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Early 2000 Madagascar floods
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In early 2000, severe flooding occurred in the African nation of Madagascar after Cyclone Leon–Eline and Severe Tropical Storm Gloria struck the nation within a two-week period. The first storm, Eline, formed on February 1, and took an extended track across the Indian Ocean, eventually making landfall near Mahanoro on February 17. On March 1, Gloria struck northeastern Madagascar, and like Eline, moved southwestward across the country. Ahead of the primary flooding in February 2000, a tropical disturbance persisted off the west coast of Madagascar in January. [1] Rains from the system helped end previous drought conditions, while also causing flooding and damage. In Morombe, precipitation from the system reached the equivalence of the annual rainfall in just 36 hours. [2]
On February 1, a low-pressure area formed within the monsoon trough to the south of Indonesia, which would eventually become Tropical Cyclone Leon. The storm tracked westward across much of the Indian Ocean, fluctuating in strength due to changes in the atmosphere. After crossing 90° E, the Météo-France (MFR)[nb 1] [4] began tracking the system as Tropical Storm Eline. The storm continued westward across the Indian Ocean and intensified greatly as it approached the east coast of Madagascar. Late on February 17, Eline made landfall near Mahanoro, with 10 minute maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h (105 mph) according to the MFR. The storm rapidly weakened over land, but eventually restrengthened in the Mozambique Channel to make another damaging landfall in Mozambique. Eline dropped heavy rainfall in Madagascar, with a 24‑hour total of 131 mm (5.2 in) at Ivato International Airport near the capital Antananarivo. [4] The rains also caused flooding along Madagascar's west coast, which is usually spared from precipitation by mountains. [5] Eline struck while Madagascar was in the midst of a cholera epidemic that had killed over 1,000 people. [6]
While Eline was dissipating over southern Africa, another area of disturbed weather formed to the northeast of Madagascar, becoming a tropical disturbance on February 27. Moving generally westward toward the country, it intensified into Tropical Storm Gloria on March 1. Later that day, the MFR estimated that the storm reached peak 10 minute winds of 95 km/h (60 mph), before Gloria made landfall about 10 km (6 mi) north of Sambava. The storm moved southwestward across the country, gradually weakening and eventually moving into the Mozambique Channel. Gloria brought additional heavy rainfall to Madagascar,[4] with Mananjary reporting a two-day total of 427 mm (16.8 in). [7] Nosy Be along the northwest coast recorded a 24‑hour rainfall total of 165 mm (6.5 in), which is over half the average monthly precipitation. Mananjary reported a two-day total of 427 mm (16.8 in). [7] Later, Gloria produced sporadic rainfall in southern Madagascar, in part due to increased humidity. [4]
The rains from Gloria occurred less than two weeks after Cyclone Leon–Eline struck the country, bringing additional flooding, landslides, and damage. [4] In the area where Gloria moved ashore, several communities were temporarily isolated due to the flooding. [5] In Sambava, near where Gloria moved ashore, the storm killed 18 people,[4] destroyed hundreds of homes, and damaged a road connecting the area to the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. [7] Across the region, the floods destroyed at least 30 bridges, many of them wooden,[8] and damaged 100 km (60 mi) of roads. [9] In the region around Vatomandry, where Eline made landfall, 65% of houses were damaged, 90% of crops were lost, and 75% of health facilities were wrecked;[10] about 10,000 people there were left homeless. [11] The floods also affected the west coast of Madagascar. [12] In Morombe along the southwest coast, about one-third of buildings were destroyed and many others were damaged, with 1,600 people left homeless in that area. [10] The west coast is usually unaffected by cyclones striking from the east coast, which left several communities unprepared. [13]
Fields were inundated for over a week, causing severe losses to coffee and banana crops. [14] Thousands of hectares of rice paddy fields were flooded. The flooding destroyed many cash crops, thus depriving a poor region with a source of income, as well as threatening food supply. [15] Floods from the two storm inundated 70% of homes and wrecked 70% of the crops in the districts of Andapa, Sambava, Antalaha, and Vohemar. [16] Up to half of the rice harvest in the country was lost during the floods. [17] About 12,000 people were isolated by floods in 114 villages. [18][19] Overall, about 700,000 people were directly impacted by the floods. [12] Collectively, 12,230 people were left without access to clean water. [20]
The government of Madagascar reported that cyclones Eline and Gloria killed 64 and 66 people, respectively, although the exact toll was initially unknown due to disrupted communications. [21] Cyclone Gloria alone killed 40 people at Andapa. [4] Overall, at least 205 people were killed. [22] Damage from Eline alone was estimated at $9 million (USD). [23]
Immediately after Eline struck Madagascar, the government began distributing relief items, such as rice, tents, and sheets. On February 21, survey flights helped indicate the extent of damage across the nation. [24] Supplies were distributed by road from Antananarivo to the worst affected areas, with helicopters dropping off aid to isolated communities. [18] However, poor road infrastructure, residual flooding, and landslides caused difficulties in distributing aid. [25] In addition, many of the affected residents were in remote regions of the country, further complicating relief efforts. [11] By the middle of March 2000, flooding had largely receded, leaving behind mud and dead animals along roads and fields. [12][26] However, about 60,000 people in northeastern Madagascar remained isolated as of March 17.
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Floods
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Asbestos removed from Brisbane dam site without warning to nearby residents
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Dam operator Seqwater has admitted residents living near Leslie Harrison Dam on Brisbane's bayside were not warned about asbestos-contaminated soil being removed from the area yesterday.
Seqwater said up to 300 cubic metres of contaminated soil had been illegally dumped around the Capalaba dam site.
Local resident John Brown said his family knew nothing about the nearby asbestos issue until trucks began rolling into the area past his driveway yesterday morning.
He said about 40 truckloads of soil had been removed since then. "No-one from the council or Seqwater has told us exactly what they're doing," he said.
"One of the truck drivers was pulled up outside and he said that they were moving hazardous waste.
"Nobody likes to have that happen right on your doorstep — I'd like to be reassured that it's not going to happen again."
Former local MP and Labor deputy premier Jim Elder also lives near the site. "This has been appalling behaviour by Seqwater," Mr Elder said.
He and Mr Brown told the ABC the workers were not wearing hazardous protection equipment yesterday.
Mr Elder said the authority had allowed the dam site to become degraded over the past four years. Seqwater spokesman Mike Foster conceded they had failed to communicate properly.
"The communication from the organisation to the local neighbours wasn't good enough," he said.
"What is occurring today, the neighbours will get a belated letterbox drop from Seqwater advising them of what's occurred and the timeframe.
"In terms of any contamination getting into the water from the particular site, we've been advised that is not the case, the Capalaba water treatment plan has a design capability to remove asbestos fibres, people can be very confident and comfortable that their water supply is very safe."
Contractors were expected to finish clearing the contaminated soil today.
)
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Environment Pollution
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Murdochville strike
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The Murdochville strike was a mining strike on March 10, 1957 in Quebec, during the regime of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis. It provided the impetus and inspiration for other labour leaders to emerge and future calls for labour rights to become vocalized. [1]
One thousand copper miners struck at the Gaspé Copper Mines in Murdochville, Quebec, acquired by mining company Noranda only two years earlier. (Murdochville was named for Noranda executive James Y. Murdoch. )[2]
It was publicly supported by Pierre Trudeau who, as a lawyer in 1957, stated on CBC television that the strikers needed the "whole force of public opinion" in order to win in their efforts. Trudeau called the Murdochville strike a "fight for recognition" and advocated for all trade unions throughout Quebec to show their solidarity and the economic influence they collectively possessed. [3]
The strike failed and was called off in October. Duplessis's labour laws and action against strikers here and in the 1949 Asbestos strike have been cited by individuals such as Pierre Vallières as providing catalyst for the development of his own social and political consciousness and actions.
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Strike
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Aerocon Flight 238 crash
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On 6 September 2011, Aerocon Flight 238, a Fairchild Metro III regional passenger aircraft on a service from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Trinidad, Bolivia, crashed on approach to Trinidad, killing eight of the nine people on board. [1]
The aircraft had taken off from El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, for its hour-long, 380 kilometres (240 mi; 210 nmi) flight to Trinidad. At about 19:00 local time (23:00 UTC) the aircraft was reported to be 19 kilometres (12 mi; 10 nmi) north of its destination when contact was lost. A search by the Bolivian Air Force was initiated. At around 12:30 local time on 8 September, the wreckage of the aircraft was spotted at a location 29 kilometres (18 mi; 16 nmi) north east of Trinidad Airport. Initial reports stated that there were no survivors. [1]
Helicopters reached the crash site at 16:40 local time and it was discovered that eight of the nine people on board the aircraft had been killed in the crash. The survivor was discovered at around 09:00 local time on 9 September, having walked away from the wreckage in search of help. He sustained a head wound and severe bruising but did not have any broken bones. He was airlifted to a hospital. [2]
A minute's silence was held in the Senate of Bolivia in memory of those who were killed. [3]
The aircraft involved was Fairchild SA227-BC Metro III, registration CP-2548, c/n BC-768B. The aircraft had first flown in 1992 and had served with several airlines before its sale to Aerocon in January 2009. [4]
Bolivia's Directorate General of Civil Aviation opened an investigation into the accident. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered from the wreckage and sent to Brazil for analysis. [2]
It was reported that a required VOR radio beacon had been out of service since 20 August and that the crew was attempting a non-precision approach at the time of the accident. [2]
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Air crash
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2020 Kyushu floods
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The 2020 Kyushu floods were a series of floods in July 2020 brought on when record-breaking heavy rain hit the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, on 4 July 2020 in the middle of the East Asian rainy season. The event is officially referred to as Reiwa ni-nen shichi-gatsu gōu (令和２年７月豪雨, "Heavy rain of July, Reiwa 2") by the Japan Meteorological Agency. [1] As a result of flooding and landslides, 77 people were confirmed dead (includes 1 death due to cardiopulmonary arrest) and approximately seven are missing. [2] Fourteen of the victims were residents of an old age home in Kuma, Kumamoto that was flooded. Approximately 15,335 buildings were destroyed, damaged or flooded. [3]
Typhoons, storms, and heavy flooding have hit Japan hard in the years prior to 2020. Aside from Hokkaido, the entire country is subject to the East Asian rainy season, known as Tsuyu (梅雨), during the early part of summer. The mountainous terrain of Japan places it at risk for flooding and landslides. These climate events have killed hundreds of people, and expert analysis has stated global warming is a contributing cause. [4]
The Kuma River basin had previously flooded in 1965. One of three major rapids in Japan, the Kuma is a 115-kilometer-long (71 mi) class A river. Its course begins in the mountain range in Kyushu, and runs through Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto; Kuma, Kumamoto; and Yatsushiro, Kumamoto before it discharges into the Yatsushiro Sea. [5]
On 4 July 2020, heavy rain caused flooding in the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. At 5 AM, local time (UTC+9) the Japan Meteorological Agency raised its heavy rain warning to its highest level of 3 in many parts of the prefectures, the first time it has ever done so for these areas. [6] The Japan Meteorological Agency stated the amount of rain was record-breaking for the region and was never seen before. [7] The rate of rainfall exceeded 100 millimeters (3.9 in) per hour. [8]
As of 9 July 2020, 60 people are confirmed dead and approximately a dozen are reported missing. [9] According to Kyodo News, 1.3 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes and there were 12 different landslide events. [10]
Fourteen of the dead were residents in a flooded old age home in Kuma, Kumamoto. [6][7] Kumamoto governor Ikuo Kabashima stated that scores were stranded after mud and floodwater gushed into the old age home. [4] According to a rescue volunteer, when they reached the old age home, the water was still on the first-floor level. The rescue personnel managed to rescue residents who had made it up to the second floor but were unable to reach those left below. [8] According to the staff at the home, they roused residents at 5 a.m. and shuffled them upstairs. On the first floor, when water came into the building, they placed residents with wheelchairs on top of tables in the dining room. The staff was unable to rescue the deceased residents after water broke through the windows and the patients floated off the tables.
Following overnight rains, authorities instructed more than 75,000 residents to evacuate in the prefectures of Kumamoto and Kagoshima. [13] 203,200 residents were instructed to shelter in place, and 109 shelters were opened in the region. [6]
The Kuma River overran its bank in eleven different locations and breached one levee. [14] In Kuma, Kumamoto, stranded residents were rescued by a rescue helicopter. [13] Eight homes were swept away in Ashikita, Kumamoto. [7] In Tsunagi, Kumamoto, 2–3 people were pulled out of a landslide without signs of life. [13] Some 8,000 homes were left without power in Kumamoto and Kagoshima according to the Kyushu Electric Power Company. [13] Another 6,100 houses were estimated to be submerged, 11 bridges destroyed[15] and 4,700 buildings destroyed, damaged or flooded. [3]
A dike was breached near the town of Hitoyoshi, normally known for its hot springs and boating, which was flooded by the Kuma River. Volunteers from the local rafting association in Hitoyoshi used their rafts to rescue stranded residents in the flooded town. At least 17 people in Hitoyoshi died.
On the morning of 7 July, the Chikugo River overflowed in Hita, Ōita leading authorities to issue the highest level alert to residents. [17]
The flooding has also disrupted economic activity in Kyushu, an important manufacturing area in Japan. Companies including Toyota, Canon, and Panasonic temporarily halted production in the area as a precaution for employee safety. [18] However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in a statement on 6 July, said he did not expect major supply chain disruptions. [10]
Evacuees and local officials raised concerns regarding emergency shelter given the simultaneously ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [19][20] Evacuees arriving at shelters had their temperatures checked, or were asked to go elsewhere so that social distancing could be maintained. Some evacuees chose to take refuge in their cars, while others stayed with friends. [19] These measures follow recommendations created the previous month in June when government officials anticipated a possible "double disaster" of flooding and disease transmission.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the creation of a special task force, dispatched 10,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces troops to the area, and vowed to rescue the missing. [13][4] On 5 July 2020, it was reported that 40,000 Self-Defense troops, Coast Guard sailors, and firemen were deployed in the rescue operation. [8] On 7 July, the number of deployed SDF troops was doubled to 80,000. [17]
On 7 July, Japanese authorities warned that further heavy rains are expected in Kyushu. [10]
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Floods
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Aeroflot Flight 721 crash
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Aeroflot Flight 721 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian SFSR. On Wednesday, 2 September 1964, the aircraft flying this route, an Ilyushin Il-18V, crashed into the side of a hill on approach to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, killing 87 of the 93 people on board. At the time of the accident it was the deadliest Il-18 crash and the deadliest aviation accident on Russian soil. [1]
The aircraft involved in the accident was an Ilyushin Il-18V turboprop airliner registered CCCP-75531 to the Krasnoyarsk Civil Aviation Directorate of Aeroflot. At the time of the accident, it had only been in service for about a year and had logged merely 1,269 total flight hours and 358 pressurization cycles. [2]
Nine crew members were aboard the flight. The cockpit crew consisted of:[3]
Flight attendants Anastasia Tsebak, Lyubov Orekhova, and Nikolay Filatov worked in the cabin. All nine crew members perished in the crash. Flight 721's route led it eastward across Russia from Moscow to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, with stopovers in Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk. The flight changed crews at Krasnoyarsk airport and proceeded with the flight to Khabarovsk without incident. [4]
At 20:00 the flight departed Khabarovsk en route to the final destination, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, carrying 84 passengers, including 17 children. After takeoff the aircraft flew the route at an altitude of 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). The flight went without incident until it began descent to Yuzhno. Clouds were present in the area and visibility was limited to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). At 21:05 the Il-18 reported its altitude to be 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) and continued its flight towards the non-directional beacon. The air traffic controller warned the crew of an irregular southeasterly wind at a speed of 14.4 km/h in the airport area, and instructed them to take a landing course on a bearing of 10° (to the south). The crew responded by twice requesting to land on the shortest route, which was at a bearing of 190° (from the north). The controller refused their request and told them to follow the first route towards the beacon while at an altitude of 1500 meters. At 21:09, when the IL-18 was 37 kilometers from the runway and at an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,900 ft), the crew contacted the controller again. The crew again requested permission to land the shortest approach on a bearing of 190°. The controller asked the aircraft if they had enough time to do so, to which the crew answered in the affirmative. The controller relented and gave the flight permission to perform a visual approach with a right turn for the approach on a bearing of 190° and the crew confirmed receiving the permission. [4]
At 21:10 the air traffic controller asked the flight to report back when it had reached an altitude of 600 metres (2,000 ft). The crew began a left turn of 100° to switch course after doing so the Il-18 landing gear was lowered and decreased the rate of descent to 36 km/h. In the process of doing so the crew forgot that the minimum altitude for entering the turn was 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) and they should not have exited the turn at an altitude lower than 900 metres (3,000 ft) in order to avoid colliding with a mountain ridge in the area at 790 metres (2,590 ft). It would only be safe to occupy an altitude of 600 meters once the aircraft was 12.7 km from the front of the runway. The weather was clear but was quite dark out when the Il-18 was preparing for landing. When the crew heard the command to report when they had reached 600 meters when they were still at an altitude of 1200 meters, seeing the airport lights and not further trying to calculate their position, the crew thought they were closer to the airport than anticipated and began the descent to 600 meters. The crew did not notice at the time that their bearing was at 140° (which became 151° in the process of turning) was well off from the 190° needed for the landing. When the controller informed them that he had lost the flight from radar. The controller did not notice, and hence did not inform the crew that their bearing was significantly off from the 190° for beginning the straight-in landing. [4]
When the crew reported reaching an altitude of 600 meters the air traffic controller, still not understanding that the aircraft was not near the point where it was safe to fly at that altitude, instructed the aircraft to descend to 400 meters thinking it ready for final approach. At 21:11, 26 kilometres (16 mi) north-west of the airport, the Il-18 it crashed into a wooded hillside at an elevation of 550 metres (1,800 ft) feet, killing all nine crew members and 78 of the 84 passengers. Debris from the accident spread out across a 250-meter distance; a fire broke out in the remains of the aircraft and destroyed much of what remained of the airliner. All six survivors, which included three children, were seriously injured. [4]
The official report cited pilot error[failed verification] and poor in-flight planning as the cause of the accident; the crew initiated descent prematurely and apparently did not have sufficient knowledge of approach conditions, and these factors combined ultimately led to the crash. The commands given by the air traffic controller at the times give were noted to have misled the crew into thinking they were closer to the runway than they actually were. [1]
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Air crash
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South Canyon Fire
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The South Canyon Fire was a 1994 wildfire that took the lives of 14 wildland firefighters on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on July 6, 1994. It is often also referred to as the "Storm King" fire. It was the subject of John Maclean's book Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire. On July 2, 1994, lightning sparked a fire near the base of Storm King Mountain, 7 miles (11 km) west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Initially small and well away from private property, the fire was assigned low priority and allowed to smolder for the first two days. By July 4, the fire had burned only 3 acres (1.2 ha). [1] Nearby residents of Canyon Creek Estates, however, were growing increasingly concerned by the persistent blaze, prompting local authorities to take action. Due to the uneven terrain, and the efforts necessary to coordinate the incident response, it was decided that the fight against the fire would commence the following morning. [1]
On July 5, firefighters began their approach from the west at the east end of Canyon Creek Estates, making a difficult march up the rugged terrain along which is the present location of the Storm King Mountain Memorial Trail. Firefighters began constructing firelines to contain the blaze. The fight was joined that evening by smokejumpers who began aiding in the construction of the fireline, working well into the night of July 5 but quitting early due to "danger from rolling rocks. "[1]
The following day, twenty Hotshots from Prineville, Oregon, were rushed to the fire to aid in the battle. That afternoon, a dry cold front passed through the area, increasing the winds and fire activity. By 4 p.m., the fire had "spotted" beyond the fireline and below the firefighters' location to the west and began to race towards them up the steep, densely vegetated terrain. [1]
Twelve firefighters were unable to outrun the blaze and perished. Two more helitack firefighters were also killed as they tried to flee to the northwest. Those who died:
The Storm King Mountain Memorial Trail, closely following the actual path the firefighters hiked to fight the blaze, leads visitors to the site. Plaques and memorials line the trail explaining the events and paying homage to those who fell. Crosses were installed where each person fell. Memorials have also been constructed at Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs, at Ochoco Creek Park in Prineville, Oregon, and in McDonald Forest's Peavy Arboretum near Corvallis, Oregon. Coordinates: 39°34′26.48″N 107°25′36.82″W / 39.5740222°N 107.4268944°W / 39.5740222; -107.4268944
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Fire
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The quiet financial crisis
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Tech's positive impact on the economy, Gordon Brown on why we have to share vaccines with the rest of the world, Brazil's macho-man leader Jair Bolsonaro, and what it's really like growing up poor in the countryside. Plus, is it OK for protestors to break the law?, the women who took on Oxford philosophy and Armando Iannucci on why Remainers should stop moaning. Urgent action is needed to tackle climate change and the COP26 summit presents an opportunity to reach a new international agreement. Our special report, produced in association with Natwest, Ricardo and RIBA, examines the challenges facing business and policymakers. Andrew Adonis “In Conversation” with Michael Heseltine The Prospect Interview #205: Janine di Giovanni and the plight of Christians in the Middle East Just like old times: quantitative easing has fundamentally changed the role of central banks everywhere © Oli Scarff/Getty Images During the pandemic central banks averted a financial collapse, but they can't admit how they did it Adam Tooze was once best known as a leading economic historian of the 20th century. The Wages of Destruction (2007) represented a major challenge to the conventional understanding of the Nazi war economy, while 2015’s The Deluge re-examined economic changes in the 1920s. Crashed, published in 2018, was his first book of contemporary economic history, covering the financial crisis and its aftermath. Shutdown, his new book, represents another shift, and transforms Tooze from being principally an economic historian to an analyst of contemporary global capitalism. If this is history, it is instant history, assembled not from archives but from journalism, podcasts and Twitter. Such works always run the risk of being a mere collage of snippets and facts. Shutdown, thankfully, avoids that trap. What sets it apart is Tooze’s ability to keep his eye on the big picture—and the long view. The genius of Crashed was to elucidate the intimate, but previously buried, connections between the banking crisis of 2008 and the Eurozone crisis of 2012-2015. Shutdown is equally illuminating on the events of March 2020—the month when the pandemic triggered a truly global economic crisis. Lockdowns caused a freefall in economic activity, with some of the steepest monthly declines in GDP ever recorded. But unlike in 2008 there is another very different story—that of a financial (as opposed to economic) crisis averted. Importantly, this is not just a story of the west: most emerging market economies were also spared a serious financial crunch. The question is: how was it done? The answer lies (partly at least) in the nature of modern central banking. One of the most confusing aspects of the last 15 years has been the shifting role of central banks. The model of independent central banks, generally targeting a certain level of inflation, grew out of the traumatic experiences of the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, the norm was for an independent central bank to manage the business cycle using interest rates to target a desired level of inflation. Fiscal policy, which dominated arguments about policy from the 1940s to the 1970s, took a back seat. Politicians, in effect, stepped away from the problem and handed the reins over to the technocrats. Underpinning this shift was the notion of “credibility.” Finance ministers, it was feared, could never be trusted because they would be tempted to overstimulate an economy before elections. Indeed, economists wrote papers on “deficit bias,” explaining how the interplay of political choices and elections could condemn even countries with intelligent citizens and honest rulers to imprudence. The great fear was of loose fiscal policy and rising inflation becoming politically impossible to grip. Technocrats, by contrast, would have more credibility when it came to controlling inflation, and that credibility was an economic virtue in its own right. Because if investors, firms, workers and unions haggling over wages all believed that an independent central bank would choke off inflation early, they would invest, employ, price and bargain in ways consistent with that. Consequently, policy would not have to be tightened so much. The expectation of firmly “anchored” inflation would thus become self-fulfilling. Crucial to maintaining this all-important credibility was said to be a separation between monetary policy and fiscal policy in general, and government debt management in particular. It hardly mattered that managing government debt had historically been a core purpose of central banks. In an era when central banks were supposedly single-mindedly focused on fighting inflation, “it was,” as Tooze puts it, “taken as axiomatic that central bankers must refuse to monetise government deficits.” Few things would be as damaging to credibility as the idea that money would be “printed” to fund government spending. As much as possible, in the pre-crisis world, central bankers tried to avoid even talking about fiscal policy, while politicians were expected to keep shtum about interest rates. That pre-crisis world now seems both rather quaint and very distant. In the post-Crashed world, as it were, monetary and fiscal policy have once more become linked. As demand and inflation collapsed in 2008 and 2009, central banks rapidly exhausted their regular ammunition against slumps by cutting interest rates to virtually zero. Meanwhile, discretionary fiscal policy, which in countries like Britain aimed for a brief stimulus in 2008 and 2009, was in most places rapidly refocused on public finance repair. And for all the earlier handwringing about “deficit bias,” voters mostly re-elected governments that promised a tight grip on spending. It was this potentially dangerously depressive combination—of exhausted monetary tools and austere fiscal policies—that jolted central banks into getting inventive. In the Eurozone, Japan and Switzerland interest rates were cut below zero and, in most developed economies, quantitative easing (QE) programmes began. A decade ago, these moves were called “unconventional policy”; today they are almost standard. Tooze is fascinating on the nature of this “new normal” for monetary policy in rich countries. QE is a reasonably straightforward process: a central bank electronically creates new money and uses this new cash to purchase assets from the private sector—mostly in the form of government bonds. But what exactly is this simple operation actually achieving? That is less clear: Ben Bernanke, head of the US Federal Reserve during the crash, once remarked that QE “works in practice, but not in theory.” It’s probably more accurate to say there are so many rival theories about how it might work, that it is hard to have faith in any of them. According to monetarist logic, increasing the supply of money should, all things being equal, lead to higher inflation. But all things are rarely equal. The more persistent threat facing the US, the Eurozone and Japan over the past decade (and in Japan’s case longer) has been undershooting inflation (or even outright deflation) rather than soaring prices. There are those who argue that QE is a way to “beggar thy neighbour,” by debasing a currency until the point where a country can undercut rivals on price. There was much talk in the early 2010s of “currency wars” and aggressive devaluations, but if QE was genuinely a weapon in fighting for export markets then its value would diminish as other countries joined the party. Some argue instead that the major point of QE comes from the “portfolio rebalancing” effect. The banks, pension funds and insurance companies that sell their bonds to the central bank find themselves flush with cash, which then has to be put to work elsewhere. It pours into corporate bond and stock markets where, in the best scenario, it finances productive investment. At the very least, it pushes up the price of assets, which makes their owners feel richer and more inclined to open their wallets and start boosting spending across the economy. Yet another argument about what made-up money does for the economy, however, would come to the fore in 2020: namely, over “fiscal QE.” In what central bankers insist is a mere side-effect, QE has suppressed the cost of rocketing government borrowing—both directly (since central banks tend to hand back the interest they receive on their debt to the fiscal authorities) and indirectly, by lowering the yield on newly-issued government debt. QE creates space for politicians to adopt a more adventurous fiscal policy by making the costs of servicing debt cheaper. The prospect of that happening, though, brings central banks out in a cold sweat: to them it reeks of “fiscal dominance” and loss of monetary policy independence. But in the Covid-19 emergency there were soon problems serious enough to overpower such anxieties. Not only did advanced economies experience unusually deep recessions as they locked down, but governments chose to absorb a large share of the hit through furlough schemes, emergency loans, grants, tax breaks and higher benefit payments. As Tooze catalogues, in 2020 some $18 trillion of government debt was issued by advanced economies—“the most spectacular surge in debt in peacetime.” And yet this huge ramping up in issuance was not accompanied by higher borrowing costs: 80 per cent of the total was issued with a yield of under 1 per cent and 20 per cent with negative yield. The amount of public debt may have ballooned, but the actual burden of servicing it fell. QE played a large part in this. The Bank of England, while loudly proclaiming it was not in the business of financing government, embarked on a QE programme which, month by month, almost exactly tracked the government’s borrowing requirements in 2020. An FT survey of the largest fund managers in the British government bond markets in January found that most believed the bank was engaged in fiscal QE—that is to say, absorbing and monetising government debt. “In two crises, little over a decade apart, central bankers have proved the extent of their ability to shape economic outcomes” It would be easy to look at the fiscal/monetary mix in 2020 and conclude, as Tooze puts it, that there was “a powerful synthesis of fiscal and monetary policy working in harmonious co-ordination to help fund a generous new social contract,” whether that new social contract took the form of much higher unemployment insurance, as in America, or the furlough scheme in Britain. But, as he argues, this is far too rose-tinted. For while QE may have helped fund new social programmes, it also helped catalyse an asset price boom which handed the affluent 10 per cent “a stimulus that dwarfed anything openly declared in the public accounts.” More importantly, the sea change in monetary/fiscal policy co-operation remains incomplete, confused and contested. Central banks insist they have not monetised government debt and will—eventually—sell it back to the private sector. As Tooze notes, previous attempts during the last decade to “normalise” monetary policy after the (supposedly) emergency measures after the global financial crisis ran into unpleasant reactions and worrying overspills. Whereas the QE of 2008-2019 was a rich country phenomenon, in 2020 it went global. On a more limited scale, it was to be found in the crisis responses of South Korea, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Hungary, Croatia, the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, India and Indonesia. As Tooze argues, such bond-buying in “emerging markets” would once have provoked panicked stories about hyperinflation and collapsing currencies; and yet “against the backdrop of gigantic interventions in the advanced economies, markets took the activities of [emerging market] authorities in their stride. The goalposts had shifted.” Recognising the crucial role played by central bankers in both 2008 and 2020 leads to some of Tooze’s most interesting conclusions. Central bankers, he says, are far from revolutionary; instead he compares them to Bismarckian conservatives trying to preserve a system in the face of upheaval. (“Everything must change so that everything remains the same.”) In two crises, little over a decade apart, central bankers have proved the extent of their ability to shape economic outcomes and “underwrite debt-fuelled speculation and growth.” As Tooze writes, there is no fundamental macroeconomic limit to the ability of this to continue; but it raises important political issues. The question is “whether technocratic governance can keep up and whether society and politics can handle it. Can it be democratised? If not, can it at least be legitimated?” These are big questions—ones that politicians, economists and thinkers will need to grapple with in the decade to come. With government debt burdens in the rich countries now swollen to heights last seen in the 1950s and 1960s, it is unclear if the neat division between fiscal and monetary policy of the early 2000s can be re-established. Indeed, as we saw in August, even mild rumours that central bank support might be withdrawn can trigger a market “taper tantrum.” Of course fiscal and monetary policy will not be the only thing troubling us in the 2020s. As Tooze writes, one of the most striking aspects of the crisis was the disparity between the scale of the costs incurred (trillions of dollars) and the price of the resolution (mere billions on vaccines). Countries need to find a way of turning the billions currently spent on research and development into trillions. “Otherwise, there is every reason to think that 2020 will be only the first of an increasingly unmanageable series of global disasters.” A depressing thought. What further complicates the picture is that the world needs to adjust at a time of rising geopolitical tension and a shift to what Tooze calls “a centrifugal multipolarity.” The task of decarbonisation would be tough enough without rising Sino-American competition. There will be plenty more books to come on the global economy of 2020. Few will be as timely, as wide-ranging or as clear as Shutdown. Duncan Weldon is Britain economics correspondent at the Economist. His book, “Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through,” is out with Little, Brown in August
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Financial Crisis
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1975 Cricket World Cup Final
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The 1975 Cricket World Cup Final was a One Day International cricket match played at Lord's, London on 21 June 1975 to determine the winner of the 1975 Cricket World Cup was played in Lord's, London on 21 June. It was the second time that the West Indies and Australia had met in the tournament after playing against each other in the group stage. The West Indies won the match by 17 runs to claim their first title. West Indies qualified for the knockouts with a first-place finish in Group B. The team won all three of their matches against Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Then in the semi final against New Zealand, the opposition opened brillianty, but when Glenn Turner fell, the wickets tumbled the West Indies scored the required 158 to reach the final. Australia made it through to the knockouts in second place with their only loss being against the West Indies. But they did defeat Pakistan and Sri Lanka to take on England in the semi final. Gary Gilmour took six wickets in the English innings to help them through to the final. The first Cricket World Cup final was played on 21 June (Midsummer of that year), a sunny day, in front of a capacity crowd of 26,000. [1] Australia won the toss and invited the West Indies to bat, hoping to make use of ideal bowling conditions. [2] The first moment of drama came when opener Roy Fredericks was dismissed hit wicket; he hooked a bouncer from Dennis Lillee for six, but in his follow-through lost his balance and knocked the bails off the stumps. Australia were on top at 50/3 when West Indian captain Clive Lloyd came to the crease in partnership with veteran Rohan Kanhai. The pair swung the match in the West Indies' favour by putting on 149 for the fourth wicket. Kanhai played the anchor role – not scoring for 11 overs – while Lloyd took on the Australian bowling attack, surviving a dropped catch on 26 to score a memorable century off 82 balls with 12 fours and 2 sixes[1] and was dismissed shortly afterwards for 102. Kanhai, in what would be his farewell from international cricket, scored an invaluable 55, and solid contributions from Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien helped the West Indies close their innings at 291/8. Burly left-arm seamer Gary Gilmour was the pick of the Australian bowlers with 5/48, backing up his amazing semi-final performance. The Australian run chase began steadily enough; at the 20-over mark, the Aussies were at 80/1 with Alan Turner and captain Ian Chappell taking advantage of an easy pitch and fast outfield. [2] Then Viv Richards, who had failed with the bat, left his mark on the match with the next three run-outs. First he swooped in and dismissed Turner with a direct hit from close range, then Greg Chappell was also out with a direct hit after a slight misfield. Doug Walters came in and helped his captain steady the ship. Australia were at 162/3 with 21 overs remaining when Chappell, facing his opposing captain, pushed a ball to the left of mid-wicket and started off for a run. He hesitated initially when he saw Richards approaching, but started off again after Richards fumbled the ball, only to be caught short of the crease by Richards' lightning recovery and return to Lloyd at the bowler's end. [3] In each situation, the batsmen probably would have made the run had they not hesitated. [2] When Lillee joined Jeff Thomson as last man in, Australia required 59 runs to win off seven overs. The duo kept the game alive, putting on an unlikely last-wicket stand. With three overs remaining, the game reached an unlikely climax when Lillee hit a no-ball to Fredericks at extra cover off Vanburn Holder, and the crowd rushed onto the field oblivious to the umpire's call. Amid the chaos, Fredericks attempted a run-out but missed and the ball disappeared into the crowd. Lillee and Thomson kept running between the wickets until the crowd were dispersed. When play was resumed, the umpires decided to give Australia two runs. After protest from Thomson, they awarded three runs. [4]
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Sports Competition
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GridWise Alliance Establishes Advisory Council to Aid Drive for Investments in Power System
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Update 5:30 PM EDT – After this morning’s announcement regarding the formation of the Grid Infrastructure Advisory Council, the White House recognized the launch of the Council this afternoon in their Fact Sheet on the Biden Administration Advancing Expansion & Modernization of the Electrical Grid. WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27, 2021 – GridWise Alliance Board Chair Gil C. Quiniones today announced the formation of a 30-member Grid Infrastructure Advisory Council (GIAC) to support the Alliance’s call for at least $50 billion in federal spending to modernize the nation’s electric power transmission and distribution systems. “A strong and secure electric grid is essential to creating jobs and driving economic growth, meeting clean energy goals and fighting climate change,” said Mr. Quiniones, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority, the largest state-owned electric utility in the United States. “GridWise Alliance’s new Advisory Council will be a vital asset as we work to build support in Congress and throughout the country for grid modernization and for President Biden’s ambitious and potentially historic infrastructure plan—the ‘American Jobs Plan.’ The council includes leaders from the electric utility industry, environmental groups, labor unions and other interested parties in the public and private sectors. It is diverse, but also united in its firm belief that the power grid must be significantly upgraded.” Mr. Quiniones will lead the GIAC, whose other members are: “This Advisory Council represents the most diverse group of leaders to form a collective voice on the critical need for electric grid investments,” said Lisa Barton, GridWise Alliance Vice Chair and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AEP. “United through a shared understanding that these aspirational, clean energy goals to reduce our carbon footprint are achievable if we make smart investments now to expand, strengthen and modernization our T&D networks.” Mr. Quiniones said GridWise Alliance commends the Biden Administration on the infrastructure plan’s proposed $100 billion investment in upgrading the electricity grid and promoting clean energy and $50 billion for resilient infrastructure He noted that this complements the Alliance’s Grid Investments for Economic Recovery initiative, launched earlier this year, which focuses more specifically on urging a $50 billion federal investment in modernizing and upgrading the transmission and distribution networks. The GIAC and GridWise Alliance will work collaboratively with the Biden Administration to define areas where investment in the electric grid would be most beneficial to the economy and the communities in most need. The Council will amplify the best practices of Alliance members; put a spotlight on key policy and appropriation recommendations; and utilize its utility executives, grid equipment manufacturers, and vendor members to advocate funding for grid modernization. “A modern grid is critical for meeting clean energy and climate goals,” said GridWise Alliance CEO Karen Wayland. “Every year our members invest in grid-enhancing technologies for integrating renewable energy, increasing reliability, protecting the grid from cyberattacks, and keeping electricity affordable. We now have a significant opportunity to accelerate the deployment of grid modernization with substantial federal support.” About GridWise Alliance The GridWise Alliance (GWA) represents the broad and diverse stakeholders that design, build, and operate the electric grid. Since 2003, the GridWise Alliance has been at the forefront of educating key industry stakeholders on the critical need to modernize our nation’s electricity system. For more information about the GridWise Alliance, visit: www.gridwise.org. Richie O’Neill GridWise Alliance 202.530.9740 roneill@gridwise.org GridWise AllianceFollow We applaud the U.S. Senate bipartisan infrastructure group for its leadership with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill's grid provisions are historic investments for modernizing the electric grid. . @GQenergy @ItronInc #MyItron https://sprou.tt/1Ggy7B0H0A3
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Organization Established
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Opinion: Poisoning was preventable. Pass legislation to make carbon monoxide detectors mandatory.
