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, stated that climate change contributed to the severity of the crisis. "There's no question that hotter and drier growing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced the resiliency of these communities. "[29] On the other hand, two experts with the International Livestock Research Institute suggested that it was premature to blame climate change for the drought. Indeed, the majority of climate models had predicted a long-term increase in rain for this area. [30] While there is consensus that a particularly strong La Niña contributed to the intensity of the drought, the relationship between La Niña and climate change is not well-established. [31]
The failure of the international community to heed the early warning system was criticized for leading to a worsening of the crisis. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, financed by U.S.A.I.D., anticipated the crisis as early as August 2010, and by January 2011, the American
ambassador to Kenya declared a disaster and called for urgent assistance. On 7 June 2011, FEWS NET declared that the crisis was "the most severe food security emergency in the world today, and the current humanitarian response is inadequate to prevent further deterioration". [32] The UN later announced on 28 June that 12 million people in the East Africa region were affected by the drought and that some areas were on the brink of famine, with many displaced in search of water and food. [33] Oxfam's humanitarian director Jane Cocking stated that "This is a preventable disaster and solutions are possible". [34] Suzanne Dvorak, the chief executive of Save the Children, wrote that "politicians and policymakers in rich countries are often skeptical about taking preventative action because they think aid agencies are inflating the problem. Developing country governments are embarrassed about being seen as unable to feed their people. [...] these children are wasting away in a disaster that we could—and should—have prevented. "[35] Soon after a famine was declared in parts of southern Somalia. Oxfam also charged several European governments of "wilful neglect" over the crisis. [36] It issued a statement saying that "The warning signs have been seen for months, and the world has been slow to act. Much greater long-term investment is needed in food production and basic development to help people cope with poor rains and ensure that this is the last famine in the region. "[37]
On 20 July 2011, the UN declared a famine in the Lower Shabelle and Bakool, two regions of southern Somalia. [15] On 3 August, famine was further declared in the Balcad and Cadale districts in Middle Shabelle as well as the IDP settlements in Mogadishu and Afgooye in response to data from the UN's food security and nutrition analysis unit. [28][38] According to the UN, famine would spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia in four to six weeks due to inadequate humanitarian response caused both by ongoing access restrictions and funding gaps. [28] The Economist also reported that widespread famine would soon occur across the entire Horn of Africa, "a situation...not seen for 25 years". [34]
According to Luca Alivoni, the head of FAO-Somalia, the food crisis in Somalia has primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists since farmers often stay behind on their land plots to "protect their crops", while herders move with their livestock to pastureland. [13]
On 20 July 2011, staple prices were at 68% over the five-year average,[39] including increases of up to 240% in southern Somalia, 117% in south-eastern Ethiopia, and 58% in northern Kenya. [27][35] In early July, the UN World Food Programme said that it expected 10 million people across the Horn of Africa region to need food aid, revising upward an earlier estimate of 6 million.
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Droughts
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1975 Royal Nepal Airlines Pilatus PC-6 Porter crash
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On 31 March 1975, a Pilatus PC-6 Porter operated by Royal Nepal Airlines crashed in Nepal en route from Tribhuvan International Airport to Phaplu Airport on a domestic charter flight. The flight was chartered by Sir Edmund Hillary to bring his wife Louise and daughter Belinda to Phaplu, where he was building a hospital. [2] The plane crashed shortly after takeoff. [3]
The aircraft involved in the crash was a Pilatus PC-6 Porter operated by Royal Nepal Airlines. It was delivered to Royal Nepal Airlines in 1971. [4]
All occupants on board died in the crash; they included the pilot Peter Shand, Sir Edmund Hillary's wife Louise and daughter Belinda, the family's dog and two Sherpa friends of the family. [3][5]
The flight was a chartered flight, that took off from Tribhuvan International Airport at or before 7:30 a.m. NPT for its flight to Phaplu Airport. The aircraft took off on runway 20 in a southern direction, but the pilot directly asked for permission to land. [6] The aircraft turned towards the right but was unable to make a landing, crashing into a ditch behind the northern end of the runway. [2]
In her biography Keeper of the Mountains, Elizabeth Hawley describes that the pilot Peter Shand did not do a walk-around,[2] failing to see that aileron was still fixed by a ground lock pin, because he was late to the airport and this caused the accident. [6]
The Nepali Times reported that the pilot was hired by Royal Nepal Airlines despite losing his previous job due to "carelessness". [7]
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Air crash
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Karsten Warholm wins 'best race in Olympic history' as he breaks 400m hurdles world record
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Updated 1745 GMT (0145 HKT) August 3, 2021
JUST WATCHED
Biles speaks out after Olympic achievement
The Olympic Stadium, Tokyo (CNN)
It started the way his races often do -- a slap of the chest, a pump of the fist, and a roar to the camera -- but ended like none have done before. As Karsten Warholm crossed the finish line of the men's Olympic 400-meter hurdles final and registered the numbers on the stadium clock, his face turned to a mixture of exhaustion, elation and disbelief. The Norwegian's time of 45.94 seconds in Tokyo on Tuesday is likely to shift perceptions of what is possible in this event as he held off the USA's Rai Benjamin and shattered his own world record by more than half a second. In a golden era for the men's 400m hurdles, this was the Olympic final the event deserved. Benjamin's time of 46.17 seconds for silver would have comfortably broken the previous record Warholm had set in July, while Brazil's Alison Dos Santos' bronze-medal time of 46.72 was just outside it. "That was the best race in Olympic history ... everyone in this event should be getting paid big bucks, in all honesty," Benjamin later quipped. Read More
Warholm reacts after his gold medal and world record in the 400m hurdles final at the Tokyo Olympics. The forerunner in this event since his world championship title in 2017, Warholm now has an Olympic medal to show for his efforts. He inched ahead of Benjamin after the final hurdle and ripped a huge hole down the middle of his sprint suit after crossing the line. "The lactic acid is just crazy, I couldn't feel my legs," Warholm told reporters about the end of the race. "I was just running over the line because I didn't take anything for granted today. All respect to Rai for running 46.17 -- that's just crazy." Running in lane six, Warholm quickly caught up with Dos Santos and Qatar's Abderrahman Samba in the lanes outside him. He was leading by the 200-meter mark, but the race was far from won as Benjamin slowly gained ground in the adjacent inside lane. The pair were practically level at the final hurdle, but Warholm summoned an extra ounce of energy to take the gold. "I ran sort of scared, but that's something that I always do," Warholm added. "I knew that with my fast opening, I was up on the side of dos Santos and Samba really early in the race. "That was my tactic today, I think I won on tactics. I really went out hard and tried to get the guys with me ... after that I just ran for my life. I would have died for that gold medal." Warholm reacts to his 400m hurdles victory. Kevin Young's 400m hurdles world record from the 1992 Olympics had stood for nearly three decades before Warholm broke it a month ago -- a barrier the 25-year-old has previously likened to the race to get a man on the moon . But this Olympic final has redefined the discipline. The three athletes on the podium can lay claim to being the fastest 400m hurdlers ever; Samba, the fifth-fastest on the all-time list behind Young, finished fifth behind the British Virgin Islands' Kyron McMaster in the final. Fast track, fast times? For silver medalist Benjamin, there was a mixture of frustration and pride. "It's a lot to process," he told reporters. "I cried a little bit ... but I am really happy to be a part of history like this and just to show where this event can go. "I don't think even Usain Bolt's 9.58 (at the World Championships in Berlin) topped that. I mean, three guys pretty much broke the world record." The Tokyo Olympics have so far yielded fast times on the track, notably Elaine Thompson-Herah's Olympic record in the women's 100m final . Some have put it down to advancements in shoe technology, while others have credited the favorable track surface. Warholm and Benjamin jump the final hurdle in the 400m hurdles final. "It feels like I'm walking on clouds," said US sprinter Ronnie Baker. "It's really smooth out there. It's a beautiful track, one of the nicest I've run on." Accoring to World Athletics and Mondo , the company that prepared the track ahead of the Games, more than 280 world records had been established on Mondo tracks prior to the Tokyo Olympics. However, Benjamin said that, in his race at least, the fast times were more about the athletes themselves. "People say it's the track, it's the shoes. I would wear different shoes and still run fast, it doesn't really matter," he said. Fireworks explode over Tokyo's National Stadium at the end of the Olympics' closing ceremony on Sunday, August 8. The word "arigato," seen at left, means thank you in Japanese. Hide Caption
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The Olympic cauldron closes, extinguishing the Olympic flame at the end of the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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Dancers perform during the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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The national flags of Japan, Greece and France fly during the closing ceremony. Greece is the birthplace of the Olympic Games. France will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Hide Caption
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The Olympic flag is folded after being lowered during the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, who won the gold medal in the marathon, listens as his country's National Anthem is played during his medal ceremony. The medal ceremonies for both the men's and women's marathon took place during the closing ceremony. And that meant two playings of the Kenyan National Anthem, as Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir won gold in the women's event. Hide Caption
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Jets conduct a flyover next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. While the closing ceremony was held in Tokyo, a celebration was held in Paris. The French capital will be hosting the next Summer Games in 2024. Hide Caption
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Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, makes a heart gesture as he delivers a speech at the closing ceremony. In his speech, Bach thanked the athletes and the Japanese people for their hard work and sacrifices in staging the most logistically challenging Olympic Games in history. "We did it together," he said. Hide Caption
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Athletes watch performers take part in the closing ceremony. Because of Covid-19 protocols, all athletes were required to leave Japan within 48 hours of their competition, so there were fewer athletes at the closing ceremony than there were at the opening ceremony. Hide Caption
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Polish athletes take pictures as they attend the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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The flags of each participating nation are brought into the stadium for the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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Dignitaries applaud at the beginning of the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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American athletes show their medals to a video camera at the closing ceremony. The United States finished on top of the medal table for the third straight Summer Olympics, winning 39 gold medals and 113 medals in all. Second-place China finished with 38 golds and 88 medals in all. Host nation Japan had a third-best 27 golds and won a total of 58 medals. Hide Caption
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The Japanese flag is brought into the stadium at the start of the closing ceremony. Hide Caption
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Fireworks explode over the National Stadium. Hide Caption
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The United States' Brittney Griner, right, defends Japan's Maki Takada during the gold-medal basketball game on August 8. Griner scored 30 points as the Americans won 90-75. It is the seventh consecutive gold medal for the US women's basketball team. Hide Caption
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Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge crosses the finish line August 8 to win the marathon for the second Olympics in a row. Kipchoge, the world-record holder in the event, finished with a time of 2:08:38. Hide Caption
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US basketball player Sue Bird is congratulated by her partner, Megan Rapinoe, after the gold-medal game. Bird and teammate Diana Taurasi had just won their fifth career Olympic golds. Hide Caption
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Serbia's Nikola Dedović, Vladimir Vujasinović and Milan Aleksić jump into the pool as they celebrate winning the water polo final against Greece on August 8. Serbia won the match 13-10. Hide Caption
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Jennifer Valente holds the American flag after winning gold at the Omnium track cycling event on August 8. It is the United States' first gold medal in track cycling since 2000. Hide Caption
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The United States' Jordyn Poulter, right, sets the ball during the gold-medal volleyball match against Brazil on August 8. The Americans defeated Brazil 3-0. It is the United States' first-ever gold medal in women's volleyball. Hide Caption
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Linoy Ashram, a rhythmic gymnast from Israel, won gold in the individual all-around on Saturday, August 7. Hide Caption
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Japan's baseball team celebrates with manager Atsunori Inaba after winning the gold-medal game against the United States on August 7. Hide Caption
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The United States' Allyson Felix runs in the 4x400-meter relay on August 7. The US team won gold, making Felix the most decorated American athlete in Olympic track-and-field history. Hide Caption
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Brazil's Hebert Sousa, center, celebrates after he knocked out Ukraine's Oleksandr Khyzhniak to win the middleweight final on August 7. Khyzhniak was leading the first two rounds when Sousa caught him in the chin with a left hook. Hide Caption
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The Netherlands' Sifan Hassan places a bag of ice on her face after winning gold in the 10,000 meters on August 7. Hassan also won the 5,000 meters in Tokyo and finished third in the 1,500. She's the first person in Olympic history to complete a medley of medals across both the middle- and long-distance events in a single Games. Hide Caption
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The United States' Nelly Korda, right, is congratulated by her sister, Jessica, after winning the gold medal by one stroke on August 7. Nelly Korda, the world's top-ranked female golfer, took the tournament lead after a second-round 62. Jessica Korda finished tied for 15th. Hide Caption
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Kazakhstan's Sergey Ponomaryov, left, crashes with Malaysia's Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom during a keirin race on August 7. Hide Caption
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A Russian artistic swimmer competes in the team event on August 7. Russian swimmers won gold in both the team and duet events in Tokyo. Hide Caption
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Jessica Springsteen, the daughter of rock star Bruce Springsteen, was part of the US equestrian team that won silver in jumping on August 7. Hide Caption
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Brazilian defender Dani Alves, left, and Spanish midfielder Carlos Soler react after Brazil defeated Spain 2-1 in the gold-medal football match on August 7. Brazil is the fifth men's team in history to win back-to-back titles at the Olympics. Hide Caption
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Ashleigh Johnson celebrates after the United States defeated Spain in the water polo final on August 7. It's the third straight gold for the Americans, who won 14-5. That's the largest margin of victory in the history of water polo's gold-medal matches. Hide Caption
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US basketball players celebrate after defeating France 87-82 in the gold-medal game on August 7. It's the Americans' fourth straight gold in men's basketball. Hide Caption
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Chinese diver Cao Yuan competes in the 10-meter platform event on August 7. He won the gold and became the first athlete to win Olympic gold medals in three different diving events. He won gold in the 3-meter springboard in 2016, and he won gold in the 10-meter synchronized event in 2012. Hide Caption
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Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir crosses the finish line to win the marathon on August 7. Her countrywoman Brigid Kosgei earned the silver medal. Hide Caption
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Italy's Filippo Tortu, bottom, finishes ahead of Great Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake by just .01 seconds to win gold in the 4x100-meter relay on Friday, August 6. Hide Caption
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Germany's Annika Schleu was leading the modern pentathlon after two events. But in the show jumping event on August 6, her horse, Saint Boy, refused to cooperate with her wishes. The horse just wouldn't jump, and Schleu broke into tears as her medal hopes faded away. In the modern pentathlon, horses are assigned to athletes via a draw. Hide Caption
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Teammates mob Canada's Julia Grosso after she scored the winning penalty in the shootout against Sweden on August 6. The gold-medal match was tied 1-1 after extra time, so a shootout had to decide the winner. It is Canada's first gold medal in women's football. Hide Caption
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Cuban boxer Julio César La Cruz poses with his gold medal after winning the heavyweight final on August 6. Hide Caption
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China's Liu Shiying competes in the javelin final on August 6.