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Use gas-powered generators with care, keeping it outdoors and away from windows and being mindful of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The epidemic of carbon monoxide poisoning that occurred in Texas during the week of Feb. 15 was shocking, appalling and incredibly sad. It was also largely preventable.
A major winter storm resulting from an arctic air outbreak caused temperatures to fall in Texas to 30-year lows, hitting 0 degrees in some parts of the state during the week. Amid freezing temperatures, as many as 3.3 million were without power or experiencing rolling blackouts. Five days later, about 180,000 homes and businesses in Texas still had no electricity.
As dwellings got colder and darker, residents turned to alternate sources of energy for heat and light. According to media reports, improper use of such things as charcoal grills, automobiles, space heaters and gasoline-powered electrical generators resulted in 600 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in Harris County alone, home. The Harris County Fire Department responded to 475 carbon monoxide calls. The Texas Panhandle Poison Control Center received over 400 calls related to carbon monoxide poisoning over five days.
A number of the poisonings were fatal. A mother and her 7-year-old daughter died while sitting in their running car in the garage attempting to stay warm and charge their cell phone. A woman died while attempting to heat her home with her natural gas stove. Four men and a woman died in two incidents from carbon monoxide emitted by a generator placed too close to their home. Among the nonfatal poisonings, carbon monoxide undoubtedly resulted in brain injury with permanent cognitive damage in many.
As shocking as these events may have been to many, they are nothing new. The risks of indoor use of charcoal for heat, improper generator use for electrical power, and running a car in the garage for heat and power in a storm-related power outage have all been well described in the medical literature and publicized. The sources of carbon monoxide and poisoning following storms have been reviewed and published. Despite these efforts to educate the public, the typical pattern continued in Texas.
Warning labels, including nonverbal pictograms to warn non-English speaking individuals, have been added to packages of charcoal sold in the U.S. and also to electrical generators. Some manufacturers of generators have developed models that produce lower amounts of carbon monoxide or shut off when ambient carbon monoxide levels rise to dangerous levels. However, short of a very expensive recall and retrofit of previously purchased models, older versions will be in use for many years.
Attempts at prevention through education appears to have helped little in Texas as poisoning incidents occurred at a rate which may have produced more episodes of carbon monoxide poisoning than any storm in U.S. history by a factor of two to three-fold. Other states were affected by this storm and have been by prior winter storms, resulting in prolonged power outages during cold temperatures. Why was the situation in Texas so extreme?
It likely related, at least in large part, to a lack of government regulation. Of the 50 states, only three (Hawaii, Missouri and Texas) do not require installation of carbon monoxide alarms in residences. Carbon monoxide gas is insensible to humans and is not detected by smoke alarms, which are required in all U.S. homes. People are not aware of the exposure to carbon monoxide until they become sick. Since most poisonings in these situations occur in homes, carbon monoxide alarms have great potential for poisoning prevention. It has been estimated that as many as 50 percent of accidental residential carbon monoxide deaths can be prevented with carbon monoxide alarms and that they will be cost-effective if only 10 percent effective. Many predict this type of storm will recur. As the second most populous state in the nation, it is time for Texas to join the rest of the country and pass legislation requiring residential CO alarms.
Hampson is a doctor of pulmonary, critical care and hyperbaric medicine at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.
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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Brazil Dam Disaster: 60 People Are Dead, With Hundreds More Missing
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The Vale mining company says that Dam I of the Córrego de Feijão mine was more than 280 feet high and 2,360 feet wide, holding a volume of 11.7 million cubic meters. The ruined mine near Brumadinho, Brazil, is seen here in a satellite photo from Jan. 26. DigitalGlobe/Maxar/Reuters The Vale mining company says that Dam I of the Córrego de Feijão mine was more than 280 feet high and 2,360 feet wide, holding a volume of 11.7 million cubic meters. The ruined mine near Brumadinho, Brazil, is seen here in a satellite photo from Jan. 26. Search crews are looking for up to 300 missing people in southeastern Brazil, after a dam at an iron ore mining complex collapsed Friday, releasing a deluge of muddy mine waste that swallowed part of a town. Since then, the death toll has risen to 60, according to Brazilian media outlets citing the area fire brigade, and the safety practices of the mine's owner have come under scrutiny. "Authorities say many of the missing are likely buried deep in mud," Catherine Osborn reports for NPR from Brumadinho. Fears that a second dam nearby might collapse forced a new evacuation and the suspension of search efforts late Sunday. The delicate work continued after water and sludge was pumped out, and the all-clear was given. When that potential risk spiked on Sunday, a siren blared an alert, further unsettling thousands of residents. But it seems that the public might have received little or no public warning of Friday's catastrophe. The Vale mining company tells The Associated Press there are eight sirens in the area around its dam that failed — but that "the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible" on Friday. Mine worker Luiz Castro told Osborn that he had been taking iron ore to a grinding machine when he heard a loud noise, like the sound of giant truck wheels exploding. Turning, Castro saw what he calls a "mountain of mud" — from a dam that held more than 3 billion gallons — bearing down on the building where he worked. He ran for his life. The mine waste and mud had been held back by Dam I of the Córrego de Feijão mine, which Vale says was more than 280 feet high and 2,360 feet wide. The company says the dam on the outskirts of Brumadinho had surpassed safety standards when it was inspected in June and September of last year. Satellite images of the area show a dramatically redrawn landscape. The area below the dam, where dense tree cover, buildings and small ponds once stood, is now covered in rust-colored muck. Rescuers search for vicitms near the town of Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerias, southeastern Brazil, three days after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil's giant mining company Vale. Mauro Pimentel /AFP/Getty Images hide caption Rescuers search for vicitms near the town of Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerias, southeastern Brazil, three days after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil's giant mining company Vale. The red mud has reached the Paraopeba River in the center of Brumadinho, reports O Globo, which adds that according to the locals, the river had been known for having the most fish in the Paraopeba Valley, an area in the state of Minas Gerais bracketed by several mountain ranges. As residents grapple with the scope of the tragedy, legal proceedings against Vale are already under way. Two government agencies have hit the company with sanctions over the mine collapse. And over the weekend, judges issued preliminary injunctions freezing nearly $3 billion of Vale's accounts to preserve money for potential payments for victims, reparations and other costs. Vale bills itself as the world's largest iron ore and nickel producer, and it's a powerful force in Minas Gerais, a state well known for its mines. But many residents blame the company for Friday's collapse and question whether Vale did enough to improve its safety protocols after a similar collapse killed 19 people in 2015. "It was negligence — and it was a crime," resident Dilce Almeida tells Osborn. A retired clothing vendor who said she spent the weekend trying to learn the fate of her nephew, Andre. Ibama, Brazil's ministry of the environment, imposed a fine of 250 million reals ($66 million) on Vale on Saturday, saying it was guilty of five different infractions, from causing life-threatening pollution to releasing mining tailings into water resources. A state agency in Minas Gerais added its own fine of nearly 100 million reals. But as the disaster's toll continues to rise, residents and a relief official are calling for the government to improve how it manages the risk of dams collapsing at Brazil's mines. "Federal officials have pledged to make mining regulations more strict," Osborn reports. "But for many, this disaster has laid bare the difference between pledges and enforcement."
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Mine Collapses
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1966 Aerolineas Argentinas DC-4 hijacking crash
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The hijacking of Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 648 (also known as Operativo Cóndor; Spanish for "Operation Condor") occurred on 28 and 29 September 1966 when a group of Argentine nationalists hijacked a civilian Aerolíneas Argentinas aircraft en route from Buenos Aires to Río Gallegos and forced the captain at gunpoint to land in the Falkland Islands (then a British Crown Colony) in protest to the UK's presence on the islands. [1] After landing, the hijackers raised the Argentine flag, took several islanders hostage and demanded the Governor of the Falkland Islands recognise Argentine sovereignty over the islands. On 29 September 1966, after negotiating through a Catholic priest, the hijackers surrendered and were returned to Argentina for trial. The United Kingdom had exercised de facto sovereignty over the Falkland Islands continuously since 1833, but the Argentinean government claimed sovereignty over the archipelago (known in Argentina as the "Malvinas") and in 1964 Ambassador José María Ruda presented Argentina's case to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization which increased the Argentinean public's interest in the sovereignty claim. [2]
To coincide with Ruda's address, on 8 September 1964 Argentine civil pilot Miguel Lawler Fitzgerald flew his Cessna 185 from Río Gallegos to Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, and landed on the racecourse. He hoisted the Argentine ensign and asked to speak with the Governor. When his request was refused, he left a written message claiming Argentine sovereignty before taking off and returning to Río Gallegos. As a result of this incident, the UK sent a permanent detachment of Royal Marines to the Falklands. [3]
In the early 1960s the Tacuara Nationalist Movement (an Argentine far right militant group) conducted a number of bank robberies in Argentina. With some of these funds, Horacio Rossi (a member of the group) proposed chartering a ship from Bahía Blanca and sailing it to Stanley with twenty or thirty militants who would invade the Falklands, force out the population and then offer the Islands to the exiled former-president of Argentina, Juan Perón to use as a base for his return to Argentina. The plan was named "Operation Rivero" but was never executed; however, Tacuara members Dardo Cabo and Alejandro Giovenco would go on to use some details of the plan in "Operation Condor". [4]
On 28 September 1966, 18 militant Peronists and nationalists (who called themselves Operativo Cóndor) boarded an Aerolíneas Argentinas Douglas DC-4 (tail number: LV-AGG) along with 14 other passengers and 6 crew. Flight 648 departed from Buenos Aires at 00:34 bound for Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz. [1] The militant group were dressed as university students, manual labourers, and white-collar workers. Some met for the first time on the aircraft. The militants were:
The group had initially planned to purchase all the seats on board the flight, but this option was too expensive for their limited budget. [5] So instead they chose to join the same flight as Rear Admiral Jose Maria Guzman (unaware of the plan) who was the then governor of the National Territory of Tierra del Fuego Province, under whose jurisdiction the Falklands fall according to Argentina's sovereignty claim to the Islands. [5] Héctor Ricardo García, owner of the Buenos Aires newspaper Crónica, was also a passenger having been invited to witness the operation by the militants. [6] He claimed he did not know the details of the plan but in fact he was a key promoter. [4] Two years earlier, his paper had offered to support Miguel Lawler Fitzgerald's flight to the Falklands. [4]
At around 06:00, when flying over the city of Puerto Santa Cruz, members of the group took out firearms hidden in their luggage. Two hijackers moved to the back of the aircraft and locked the flight purser in the toilet. [5] Dardo Cabo, the leader of the group, and Alejandro Giovenco entered the cockpit and ordered Captain Ernesto Fernández García at gunpoint to fly to the Falklands. Captain Fernández García initially claimed that there wasn't enough fuel and that he did not know the correct route but finally complied with their demands when Cabo said the Captain's family would be "taken care of" if he didn't change course. [5] Two members of the group approached Admiral Guzmán in the cabin and informed him of the hijacking, at which point his aide-de-camp attempted to get his pistol but was struck down by one of the hijackers. In order not to frighten the passengers, they were informed that the aircraft was diverting to Comodoro Rivadavia airport. [7]
The Captain managed to find the Falklands thanks to the differences in the pattern of cloud cover over the islands. After circling, they were able to locate Stanley through a clearing in the clouds. At that time, there were no active airports on the islands, so the Captain landed on Stanley Racecourse at 08:42. [7] The aircraft was slightly damaged as a result of the landing and the right undercarriage sank into a peat bog at end of the landing run. [1]
The hijackers opened the doors, descended to the ground using ropes and hoisted seven Argentine flags in front of the aircraft. [8] They then announced they were claiming the islands for Argentina and that Stanley would be renamed "Puerto Rivero" after Antonio Rivero, an Argentine gaucho who murdered five people at Port Louis on the Falkland Islands in 1833. [7]
The original plan was to storm Government House (which was next to the racecourse) immediately after landing and compel the Governor of the Falkland Islands (who was actually absent on that day) to recognise Argentine sovereignty over the islands. [5] The hope was that this would lead to a nationalist wave in Argentina which would force Argentina's government into ordering a full invasion and takeover of the islands. [5] However, the aircraft had come to a stop on the wrong end of the race track and was unable to move, meaning the hijackers couldn't get to Government House without being easily captured. [5]
Several Falkland Islanders, who had witnessed the landing and assumed the aircraft was in distress, came to help and were taken hostage. [9] The hijackers distributed a proclamation written in English, stating that the islands were Argentine territory. The aircraft was quickly surrounded by the Falkland Islands Defence Force, the Falkland Islands Police and Royal Marines. [7]
Governor Cosmo Haskard was absent from the Falklands at the time, as was Colonial Secretary Harry Thompson (who would have normally deputised for the Governor). As a result, Colonial Treasurer Leslie Gleadell took charge of the situation. [10] Gleadell received three of the hijackers, escorted by Captain Ian Martin the officer commanding the Royal Marines, and urged them to surrender, but the hijackers insisted that as Argentine citizens, they had a right to be in the islands. An agreement was reached under which all the hostages aboard the aircraft would be exchanged for seven men, including Police sergeant Terry Peck. The hostages were then allowed to disembark and sent to lodge with local families, as the islands had no hotel at that time. On being taken past Government House (the residence of the Governor), Admiral Guzmán joked "Mi casa" ("my house"). [11]
At the request of the hijackers, Catholic priest Father Rodolfo Roel (a priest of the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill of Dutch origin) held a Mass in Spanish inside the fuselage of the aircraft. The hijackers then made a statement using the aircraft's radio saying: "Operation Condor fulfilled. Passengers, crew and equipment without incident. Position Puerto Rivero (Malvinas Islands), English authorities consider us detained. Chief of Police and Infantry taken as hostages by us until both English governor annuls arrest and recognises that we are in Argentine territory." In the afternoon, the Royal Marines installed loudspeakers and played country and western music continuously and Land Rovers were placed in front of and behind the plane.
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Air crash
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Major milestones in Chinese space exploration
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China launched a spacecraft on Thursday carrying three astronauts to the main module of the country's space station, its first crewed mission in nearly five years. read more China's first full-fledged space station is still under construction. When completed, it will be the only rival to the International Space Station (ISS) backed by the United States, Japan and Russia. China has never participated in the ISS. Here is a timeline of key moments in Chinese space exploration: July 19, 1964: China took its first official step into space, launching and recovering an experimental biological rocket carrying white mice. April 24, 1970: The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1, was launched from the Jiuquan launch centre in the northwestern province of Gansu. That made China the fifth country to send satellites into orbit, following the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan. Nov. 26, 1975: China launched its first recoverable satellite. Nov. 20, 1999: China launched its first unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-1. Oct. 15, 2003: China became the third country after the United States and Russia to send a man into space with its own rocket. Astronaut Yang Liwei spent about 21 hours in space aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft. Oct. 12, 2005: China sent two men on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou-6 spacecraft. Nov. 5, 2007: China's first lunar orbiter, Chang'e-1, entered the moon's orbit 12 days after takeoff. Sept. 25, 2008: China's third manned spacecraft, Shenzhou-7, was launched into space, where an astronaut clambered out of the spacecraft for the nation's first space walk. Oct. 1, 2010: China's second lunar exploration probe blasted off from a remote corner of the southwestern province of Sichuan. The Long March-2F Y12 rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft and three astronauts, takes off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center for China's first manned mission to build its space station, near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China June 17, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins Sept. 29, 2011: The Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace 1", China's first space lab, was launched to carry out docking and orbiting experiments. Nov. 3, 2011: China carried out its first docking exercise between two unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 module, a key test to securing a long-term manned presence in space. Dec. 14, 2013: China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in the first "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in accomplishing the feat. Sept. 15, 2016：China launched its second experimental space laboratory, the Tiangong-2, part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. Jan. 3, 2019: The Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, touched down on the far side of the moon. Previous spacecraft have flown over the far side but not landed on it. June 23, 2020: China put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS). July 23, 2020: China launched an unmanned probe to Mars in its first independent mission to another planet. Nov. 24, 2020: China launched an uncrewed mission, the Chang'e-5, with the aim of collecting lunar material to help scientists learn more about the moon's origins. Dec. 1, 2020: China landed the Chang'e-5 probe on the moon's surface. April 29, 2021: China launched Tianhe, the first and largest of three modules of its upcoming space station. May 15, 2021: China became the second country after the United States to land a robotic rover on the surface of Mars. June 17, 2021: China launched the crewed Shenzhou-12 spacecraft to dock with Tianhe.
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New achievements in aerospace
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Goolwa North man arrested for alleged Victor Habor bank robbery
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A 53-year-old Goolwa North man has been arrested in relation to a bank robbery south of Adelaide on Thursday. The man was arrested at his property at about 8:30pm last night and taken to Victor Harbor police station where he was charged with aggravated robbery. Police said the man entered the BankSA on Ocean Street at about 1:15pm and told staff he had a firearm, before leaving with cash. He was refused bail and is expected to appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court today. Police located the man through CCTV footage and information from witnesses.
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Bank Robbery
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1971 Indian Airlines hijacking crash
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On 30 January 1971, an Indian Airlines domestic passenger airliner named Ganga, flying from Srinagar Airport to the Jammu-Satwari Airport, was hijacked by two Kashmiri separatists belonging to the National Liberation Front (NLF, the antecedent of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front). The hijackers were Hashim Qureshi and his cousin Ashraf Qureshi. The aircraft was flown to Lahore Airport in Pakistan where the passengers and the crew were released and the aircraft was burnt down. [1][2][3]
Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was already withdrawn from service but was re-inducted days before the hijacking. [2]
India retaliated to the hijacking and subsequent burning by banning overflights of Pakistani aircraft over Indian territory. The ban, occurring in the run-up to the December 1971 war between the countries, had a significant impact on troop movement into the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. [2] Pakistan reacted by charging the hijackers and other NLF militants with conspiracy. The crackdown severely weakened the militant organisation. Subsequently, the leader of the movement, Amanullah Khan, moved to Britain, where he established a new organisation called the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Hashim Qureshi, a Srinagar resident who went to Peshawar on family business in 1969, met Maqbool Bhat of the National Liberation Front (NLF), a self-declared 'armed wing' of the Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front. Qureshi was persuaded to join the NLF and given an ideological education and lessons in guerrilla tactics in Rawalpindi. In order to draw the world's attention to the Kashmiri independence movement, the NLF planned an airline hijacking fashioned after the Dawson's Field hijackings by the Palestinian militants. Hashim Qureshi, along with his cousin Ashraf Qureshi, was ordered to execute one. A former Pakistani air force pilot Jamshed Manto trained him for the task. However, Qureshi was arrested by the Indian Border Security Force when he tried to reenter the Indian-administered Kashmir with arms and equipment. He negotiated his way out by claiming to help find other conspirators that were allegedly in the Indian territory, and sought an appointment in the Border Security Force to provide such help. Maqbool Bhat sent replacement equipment for the hijacking, but it fell into the hands of a double agent, who then turned it over to the Indian authorities. Undeterred, the Qureshis made look-alike explosives out of wood and hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft called Ganga on 30 January 1971. [4][5]
The hijackers landed the aircraft at Lahore and demanded the release of 36 NLF prisoners lodged in Indian jails. However, they succumbed to pressure from the airport authorities and ended up releasing all the passengers and the crew. Years later, Ashraf Qureshi admitted that they were naive and didn't realise that "the passengers were more important than the actual aircraft." Pakistani Minister Zulfikar Bhutto showed up at the airport and paid a handsome tribute to the hijackers. Indian Government then refused to carry out the demands. The aircraft lay on the tarmac for eighty hours, during which the Pakistani security personnel thoroughly searched the aircraft and removed papers and postal bags they found in it. Eventually, upon the advice of the authorities, Hashim Qureshi burnt the aircraft. [4][6]
For some time, the Qureshis were lauded as heroes. After India reacted by banning overflight of Pakistani aircraft over India, the Pakistani authorities claimed that the hijack was staged by India, and arrested the hijackers and all their collaborators. A one-man investigation committee headed by Justice Noorul Arifeen declared the hijacking to be an Indian conspiracy, citing Qureshi's appointment in the Border Security Force. In addition to the hijackers, Maqbool Bhat and 150 other NLF fighters were arrested. Seven people were eventually brought to trial (the rest being held without charges). The High Court acquitted all of them of treason charges. Hashim Qureshi alone was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to seven years in prison. Ironically, Ashraf Qureshi was released even though he was an equal participant in the hijacking. This is said to have been due to a deal made by Zulikar Bhutto, by now the President of Pakistan, who declared that he would convict one hijacker but release the other. [4][7]
Amanullah Khan, the leader of the Plebiscite Front, was also imprisoned for 15 months in a Gilgit prison during 1970–72, accused of being an Indian agent. He was released after protests broke out in Gilgit. Thirteen of his colleagues were sentenced to 14 years in prison, but released after a year. [8] According to Hashim Qureshi, 400 activists of the Plebiscite Front and NLF were arrested in Pakistan after the Ganga hijacking. [9] Abdul Khaliq Ansari, who was arrested and tortured, testified in the High Court that the Ganga hijacking had emboldened the people to question the corrupt practices of the Azad Kashmir leaders and, in reaction, the government arrested them and forced them to confess to being Indian agents. [10]
To escape the close surveillance and pressure from the Pakistan government, Amanullah Khan and Abdul Khaliq Ansari moved to the UK, where they found active support from the Mirpuri diaspora. Khan converted the UK branch of the Plebiscite Front into a new organisation Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, which eventually spearheaded the Kashmir insurgency in the 1980s. [11]
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Air crash
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Only one of the world's best hurdlers could win the Olympic gold medal
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Only one of the world's best hurdlers could win the Olympic gold medal -- and McLaughlin came out ahead in the latest installment of the best rivalry in track.
The 21-year-old from New Jersey won the 400-meter hurdles title Wednesday, finishing in 51.46 seconds in yet another history-making day on the speedy Olympic oval.
"Iron sharpening iron," McLaughlin called the latest in her series of showdowns with Muhammad, each one faster than the last. "Every time we step on the track, it's always something fast."
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What you missed at the Olympics: Epic 200-meter final, Allyson Felix will race for gold, Sydney McLaughlin breaks own world record
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McLaughlin came from behind after the last hurdle to top the defending Olympic champion. Muhammad's time of 51.58 also beat McLaughlin's old record of 51.9, set at Olympic trials in June. But in this race, it was only good enough for the silver.
For McLaughlin, it was a muted celebration -- in part, because traversing 400 meters while clearing 10 hurdles at 17 miles-per-hour is more exhausting than she makes it look.
"There was some lactic" acid building up, she said.
She sat on the ground, gave a serious look toward the scoreboard -- yep, it's a record ... again -- then got up and moved toward the hand-sanitizing station. Muhammad came over and gave her a congratulatory hug. They'll meet again. World championships are next July.
"No mixed emotions," Muhammad said. "Sure, there are always things you want to do better. But you use this as a springboard to the next. This is not my last race."
Impressive as McLaughlin's race was, this record didn't really surprise anyone.
McLaughlin and Muhammad, a New York City native who went to Southern Cal, have been trading the record, and the wins, for two years. Muhammad first broke the mark at U.S. Nationals in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2019, then lowered it to 52.16, at the world championships in Qatar.
McLaughlin broke that record earlier this summer at Olympic trials, running 51.9 to become the first woman to crack 52 seconds.
It felt inevitable that the mark would go down again on a fast track in perfect, hot-and-humid running conditions in Tokyo.
Only a day earlier, Norway's Karsten Warholm crushed his old world record in the men's 400 hurdles, finishing in 45.94. Runner-up Rai Benjamin's 46.17 also beat the old mark. Six runners in that race set national, continental or world records.
It was a lot to live up to for the M&M duo, whose race was even more eagerly anticipated. They exceeded expectations, and left everyone else in the race behind.
"I just went out like crazy for the first 300 to be with them," said bronze medalist Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who set a European record and whose time of 52.03 would've been a world record six weeks ago. "And I died a bit."
Starting from Lane 7, Muhammad came out of the blocks and made up the lag quickly as they cruised down the backstretch.
Slowly, steadily, McLaughlin drew even, and they were at nearly a draw when they reached the final 100 meters. As McLaughlin and Muhammad scaled the last hurdle, it was McLaughlin who moved ahead and started inching away.
The .12-second margin was close -- but not as close as in Doha, when McLaughlin lost by .07 in a race that changed her thinking.
Sydney McLaughlin, right, finished just ahead of rival Dalilah Muhammad and won gold in a world-record time of 51.46 seconds.
AP Photo/Petr David Josek
That world championship race showed how good McLaughlin really was, but left her with an undisputable reality. Muhammad, now 31 and a late bloomer who didn't have a sponsor or a spot at the London Olympics in 2012, was better.
McLaughlin changed coaches, joining Bobby Kersee, whose expertise has helped produce what could be a wing of a track and field Hall of Fame: Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence Griffith Joyner, Allyson Felix and now, McLaughlin.
"This is his 11th Olympics he's coaching, you know he's been around the block a few times," McLaughlin said of Kersee. "And he knew exactly what it was going to take to get me to this point."
Kersee had McLaughlin work at shorter distances, jump off the opposite foot, run indoors more and just get used to different situations. They also worked on staying focused.
Nothing seemed to bother her in Tokyo -- not the quarantine rules, the early wake-up times (4 a.m. for the first round) or a drenching rainstorm that hit during the semifinals.
Neither did the expectations of the Olympics or the race. That sort of spotlight has hindered other Olympians. Along with Kersee, McLaughlin credited her faith for helping her cut through the pressure to focus on the race.
"I think it's a weight that you put on yourself that doesn't really exist," she said. "It's the fear of something that hasn't happened yet in your mind that you're assuming has already happened. It's really just making sure that your thoughts are positive."
Her gold medal was proof that her mindset had worked.
It's also the latest in a journey she's been on since she burst onto the international scene in 2016. She was 16, one of the freshest faces in sports, and she came to Olympic trials with stories of how she could juggle, and ride a unicycle, and do both at the same time.
Tokyo 2020
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She earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in one of the most stacked events on the program, Muhammad, already in her prime, won a gold medal in Rio de Janeiro. McLaughlin was out in the semifinal round. A great learning experience.
She had the good fortune to come of age at a time when another woman was redefining the hurdles game.
Before Muhammad broke it, the world record had stood at 52.34 for 16 years.
"I told Dalilah all the time, it's a little soft. I think we can go faster," said her coach, Boogie Johnson. "She's like, 'You think so?" I'm like, 'Yeah, if we do this, this and this.' We just changed the mindset."
Once an undercard on the track and field schedule, the 400-meter hurdles is now one of the best races at the Olympics.
McLaughlin won it this time.
Muhammad is back to the drawing board.
"I think it's two athletes wanting to be their best," McLaughlin said, "and knowing there's another great girl who's going to help you get there."
Also Wednesday, Damian Warner of Canada leads the Olympic decathlon with 2,966 points after the first three events. The 2016 Olympic bronze medalist is 223 points clear of fellow Canadian Pierce Lepage and 255 ahead of 2018 world junior champion Ash Moloney of Australia.
Decathlon world-record holder Kevin Mayer of France, the Olympic silver medalist from Rio and world champion in 2017, is in the fourth spot with 2,662 points.
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Break historical records
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Polk deputies nab killer, released early from prison, wanted for new murder in New Jersey
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Courtesy: Polk County Sheriff's Office WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Deputies in Polk County say they tracked down a convicted killer from New Jersey who was wanted for a new murder in September. Prosecutors in New Jersey say James Lewis fatally shot a man back on September 18 during a carjacking in the community of East Orange. They say he tied up the victim’s girlfriend and stole the vehicle with her in it, before crashing a short time later. He was on the run until deputies caught up with him in Winter Haven on Tuesday. The 51-year-old was arrested at a home on Kinghill Court SE, where deputies say they also found evidence linked to the New Jersey crime scene. Lewis was previously convicted of homicide, robbery and possession of a weapon in a 1989 case. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but Sheriff Grady Judd pointed out that Lewis only served 30 years in combined jail and prison time. "He spent only 30 years in prison when he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for homicide, robbery, and possession of a weapon. In less than two years of being released early, he murdered again," Judd said. "The reason we have prisons is to keep violent and repeat criminals away from victims and innocent people in the community."
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release
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Full text: Xi Jinping's speech at the COP15 leaders' summit
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Xinhua | Updated: 2021-10-12 15:00 Share - WeChat CLOSE President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video link at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) on Oct 12, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua] President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech Tuesday afternoon via video link at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). Here is the full text of his speech: Dear Colleagues, Friends, Good afternoon. It gives me great pleasure to meet you virtually in Kunming and jointly attend the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. On behalf of the government and people of China as well as in my own name, I wish to extend a warm welcome to all the distinguished guests. As a Chinese saying goes, "All beings flourish when they live in harmony and receive nourishment from Nature." Biodiversity makes Earth full of vigor and vitality, and lays the foundation for human survival and development. Protecting biodiversity helps protect Earth, our common homeland, and contributes to humanity's sustainable development. The Kunming conference, under the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", has great significance. It will work for the conclusion of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and identify targets and pathways for global biodiversity protection in the future. In this context, the international community must enhance cooperation, build consensus and pool strength to build a community of all life on Earth. Man and Nature need to coexist in harmony. When we take care to protect Nature, Nature rewards us generously; when we exploit Nature ruthlessly, it punishes us without mercy. We need to have deep reverence for Nature, respect Nature, follow Nature's laws and protect Nature, so as to build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature. Green mountains are gold mountains and silver mountains. A sound ecology and environment is not just a natural asset, but also an economic asset, and it affects the potential and momentum of economic and social development. We need to speed up efforts to foster a green way of development and secure a win-win of economic growth and environmental protection, so as to build a homeland of coordinated advancement of economy and the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow over global development and compounded challenges to the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Faced with the dual tasks of economic recovery and environmental protection, developing countries need help and support all the more. We need to strengthen solidarity to overcome difficulties and let people across countries benefit more and in a fairer way from development outcomes and a sound environment, so as to build a homeland of common development of all countries. We are living in an era both fraught with challenges and full of hopes. As long as we press ahead with perseverance, a bright future will beckon. For the sake of our common future, we need to join hands and start a new journey of high-quality development for humanity. First, we shall take the development of ecological civilization as our guide to coordinate the relationship between man and Nature. We need to solve the problems brought by industrial civilization, keep human activities within the limits of the ecology and environment, and carry out holistic conservation and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts. Second, we shall let green transition drive our efforts to facilitate global sustainable development. We need to build a green, low-carbon and circular economic system, translate ecological strengths into development strengths, and bring out the great benefit that green mountains and clear waters can offer. We also need to step up green international cooperation and share the fruits of green development among all countries. Third, we shall concentrate on bettering people's well-being to promote social equity and justice. We need to keep in mind the people's aspiration for a better life, pursue win-win results in environmental protection, economic development, job creation, poverty alleviation and other endeavors, and increase the sense of fulfillment, happiness and security of people in all countries. Fourth, we shall take international law as the basis to uphold a fair and equitable international governance system. We need to practice true multilateralism, and effectively honor and implement international rules, which are not to be exploited or discarded at one's own will. The new environmental protection targets we set need to be ambitious on the one hand and pragmatic and balanced on the other, so as to make the global environmental governance system fairer and more equitable. Colleagues, China has made remarkable progress in building an ecological civilization. The recent story of the northward travel and return of a group of elephants in Yunnan Province in southwestern China shows the vivid results of our endeavor to protect wild animals. China will continue to advance ecological progress, stay committed to implementing the new development philosophy emphasizing innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all, and build a beautiful China. On this occasion, I wish to announce China's initiative to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion RMB yuan to support biodiversity protection in developing countries. China also calls for and welcomes contributions from other parties to the fund. To strengthen biodiversity protection, China is moving faster to establish a protected areas system with national parks as the mainstay. Over time, areas with the greatest importance to the natural ecosystem, and with the most unique natural landscapes, the most valuable natural heritage and the greatest biodiversity reserve will be included in the national parks system. China has officially designated its first group of national parks that includes the Three-River-Source National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Forests National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park. The protected land area is 230,000 square kilometers and they cover nearly 30 percent of the key terrestrial wildlife species found in China. In the meantime, acting by the principle of striking a balance between on-site and translocation conservation, China has started building a system of national botanical gardens in places like Beijing and Guangzhou. To achieve its carbon peak and neutrality targets, China will release implementation plans for peaking carbon dioxide emissions in key areas and sectors as well as a series of supporting measures, and will put in place a "1+N" policy framework for carbon peak and carbon neutrality. China will continue to readjust its industrial structure and energy mix, vigorously develop renewable energy, and make faster progress in planning and developing large wind power and photovoltaic bases in sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts. The first phase of projects with an installed capacity of approximately 100 million kilowatts have recently started construction in a smooth fashion. Colleagues, If we humanity do not fail Nature, Nature will not fail us. Ecological civilization represents the development trend of human civilization. Let us join hands, follow the philosophy of ecological civilization and shoulder our responsibility for future generations. Let us make joint efforts to build a community of all life on Earth, and a clean and beautiful world for us all.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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Hope turns to anguish after Brazil dam collapse; 40 dead, hundreds missing
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Hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from a dam collapse in Brazil was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died. By Saturday night, when authorities called off rescue efforts until day break, the death toll stood at 40 dead with up to 300 people estimated to be missing. Throughout the day, helicopters flew low over areas buried by mud and firefighters worked to get to structures by digging. “I’m angry. There is no way I can stay calm,” said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale mining company for 20 years. “My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if it’s bad.” Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometers (miles) and burying much in its path. Employees of the mining complex owned and operated by Brazilian mining company Vale were eating lunch Friday afternoon when the dam gave way. Throughout Saturday, scores of families in the city of Brumadinho desperately awaited word on their loved ones as Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais state, said that at this point most recovery efforts would entail pulling out bodies. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. On Saturday, rooftops poked above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads. After the dam collapse, some were evacuated from Brumadinho. Other residents of the affected areas barely escaped with their lives. “I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise,” said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from where the dam collapsed. Pedrosa, 45, and her parents dashed to their car and drove to the highest point in the neighborhood. “If we had gone down the other direction, we would have died,” Pedrosa said. “I cannot get that noise out of my head,” she said. “It’s a trauma ... I’ll never forget.” In addition to the 40 bodies recovered as of Saturday night, 23 people were hospitalized, said authorities with the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive. The company said in a statement Saturday that while 100 workers were accounted for, more than 200 workers were still missing. Fire officials at one point estimated the total number at close to 300. Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened. For many, hope was evaporating. “I don’t think he is alive,” said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. “Right now, I can only hope for a miracle of God.” Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as “distressing, maddening.” “Time is passing,” she said. “It’s been 24 hours already. ... I just don’t want to think that he is under the mud.” The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread contamination. According to Vale’s website, the waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 “contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.” Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais ordered the freezing of about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to present a report about how they would help victims. Brazil’s Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate, saying “someone is definitely at fault.” Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture. Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Schvartsman said what happened Friday was “a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.” Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who hadn’t heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company. “Vale destroyed Mariana and now they’ve destroyed Brumadinho,” she said. Daily Folha de S.Paulo reported Saturday that the dam’s mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to “decreased risk.” Preservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful. On Twitter, President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to “prevent more tragedies” like Mariana and now Brumadinho. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazil’s economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries. Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored a lack of regulation, and many promised to fight any further deregulation. Da Silva summed up what many felt by saying the accident was clearly “negligence.” “This could have been avoided if the company had taken the necessary precautions after the tragedy of Mariana three years ago,” she said.