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Break historical records
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2014 Venezuelan protests
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In 2014, a series of protests, political demonstrations, and civil insurrection began in Venezuela due to the country's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods[11][12] attributed to economic policies such as strict price controls. [13][14] Mass protesting began in earnest in February following the attempted rape of a student on a university campus in San Cristóbal. Subsequent arrests and killings of student protesters spurred their expansion to neighboring cities and the involvement of opposition leaders. [15][16] The year's early months were characterized by large demonstrations and violent clashes between protesters and government forces that resulted in nearly 4,000 arrests and 43 deaths,[7][8] including both supporters and opponents of the government. [17]
Since Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, he and his political ambitions proved to be controversial. Under Chávez, oil revenues in the 2000s brought funds not seen in Venezuela since the 1980s, with Chávez's government becoming "semi-authoritarian and hyper-populist", investing heavily in public works which initially benefited Venezuelans. [18][19] His government failed to save funds earned while oil prices were high and soon after his death, Venezuela's economy became dilapidated. [19][20] Also under Chávez's tenure, corruption in Venezuela,[21] as well as crime in Venezuela,[22] had greatly increased, causing more frustration among Venezuelans.[which?] Frustrations were seen in the polls when during the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election, Nicolas Maduro narrowly won the election with 50.6% of the vote, ahead of the 49.1% of candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, surprisingly close compared to previous elections in the country. [23] The opposition's defeat in the 8 December 2013 municipal elections,[24] which it had framed as a 'plebiscite' on Maduro's presidency,[25] would later ignite an internal debate over strategy. Moderate opposition leaders Henrique Capriles and Henri Falcón argued for 'unity' and dialogue with the government, and attended meetings held by the President to discuss cooperation among the country's mayors and governors. [26][27][28] Other opposition leaders, such as Leopoldo López and Marina Corina Machado, opposed dialogue[29] and called for a new strategy to force an immediate change in the government. [30][31]
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS), 9,286 protests occurred in 2014, the greatest number of protests occurring in Venezuela in decades. [32] The majority of protests, 6,369 demonstrations, occurred during the first six months of 2014 with an average of 35 protests per day. [33] SVCO estimated that 445 protests occurred in January; 2,248 in February; 1,423 in March; 1,131 in April; 633 in May; and 489 in June. [33] The main reason of protest was against President Maduro and the Venezuelan government with 52% of demonstrations and the remaining 42% of protests were due to other difficulties such as labor, utilities, insecurity, education and shortages. [32] Most protesting began in the first week of February, reaching peak numbers in the middle of that month following the call of students and opposition leaders to protest. [33] The number of protests then declined into mid-2014 only to increase slightly in late 2014 into 2015 following the drop in the price of oil and due to the shortages in Venezuela. Demonstrations against violence in Venezuela began in January 2014 following the murder of actress and former Miss Venezuela Mónica Spear,[34][35] and continued, when former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles shook the hand of President Maduro;[35] this "gesture... cost him support and helped propel" opposition leader Leopoldo López Mendoza to the forefront. [35]
According to the Associated Press, well before protests began in the Venezuelan capital city of Caracas, the attempted rape of a young student on a university campus in San Cristóbal, in the western border state of Táchira, led to protests from students "outraged" at "long-standing complaints about deteriorating security under President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez. But what really set them off was the harsh police response to their initial protest, in which several students were detained and allegedly abused, as well as follow-up demonstrations to call for their release". These protests expanded, attracted non-students, and led to more detentions; eventually, other students joined, and the protests spread to Caracas and other cities, with opposition leaders becoming involved. [15]
Leopoldo López, a leading figure in the opposition to the government, began to lead protests. [36] During events surrounding the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Lopez "orchestrated the public protests against Chávez and he played a central role in the citizen's arrest of Chavez's interior minister", Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, though he later tried to distance himself from the event,[37] López, alongside María Corina Machado launch a campaign on 23 January 2014 to remove Maduro from office, named La Salida (The Exit), with an intent to have President Maduro resign through protests with Machado publicly stating “We must create chaos in the streets through responsible civic struggle”. [38][39]
On 1 February, López called upon students to protest peacefully against the scarcity, insecurity, and shortages. [40] The next day, opposition leaders call for a march on 12 February in recognition of National Youth Day. [41]
On 12 February, major opposition protests began with student marches led by opposition leaders in 38 cities across Venezuela simultaneous with the national celebrations for the bicentennial year anniversary of Youth Day and the Battle of La Victoria. [42][43] After the protests, smaller groups remained and threw stones at government forces. [44] The protests turned more violent after government security forces used excessive force on protesters and shot at groups of unarmed people. [45][46] Bassil Da Costa was the first protester to die after getting a bullet to the head. Later that day, another protester, Robert Reddman, and a pro-government activist were also killed in Caracas. [47] President Maduro blamed "fascist" groups for the deaths caused that day, including opposition leader Leopoldo López, during his closing address in the Youth Day parade that evening in La Victoria, Aragua state. [48]
The next day on 13 February following the death of a colectivo member Juan "Juancho" Montoya, members of colectivos "went on television to call for calm and called for the arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. [49] Judge Ralenys Tovar Guillén accepts the Public Ministry's petition to detain Leopoldo López in connection with the unrest that resulted in the death of the colectivo leader and two students. [50][51][52]
Leopoldo López delivers a speech on 18 February in Plaza Brión where he pointed out that its necessary to build "a peaceful exit, inside the constitution but in the streets" and assured that "there isn't free media anymore to express themselves and if the media stays silent they must go to the streets". He declared that "if his imprisonment allows Venezuela to wake up definitely and for the Venezuelans that want a change, his imprisonment will be worth it." He turned himself to the National Guard at 12:24 P.M., Venezuelan time, and said he was turning himself to a "corrupt justice". [53] After Lopez turned himself in, the opposition protesters blocked the Francisco Fajardo Highway. [54][55][56][57]
Miss Tourism Venezuela Génesis Carmona is killed by colectivo gunfire on 19 February after being shot in the head while supporting an opposition protest. [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] MUD leader Henrique Capriles breaks his silence and confronts Francisco Ameliach, government officials and denounced the violence the government was using on the protesters. [67]
On 23 February, about 30 military units arrived at the residence of retired brigadier general Ángel Vivas to arrest him for allegedly "training" protesters to place barbed wire over the roads to injure government forces and pro-government protesters, resulting in one fatality in the process and many more wounded. [68] According to CBC, Vivas "rose to prominence in 2007 when he resigned as head of the Defence Ministry's engineering department rather than order his subalterns to swear to the Cuban-inspired oath 'Socialist Fatherland or death'. "[69] Vivas reported that "Cubans and thugs" were attacking his house and moments later appeared atop the roof of his house wearing a flak jacket along with an assault rifle saying "Come find me Maduro!". National Guardsmen made a barricade in front of Vivas' house but neighbors and supporters defended Vivas by placing a barricade of vehicles in front of the troops. The troops retreated without arresting Vivas after the citizens refused to leave the area. [70][71][72][73] Vivas later explained why he thought Venezuelans needed to defend the country from foreigners, saying "Cubans are in all structures of the Venezuelan state" and also explained that he told protesters to set up barricades in order to defend themselves against attacks from the National Guard. [74]
On 29 February, Sukhoi fighter jets of the Venezuelan Air Force were seen flying over San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela on 20 February and President Nicolás Maduro ordered paratroopers of the 41st Airborne Brigade, 4th Armored Division, Venezuelan Army on standby on recommendations from the Minister of Interior and Justice, Lieutenant General Miguel Rodríguez Torres. [75][76]
In March 2014, paramilitary groups acted violently in 437 protests, about 31% of total protests in March, where gunshot wounds were reported in most protests they were involved in. [9] According to a correspondent from Televen, armed groups attempted to kidnap and rape individuals in an apartment complex in Maracaibo on 27 March without intervention from the National Guard. [77][78][79][80]
On 16 April, colectivos in several trucks allegedly attacked an apartment complex known for protesting damaging 5 vehicles, leaving 2 burnt, and fired several shots into the apartments leaving one person injured from a gunshot wound.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Britain has followed the United States in upgrading its travel advice for Europe and warning of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks
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Britain has followed the United States in upgrading its travel advice for Europe and warning of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks.
The foreign office said there was "a high threat of terrorism" in Germany and France, having previously identified a "general threat".
The new advice comes after British security and intelligence sources said last week that a plot to launch "commando-style" attacks on Britain, France, and Germany had been intercepted and foiled by drone attacks on militants based in Pakistan.
The foreign office is warning that "attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers".