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Mine Collapses
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Two people dead, one injured after carbon monoxide poisoning in Callaway County
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Two people are dead and one person is recovering after a medical emergency call to the 7000 block of Kenny Drive, just south of Fulton.
Officials report the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, however the investigation is ongoing.
Officials report EMS personnel found two adults dead and a third adult was found alive but in a critical medical condition.
The third person was taken to the University Hospital in Columbia where they are now recovering and in stable condition.
Officials report this is an active death investigation it is being conducted by the Callaway County Sheriff’s Office.
No foul play is suspected and no additional subjects are being sought according to officials. Next-of-kin are being notified according to the sheriff's office.
The Central Callaway Fire Protection District and Missouri State Highway Patrol assisted with the scene investigation according to the Callway County Sheriff's Office.
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Mass Poisoning
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2014 May Day protests
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The 2014 May Day protests were a series of international protests involving millions of people that took place worldwide on May Day (1 May 2014) over the ongoing global economic crisis including austerity measures and poor working conditions. Tens of thousands of Moroccans marched demanding better wages and condemning a new 10 percent salary hike to the minimum wage in the private sector as insufficient. [3]
Thousands of workers in Bangladesh, including many from garment factories, took to the streets demanding the execution for the owner of a building that collapsed last year, killing more than 1,100 laborers in the worst disaster the garment industry has seen. [4]
Nearly 1,000 factory workers and supporters of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party gathered outside the Phnom Penh's Freedom Park, which had been sealed off with barbed wire with hundreds of police on guard. [4] At least five people were injured after security forces armed with sticks and batons turned on protesters. [5]
According to organisers, up to 5,000 workers in Hong Kong joined the Labor Day march, calling for improved working conditions and for the government to restrict the number of working hours. [4][5]
A major protest was held in Jakarta, where 33,000 people marched peacefully through the city centre. According to Rikwanto, police spokesman, 18,000 police officers were deployed on the streets to avoid conflicts. [5]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told thousands of laborers gathered to celebrate International Workers' Day in the capital, Tehran, that he supports the establishment of unions "free of any interference by the state". [4]
Dozens of people, mostly members of the Iraqi Communist Party, held a rally near the party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, raising Iraqi flags and those of the former Soviet Union. [4]
Thousands of Malaysians held a peaceful protest on the streets of Dataran Merdeka, in downtown Kuala Lumpur, against a looming goods and services tax that they fear will increase the cost of living. [4] During the protest were reported several minor scuffles started by fringe youth groups. [6]
In the Philippines, thousands of workers marched peacefully in Manila to protest low wages and employers' practice of replacing regular employees with temporary hires who get low pay and little or no benefits. They also decried what they said was the failure of President Benigno Aquino III to deliver on his anti-corruption and pro-poor reforms. [4]
More than 10,000 workers marched to the labor ministry in Taiwan's capital Taipei demanding wage hikes and a ban on companies hiring cheap temporary or part-time workers. [7]
Police intervened with water cannons and tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators that tried to defy the interdiction to meet on 1 May in Taksim Square, Istanbul, emblematic for anti-government protests in Turkey. [8] Riot police assaulted, using vehicles equipped with water cannons, demonstrators who tried to force the barrages in Beşiktaş district to reach the neighboring Taksim Square. [9] Areas around the European centre of Turkish metropolis were transformed into fortified camp and tens of thousands of police officers – up to 40,000 according to Turkish media – were mobilized to prevent access. [10] According to the Istanbul Governor's Office, at least 142 protesters have been detained by police and 90 people, 19 of whom are police officers, have been injured during the protests. [11] Similar demonstrations took place in more than 30 provinces of Turkey, including the capital Ankara. [12]
According to authorities, nearly 100,000 people attended the Labor Day rallies in France, with the biggest rallies in Paris and other major cities such as Bordeaux and Toulouse. The demonstrations targeted the savings plan of 50 billion euros announced by Prime Minister Manuel Valls. [5]
Nearly 20,000 Greeks marked May Day by demonstrating against government reforms which they say have hurt workers through layoffs and wage cuts. [13]
In Italy's Turin, scuffles broke out between police and hundreds of protesters. Activists lobbed smoke bombs at police, who charged demonstrators in the northern industrial city, which has been badly hit by a painful two-year recession. It was less violent in Rome, where 300,000 people packed into a huge, free May Day concert organized by trade unions. [3] Thousands of people also took part in a peaceful demonstration called by the main trade unions in Pordenone, near Venice, where the closure of a nearby washing machine plant owned by Sweden's Electrolux has put 1,300 jobs at risk. [14]
Over 100,000 attended a protest march from the Red Square to the State Historical Museum in Moscow, reviving a tradition last seen before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. [5] The event was organized by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia. [15] Labour union organisers said that a total of 2 million people had attended similar rallies around the country. [6]
Various labour groups staged a protest in Belgrade in order to voice their concern over the expected austerity measures announced by Serbia's new government. [16]
Rallies were held in more than 70 Spanish cities. In Madrid, thousands marched through the city centre, waving signs demanding an end to austerity measure and criticising the government over a perceived lack of focus on job creation. In Switzerland's financial capital Zurich, about 14,000 people turned out in support of a move to fix the minimum wage at 4,000 Swiss francs ($4,500, €3,300) which will be put to a referendum this month. [3]
In Odessa, May Day rallies have turned into anti-government protests. Clashes have broken out between protesters and police in Donetsk as separatists attempted to storm the prosecutor's office. [17]
Thousands of activists attended a May Day rally in honour of veteran political campaigner Tony Benn and rail union leader Bob Crow who died within days of each other in March. [18]
Thousands of community advocates and immigrant rights supporters marched for worker rights and immigrant justice in downtown Los Angeles. Three different May Day marches were planned by three different groups. As a result of the marches, some downtown streets were closed. [19]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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2014 Portugal legionellosis outbreak
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The 2014 Portugal legionellosis outbreak was an outbreak of legionellosis in multiple cities of the Lisbon district in Portugal, caused by the release of Legionella bacteria from the cooling towers of a fertilizer plant in Forte da Casa, Vila Franca de Xira. [2][3] It began on 7 November 2014 and affected mostly people in Pvoa de Santa Iria, Forte da Casa and Vialonga, in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira. Paulo Macedo, the Portuguese Health Minister, declared the outbreak extinct on 21 November. [4] The outbreak resulted in 375 cases and 12 casualties. [1]
On 7 November 2014, authorities were alerted about an unusually large number of patients infected with Legionella: in 24 hours, the Vila Franca de Xira hospital received 27 patients with this infection and there were six more cases in other hospitals in Lisbon. The patients were from Forte da Casa, Pvoa de Santa Iria, Vialonga, in Vila Franca de Xira, and also from Bucelas, Loures and Samora Correia, Benavente. [5] The municipality of Vila Franca de Xira promptly asserted that tests carried out by the municipal water and sanitation authority (SMAS) did not find any evidence of Legionella in the tap water. [5]
By midday on 8 November, there were already 59 known cases. [17] At the end of the same day, there were 90 known cases of Legionella infections, including 1 fatality. Authorities stated that the first fatality was a 59-year-old male that was a heavy smoker and died 3 hours after arriving at the hospital. [18][6]
On 9 November, the number of cases was updated to 120. [19] Two more people, a 66-year-old male and an 81-year-old female, both with preexisting conditions, died in the hospital, raising the number of fatalities to 3. [8] 6 more people were in critical condition. In the afternoon, the number of cases was reported to be 180 and 4 fatalities. 24 people are in the intensive care unit. [8]
On 11 November, the World Health Organization declared the Legionella outbreak in Portugal a major public health emergency. [20]
On 12 November, there were 302 known cases and 7 fatalities related to this outbreak, with 49 people in intensive care units and two more deaths under investigation. [12] Cases in Luanda, Angola and Lima, Peru were suspected to be connected to the outbreak. [21]
On 13 November, there were 311 cases and 7 fatalities. The two cases that had been observed abroad were found to be unrelated to this outbreak. [14]
On 17 November, there were 331 cases and 8 fatalities. [16]
On 21 November, there were 336 cases and 10 fatalities. The outbreak was declared to be over. [4]
On 4 December, a 43-year-old man died from Legionella, raising the number of fatalities to 11. A total of 20 locations were examined on 8 November. Another 5 locations, 4 factories and 1 hotel, were examined on 9 November. [22]
On 11 November, Solvay confirmed that the first results from their factory in Pvoa de Santa Iria came positive for Legionella, but the results of more comprehensive tests, done at Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute (INSA) were not available yet. These tests included samples from other factories in the region, such as Adubos de Portugal (ADP) and Central de Cervejas. [23] Later on the same day, it was also reported that the ADP factory would be further investigated. It was expected that the new investigation would shed some light on whether there was criminal activity behind the outbreak. [24]
On 21 November, it was confirmed that the ADP factory was the source of the outbreak. [3]
Authorities recommended people to avoid taking showers and using high-pressure water sources as well as avoiding air-conditioning devices and places where airborne water particles are present. Blood donations in some parts of the affected district were halted. [25]
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Disease Outbreaks
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Quarantined teenagers in hospital for food poisoning
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Two teenage students were rushed to hospital with food poisoning on Saturday after being served undercooked chicken while in quarantine at a Pembroke residential facility run by a language school.
The Slovakian girls, both 17 years old, were taken to Mater Dei Hospital by ambulance where they were diagnosed with gastroenteritis.
One of them, who later tested positive for COVID-19, was then separated from her 14-year-old sister, who is now quarantining on her own.
Their distressed mother says she is so worried she cannot sleep or eat as her daughters call her every night in tears.
The food poisoning case is the latest incident that raises questions about how underage foreigners are being cared for in Malta as they are held for two weeks far from their parents.
One of the teenagers, Luisa Ticha, told Times of Malta she only ate the breaded chicken because she was hungry “and it was the only thing they gave us”.
The language school, Sprachcaffe Languages Plus, admitted there was “an issue with the food”.
Luisa and her younger sister Laura, who is 14 years old, are among an undisclosed number of language students stuck in quarantine in Malta.
“I’m sad and disappointed at this truly upsetting situation,” Luisa said, “I never imagined I would end up quarantined, much less in hospital.”
Luisa and Laura spent the first three weeks of their trip living the island dream, bettering their English, meeting new people and making friends, with “lots of fun activities” to keep them entertained.
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But, on July 9, when one of the seven girls she shared an apartment with tested positive for COVID-19, the rest were told to quarantine, with little supervision or access to outside services.
Anyone who is identified by public health as a close contact of a confirmed case must quarantine for 14 days and risk fines of €3,000 for breaking the law.
None of the girls were tested for the virus.
“For me, that was a mistake because we didn’t know who was infected and who wasn’t, I only discovered I was positive because I was admitted to hospital.”
Then, on Friday, Luisa and her friend, another 17-year-old girl from Slovakia had to call an ambulance when they became ill after eating the undercooked chicken.
“When we tore it open it looked like it was raw. I wasn’t going to eat it. In fact, my sister didn’t want hers but I was hungry and it was the only thing they gave us,” she said.
“The day before, I thought I might have a mild fever but I put it down to sunburn. After eating the food I was in so much pain I was crying. I couldn’t stop vomiting.”
At hospital, Luisa was also diagnosed with COVID-19, meaning her quarantine will begin again.
Worse still, she was separated from her 14-year-old sister, who is now alone in an adjacent apartment.
“I feel like I’m in prison, It’s so depressing. There are bars on the windows and I’m all by myself and, even worse, so is my sister.”
Pictures from the girls’ living quarters show rubbish left piled in bins. Cleaning staff are not permitted to enter their apartment to clean.
While Sprachcaffe told Times of Malta it had provided the teenagers with mops and cleaning material and was collecting their laundry every two days, the level of cleanliness in the apartment left much to be desired, with dust and paint chipping onto their beds, broken toilets and hair found in their fridge.
Luisa and Laura’s distraught mother, Barbara said she is begging the school to let her daughters stay together until it’s safe to bring them back home.
“They are both very depressed but, at least, together they will have a shoulder to lean on and help each other. I know it is risky for their health but their mental health is also greatly suffering,” she told Times of Malta.
“I am crying myself to exhaustion every night. I cannot sleep or eat with worry. My daughters call me in tears and I don’t know how to help them. I don’t know what to do,” she says, her voice straining with emotion.
When contacted, Sprachcaffe accommodation manager Philip Plancey said that Luisa and Laura had been moved to two adjacent studio apartments yesterday to be closer to each other but could not be allowed to stay together.
Asked about two of the girls contracting food poisoning, Plancey said that the students are given three meals a day and “was aware there had been an issue with the food which resulted in hospitalisation”. No further comment was offered on the matter.
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Mass Poisoning
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Johnstown flood of 1936
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The Johnstown flood of 1936, also collectively with other areas referred to as the Saint Patrick's Day Flood, was a devastating flood in Cambria County, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania proper, referred to as "Greater Johnstown". The flood was preceded by heavy rains beginning March 9, 1936, which did not stop until March 22. The storms brought warmer weather with temperatures of 50 °F (10 °C) and was a cause of one stage of the flooding; the continuous rainfall was the second cause. The natural surface runoff of 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) was far surpassed by the deluge of from 10 to 30 inches (25 to 75 cm) of water in the region. The flood came before pending flood control legislation was enacted or any significant flood control measures were implemented. The narrowness of the valleys and the encroachment of buildings on riverbanks contributed to the record flooding. By the time nightfall on March 17, one-third of the city was under 17 feet (5.2 m) of water. Twenty-five people lost their lives in the disaster, and damages estimated at $43 million made it the worst flood since the flood of 1889. The event is chronicled at the Johnstown Flood Museum. [2]
After the flood, sweeping nationwide flood control laws were enacted and from 1938 to 1943 Johnstown saw many projects completed. These measures gave residents the feeling that the area was now "flood free", and it was touted as such until the flood of 1977. On June 7, 1906, Johnstown experienced major flooding that reached 17 feet (5.2 m) on the Franklin street bridge. On March 14, 1907, there was flooding that was bested only by the one in 1898. There was talk of flood control but nothing was accomplished. Talks had finally determined that something needed to be done and the legislature was working on a bill by 1935. On March 15 and 16 heavy rains hit the Johnstown area. Warmer weather began to melt the accumulated snow on the ground, and the soil became saturated. By March 17, the Conemaugh River reached flood stage and was continuing to rise at the rate of 18 inches per hour. The raging streams merged and entered Johnstown. At Locust Street and Lee Place, the flood crest reached to within five feet of the high-water mark of the catastrophic flood of May 31, 1889. In the section known as Cambria City, the stone bridge, unlike in 1889, remained unobstructed, resulting in a flood level here that was 18 inches higher than that of the 1889 flood. On March 18, whistles and sirens began to scream, as word spread that the Quemahoning Reservoir dam had broken. People rushed for higher ground. This report turned out to be false and people started making their way back into town. Robert Bondy, the American Red Cross national director of disaster relief arrived to start relief efforts. The Works Progress Administration sent 7000 men and 350 to report to Mayor Shields. 1724 enlisted and 114 officers were mobilized by Governor George H. Earle effectively placing the area under martial law. 80 members of the Highway Patrol and 81 members of the State Police arrived to help restore and maintain order. [3] The gauge on the Poplar Street Bridge showed 15 feet above flood level and the 14 feet above flood stage at the "Point". [4]
As the flood was rising people crossed the Inclined Plane Bridge and were ferried to the Westmont hilltop by the funicular inclined plane, that only stopped when the flood waters rose too high for it to continue operating. [5]
In early March, 1936, a storm front moved into Pennsylvania bringing 50 °F (10 °C) weather which was seasonally high enough to melt the accumulated snow in the mountains. The warm temperatures were accompanied by three days of severe rains saturating the land and causing swift run-off into local streams and rivers upstream from Johnstown. [6]
The natural run-off of 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) was far surpassed by the deluge of from 10 to 30 inches (25 to 75 cm) of water in the region. Other areas affected by the same storm system included Connecticut River at Hartford, Connecticut, was 8.6 feet higher than recorded in 300 years, the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg, was 3.5 feet higher than seen in 200 years, and the Ohio River at Pittsburgh was 6.1 feet higher than the previous highest level recorded in 1762. Flooding was widespread. [7]
In 1936, a statewide temporary 10% tax on alcohol was created to assist with the city's recovery from the flood. [8][9]
By 1942, the tax had contributed $42 million to recovery costs. In 1951, the tax was made permanent, becoming the state liquor tax, with funds no longer earmarked for costs related to the flood. In the following years, the tax was raised twice to 18%. [9]
Flood control measures had been introduced, but had bogged down in legislative debates. The Johnstown flood of March, 1936 came before anything significant had been accomplished. The 1936 Johnstown flood was the seminal event that gave modern federal flood control measures in the United States their impetus. 15,000 letters were sent to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asking for help. The Johnstown Tribune and Democrat (which later merged with The Tribune-Democrat) demanded federal aid. Senators and Representatives in Washington, D.C. enacted the Flood Control Act of 1936 and the Flood Control Act of 1937. In August, 1938 work began on the most extensive flood control channel improvement project in American history. On November 27, 1943, Colonel Gilbert Van B. Wilkes, Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District reported to Johnstown leaders that the flood problem had been effectively solved. Johnstown began to promote the city as "Flood Free". [10]
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Floods
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1985–86 Hormel strike
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The 1985–1986 Hormel strike was a labor strike that involved approximately 1,500 workers of the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota in the United States. The strike, beginning August 17, 1985 and lasting until September 13 of the following year, is considered one of the longest strikes in Minnesota history and ended in failure for the striking workers. Hormel is an American meat processing company founded in 1891 that has both their headquarters and primary facility in Austin. Workers at this plant organized in 1933 and, following some initial strike activity, enjoyed a relatively good relationship with plant management. However, the relationship between the union and management had become more hostile by the 1970s, and in 1975, Hormel announced that they would be replacing the Austin plant with a new facility. In light of this, the union (Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)) agreed to a new labor contract that included several major concessions from the union. Following the new plant's opening in 1982, employees experienced an increase in injuries caused by the conditions at the plant, and in 1984, Hormel introduced a pay cut. Following this, Local P-9 hired labor activist Ray Rogers and began a corporate campaign against Hormel to pressure them into negotiating a new contract with the union. On August 17, 1985, Local P-9 authorized strike action against Hormel, which was hesitantly approved by UFCW. The strike caused Hormel to temporarily shut down the plant, and as the strike continued, national coverage of the strike led to a boycott of Hormel products. Hormel reopened the plant in January the following year and rehired approximately 500 strikers alongside that many non-union members. As the strike continued, the Minnesota National Guard was called in, and strikers performed multiple blockades of nearby roads leading to the plant, attempting to block strikebreakers from entering. On April 11, a riot broke out that led to the use of tear gas by the police and several non-fatal injuries. Following the riot, Jesse Jackson traveled to Austin to act as mediator, with no success. Ultimately, UFCW ordered Local P-9 to end the strike in June, and when local officials refused, the UFCW forced the local into receivership. The strike would continue until Local P-9, with new officials, agreed to a new contract with Hormel on September 13. Speaking several years later about the strike, labor historian Jeremy Brecher called the event "perhaps the signal labor struggle of the 1980s." The strike would be the subject of discussion and books by several noted labor historians, such as Kim Moody and Peter Rachleff, who cite the strike's failure as a major blow against organized labor in the United States. This event was one of a series of labor strikes during the 1980s that ended in failure for organized labor, including the 1981 PATCO strike and the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983. The strike would later be the focus of the Academy Award-winning 1990 documentary film American Dream by Barbara Kopple. Hormel Foods Corporation was founded by George A. Hormel in Austin, Minnesota in 1891. [1] In addition to being the location of the company's headquarters, Austin also housed the company's main meat processing plant. [2] The first large scale labor dispute at Hormel occurred in 1933, following the creation of the first labor union at the plant. The union, the Independent Union of All Workers (IUAW), had been organized that year by veteran activist Frank Ellis of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and was closely modeled after the IWW. [3] This included an emphasis on industrial unionism, direct action, and a militant attitude towards employers. [3] In 1933 the meatpackers at the Hormel plant launched the plant's first labor strike. [1] The organized workers demanded the introduction of a seniority system and union recognition in order to have a more active role in decisions involving wages and working conditions. [4] Following a large rally held by the union in July of that year, the union was officially recognized by Hormel in September. [5] On November 10, IUAW members participated in the United States' first recorded sitdown strike,[6] which resulted in three days of negotiations between union representatives and Hormel employers. Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson had refused to activate the Minnesota National Guard and instead had traveled to Austin to act as a mediator. [7] Between 1933 and 1937, the IUAW expanded to several cities throughout the area. [8]
While the IUAW was originally an independent union, by 1937 this would change. A series of sitdown strikes in nearby Albert Lea, Minnesota turned violent with confrontations between the strikers (including union members from the Austin plant) and members of the Freeborn County Sheriff's Department. This confrontation led to direct involvement from Governor Elmer Austin Benson. [7] Following this, IUAW officials agreed to allow union members in Albert Lea to form local unions that would affiliate with national unions associated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) or the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO). Gradually, the IUAW would allow all local unions to pursue this path, and in 1937 the members of the Austin plant narrowly voted to approve an affiliation with the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee of the CIO. [9] Ultimately, the successor union representing workers at the Austin plant became Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers. [7] The "P" in Local P-9 indicated that the local had once belonged to the United Packinghouse Workers of America. [10]
Aside from the strike actions in 1933, the relationship between Hormel and organized labor was generally good, especially under the leadership of Jay Catherwood Hormel, who served as Hormel's president from 1929 to 1954 and was viewed as generally sympathetic to labor. [1] During this time, Hormel was considered an example of industrial democracy, where organized workers had a large say in the operations of the plant as a whole. [11] However, starting in the 1960s, this arrangement began to change. Hormel began enforcing stricter work standards. [11] Between the 1960s and early 1980s, the company would often distribute layoff notices to workers during concessions negotiations. [11] Around this same time, Hormel began to expand by acquiring additional meatpacking plants in several other American cities,[11][12] and in both 1976 and 1981–82 they urged workers at the Austin plant to either transfer to these new plants or take a severance package. [11] During the 1970s, the non-union Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) began to rapidly expand and pushed many meatpacking companies out of the beef slaughtering industry. [13] As a non-union meatpacking company, the IBP's labor costs were almost half those at a union company such as Hormel. [13] In light of this increased competition, Hormel shut down their beef slaughtering industry at Austin in 1976. [11]
Within the union itself, changes had occurred since its founding. By this time, the local union was dominated by more conservative business unionists who enjoyed a good relationship with management and were often at odds with the rank and file union members. [12] Because of collective bargaining agreements between these business unionists and the company, many of the new union employees hired during this time were paid less and worked less desirable positions with worse safety conditions than the older workers, causing resentment within the union.
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Strike
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Severe drought threatens Hoover dam reservoir – and water for US west
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The wellspring of Lake Mead created by the dam’s blocking of the Colorado River has plummeted to a historic low as states in the west face hefty cuts in their water supplies First published on Tue 13 Jul 2021 12.00 BST Had the formidable white arc of the Hoover dam never held back the Colorado River, the US west would probably have no Los Angeles or Las Vegas as we know them today. No sprawling food bowl of wheat, alfalfa and corn. No dreams of relocating to live in a tamed desert. The river, and dam, made the west; now the climate crisis threatens to break it. The situation here is emblematic of a planet slowly, inexorably overheating. And the catastrophic consequences of the extreme weather this brings. Hoover dam is the height of a 60-story building and is 45ft thick at the top and 660ft at the bottom. Its construction, in the teeth of the Great Depression, was a source of such national pride that thousands of people journeyed through the hostile desert to witness the arrival of what has become an enduring monument to collective effort for the public good. The engineering might of Hoover dam undoubtably reshaped America’s story, harnessing a raucous river to help carve huge cities and vast fields of crops into unforgiving terrain. But the wellspring of Lake Mead, created by the dam’s blocking of the Colorado River and with the capacity to hold enough water to cover the entire state of Connecticut 10ft deep, has now plummeted to an historic low. The states of the west, primarily Arizona and Nevada, now face hefty cuts in their water supplies amid a two-decade drought fiercer than anything seen in a millennium. “We bent nature to suit our own needs,” said Brad Udall, a climate and water expert at Colorado State University. “And now nature is going to bend us.” Surveying the dam’s sloping face from its curved parapet, Michael Bernardo, river operations manager at the US Bureau of Reclamation, admits the scarcity of water is out of bounds with historical norms. While there is no “average” year on the Colorado River, Bernardo and his colleagues were always able to estimate its flow within a certain range. But since 2000, scientists say the river’s flow has dwindled by 20% compared to the previous century’s average. This year is the second driest on record, with the flow into Lake Mead just a quarter of what would be considered normal. “These are scenarios that aren’t necessarily where we expect to be in our models,” said Bernardo, whose work helps deliver a reliable level of water to thirsty western states. Nearly 40 million people, including dozens of tribes, depend on the river’s water. “We’re getting those years that are at the extreme ends of the bell curve. We’ve seen extremes we haven’t seen before, we now have scenarios that are very, very dry.” In June, the level of Lake Mead plunged below 1,075ft, a point that will trigger, for the first time, federally mandated cuts in water allocations next year. The Bureau of Reclamation (the government agency originally tasked with “reclaiming” this arid place for a new utopia of farmland and a booming western population), expects this historic low to spiral further, dropping to about 1,048ft by the end of 2022, a shallowness unprecedented since Lake Mead started filling up in the 1930s following Hoover dam’s completion. This will provoke a second, harsher, round of cuts. “We’ve known this point will arrive because we’ve continued to use more water than the river provides for years,” said Kathryn Sorensen, a water policy expert at Arizona State University. “Things look pretty grim. Humans have always been good at moving water around but right now everyone will need to do what it takes to prevent the system from crashing.” Seven states – California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nevada – and Mexico are bound by agreements that parcel out the river’s water but those considered “junior” partners in this arrangement will be hit first. Should second tier cuts occur, Arizona will lose nearly a fifth of the water it gets from the Colorado River. Nevada’s first-round cut of 21,000 acre-ft (an acre-ft is an acre of water, one foot deep) is smaller, but its share is already diminutive due to an archaic allotment drawn up a century ago when the state was sparsely populated. The latest era of cooperation between states that rely upon the Colorado River has now entered the “realm of lose-lose”, according to Colby Pellegrino, deputy general manager of resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “Everyone’s going to have to do more with less, and that’s really going to be challenging for people,” she said. “‘Drought’ suggests to a lot of people something temporary we have to respond to, but this could permanently be the type of flows we see.” The decline of Lake Mead is apparent even at a cursory glance. The US’s largest reservoir is now barely a third full, the dark basalt rock of its canyon walls blanched by a distinctive white calcium ring where the water level once was. This level has plunged by about 130ft in the past 20 years and is currently receding by about a foot a week as farms hit their peak irrigation period. The pace of change has been jarring to the millions of people who regularly boat, fish and swim on the lake, with the National Park Service recently laying down new steel platforms to extend launch ramps that no longer reach the water. Some marinas have been wrenched from their moorings and moved because they have been left marooned in baking sediment. Seen from above in time lapse over the years, Lake Mead looks like a spindly puddle withering away in the Mojave Desert, as nearby Las Vegas, which gets almost all of its water from the lake and went a record 240 days last year without rain, balloons in size. The west’s ambitions have crunched into the searing reality of the Anthropocene. The Colorado River rises in the lofty Rocky Mountains, before tumbling through 1,450 miles of mountains, canyons and deserts until it reaches the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Seasonally melting snow has traditionally replenished the river but snowpack on mountaintops in the west has declined by an average of 19% since the 1950s, while soaring temperatures have dried out soils and caused more water to evaporate. This morphing climate, plus the rampant extraction of water for everything from golf courses in Phoenix to vegetables growing in California to gardens in Denver, means the Colorado fizzles out in dry riverbed before it even reaches its Mexican delta. Only 1.8% of the west is not in some level of drought, with California, Arizona and New Mexico all experiencing their lowest rainfalls on record over the previous 12 months. Lakes in Arizona are now so low they can’t be used to fight the fires themselves spurred by drought, while the retreat of Lake Folsom in California uncovered the wreckage of a plane that crashed 56 years ago. The governor of Utah has resorted to asking people to pray for rain. The heat has been otherworldly, with Phoenix recently enduring a record six straight days above 115F (46.1C). A “heat dome” that settled over the usually mild Pacific north-west pushed temperatures to reach a record 108F (42.2C) in Seattle and caused power lines to melt and roads to buckle in Portland. A few hundred miles north, a fast-moving wildfire incinerated the town of Lytton in British Columbia the day after it set a Canadian temperature record of 121F (49.4C). Barely into summer, hundreds of people have already died from the heat along the west coast. The west has gone through periods like this “megadrought” , with only occasional respite, for the past two decades. But scientists have made clear the current conditions would be virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, pointing to a longer-term “aridification” of the region. All of the water conservation efforts that have kept shortages at bay until now risk being surpassed by the rising heat. “The amount of water now available across the US west is well below that of any time in modern civilization,” said Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at Columbia University. Research by Williams and colleagues last year analyzed tree rings to discover the current dry period is rivaled only by a spell in the late 1500s in a history of drought that reaches back to around 800, with the climate crisis doubling the severity of the modern-day drought. “As the globe warms up, the west will dry out,” said Williams. “The past two years have been shocking to me, I never thought I would see downtown LA reach 111F as it’s so close to the ocean, but we have some of the driest conditions in 1,200 years so the dice are loaded for more heatwaves and fires. This could be the tip of the iceberg, we may well see much longer, tougher droughts.” In the guts of the Hoover dam, down bronze-clad elevators and through terrazzo corridors, a line of enormous turbines help funnel water out downstream, creating hydro-power electricity for more than 1m households in the process. Five of the 17 turbines, each weighing the same as seven blue whales, have been replaced in recent years with new fittings more suited to operating in lower lake levels. Even with these adaptions, however, the decline of Lake Mead has caused the amount of hydro power generated by the dam to drop by around 25%. The drought is expected to cause the hydro facility at Lake Oroville, California, to completely shut down, prompting a warning from the United States Energy Association that a “megadrought-induced electricity shortage could be catastrophic, affecting everything from food production to industrial manufacturing”. The association added that such a scenario could even force people to move east, in what it called a “reverse Dust Bowl exodus”. Bernardo said a similar shutdown of the Hoover dam would require more than 100ft in further water level retreat, which is not anticipated, although he finds himself constantly hoping for the rains that would ease the tightening shortages. “We all want the nice weather but we need those good storms to build everything back up,” he said. “We’d need three or four above average years, back to back, to restore the lake. Your guess is as good as mine whether we’ll get that. I’ll continue to watch the weather, every day.” … as you're joining us today from Hong Kong, we have a small favour to ask. With the world's eyes on the crucial UN climate summit, the Guardian will bring you the facts, negotiations, news and science. For years, climate experts have stressed that Guardian reporting - independent, rigorous, persistent and open to all - is a critical tool to confront the climate crisis, which is intensifying around the world. Leaders, influenced by powerful lobbies, are now set to make decisions that will determine our future. We have no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact reporting for the world, always free from commercial and political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful. And we provide all this for free, for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. As such, tens of millions have placed their trust in us for the last 200 years, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. With more than 1.5 million supporters in 180 countries, our model for open access journalism is better sustained, meaning we can reach more people. This helps everyone keep track of global events like the climate summit, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. We take this emergency seriously as a news organisation: two years ago, we pledged to prioritise the climate crisis, and we've published some 6,000 pieces of environmental journalism since. We set ambitious targets to green our business, and have turned away from fossil fuel investments and advertising as a result. We are on track to meet our goals, including that of transparency, where we will continue to update you on our progress. But to keep working as we do - as an open, fiercely independent news organisation that focuses on the climate - we need your help. Every contribution, however big or small, counts. Support us today from just $1. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you.
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Droughts
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Almost 1,500 tonnes of netting waste creates headache for recycling and fishing industries
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The ghost netting Matt Waller hauled out of seemingly pristine waters near Boston Island, in South Australia last year was the last straw.