The move follows the US, which today issued updated advice for Europe as a whole, warning terrorist targets could include "public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure".
The state department said: "Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions."
The home secretary, Theresa May, described the US advice as "consistent with our assessment". "As we have consistently made clear, we face a real and serious threat from terrorism," she said.
Britain's terror threat rating remains at "severe", the second highest rating, where it has been since rising from "substantial" in January.
On Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was evacuated after a bomb threat called in from a telephone booth. It was the second such alert at the tower in two weeks. A search by bomb experts found nothing unusual, and it was reopened within hours. French authorities have received indications from allied intelligence services about the possibility of attacks, but no specific plot, a high-ranking French security official said last week.
On Friday, Sweden said it had raised its threat alert to the highest level ever because of an increased threat of terror attacks.
The US has carried out at least 25 drone strikes so far this month in Pakistan's tribal areas, according to US media – the highest monthly total for six years.
One strike reportedly killed a British man who a Pakistani intelligence official said was part of an al-Qaida-linked plot to carry out "commando-style" attacks in the UK. He said the British man was conspiring with his brother and eight Germans. Western intelligence officials played down the suggestion.
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Sign Agreement
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1855 Wairarapa earthquake
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The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake occurred on 23 January at about 9 p.m., affecting much of the Cook Strait area of New Zealand, including Marlborough in the South Island and Wellington and Wairarapa in the North Island. In Wellington, close to the epicenter, shaking lasted for at least 50 seconds. The moment magnitude of the earthquake has been estimated as 8.2, the most powerful recorded in New Zealand since systematic European colonisation began in 1840. [1] This earthquake was associated with the largest observed movement on a strike-slip fault, maximum 18 metres (59 ft). It has been suggested that the surface rupture formed by this event helped influence Charles Lyell to link earthquakes with rapid movement on faults. [2]
New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Australian and Pacific Plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Kermadec subduction zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the North Island Fault System (NIFS). [3] A group of dextral strike-slip structures, known as the Marlborough Fault System, transfer displacement between the mainly transform and convergent type plate boundaries in a complex zone at the northern end of the South Island. [4] The earthquake occurred on the Wairarapa Fault which is part of the NIFS. The earthquake was associated with the rupturing of approximately 150 km (93 mi) of the Wairarapa Fault. A horizontal displacement of up to 18 metres (59 ft) was accompanied by uplift and tilting of the Rimutaka Range on the northwestern side of the fault with vertical offsets of about 6 metres near the fault reducing to almost nothing on the western coast of the Wellington Peninsula. The estimated magnitude of about 8.2 is unusually large for an earthquake associated with movement on a mainly strike-slip fault, and the coseismic offset would have been the largest known for such an event. It has been suggested that this was caused by the rupture propagating down to where the fault links through to the top of the subducting Pacific Plate. [5] Geomorphological evidence, particularly the uplifted beach ridges observed at Turakirae Head, appears to record three previous coseismic uplifts of the Rimutaka Range caused by earthquakes similar in magnitude to the 1855 event, with a recurrence interval of about 2200 years. [6]
Wellington experienced severe shaking but the resulting damage was reduced as the city had been extensively rebuilt following the 1848 Marlborough earthquake using mainly wooden structures; only one recorded fatality (in a brick building) occurred. [7] Reports identify at least another four people (possibly as many as eight) as having died in the surrounding countryside during the earthquake. Numerous landslides were associated with the earthquake,[8] including numerous events along the slopes of the Rimutaka Range. Minor damage was recorded in places as far away as Lyttelton and Christchurch. The uplift of the northwestern side of Wellington Harbour rendered many of the jetties in the harbour unusable, although this new area of land provided a new rail and road route to the north. Much of modern Wellington's central business district is formed from land raised from the harbour by the event, as shown by the series of "Shoreline 1840" plaques. [9][10]
Along with other historic earthquakes in the Wellington region, the severe uplift and landslides along the coastline caused by the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake would have likely extirpated local populations of Durvillaea antarctica southern bull kelp. [11] For comparison, a large-scale die off of Durvillaea was observed following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. [12][13][14][15][16] The removal of D. antarctica along the Wellington coastline in 1855 (or earlier) would have created an ecological opportunity, which may have facilitated a northward range expansion for Durvillaea poha from the South Island. [11]
The earthquake generated New Zealand's largest historical locally generated tsunami, with a maximum run-up of 10–11 m (33–36 ft). [17][18] New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research created an animated tsunami simulation model based on the 1855 Wairarapa event, which was screened on the television tele-drama "Aftershock". [19]
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Earthquakes
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Annular solar eclipse: Crowds in Asia gather to see 'ring of fire'
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People across Asia are witnessing an annular solar eclipse, which is also known as a "ring of fire". Crowds have gathered to watch the natural phenomenon in a number of countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia. In an annular eclipse, the moon covers the centre of the Sun, giving the appearance of a bright ring. There are usually two solar eclipses on Earth every year, and they occur only when the Earth is completely or partially in the Moon's shadow. The previous solar eclipse was on 2 July and was visible almost exclusively over South America. The next total solar eclipse will be on 14 December 2020, and will be visible across parts of southern Chile and Argentina, as well as south-west Africa and Antarctica. Solar eclipse in South America delights thousands When is the next solar eclipse in my country? Total solar eclipse hits South America Americans gaze at eclipse wonder German Covid cases hit new high after Merkel warning Awkward conversations for US with its neighbours Travis Scott named in $750m Astroworld legal case One family, 40 failed border crossings. VideoOne family, 40 failed border crossings The students taking the 'world's hardest' exams. VideoThe students taking the 'world's hardest' exams The mums using Instagram to offer advice to new parents The man who could be India's first gay judge Awkward conversations for US with its neighbours How Ethiopia's once mighty army has been outflanked 'I've seen irreversible change but hope too for planet' Why Mexico is not prepared for the migrant caravan. VideoWhy Mexico is not prepared for the migrant caravan
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New wonders in nature
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Spair Airlines Flight 3601 crash
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Spair Airlines Flight PAR-3601 was a cargo flight between Ekaterinenburg and Malta. The aircraft crashed in cornfield 1500 meters northeast from the runway of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport in Serbia on August 19 1996. Aircraft
The aircraft was a 12 years old Il-76T with a tail number RA-76513
Flight chronology
The Flight PAR-3601 departed from Ekaterinenburg in Russia on August 18. Plane then had a technical landing onto Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport for refueling and a routine check. Flight PAR-3601 tried to take off around 23:00 but when the engines was started, all power systems failed. The fault was fixed and the pilots decided to leave. On August 19 at 00:10 plane finally took off heading for Malta. About 15 minutes after take off, when plane reached Valjevo pilot Vladimir Starikov contacted Belgrade air traffic control and said that plane was having electrical supply problems. That was the last contact with Flight PAR-3601. Assumption is that the plane lost all power for navigation and communication systems. Plane then turned 180 degrees and tried to come back to Belgrade Airport. Many Belgrade residents saw the plane over the city and witnessed that there were no lights on the aircraft. The weather over Belgrade was very bad that night with heavy clouds. Since there were no electricity aboard the aircraft the only way to find the runway was by sight. The plane appeared over Belgrade about one hour after take off. At about 01:30 it circled central Belgrade very low, other witnesses said that the plane was seen flying very low over New Belgrade. At 03:14 crew tried to land, first a 180 degree turn, aimed for the runway 12, from a course of 121 degrees. The Il-76T hit the ground killing all 12 crew members at 03:16 about 1500 meters to the northeast of the runway. Loud explosion could be heard with parts of the plane flying almost to the airport building. peculations
Few moments after the crash Serbian police quickly closed off the area around crash site and immediately stopped traffic along the nearby highway. The police chased off any journalists who tried to get to the site and even stopped anyone from slowing down on parts of the highway where the crash site was visible. Even Russian diplomats were banned from the site which was also a cause for many media questions. Just few hours after the crash a lot of speculations could be heard all over the media. Some of them stated that the plane was chartered by the former Yugoslav company Jugoimport which was a military import-export company set up in the 1950s as part of the defense ministry. Others stated that the cargo was 1,000 aircraft tires, weighing 14 tonsvague|which tons?, and 744 kg of flares for the Air Cargo House registered in Malta. Spair airlines refused to provide information on the companies it deals with and the cargo the plane was carrying.
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Air crash
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1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo
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The 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo were an attack on Syrian Jews in Aleppo, Syria in December 1947, following the United Nations vote in favour of partitioning Palestine. The attack, a part of an anti-Jewish wave of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa, resulted in some 75 Jews murdered and several hundred wounded. In the aftermath of the riots, half the city's Jewish population fled the city.
Syria gained independence from France in April 1946. The Haganah's illegal immigration operative Akiva Feinstein wrote in 1947 that the new Syrian government then commenced persecuting the Jewish minority, that all Jewish clerks working for the French bureaucracy were fired, and the government tried to stifle Jewish businesses. At the time of the United Nations vote on November 29, 1947, the Jewish community in Aleppo numbered around 10,000 and went back around two thousand years.
After the vote in favour of the partition of Palestine, the government abetted and organised Aleppo's Arab inhabitants to attack the city's Jewish populationThe exact number of those killed remains unknown, but estimates are put at around 75, with several hundred wounded.[6] Ten synagogues, five schools, an orphanage and a youth club, along with several Jewish shops and 150 houses were set ablaze and destroyed. Damaged property was estimated to be valued at US$2.5m. During the pogrom the Aleppo Codex, an important medieval manuscript of the Torah, was lost and feared destroyed. The book reappeared (with pages missing) in Israel in 1958. Following the attack, the Jewish community went into a steep decline. Wealthy Jews escaped the day after the pogrom and many more fled in small groups in subsequent months.Their property was forfeited and on December 22 the Syrian Government enacted a law forbidding Jews from selling their property. As of 2012, no Jews live in Aleppo.
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Riot
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Sydney McLaughlin Wins Olympic Gold in the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles
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The U.S. national champion broke her own world record. Shattering her own world record, Sydney McLaughlin stole the show with a winning performance in the women’s 400-meter hurdles on Wednesday at the Tokyo Games. The 21-year-old American hurdler ran 51.46, beating 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad to earn Olympic gold five years after representing Team USA as a teenager in Rio. Muhammad made a big push to the front in the beginning of the race and was still in front after the final hurdle, but she couldn’t match McLaughlin’s closing speed. Muhammad finished in 51.58, faster than the previous world record, to take the silver medal for Team USA. Femke Bol of the Netherlands finished third in 52.03 for bronze. HER GOLDEN MOMENT!@GoSydGo takes the gold in world record fashion in the women's 400m hurdles final! #TokyoOlympics x @TeamUSA ?: NBC?: https://t.co/xHOJq5UwlD?: NBC Sports App pic.twitter.com/xFGFzaW6Gu
Janieve Russell of Jamaica (53.08), and Ukranian athletes Anna Ryzhykova (53.48) and Viktoriya Tkachuk (53.79) also dipped under the 54-second barrier. According to World Athletics, the Tokyo final is the deepest women's 400-meter hurdles race in global championships history. The record-breaking performance also took place 24 hours after Karsten Warholm of Norway broke the world record in the men's 400-meter hurdles.
→ Join Runner’s World+ to stay up to date on the Tokyo Olympics!
Going into the final, Muhammad said she expected a world record, and she didn't waste any time chasing the mark. “I was thinking, take it out really, really fast,” Muhammad said. “I think Sydney and Bol have such amazing finishes and just being on the outside lane. I think that was one of the few cards I could play. I knew the speed was there. So why not? I just tried a little a different set pattern to just kind of get me on and keep going.”
With years of experience racing Muhammad, McLaughlin anticipated her American rival's tactics and approached the test with confidence. “I always know [Dalilah] is gonna go out,” McLaughlin said. “And I just know that I had to be patient and trust that, you know, I could finish strong enough and come off 10 and give it everything.”