The tourism operator spends his days showing tourists the beauty of the islands south of Port Lincoln as they head out to dive with the ultimate ocean predator, great white sharks, or playful endangered Australian sea lions.
Mr Waller's workplace is dotted with isolated islands that have remained largely untouched since Matthew Flinders mapped the area in 1802.
But the isolation of this idyllic paradise has not been a barrier in protecting it from what Mr Waller labels as "the scourge of a century of progress — plastics".
Every day he sees pieces of rope, straws, plastic bottles and other rubbish but the ghost netting, found about a kilometre away from a sea lion breeding colony, highlights another problem.
He has just finished a month-long campaign to clean up beaches along the Port Lincoln coast and its islands but the netting and rope waste collected by the school groups taking part can only be stockpiled at this stage.
Once hauled out, the 30-to-50-metre section of netting ended up on what is known as 'Mount Net', a huge pile of netting offcuts, damaged nets, and ropes.
Mount Net is expanding annually at the Port Lincoln refuse centre, awaiting an economic and environmentally sound solution.
The Port Lincoln City Council began recording the amount of netting dumped at its refuse centre in 2009.
So far, it has amassed almost 1,500 tonnes of netting from the commercial fishing and aquaculture industries.
Council spokesperson Jade Scott said the industry and council were hopeful the stockpile could be recycled or repurposed.
"A number of operators with recycling proposals have approached all relevant stakeholders, but a business case that demonstrates commercial viability has not yet been developed," Ms Scott said.
"The nets and ropes are generally contaminated with sediment, chemicals, and metals."
Ms Scott said waste management contractor Veolia was seeking advice from European examples where the waste could be turned into nylon and used for clothes.
"There are also creative means to re-use the material that results in art installations or fencing or even installations in dog parks due to the material's hardy and UV-stable qualities," Ms Scott said.
"The fishing industry must also commit to their own investigations for a circular economy and not solely rely on publicly-funded investigations for a resolution."
Some of the netting was initially sent to China for recycling but there are now import restrictions on waste across much of Asia.
Aquaculture spokesperson Claire Webber said until now there was an issue with recycling nets because of the mixed plastics composition.
She said some companies recycled mixed plastics, however they encountered difficulty when the polyester content of nets exceeded 5 per cent.
"A solution has been identified that would recycle the nets and ropes, but the process requires material to be predominately polypropylene and/or nylon," Dr Webber said.
"Currently, the majority of nets being used are a polyester product.
"A transition in the seafood industry from polyester to polypropylene nets would see a long-term solution made possible.
"The converted material [could be] reshaped into a product that can be reused in the industry, including pallets and other consumables."
The tuna industry has an Adopt-a-Beach program to clean up debris that washes up along 150 kilometres of beaches in the Spencer Gulf.
Dr Webber said those involved in aquaculture worked in all weathers, including in storms and rough seas when ropes and netting could snap.
Mr Waller and his staff have started a campaign to clean-up beaches because, as he said: "You have to start somewhere".
"Some of the remote islands we operate on have never had anyone live on them so therefore, there'd be no rubbish but if you look closely, there's tonnes of rubbish there," he said.
"The volume of plastics in oceans is so large that it's going to be washing up on beaches for the next 200 years and we're going to have animals dying of plastic ingestion or entanglement for the next 200 years."
National Parks and Wildlife Services district ranger Peter Wilkins said there were 12 marine entanglements in the last 12 months on Eyre Peninsula, and not all entanglements were reported.
"Marine litter is widespread along our local coastline," Mr Wilkins said.
"Much of the coast on Eyre Peninsula is remote and difficult to access, making clean-up efforts in these areas more difficult."
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Environment Pollution
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1989 Miami riot
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The 1989 Miami riot was sparked after police officer William Lozano shot Clement Lloyd, who was fleeing another officer and trying to run over Officer Lozano on his motorcycle. He crashed into a car and his passenger, Allan Blanchard, was also killed. Four days of rioting later took place in Overtown. [2] On January 21 after the shooting rioting erupted in Overtown and the next day in Liberty City. [3] Schools were closed and police cordoned off a 130-block area and teargassed rioting crowds. [1]
Lozano, the officer whose shooting sparked the riot, was charged with two counts of manslaughter; it was not until 2015 that another Florida law enforcement officer (Nouman Raja) faced charges for an on-duty shooting. However, he was granted a new trial, because 1) the trial should not have been held in Miami, because of racial tensions, and 2) the prosecution should not have been allowed to introduce evidence about police procedures and Lausanne's training. A new trial was held in Orlando, and Lozano was acquitted. [4]
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Riot
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1948 Airborne Transport DC-3 (DST) disappearance crash
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The disappearance of a Douglas DST airliner, registered NC16002, occurred on the night of 28 December 1948 near the end of a scheduled flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida. The aircraft carried 29 passengers and 3 crew members. [1] No probable cause for the loss was determined by the official investigation and it remains unsolved. Captained by pilot Robert Linquist, assisted by co-pilot Ernest Hill and stewardess Mary Burke, the aircraft ended its Miami-San Juan leg at 19:40 EST on 27 December. Linquist informed local repair crewmen that a landing gear warning light was not functioning and that the aircraft batteries were discharged and low on water. Unwilling to delay the aircraft's scheduled takeoff for Miami for several hours, Linquist said the batteries would be recharged by the aircraft's generators en route. Linquist taxied NC16002 to the end of runway 27 for takeoff, but stopped at the end of the apron due to lack of two-way radio communication. Although capable of receiving, Linquist reported to the head of Puerto Rican Transport, who had driven out to the aircraft, that the radio could not transmit because of the low batteries. After agreeing to stay close to San Juan until they were recharged enough to allow two-way contact, NC16002 finally lifted off at 22:03. After circling the city for 11 minutes, Linquist received confirmation from Civil Aeronautics Administration
(CAA) at San Juan and told the tower that they were proceeding to Miami on a previous flight plan. The weather was fine with high visibility, but the aircraft did not respond to subsequent calls from San Juan. At 23:23, the Overseas Foreign Air Route Traffic Control Center at Miami heard a routine transmission from NC16002, wherein Linquist reported they were at 8,300 ft (2,500 m) and had an ETA of 04:03. His message placed the flight about 700 mi (1,100 km) from Miami. Transmissions were heard sporadically throughout the night by Miami, but all were routine. At 04:13, Linquist reported he was 50 mi (80 km) south of Miami. The transmission was not heard at Miami but was monitored at New Orleans, Louisiana, some 600 mi (970 km) away, and was relayed to Miami. The accident investigation report[2] issued by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said the pilot may have incorrectly reported his position. [2] At this time the plane only had enough fuel for 1 hour and 20 minuites of flying time left. Miami weather was clear, but the wind had moved from northwest to northeast. The accident investigation report said that Miami transmitted the wind change information, but neither Miami nor New Orleans "was able to contact the flight". It is therefore unknown whether NC16002 received the information. Without this knowledge the aircraft could have drifted 40–50 mi (64–80 km) off course, which widened the search area to include hills in Cuba, the Everglades and even Gulf of Mexico waters. On 4 January 1949, two bodies were found 80–90 kilometres (50–56 mi) south of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [3] It is unknown if this was connected to the missing plane. (IF they did come from the missing plane =plus the fact the last message from the missing DC-3 was heard not in Miami but New Orleans, this could indicate the missing plane actually went down somewhere in the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba)
Nothing further was heard from Linquist and the aircraft has never been found. In subsequent years, researchers into unexplained disappearances have included the flight among others said to have disappeared in what came to be termed the Bermuda Triangle. [1]
A plane similar to the DC-3 has been found by divers in the Bermuda Triangle. [1] It is possible that this is the aircraft that was lost, however, to verify it certain parts and registrations are needed. In a report released 15 July 1949, the board convening the investigation filed several factors about the aircraft:
As far as human error, the report cited several occurrences:
Because of a lack of wreckage and other information, probable cause for the loss of the aircraft could not be determined. [2]
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Air crash
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a remote South Pacific island as having the most polluted beaches on earth
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As you brush your teeth this morning, you may want to think about where your plastic toothbrush will end up.
Scientists have identified a remote South Pacific island as having the most polluted beaches on earth.
The research shows uninhabited Henderson Island, part of the Pitcairn group, has the highest density of plastic trash anywhere in the world, and toothbrushes are among the most common items that have washed up.
Dr Jennifer Lavers, from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, says she was horrified by what she saw when she landed on the island.
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Environment Pollution
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Melinda Gates Divorce Documents Include Order to Prevent Bill, Herself From Selling Property
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Divorce documents filed by Melinda Gates include an order that prevent both her and her husband, Bill, from selling property.
Among the documents filed in King County, Washington, on Monday was an automatic temporary order setting financial restraints, which limit Melinda's and Bill's ability to dispose of property or make changes to insurance policies, except as agreed to in writing or as ordered by the court.
In her divorce petition, Melinda wrote that their marriage is "irretrievably broken," adding that "spousal support is not needed" and that she was asking the court to only reinforce their separation contract.
The petition stated that the couple have already separated, although the date and terms were not disclosed, and that a separation contract is in place. According to the document, they do not have a prenuptial agreement.
Randy Kessler, a celebrity divorce lawyer, told People that the separation contract signals that both parties have resolved all issues on their own.
"Such a separation contract is an agreement between the parties on the resolution of issues which would otherwise be left to the court to determine," Kessler said, noting that those issues often involve division of property and child-related matters.
The Gates' petition asks the court to divide the couple's property and assets as laid out in their separation contract. All three of their children are over 18, so child support is not needed, the document says.
Bill and Melinda have each hired three lawyers to represent them in the divorce case, according to the petition.
On Monday, the couple announced their split after 27 years of marriage in a joint statement on Twitter, saying, "We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives."
The statement continued, "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives."
Bill and Melinda were married on New Year's Day in Hawaii in 1994, when Microsoft, which Bill co-founded, was only a startup. In 2000, the couple founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that funds research and advocacy work across the globe in such areas as health, education, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. The couple will remain co-chairs and trustees of the foundation.
Although Bill is no longer on Microsoft's board, he still owns roughly 1.3 percent of the tech giant's shares. The former chief executive is estimated to have a net worth of about $130 billion, according to Forbes, making him the fourth-richest person in the world.
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Famous Person - Divorce
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2018 Venezuelan protest movement
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The 2018 Venezuelan protests began in the first days of January as a result of high levels of hunger by desperate Venezuelans. Within the first two weeks of the year, hundreds of protests and looting incidents occurred throughout the country. [1] By late-February, protests against the Venezuelan presidential elections occurred after several opposition leaders were banned from participating. Into March, the Maduro government began to crack down on military dissent, arresting dozens of high-ranking officials including former SEBIN director Miguel Rodríguez Torres. [2]
The NGO Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS) reported that there were 12,715 registered protests in Venezuela in 2018. [3]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Chasing the Lava Flow in Iceland
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By mid-March, the people of Grindavík, a commercial fishing town at the western end of Iceland’s southern coast, were exhausted. For the previous three weeks, a strong seismic swarm had produced thousands of earthquakes per day, ranging from gentle tremors to tectonic disruptions powerful enough to jolt a person awake at night. Svanur Snorrason, a journalist who lives near the town’s harbor, told me that locals were “pretty much going insane” from sleep deprivation. “Earthquakes, or bad and very dangerous weather, we are used to it,” he said. “I don’t think people were afraid, but they were very tired.” Icelanders are also used to volcanic eruptions. Yet the Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcanic system—which extends narrowly through the Reykjanes Peninsula, in the country’s southwest—hadn’t erupted for seven or eight hundred years. Three-quarters of the island’s population live either on the peninsula or in the nearby metropolitan zone of Reykjavík, the capital. The weeks of rumbling suggested that the system was about to become active again, but such warnings had sounded a year earlier, when similar swarms shook the peninsula. The activity then centered on Thorbjörn, a mountain situated close to Grindavík and the Svartsengi geothermal power station—which supplies heat and electricity to the peninsula—and also to the Blue Lagoon thermal baths, one of the country’s major tourist attractions. The prospect of all three being threatened by lava aroused considerable concern. Yet the earthquakes quieted down, and the lava remained underground, as if, like the rest of the world, it were abiding by pandemic lockdown protocols. This year, when the earthquakes resumed, scientists recorded the most intense activity six miles northeast of Grindavík, near a comparatively remote mountain that is surrounded by valleys. On March 19th, just after 8 p.m., Snorrason’s seven-year-old daughter asked to go for a car ride. First, she and her father visited the fishing boats in the harbor; then they drove toward a two-lane highway, the Suðurstrandarvegur Road, which runs along a largely uninhabited stretch of Iceland’s southern coast. Though it was now past her bedtime, Snorrason’s daughter remained wired and awake. She pointed toward the mountains north of the road: behind them, surges of pink, red, and orange light brightened the sky. Scientists later confirmed that, at 8:45 p.m., a six-hundred-and-fifty-foot-long fissure opened near Fagradalsfjall—which means the Mountain of the Beautiful Valley. Snorrason and his daughter were two of the first people to witness a volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula since the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Minutes after returning home, Snorrason’s daughter fell asleep. On May 26th, I drove through Grindavík, and along the edge of the wild, Caribbean-blue North Atlantic, to see the Fagradalsfjall eruption. Information about how far, and how hard, the hike to the crater would be proved elusive and contradictory. The hike might take six hours. Or three. The route was extremely, or only moderately, difficult. In one particularly steep section, there was—or was not—a rope. The eruption could be seen from Reykjavík, some twenty miles northeast, but I wanted to witness it up close. While researching the trip, I’d learned that hiking to the site might require crossing a treacherously potholed expanse of eight-hundred-year-old illahraun, or “evil lava,” which could easily result in a broken ankle. Depending on the strength and direction of the wind, the crater’s emissions of potentially lethal gas could force the Icelandic authorities to shut the site down until conditions improved. Because of the Fagradalsfjall eruption’s location near both the capital and the country’s biggest airport, it quickly established itself as Iceland’s latest volcanic mass-tourist attraction. On my computer, in New York, I’d seen videos of people cooking eggs on cooling lava, playing volleyball there, and getting married as craters oozed behind them. It was therefore disconcerting when, on that late-May afternoon, I drove to the end of an access road and entered a brand-new—but empty—parking lot. A sandwich board was leaning against an uninhabited white trailer, advertising “LAMB SOUP / FISH N’ CHIPS / HOT-DOGS.” I parked beside a wooden stake on which someone had hung a lost hat, and spotted in the distance a newly laid path, which cut across a vast field of evil lava, hazed by moss, before angling upward and into the mountains. I couldn’t see anyone else on it and began to fear that I’d missed out on what Snorrason had described to me as “the hottest spot in Iceland, literally.” In the early weeks of the eruption, he’d said, Fagradalsfjall was an impromptu festival where you might encounter drunken revellers or the Icelandic President. The customs official who’d stamped my passport at the airport depicted the scene as a daily rager that started at midnight. Scientists kept changing their estimates of the anticipated life span of the eruption—from a few days to hundreds of years. The last time the Reykjanes Peninsula became active, it remained so for about three centuries. In the nine weeks since the fissure first opened, the site had rapidly and abruptly changed in appearance and behavior. In the first month, eight vents had opened; they were given such nicknames as Norðri (Northie) and Suðri (Southie). In early May, a fissure known merely as Vent 5 transformed into a spectacular fire geyser, shooting lava as high as a thousand feet into the air. Since then, everything but Vent 5 had become inactive. And I worried that even that had gone dormant. I cinched my pack and started across the lumpy field toward the trailhead. I knew how fitful the crater was from watching a series of YouTube videos posted by a man named Valur Grettisson. The editor-in-chief of an English-language publication called The Reykjavík Grapevine, Grettisson had achieved a niche celebrity because of his energetic and informative dispatches from the eruption site. His videos were like the chapters of a serialized adventure novel, and bore such titles as “Eruption Has Begun!” and “The Volcano Area Has Changed Dramatically!” Grettisson sometimes travelled to the site with his dog, Pollý, whom he’d appointed his Chief Officer of Morale—possibly because the hike, especially when it was still basically winter and no path had been laid, was “bloody brutal.” Some people had injured legs and arms trying to reach the site. On one blizzarding night in late March, forty hikers lost their way; a search-and-rescue team eventually found them. Video From The New Yorker The Supernatural Presence of Lost Children Grettisson’s videos provided scientific data and dispensed basic safety tips about hiking in a subarctic climate: “Very nice weather one minute, then it turns into some hellish nonsense.” He also translated relevant Icelandic words and names, noting that “all names, in Iceland, have meaning.” In one dispatch, he explained that Geldingadalur, the basin into which the lava had been flowing for two months, is “a horrible name—it literally means ‘Castration Valley.’ ” The name, Grettisson clarified on behalf of Icelanders, did not mean that “we are castrating people”: a farmer’s gelded rams had once grazed in the valley. These days, people were viewing the eruption from the top of the Gónhóll, which translates as “Goggle Hill,” but I was increasingly convinced that there would be nothing to goggle at today. As I walked, I suddenly noticed a tall man whose dark, earth-toned clothing had camouflaged him in the landscape. He seemed weary, and his face was a bright pink, as though he’d hiked too close to the lava and been scorched. The eruption was still happening, he assured me, in Icelandic-accented English. “The view is amazing,” he added. “But it is very windy.” I passed a search-and-rescue outpost, housed in a bright-orange shipping container, and began the lonely two-and-a-half-mile hike toward what Icelanders call a “very cute eruption.” In mid-May, Einat Lev, a professor of volcanology at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, visited the eruption site with her eight-year-old daughter. (It was “an extreme ‘bring your child to work’ opportunity,” she told me.) Lev, who has witnessed volcanic events around the world, judged Fagradalsfjall to be “very well behaved.” The eruption is certainly better-mannered than many others that have marked Iceland’s geothermic history. Unlike the 2010 eruption at the Eyjafjallajökull ice cap, the Fagradalsfjall eruption isn’t hosing the atmosphere with lethal gas and ash, upending international air travel and forcing Icelanders to flee their homes. Unlike the 1973 eruption on the offshore island of Heimaey, it threatens to eradicate no town or fill a fishing harbor with land. Unlike the 1783 eruption of the Laki fissure, it’s not powerful enough to cause a worldwide extreme winter, leading to crop failures and famines. And it doesn’t pose the ongoing hazard of Mt. Hekla, a still active volcano that, after it erupted in 1104, became known as the Gateway to Hell. Fagradalsfjall had thus far caused no deaths and, temporary traffic jams aside, it had barely even proved an inconvenience. But I knew that, given the unpredictable nature of volcanic eruptions, it was foolish to bank on good manners. A large swath of the eastern Reykjanes Peninsula, including the eruption site, is owned by an association representing two dozen descendants of a family that acquired the land more than two hundred years ago. When I met with one of them, Guðmundur Ragnar Einarsson, he told me that some Icelanders take issue with the idea that anyone can own an eruption, even if it occurs on private property. His uncle, the chairman of the owners’ association, had quickly grown tired of such debates, and had come up with a retort: if the land belonged to him only when it was solid, then he urged people to pick up their two-thousand-degree property and take it home with them. Real-estate disputes become complex when new land is created by old land. Svanur Snorrason told me the local myth of a twelfth-century woman named Herdís, who lived near a volcano and fought with her sister over property borders. Both of them practiced witchcraft, and each put hexes on the other’s claim. This was said to explain the pitiless weather for which the Reykjanes Peninsula is known today. Ancient curse or no, the weather on the path was formidable. Dirt devils juked and attacked me from all sides, even over the long, flat hike to the base of the first incline. Ski goggles would have been nice. The gusts, some of which seemed to exceed fifty or sixty miles per hour, almost knocked me over repeatedly. Once, I was blown nearly a foot downhill, my boots leaving a pair of skid marks in the dirt. The wind didn’t have a rhythm, or even a direction, but it did have a pattern: each surge was followed by a lull. As I approached one exposed curve, I could see that the landscape was bare all the way to the ocean, a couple of miles away—there are no trees in this part of Iceland. The energy speeding unhindered from the North Atlantic was fearsome. I crouched and braced. I waited for the lull. I scurried around the curve. The sun vanished and the wind grew unrelentingly vicious, the temperature hovering in the forties. As I continued along a dusty ridge that lacked vegetation, the path was now marked by distantly placed sturdy wooden stakes. Finally, the first visual evidence of the eruption came into view. To my right, a frozen waterfall of black lava paved a steep slope—apparently, this was overspill from a lava field farther uphill. There was now a strong and familiar odor. For a New Yorker, the association was immediate: 9/11. The air smelled like cataclysm. I knew from Grettisson’s latest video (“The New Lava Threatening the Highway”) that this lava field, which flowed into the Nátthagi Valley, had recently breached one of two earthen walls built only a week earlier, with the aim of containing the flow. Vent 5’s effusion rate had doubled since it first became active, and lava from it was now steadily creeping toward the Suðurstrandarvegur Road, along which fibre-optic Internet cables were buried. The walls did not appear to have stopped the lava’s progress. A pair of matching diggers, parked on the nearby slope, stood as noble monuments to the attempt. When I arrived at the elevation of the lava field that was filling the Nátthagi Valley, the path dipped close to the edge. The center of the field resembled carbonized oatmeal. The lava near the path reached out with giant panther paws that seemed to demand petting. I encountered a few people here, crouching and cautiously touching the lava. (Lev observed of the eruption, “I like how it’s interfacing with humanity.”) The lava didn’t register as immediately or even distantly threatening to the Suðurstrandarvegur Road, or to anywhere. It didn’t seem capable of moving at all. Even so, this had to be the spot that a friend of mine was so concerned about. He’d visited the eruption site the previous week. “The path is about to be covered,” he’d warned. “You have to go immediately.” I touched the hardened lava. It was the temperature of someone’s lap after a dog or a child has been sitting in it. There are guidelines, in Iceland, for naming lava. Naming it for a living person is discouraged. Proposals must be approved by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture. In early spring, the town council of Grindavík solicited its residents for ideas about what to call the new lava. They decided on a poetic mouthful of a name, Fagradalshraun—the Lava of the Beautiful Valley. The path curved up and around another hill before descending to a land bridge that, after sixty feet or so, connected to a final rise: Goggle Hill. I passed two women, their faces blearily serene as they stutter-stepped over loose rocks. “It just stopped hailing,” one of them reported. The lava field that people had been touching was to the right of the land bridge. To its left was an equally large lava field. I might have paused to marvel at being surrounded by lava were I not so preoccupied with the evident difficulty of traversing the narrow, exposed ridge leading up Goggle Hill. The steep slopes on each side of the ridge led directly to the edge of the lava fields. If I lost my balance, I could tumble sixty or seventy feet and roll to a painful, and possibly fatal, stop against a knife-sharp, smoking barrier. As I began to climb, the wind gusts sounded like a revving jet engine. A man with a big camera took refuge behind a boulder, as if he were a war photographer. A woman coming toward me inched down the incline on her bottom. Whenever I heard the revving noise, I dropped to one knee and grabbed the nearest large rock, waited until the wind decreased slightly, and then hurry-crawled toward the summit of Goggle Hill. Finally, I was at the top, and there it was: the eruption, maybe six hundred feet away, the crater at eye level.
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Volcano Eruption
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The Government of Republic of Côte d’Ivoire has declared a case of an Ebola Virus Disease in Abidjan
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Addis Ababa, 14 August 2021- the Government of Republic of Côte d’Ivoire has declared the presence of a case of an Ebola virus disease (EVD) infection in the capital city of Abidjan. The case is 18-year-old Guinean girl who travelled from Labe in Guinea to Abidjan by road on 11August 2021 and hospitalized on the night of 12 August 2021 following a high-grade fever. On the 14th of August 2021, the Institute Pasteur in Cote d’Ivoire confirmed the infection to be EVD. The patient is currently in isolation and under the care of a Treatment Center for Highly Epidemic Diseases at the Treichville University Hospital. More recently, on 19 June 2021, the Republic of Guinea declared over the EVD outbreak after four months of concerted effort. However, further investigation will be conducted to trace back the relation between this case and the concluded outbreak. “In this recent past outbreak in Guinea, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) assessed and supported neighbouring countries including Cote d’Ivoire in preparation for and response to potential spill over of cases. We witnessed the experience, expertise and resources in place in these countries to handle such incidents. However, as this case is reported in a busy capital city of Abidjan, Africa CDC is already in contact with senior health officials of the country to assess the situation and offer its expertise” said Dr John Nkengasong, the Africa CDC Director. Following this confirmed case, the Minister of Health and Public Hygiene and the Office of the Prime Minister called for an emergency meeting and put in place a swift multi-sectoral emergency response measures. These public health measures include: activation of different inter-sectoral coordination and emergency response units; reactivation of the community surveillance of the Ebola response; further investigation of the case, contact tracing; risk communication and community mobilization, immediate vaccination of target groups, strict adherence to infection prevention and control measures; and enhanced cross-border surveillance and collaboration with neighbouring countries. In response to this new EVD case, the African Union Commission has been informed of the outbreak and is ready to offer a comprehensive support of all AU organs. The Africa CDC is closely monitoring the situation; and will continue working with the Government of Republic of Côte d’Ivoire to deploy emergency response support team of experts, supplies and equipment as needed. It will also continue to work closely with the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to coordinate emergency preparedness in neighbouring countries across the region.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Qantas to ban toxic foam use Australia-wide after Brisbane airport spill
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Qantas will stop using potentially toxic firefighting foam nationally after a spill in the Brisbane River.
In April, 22,000 litres of a firefighting foam with the chemical PFAS leaked from a Qantas hangar at Brisbane Airport.
Some made its way into the river causing up to 30 fish to die and prompting warnings not to eat fish or shellfish caught in the area.
Qantas domestic chief executive Andrew David publicly apologised for the spill at the time.
A Qantas spokesman said today the airline would phase out the foam.
"Critically, we will be installing aviation accredited PFAS-free foam in all Qantas Group sites over the next 12 months, the first major Australian airline to do so," he said.
But Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles wants more broader adoption.
"It's great that Qantas has agreed to swap to firefighting foams that don't contain PFAS but they're just one airline," he said.
"The Federal Government needs to take the ban across the board."
Brisbane environmental medical expert Dr Andrew Jeremijenko said the toxic firefighting foam had now been banned by the Queensland Government, firefighters and Qantas, but the Federal Government was dragging its heels.
He called on the Commonwealth to follow suit for all airports and airlines.
"The Federal Government is still arguing there are no health effects from the foam and that's clearly not the case," he said.
Qantas said it had also provided compensation to commercial fishing operators affected by the temporary fishing ban.
It said monitoring had found the toxic chemical was still present in the waterways around the airport, from a variety of sources unrelated to the spill earlier this year.
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Environment Pollution
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Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal
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Salesforce, the CRM powerhouse that recently surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue, announced today it is wading deeper into enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a $27.7 billion megadeal. Rumors of a pending deal surfaced last week, causing Slack’s stock price to spike. Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff didn’t mince words on his latest purchase. “This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world,” Benioff said in a statement. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield was no less effusive than his future boss. “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility. Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going,” Butterfield said in a statement. Every worker at every company needs to communicate, something that Slack can ably empower. What’s more, it also facilitates external communication with customers and partners, something that should be quite useful for a company like Salesforce and its family of offerings. Slack’s stock climbs on possible Salesforce acquisition Ultimately, Slack was ripe for the taking. Entering 2020 it had lost around 40% of its value since it went public. Consider that after its most recent earnings report, the company lost 16% of its value, and before the Salesforce deal leaked, the company was worth only a few dollars per share more than its direct listing reference price. Toss in net losses of $147.6 million during the two quarters ending July 31, 2020, Slack’s uninspiring public valuation and its winding path to profitability and it was a sitting target for a takeover like this one. The only surprise here is the price. Slack’s current valuation, according to both Yahoo and Google Finance, is just over $25 billion, which, given its very modest price change after-hours means that the market priced the company somewhat effectively. Slack is up around 48% from its valuation that preceded the deal becoming known. The great enterprise chat race The new deal also puts Salesforce more on par — and in competition — with its arch rival and sometime friend Microsoft, whose Teams product has been directly challenging Slack in the market. Microsoft, which passed on buying Slack in the past for a fraction of what Salesforce is paying today, has made Teams a key priority in recent quarters, loathe to cede any portion of the enterprise software market to another company. What really has set Slack apart from the pack, at least initially, was its ability to integrate with other enterprise software. When you combined that with bots, those intelligent digital helpers, the company could potentially provide Salesforce customers with a central place to work without changing focus because everything they need to do can be done in Slack. Someone could scoop up Slack before it IPOs Today’s deal comes after Salesforce’s purchase of Quip in 2016 for $750 million. Quip brought to the SaaS giant a way of socially sharing documents, and when paired with the Slack acquisition gives Salesforce a much more robust social story to tell than its internal option Chatter, an early attempt at enterprise social that never really caught on. It’s worth noting that Salesforce was interested in Twitter in 2016, the same year that Microsoft was reportedly interested in Slack, but eventually walked away from that deal when shareholders objected, not wanting to deal with the controversial side of the social platform. Slack was founded in 2013, but its origins go back to an online multiplayer game company called Glitch that was founded in 2009. While the game was ultimately a failure, the startup developed an internal messaging system in the process of building that company that later evolved into Slack. The company’s historic growth helped Slack raise more than $1 billion while private, earning an impressive $7 billion valuation before going public last year. But while the Glitch-to-unicorn story appears simple, Slack has always faced entrenched competition from the likes of not only Microsoft, but also Cisco, Facebook, Google and even Asana and Monday.com. For Slack, the path to the public markets was fraught with hype and outsized expectation. The company was famous, or as famous as an enterprise software company can be. At the time it felt like its debut was the start of a long tenure as an indie company. Instead, that public life has been cut short by a huge check. Such is the dog-eat-dog world of tech.
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Organization Merge
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Are Reportedly Filing for Divorce 'Imminently'
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Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s marriage is about to end, Page Six is reporting. The outlet claimed multiple sources told them that a divorce filing "is imminent." "They are keeping it low-key but they are done,” one source said. “Kim has hired [top celebrity divorce attorney] Laura Wasser and they are in settlement talks.”
The source added that West’s political ambitions were part of what drove Kardashian to end their marriage. “She is serious about taking the bar exam and becoming a lawyer, she is serious about her prison reform campaign," the source said. "Meanwhile Kanye is talking about running for president and saying other crazy sh*t, and she’s just had enough of it.”
A separate source told the outlet that West had become uncomfortable with the Kardashian family and their reality show lives. West “is completely over the entire family…He wants nothing to do with them," that source said. The source added that West now finds their reality show “unbearable.”
West and Kardashian got married in 2014. The couple shares four children: North, 7; Saint, 5; Chicago, 2; and Psalm, 1.
Reports of West and Kardashian splitting comes less than a month after Entertainment Tonight reported that Kardashian was deciding whether or not she wanted to stay together with West longterm. Entertainment Tonight's source said in early December, "Kim is exhausted from continually trying but keeps their vows in mind when making any pertinent decisions. And Kanye is working on his psychological health and mental state. The family and Kanye are still in contact and everyone wants the best for Kanye, Kim, their kids and the rest of the family."
The source added that Kardashian believes West "needs to work on himself before he can work on the well-being of anyone else," and that "Kim’s family will support her in any decision she makes, but she feels that the most important thing to recognize before making any choice is realizing what’s best for the kids, herself, Kanye and the rest of the family, essentially in that order."
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Famous Person - Divorce
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Weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze (+109KG) Scores Three World Records at 2020 Olympic Games
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On August 4, 2021, at the final weightlifting event of the 2020 Olympic Games, Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze set a slew of new records in the Men’s +109-kilogram category. By lifting a combined total of 488 kilograms (1075.8 pounds) via a 223-kilogram (491.6-pound) snatch and 265-kilogram (584.2-pound) clean & jerk, the 27-year-old super-heavyweight phenomenon won his second Olympic gold medal after placing first in Rio five years prior.
Talakhadze’s performance at his second Olympic Games bolstered the already strong case for him being the greatest weightlifter alive. Since his first gold medal at the World Weightlifting Championships (WWC) in 2015, he has flown to the top of the podium at every international event he has attended.
A post shared by IWF (@iwfnet)
No athlete in recent years has made a home of their weight class more than Talakhadze. The Georgian has spent the better part of the last six years evicting the tenants who had previously enjoyed a life of luxury at the top of the super-heavyweight division, such as Iran’s tenured Behdad Salimi and multi-world-record holder Alexsey Lovchev of Russia.
[Related: Meet Team USA Olympic Weightlifter Caine Wilkes (+109KG)]
With the possible exception of Armenia’s Gor Minasyan, who has logged multiple snatches above 210 kilograms internationally, no one has seemingly presented a threat to Talakhadze’s reign in weightlifting.
Following a reorganization of weight categories in 2018, many of the prominent contemporary athletes — China’s Shi Zhiyong, Neisi Dajomes of Ecuador, among others — have displayed incredibly impressive feats of strength in the new weight classes. However, their lifts are juxtaposed against the record holders of times past, who have often lifted more while weighing slightly less.
This technicality is not a factor when considering Talakhadze’s career. Not only has he lifted more weight than anyone else since 2018, but he has also, in literal terms, lifted more weight than any human being to ever compete in Olympic weightlifting.
Off of the competition platform, Talakhadze has boasted even higher training lifts. His 225-kilogram (496 pound) snatch and 270-kilogram (595.2 pound) clean & jerk are the heaviest ever caught on film.
The lone blemish on Talakhadze’s legendary career is a disqualification from the 2013 European Junior Championships following a positive doping test. He served a two-year ban for the drug stanozolol before returning to the World stage in 2015.
[Related: Romanian Weightlifting Federation Suspended Ahead of 2020 Olympic Games]
It is feasible to assume that, with no one approaching his level in the past five years, Talakhadze might take it easy on the competition platform. However, despite being the final athlete to appear in every meet he attends, and with no one to battle against on a lift-by-lift basis, he has still managed to consistently improve upon his own best results.
With his resounding successes in Tokyo now added to his lifting belt, along with another Olympic gold around his neck, Talakhadze is expected to dominate the Men’s super-heavyweight division for the foreseeable future.
He seems to show no sign of slowing down on his campaign towards the mythical, as-of-yet unachieved 500-kilogram (1100 pound) total. With three years until the Paris Olympics in 2024, and weightlifting confirmed as a competitive event, fans and competitors alike will keep a watchful eye on the Georgian’s trajectory throughout the next qualification cycle.
Featured Image: Stephen Galvan for IWF
BarBend is an independent website. The views expressed on this site may come from individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the view of BarBend or any other organization. BarBend is the Official Media Partner of USA Weightlifting.
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Break historical records
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The Berkeley Beacon
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More than 17 years before Joe Biden became the President-elect, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Emerson and commended the college’s graduating seniors to “stand on principle and move to action” in his 2003 Commencement speech.
The then-senator of Delaware donned a black robe with a deep-purple collar while delivering remarks with a mixture of hope, humor, and political fervor. Today, mere hours after Biden surpassed 270 electoral votes, The Beacon rewatched the 34-minute speech.