When asked if she would've run as fast without Muhammad in the race, McLaughlin shared her appreciation for the competitiveness that has made both hurdlers better. “I think that's really just iron sharpening iron, you need somebody who's going to push you to be your best,” McLaughlin said. “And I think that's what we do so well, every time we step on the track, it's always something fast.”
Tokyo marks McLaughlin’s second appearance at the Olympics after she qualified for the 2016 team as a 16-year-old. She reached the semifinals in Rio, shortly after her 17th birthday. In the process, she became the youngest U.S. track Olympian since 1972. McLaughlin, who hails from New Jersey and trains in Los Angeles with renowned sprints coach Bobby Kersee, ignited an exciting rivalry between herself and Muhammad at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June. At the championship in Eugene, Oregon, McLaughlin beat Muhammad with a winning time of 51.90, shattering the world record Muhammad set during her winning performance at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar. McLaughlin’s stardom has been building for the last several years. She turned pro after one year at the University of Kentucky, which included a collegiate record in her signature event. At the 2019 world championships, she earned a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles and gold as a member of Team USA’s winning 4x400-meter relay. —Cathal Dennehy contributed reporting from Tokyo.
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Break historical records
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A tale of two visits and a shift in Indian foreign policy
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Last week India hosted two important visitors – Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and the US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry. These were routine visits, one to lay the groundwork for a potential Russian presidential visit to India and the other to assess Indian intentions on climate
Diplomatic visits, more often than not, are routine, more a function of bureaucratic necessities than of any real strategic significance. Most visits of foreign dignitaries to India or elsewhere hardly transform the underlying dynamic of the bilateral relationship. But sometimes, the tone and tenor of the engagement manages to convey more than either side perhaps intends to, thereby hinting at a fundamental transformation.
Last week India hosted two important visitors – Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and the United States (US) special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry. They did not come to sign any major documents or make dramatic declarations. These were routine visits, one to lay the groundwork for a potential Russian presidential visit to India and the other to assess Indian intentions on climate. But these short visits revealed much more about the state of play in India-Russia and India-US ties than any formal policy document.
While Lavrov asserted that India and Russia “are tied through a strategic partnership and at the heart of our partnership is the long-lived friendship between our nations and proximity of our stance on relevant international issues and our friendship,” it was evident that the partnership is drifting away from its strategic orientation.
Differences have mounted, as the prism of the two nations to view the changing world order are substantively different. For a partnership that claims to be historical, Russia’s decision to speak on behalf of China on matters from the Indo-Pacific to the Quad underscores for India a sad reality of a partner that is in terminal decline requiring the crutches of China to showcase its viability as a global power. While, in the past, Lavrov had commented on how Indian foreign policy decisions are being shaped by other powers, this visit saw him attempting to shore up Pakistan as the central pillar of Russian South Asia policy. From trying to ensure that New Delhi is kept out of the Afghan peace process to reportedly offering a blank cheque to Pakistan, Russian foreign policy has indeed come a long way.
Kerry, on the other hand, was in India to engage the country’s leadership on increasing climate ambition ahead of Joe Biden’s Leaders’ Summit on Climate to be held later this month and the COP26 meet scheduled for later this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is part of the 40 world leaders Biden has invited to a virtual summit on climate, aimed at underlining the urgency and the economic benefits of stronger climate action.
Soon after taking office, Biden led the US back into the Paris climate accord. India’s role is critical in ensuring that global targets are achieved. From being on the opposite sides of the ideological divide, the two democracies are now working more closely than ever on climate action — notwithstanding differences on issues such as a timeline for net zero emission goal.
These two visits firmly underscore the new operational realities of Indian foreign policy. There is no denying the fact that in an ideal world India would like to have excellent ties with both Russia and the US. In fact, for New Delhi, there is much to be gained by strengthening its ties with Moscow, something that Indian diplomacy has been trying hard to do over the last few years.
Finding new areas of cooperation, moving the relationship away from its unidimensional nature of excessive dependence on defence ties, boosting energy and trade ties, keeping high levels of communication open — all of this has been done. Yet, the relationship has failed to improve significantly. In an ideal world, Russia would have great ties with the West and it would be engaged in the Indo-Pacific, giving the region greater heft vis-à-vis China. But that’s what India would like to see happen, not Russia.
For Russia, its primary preoccupation is its growing rivalry with the West and if China helps it in pushing back against the West, then it is all for the best. Sentimentality in foreign policy is the worst possible response. While it is true that India needs Russia for its defence needs and for managing various regional issues, foreign policy is not a one-way street. India cannot keep on hoping for outcomes that Russia is not willing to deliver.
As the recent episode of the US 7th Fleet asserting navigational rights inside India’s EEZ without requesting India’s prior consent underlined, New Delhi and Washington too continue to have differences on a range of issues. From trade and human rights to defence purchases from Russia, challenges are significant and, sometimes, not prone to an easy resolution.
But what is different is that the India-US relationship is New Delhi’s strategic partnership of this century, where the two partners have a similar frame of reference to map out their strategic challenges and so are willing to work together to manage differences. Something that was true of the Indo-Soviet partnership in the 20th century.
It’s a different world out there today and there is no use complaining about change. Nations nimble enough to adapt rapidly are often the ones which emerge as the leaders.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Insect invasion: Israel battles plague of locusts - NBC News
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World
Insect invasion: Israel battles plague of locusts
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Negev Desert is alive – with locusts.Huge swarms of the newly hatched critters have begun marching across the sand, devouring everything in their path.With the help of high-tech irrigation methods, much of Israel’s desert has been transformed into lush farmland that supplies supermarkets across the country with fresh produce. But the swarm of locusts, which locals say i
May 13, 2013, 7:25 PM UTC
By Dave Copeland, Cameraman, NBC News
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Negev Desert is alive – with locusts.
Huge swarms of the newly hatched critters have begun marching across the sand, devouring everything in their path.
With the help of high-tech irrigation methods, much of Israel’s desert has been transformed into lush farmland that supplies supermarkets across the country with fresh produce. But the swarm of locusts, which locals say is the worst infestation in decades, is threatening crops and farms.
Israel’s Agriculture Ministry has deployed pickup trucks, planes and helicopters to spray pesticides on the locusts before they can inflict more damage.
“They are easy targets now, but in two or three days when their wings develop, it will be a disaster,” said Lior Katari, one of the Agriculture Ministry’s coordinators.
Adult locusts arrived in the area in March . Scientists say they likely originated in Sudan and crossed from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula into Israel. Then they mated and laid billions of eggs in the sand which are now hatching.
Teams of exterminators are working from sunrise to sunset, spraying the millions of young locusts as they move across the ground.
NBC News spent a few hours with a team of sprayers equipped with a large tank of insecticide in a 4 x 4 pickup truck on Sunday. They received constant updates from observers in helicopters and colleagues on the ground telling them where to go.
“Quickly, we need to go to Revavim! It’s full of them,” said Yigal Maria, a specialist exterminator drafted from northern Israel to help out, referring to a small community near the border with Egypt.
His assistant, Yuval Bashari, leaned out of the window with a spray gun, dousing the locusts with pesticides.
“Look over there, you see all that green? It’s locusts! Can you believe it?” Bashari shouted.
The ground was covered with what looked like a slow-moving green carpet. Millions of locusts, all moving in the same direction, made a loud rustling sound as they devoured everything in their path.
The spray team started to circle the swarm, moving slowly from the outer edge inwards. The locusts panicked, trying to leap out of the way of the vehicle and the milky white spray. Many perished under the wheels of the vehicle. It took about 30 minutes to finish them off.
“Let’s go, we are finished here,” Maria shouted. “We need to eat something before they call us again.”
The insecticides worked – but that doesn’t help organic farmers who can’t use pesticides.
“They were eating the weeds at first, they were small, so we ignored them,” said Golan Cohen, the owner of an organic farm that grows desert herbs used in the United States for medical research.
But when things got bad, they resorted to non-invasive, but also less effective, means to ward off the menace.
“At first we just made noise, banging pots and shouting – and it worked,” said Dror Cohen-Chen, a worker on Cohen’s farm near the Egyptian border. But that technique didn’t last long.
“The next day we came back and they had destroyed everything,” said Cohen.
As he spoke, a busload of volunteers turned up to help.
“It’s really warming the heart to see [the volunteers]. It’s strengthening us, because we had a very hard week of struggling with the locusts.”
Eli Hanev, a sunburned and dust-covered local, had been up since dawn spraying pesticides in another area. He sauntered up to the organic farm, a 9mm pistol on his hip.
“Three thousand years ago God sent the Egyptians a plague of locusts, now we are getting them back….” he said, the rest of his sentence drowned out by a helicopter swooping low overhead.