The best part? He didn’t even think he should’ve been at the ceremony. “Denis Leary, Jay, Leno, Henry Wrinkler, and you got me?” Biden joked. “I don’t get it.”
Though the speech is a tad outdated, with references to “American Idol” and the newly-emerged digital age, it still holds words and weight from the man who is now the leader of the free world. Here are the biggest takeaways from the speech:
Biden reflected on the graduates’ tumultuous college tenure
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In his remarks, Biden referenced the historic events that happened between 1999 and 2003—the time frame during which most of the graduates attended Emerson. He brought up September 11th, the election of George W. Bush, and the start of the Iraq War.
The class entered college in a time of prosperity, he said, but were leaving it amid great uncertainty.
“The stock market was up. The Berlin Wall was down. The sky was the limit. Peace seemed inevitable. We were looking at government surpluses. The budget was balanced. We were filled with hope and optimism,” Biden remarked. “And then, the impeachment and disgrace of a president, and many other things being culminated, in your sophomore year, and September 11th, with the witnessing of an evil that most in our country thought was beyond our shores.”
He talked about his family
The long remarks are sprinkled with anecdotes on Biden’s family: his daughter, son, father, and mostly, his mother. From start to finish, the speech is centered around the lessons the President-elect learned from his mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan, who was then approaching her 85th birthday and has since died.
He made light of Finnegan’s reaction to his prior presidential campaign.
“She believed I could become anything I wanted,” Biden said. “She even believed I’d run for president once. She never thought I’d be dumb enough to try it twice.”
Biden said his mother taught him the importance of neighbors helping neighbors—an American ideal.
“It’s in our self-interest to be of service to our brothers and sisters,” he said. For his mother, “service wasn’t a career. It was an expectation, an essential part of living a meaningful life. In a sense, helping the guy next door is a uniquely American value borne out of the fact that we are a nation of immigrants.”
Later, he brought up his daughter’s graduation from Tulane University and his son’s hope to one day write a book.
He emphasized Emerson’s focus on communications and the arts
Biden repeatedly highlighted the role communicators, artists, and actors play in the world after college. In fact, the then-senator said commentators and writers have “great power” and “inordinate responsibility” on the way the world is perceived.
“The country will listen less to me or President Bush than it will a well-placed or well-time comment of Jay Leno or David Letterman,” Biden said.
He lauded the graduates for their precise visions and commitments to their crafts. Artists, Biden said, often know what they want to accomplish well before they even enter college.
“The most remarkable thing about your class is that you arrived here in large part possessing what most people go to college to find and that is, you know what you love, you know what matters to you,” he said. “Most of you are prepared to take a chance in pursuing a very difficult environment, a competitive environment, the craft that you know you love.”
He drew parallels to his 1968 law school graduation
An alumnus of Syracuse University, Biden graduated law school in a similarly unprecedented time. He recalled the impact the Civil Rights movement and the assassination of two of his heroes—Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy—had on him as a new lawyer.
“I know that you are today, very much as we were in 1968, anxious about the future and dismayed by uncertainty, wanting to do well, wanting to do good, and unsure about your chances of doing either,” Biden said. “You take your diplomas and enter a world that isn’t awesome in its chaos and complexity as it starkly beautiful in its seeming simplicity of its great technology.”
He offered words of encouragement and advice
Despite the trauma and turmoil that marred the graduates’ time in college, Biden maintained a spirit of forward-thinking hope.
“If you’re looking for the secret of life, you probably won’t find it,” he explained. “But if you’re looking for the potential in the commonality of human experience, you’ll find there’s more power in the human heart than all the gigabytes technology can provide you.”
“In this era of mass worldwide communication, people will take pride in making you and breaking you very, very quickly. And knowing who you are, knowing what you believe, and never allowing that understanding to weaken will always be your most enduring defense against life’s challenges and your own frailties. So let me say in conclusion, for better or for worse, this is the world you inherit…Let your generation be the one to bring us to a time when we stand on principle and are moved to action by the power of our words and ideals,” he said near the end.
Watch the whole speech here.
Diti Kohli previously served as The Beacon's Editor-in-Chief and can't get herself to leave. So instead, she helps put together the paper's weekly print product. Kohli also serves as a digital producer at The Boston Globe and spends her free time watching Bollywood movies or making chili.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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Meadow Fire
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The Meadow Fire was a wildfire which burned areas near Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California. Park officials believe it was started near Starr King Lake, during a lightning storm, on July 19, 2014. [1][2] On Sunday, September 7, 2014 the fire forced authorities to order the evacuation by helicopter of dozens of hikers and tourists. On September 16, 2014 the fire burned 4,971 acres (2,012 ha) and was 80% contained. On September 18, the containment of the Meadow Fire increased to 85%, without having expanded further. During the next 4 days, firefighters were able to make significant progress on extinguishing the fire, especially with the 0.25 inches of rainfall during the weekend, and by September 22, the containment of the Meadow Fire had increased to 98%. From September 25 to 26, the containment of the wildfire still remained at 98%, despite some snow and rain falling in the region. On September 27, an additional inch of precipitation helped quench the wildfire, and on September 29, the Meadow Fire was 100% contained. No injuries or fatalities were reported. The damage caused by the Meadow Fire was severe. The high-intensity wildfire burned very hot and, in some areas, the large fir and lodgepole pines were reduced to charcoal stalagmites. The forest floor was slow to recover because of the lack of moisture during the California drought. During the summer of 2015, greenery was scarce and the forest floor was still covered in a thick layer of ash. However, scientists predict that the coniferous forest will regenerate after a few years despite the drought.
The Little Yosemite Valley backpacker's campsite is not within the Meadow Fire's burn scar.
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Fire
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C.I.A. Officer Suffers Havana Syndrome Symptoms
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The officer, who had been traveling in India with the agency’s director, was given medical attention after an unexplained incident triggered injuries.
By Julian E. Barnes
WASHINGTON — An intelligence officer traveling in India this month with the C.I.A. director reported symptoms consistent with the so-called Havana syndrome, signaling a possible escalation in the mysterious incidents that have affected American officials since 2016, current and former officials said.
The circumstances of the incident are still being investigated, and officials have not yet determined whether the C.I.A. officer was targeted because the officer was traveling with the director, William J. Burns, or for other reasons. If the incident was caused by an adversarial intelligence service, it may not have known the officer was traveling with Mr. Burns.
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This is an offer for a Basic Digital Access Subscription. The Basic Digital Access Subscription does not include e-reader editions (Kindle, Nook, etc.), NYT Games (the Crossword) or NYT Cooking. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. These offers are not available for current subscribers. Other restrictions and taxes may apply. Offers and pricing are subject to change without notice.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Tsunami threat to Whittier less severe than early estimates, scientists say
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Geologists have warned Alaskans for over a year that a tsunami could hit Whittier following a potential landslide at Barry Arm in Prince William Sound. They’re still ringing the alarm bells, but new research suggests a wave could be a lot smaller than originally expected. The new data has allowed researchers to drop their worst-case estimates from a 30-foot wave to a 7-foot wave. Jonathan Godt, who coordinates the Landslide Hazards Program for the U.S. Geological Survey, said it’s “a little less concerning result.” Barry Arm is part of a fjord northeast of Whitter. It includes several glaciers, and for years they’ve been rapidly retreating, leaving a steep slope of material behind.
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Tsunamis
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Angara Airlines Flight 9007 crash
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On 11 July 2011, Angara Airlines Flight 9007, an Antonov An-24 turboprop passenger aircraft on a domestic service from Tomsk to Surgut, Russia, ditched into the Ob River, after suffering an engine fire. Seven of the 37 people on board died. [1]
Angara Airlines flight IK9007 (reported also as flight SP5007) took off from Bogashevo Airport in Tomsk at 10:10 local time (UTC+7) on 11 July bound for Surgut International Airport, with 4 crew and 33 passengers on board. [2]
At around 11:36, while the aircraft was cruising at 6,000 metres (20,000 ft), a magnetic chip detector signalled the presence of particles in the port (left) engine's oil system. [3] The captain decided to continue the flight, but 8 minutes later a burning smell filled the cockpit and the fire alarm on the port engine briefly activated. The engine was throttled back but not shut down, and the bleed air supply was closed. [2]
The crew initiated a diversion to Nizhnevartovsk Airport, and at 11:52, following a sudden drop in the oil pressure and the onset of severe vibrations, the crew realised that the engine was indeed on fire, at which point the engine was shut down and the fire suppression system activated. However, the fire did not extinguish, and the crew elected to ditch immediately into the nearby Ob River. [2]
The An-24 came down at 11:56 near Strezhevoy, approximately 60 km (40 mi) south-east of Nizhnevartovsk. Due to the shallow water and the presence of undulations in the river bed, the aircraft was severely damaged in the ditching. Seven of the 37 people on board were killed. Nineteen people were treated for injuries. [2]
The accident aircraft was an Antonov An-24RV with registration RA-47302. Manufactured in 1975, at the time of the accident it was 36 years old and had accumulated over 48,000 flight hours. It was powered by two Ivchenko AI-24 turboprop engines. [4]
The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC/МАК) of the Commonwealth of Independent States opened an investigation into the accident. Both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were recovered and examined. [3]
In August 2011, the West Siberian Transportation Prosecution Office announced that maintenance of the aircraft was found to be not compliant with Russian regulations, and that maintenance checks for the magnetic chip detector were noted in the aircraft's technical log but were never carried out. Two officials of Angara Airlines were charged. [2]
In December 2013, the MAK released its final report. It found that the engine fire had originated with the failure of a support bearing of the compressor rotor, possibly due to a manufacturing defect or an incorrect reassembly of the engine after maintenance. The report also cited as contributing factor the captain's apparent reluctance to shut down the affected engine despite various abnormal indications, which allowed the fire to develop and become inextinguishable. [2]
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Air crash
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1999 UNAM strike
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The 1999–2000 strike and shutdown of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico, the largest university in Latin America) had its origins in the January 1999 announcement by its latest rector that tuition would increase significantly and graduation requirements would become more restrictive. In response, a large group of students declared a strike and blockaded the main campus to the point of institutional paralysis. The blockades intensified and eventually led to the university's closure, during which there were violent encounters between opposition groups, students, guards and faculty. The crisis led to the eventual resignation of the university's rector and appointment of a new one. Along the way, bloody conflicts resulted in serious injuries and even fatalities on the unlawfully occupied campus. [1] Eventual action by the recently created federal police finally ended the occupation during February 2000. The third article of the Constitution of Mexico states that all education imparted by the state is free. Whether this includes decentralized, autonomous institutions of higher education like the UNAM is a matter of (often heated) debate. Tuition at the UNAM is not free, and it had last been raised in 1948 to 200 pesos per academic year (tuition became 20 cents in the 1993 currency revaluation); the amount is specified in the University bylaws, and changing it requires action by the University Council (a legislative body that comprises representatives of the faculty and students, and all directors of schools, faculties, and institutes). By 1999, inflation and the exchange rate meant that tuition amounted to about 0.02 US dollars. The quality of education of the UNAM, alma mater of several Latin American presidents had decayed since its glory days. At the time, UNAM had a budget of about one thousand million dollars, of which 90% was provided by the federal government. [2]
In January 1999, Francisco Barnés de Castro, then rector of the UNAM, announced his intention to raise tuition. Attempts to raise tuition since 1948 had failed twice before, most recently in the late 1980s under Rector Jorge Carpizo MacGregor. Barnés proposed a number of reforms, including a tuition raise from about 0.02 dollars to about 150 dollars per academic year. Barnés promised the additional 48 million dollars the university would receive from the tuition increase would be used to fund more research and increase the quality of its facilities; the proposal also included a plan for tuition remission for students who signed a statement saying they could not afford the new rates. A group of students quickly organized a protest, on the grounds that thousands of students would have to see their studies interrupted unable to afford tuition. With the support of the community, UNAM was shut down temporarily by the protesters during part of February and also part of March 1999. Ultimately on April 20, 1999, this group referred to itself as the Comité General de Huelga (CGH or "Strike General Committee") and declared a continuing, if not permanent, closure of the university. In June 1999, the 132-member government council of the university, which includes faculty and students, modified the proposal to make the tuition increase voluntary. Barnés declared that the conscience of each student would dictate who would pay increased tuition and who would not. Strikers grew increasingly belligerent and had violent altercations with students who were still attempting to enter the campus to try to resume classes. Meanwhile, UNAM issued multiple warrants against strikers who were accused of stealing computers, vehicles and earthquake monitoring equipment. [2]
The strikers took advantage of the situation to resist additional graduation requirements such as tougher examinations and time limits for graduation. When this resistance became more widely known among the general public, community support decreased and the press adopted a less supportive stance towards those who perpetuated the blockades. [2]
On June 2, after three months of the strike, president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo spoke about the importance of the issue and what he termed the "brutal aggression against the university that is hurting the enormous majority who want to study to get ahead". [3] The next day, about fifteen thousand students held a rally at a stadium in Ciudad Universitaria to support the strike and hurl insults at Rector Barnés. The same day, female professors held banners on Mexico City overpasses asking motorists to turn on their lights if they opposed the strike; thousands did so. Strikers took their public displays to the heart of Mexico City, interrupting traffic for hours. City residents blamed Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, then Head of Government of the Federal District and hopeful Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) presidential candidate in the 2000 elections, since many former student activists were members of the PRD. [3]
Consulta, a polling firm, estimated an 83% of community support to the raise in tuition fees before the strike, versus only 55% support after the strike began. [4]
In November 1999, Barnés resigned his position as rector of the UNAM. He had given in to some of the demands of the CGH; the CGH, however, kept extending the closure and making new demands. One of these demands was open admission for all students graduating from university-run high schools (some measure of which existed, but was contingent on a number of conditions including a sufficiently high GPA). In January 2000 the Junta de Gobierno appointed Juan Ramón de la Fuente, who had served previously as Secretary of Health in President Zedillo's cabinet, as the UNAM's rector. One of de la Fuente's first measures was a referendum to determine the opinion of students on the matter. [5]
De la Fuente indicated that 125,000 votes (out of a student population of around 333,000) would be sufficient to give him more bargaining power to negotiate with the strikers. Around 180,000 students cast votes, 87% voting in favor of ending the strike. In spite of results showing overwhelming support to end the strike and return to classes, the CGH did not recognize the outcome. The CGH held its own poll in which 86,329 votes were cast, with 65% supporting a continuation of the closure. [6]
On February 1, 2000, students and workers opposed to the strike clashed with CGH and their supporters. This incident occurred when 200 students attempted to enter an UNAM-owned and run high-school, not on the main campus, to try to restart classes. 400 federal police officers were sent to open a way through the barricades, which they accomplished with many injuries, and even some fatal ones. [7]
On February 7, 2000, federal police stormed the university's main campus, ending the takeover. A total of 632 people were arrested during that ultimate day of violent clashes. [8]
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Strike
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2011 Manila Beechcraft Queen Air crash
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On 10 December 2011, a twin-engine Beechcraft Queen Air light aircraft crashed into a slum and burst into flames in Parañaque, Metropolitan Manila, Philippines, killing all three people on board and eleven on the ground. Twenty more people on the ground were injured. [1][2][3]
The subsequent investigation found that an engine failure at take-off was not properly handled by the crew, which lost control of the aircraft at low altitude, without the possibility to recover before striking the ground. The twin-engine Queen Air took off at around 14:10 local time from runway 13 of Manila International Airport for a flight to San Jose Airport, on the island of Mindoro. Soon after take-off, the air traffic control (ATC) instructed the crew to turn right onto a southerly heading. Moments later, the crew requested permission to land back at the airport, which was granted, but when ATC asked whether they were experiencing difficulties, there was no response from the crew. [4]
The Queen Air was observed by eyewitnesses flying at just 200 ft above the ground while making sputtering noises. It then banked left and suddenly rolled inverted, crashing into shanty houses next to the Felixberto Serrano Elementary School in the Don Bosco neighbourhood of Parañaque. [4][5]
All three occupants of the Queen Air were instantly killed, along with eleven people on the ground. Twenty more people were injured. An intense post-crash fire developed, burning several houses and destroying most of the elementary school, which was unoccupied at the time. [2]
After the crash, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) decided to ground all of Aviation Technology Innovator's aircraft. [6] At a press conference two weeks after the crash, CAAP officials stated that poor flying technique by the pilot was a possible cause of the crash. After the engine failure the aircraft was seen to turn left towards the dead engine, when the proper procedure in these circumstances would have been for the pilot to turn the aircraft to the right instead. [7]
The investigation carried out by the Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines found that the aircraft's left engine failed at take-off due to oil starvation. [4]
The crew's "lack of event proficiency" and their failure to maintain control of the aircraft was cited as the immediate cause of the accident. Various contributing factors were listed, including inadequate training, inadequate maintenance procedures and lack of oversight by the regulating authority. The air traffic control's instruction to the crew to turn right immediately after take-off was also criticised for deviating from the airport's standard departure procedure, which would have reduced the risk of loss of control during low-altitude manoeuvres. [4]
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Air crash
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1923 Great Kantō earthquake
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The Great Kantō earthquake (関東大地震, Kantō dai-jishin; Kantō ō-jishin)[11][12] struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. [13] Extensive firestorms and even a fire tornado added to the death toll. Ethnically-charged civil unrest after the disaster (i.e. the Kantō Massacre) has been documented. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw ),[14] with its focus deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay. The cause was a rupture of part of the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting beneath the Okhotsk Plate along the line of the Sagami Trough. [15]
Since 1960, the First of September has been designated by the Japanese government as Disaster Prevention Day (防災の日, Bōsai no hi), or a day in remembrance of and to prepare against major natural disasters including tsunami and typhoon. [16] Drills as well as knowledge promotion events are centered around that date as well as awards ceremonies for people of merit. [17]
The SS Dongola's captain reported that, while he was anchored in Yokohama's inner harbor:
At 11.55 a.m. ship commenced to tremble and vibrate violently and on looking towards the shore it was seen that a terrible earthquake was taking place, buildings were collapsing in all directions and in a few minutes nothing could be seen for clouds of dust. When these cleared away fire could be seen starting in many directions and in half an hour the whole city was in flames. [18]
This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. The earthquake's force was so great that in Kamakura, over 60 km (37 mi) from the epicenter, it moved the Great Buddha statue, which weighs about 121 tonnes, almost 60 centimetres. [19]
Estimated casualties totaled about 142,800 deaths, including about 40,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. [citation needed] According to the Japanese construction company Kajima Kobori Research's conclusive report of September 2004, 105,385 deaths were confirmed in the 1923 quake. [20][21][13]
The damage from this natural disaster was one of the greatest sustained by Imperial Japan. In 1960, the government declared September 1, on the 37th anniversary of the quake, as an annual "Disaster Prevention Day". Because the earthquake struck at lunchtime when people were cooking meals, many deaths occurred as a result of large fires that broke out. Fires started immediately after the earthquake. [22] Some fires developed into firestorms[23][24][25] that swept across cities. Many people died when their feet became stuck on melting tarmac. The single greatest loss of life was caused by a fire tornado that engulfed the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about 38,000 people were incinerated after taking shelter there after the earthquake. The earthquake broke water mains all over the city, and putting out the fires took nearly two full days until late in the morning of September 3. [26]
A strong typhoon centered off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture brought high winds to Tokyo Bay at about the same time as the earthquake. These winds caused fires to spread rapidly. The Emperor and Empress were staying at Nikko when the earthquake struck Tokyo, and were never in any danger. [27] American Acting Consul General Max David Kirjassoff and his wife Alice Josephine Ballantine Kirjassoff died in the earthquake. [28] The consulate itself lost the entirety of its records in the subsequent fires. [29]
Many homes were buried or swept away by landslides in the mountainous and hilly coastal areas in western Kanagawa Prefecture; about 800 people died. A collapsing mountainside in the village of Nebukawa, west of Odawara, pushed the entire village and a passenger train carrying over 100 passengers, along with the railway station, into the sea. The RMS Empress of Australia was about to leave Yokohama harbour when the earthquake struck. It narrowly survived and assisted in rescuing 2000 survivors. A P&O liner, Dongola, was also in the harbour at the moment of disaster and rescued 505 people, taking them to Kobe. [30]
A tsunami with waves up to 10 m (33 ft) high struck the coast of Sagami Bay, Bōsō Peninsula, Izu Islands, and the east coast of Izu Peninsula within minutes. The tsunami caused many deaths, including about 100 people along Yui-ga-hama Beach in Kamakura and an estimated 50 people on the Enoshima causeway. Over 570,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. Evacuees were transported by ship from Kantō to as far as Kobe in Kansai. [31] The damage is estimated to have exceeded US$1 billion (or about $15 billion today). [32] There were 57 aftershocks. Ethnic Koreans were massacred after the earthquake. [33][34] The Home Ministry declared martial law and ordered all sectional police chiefs to make maintenance of order and security a top priority. A false rumor was spread that Koreans were taking advantage of the disaster, committing arson and robbery, and were in possession of bombs. [35] Anti-Korean sentiment was heightened by fear of the Korean independence movement. [36] In the confusion after the quake, mass murder of Koreans by mobs occurred in urban Tokyo and Yokohama, fueled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage. [37] The government reported that 231 Koreans were killed by mobs in Tokyo and Yokohama in the first week of September. [38] Independent reports said the number of dead was far higher, ranging from 6,000 to 10,000. [39][40][41] Some newspapers reported the rumors as fact, including the allegation that Koreans were poisoning wells. The numerous fires and cloudy well water, a little-known effect of a large quake, all seemed to confirm the rumors of the panic-stricken survivors who were living amidst the rubble. Vigilante groups set up roadblocks in cities, and tested residents with a shibboleth for supposedly Korean-accented Japanese: deporting, beating, or killing those who failed. Army and police personnel colluded in the vigilante killings in some areas.
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Earthquakes
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Central Queensland mine death tragic 'reminder about complacency'
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Another mineworker has gone to work and will never come home amid a safety reset of Queensland's mining industry. The 60-year-old man, who died in an underground coal mine collapse overnight, was the ninth person killed in a Queensland mining incident since July 2018. A mining safety expert said the simple answer to the complex problem was to increase diligence and reduce complacency. The Queensland mining union declared a "safety crisis" when Jack Gerdes was crushed to death at the Baralaba North coal mine in July 2019. He was the sixth person to die in the space of 12 months, making the year between July 2018 to July 2019 the worst for mining deaths since 1997. Four months later, Brad Duxbury was killed by a coal fall at the Carborough Downs underground mine. Two months after that, in January 2020, Goondiwindi man Donald Rabbitt died after being trapped under heavy machinery at the Coronado Curragh mine. In May 2020, five miners were seriously injured in an explosion at the Grosvenor mine near Moranbah. The Coal Mining Board of Inquiry released a report into the cause of the explosion in June 2021, stating the workers were "exposed to unacceptable risk". Resources Minister Scott Stewart told state parliament today that "any loss of life on our mine sites is unacceptable". "I'd like to extend my heartfelt condolences … to the family, to the friends and to the co-workers of the man who has passed away and I also hope for a full and speedy recovery to the man who's been injured," he said. Just last week, Mr Stewart visited a mine near Cloncurry to highlight the state government's mine safety reset. He said 43 site safety resets had been completed so far this year. David Cliff, a professor of occupational health and safety in mining at the University of Queensland, said managing health and safety in the industry was an ongoing issue. "One of the concerns is complacency … [thinking] that things are good and events are very rare and they can't happen to us. "The 'reset' is about saying: 'No, be alert!' Because times change, technology changes, the world changes as well, so the risks aren't static. "We haven't got it completely fixed." Professor Cliff said the complexities of the industry meant technology-based risks and natural risks exist. "Fire, explosions or falls of ground like today and the incident at Grosvenor are recurring and we don't really understand why," he said. "I'm not seeing any outcomes to tell us how we prevent past issues, and things like that, from occurring. "When you have complex systems, the probability that something will not operate completely safely is increasing — unexpected consequences of expected actions as it were." Professor Cliff was unsure if "the right things" were being done to improve safety. "Things are a lot better than they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago, but they won't stay better if we don't stay diligent," he said. "The danger is that people are going to say, 'Look we did this, we'll move on — we talked to our workforce, we've done our audits, we've done our reviews, we had the experts come in and check our systems, it's ok we can move forward now. "The ongoing challenge is to maintain that level of alertness and uneasiness that things could go wrong. "You're alert looking for problems before they occur and I'm not sure that that happens everywhere." He said addressing the problem would require a holistic approach. "Everybody — not just the workers but the people that organise, supervise, manage, provide the resources, funding, the levels of workers training — [has to] take responsibility for those activities to make sure they're done properly, adequately," Professor Stewart said. This Sunday, September 19 is Miners Memorial Day. It marks the anniversary of Queensland's worst mining disaster where 75 miners died in a coal mine at Mount Mulligan in 1921. Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Queensland mining and energy division president Steve Smyth urged the community to show their support. "You go to work to work and you should be able to return home," he said. He said every death had "a ripple effect". "In my former roles in industry safety, I unfortunately have attended a lot of fatalities a lot of serious accidents to investigate and in this role I do as well," he said. "It's never easy. "I can't, for a moment, put myself in the shoes of the family of the lost miner and obviously the injured miner. "[They] simply they went to work last night and one gentleman hasn't returned and another one's seriously injured." We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
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Mine Collapses
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Southwest Airlines Flight 345 crash
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Southwest Airlines Flight 345 was a scheduled flight from Nashville International Airport, Tennessee, to New York City's LaGuardia Airport. On July 22, 2013, the Boeing 737 operating the route suffered a front landing gear collapse while landing at LaGuardia Airport, injuring 9 people on board. [1][2] The aircraft, which was worth an estimated $15.5 million at the time, was written off and scrapped as a result of the accident. [3]
The aircraft landed on runway 4 with its nose landing gear touching down prior to the main landing gear. [4] The aircraft's nose gear collapsed upward into the body of the aircraft, causing substantial damage to the avionics electronics bay in the fuselage. [5][6][7] The aircraft slid 2,175 feet (663 m) on its nose along the runway, arresting off to the right of the runway pavement. [6] The plane came to a stop halfway down the runway[8] after skidding on its nose in a sea of sparks. [9]
As a result of the crash, the two-runway airport was closed until its rescue assets were available again. Two hours later, the airport's other runway reopened for traffic. The airport cleared and inspected the affected runway, and removed the aircraft in time for the earliest next day departures. [8][9] Nine occupants were treated for minor injuries,[5] all sustained during evacuation,[6] six of whom were taken to local hospitals. [9]
The aircraft (built in 2000) was a 13-year-old Boeing 737-700, registration number N753SW, owned and operated by Southwest Airlines. [1][5][8]
Flight 345's captain, who was 49 years old, had flown for Southwest Airlines for nearly 13 years, six years in the rank as captain. [10] At the time of the accident, she had a total of 12,000 hours of flight time, including 2,600 flight hours as captain of a Boeing 737. [11]
The first officer, who was 44 years old, had 20 years of prior experience in the United States Air Force and had been hired by Southwest Airlines a year and a half before the accident. [11]
On July 26, 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a press release disclosing its initial findings, which included:
No mechanical malfunctions were found, but the nose landing gear collapsed due to stress overload. [12] The NTSB's investigation became focused on the behavior of the flight crew during Flight 345's approach into LaGuardia Airport. [10][11] The NTSB discovered that Flight 345's captain had been the subject of multiple complaints by first officers who had flown with her. [10] Southwest's flight operations manual requires its pilots to abort a landing if the plane is not properly configured by the time it descends to 1,000 ft (300 m). [11] Analyzing flight recorder data, the NTSB determined that the captain had changed the airplane's flaps from 30 degrees to 40 degrees at an altitude of only 500 ft (150 m). [11] At 100–200 ft (30–61 m), the captain observed that the plane was still above the glide slope, and ordered the first officer to "get down" instead of aborting the landing. [11] At an altitude of only 27 ft (8.2 m) and 3 seconds from touching down, the captain took control of the aircraft from the first officer. [11] The plane was descending at 960 ft/min (4.9 m/s) in a nose-down position when its nose wheel struck the runway. [11]
The NTSB ultimately concluded that the crash was due to pilot error. Specifically, the NTSB faulted the captain for failing to take control of the aircraft or abort the landing earlier, noting that the captain had warnings at 500 ft (150 m) (due to the flaps misconfiguration) and at 100–200 ft (30–61 m) (when the captain observed the plane was above the glide slope) and could have aborted the landing at that time. The NTSB determined that the captain's failure to take control until the plane had descended to only 27 ft (8.2 m) "did not allow her adequate time to correct the airplane's deteriorating energy state and prevent the nose landing gear from striking the runway. "[11]
On October 2, 2013, Southwest Airlines announced that it had fired Flight 345's captain. The airline also announced that it was requiring Flight 345's first officer to undergo additional training. [13][14] Neither pilot was publicly identified by the airline. [14]
The Boeing 737 involved in the accident, worth an estimated $15.5 million at the time, was found to be too extensively damaged to be repaired and was written off as a total loss. [3] The aircraft was ultimately removed from LaGuardia Airport via barge to the Port of Albany (New York) in November 2013, where the airframe was broken up by a salvage dealer at the Port of Albany in March 2014, with some parts trucked to Owego for final destruction. [15][16] The accident represents the third hull loss of a Boeing 737-700. [5]
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.
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Air crash
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1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens
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The 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland, in April 1993. This tournament was the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. The International Rugby Board invited the established rugby union nations but also were keen to involve emerging nations in the event, recognising the fact that Sevens was providing the bridge between the developed rugby nations and those whose rugby union traditions were less well established. The IRB situated the tournament in the spiritual home nation of rugby sevens, Scotland. The games were played at the home of Scottish rugby, Murrayfield Stadium. England defeated Australia 21–17 to become the first team to win the Melrose Cup. Prior to 1993, Rugby Sevens had already built up a substantial international presence. The relative ease with which the rules could be learnt and applied, combined with the ability to quickly organise teams due to fewer players, as well as providing a fast-paced game for spectators enticed many nations to set up domestic tournaments, and appealed to a large international audience outside of the established power houses of the traditional 15-a-side game. Such was the international popularity of the game that the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) were able to organise a well attended International Tournament in 1973 to celebrate the centenary of the SRU. [1] England came away victorious from that first international event. Soon after, in early 1975 the Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, A.D.C. "Tokkie" Smith, was talking with tobacco company executive Ian Gow. Gow had been a spectator at the 1973 event and had proposed to Smith to sponsor a Rugby tournament with top teams from throughout the world competing. This gave rise to the inaugural Hong Kong Sevens on 28 March 1976. [2] This tournament grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s in both supporter popularity and the number of participating teams. Sevens was proving to be the bridge between the established international rugby elite and those nations with less resources and less developed professional infrastructures. In the early 1990s, The SRU made a proposal to the International Rugby Football Board for the creation of a Rugby Sevens World Cup. The World Cup for the 15-a-side game had been staged successfully in 1987 and 1991 and had proved the worth of such an event. The IRB, which had a duty to involve and help to develop the rugby of the new member unions, recognised the value of Sevens to further this end, and their chairman, Vernon Pugh, enthusiastically agreed. Thus, the IRB organised the first officially sanctioned Rugby World Cup Sevens to be held at Murrayfield in April 1993. The ultimate prize of the competition was to be called the Melrose Cup, named after the small Scottish town of Melrose where the Sevens format had been born in 1883. A butchers apprentice and Melrose 20-a-side quarterback, Ned Haig, suggested having a rugby tournament as part of a sports day to raise funds at the end of the rugby season and his boss David Sanderson proposed playing in a tournament that required reduced numbers of players in each team. On 28 April 1883, the Melrose seven-a-side tournament began, with the time of each match limited to 15 minutes. The first World Cup was held 12 days shy of the 110th anniversary of that first tournament. Of the twenty-four nations involved, nineteen were invited and five had to go through pre-tournament qualification. Four of the qualification places were won by Namibia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Spain who booked their places by reaching the semi-finals of one qualifying event in Sicily. Latvia won their place by beating Russia in the final of a mini-tournament staged in Moscow to decide who would replace the USSR, which had broken up since its invite to the world cup. The invited participants were Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Tonga, South Africa, South Korea, USA, Wales and Western Samoa. The 24 nations were drawn into four pools of six teams with the top two progressing to the Melrose Cup, the third to the Plate and the fourth-placed teams contesting the Bowl competition. The groups were arranged thus:
Pool B
Pool C
Pool D
As expected, the leading nations all made it through. However, only South Africa, New Zealand and Western Samoa could boast unbeaten records at this stage. Fiji, Australia, Tonga, Ireland and England all lost one match in their respective pools. In Pool A Wales, lost to South Africa but distinguished themselves against the powerhouse of sevens rugby, Fiji, coming back from 21–0 down to lose narrowly 21–17. South Africa managed to overcome Fiji in their pool match. In Pool B Ireland had an excellent first round, beating United States 38–0. They lost to New Zealand, who won the group, but finished second. Korea defeated France 14–0 and the French struggled to beat the Netherlands in an earlier tie. However, the French managed to qualify for the Bowl in fourth place, with the surprise being Korea making the Plate competition in third. In Pool C, the hosts Scotland finished fourth behind Argentina in third (although they ended with the same number of match points as the South Americans and had a better points difference they had lost to the Argentinians). The Scots managed to beat eventual group winners Tonga but lost to Australia and Argentina. Both Tonga and Australia lost one match each, and crucially Tonga beat the decider between the two sides meaning that Australia ended second in that group. In Pool D, eventual tournament winners England progressed well but were beaten by the Samoans but 28–10. Samoa went on to win the pool. Despite heavy defeats to England and Samoa, Spain managed to gain third spot just ahead of Canada. The quarterfinals were not knockout but took the form of another round robin with the teams split into two groups. Fiji emerged as the only nation with an unbeaten record after overcoming Ireland, Tonga and Western Samoa in the first. The second group was more fiercely contested with each nation claiming at least one victory. Australia and England who progressed to the semifinals despite their respective defeats by New Zealand and Australia. England had assumed they would top their group and avoid Fiji, even with a defeat to Australia in the final pool game. They opted to rest some first team players but expressed dismay in finding themselves placed second in the group behind Australia.
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Sports Competition
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UK family resolve US claim on son's death
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Harry Dunn's parents have settled a civil lawsuit they filed in the US against a diplomat's wife. The family of a UK teenager killed in a car crash involving a US diplomat's wife say they have reached a resolution in a civil damages claim over the 2019 accident and could now focus on a separate criminal case. Harry Dunn, 19, died after his motorcycle was in a collision with a car driven by Anne Sacoolas near RAF Croughton, an air force base in the English county of Northamptonshire that is used by the US military. Sacoolas left the UK shortly after the accident claiming diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution. The US has refused to extradite her. The family has, with the support of the British government, campaigned for justice for their son. Foreign minister Liz Truss raised it in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday. Family spokesman Radd Seiger said that "a resolution to the civil claim has now been reached successfully between the parties". He did not provide details of the resolution. Dunn's family have said Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time of the crash. Sacoolas' lawyer in 2020 said that she will not return voluntarily to potentially face jail for "a terrible but unintentional accident". Earlier this year then-foreign minister Dominic Raab said the path was clear for British authorities to see whether a virtual trial or other process involving Sacoolas could be used to allow "some accountability and some solace and some justice for the Dunn family".
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Road Crash
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Airship N.S.11 crash
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The Airship NS11 crash was an airship accident which occurred on 15 July 1919. The Royal Air Force (RAF) airship exploded off the east coast of England over the North Sea, killing all nine crew on board. NS11 was one of 14 North Sea-class airships ordered by the Royal Navy for the Royal Naval Air Service, but by the time NS11 was delivered in September 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service had been amalgamated with the Royal Flying Corps to form the RAF. The airship was built and tested at RNAS Kingsnorth near Kingsnorth in Kent. She was fitted with two 260 hp (195 kW) Fiat engines and had an envelope with a capacity of 360,000 cu ft (10,000 m3) cubic feet. Prior to the accident, she had made voyages of more than 1000 miles (1600 km) over the North Sea, setting a world record for non-rigid airships. [1]
NS11 had taken off from RAF Pulham in Pulham St Mary, Norfolk, around midnight on the night of 14/15 July 1919 and was heading over the North Sea on a mine-hunting patrol. [1][2][3] In the early hours of 15 July, she was seen to fly beneath a long "greasy black cloud" off the village of Cley next the Sea on the Norfolk coast when locals reported an abnormal noise from her engines (which may have suggested she was experiencing engine trouble). [1] She was returning towards the coast when she exploded into a ball of flames, causing a vivid glare lasting for several minutes as the burning airship descended, plunging into the sea after a second explosion. None of the nine crew members on board the airship survived. [1][4] The Sheringham lifeboat was launched but its crew could only find a small part of the aluminium wreckage. [2]
The accident occurred less than 48 hours after the airship R34 arrived at RAF Pulham after a successful double-crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, including the first-ever east-west crossing by air. The findings of the official Court of Enquiry were inconclusive, but amongst other possibilities it was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion. [3]
There is a memorial plaque and drinking fountain in the grounds of the Viaduct Sports & Social Club in Earlestown, Merseyside. The names of the crew are commemorated on Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton. One of the crew was buried at Ann’s Hill Cemetery in Gosport. [5]
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Air crash
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2007 Kent earthquake
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The 2007 Kent earthquake registered 4.3 on the Richter scale and struck south east Kent, South East England on 28 April 2007 at 07:18:12 UTC (08:18:12 local time), at a shallow depth of 5.3 km. [1]
The worst affected area was the town of Folkestone, although the towns of Deal, Dover and Ashford were also affected. The tremors could be felt across much of Kent and south east England, including as far as East Sussex, Essex and Suffolk,[2] as well as on the other side of the English Channel at Calais and Brussels. [3]
The British Geological Survey stated that the epicentre of the earthquake was less than 1 km north of Folkestone at 51.10°N, 1.17°E. [1] The United States Geological Survey indicated that the location of the earthquake was at 51.085°N, 1.009°E[4] suggesting a position approximately 5 km north west of Hythe. The earthquake's shallow depth and proximity to Folkestone resulted in structural damage in the town, and one woman suffered a minor head and neck injury. [5] Following the earthquake, a total 474
properties were reported as damaged, with 73 properties too badly damaged for people to return to, 94 seriously damaged, and 307 suffering from minor structural damage. [6] Harvey Grammar School situated in Cheriton Road, Folkestone was closed on 30 April due to "significant structural damage". Several thousand homes were left without power for several hours and there were reports of a "smell of gas" in Folkestone. [7] The Port of Dover, the channel tunnel and travel links were unaffected, although authorities asked people heading towards Dover to use the A2. [8]
EDF Energy had restored electricity supplies that had been cut by the earthquake by the same afternoon. [5] The Salvation Army Church in Folkestone provided refuge on 28 April for approximately 100 people whose homes had been damaged by the earthquake. [9]
On the same morning, a 300-metre (948 ft) long crack appeared in a cliff at Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire, creating fears of a landslide, although there were mixed views from authorities on whether it could be related to the earthquake. [10]
The British Geological Survey gave the earthquake a reading of 4.3 on the Richter scale,[1] while the USGS and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre estimated that the earthquake had a body wave magnitude of 4.6 and 4.7 respectively. [4][11]
It was the largest British earthquake since the 2002 Dudley earthquake[7] and the strongest in the Dover Straits since a magnitude 4.4 earthquake in 1950. [12] The strongest recorded British earthquake is the 1931 Dogger Bank earthquake, which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale. Ten months later, the earthquake's strength was surpassed by that of the 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake, which was 5.2 in magnitude. Less than two years later, on 3 March 2009 at 14.35 UTC, Folkestone was shaken by a smaller magnitude 3.0 quake, located in the same area. [13]
Coordinates: 51°06′N 1°10′E / 51.10°N 1.17°E / 51.10; 1.17
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Earthquakes
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Sheriff’s office investigating dog poisoning in Hugo
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Rain and snow this morning. The rain and snow will change to rain showers by the afternoon hours. High around 40F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 60%..
Cloudy. Low 28F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: November 12, 2021 @ 10:01 am
HUGO — Now that most of the data is in for the 2020 U.S. cen…
HUGO — After an extensive search process to find the city’s …
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a possible dog poisoning in Hugo. Pictured are Duke, Ruby and Roscoe. Ruby passed away, and Duke is still recovering. Thankfully Roscoe did not get sick.
A Hugo couple is still trying to wrap their heads around what happened to their dogs.
“We are all still in shock,” Kelly Trepanier said.
On July 16, Kelly’s husband, Chris Trepanier, had already left for work. Around 9:30 a.m. Kelly was just about to hop into the shower when she heard one of her dogs, Ruby, shrieking outside.
“I ran out there and she was seizing and convulsing … I started calling her name and I ran down there and her eyes were all rolled back in her head,” Kelly recalled. She ran to grab her phone to call the vet when she noticed her other dog, Duke, was also lying on the floor shaking and drooling.
Her primary vet recommended Kelly take both of the dogs to an emergency vet right away. Kelly, along with her stepson Nathan, immediately packed up the dogs and headed to the Animal Emergency and Referral Center (AERC) in Oakdale.
“Ruby just laid on the floor the whole way. I thought she was going to die any second,” Kelly said. “She just seized the whole way.”
While at the vet, the doctors were trying to figure out what might have caused such a reaction in the dogs: moldy food, blue-green algae or another poisonous substance. Kelly explained it is not uncommon for her dogs to swim in water, as they have ponds on their property in rural Hugo.
After spending all day at AERC, Kelly and Chris had to make the gut-wrenching decision to put Ruby down. Although both dogs received the same treatments, Ruby was not responding the same way and there was too much neurological damage from the several hours of seizures. Duke had to spend the night in the hospital, but is back home now recovering.
“We brought (Ruby) home to bury her, and while I was walking around the yard I was thinking ‘Should I even let my grandkids out here?’” Kelly said. She was walking around her yard right in front of their sliding glass door when she found two large piles of vomit. She started looking through the vomit and noticed what appeared to be miniature hot dogs as well as a “blue-green metallic” stuff.
The Trepaniers have sent off the stomach contents to the University of Michigan for testing. The doctors at the university will perform a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis, an analytical method that combines the features of gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample.
“I’m hoping they can tell me exactly what is in it, because we are going to pursue this as far as we can,” Kelly said.
The Trepaniers are thankful that Duke survived and that their new puppy, 6-month-old Roscoe, did not ingest whatever the other two dogs did.
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Mass Poisoning
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October 2006 Yakima hops fire
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The October 2006 Yakima hops fire was a large-scale fire that destroyed a significant amount of the US total hops production, in a warehouse located in Yakima, Washington. The fire started shortly before noon local time on October 2, 2006 in a 40,000-square-foot (3,600-square-meter) warehouse operated by S.S. Steiner Inc., one of the four largest hop buyers in the Yakima Valley of central Washington. By mid-afternoon, flames engulfed most of the building. The fire destroyed or ruined about 10,000 bales, each weighing about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) and likely worth $1.75 to $2 a pound. It is estimated this represents about four percent of the total US production.
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Fire
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Drought saps California reservoirs as hot, dry summer looms
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OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation’s crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires. But the mighty lake — a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible — is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer. While droughts are common in California, this year’s is much hotter and drier than others, evaporating water more quickly from the reservoirs and the sparse Sierra Nevada snowpack that feeds them. The state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs are 50% lower than they should be this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California-Davis. Over Memorial Day weekend, dozens of houseboats sat on cinderblocks at Lake Oroville because there wasn’t enough water to hold them. Blackened trees lined the reservoir’s steep, parched banks. At nearby Folsom Lake, normally bustling boat docks rested on dry land, their buoys warning phantom boats to slow down. Campers occupied dusty riverbanks farther north at Shasta Lake. But the impacts of dwindling reservoirs go beyond luxury yachts and weekend anglers. Salmon need cold water from the bottom of the reservoirs to spawn. The San Francisco Bay needs fresh water from the reservoirs to keep out the salt water that harms freshwater fish. Farmers need the water to irrigate their crops. Businesses need reservoirs full so people will come play in them and spend money. And everyone needs the water to run hydroelectric power plants that supply much of the state’s energy. If Lake Oroville falls below 640 feet (195 meters) — which it could do by late August — state officials would shut down a major power plant for just the second time ever because of low water levels, straining the electrical grid during the hottest part of the summer. In Northern California’s Butte County, low water prompts another emotion: fear. The county suffered the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century in 2018 when 85 people died. Last year, another 16 people died in a wildfire. Walking along the Bidwell Canyon trail last week, 63-year-old Lisa Larson was supposed to have a good view of the lake. Instead, she saw withered grass and trees. “It makes me feel like our planet is literally drying up,” she said. “It makes me feel a little unsettled because the drier it gets, the more fires we are going to have.” A hillside scorched in the 2020 North Complex Fire at Lake Oroville. (AP Video/Noah Berger) Droughts are a part of life in California, where a Mediterranean-style climate means the summers are always dry and the winters are not always wet. The state’s reservoirs act as a savings account, storing water in the wet years to help the state survive during the dry ones. Last year was the third driest on record in terms of precipitation. Temperatures hit triple digits in much of California over the Memorial Day weekend, earlier than expected. State officials were surprised earlier this year when about 500,000 acre feet (61,674 hectare meters) of water they were expecting to flow into reservoirs never showed up. One acre-foot is enough water to supply up to two households for one year. “In the previous drought, it took (the reservoirs) three years to get this low as they are in the second year of this drought,” Lund said. The lake’s record low is 646 feet (197 meters), but the Department of Water Resources projects it will dip below that sometime in August or September. If that happens, the state will have to close the boat ramps for the first time ever because of low water levels, according to Aaron Wright, public safety chief for the Northern Buttes District of California State Parks. The only boat access to the lake would be an old dirt road that was built during the dam’s construction in the late 1960s. “We have a reservoir up there that’s going to be not usable. And so now what?” said Eric Smith, an Oroville City Council member and president of its chamber of commerce. The water level is so low at Lake Mendocino, along the Russian River in Northern California, that state officials last week reduced the amount of water heading to 930 farmers, businesses and other junior water-rights holders. “Unless we immediately reduce diversions, there is a real risk of Lake Mendocino emptying by the end of this year,” said Erik Ekdahl, deputy director for the State Water Board’s Division of Water Rights. Low water levels across California will severely limit how much power the state can generate from hydroelectric power plants. When Lake Oroville is full, the Edward Hyatt Power Plant and others nearby can generate up to 900 megawatts of power, according to Behzad Soltanzadeh, chief of utility operations for the Department of Water Resources. One megawatt is enough to power between 800 and 1,000 homes. That has some local officials worrying about power outages, especially after the state ran out of energy last summer during an extreme heat wave that prompted California’s first rotating blackouts in 20 years. But energy officials say they are better prepared this summer, having obtained an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of the scorching summer months. The low levels are challenging for tourism officials. Bruce Spangler, president of the board of directors for Explore Butte County, grew up in Oroville and has fond memories of fishing with his grandfather and learning to launch and drive a boat before he could drive a car. But this summer, his organization has to be careful about how it markets the lake while managing visitors’ expectations, he said. “We have to be sure we don’t promise something that can’t be,” he said. Low lake levels haven’t stopped tourists from coming yet. With coronavirus restrictions lifting across the state, Wright — the state parks official for Northern California — said attendance at most parks in his area is double what it normally is this time of year. “People are trying to recreate and use facilities even more so (because) they know they are going to lose them here in a few months,” he said.
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Droughts
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TWA Flight 355 crash
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TWA Flight 355 was a domestic Trans World Airlines flight that was hijacked on September 10, 1976 by five "Fighters for Free Croatia",[1] a group seeking Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. In a coincidence, the incident occurred on the same day as the Zagreb mid-air collision. The Boeing 727 plane took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport and was headed to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The hijackers were Slobodan Vlašić, Zvonko Bušić, his wife Julienne Bušić,[2] Petar Matanić, and Frane Pešut. The hijackers claimed to have a bomb with them as they seized control of the plane in the 95th minute of its flight. [3]
The group redirected the plane to Montreal's Mirabel International Airport where they refueled and told officials that they had planted a bomb in a locker at Grand Central Terminal and gave them instructions on finding it. They demanded that an appeal to the American people concerning Croatia's independence be printed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune. The plane was then flown to Gander, Newfoundland, where 35 of its passengers were released. From there the plane was accompanied by a larger TWA plane that guided it to Keflavík, Iceland. The hijackers' initial European destination was London, but the British government refused them permission to land. [4]
During the hijacking the device at Grand Central Terminal was found and taken to Rodman's Neck Firing Range where police attempted to dismantle it rather than detonate it. After setting a cutting instrument on the two wires attached to the device, the officers retreated from the pit for several minutes. When they returned to the pit to continue dismantling the device, it exploded and killed NYPD officer Brian Murray, and wounded another, Terrence McTigue. [5]
The plane landed in Paris where the hijackers surrendered after direct talks with U.S. ambassador Kenneth Rush, and their supposedly explosive devices were revealed to be fakes, simple pressure cookers. [3][4][6] As the police took Julienne Bušić away, the plane's pilot gave her a hug in gratitude for her calming of the passengers during the hijacking. [7]
Frane Pešut served 12 years in prison. [8] He was deported to Croatia in 2007. [8] Petar Matanić and Slobodan Vlašić were released along with Pešut in 1988. [9] Julienne Bušić was released in 1989. [10]
By the 1990s and early 2000s, the last remaining hijacker in prison was Zvonko Bušić. On several occasions after Croatian independence, Croatian president Franjo Tuđman appealed to American president Bill Clinton for Bušić's release or transfer to Croatia. [11] In 2003, the Croatian Parliament passed a resolution that Bušić should be transferred to Croatia, which it submitted to the Council of Europe. [12] The liberal Croatian Helsinki Committee also took up the cause of Bušić's release. [10]
On June 7, 2008 Bušić was granted parole after 32 years of imprisonment. [13] Bušić was paroled and deported to Croatia where he was greeted by approximately 500 people at Zagreb's Pleso airport. [14] Among those in the crowd were Dražen Budiša, Anto Kovačević, and Marko Perković, as well as all four of the other hijackers. [15]
Julienne Bušić wrote a book named Lovers and Madmen about the hijacking and her love for the head of operation. [16]
Zvonko Bušic committed suicide on September 1, 2013 by gunshot at his home in Rovanjska near Zadar; he was discovered by his wife. He was 67 years old. [17]
Agenda-setting is a concept created and developed by Dr. Max McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw. [18] It is a function of mass media, highlighting issues seen as more important at the expense of other news. [19] In this manner, the media forces attention towards a certain issue. [20] For terrorist groups, this agenda setting function is a key tool for communicating a message across a nation or around the world. [21] Terrorist groups may manipulate or compel influential media organisations, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, to assist them in this. [21] Prior to the TWA Flight 355 hijacking, the Croatian criminals demanded that flyers be dropped throughout large cities in order to force attention to their motivations[21] and arranged with certain newspapers to use their statements to report on the issue. [21]
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Air crash
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2016 Ecuadorian Army Arava crash
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On 15 March 2016, an IAI Arava transport aircraft of the Ecuadorian Army crashed in the eastern part of the country. [1][2][3] The accident is the deadliest involving an IAI Arava,[4] and the single deadliest incident suffered by the Ecuadorian military. The Arava plane took off from the Río Amazonas military airport in Shell Mera in Pastaza Province at 12:51 local time. It was carrying 19 Ecuadorian paratroopers belonging to the 9th Special Forces ('Patria') Brigade, for a skydiving exercise; as well as 3 crew members (2 pilots and a mechanic). The pilot had reportedly asked for permission to return to the airport due to adverse weather conditions shortly before contact was lost with the aircraft. [5][6][7] The aircraft crashed at 14:30 local time in a mountainous area, killing all 22 on board. [4]
Two Ecuadorian Air Force helicopters and ground patrols were dispatched to search for the missing plane, and the flight debris was located near the Fátima peak of Hacienda La Palmira. [6][8]
Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa described the accident as a "tragedy" to the armed forces. [6]
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Air crash
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2007 Central Luzon hog cholera outbreak
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In mid-2007, an outbreak of classical swine fever or hog cholera had affected the Central Luzon region of the Philippines, particularly in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga, as confirmed by the Department of Agriculture. Bulacan, which lies immediately north of Metro Manila, is the center of hog raising in the Philippines. Backyard and commercial farms, about 300 in number, with 80% of those commercial, are estimated to have more than a million sows. [1]
The outbreak was originally confined on early July to backyard farms in three towns, but expanded to 43 barangays in 12 municipalities (of 21 municipalities and three cities) in Bulacan. Commercial farms, which are 80% of the farms, were unaffected, according to provincial veterinarian Felipe Bartolome. Bartolome also dismissed the cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the province, and the hog cholera only affected about 3,000C5,000 sows. [1] The DA assured the public that pork prices would remain stable and that the supply of pork in Metro Manila would not be affected. [2]
As a result of the outbreak, the DA issued a memorandum to prevent the spread of hog cholera virus in Central Luzon, containing quarantine policies to prevent further spread of the virus and information dissemination on proper hog hygiene. [3]
At the end of July, DA's Bureau of Animal Industry via a report of its officer-in-charge Davinio Catbagan to DA secretary Arthur Yap said, "hog cholera, swine flu, and the pseudo-rabies virus that hit some farms have now been placed under control through measures the Department of Agriculture immediately put in place." The DA released 5,000 doses of hog cholera vaccine in the province to curtail the outbreak. [4] In its estimate, the DA said only 4,000 sows, 2,000 each in Bulacan and Pampanga, were affected. Furthermore, the National Meat Inspection Service strictly monitored the movement of hogs and newly slaughtered meat. [5] The final count for Bulacan was pegged at 2,823 affected hogs, representing a minimal 0.29% of the total hog population of over one million in Bulacan, in 43 barangays in 11 towns and one city. [6]
As a result of the outbreak, police checkpoints were placed along the roads entering Metro Manila. [7] A routine inspection seized 400 kilograms (880?lb) of "hot meat" in Santa Maria, Bulacan, while Quezon City officials confiscated five tons of meat from Balintawak public market during a surprise inspection. [8]
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Disease Outbreaks
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St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900
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The St. Louis streetcar strike of 1900 was a labor action, and resulting civil disruption, against the St. Louis Transit Company by a group of three thousand workers unionized by the Amalgamated Street Railway Employees of America. Between May 7 and the end of the strike in September, 14 people had been killed, and 200 wounded. Until 1899 there had been ten independent streetcar operating companies in St. Louis, providing regular transit service in the fourth-largest city in the United States. [1] That year, those ten lines were consolidated into two: the St. Louis & Suburban Railway, and the St. Louis Transit Company,[2] headed by Edwards Whitaker. Under pressure of long hours, low pay, and poor working conditions, the employees of both lines attempted to unionize as Local 131. Whitaker fired his 3,300 workers summarily and was soon running streetcars only with the help of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, who had volunteered up to a thousand men for that duty. On the first day of the strike, May 9, the St. Louis Republic reported a full page of riot conditions across the entire city: multiple bystanders shot, an attempted lynching, a crowded streetcar being stoned by a mob sympathetic to the strikers, and policemen assaulted with thrown bricks and bottles. Strikers sought to disrupt service by cutting cables, lighting bonfires, and piling boulders, rubble, and other obstructions onto the tracks. St. Louis had significant union membership, and many working-class citizens shut down the lines in their own neighborhoods in solidarity. [3]
On May 29 Whitaker's own attorney wrote to a local labor commissioner lamenting the increasing lawlessness in the city stated that:[4] "On Wednesday last a transit car, without a light about it, was loaded with armed men, and while the car was running at a rapid speed by the corner of Mississippi and Park Aves., the men in the car, absolutely without a shadow of provocation, fired into a hall 100 feet away in which a few striking employes were assembled, and several people on the streets were wounded and the lives of many were endangered. Last Thursday night a similar unprovoked outrage was committed at the corner of Compton and Park Aves., where several citizens, some not connected with the strike, were seriously wounded. Other outrages of this nature could be cited, which were committed by ruffians armed by the company and loaded on its cars and scattered through the city." The Police Board swore in 2,500 citizens in a posse comitatus commanded by a local realty agent, John H. Cavender, who had played a similar paramilitary role in the bloody 1877 Saint Louis general strike. On the evening of June 10, men of that posse fatally shot three strikers returning from a picnic, leaving 14 others wounded. A dozen or more eyewitnesses disputed the sheriff's statement that they'd been armed. For their part the strikers made three unsuccessful attempts to dynamite the housing for the temporary workers in the car barns at Easton and Prairie Avenues. On July 2, Whittaker signed an agreement to take back the workers and let them unionize, but then reneged on the deal. [5]
The strike sputtered to a close in September with no advantage to the exhausted workers. But the strike indirectly led to the "sensational exposures of the boodle ring". [6] A young lawyer named Joseph W. Folk represented the striking workers in the settlement,[7] was soon working as the city prosecutor pursuing the city's corrupt Democratic boss Edward Butler, and by 1904 was Governor of Missouri. The same spirit of reform saw the election of Mayor Rolla Wells on a reform platform, and an exposé of St. Louis corruption by Lincoln Steffens published in McClure's in 1902 (later collected in The Shame of the Cities), said to be the first example of muckraking journalism. Whitaker thrived as a St. Louis businessman—in 1910 he became president of Boatmen's Bank. Similar streetcar labor actions with similar results happened in Cleveland in 1899 and Indianapolis in 1913. St. Louis streetcar workers would strike again in 1918.
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Strike
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Covid LIVE: Kerala govt decides to re-open schools from Nov 1
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With 35,662 more people testing positive for COVID-19, India's overall infection tally has increased to 33,417,390, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 444,529, with 281 more fatalities being recorded, it said. The number of active cases has risen to 340,639, comprising 1.02 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.65 per cent, according to the data updated by the ministry at 8 am. It said that active cases in the country increased by 1,583 cases in a span of 24 hours. Also, 1,448,833 tests were conducted on Friday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far to 550,780,273, it said. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 2.46 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 19 days, according to the data. The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 2.02 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 85 days, the ministry said.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Trees' spiritual value imbued in bronze relic
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In the hit film "Avatar," there is a giant tree called Hometree, which is a point of extreme spiritual significance to the Na'vi clans on Pandora. In the real world, trees have long been involved in a number of religious practices, such as the bronze holy tree found at Sanxingdui. Sanxingdui is an archeological site in Guanghan, Sichuan Province. Archeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu. Hundreds of artifacts have been unearthed there, which provide a glimpse into the ancient civilization that dates back to the Bronze Age more than 3,000 years ago. Known as the "source of the Yangtze River civilization," Sanxingdui is considered one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century for its vast size, age and rich cultural content. Evidence of the archeological site was first discovered by a farmer named Yan Daocheng. Yan came across a pit buried with jade artifacts while dredging a ditch in 1929. The huge bronze holy tree is one of the highlights of the findings unearthed from Sanxingdui archeological site. Hearing the news, a British missionary in Guanghan went to the site and contacted local magistrates and experts in 1931. The findings were sent to the museum at West China Union University for safekeeping. In 1934, the director of the museum, Dr David Crockett Graham, and his assistant led the first archeological excavation of the site. Although many excavations were conducted afterward, the world didn't realize the scale of the discovery until 1986. The excavation attracted widespread academic attention around the world, as two sacrificial pits containing thousands of gold, bronze, jade and pottery artifacts were found at that time. Among the cultural relics is a gold scepter uncovered from the No. 1 sacrificial pit, and a giant bronze statue unearthed from the No. 2 sacrificial pit. Measuring 1.42 meters long, the gold scepter was the largest of its kind unearthed in China at that time, as was the bronze statue, which is still the largest and oldest of its kind ever found. Other distinguished findings include a ceremonial mask weighing about 280 grams and estimated to be made of 84 percent gold, and a large bronze mask with protruding pupils. The base of the bronze tree is comprised of three curved feet. The most enigmatic finding, however, is a huge bronze holy tree 3.96 meters high, the tallest and best preserved of the six bronze trees that have been found in the No. 2 sacrificial pit. Its top is still missing, so it should be even taller. Experts estimate it could have been around 5 meters high. It took restorers eight years to reassemble the holy tree, which consists of two parts – a base and trunk. Arching over in a gentle manner and bearing fruit, nine branches radiate from the central trunk with three layers. Raising their heads proudly, nine birds perch on top of the branches. The tree is also cast with a dragon, which seems to move downward to the Earth. Decorated with cloud patterns, the base of the tree is comprised of three curved feet, which look like three rolling mountains. Bronze figurines perch on top of the tree branches. Experts believe the tree is embedded with ancient people's worship of the solar deity, as birds were often used to symbolize the sun in ancient Chinese civilization. In Chinese mythology, there were 10 suns, which initially rose in turn from a divine tree called Fusang. The tree grew in Tanggu, which is believed to be today's Rizhao in Shandong Province. One year, the 10 suns came out together. The intense heat resulted in catastrophic drought, which led to people starving. Houyi, a master archer, climbed to the top of a high mountain and shot down nine suns. "The ancient Shu people believed in the legend of 10 suns," said Zhu Jiake, executive deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum. "They believed the birds carried the other nine suns so that people could see only one sun in the sky. In their minds, the nine suns became nine birds that landed on the holy tree." Based on the legend, the bronze holy tree could be the embodiment of Fusang, while the flying dragon was endowed with the function of communicating between Earth and heaven.
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New archeological discoveries
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1999 Cricket World Cup
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The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands acting as co-hosts. The tournament was won by Australia, who beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in the final at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. New Zealand and South Africa were the other semi-finalists. The tournament was hosted three years after the previous Cricket World Cup, deviating from the usual four-year gap. [1]
It featured 12 teams, playing a total of 42 matches. In the group stage, the teams were divided into two groups of six; each team played all the others in their group once. The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Sixes, a new concept for the 1999 World Cup; each team carried forward the points from the games against the other qualifiers from their group and then played each of the qualifiers from the other group (in other words, each qualifier from Group A played each qualifier from Group B and vice versa). The top four teams in the Super Sixes advanced to the semi-finals. The 1999 World Cup featured 12 teams, which was the same as the previous edition in 1996. The hosts England and the eight other test nations earned automatic qualification to the World Cup. The remaining three spots were decided at the 1997 ICC Trophy in Malaysia. 22 nations competed in the 1997 edition of the ICC Trophy. After going through two group stages, the semi-finals saw Kenya and Bangladesh qualify through to the World Cup. Scotland would be the third nation to qualify as they defeated Ireland in the third-place playoff. [2]
Scotland played two of their Group B matches in their home country becoming the first associate nation to host games in a World Cup. One Group B match was played in Wales and Ireland respectively, while one Group A match was played in the Netherlands. This stage was among the most viewed segments of the tournament, as India and Pakistan were officially at war at the time of their match, the only time this has ever happened in the history of the sport. [citation needed]
Teams who qualified for the Super Six stage only played against the teams from the other group; results against the other teams from the same group were carried forward to this stage. Results against the non-qualifying teams were therefore discarded at this point. As a result of League match losses against New Zealand and Pakistan, even though Australia finished second in their group, they progressed to the Super Six stage with no points carried forward (PCF). India faced similar circumstances, finishing 2nd in their group but carrying forward 0 points after losing to fellow qualifiers Zimbabwe and South Africa. Lance Klusener of South Africa was declared the Player of the Tournament. Rahul Dravid of India scored the most runs (461) in the tournament. Geoff Allott of New Zealand and Shane Warne of Australia tied each other for most wickets taken (20) in the tournament. [5]
A new type of cricket ball, the white 'Duke', was introduced for the first time in the 1999 World Cup. Despite claims from makers British Cricket Balls Ltd that the balls behaved identically to the balls used in previous World Cups,[6] experiments showed they were harder and swung more. [7]
The host broadcasters for television coverage of the tournament were Sky and BBC Television. [8] In the UK, live games were divided between the broadcasters, with both screening the final live. [8] This was to be BBC's last live cricket coverage during that summer, with all of England's home Test series being shown on Channel 4 or Sky from 1999 onwards; the BBC did not show any live cricket again until August 2020. [9]
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Sports Competition
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Pest attacks on rise across India, yet no discussion on ...
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Pest attacks on rise across India, yet no discussion on spurious pesticides
As allegedly fake pesticides prove ineffective in controlling pests, farmers resort to indiscriminate spraying
By Jitendra
Published: Tuesday 07 November 2017
For several years, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have seen high pest incidences and pockets of resistance to pesticides. Credit: Meeta Ahlawat / CSE
After a series of farmer suicides in Odisha’s Bargarh district over pest attack, the state government finally acknowledged that there are nearly 200,000 hectares of area, on which paddy is grown, has been damaged across nine districts.
According to farmers, spurious pesticides were in use which proved ineffective to control Brown Plant Hopper, which first wilted lush green crops and then turned them into rust. To prevent further spread of the pest, farmers burnt their crops, but it was not effective.
The state government is yet to take call on whether to send samples of pesticides to lab for testing. No one in the government is ready to talk about spurious pesticides.
"Hybrid paddy, high density plantation, high-urea and ammonium content in fertilisers, more pesticide usage and favourable environment aggravated brown plant hopper incidence," says GV Ramanjaneyulu of Center for Sustainable Agriculture, a Hyderabad based non-profit.
The incident of Odisha came close on heels of similar incidents of Yavatmal district of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. Nearly 30 farmers died of inhalation of spurious pesticides while spraying on cotton.
As the pesticide proved ineffective in controlling pests in cotton plants, the farmers resorted to indiscriminate spraying of the pesticide.
There are reports of increasing pest attack on paddy crops in Lakhimpur district of Assam and cotton crops in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh.
In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, huge pink bollworm attacks are now rampant despite spraying of pesticides.
There are also reports of growing of Ht cotton (Herbicides tolerant cotton, a variety of GM cotton), which is illegal
“The Ht Cotton has not yet been approved by government but its seeds were being sold to farmers and they are growing it,” says Ramanjaneyulu, also an agriculture scientist.
“For several years, Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have seen high pest incidences and pockets of resistance to pesticides,” he adds.
The pink bollworm had already developed resistance to Bollgard I in 2009. Bollgard is a technology to provide in-seed protection to cotton crops. In 2015, in Gujarat and some parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Bollgard II cotton was also damaged. In 2015–16, there were crop losses due to whitefly infestations in Punjab and Haryana.
In Assam, the main pest is Spodoptera mauritia, also called paddy swarming caterpillar or the lawn armyworm. It affected more than 500 hectares (ha) of area in one district.
The union government, this March, asked West Bengal government to declare wheat crop holidays for three years in Nadia and Murshidabad districts to avoid the spread of wheat blast disease in these districts.
Recently, there has been an outbreak of wheat blast diseases in Bangladesh, which shares border with West Bengal.
It will affect 120,000 ha of wheat area. In Murshidabad, around 80,000 ha, and in Nadia, about 40,000 ha of wheat-cultivated area have been affected.
In place of wheat, government is encouraging alternative crops so that farmers are not affected.
“We are encouraging pulses, lentils, mustard, and also proposed 200 pulses mills for processing it,” says Pradeep Majumdar, agriculture advisor to chief minister of West Bengal.
“For setting up of each mill we have proposed to provide 50 per cent loan, which go up to Rs 400,000,” says Ashish Banerjee, state agriculture minister.
Besides spurious pesticides, these pest attacks are also result of rising temperature in the wake of climate change.
Cuttack-based National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) scientist attributed these pest attacks to rise in temperature and humidity that creates condition where female moths lay eggs at faster rate.
“If there is delay in spraying pesticides it becomes difficult to control,” says Mayabini Jena, a principal scientist and head of Crop Protection division at the NRRI told media.