Related:
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Insect Disaster
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1835 Washington Navy Yard labor strike
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The Washington Navy Yard labor strike of 1835 is considered the first strike of federal civilian employees. [1][2][3][4] The strike began on Wednesday July 31, 1835, and ended August 15, 1835. The strike was in support of the movement advocating a ten-hour work day and for a redress of grievances such as newly imposed lunch-hour regulations. [5] The strike failed in its objectives for two reasons, the secretary of the Navy refused to change the shipyard working hours and the loss of public support due to involvement of large numbers of mechanics and laborers in the race riot popularly known as the Snow Riot or Snow Storm. [6]
1835 was an important year for American labor with workers particularly in Boston, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington D.C. petitioning for higher wages, better working conditions and a ten-hour workday. [7] In Washington D.C. from early in the nineteenth century workers agitated for a reduction in the arduous twelve-hour workday. At the Navy Yard employment conditions, and enslaved labor created problems and strife. For the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, the Navy Yard was the District's principal employer of enslaved African Americans. "Competition for jobs on the navy yard was constant ... white workers feared that competition from enslaved and even free blacks dragged down the wage scale. "[8][9] On the yard enslaved African Americans worked as seamen, cooks, servants or laborers; they performed most of the unpleasant and onerous jobs. The white workers at the Navy Yard feared and resented the enslaved and hated free blacks as competitors who would drag down the wage scale. At the Navy Yard most white workers "opposed slavery in their workplace but simultaneously were opposed to black freedom and abolition. "[10] During Commodore Thomas Tingey's tenure from 1801 to 1829, his correspondence with the Board of Navy Commissioners reflects, that after wage demands; racially based complaints were the most frequent issue needing resolution. [11] The number of blacks, free and enslaved, rose rapidly and by 1808, muster lists reflect that blacks made up one third of the workforce. [12] The District of Columbia slave population actually reach its peak of 4,520 in 1820. Thereafter rapid demographic changes, exerted profound social ones, as the number of free blacks increased. The 1830 census for the District reflected the black population was 9,109 and for the first time this figure included more free blacks 4,604 (50.5%) then enslaved 4,505 (49.5%). The number of free blacks continued to increase with each decade, by 1860 the black population totaled 14,316 of which 11,131 were free (77.8%) and so did the anxiety of white workers who feared ever increasing economic competition. [13] On the Navy Yard, slaveholders included both naval officers and senior civilians who collected the wages of their slaves, rented to the Navy Yard. [14] Labor trouble and racial tension broke out periodically as the restive and volatile workforce sought higher wages and better conditions. [15] Most all naval shipyard workers were per diem or day labor. As such, they were subject to the whims of the annual Congressional appropriation and periodic seasonal reductions in the workforce. Workers during the early nineteenth century lived in a state of constant anxiety regarding employment and wages. Wages were subject to considerable change, in some cases daily pay fluctuated dramatically, e.g. Washington Navy Yard carpenters' wages were reduced from a high of $2.50 per day in 1808 to $1.64 per day in 1820. [16] Workers actively responded to pay cuts, as early as March 1807; the blacksmiths writing to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith claimed the "right to Demand an Equal Participation with others in the Benefit of our Labour" and demanded their wages restored. [17] The secretary in reply labeled them "a dissatisfied set of men" and threatened to "dismiss all complaining men as soon as publick convenience will permit" and replace them with a "set of orderly, hard working fellows". [18] Three Washington Navy Yard "job actions" had occurred previously. On September 29, 1806, Commodore Thomas Tingey reported to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith of his problems with "the Ship Carpenters, Smiths and Riggers" who were upset that their wages had been reduced. The ship "Joiners too, believed that they also were to remain at their former rate of pay. They therefore remonstrated; but were informed it could not then be altered - A few days afterwards (in the first week of August) they unanimously withdrew from work and deputized 3 or 4 of their numbers, who came to the yard presented a written paper to Captain Cassin, who offered it to me, I refused to receive or peruse it. ... It is undeniable that I consider them a steady and valuable set of workmen ... but I deem it inadmissible to advocate, raising their pay to 1.75 per diem. "[19] The second on 13 March 1827, when a dispute over wages provoked laborers to leave the yard briefly to express their displeasure. The third began on 23 March 1830, when the laborers were recorded "standing out" for a week to show that their per diem wage rate should have been granted sooner. [20] These job actions represent a period when federal workers, though not unionized, could strike - an option later denied to government employees with the passage of the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act. [21] Except for the brief entries made by the commanding officer to the secretary of the Navy or the officer of the watch in the station log, little is known about the exact circumstances of these early incidents. In the United States during the first decades of the nineteenth century "strikes constituted illegal conspiracies under common law, exposing labor to criminal prosecution". [22] Although rarely enforced, strikes, sometimes led local authorities to call out the militia. [23] Federal employee organizations were in their infancy, and mostly limited to charitable endeavors. On the Washington Navy Yard, the first such organization, was the Navy Yard Beneficial Society founded in 1804. While not representing workers' economic interests, the society did provide members with a nominal sum of fifty cents per pay period, the assurance of a decent funeral, and financial assistance to their spouse and minor children. Records regarding the Navy Yard Beneficial Society are scarce, but early employee obituaries provide evidence that it was very active as a charitable group from 1804 to the 1860s. [24] The workday in all federal navy yards prior to 1835 was sunrise to sunset, with time off for breakfast and lunch. In May 1835, the Boston carpenters issued their famous "Ten Hour Circular", advocating a ten-hour day which found wide distribution throughout the major cities on the eastern seaboard and the District of Columbia and quickly became a rallying cry for reducing the length of the working day. [25] On March 26, 1835, the mechanics in the New York Navy Yard (Brooklyn), petitioned the Board of Navy Commissioners to reduce the workday to ten hours, they stated, "the present custom of laboring on the public works of the Naval Service, from sunrise to sunset, is in summer an inconvenience and hardship to the workman." They requested that the day of labor on the works of the naval service, may not exceed ten hours. [26] Their petition was returned to them with the advice, "that in the Board of Navy Commissioners opinion, ... it would be inconsistent with the public interests, to regulate the working hours in the Navy Yards as proposed in the memorial". [27][28]In the summer of 1835 Philadelphia Navy Yard shipwrights, joiners and other workers became leaders in this effort when they chose to combine direct action, a threatened strike, with political pressure to the executive branch. After first making a request to the secretary of the Navy via shipyard Commandant Commodore James Barron, on August 29, 1835, they appealed directly to President Andrew Jackson.
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Strike
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Darwin Port deal with Chinese company ‘should be torn up’ senator says
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Senator Jacqui Lambie has called on the Federal Government to tear up the Darwin Port deal with Chinese company Landbridge, following the termination of Victoria’s Belt and Road contract under new national security measures.
“If the Federal Government can step in on Victoria’s Belt and Road, then surely they have the power to rip up this agreement which is a threat to our national security,” Ms Lambie said.
The former CLP government entered into a 99-year port lease to Chinese-owned Landbridge Group in 2015 for $506 million.
The NT’s head public servant Jodie Ryan, who sat on the committee that selected Landbridge, previously disclosed that all of the $506 million the NT received for the strategic asset has already been spent.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Marise Payne terminated Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China, citing the deal as “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”.
Under the new Foreign Relations legislation, all existing state, territory and local government agreements will be vetted by Ms Payne and terminated if they are found not to be in the national interest.
That includes agreements entered into by universities.
Ms Lambie said the next deal to be torn up needed to be the Darwin Port.
“It’s in our national interest to do something about that Port of Darwin, it is the Top End of Australia, if we’re going to be attacked, let’s be honest here, that’s the first place it’s going to hit,” she told Sky News.
“[The deal] should be torn up.”
However, it remains unlikely the port deal will be terminated, according to foreign policy experts, because the port is ostensibly part of a commercial agreement with a private company. But it is expected to be reviewed by Ms Payne.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who sat on the committee that recommended leasing the port to China, has previously rejected calls to have the port deal terminated, suggesting the money that would have to be paid back would be put to better use in the NT.
Other deals Mr Gunner has signed with Chinese governments, including an “education agreement” with the Shenzhen local government in 2019, may very well be terminated if it fails the national interest test conducted by Ms Payne.
Mr Gunner continually refused to explain the nature of that agreement for months, stating first that it was a “sister cities relationship” and later releasing the documents that showed it was an “Framework for Cooperation” agreement between the NT Department of Education and the “Shenzhen Education Bureau, China” that committed both parties to “work together to promote closer relations between the Northern Territory and China”.
Mr Gunner’s secrecy around the agreement has never been explained, including why the agreement was not released in full until January of this year – 15 months after he signed it.
Contact
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Tear Up Agreement
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1934 United Airlines Utah crash
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The 1934 United Airlines Boeing 247 crash was an accident involving a Boeing Air Transport-operated United Airlines scheduled flight of a Boeing 247, which crashed in bad weather shortly after departing Salt Lake City, Utah on February 23, 1934, killing all eight on board. The cause was not immediately determined, but poor weather was considered a factor. At 1400 hrs. on Friday, February 23, 1934, United Airlines Boeing 247, NC13357, c/n 1739,[1][2] departed Salt Lake City, Utah, bound for Cheyenne, Wyoming. The weather was poor, with snow and sleet throughout the region, with up to seven inches of snow accumulating in the lowlands and even more at higher altitudes. [3]
"The last word received by radio from the ill-fated plane was when pilot Lloyd Anderson signalled "All Okay" 20 minutes after the departure. When the plane did not arrive at Cheyenne on schedule, an immediate search was started. "[4]
Throughout Saturday, February 24, aircraft covered the routes the missing airliner might have travelled, and the United Airlines office at Salt Lake City made phone calls "to all points in the vicinity. None of the efforts brought any definite trace of the lost plane. "[5] "Little hope remained for the safety of the crew or passengers of the plane, which it was believed must have crashed in the clouds and fog. Its fuel supply, United Air Lines officials said, would have been exhausted by 6:30 yesterday. "[6]
H. D. T. Lewis, chief of the United Airlines at Chicago, arrived Sunday to take charge. [7] Chief Pilot H. T. 'Slim' Lewis and his assistant, Leon D. Cuddeback, ordered a search with Rock Springs, Wyo., as the center. [8]
The air search began at daybreak, February 24, when two planes left the Salt Lake airport, joined by other pilots of the airline and by Lieut. Frank Crismon, a reserve army pilot. They were aided by ground parties searching the mountains to the east. Weather, which Frank Caldwell, operations manager for United, called "the worst in the history of flying in this region," hampered rescue workers throughout the day. [9]
Planes were sent up, two from Rock Springs, Wyoming, and six from Salt Lake. Lewis concentrated the search in the mountains. "That plane is not more than 50 miles from here," he said. He was right. As Don Broughton and Ed Greer, United Airlines pilots, flew over the area known as Parley's canyon, they sighted the plane, nose down, nearly buried in the deep snow on the side of the canyon. The nose was between two giant pine trees which stood on either side of the plane, almost hiding it from sight. [10]
"There was no sign of life. [11][12] Broughton radioed the discovery to airline headquarters at Salt Lake City. [13]
A motor caravan was organized at Salt Lake City. Members waded through snow four feet deep for four miles to reach the crash site. Leon D. Cuddeback, assistant to Lewis, was the first company official to arrive. He reported that the plane was wedged between the trees in such a position that it was almost vertical. [14]
The bodies were piled on top of one another in the wreck, just 35 miles east of Salt Lake City. It was believed that all died instantly. The pilot's wrist watches had stopped at 1505 hrs. [15]
Lloyd Anderson, the flight's pilot, had more than 7,000 hours of flight time. He began flying at Los Angeles and obtained his license in 1926. After completing his flying course he barnstormed and instructed on the west coast and later opened a temporary line between Mexicali, Mazatlan and Mexico City. He flew this route for a time. [16] Anderson also surveyed and opened a mail line between Mazatlan and Brownsville, Texas, and later was with C. A. T., flying between El Paso, Texas, and Mexico City. He surveyed a route between Chihuahua, Mexico, and Nogales, Ariz., and flew this route for two years. [17] Anderson joined United June 15, 1931, as a reserve pilot at Omaha and came to Cheyenne a short time later, flying between Omaha and Salt Lake City. "[18]
Anderson was 32 years old, was married, and had one son, 3 years old. The company stated that he was born in Canada. [19]
The co-pilot was Eric G. Danielson, also of Cheyenne, with Miss Mary Carter of Cheyenne, formerly of Omaha and Chattanooga, Tenn., the stewardess and only woman aboard. [20]
Danielson was born in Uppsala, Sweden, and came to the United States as a child. He received his air training in the army, and was stationed at March Field, California, Kelly Field, Texas, and at Fort Crockett, Texas. He completed his student flying in 1931, and later was a pilot in the Texas National Guard. "He joined the United Air Lines staff July 3, 1933. He was 29 years old. His mother, Mrs. P. J. Danielson, resides at Spokane, Wash."[21]
Mary E. Carter was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She was 24. Carter studied nursing at Chattanooga, Tenn., and graduated as a nurse in 1927.
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Air crash
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Huddersfield factory fire
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The Huddersfield factory fire occurred on 31 October 1941 in the town of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, inside the H Booth & Son factory. The fire was caused by a smoker's pipe left alight inside a raincoat pocket when work had just commenced. It destroyed the building and killed 49, most of them women and young girls. [1][2][3][4] Many were left trapped in the upper floors of the five storey building as it did not have a fire escape. [5]
In November 2012, a memorial was unveiled on the site to commemorate 71 years since the disaster. [5]
Coordinates: 53°38′59″N 1°47′00″W / 53.6497°N 1.7834°W / 53.6497; -1.7834
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Fire
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Ministers take four-nation diplomatic trip
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Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne will travel to Indonesia, India, South Korea and the US for talks on security and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trip to Jakarta, New Delhi, Seoul, Washington and New York comes ahead of Prime Minister Scott Morrison visiting the US capital later this month to meet with leaders of the "quad" group.
The ministers said the significant trip would be used to reinforce Australia's active engagement in the region.
"During our meetings and engagements across the four countries, we will discuss our continuing partnerships to overcome the pandemic, including through the equitable, safe and effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, and our shared path to global economic recovery," Senator Payne said.
The visit comes as the US and Australia mark the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.
"I am very much looking forward to meeting with my counterparts face-to-face to build on our already strong relationships and to discuss further our shared interests in keeping our region safe and secure," Mr Dutton said.
In Washington, the ministers will take part in the first Australia-United States Ministerial consultations with the Biden administration, joining Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
On the agenda will be the COVID-19 response and recovery, economic coercion, defence posture, climate, cyber and critical technology, space and supply chains.
Senator Payne will also travel to New York to attend the opening of the 76th United Nations General Assembly.
In Jakarta, the ministers will meet with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto.
The New Delhi talks will be with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
On the Indian meeting agenda will be economic security, cyber security, climate, critical technology and supply chains.
The Seoul meetings will be with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Minister for National Defense Suh Wook.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Reactions to President Trump’s Decision to Withdraw From the Iran Nuclear Deal
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[This] decision is not an endpoint. Rather, it provides an important opportunity to apply further diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran in order to both prevent the regime from ever acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and to push back against its expanding regional aggression.
It is our collective responsibility to forge a bipartisan consensus to ensure America’s lawmakers stay focused on that effort. This cannot be achieved by one bill, one initiative or one announcement. It requires a long-term strategy, backed by the bipartisan support of Congress.
In the months and years ahead, AIPAC will work with Democrats and Republicans to ensure that our government applies all the tools necessary to counter Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions. The gravity of the moment and the imperative to definitively end Iran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapons capability demand that we remain focused on this effort.
The AJC issued a statement saying that despite opposing the 2015 JCPOA because of its flaws — no binding provisions on ballistic missile development, no focus on Iran’s destabilizing regional behavior, weaknesses in the coverage of the inspections regime and a dangerous sunset clause — it had hoped working with European allies, the deal could be improved.
According to its statement, the decision by Trump was “profoundly regrettable. Despite our many reservations, we had nonetheless hoped to see the deal ‘fixed,’ not ‘nixed,’ at this stage of the game.
“We can only hope that this action by the President, significant as it is, will not end the effort to find common ground. The last thing anyone should want is a wedge driven between the U.S. and our European partners, as Iran would inevitably become an unintended beneficiary. And given Iran’s current and future threats to regional and global security, that should be an outcome no one in the U.S. or Europe wants.”
“President Trump’s misguided and ill-conceived announcement weakens the United States, damages American credibility with its allies and puts the entire world at risk,” said Ameinu National President Kenneth Bob. “The agreement with Iran was working, according to American and Israeli security experts. The deal’s opponents, while extremely vocal, have never been able to articulate a practical alternative to this negotiated settlement,” he added.
“It is our fervent hope that America’s European allies and Iran will endeavor to keep the JCPOA alive and prevent Iran from resuming its uranium enrichment program that was halted under the agreement. It’s difficult to understand how leaving the JPCOA makes the United States, Israel or any other country any safer. Just the opposite, we are now closer to a war in the Middle East than we have been for many years.”
“While there is a legitimate debate to be had about the wisdom of withdrawing from the Iran deal, President Trump’s announcement — in clear opposition to the wishes of the P5 +1 countries, particularly the United States’ E3 allies Britain, France, and Germany — is concerning. Any effort to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power will require buy-in from American allies, and withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in an effort to get Iran to agree to tougher terms going forward is only a viable tactic if there is a formulated and multilateral Plan B in place.
“Safeguarding American and Israeli security cannot be accomplished if foreign policy is conducted as an extemporaneous exercise based upon campaign sloganeering rather than well-crafted policies. What is critical now is not only to think through how best to keep Iran’s nuclear ambitions in check, but to also prevent the divisiveness that characterized the debate in the American Jewish community during the lead up to the Iran deal’s formulation. Rather than relitigate previous battles, it is imperative to focus on what comes next.”
The Israel Policy Forum is a N.Y.-based American Jewish organization that works for a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The Jewish Policy Center applauds President Trump for withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran entered the agreement hiding its prior nuclear weapons program and unwilling to allow inspections of its military facilities and has since possessed too many centrifuges and too much heavy water. Furthermore, Iranian cooperation in military facilities with North Korea made it impossible for the United States to certify, as the JCPOA requires, that a) Iran is “transparently, verifiably and fully implementing” the agreement; and b) “has not taken any action, including covert activities, that could significantly advance its nuclear weapons program.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom have made intensive efforts to bring Iran closer to compliance, but they failed.
“Withdrawal from the JCPOA is not the end of the process. The president and America’s allies must find ways to protect the United States, Europe, and the Middle East from Iranian aggression — both nuclear and non-nuclear. But we believe President Trump has taken a decision that is responsive to the situation and vital to the national security interests of the United States.”
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Tear Up Agreement
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Large Shopping Malls in Bangkok Will Be Closed until July 25th
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Shopping malls under the Mall Group, including all branches of The Mall, the Emporium, Emquartier and Paragon Department Store, are also closed for 14 days, from today, except for supermarkets, food courts, pharmacy shops, eateries (take-out and delivery only), banks, mobile phone shops and vaccination sites. Published on By BANGKOK (NNT) – Large-scale shopping malls in Bangkok and in some dark-red zone provinces are now closed for two weeks, to comply with the latest COVID-19 curbs in 10 provinces. Central Department Store said a total of 16 branches, except Tops supermarkets and Central Food Halls, will be closed from today (Monday) until July 25th to help curb the soaring COVID-19 infection rate. They are Chidlom, Central World, Silom Complex, Chaeng Wattana, Lat Phrao, Bang Na, Pinklao, Mega Bang Na, Rama III, Rama II, East Ville, Future Park Rangsit, Westgate, Salaya, Ram-Intra and Festival Hat Yai. Tops supermarkets and Central Food Halls at these premises will remain open, from 8am to 8pm, while eateries (take-out and delivery only), banks, pharmacies and mobile phone shops are also open. Shopping malls under the Mall Group, including all branches of The Mall, the Emporium, Emquartier and Paragon Department Store, are also closed for 14 days, from today, except for supermarkets, food courts, pharmacy shops, eateries (take-out and delivery only), banks, mobile phone shops and vaccination sites. IKEA Bang Na and IKEA Bang Yai announced they will close from today until further notice. IKEA Phuket remains open as usual. Information and SourceReporter : Subhabhong RarueysongRewriter : Tarin AngskulNational News Bureau & Public Relations : http://thainews.prd.go.th Thailand’s H1 Investment Applications rise 158% in combined value, BOI says Downside risks loom for Thai economy due to Prolonged COVID-19 Outbreak Economic growth rates in Asia-Pacific are broadly rebounding and debt burdens stabilizing, giving rise to a stable outlook for sovereign creditworthiness in 2022. Still, the pace of recovery differs vastly, and some economies will experience deep economic scarring, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service. Published on By Economic growth rates in Asia-Pacific are broadly rebounding and debt burdens stabilizing, giving rise to a stable outlook for sovereign creditworthiness in 2022. Still, the pace of recovery differs vastly, and some economies will experience deep economic scarring, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service. Published on By BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s economy hit its slowest pace of growth in a year in the third quarter, hurt by power shortages, supply chain bottlenecks and major wobbles in the property market and raising pressure on policymakers to do more to prop up the faltering recovery. Bangkok, 16 November, 2021 – Maya Bay in Krabi’s Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park is expected to... The British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss has been on a visit to ASEAN as she tries to boost British trade... The tourism industry contributes 12 percent of GDP and the government views this industry as an indispensable path towards economic... Bangkok, 11 November, 2021 – Doi Inthanon National Park – home to Thailand’s highest peak – in Chom Thong district... Bangkok, 11 November, 2021 – According to the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, there were a total...
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Organization Closed
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Norway's Karsten Warholm breaks men's 400m hurdles world record
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Norway's Karsten Warholm broke Kevin Young's 29-year-old 400m hurdles world record when he completed the race in 46.70 seconds in front of his home fans at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo on Thursday.
Warholm beat 1992 Olympic champion Young's mark of 46.78 secs, which was set four years before the Norwegian was born and was the longest-standing record in men's track.
Twice world champion Warholm raced to an early lead and never let up as he was roared on all the way to the finishing line, which he crossed ahead of 2019 Pan American Games champion Alison dos Santos by more than six tenths of a second.
"I knew that I had a fast time in my body," said Warholm. "It might take another world record to win the Olympics."
The achievement capped a series of solid performances at the Diamond League meet, where two-time Olympic medalist Andre de Grasse won the men's 200m in 20.09.
Read More
"I was happy with that today. There are a few things to work on but I only arrived a couple of days ago so my body still needs to adjust after the jet lag," said the 26-year-old Canadian, who added that he planned "to bring some medals back" from the Tokyo Olympics.
Ivorian sprinter Marie-Josee Ta Lou torched the women's 100m in 10.91, a solid showing ahead of Tokyo, where she will face a field overflowing with talent.
Norway's Karsten Warholm fired out a shot at potential Tokyo Olympic rivals when he shattered the long-standing 400m hurdles world record at Diamond League meet in Oslo and warned he had "more in the tank".
"When you start your season you just hope for no injuries, good training and to be ready for competition," said Ta Lou. "There is a lot of great talent out there but I am always in competition with myself."
Kenya's Hellen Obiri, a silver medalist in Rio, won the 5,000m in 14:26.38 but made clear she wants to improve ahead of the Games, where she plans to compete in the 5,000m and 10,000m.
"I have a lot of speed work to do between now and then. I have worked hard on my endurance and now I need to concentrate on the last 300m," said Obiri, who picked up her second consecutive world championship gold in 2019.
In the women's 400m hurdles, 21-year-old Femke Bol clinched her second back-to-back Diamond League win in a personal best 53.33 seconds to extend her own national record for the Netherlands.
In the field events, world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber settled for third in the javelin with 59.30m, as German Christin Hussong won with 60.95m.
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Break historical records
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Brasília Open (beach volleyball)
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Brasília Open is a beach volleyball event that is part of the Swatch FIVB World Tour. It happens annually in Brasília, Brazil. [1]
This article about a volleyball competition is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article about sports in Brazil is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Sports Competition
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Capitan Gap Fire
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The Capitan Gap Fire was a 17,000 acres (69 km²) human-caused forest fire that broke out in the Capitan Mountains range within Lincoln National Forest, in Lincoln County, eastern New Mexico in 1950: beginning on May 4th. [1] It was named for Capitan Gap in the mountain range. While a 24-man firefighting crew desperately dug firebreaks the wind shifted, and the fire jumped the line. The men buried themselves in the earth of a recent landslide, and survived the fire. Also during the blaze, a bear cub who the men had previously seen ducking in and out of the forest survived the fire by climbing a tree and hanging onto the windward side with only singes and other survivable injuries. He was rescued by the firefighters and named Hotfoot, before filling the role of Smokey Bear. Smokey Bear Vista Point overlooks some of the wildfire's site in Lincoln National Forest.