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Insect Disaster
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2017 Benue State flooding
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The 2017 Benue State flooding took place in September in Central Nigeria. [1] It displaced 100,000 people,[2][3] and damaged around 2,000 homes. [4] Flooding in the area is common due to heavy rains and the Benue River, which runs through the area. [5]
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Floods
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United Airlines Flight 553 crash
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United Airlines Flight 553 was a scheduled flight from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska, via Chicago Midway International Airport. On December 8, 1972, the Boeing 737-222 serving the flight, City of Lincoln, registration N9031U,[2][1]:2 crashed during an aborted landing and go around while approaching Midway Airport. [1]:1[3][4]
The plane crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying five houses; there was an intense ground fire. 43 of the 61 aboard the aircraft and two on the ground were killed. [5][6] Among the passengers killed were Illinois congressman George W. Collins, CBS News correspondent Michele Clark[7] and Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. [8] This crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 737, which had entered airline service nearly five years earlier in February 1968. [9]
United Airlines Flight 553 was a scheduled service from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska, via Chicago Midway International Airport. The aircraft used for the flight was a four-year-old Boeing 737-222, City of Lincoln, registration N9031U,[10][1]:2 (built in 1968). The flight-deck crew consisted of Captain Wendell Lewis Whitehouse (age 44), First Officer Walter O. Coble (43), and Second Officer Barry J. Elder (31). [1]:36 The captain, a highly experienced pilot with approximately 18,000 flight hours to his credit, had been with the airline since 1956 and had logged more than 2,400 flight hours on the Boeing 737 cockpit. [1]:36 First Officer Coble had more than 10,600 flight hours (including nearly 1,700 hours on the Boeing 737) under his belt and Second Officer Elder had close to 2,700 hours, with nearly 1,200 of them on the Boeing 737. [1]:36
The accident occurred as the aircraft was on a northwesterly heading to land on runway 31L at Midway Airport. [1]:2 The area was overcast at the time: a pilot landing on that runway immediately after the accident later reported that the airport was only visible below 500–600 feet (150–180 m) AGL. [1]:7 Flight 553 was on instruments, cleared by air traffic control at 14:24 CST for a nonprecision approach. [1]:1
The localizer approach for runway 31L used an Outer Marker Beacon (OMB) named "Kedzie", located 3.3 nmi (6.1 km; 3.8 mi) prior to the runway threshold. Under the published landing procedures, the aircraft was to maintain a minimum altitude of 1,500 feet (460 m) until it passed the OMB, at which point the flight was allowed to descend to a minimum descent altitude (MDA) of 1,040 feet (320 m). [1]:7 Published procedures, and pilots operating under instrument flight rules, use mean sea level (MSL) as the point of reference for measuring altitude; at Midway Airport, an altitude of 1,040 feet (320 m) MSL corresponded to an actual height above ground level (AGL) of only 429 feet (131 m). [1]:7
When Flight 553 reached the Kedzie OMB, the aircraft was still at an altitude of 2,200 feet (670 m) MSL, a full 700 feet (210 m) above the minimum crossing altitude of 1,500 feet (460 m) MSL,[1]:26 1,160 feet (350 m) above the height at which the decision on whether to land must be finalized. Realizing the aircraft was too high, the captain extended the spoilers (speed brakes) and steepened the aircraft's descent rate to 1,550 feet (470 m) per minute[1]:26 (in comparison with the 1,000 feet (300 m) per minute approximate rate specified[1]:57 by United Airlines for the final segment of a nonprecision approach;[1]:26–27 typical precision approach descent rates are 600–700 feet (180–210 m) per minute). The aircraft continued to descend at a rate of 1,500 feet (460 m) per minute, emerging from cloud 500 feet (150 m) above the ground,[1]:28 until it reached its level-off altitude at MDA. [1]:26–27 The captain leveled the plane off and increased engine power, but did not advance the throttles fully. With the spoilers still extended, thrust was not enough to maintain level flight without losing speed. [1]:29 The stick shaker, a stall warning device attached to the pilots' control yoke, activated 6–7 seconds after the aircraft leveled off and continued to sound as the aircraft entered an aerodynamic stall. [1]:28
The aircraft struck trees and then roofs along W. 71st Street before crashing into a house at 3722 W. 70th Place,[6][11] 1.89 miles (3.0 km) southeast of the runway,[12] in a residential area of the city's West Lawn community, one and a half blocks west of Marquette Park. (41°45′55″N 87°42′58″W / 41.7653°N 87.7160°W / 41.7653; -87.7160)
The three-man flight crew died, along with 40 of the 55 passengers. [1]:4 The crash destroyed five houses and damaged three others,[1]:5 killing two people on the ground. [1]:4 Survivors credited the heroic actions of stewardesses who called out to survivors to exit through a hole in the rear of the plane. [13]
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was notified of the accident at 14:40 CST and immediately dispatched an investigation team to the scene. [1]:35 Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were on the scene about 45 minutes after the crash, before any investigators from the NTSB. [a][b]
The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) on board the aircraft was not functioning at the time of the crash due to a mechanical failure. [1]:8 Fortunately, the ARTS-III (Automated Terminal Radar Services) system at nearby O'Hare International Airport was in operation at the time of the accident, and saved recorded transponder data on magnetic tape. [1]:14–15 The tapes were analyzed extensively and compared to Boeing flight profile data to develop the course, speed, rate of descent, and altitudes of the plane as it made its approach to Chicago Midway. [1]:15 The system had tracked the plane from a position of 55 miles (89 km) east of its antenna site to close to the crash site. [1]:15
The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was working normally and the tape in that "black box" was relatively undamaged,[1]:8 which enabled the NTSB to sequence it in time with the readings of ARTS-III. [1]:18 The NTSB then was able to determine the power output of the engines, at any given point in time, with CVR tape sound analysis. That correlation, CVR with ARTS-III, allowed the NTSB to reconstruct the flight's performance, and to determine that the stick shaker first sounded 6 to 7 seconds after the plane leveled off at 1,000 ft (300 m) MSL (380 ft (120 m) AGL) and continued until ground impact. No evidence was found of sabotage or foul play. [1]:32 The NTSB Report described nonsurvivors’ injuries in unusual detail, finding this “necessary” because of the allegations “injected into the publicity surrounding” the accident. [1]:13 The Board’s official finding of the probable cause of the accident was the captain’s failure to exercise positive flight management. [1]:32
The Analysis section of the Report concludes with a paragraph to “emphasise”[1]:31
that the accident sequence resulted from that failure, and “reiterate[d][1]:33
its often-expressed concern about the apparent lack of crew coordination and cockpit discipline during nonprecision approaches”. It went on to make comparison with the then-recent Eastern Air Lines hard landing at Fort Lauderdale[15] and Southern Airways accident at Huntington Tri-State, and refers[1]:33
the reader to the Report on the Southern Airways accident[16] which quotes in full an FAA Bulletin raising issues of training and culture. The CVR showed cockpit discussion of the FDR fault[1]:25, 55–7
and it has since been reported[17]
as fact that the crew had become distracted by it. At 14:27 the final-descent checklist was completed and the first officer then[1]:3 called out "thousand feet", apparently in reference to the plane's altitude reaching 1,000 feet (300 m) MSL,[1]:27–8 a height of only 380 ft (120 m) above the ground at the eventual impact point. [1]:15 According to the airline’s procedures, the First Officer should by then have been monitoring instruments, and calling out conformance to the specified descent profile, every 100 ft (30 m). [1]:22 A similar 1000ft call and instrument check should have been made at a height above ground of 1000ft (1000 AGL)[1]:22 but had been omitted. Ground impact occurred at 14:28. The NTSB sought to understand how the rapid descent had been accomplished. From performance studies and simulator tests it was clear that the aircraft was in a high-drag configuration,[1]:18 rather than any of the approach configurations specified[1]:57 by the airline, and the Board concluded that Flight 553 had landing gear down, flaps at 30 degrees and spoilers extended to the flight detent position. [1]:27 The status indicator for the spoilers would then be showing green: the same indication as for spoilers retracted but ready to deploy automatically immediately on landing, potentially misleading the First Officer when executing the final-descent checklist urgently.
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Air crash
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The vicious cycle of drought
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Drought usually takes a long time to develop, but once you find yourself in one, it can take a while to end, leading to devastating impacts. The National Drought Mitigation Center states that drought is "an insidious hazard of nature," but in basic terms, drought comes from dry weather and lack of rainfall over an extended period, usually a season or more. Droughts can result in water shortages for people, crops and livestock. It can also have an overall negative effect on the environment. The length of drought can vary significantly. Short-term episodes last just a few months. However, in some parts of the world, drought can occur for years. A common misconception about droughts is that they end with rainfall, but that isn't always the case. While it certainly helps to have rain, it takes a lot of rainfall over a long period to end droughts. What's needed is prolonged light-to-moderate rain that absorbs deep into the soil, replenishing the watershed. Once the soil and vegetation dry out, it can worsen the drought and make it more difficult to end. The reason for this is because evapotranspiration, or the release of water vapor into the atmosphere from plants/soil, becomes severely diminished when the surface becomes too dry. The process of evapotranspiration is a major moisture source for the development of thunderstorms during the warm season, but when there is no moisture to evaporate, it can decrease the chances of getting rain daily. Thus, drought leads to more drought, and the vicious cycle begins. After several weeks or months of above-average rainfall, soil moisture returns to normal, and the evapotranspiration cycle resumes, ultimately ending the drought. Our stretch of hot & humid weather in Wisconsin could stick around for a long time. High temperatures across Wisconsin will soar into the 80s with heat index values in the lower 90s. Dust from the Sahara Desert typically gets pulled to the U.S. this time of year, but not usually this far north. There's a reason more storms pop up in the afternoon. Heat & humidity will build across the Badger State later this week. A cold front and area of low pressure will bring a stormy weather to Wisconsin on Monday.
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Droughts
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Pandemic hit labour market harder than financial crisis
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THE economic crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is different from the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98 and expected to bring long-lasting effects. In this article, I describe some significant labour market implications induced by Covid-19 last year. The severity of the economic contraction induced by the Asian financial crisis was worse than that of the pandemic. The financial crisis had turned a strong expansion of 7.3 per cent in 1997 into a deep contraction of -7.4 per cent in 1998 (see Figure 1). The outbreak of the pandemic adversely affected the economic growth in Malaysia with -5.6 per cent contraction last year. From the labour market perspective, the pandemic hit harder than the Asian financial crisis. Although the economic growth during the pandemic is less severe than the financial crisis, it has a profound impact on the labour market. Malaysia was able to maintain an unemployment rate (3.2 per cent) that was induced by the financial crisis around the natural rate of unemployment (Nairu). However, the pandemic resulted in thousands of people losing their jobs and income, increasing the unemployment rate to the average of 4.5 per cent last year. The implementation of movement restrictions to control the outbreak has economic costs. The measures have caused massive disruptions to the supply side and demand side of the economic system. On the supply side, the sudden operation halt of non-essential businesses disrupted the supply-chain and production output, which, in turn, affected the demand for labour. Firms could not afford to pay wages and were forced to retrench workers. The income losses of the retrenched workers reduced the consumption on the demand side. Some workers may not be directly affected but they could not consume as much as before due to the limited supply of goods and services. Altogether, the supply side and demand side of the economy have been affected by the movement control restrictions. Trade-off is likely to hold between economic and movement restriction economic slowdowns when movement restriction is imposed and vice versa. Covid-19 impacted the natural unemployment and cyclical unemployment. The natural rate of unemployment is defined as the unemployment rate that is compatible with a steady inflation rate or non-accelerating inflation rate. Nairu can also be seen as the unemployment rate that would occur in the absence of cyclical fluctuation due economic crisis. According to EU-ERA estimate, the Nairu experienced by Malay-sia is averagely at around 3.3 per cent (see Figure 2). The Covid-19 crisis increased the actual unemployment rate from 3.3 per cent in 2019 to about 4.5 per cent last year. The difference between 3.3 and 4.5 per cent is the unemployment due to the Covid-19 crisis. The crisis also shook natural unemployment and cyclical unemployment rates. Addressing natural unemployment and cyclical unemployment requires a different approach. Cyclical unemployment demands active short-term measures because the unemployed are directly affected from the crisis induced by the pandemic. Long-term measures are more appropriate for addressing natural unemployment. The writer is Associate Professor, EIS-UPMCS Centre for Future Labour Market Studies (EU-ERA) Employment Insurance System, Social Security Organisation (SOCSO)
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Financial Crisis
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Trio of exercises had soldiers and airmen island-hopping in the Pacific this summer
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Over the weekend, U.S. soldiers and airmen in the Pacific saw the conclusion of what their commanders termed an “agile combat deployment” of at least 4,000 troops across the islands of Oceania. More than 150 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Special Forces Group and allies in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force parachuted into Guam early Friday morning as part of Exercise Forager 2021, which had kicked off on July 11. Forager is one of two supporting exercises, along with Pacific Iron, supporting Defender Pacific, a large-scale effort to align the United States with partners such as Japan, South Korea and other nations in a combined effort at countering potential Chinese military maneuvers. Forager has been the primary training exercise in support of the Defender Pacific 21 exercise, according to an Army statement. U.S. Army Gen. Charles A. Flynn, head of Army Pacific, and Lt. Gen. Jon T. Thomas, Pacific Air Forces deputy commander, spoke with regional media during a short press conference Sunday. Forager is centered on Guam, with reach into the Northern Mariana Islands. “We are demonstrating our commitment here to the defense of Guam, to the defense of the nation, and to the values and the principles inherent in a free and open Pacific,” Flynn said. “This is the foundation of why we conduct exercises like we have today across the Pacific.” Thomas shared the goals of the parallel Pacific Iron exercise. “Pacific Iron is our largest and most comprehensive exercise to date to exercise what we call ‘agile combat employment,’” said Thomas. “We are exercising the ability to disperse a large force to multiple locations and then to operate in intense pace and tempo over a two-week period. This small, agile footprint across multiple locations is how we will conduct operations when the situation may require it and we can do it today at scale.” Flynn said these and other exercises hit three key areas for regional security: Forager showcases an ability to rapidly deploy a force to protect Guam as a strategic site. Pacific Iron brought 35 aircraft and 800 airmen into the Indo-Pacific Command area of operations, which included: Ohio Army National Guardsmen with 1st Battalion, 174th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, ran Avenger Air Defense Systems and Sentinel Radars starting in early July on Guam and Tinian, as part of the early stages of Forager. Alpha and Bravo batteries set up systems at Andersen Air Force Base, while Charlie Battery flew to Tinian, in the Northern Mariana Islands, on CH-47 Chinooks in late July, according to the Army. “It gives our Soldiers that real-feel,” said Ohio National Guard Capt. Abby Schroll, Charlie Battery Commander of the 1-174th, in an Army news story. “You train as you fight. This gives us the confidence to go and be able to conduct our operations successfully.” Both Pacific Iron and Forager are supporting exercises for the much lager Pacific Defender event, a division-sized exercise across INDOPACOM. The larger exercise is growing in scale to match Defender Europe, which brings together U.S. forces stationed on that continent with forces deployed from the United States mainland, along with partners and allies in Europe. Defender Europe is aimed at countering potential Russian military maneuvers. As Forager and Pacific Iron conclude this week, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have also wrapped up a 17,000-troop exercise, Talisman Sabre, on water and in costal areas of Australia, simulating an attack on the country by the Chinese Navy. More than 100 paratroopers from 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, conducted a parachute jump from Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft onto a drop zone in northeastern Australia on July 28.
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Military Exercise
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Panic of 1884
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The Panic of 1884 was an economic panic during the Depression of 1882–1885. [1] It was unusual in that it struck at the end rather than the beginning of the recession. The panic created a credit shortage that led to a significant economic decline in the United States, turning a recession into a depression. [2]
In the late 1800s, the gold reserves of Europe were depleted and, as demand for it rose,[3] more than $150 million in gold was exported from the United States between 1882 and 1884. [2][4] The New York City national banks halted investments in the rest of the United States and called in outstanding loans. [1]
The Panic of 1873 was also a factor in the Panic of 1884. The 1873 panic was caused by practices including speculative bonds and overextension of credit to fund the construction of infrastructure. [5][6] Part of the overextension of credit before 1873 was for railroads, particularly the Northern Pacific railroad, which was financed by Cooke & Co.[6] In addition, the failure of banks in 1873 undermined the confidence people had in them, increasing mistrust. [5]
The failure of several banks set off the panic of 1884. Around 1880, Ferdinand Ward and Ulysses “Buck” Grant Jr, son of former president Ulysses S. Grant, joined together to form Grant and Ward, a brokerage firm. [7][8] Ward made a series of bad investments but altered the books to make it appear that the firm was still making money. [8] He then raised money through a Ponzi style scheme by promising investors a 10% per month return on investment, but no money was invested. Payments came from new investors. [8] In addition to capital from investors, the firm was financed in part by James Fish's Marine National Bank. [9] The Marine National Bank had taken a $1.6 million loan from the city. [8] In April 1884, the city's comptroller reduced the city's deposits with the bank, causing the bank to fail and Ward's scheme to be exposed. [8]
In May 1884 the two firms, the Marine National and the brokerage firm Grant and Ward, crashed when their owners’ speculative investments lost value. The failure of Grant and Ward[3] and Marine National Bank tipped off the Panic of 1884. [7] When the firms collapsed, it had a ripple effect across Wall Street, causing other firms to fail. Another cause of the panic and mistrust in 1884 was John Chester Eno's embezzlement of over $3 million from the Second National Bank. [10] The embezzlement was news around the country and he fled to Canada after the bank was almost out of money. [10] In light of the situation, large numbers of depositors ran to the bank to withdraw their deposits. [11] His father replaced the money Eno had stolen. [11]
The panic was mostly contained to banks in New York City. [12][13]
The Metropolitan National Bank closed after a rumor spread that the president was going to borrow money from the bank to use on railroad securities. [12] This claim was proven untrue later. [12] The institution had financial ties to the banks around it, which raised doubts to the banks it was linked with, after its closure. [12] This started to spread through Metropolitan's network to institutions located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But, it was quickly contained. [12]
The New York Clearing House thoroughly examined the Metropolitan and deemed it solvent. [12] The Clearing House advertised that Metropolitan was solvent and loaned it $3 million so it could withstand the situation and not crash. [12] These actions reassured the public that their money was safe, and the panic came to an end. [12]
Some accounts blamed the New York Clearinghouse's decision to stop publishing bank-specific information along with other actions since it is viewed to have alleviated the need for a suspension of convertibility. [13] It is argued that this is evidenced in the way the panic was largely confined to New York. [13]
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Financial Crisis
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1950s Texas drought
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The 1950s Texas drought was a period between 1949 and 1957 in which the state received 30 to 50% less rain than normal, while temperatures rose above average. During this time, Texans experienced the second-, third-, and eighth-driest single years ever in the state – 1956, 1954, and 1951, respectively. [1] The drought was described by a state water official as "the most costly and one of the most devastating droughts in 600 years. "[2]
The drought began gradually, and some sources claim it began as early as 1947, starting with a decrease in rainfall in Central Texas. By the summer of 1951, the entire state was in drought. Texas ranchers attempted to evade the effects of the drought by moving their cattle north to Kansas, but the drought spread to Kansas and Oklahoma by 1953. [1] At that point, 75% of Texas recorded below-normal rainfall amounts,[3] and over half the state was more than 30 inches below normal rainfall. [4] By 1954, the drought had affected a 10-state area reaching from the Midwest to the Great Plains, and southward into New Mexico and the Deep South,[3] where Mississippi,[5] Alabama,[6] Georgia[7] and South Carolina[8] all experienced their driest calendar year since reliable records began. By the end of the decade, half of the farming industry in Texas was gone. [9]
As a result of the devastating drought of the 1950s, the number of Texas farms and ranches shrank from 345,000 to 247,000, and the state's rural population declined from more than a third of the population to a quarter. Ranchers and farmers were hit the hardest by the dual threat of water scarcity and the increasing price of feed. The combined income of Texas farmers fell by one-fifth from the previous year, and the price of low-grade beef cattle dropped from 15 to 5 cents a pound. [4] In 1940, 29% of employed Texans worked on a farm. That number fell to 12% in 1960. [2] Crop yields in some areas dropped as much as 50%. [3] Economic losses from 1950 to 1957 were estimated at $22 billion in 2011 dollars. [2]
Towns suffered from the drought, as well, though it was different from the struggles of farmers. Across Texas, at least 1000 communities enforced some type of water restrictions. Some towns went completely dry and had to transport water in by truck or rail. The city of Dallas' reservoirs ran so low that water had to be pumped from the Red River, whose high salt content caused further trouble by damaging water pipes and plants. Corsicana experienced 82 days of temperatures over 100 °F or 37.8 °C, peaking at 113 °F or 45 °C. [4]
West Texas was hit especially hard by the drought, particularly the city of San Angelo, where President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited in 1957 to assess the effects of the drought just before it ended. [4]
Freeport, Texas, one of the last cities to get its drinking water from the Brazos River before the river reached the sea, opened the first desalination plant in the United States in 1961 with the hope of bringing water security to the region. The first of five plants to test different technologies, Walter L. Badger's Freeport plant used evaporation to separate water from salt, chlorine and other solids. It was applauded by President John F. Kennedy as "more important than any other scientific enterprise in which this country is now engaged. "[9]
The severe drought also had a lasting effect on the Texas environment. Without new grass growth, cattlemen overgrazed their pastures, which damaged the land and made it more susceptible to mesquite and juniper ("cedar") intrusion. Poor soil conservation practices left the topsoil vulnerable, and when the drought began, strong winds swept the soil and dust into the sky. This led to persistent dust storms that rivaled those during the Dust Bowl. [4]
The situation became so dire that the US government began distributing emergency feed supplies to desperate farmers. Some farmers resorted to feeding their animals prickly pear or molasses to keep them alive. [4] In 1956, The New York Times reported that more than 100,000 Texans were receiving surplus "federal food commodities. "[10] By the time the drought subsided in 1957, 244 of the 254 counties in Texas were declared federal drought disaster areas. [3][9]
On January 13, 1957, President Eisenhower and Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson visited San Angelo as part of a six-state inspection tour of the drought. There, he made a speech to the people that his administration would do whatever they could to alleviate the hardship of the drought. [4]
Shortly after the president's visit, rain finally came. Intermittent January rains gave way to downpours in February, which continued through the spring and summer seasons. April 24, 1957 had a storm bring 10 inches of rain on a large portion of Texas within a few hours, accompanied by destructive hail and multiple tornadoes. The rain continued for 32 days, and the floods killed 22 people and forced thousands from their homes. [11] Every major river in Texas flooded, washing out bridges and sweeping away houses. Damages were estimated at $120 million, which still paled in comparison to the damage caused by the drought itself. [12]
In the hope of preventing such a crisis from happening again, the state developed drought contingency plans, expanded the state's water storage and sought new sources of groundwater. The state created the Texas Water Development Board in 1957, which set into motion a number of water-conservation plans. [10] An amendment to the Texas constitution in 1957 authorized the issuance of $200 million in loans to municipalities for conservation and development of water resources. [13] The number of Texas reservoirs more than doubled by 1970,[4] and by 1980, more than 126 major reservoirs had been constructed. [13] State and federal departments of agriculture set up safeguard programs to help farmers handle future severe droughts, including low-interest emergency loans and emergency access to hay and grazing land. [2]
The state began a number of efforts to increase water supply, building dams, forming lakes, and tapping into underground sources of water. From 1947 to 1957, groundwater use increased fivefold. As the drought spurred farmers to find more water sources, cheaper pumps were made available. From 1957 to 1970, workers built 69 dams, including Longhorn Dam on the Colorado River, which formed Lady Bird Lake in Austin in 1960.
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Droughts
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Tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns and COVID-19 – what Japan has and hasn’t learned from centuries of disaster
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Elizabeth Maly 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. A decade on from 3/11 – the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe that hit Japan – the country is again amid a crisis caused by COVID-19. Japan’s already long experience with hazards and disasters was expanded when it faced the catastrophic triple disaster of 3/11. Yet it does not seem like the potential lessons from how to respond to unforseen disasters of unprecedented size and scale have been applied when it comes to COVID. When flexibility and fast decision making was needed, Japan’s government has been slow to act against the pandemic. The response lacked urgency and was extremely cautious. With vaccinations getting underway in June 2021, Japan is finally coming closer to getting the pandemic under control, but it lags far behind other G7 countries. The slow response – similar to a paralysed lack of action during the nuclear disaster in 2011 – shows that even extensive experience and expertise in hazard mitigation and disaster management do not automatically translate into good pandemic management. It is clear that there are serious weaknesses in Japan’s bureaucratic disaster governance. On March 11, 2011, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan (and fourth in the world) struck off the coast of the country. It caused a tsunami that killed more than 20,000 people, devastated communities along 500km of coastline and led to a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Japan has an extensive history and experience facing and responding to earthquakes and tsunamis and because of this it is one of the most earthquake-prepared countries in the world. Few buildings constructed after Japan’s 1981 seismic building code were damaged, even by this mega-quake. But, exceeding all predictions, the tsunami destroyed places believed to be safe, causing tragic loss of life even among people who had escaped to evacuation centres, and overwhelmed disaster response capacity. At 2:46pm on Friday, March 11, the shaking started. In Japan, earthquakes are measured and reported by not only their magnitude, but also on a scale that measures their shaking intensity from 1 to 7. This is called the shindo scale. For example, at shindo 6, people are thrown to the ground. On March 11, the earthquake hit shindo 7 in some areas. Listen to Elizabeth Maly on The Conversation Weekly podcast episode: Fire, tsunami, pandemic: how to ensure societies learn lessons from disaster. The shaking itself was scary, lasting six minutes that seemed like an eternity, but that was nothing compared to what was coming. In some places, the first tsunami wave arrived within 30 minutes. A tsunami is more like a moving wall of water than a wave in the ocean. Once the tsunami overtops levees or sea walls, water rises quickly in the streets and travels faster than a car. As it moves, it picks up oil, debris – all the parts of the cities it is destroying. People described the tsunami as a black wave, a wall of water, a cloud of dust, a terrifying sound. On YouTube, you can see many videos from that day, filmed by survivors who managed to reach higher places. They show the sea level rising in harbours and then waters rushing into towns. Tsunamis are not one, but multiple waves that come in and recede again and again; breaking and pulling houses, buildings, cars – everything – out to sea. In many of these videos, you can hear people yelling “tsunami” or “this is the end”, or yelling to people below to run away. In much of this region, which has experienced multiple tsunamis in the past, many people evacuated to the designated places on higher ground. But some made decisions which turned out to be fatal: to go back to get supplies or blankets to keep warm, or to go to check on family first before evacuating. Some people tried to evacuate by car and were overcome by the tsunami. Others were washed out to sea. Around 18,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami directly – a figure that jumps to more than 20,000 when including related deaths that took place later. It was still cold in March, and it snowed that night. People who spent it outside stranded on rooftops, speak of the clear sky, of being cold and wet. With blackouts, there was no electricity and as phone systems were also not working, there was no way to share or get information about the safety of people in other places. Some areas remained cut off for days, as people stayed in evacuation centres, sleeping on the floor of school gymnasiums, or with extended family and neighbours in houses above the devastation. More than 400,000 houses were damaged, some with only the concrete foundations remaining. Homes and other buildings were reduced to huge piles of debris strewn across the landscape. But even as rescue workers and relief supplies were arriving for tsunami evacuees, inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, things were going from bad to worse. The plant had lost power and it was losing the ability to cool its reactors. At that time, it was not clear what was happening – but it was later confirmed that nuclear meltdowns happened in three reactors. After several explosions, evacuation orders were issued and then upgraded for the surrounding communities. Without clear coordination or an organised plan (then or even now), initial evacuation orders were issued for areas depending on their distance from the nuclear power plant. It turned out that this did not match the heavier areas of contamination caused by the wind patterns on that day. Evacuation from the nuclear disaster area was chaotic. Some people evacuated on their own, some towns tried to evacuate together. Evacuation was especially difficult for residents of nursing or care facilities, many of whom lost their lives. It was hard to find available areas, especially since many evacuation centres were already at capacity with tsunami evacuees. Nuclear evacuees often moved multiple times in their evacuation. Even ten years later, there are still some areas where people are not allowed to return because of radioactive contamination. Many other people do not want to return even with assurances of safety, especially those with young families. Although 3/11 was unprecedented, the Japanese government drew from past disasters and existing legal frameworks to develop a standardised menu of funded programmes to rebuild destroyed communities. In the name of building back safer, massive infrastructure has drastically altered the landscape. Sea walls have been built, land raised and mountains cut into to relocate houses and communities out of reach of future tsunamis. But questions remain over the long-term effects of these recovery projects and the changes inflicted on tsunami-stricken communities. For those affected by the nuclear disaster, programmes that focus on “hometown recovery” (rebuilding housing and community infrastructure within former municipalities) struggle to address issues of radioactive contamination, indefinite displacement and un-inhabitability in towns where residents cannot, or choose not to, return. One strength of Japan’s disaster response and reconstruction is standardisation – emphasising “equal” support to all. Decisions made at the top are implemented through an efficient, if slow, bureaucratic process. Japan has detailed legal frameworks and standardised disaster management policies, and community disaster management plans are promoted across the country. For housing recovery after 3/11, policies were based on standardised compensation for damaged homes and support for new housing across the region. During COVID-19, the highly-ridiculed policy to send two (very small) masks to each household in the county (regardless of the household size or local pandemic conditions) is a perfect example of a policy that was fair and the same for all, yet slow and not responsive to actual needs. The flip side of this precision and standardisation is a lack of flexibility or incentive for developing creative solutions. This system is incapable of moving quickly, decisive action, or course corrections. Detailed manuals with rote responses that can be practised could be effective for a reoccurring event such as heavy rains, typhoons, blackouts, or even small earthquakes – but they are useless in an unpredicted crisis. It is difficult for this system to address massive and complex problems such as those created by the nuclear disaster. The slow moving governmental bureaucracy has proved itself even less capable of responding decisively to control the spread of an unknown pandemic virus, which does not fall under Japan’s well established laws and policies governing disaster management. Both the nuclear accident and the pandemic were unpredicted and “unknowable” disasters, especially in the early days of each crisis. We grew to understand more over time. In the days after the tsunami, the world wondered what was happening inside the Fukushima nuclear power plant – efforts to cover up the fact it was actually a nuclear meltdown were only officially admitted five years later. While the path of radioactive particles was known, this data was not shared with the public, or used to direct evacuation – in some cases people unknowingly remained in, or were evacuated to areas, with higher contamination. Like radiation, COVID-19 is an invisible risk. While both radiation and virus exposure can be silently carried in our bodies without our knowledge, the window when potential health impacts become known is much shorter with COVID-19. In both cases, though, unsure about what risks they were exposed to and lacking proactive government actions, people made their own judgements about risk and safety. With an official COVID-19 death toll of just over 14,000, and daily deaths rarely much over 100, in Japan the pandemic has not reached the tragic levels seen elsewhere. The health care system has been stretched in some places, but never collapsed. This means that people in Japan are fortunate compared to those in many other countries, yet many of those lives may have been saved with more effective pandemic management. In the face of uncertain risks and unknowable hazards, the Japanese government’s approach to COVID-19 and the nuclear disaster show some similarities, with official narratives shaped through the use of selective information. For example, COVID-19 case numbers and data have been released daily – but they don’t include all tests. Policies that focus on contact tracing while avoiding widespread testing were intended to reduce the number of people going to hospitals. So – as explained by global health expert Kenji Shibuya – rather than a public health approach, Japan was focused on preserving the functions of the health care system. While this may have been a valid goal, it could not effectively control the virus after widespread community infection. The Japanese government has continuously downplayed the risk of COVID-19 (as it did with the nuclear disaster) prioritising economic activity while promoting an image of “COVID-safe” Japan, both inside and outside of the country. Without real lockdowns or stay-at-home orders, Japan’s COVID-19 states of emergency limit business hours for bars and restaurants and large gatherings. People are asked to practice “self-restraint” and avoid crowded and congested places. Existing cultural factors such as widespread mask-wearing, keeping physically distanced, high levels of sanitation and rule-following may have contributed to slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Japan. Some experts and officials fell back on culturalist and even racial superiority reasons for this perceived Japanese exceptionalism. However, by the end of 2020 it was clear that Japan’s strategies were not working. With the number of seriously ill COVID patients peaking in May 2021 and vaccinations for the elderly only just getting started in June, cases continuing to rise and the state of emergency extended for much of the country, it is becoming harder to see Japan’s pandemic management as something to emulate. Despite this, the national government has been vowing to get COVID under control and promising the world that Tokyo will still hold the Olympics from July 2021. The shadow of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was already present after the nuclear accident, when in 2013 the prime minister assured the world that Japan was safe while securing Tokyo’s bid to host the games. Only days later it was revealed that massive amounts of radioactive groundwater had been leaking into the sea. Downplaying risks to create an image of safety both in Japan and globally was a core government strategy. This message became inextricably linked to hosting the Tokyo Olympics (an economic opportunity as well as an ultimate chance to present Japan in a positive way to the world). Initially, the “Recovery Olympics” were framed to show successful recovery after 3/11 (an idea that many found to be offensive to disaster survivors still facing many challenges). Then in 2020, with the Olympics finally around the corner, the pandemic struck. Japan made every effort to avoid the eventual postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021. Now, they have been reframed as a way to show the world Japan’s triumph over the pandemic. With Tokyo under an extended state of emergency into June, questions lingered as to whether the postponed games would go on as scheduled from July 2021 and if teams will come. There has even been speculation that the Olympics could result in a new virus mutation With a few notable exceptions, the places that were able to act quickly to effectively control the spread of COVID-19 were those with experience handling the SARS pandemic, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. While Japan has expert knowledge and a national infectious disease research centre, without a national government agency such as the CDC in the United States, the COVID-19 response was ad-hoc. Several expert committees were set up to advise the government; the national response was led by the minister of economics. This is a telling factor of Japan’s response, although Japan is no way unique among countries of the world that struggled to balance the control of disease with impact on their economy. In Japan, natural hazards are precisely predicted and calculated, with hazard maps of local areas mailed to residents. From a young age, children learn what to do in the case of an earthquake, and there is high awareness of disasters in the general public as well as private and public sectors. The shinkansen (bullet train) automatically stops seconds after an earthquake is detected, and cell phones automatically issue a warning for anyone in the area. With standardised policies in place, risk events are confirmed and conveyed, warnings are disseminated, and pre-existing plans are activated to set up evacuation facilities and give out relief supplies. Yet, Japan shows us that disaster management experience does not automatically translate to effective pandemic management, at least not on a national level. Japanese disaster management and response is technologically proficient, with expertise and precise calculations and efficient systems to calculate and issue warnings and implement safety measures. But disaster management that is based on planning for specific expected events is not flexible. Effective response to natural or technical hazards – or pandemic diseases – requires competent national leadership as well as suitable localised responses. Most importantly, as natural hazards continue to grow and become even more unpredictable with climate change, the next global pandemic or disaster may be here soon. The ability to respond quickly and with flexibility may be the most important factor to avoid repeating the failures of COVID-19 and a potentially even greater loss of life. This article is part of a series on recovering from the pandemic in a way that makes societies more resilient and able to deal with future challenges. Read more of our coverage here.