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Fire
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A new generation of Desert Locust swarms is threatening agricultural and pastoral livelihoods and the food security of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and Yemen
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16 December 2020, Rome - A new generation of Desert Locust swarms is threatening agricultural and pastoral livelihoods and the food security of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and Yemen despite intense efforts to control the pest throughout 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said today. With international support and an unprecedented large-scale response campaign coordinated by FAO, more than 1.3 million hectares of locust infestations have been treated in ten countries since January. Control operations have prevented the loss of an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of cereal, worth nearly $800 million, in countries already hard hit by acute food insecurity and poverty. That is enough to feed 18 million people a year. However, favourable weather conditions and widespread seasonal rains have caused extensive breeding in eastern Ethiopia and Somalia. This was worsened by Cyclone Gati which brought flooding to northern Somalia last month allowing locust infestations to increase further in the coming months. New locust swarms are already forming and threatening to re-invade northern Kenya and breeding is also underway on both sides of the Red Sea, posing a new threat to Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and Yemen. "We have achieved much, but the battle against this relentless pest is not yet over," said the Director-General of FAO, QU Dongyu. "We must not waiver. Locusts keep growing day and night and risks are exacerbating food insecurity for vulnerable families across the affected region." FAO is assisting governments and other partners with surveillance and coordination, technical advice and the procurement of supplies and equipment but operations must be further scaled up to safeguard food production and prevent worsening food insecurity in the affected countries. Donors and partners have so far provided nearly $200 million to finance control efforts, allowing FAO and governments to rapidly scale up locust response capacity in a region that has not faced an upsurge of the pest on this scale in generations. Over 1,500 ground survey and control personnel have been trained and 110 vehicle mounted ground sprayers and 20 aircraft are now in action. FAO is now seeking a further $40 million to increase surveillance and control activities in the most affected countries - Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Yemen - in 2021. More than 35 million people are already acutely food insecure in these five countries and FAO estimates this number could increase by another 3.5 million, if nothing is done to control the latest outbreak. Rural livelihoods must be protected FAO is not only working with governments and partners on control operations. The Organization is taking action to safeguard and protect rural livelihoods by providing affected growers with farming packages, veterinary care and feed for vegetation-starved livestock, and cash for families who have lost their crops so that they can cope until their next harvest. Over 200 000 households have already received livelihood assistance and that number is expected to increase. FAO will assist an additional 98 000 households in early 2021 and is appealing for continuous support, mainly through Humanitarian Response Plans. Without additional funding, control efforts could slow down or halt from the end of January 2021, potentially allowing the numbers of the crop-devouring pest to surge in some places. Farmers, whose livelihoods have been impacted, require further support and national capacities in monitoring and responding to Desert Locust still need to be strengthened. Funding has been received from Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, the African Development Bank, the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Louis Dreyfus Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and the World Bank Group. Desert Locust monitoring, forecasting and control are at the heart of FAO's mandate. Its Desert Locust Information Service has been in operation for nearly 50 years. FAO's well-established field presence, ability to link up authorities from different countries, and expertise in Desert Locust management make it a key player in responding to upsurges like that currently affecting East Africa.
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Insect Disaster
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UP government adopts Indian wrestling till 2032 Olympics, expected to pump in financial aid of Rs 170 crore
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Wrestling Federation of India president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh on Thursday said that the Utter Pradesh government will adopt the sport and is expected to invest Rs 170 crore in infrastructure and support to the wrestlers till the 2032 Olympics. Singh said the WFI took inspiration from the Odisha government's support to the sport of hockey and approached the UP government for similar assistance to their game. "Odisha is a small state, yet they are supporting hockey in such a great manner, so we thought, why can't UP, which is such a big state, support wrestling. We approached them and the CM Yogi Adityanath has accepted it," Singh told the Press Trust of India. "In our proposal, we have asked for Rs 10 crore support every year till the 2024 Games (Rs 30 crore) and in the next Olympic cycle till 2028, we have asked for a support of Rs 15 crore per year (Rs 60 crore) and in the final phase till 2032, it is Rs 20 crore per year (Rs 80 crore)," he added. "With this happening, sponsorships will not be restricted to just country's elite wrestlers. Even the Cadet level wrestlers will get sponsorship and we will able to give prize money to even national champions." The WFI had also roped in Tata Motors in 2018 as principal sponsors of Indian wrestling, a partnership which had brought with it a financial support of Rs 12 crore that allowed the federation to give away central contracts to wrestlers till the Tokyo Games. It has been learnt that the partnership will be renewed on Friday with a fresh deal. The WFI President said this deal with the UP government will allow them to plan exposure trips to foreign countries even for India's Cadet level wrestlers. "As of now, only the senior and elite level wrestlers have personal coaches and guidance of foreign coaches. But we can even invest heavily in training of our cadet and junior wrestlers also. "Now we can send our Cadet wrestlers abroad for training and exposure. We need to take wrestling to the next level," he said. WFI already extends a financial support to 60 junior (Rs 7500 per month stipend) and Cadet (Rs 5000 per month) wrestlers. It remains to be seen that after such a deal with a state government, if WFI allows private NGOs like JSW and OGQ to support wrestling. Asked about this, Singh said the door is open but with a condition. "We actually did not need them even before. But if they want to support, they are welcome. All we want is that they stay transparent with WFI. They can't make their own secret deals with the wrestlers. If at all they want to help, they can sit with us and prepare plans with us," Singh said. The WFI chief said it sends wrestlers to the foreign countries for exposure and training but they want to put a system in place where top international wrestlers come to India and train here. "Let me tell you that we will have state-of-the-art wrestling academies in India for both men and women. One academy in Lucknow will surely come up and we are hopeful that another is developed in Noida, where we will invite international wrestlers to come, stay and train with our wrestlers. "I told the CM that we want international wrestlers to come to India. It should help our Indian wrestlers. Why should they go out all the time and stay away. We will give them best sparring partners in India."Live TV Click here for IndiaToday.in’s complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Sameer Wankhede not investigating officer in Aryan Khan case: DDG NCB clarifies Jaish-linked app removed from Google Play Store after India Today probe report Being called a racist hurts me: Quinton de Kock explains why he didn't take the knee
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Financial Aid
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2014 Aegean Sea earthquake
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An earthquake occurred in the northern Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey on May 24, 2014. It had a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Serious damage was reported on the Turkish island of Imbros and the cities of Edirne and Çanakkale, as well as on the Greek island of Lemnos. The earthquake was felt in Bulgaria and southern Romania. [4][5] Several aftershocks followed the main shock, the strongest measuring 5.3 ML. This aftershock struck the Gulf of Saros at 12:31 local time. [6]
The northern part of the Aegean Sea shows a transition from the strike-slip tectonics associated with the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) to the extensional tectonics that characterise the area north of the Hellenic arc. The location of this earthquake is on the westward continuation of the NAF on the boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Other earthquakes on this part of the NAF include an M6.6 event in 1975 and an M5.7 event in 2003. [7]
The distribution of aftershocks, combined with the observed focal mechanism, indicate dextral (right lateral) strike-slip on a WSW-ENE striking fault, assumed to be a continuation of the NAF. Analysis by backprojection of strong motion waveforms has been used to understand the detailed propagation history of the earthquake rupture. Two separate fault segments have been identified using this method. The shorter segment to the west of the hypocenter ruptured first followed by rupture to the east along the 65 km segment. Propagation of the longer eastern segment occurred at speeds well in excess of the S-wave velocity, making this an example of a supershear earthquake. [7]
A British tourist was injured in Lemnos, Greece. A shelter at the Lemnos International Airport collapsed. Many abandoned houses and a church were also damaged. [3] Almost three hundred houses were damaged in Turkey[8] and 11 houses collapsed in Greece. Doğan News Agency said the tremor caused damage to some old houses on the island of Imbros, off Turkey's northern Aegean coast, and 30 people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. [3] Early reports talked about a heart attack in the greater earthquake area, but the death has not been confirmed. The Governor of Çanakkale reported a total number of 324 injuries. Two churches and 13 mosques were damaged to various extents. [8] Minor damage was also inflicted in Bulgaria.
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Earthquakes
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1938 San Antonio pecan shellers strike
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The 1938 San Antonio pecan shellers strike was a labor strike involving 12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Considered the largest labor strike in San Antonio's history, it saw mainly Mexican American pecan shellers, organized by labor activist Emma Tenayuca, protest wage cuts by the Southern Pecan Shelling Company. Starting on January 31, the strike lasted until March 8, when the two sides agreed to arbitration that led to a wage increase for the pecan shellers. During the 1930s, 40% of the pecan crop in the United States was grown in Texas, with half of that being produced within a 250 mile radius of San Antonio. [1][2] Described as the "world's largest pecan shelling center", between 10,000 to 20,000 workers, primarily Mexican American women, worked as shellers, removing the hard outer shell of pecans grown and collected in the region. [3] Many of them worked in poor conditions for low pay. The average weekly family income for pecan shellers was between $1.00 and $4.00,[note 1] with many shellers having to supplement their seasonal income with additional farm labor. [5] Additionally, the workrooms were often cramped centers often lacking proper ventilation, running water, and tools for shelling, with many of the shellers having to use their hands to shell the pecans. [3] An increased rate of tuberculosis among the shellers was also pinned on the lack of proper ventilation and an abundance of pecan particulates in the workrooms. [3][5]
In the 1930s, the Southern Pecan Shelling Company, owned by Julius Seligman[note 2], dominated the pecan shelling industry both in San Antonio and nationwide, shelling between one-fourth and one-third of the total national output of pecans. [6] This company, like many others in the area, utilized a contract system whereby he sold contractors whole pecans at $0.10 per pound and purchased back the fully shelled pecans at $0.30 to $0.36 per pound, with the contractors handling all labor issues and facilitating the shelling facilities needed. [7][8] In 1933, Seligman hired Magdaleno Rodríguez to organize a company union, the Pecan Shelling Workers' Union. [5] However, this union was short-lived, and in 1937 its remnants were reorganized into the Texas Pecan Shelling Workers' Union, supported by the Communist Party of America, who appointed Albert Gonsen as its leader. That same year, the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), granted a charter to the San Antonio pecan shellers with the understanding that the union would include other labor groups. [5] This included the San Antonio branch of the Workers Alliance of America, founded a year prior by Emma Tenayuca to help assist the pecan shellers. [9]
On January 31, 1938, contractors for the Southern Pecan Shelling Company announced a pay cut for pecan shellers from $0.07 to $0.06 per pound for shelled pecan halves and $0.06 to $0.05 per pound for shelled pecan pieces. [10] Wages for pecan crackers were reduced from $0.50 to $0.40 per one hundred pounds of pecans. [10] Following this, 12,000 shellers, or approximately two-thirds of the workforce, spontaneously walked out. [5][10] This was not the first strike action taken by the pecan shellers, as mass strikes had occurred previously in 1934 and 1935 over wage cuts, with both ending without success. [10]
Initially, the faction of the Pecan Shellers' Union organized around Gonsen were unsupportive of the strike, but the UCAPAWA offered its support for the strikers. [5] Tenayuca shortly emerged as the leader of the movement, with the strikers electing her as their committee chair. While Tenayuca was not a pecan sheller, she was well-known among the pecan shellers for her organization and activism in the Workers Alliance, which Tenayuca claimed had over 10,000 members at the time. [11][12] Covering the incident, Time reportedly highlighted Tenayuca's communist philosophy and painted her as the puppeteer behind the strike. [13] San Antonio mayor C. K. Quin and other public officials also employed red-baiting to draw public support away from the strikers. This strategy largely succeeded, as many moderates spoke out about the strike's perceived communist influence. [13] In an interview with the San Antonio Light, the police chief argued that there was no strike and that the incident was part of a ploy by communists and not sanctioned by the CIO. [14] Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio Arthur Jerome Drossaerts also spoke out against the strike and praised efforts by the police. [13][15] However, La Prensa, a major Hispanic newspaper in the city, was sympathetic to the strikers. [16]
Over the course of the strike, hundreds of protestors and picketers were arrested and imprisoned by the police, including Tenayuca. [13] Additionally, all soup kitchens in the city were closed to the strikers. [17] As tensions increased, Texas governor James V. Allred ordered an investigation into possible violations of civil liberties, with a meeting held on February 14 chaired by the assistant state attorney. While the commission found that the police had overstepped their authority, no actions were taken against them. [14] Concurrently, there were calls from within the UCAPAWA for Tenayuca to step down from her position as strike leader due to concerns about her communist affiliation. [18][19] Ultimately, Tenayuca agreed to step down, and she was replaced by UCAPAWA president Donald Henderson. [18] Speaking of the incident years later, Tenayuca expressed frustration and resentment towards the push to remove her, but she did for the greater good of the movement. [20] After her removal, Tenayuca continued to support the strike in less prominent ways. [18] Around this same time, the strikers received support from several sources. Texas Representative and future Mayor of San Antonio Maury Maverick stated his support for the strike. The American Civil Liberties Union also began to offer help to the strikers, and a rally was held on March 19 at Military Plaza to celebrate the release of some imprisoned strikers. [20]
By March, both sides had agreed to resolve the labor dispute through arbitration. [6] On March 8, the pecan shellers returned to work as the union and pecan companies agreed to arbitration via a three person panel that included Austin, Texas mayor Robert Thomas Miller. [17] The panel returned its decision on April 13, mandating a one-half cent increase in wages from the previous rates. [17] Furthermore, the UCAPAWA local was recognized as the only legal representative for the pecan shellers. [17]
The wage increase decided by the arbitration panel was considered more favorable to the employers than to the shellers. [17] However, these wages were increased in October following the implementation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which instituted a $0.25 minimum wage. [17][21] Fearing that this wage increase would lead to mechanization, both the union and pecan companies appealed to have the pecan shellers exempted from the minimum wage requirement, which was ultimately denied. [17] Following this, the pecan shelling industry turned to mechanization, and by 1941 approximately 10,000 shellers permanently lost their jobs,[17] though many found new employment as the United States mobilized for World War II. [21]
Following the strike, Maverick, who had lost reelection for the House of Representatives, successfully ran for mayor of San Antonio in 1938, with major support from Mexican Americans in the city. [17] Tenayuca would later write a political essay, "The Mexican Question in the Southwest", that discussed the strike, Tenayuca's politics, and issues facing Mexican Americans in the southwestern United States. [22]
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Strike
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Aeroflot Flight 821 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 821 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot-Nord in a service agreement with Aeroflot and as its subsidiary. On 14 September 2008, the aircraft operating the flight crashed on approach to Perm International Airport at 5:10 local time (UTC+06). All 82 passengers and 6 crew members were killed. Among the passengers who were killed was Russian Colonel General Gennady Troshev, an adviser to the President of Russia who had been the commander of the North Caucasus Military District (including Chechnya) during the Second Chechen War. [1][2][3] A section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was damaged by the crash. Flight 821 is the deadliest accident involving a Boeing 737-500, surpassing the 1993 crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 733 and Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, and was the second-deadliest aviation incident in 2008, behind Spanair Flight 5022. [4]
The primary cause of the crash was that both pilots had lost spatial orientation due to their inexperience with the Western type of attitude indicator on the aircraft. Lack of adequate rest, poor crew resource management, and alcohol consumption by the captain also contributed to the accident. This air disaster led to Aeroflot-Nord rebranding as Nordavia, effective on 1 December 2009, and later to Smartavia in 2019. The Boeing 737-505, registration VP-BKO, an aircraft belonging to the Aeroflot subsidiary Aeroflot-Nord but operating as Aeroflot flight SU821[5] from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport to Perm (Russia) crashed into a railway line southwest of Perm 5:10 AM local time (or 13 September 2008, 23:10 UTC). [6]:8[7][8][9][10] The weather at the time of accident was rainy (unbroken clouds at 240 m, light rain). [11]
According to an interview given by the air traffic controller shortly after the disaster, the crew did not respond correctly to ATC commands: after going around, it turned eastward instead of turning westward. However, the crew reported no emergency onboard and confirmed all commands given by ATC. [12] At 5:10 AM, radio contact with the plane was lost; minutes later it crashed on the outskirts of Perm. Aeroflot-Nord officially stated that: "The Boeing-737 carried 82 passengers on board – including 7 children – and 6 crew. All passengers and crew were killed. As the plane was coming in for landing, it lost communication at a height of 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) and air controllers lost its blip. [13] The airplane was found within Perm's city limits completely destroyed and on fire." Investigator Vladimir Markin said that "there were 82 passengers plus a baby and 5 crew on board, and by preliminary information, they are all dead as the airplane fell into a ravine near the city limits." RIA Novosti however reported that "it was possible that 3 people who bought a ticket for the ill-fated flight 821 to Perm did not get on board." Both flight recorders were found and successfully decoded. The airline stated "it pledged to pay compensation on obligatory accident insurance in full, which would make up to 2 million rubles per victim." The crash damaged and shut down a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway; rail traffic was temporarily re-routed via Chusovaya station, and was restored by the evening of 14 September. The aircraft was leased by Aeroflot-Nord from Dublin-based Pinewatch Limited from July 2008 to March 2013. [14][15][16]
It was reported that its engines caught fire at an altitude of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). Eyewitness reports stated that the plane was visibly on fire prior to crashing, and hit the ground at a 30–40-degree angle. [7] However, the low clouds (at 240 metres (790 ft)) must have prevented any witnesses from seeing the plane for more than a few seconds and the report was subsequently discounted by the accident enquiry (see below). The final enquiry report stated that "after the base turn, approaching the landing course at 600 metres (2,000 ft) with both autopilot and autothrottle disengaged, the aircraft started climbing up to 1,300 metres (4,300 ft), rolled 360° over the left wing and collided with the ground". [6]:9[17]
The aircraft involved in the crash was originally ordered by Braathens, but never operated by them and was quickly sold shortly after delivery to China Southwest Airlines, whose subsidiary Xiamen Airlines operated it from September 1992 to March 1993. The 737 was then operated by China Southwest Airlines itself until the airline merged with Xiamen Airlines, who operated the aircraft from 2003 until it was stored in March 2008 and was returned to Pinewatch Limited. Aeroflot-Nord then leased the aircraft and had operated the airframe from 29 May 2008 until its hull loss. [18][19][20] Pinewatch was incorporated in 1995. [21]
According to early claims of Aeroflot-Nord representatives, the crew was described as very experienced and one of the best in the company. Captain Rodion Medvedev (Russian: Родион Медведев; 34) had a flight record of 3,689 hours (including 1,190 hours on the Boeing 737) while First Officer Rustam Allaberdin (Russian: Рустам Аллaбердин; 43) had 8,713 hours, though only 219 of them were on the Boeing 737. Later it was revealed that Medvedev's flight record as a captain was 452 hours along with Allaberdin's low experience of piloting the Boeing 737. For the most part of their careers Medvedev and Allaberdin had piloted the Tupolev Tu-134 and Antonov An-2 respectively. Gennady Kurzenkov, head of the State Aviation Inspection Service, stated that the flight crew submitted falsified documents to the airline showing that they had passed preflight courses. [22][23][24]
Russia's Air Accident Investigation Commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee led the investigation, with US assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Authority, and Boeing. [29] As the aircraft was registered in Bermuda, that government was represented by the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, with two senior inspectors sent to participate under the Memorandum of Agreement. The AAIB team had representatives from the Bermudian Department of Civil Aviation as advisors. [30] The engines were made in France, so that state was represented by the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA). [31]
According to the data in flight recorders, the engines did not catch fire and continued working until the impact. The latest official reports are published in Russian on the Air Accident Investigation Commission website. An English translation of the final report is available at the United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation Branch website; the AAIB states that it is not an official English translation. [17]
The final investigation report stated the following reasons for the crash:[6][17][32][33]
On 1 October 2008, the mother of a 27-year-old female passenger who died in the accident sued Aeroflot and Moskva Insurance Company for 7.7 million rubles (approximately US$300,000) in punitive damages. [34]
A recording of the conversation between ATC and Flight 821 was published online. According to the final investigation report, the captain, who was making the communications, was 'mildly intoxicated', and this can be heard in the audio. Irek Birbov, the air traffic controller on duty at the time of the incident, said that on final approach the aircraft was too far right of the localizer. He advised the captain to change heading. Furthermore, instead of descending to land, the plane then went up.
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Air crash
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GitHub Enterprise versus Azure DevOps
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Following the acquisition of GitHub, Microsoft now provides two distinct DevOps solutions in Azure DevOps and GitHub Enterprise . Both platforms have mature and popular features, as well as free and paid models. Let's kick things off with the elder platform. Azure DevOps is the culmination of years of investments from Microsoft into managing all aspects of building, testing and deploying code; As well as tracking all of the work items associated with that process. For longtime users of Team Foundation Server (also known as TFS), the jump was a no brainier. It offered a familiar experience, and is built on a very solid foundation. GitHub has been a staple for code management for years, and Microsoft has poured a substantial amount of effort into the platform to make it not just competitive, but in many ways a leader. However regardless of how far it has come, it is still often associated with open-source projects and hobbyists. That does not mean it can't give Azure DevOps a run for its money. Let's have a closer look at what each platform offers and hopefully arrive at which might be the better solution for your needs. Azure DevOps Azure Devops presents users with a very mature project and code management experience. The overview section provides users with a very robust Dashboard and Analytics experience. Virtually every single piece of data in the platform can be visualized here to help you track progress, team performance, pipeline statuses, you name it! The boards section offers access to the team's backlog of work items, kanban board and sprints. Here you can manage requirements and visually track work as it flows between stages. From requirements gathering to design, to implementation, testing and deployment. This section gives you and your team the tools necessary to keep work on track and projects moving forward. The repos section is where the code lives and as you can imagine my favorite section. This is what you often hear being referred to as "version control". Version control maintains a history of your code so that you can easily review, merge and roll back to any version of your application. Most importantly it protects your intellectual property and hard work. Despite falling our of favor, Microsoft has maintained TFVC support although Git is the preferred model. Now pipelines is where a lot of the magic happens. Here developers can create and manage code building and deployment pipelines. Azure DevOps pipelines support a wide array of environments which to target. It doesn't matter if you are building and deploying for windows, linux, docker, azure, aws or app stores. Built in tools and a robust library of third party extensions are present to support your needs. There is also a very robust review and approvals framework built around the pipelines to satisfy security and regulatory requirements. A great example is requiring permission to deploy to production while freely allowing automated deployments to development and test environments. Last but not least is the artifacts section. This is where you and your team can create and share packages. There is support for Maven, NuGet, npm and more. Modern applications often rely on internal and/or externally built libraries. This feature allows you to host and share packages in an environment you control while keeping everything secure and integrated with your pipelines. Pros Mature and comprehensive feature offering Extensive Marketplace providing endless integration possibilities Support for TFVC and Git code models Support for Basic, Agile, Scrum and Custom work item tracking models Deep integrations with Microsoft 365 and Azure. Cons Confusing permissions model GitHub Enterprise GitHub Enterprise offers many of the same features found in Azure DevOps. This platform is built around collaboration and accessibility, and by nature has quickly evolved into a pioneer in the space. With that said, it still remains deeply rooted in code management. The overview section provides a glance into your code repositories and statistics surrounding those. The repositories section is what you'd expect. From here you can do pretty much anything code related. Code branching, opening feature requests or issues as they're called in the platform. Pull Requests which are very convenient way to perform code reviews are also managed from here. For those wondering, continuous integration and deployment is managed by way of GitHub Actions. Most of the necessary workloads are already supported with new ones being added with every release. Making building, testing and deploying code an extremely easy affair. Packages is a very useful feature which allows you to publish and store your packages alongside your code. There is support for the most popular registries like Docker, Maven, NuGet, npm and more. The next few sections, people and teams gives you the ability to bring people together around projects and repositories. This effectively ensures everyone is in sync as they tackle any given project being undertaken. Managing what people and teams can see and do is a breeze. It allows for resources from outside your organization to be invited to collaborate in various capacities. This is one of the most underrated features GitHub offers. The last section we are going to be talking about is the projects section. This is where work is planned, organized and tracked. Various templates are supported. Useful kanban boards let you easily track progress as while giving you full visibility of all the work completed, in progress or pending. Now most of the features discussed here are present in the "Free" and "Teams" versions of GitHub. Enterprise however gives users many extras not found in the aforementioned versions. Things like single-sign on support to allow for seamless integrations between other platforms in your organization and GitHub. Advanced auditing features for keeping auditors and happy. Code Scanning and Dependency vulnerability review.
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Organization Merge
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