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Tsunamis
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Srirangam marriage hall fire
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The Srirangam marriage hall fire was a fire accident that happened on 23 January 2004 during a Hindu marriage function in Padmapriya Marriage Hall in Srirangam, a town in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A day after the accident, there were 42 victims, but a total of 64 people, including the groom, were killed overall and 33 others were injured in the fire. The reason for the fire was found out to be a short circuit in the electric wire connecting a video camera, which lit up the temporary thatched roof set up in the first level of the hall. The accident is counted as one of four major fire accidents in the state, along with the Erwadi fire incident on 6 August 2001 that killed 30 mentally challenged people, Brihadeeswarar Temple fire on 7 June 1997 in which 48 people were killed and 2004 Kumbakonam School fire that killed 94 school children. The then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a cash relief of ₹50,000 to the families of the deceased from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, ₹15,000 to people with heavy injuries and ₹6,000 to those with minor injuries. The case was fought in the Principal District Court of Tiruchirapalli. On 14 June 2012, the judge sentenced Ramasamy (65), owner of the wedding hall, to two years rigorous imprisonment and ordered to pay a compensation of ₹50,000 each to the dependents of the victims and ₹10,000 each to those injured in the accident. Selvam, the thatch roof contractor, one of the six accused, died before the judgement. Dharmaraj, the videographer was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment, Sadagopan, the hall manager, to one year imprisonment and Murugesan, the electrician, to six months imprisonment. The sentence of photographer Dharmaraj was reduced to 6 months by Madras High Court on 10 June 2020 which also ordered disbursement of 40 lakh ₹ to the victims. The day of the marriage, 23 January 2004, was a Friday, which was considered auspicious as per Hindu custom. The marriage was celebrated in Padmapriya Marriage Hall, located in EV Srinivachari Road in Srirangam. The groom, Gururajan (40), was an employee of an insurance company and the bride Jayasri Ramanathan, was a school teacher. Since the crowd was large, the venue of the marriage was shifted to a makeshift open area on the first level of the hall that had a thatched roof. [2] The fire spread at around 9:15 in the morning quickly to the makeshift stage, thatched roof, plastic chairs and clothing material, killing 30 people on the spot. The thatched roof fell on the visitors and the smoke engulfed in the hall masked the exit routes. It was reported that the victims fell over a handicapped person who was trying to escape. Fire personnel from Srirangam and Tiruchirappalli tried to doze off the fire, along with the support of locals. The injured people were admitted in the Srirangam Government Hospital and KAP Viswananathan Hospital in Tiruchirappalli. A total of 57 people were killed in the fire and 50 others were injured. The reason of the fire, based on the account of initial eyewitnesses was found out to be a short circuit initiated by a video camera which lit up the temporary thatched low roof set up on the first level of the hall. The people killed included the bridegroom Gururajan (40), 20 women and four children, three of whom were girls under the age of 10. The bride Jayasri(32) sustained brutal injuries. After the accident, burnt flesh, utensils and belongings of the visitors laid all over the place. The rescue operations were overseen by the then Collector of Tiruchirapalli, K. Manivasan, the Inspector-General of Police, S. George, the range DIG and City Police Commissioner, Sunil Kumar Singh. [3] Most of the victims killed on the spot were the colleagues of the groom. [2]
The initial investigation by police found the possible reason for the fire to be a short circuit of the wire connecting the videographer's equipment. The Inspector-General of Police, Central Zone, S. George, informed the media that the low-hanging decorative material probably caught fire owing to the intense heat generated by the video flashgun. He pointed out that temporary power lines to the unauthorised makeshift thatch were the major reasons of the fire. The police recovered the videocassette from the videographer who recorded the marriage. There were four arrests that included the hall manager S. Sadagopan, video light boy R. Balaji, electrician K. Murugesan, and thatch contractor M. Selvam. They were booked under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on criminal negligence. The enquiry was headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police. [4] The investigations also revealed that the stampede was on account of the narrow staircase that was just 2.5 ft (0.76 m) wide and served as the only passage. [5] The case was fought in the Principal District Court of Tiruchirapalli. On 14 June 2012, the judge sentenced Ramasamy (65), the owner of the wedding hall to two years rigorous imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a compensation of ₹50,000 each to the dependants of the victims and ₹10,000 each to those injured in the accident. Selvam, the thatch roof contractor, one of the six accused, died before the judgement. Dharmaraj, the videographer, was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment, Sadagopan to one year imprisonment and Murugesan to six months imprisonment. [6] Dharmaraj, Ramaswamy, Sadagopan and Murugesan challenged the order of the sessions court in the High Court bench at Madurai which upheld the punishment of all leaving Dharmaraj, whose sentence was reduced to 6 month imprisonment on 10 June 2020 which also ordered disbursement of ₹40 lakh to the victims. [7]
The funeral of the 42 killed in the accident was performed on 24 January 2004 on the banks of river Kaveri. A total of fourteen families attended the funeral. The ghat, which had a capacity to accommodate three funerals at a time, was expanded to have more funerals at the same time. The bride, Jayashri suffered depression on account of the event. [8] The accident is counted as one of four major fire accidents in the state, along with the Erwadi fire incident on 6 August 2001 that killed 30 mentally challenged people, Brihadeeswarar Temple fire on 7 June 1997 in which 48 people were killed and 2004 Kumbakonam School fire that killed 94 school children. [9] The Director of Fire and Rescue Service indicated that the department would conduct minimum safety standard check on all marriage halls in the state. The then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a cash relief of ₹50,000 each to the families of the deceased from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, ₹15,000 to people with heavy injuries and ₹6,000 to those with minor injuries. [4]
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Fire
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Invisible bursts of electricity from volcanoes signal explosive eruptions
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Lightning flashes and ash and lava spew as Sakurajima volcano erupts in Japan. A new study distinguishes between lightning and smaller, more mysterious surges of electrical activity produced by the volcano. Mike Lyvers/Moment/Getty Images By Alka Tripathy-Lang July 1, 2021 at 6:00 am As one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, Sakurajima often dazzles with spectacular displays of volcanic lightning set against an ash-filled sky. But the volcano can also produce much smaller, invisible bursts of electrical activity that mystify and intrigue scientists. Now, an analysis of 97 explosions at Sakurajima from June 2015 is helping to show when eruptions produce visible lightning strokes versus when they produce the mysterious, unseen surges of electrical activity, researchers report in the June 16 Geophysical Research Letters. These invisible bursts, called vent discharges, happen early in eruptions, which could allow scientists to figure out ways to use them to warn of impending explosions. Researchers know that volcanic lightning can form by silicate charging, which happens both when rocks break apart during an eruption and when rocks and other material flung from the volcano jostle each other in the turbulent plume (SN: 3/3/15). Tiny ash particles rub together, gaining and losing electrons, which creates positive and negative charges that tend to clump together in pockets of like charge. To neutralize this unstable electrical field, lightning zigzags between the charged clusters, says Cassandra Smith, a volcanologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage. Experiments have shown that you can’t get lightning without some amount of ash in the system, Smith says. “So if you’re seeing volcanic lightning, you can be pretty confident in saying that the eruption has ash.” Vent discharges, on the other hand, are relatively newly detected bursts of electrical activity, which produce a continuous, high-frequency signal for seconds — an eternity compared with lightning. These discharges can be measured using specialized equipment. By focusing on small explosions from Sakurajima, defined as those with plume heights of 3 kilometers or less and with a duration of less than five minutes, Smith and colleagues examined silicate charging, plume dynamics and the relationship between volcanic lightning and vent discharges. As expected, the team found that lightning at Sakurajima occurred in plumes replete with ash. Vent discharges, however, occurred only when ash-rich plumes with volcanic lightning rocketed skyward at velocities greater than about 55 meters per second. “Once you get to a certain intensity of eruption,” Smith says, “you’re going to see these vent discharges.” Monitoring these discharges could be especially helpful for quickly spotting eruptions that have a lot of ash in them. Tracking ash is vital, Smith says, “because that’s what’s dangerous for aviation and local communities” in many instances. Electrical activity, she says, signals an ash-rich plume no matter the weather or time of day, and vent discharges provide a measure of an eruption’s intensity, which could help observatories model where a plume might go. Tracking lightning and vent discharges could cover gaps left by other ways of monitoring volcanoes, says Chris Schultz, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Seismologists track underground movements of magma to look for signs of an impending eruption, for example. Infrasound is used to indicate when an explosion has occurred, but the technique doesn’t differentiate between ash versus gas in eruptions. And satellites collect data on eruptions, though in many cases that’s dependent on good weather at the right time. The lightning and vent discharges, Schultz says, may also eventually provide early warnings, especially prior to larger ash-rich eruptions.
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Volcano Eruption
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West German student movement
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The West German student movement or sometimes called the 1968 movement in West Germany was a social movement that consisted of mass student protests in West Germany in 1968; participants in the movement would later come to be known as 68ers. The movement was characterized by the protesting students' rejection of traditionalism and of German political authority which included many former Nazi officials. Student unrest had started in 1967 when student Benno Ohnesorg was shot by a policeman during a protest against the visit of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The movement is considered to have formally started after the attempted assassination of student activist leader Rudi Dutschke, which sparked various protests across West Germany. The movement would create lasting changes in German culture. [1]
The Spiegel affair of 1962, in which journalists were arrested and detained for reporting on the strength of the West German military, worried some in West Germany that there was a return of authoritarian government. In the fallout of the affair, the suddenly-unpopular Christian Democratic Union formed a political coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), known as the grand coalition. [2]
Critics were disappointed with the parliament's appointment of Kurt Georg Kiesinger as chancellor of West Germany despite his participation in the Nazi Party during the Nazi regime. [3]
Social movements grew as younger people became disillusioned with the political establishment, worrying it was reminiscent of Germany's Nazi past. West Berlin became a center for these movements since many left leaning people would take residence in West Berlin to avoid the military draft that was in effect in the rest of West Germany. [2]
These social movements were also becoming popular among the youth of West Germany. The movements included the opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, opposition to consumer culture, liberation for the third world, and criticisms of middle class moral values. Some were embracing communal lifestyles and sexual liberation. [4] All these various social movements and the non-parliamentary organizations that hoped to spearhead them, grouped together as the Außerparlamentarische Opposition. [5] The more leftist wing of the SDP in the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (Socialist German Students Union - SDS) split from the party line and joined the Außerparlamentarische Opposition. The West German parliament had proposed to expand government powers in the Emergency Laws, as well as to reform universities. On 22 June 1966, 3,000 students from the Free University of Berlin staged a sit-in to demand involvement in the reform process of universities, included democratic management of colleges. [3][6]
In June 1967, during a state visit by the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the SDS organized a protest of his visit, criticizing him as a brutal dictator that should not have been welcome in West Germany. The protest was repressed by police and Iranian agents who beat protesters and resulted in the fatal shooting of demonstrating student Benno Ohnesorg. Protests against police brutality erupted across the country and led the mayor of Berlin and the police chief to resign. In the fall of 1967 students established "Critical Universities"; students occupied classrooms and gave critiques of university structure as well as educating other students in New Left thought. [3][1]
Rudi Dutschke was a student activist in the growing student protests. On April 11, 1968 he was shot by the far-right Josef Bachmann. Dutschke was injured but survived the shooting. The attempted assassination of Dutschke would be later regarded as the formal beginning of the West German student movement. [1] Dutschke had previously been labeled an “enemy of the people” in the Axel Springer-owned tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung. Student activists believed the shooting was inspired by critics of the student movement such as Springer's tabloids. Demonstrations and clashes later occurred outside Springer offices in reaction to the shooting. [2] In the aftermath of the shooting, student leaders became more willing to embrace violent tactics in their movements. [5]
In May the West German government considered using the Emergency Acts in response, allowing the Cabinet to suspend parliamentary rule and enact laws in times of crisis. On May 11 protesters gathered in the West German capital Bonn to demand that the laws not be used. The government agreed with protesting labor unions to only use limited concessions, passing the laws on May 30. This agreement dealt a blow to the growing student movement and signaled its demise. [3]
Protest against the Vietnam War
Conference to protest the Vietnam War
Protest march in West Berlin
Demonstrators in West Berlin
Vandalized Bild-Zeitung delivery cars
Protesters with signs
Despite the failure of the student movement a change in political consciousness lasted throughout the country. Criticisms of West German officials' ties to the old Nazi Party brought the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past) to the forefront of political discussion. Other various left-wing causes also gained popularity and helped solidify a protest culture in Germany. [7]
Those who were involved in the protests of 1968 in West Germany would come to be known as the "1968 generation". Some would develop unique political paths, with some finding roles in government, while others embraced terrorist activities of the Außerparlamentarische Opposition. [4]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Northern Lights illuminate skies farther south than usual this week
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The northern lights above Kirkjufell mountain in Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula. This week more people in the U.S. will be able to see the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis. According to CNN , this expansion of one of nature's most dazzling spectacles was made possible when a flare of solar energy hit Earth a few days ago and caused a geomagnetic storm that resulted in the Northern Lights illuminating skies at lower latitudes than usual. Geomagnetic storms are defined as disturbances of Earth’s upper atmosphere caused by solar flares. During these instances, protons and electrons with high energy, which are collectively referred to as 'plasma,' quickly make their way to Earth. Their terrestrial landing is made in 21 hours, and as they arrive the plasma increases the geomagnetic field of the planet’s surface. Plasma deflected to Earth's dark side is what triggers auroral displays at poles. So, thanks to the geomagnetic storm, skywatchers in Scotland, the north of England, and as far south as New York, Wisconsin and Washington state will be able to see the auroras. Visibility is expected to continue through Wednesday, based on calculations from the United Kingdom's Met Office , which said there could be a "rather active period of geomagnetic activity." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center refers to this geomagnetic storm as "moderate," calling it a "G2" event on its 1 to 5 scale.
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New wonders in nature
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Virgin Galactic Surges on Successful Test Flight to Space
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Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. climbed as much as 21% after the company founded by billionaire Richard Branson conducted a test flight to space for the first time in more than two years. The VSS Unity flight from New Mexico on Saturday marks a critical step on the path toward the start of commercial space tourism, helping to put the company back on its stated schedule to fly Branson to suborbital space as early as this summer and resume ticket sales. The company won’t say when it plans to fly next, or be ready for Branson, but the co-founder is a natural choice to help test the customer experience and amenities, Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said Monday on Bloomberg TV. Private astronauts should be fit but won’t require “years and years of training” to fly safely to suborbital space, he said. Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier, says Richard Branson, the company founder and billionaire, will be on a test flight into space. “We view this event as a major milestone,” Michael Ciarmoli, an analyst at Truist Securities, said in a note to clients. The flight carried revenue-generating scientific research experiments for NASA, and collected key data for the Federal Aviation Administration, Ciarmoli added. The stock pared a gain of as much as 21% to trade up 18% to $24.93 as of 12:46 p.m. in New York. Virgin Galactic’s first rocket burn since February 2019 paves the way for the next test, which is expected to carry additional employees. No date has yet been set for that step. After the 2019 flight, engineers detected damage to the spacecraft from pressure that had built up after ventilating holes were accidentally covered, according to “Test Gods,” a book published this month by New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle, who was given access to observe the company. The program suffered another setback in December when Unity had to glide to the ground after a rocket motor failed to ignite when it was dropped from carrier aircraft VMS Eve. A second flight attempt in February was scuttled by electrical interference to the spacecraft’s avionics. Earlier this month, Virgin said it was probing stress issues affecting Eve and subsequently cleared the craft to fly.
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New achievements in aerospace
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Locust swarms growing in the west, say officials - The New ...
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Locust swarms growing in the west, say officials
(IRIN)
English
ADDIS ABEBA
Ethiopia has began spraying chemicals to battle growing swarms of desert locusts that were recently spotted in the far western Tigray and Amhara regions, officials said on Monday.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the numbers of desert locusts would grow unless urgent action was taken to kill the swarms.
"Unless control measures are carried out immediately there will be a great deal of destruction of crops," Yimer Assen of FAO Ethiopia, said. "The volume of the locusts is increasing and the problem we face is that they are migrating from one village to another."
Swarms contain millions of locusts that literally eat everything in their path. Each insect can eat its own body weight in food each day.
"They are very destructive in the amount of matter they eat in a day," Peter Odiyo, head of the Desert Locust Control Organisation of East Africa (DLCO), said.
"In a country already facing serious food shortages, that translates into a lot of damage to livestock, grazing areas and food crops in the field. They eat anything green," he added.
He said the locusts were also causing damage in the self-declared semi-autonomous region of Puntland in neighbouring Somalia.
Government and UN officials, he added, were trying to confirm how many locusts had infested the region but believed it was in the millions.
"We are thinking in terms of millions because that is the normal size they move in," Odiyo added.
The DLCO was launching air and ground pesticide spraying against the swarms to try and contain the infestation.
"We could have a bigger outbreak on our hands developing as a result of the egg laying that is taking place," Odiyo said. "We need to stop this urgently."
Government officials estimated that in the worst hit areas along the northern border regions with Sudan and Eritrea, the infestation density was around 300,000 locusts per ha.
The agriculture ministry’s locust expert, Fikre Markos, said villagers had reported seeing locust clouds 20 ha wide. However, he added, the ministry had no details on the total number, adding that swarms in Ethiopia were usually quite small.
"There can be at least 40 million and sometimes as many as 80 million locust adults in each sq. km of swarm," he said.
Belay Ejigu, Ethiopia’s state minister for agriculture, had traveled to the region which is some 900 km north of Addis Ababa, to assess the scale of the problem.
"Our teams are trying to find the largest locust army to destroy it," Mulugeta Debalkew, spokesman for the agriculture ministry, said.
One of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia depends on its crop harvests to feed millions who otherwise depend on food aid.
Locusts have in the past laid to waste parts of Africa. In 2004, they ruined more than one million hectares of crops in Mauritania. The swarms have spread from Chad through Sudan and into Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.
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Insect Disaster
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Weekend Rain Brings Mudslides To Several Forests In Idaho
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Cooler weather in Boise over the weekend ended a 45-day streak of 90-degree or hotter temperatures, according to the National Weather Service in Boise. And with that break came heavy rains. In several forests in the state, that meant mudslides that officials were still evaluating on Monday. Debris and mud washed over forest roads in the Boise, Sawtooth and Salmon-Challis national forests this weekend. A washout in the Minidoka Ranger District of the Sawtooth National Forest carved a 12-foot-deep gully down the middle of a forest road near Trapper Creek. The incident occurred in the burn scar left by the 90,000-acre Badger Fire in the South Hills last year. Mudslides also closed Baker Creek Road between Ketchum and Stanley for a few hours Sunday morning and Trail Creek Road, which connects Ketchum to Mackay. Trail Creek remained closed as of Monday afternoon. Amy Bauman, a spokesperson for the Salmon-Challis National Forest said rocks and mud fell onto Salmon River Road, but it’s now open. Crews from Custer County were also working to clear a road north of the Custer townsite. “There is a possibility that there are other slides that just have not been reported to the forest,” she said. The region saw more than just rain over the weekend. Five new fire starts were detected Sunday and rangers were still making their way to them Monday morning. “There was a lot of lightning with the storms that came through,” she said. The Salmon-Challis National Forest is also responding to the Mud Lick Fire, which is more than 20,600 acres and 92% contained. Rain on Sunday on the western portion of the fire meant little to no growth in fire activity on that day. Drier conditions are supposed to set in on Tuesday. Crews were also assessing road damage in the Boise National Forest, where rock and mud covered and dug out various forest roads. The forest said on its Facebook page that staff would look for more damage on Tuesday. Despite the rains, Idaho is still seeing drought conditions multiply, with extreme drought expanding in North Idaho and south central Idaho.
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Mudslides
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Critically endangered 'bum-breathing' turtles found where Santos wants untreated water to go
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Gas giant Santos has lodged a plan to release untreated coal seam gas wastewater during flooding events into a river system that is home to two rare "bum-breathing" turtle species.
The proposal also seeks federal approval to release 18 megalitres – equivalent to more than seven Olympic-sized swimming pools – of desalinated wastewater into the Dawson River each day.
Dawson River is home to two bum-breathers — the critically endangered white-throated snapping turtle and the vulnerable Fitzroy River turtle.
Theodore resident Ann Hobson is the secretary of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland's Upper Dawson branch.
She said that, to go ahead, would be "foolhardy", given there were not enough scientific studies on the level of impact releasing untreated water could have on an ecosystem.
"We know of no research into the downstream distribution or effects of the salts found in coal seam gas-associated water when discharged into a river," Ms Hobson said.
She said releasing treated or untreated water could add extra stresses on the wellbeing of both turtle species and their breeding patterns.
Santos said there would only be a limited release of water during flooding events, which would be monitored and would not harm the turtles or the environment.
Ms Hobson said if the untreated water accumulated and evaporated, the residue could become toxic to humans and stock.
"We don't know where [the untreated water] is going to end up, and the Dawson flows into the Fitzroy during flood times, [which could] send a plume of its polluted water right up into the base of the Whitsundays and into the Great Barrier Reef," she said.
The company's own referral document prepared for the federal government found the releases could impact the habitats of both turtle species by degrading water quality, altering the natural flow of the river, eroding riverbanks, increasing turbidity and water-logging of soil.
In a statement, a Santos spokesperson said the rate of untreated water to be released was strictly limited by the natural flow rate of the river and, in limiting releases this way, there would be no harm to turtles or to the environment.
"Events-based releases were approved by the state of Queensland in March 2017," the statement said.
"[Each] release is subject to strict environmental outcomes and these must be monitored to demonstrate that outcomes are being achieved."
Santos said the proposal would cause negligible changes to water level or water quality.
A spokesperson for federal Environment Minister Susan Ley said no decision had been made yet, with the deadline for approval extended until July 7, 2021.
It said the potential impacts to both turtle species would be considered.
The critically endangered white-throated snapping turtle is subject to a 10-year national recovery plan, which identifies declining water quality as a major threat to its survival.
It is native to the Burnett, Mary and Fitzroy river catchments along the central and southern Queensland coasts.
Meanwhile, the Fitzroy River turtle is found only in the Fitzroy Basin and has been listed as vulnerable since 2000.
Affectionately known as bum-breathers, these two turtle species breathe through gills in their cloaca, which allows them to stay underwater for days at a time.
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Environment Pollution
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'It's mind-boggling': Party balloons found by researchers floating 250km out to sea
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Scientists on a research voyage off Australia's east coast have been shocked to discover party balloons hundreds of kilometres from shore.
Dr Eric Woehler from Birdlife Tasmania has been aboard the CSIRO vessel, RV Investigator, observing sea birds and marine mammals.
On Sunday they made a startling discovery.
"We saw two groups of party balloons — one was a group of about 10 or so balloons still tied together and a smaller group of about three or four balloons tied together — and we were about 250 kilometres off the coast of New South Wales," he said.
Dr Woehler said balloons could have a devastating impact on the environment.
"The concern about these balloons in the ocean environment is that when they eventually deflate or when they're punctured for whatever reason, that fragments of the balloon will be seen as potential food by albatrosses, by turtles.
"There's a real risk that these balloons that have been released from the mainland that have drifted 250 kilometres over the ocean will end up in the stomach of seabirds or turtles."
Scientists recently drew a link between the amount of plastic a sea turtle consumes and its likelihood of death, with an estimated half of all sea turtles having plastic in their gut, according to CSIRO researchers.
Dr Woehler said seabirds were observed close to where the balloons were found.
He was surprised by the discovery and urged people to be environmentally responsible.
"It's mind-boggling that we've got balloons so far out in the ocean," he said.
"Ideally you should dispose of balloons appropriately when you're finished with them."
"I don't often buy balloons, but two weeks ago Oscar got his first balloon for his first birthday ... he loved it," she said.
"I'm always hearing about how much plastic there is in the ocean, it's pretty concerning.
"Most of us have let off a helium balloon like I did when I was a child without a second thought as to where it goes.
"I didn't think about it then but I wonder now where it's gone."
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Environment Pollution
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Trump executive order pulls out of TPP trade deal
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President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign pledge by signing an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The 12-nation trade deal was a linchpin of former President Barack Obama's Asia policy. "Great thing for the American worker what we just did," said Mr Trump as he dumped the pact with a stroke of a pen. He also cut funding for international groups that provide abortions, and froze hiring of some federal workers. Mr Trump's executive order on TPP was largely symbolic since the deal has not been ratified by a divided US Congress. During his presidential campaign, he criticised the accord as a "potential disaster for our country", arguing it harmed US manufacturing. His action won some plaudits from the left as well as the right. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders told the BBC he backed it because trade deals like this have been a "disaster" and cost millions of jobs. On Monday evening, Mr Trump's pick to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee, and now requires confirmation from the full Senate. And the new CIA boss will be Mike Pompeo, following a Senate vote of 66 to 32, in his favour. The Trump administration's first weekday began with a flurry of executive orders, which allow the president to bypass Congress by issuing legally binding directions, mostly of limited scope, to federal agencies. Mr Trump also signed an order blocking foreign aid or federal funding for any nongovernmental organisation that provides abortions abroad. The so-called Mexico City policy was first established by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It is typically rescinded by incoming Democratic presidents, including Barack Obama in 2009, and reinstated by Republican presidents. This video can not be played Mr Trump also signed an executive action placing a hiring freeze on non-military federal workers. After meeting business leaders earlier at the White House, Mr Trump pledged to lower corporate taxes to 15% or 20%, from the current 35%, and slash regulations by up to 75% if they keep jobs in the US. Mr Trump - whose protectionist rhetoric sent the US dollar falling - also met labour leaders later on Monday. Some of the measures he announced on Monday fulfil "Day One" pledges he made as a candidate in a speech in Gettysburg in October. But perhaps inevitably, some of the promises he made on that day and at rallies during his campaign have not been kept, although he may get to them in the coming days and weeks. This video can not be played The Trump administration has planned for a busy few weeks, according to the White House press secretary. Sean Spicer said the president's nominee for Supreme Court Justice would come within the next couple of weeks. And in his first proper White House press briefing, he said the US would block China from taking over contested islands in international waters in the South China Sea. This video can not be played "I think the US is going to make sure that we protect our interests there," he said. "It's a question of - if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we're going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country." The start of the Trump administration has looked less like a well-planned parade and more like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. But is there order behind this chaos? The president and his press secretary spent the weekend blasting the press and its coverage of the inauguration - and that rolling feud unsurprisingly dominated headlines. Behind the scenes, however, Republicans in the executive branch and Congress are getting down to the business of advancing their political agenda. The president issued executive orders on trade and abortion on Monday. Congressional committees will soon begin hammering out tax and healthcare legislation. The bumpy start to Mr Trump's presidency has some questioning whether the president is squandering his power, which traditionally is at its height in the first few months of a presidential term. Power, however, is what you make of it - and the real test of Mr Trump's strength won't be in the tut-tutting of newspaper editorial pages over tweets and ad-libbed speeches, it will be policies enacted and legislation signed. While it's easy to dismiss Mr Trump's moves as missteps, if conservatives continue to charge through the chaos, they may learn to love their new president's unconventional style. Meanwhile, Mr Spicer said it was "unquestionable" that Mr Trump's inauguration "was the most watched" ever. Although Ronald Reagan's was top in terms of television figures, attracting 41.8 million viewers, Mr Spicer pointed out that the 30.6 million who tuned in to see Mr Trump take the oath of office did not include the millions who watched the ceremony online. His remarks followed Mr Trump's stinging attack at the weekend on media reporting of attendance figures and the weather at his inauguration. Muslim cleric shot dead after Uganda bombings Biden 'considering' US boycott of Beijing Olympics Germany to place tighter curbs on unvaccinated 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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Withdraw from an Organization
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Downtown Mesquite earns statewide honors for small business project
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Downtown Mesquite earned the prominent Texas Downtown Association (TDA) Best Digital Promotion award for its Small Business Saturday digital marketing project. The award was presented at the President’s Awards Gala during the TDA’s annual downtown revitalization conference in Denton.(City of Mesquite) By Leah Waters 4:29 PM on Nov 9, 2021 CST Downtown Mesquite earned a statewide award this month for its digital marketing project that highlighted small businesses during the pandemic. The Texas Downtown Association honored Mesquite with the Best Digital Promotion award for its Small Business Saturday project at the group’s annual downtown revitalization conference on Nov. 4 in Denton. Downtown Mesquite volunteers partnered with Mesquite ISD students, who conducted interviews, filmed and produced videos about local businesses, according to a city statement, “We loved how the videos turned out,” said Lisa Harr, Mesquite Downtown Development Advisory Board Chair and video anchor. “But even we were surprised at how far-reaching the impact of the videos would be in terms of sales, Metroplex media attention and awareness in general.” Plans for Downtown Mesquite’s traditional Small Business Saturday promotion in November 2020 had to be adjusted and tailored to the conditions of the pandemic, which limited in-person visits and crowded gatherings, a city statement said. Downtown Mesquite, which also won a People’s Choice award for the video project, has been honored at the event for three consecutive years. During the conference, Mesquite has also been featured at three workshop sessions with Haar, downtown development manager Beverly Abell and assistant city engineer Wes McClure participating in panels.
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Awards ceremony
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1967 Mudurnu earthquake
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The 1967 Mudurnu earthquake or more correctly, the 1967 Mudurnu Valley earthquake occurred at about 18:57 local time on 22 July near Mudurnu, Bolu Province, north-western Turkey. [6] The magnitude 7.4 Mw[7] earthquake (but only 6.0 on the mb scale. [8]) was one of a series of major and intermediate quakes that have occurred in modern times along the North Anatolian Fault since 1939. [9]
Although the Mudurnu Valley earthquake was relatively strong, there were only 86 fatalities, with 332 people injured. About 5,200 houses were destroyed or damaged beyond repair;[10] some 900 of these were in Adapazari at the far western end of the fault zone, and many collapsed completely as a result of aftershocks. [11] The authors of the 1968 Unesco report into the Mudurnu Valley earthquake felt that its Mercalli intensity was difficult to estimate accurately. In some places an implied level of XII (Extreme) was evident, whereas the vibrational effects were nearer VIII–IX (Severe–Violent). Although a large number of sites were independently assessed by up to six observers, variations of up to four degrees of the Mercalli scale indicated that an accurate figure was practically impossible to gauge. [12]
Considering the large surface wave magnitude (7.1) and widespread surface rupturing, structural damage to buildings was surprisingly small; variations in damage were related to the materials used and construction method of individual buildings, rather than the proximity to the fault break. [13] Some villages suffered 70% destruction of property, while others nearby with fault lines running right through them had only a few houses damaged. The surface rupture zone, which was between 1–4 kilometres (0.62–2.49 mi) wide, stretched some 80 km (50 mi) from to Lake Abant (Turkish: Abant Gölu) to Sapanca in an East–West direction, generally following the course of the Mudurnu River until it flows north near Lake Sapanca. The earthquake is named after the river valley, not the town of Mudurnu itself, which is some distance south of the river and outside the rupture zone. [citation needed]
A number of small aftershocks occurred, mostly towards the westward end of the fault zone; its eastern end overlapped the rupture zone of the previous M7.1 1957 Abant earthquake with a similar epicentre, by about 25 km (16 mi). [14]
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Earthquakes
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Day Fire
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The Day Fire was a devastating wildfire that burned 162,702 acres (658 km2) of land in the Topatopa Mountains, within the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, southern California. As of 2020, the Day Fire is the 20th largest wildfire in modern California history as of 09-09-2020. The fire, which was the largest of the 2006 California wildfire season, is the 17th largest fire in California history. [2] The fire started on Labor Day September 4, 2006, and by October 1, had cost $70.3 million; at one point, the Day Fire had 4,600 active firefighters combating it. [3]
The Day Fire burned approximately 162,702 acres (658.43 km2) of both Los Padres National Forest (97.4%) and privately owned lands. [2] The fire started on the Ojai Ranger District, in the Congressionally Designated Sespe Wilderness. The Sespe Wilderness is under the Federal jurisdiction of the United States Forest Service. In addition to the land burned in the wilderness area, 1,943 acres (8 km2) of private land was burned in Lockwood Valley and the Mutau Flat area. A total of eleven structures were reported destroyed, including one residence and ten outbuildings. [citation needed]
The Day Fire was determined to be human caused Specifically, a debris burn consisting of clothing, ammunition, and other items were illegally ignited during fire restrictions. [citation needed] Ignited material coming out of the debris burn came in contact with surrounding dry grasses, causing a wildland fire to occur. On September 7, 2006, Steven Butcher walked out of the Day Fire with burns to his face. Mr. Butcher was the one who notified the authorities there was a fire burning in the Los Padres National Forrest. In 2009, Butcher was found guilty of starting the fire. I hid up there for days afterward watching the animals running scared around me. "[1] Before sentencing, District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank said that Butcher clearly loved nature."
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Fire
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1987 Black Dragon fire
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The Black Dragon fire, also known as the 1987 Daxing'anling wildfire (Chinese: 大兴安岭特大森林火灾) or the May 6 fire (Chinese: 5·6大火) was a major wildfire that began in the northeast Daxing'anling Prefecture, Heilongjiang, People's Republic of China on May 6, 1987. [1] It also spread into the Soviet Union. The burning lasted almost a month, when it was finally stopped on June 2, 1987. [2] The fire covered about 10,000 km2 (2,500,000 acres) of which 6,500 km2 (2,500 sq mi) was forest;[2] it destroyed 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) of forest, including one-sixth of China's entire timber reserves. About 266 people were wounded and 211 died in the fire leaving 50,000 homeless. [1] It was one of the largest wildfires ever to occur, and the largest to strike China in over 300 years. [citation needed]
The fire originated in the coniferous Da Hinggan Forests in the Greater Khingan Range, a mountain range in northeastern China. In 1987, the area surrounding the Amur River in the region had been unusually hot and was experiencing a drought, leading to an overabundance of parched vegetation. [5][4] These conditions were ideal for a large wildfire to occur. Because the area was sparsely populated at the time, the exact cause of the fire was not very clear at first; any small ignition could have turned into a major firestorm in the conditions present. Later and widely believed Chinese reports state that the fire was started "when an untrained 18-year-old worker accidentally ignited gas spilled from his brush cutter. "[6] According to Harrison Salisbury, the roots of the disaster lay in excessive cutting down of trees without any effort to let the forest regrow, which triggered multiple fires in the region. [6] Whatever the causes were, the resulting firestorm quickly gained momentum, fueled by high winds in the region. Workers reported their truck engines stopping as the fire deprived the oxygen supply in the air as well as burning projectiles raining down on them ahead of the fire. [6] A total of 191 people were killed by the fire,[7] and a further 250 were left injured. [4] In addition, 33,000 Chinese were made homeless. [8]
Although both countries were affected heavily by the fire, China and the Soviet Union responded very differently. China, despite its shortage of advanced firefighting equipment, sent over 60,000 soldiers and workers to try and put out the fire. [6] Because the forest was a major source of wood for China as well as the fact that it was close to the Gobi desert and thus a factor in desertification in northern China, China spent much effort on extinguishing the flames. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, simply let the fire burn out on its side of the border because its vast timber reserves were not seriously threatened by the fire. [4] When the fire finally stopped over a month later, the differences in responses were clear: The Soviet Union had lost more forest (15 million acres compared to 3 million in China), while China was more devastated economically.
In the aftermath, China punished individuals for causing the fire; the aforementioned 18-year-old worker, along with his employer, were jailed. The forestry minister was fired. In addition, a local fire chief who saved his house and left the rest of his town to burn was sentenced to four years in prison. [6]
The lessons learned from the Black Dragon fire helped to improve response to wildfires throughout the world as well as demonstrate the impact that governments can have on the environment. The effect that the fire had on the environment in the region generated new found concern and speculation about the future about the forest's ecology. [3]
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Fire
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A major interstate highway is closed after mudslides washed out
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A major interstate highway is closed after mudslides washed out a portion of I-70 west of Denver. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis pointed to "burn scars" from wildfires as part of the reason why the land was susceptible to landslides after recent flooding. Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd speaks with Lesli Wood, professor of geology at the Colorado School of Mines. This segment aired on August 5, 2021.
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Mudslides
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Fatbergs targeted by SA Water jingle and social media campaign about what waste to flush
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They are not pleasant to look at, and they are even less pleasant to remove. They are the clumps of waste that form in drains and sewers from items that should never have been flushed in the first place.
Known as fatbergs, they are made out of wet wipes, condoms and tampons, which then cause fats and oils to congeal around them.
In South Australia, the cost of removing them is about $400,000 each year, and SA Water has launched a campaign — including a jingle — to remind people of what not to flush.
"It's surprising that a lot of people actually don't know what does break down and what doesn't break down in the system," said SA Water innovation manager Anna Jackson.
"It is, in fact, just the 'three Ps' that will go through the system nicely."
In the words of the jingle, the 'three Ps' are "paper, pee or poo".
"Everything else — the wet wipes, the nappies, the tampons, the pads — don't break down," Ms Jackson said.
"They sit up against a convenient tree root which might have grown into the sewer network looking for some water, and they form a blockage.
"It's pretty disgusting … they can get enormous.
"The fatbergs in the London sewers — there's been quite a lot of coverage of those recently."
Fatbergs have gained notoriety in recent years, especially after giant ones were uncovered in the English capital.
They can weigh more than 100 tonnes, smell pretty disgusting and cost million each year to remove, so how do they form and how can you avoid contributing to these sewer menaces?
South Australia's drains are much smaller, meaning the masses of waste are nowhere near as big, but they can still cause blockages.
The issue has also been highlighted in Queensland, where water management authorities have to remove more than 4,000 blockages each year.
SA Water said wet wipes made up a "significant portion" of the problem, which it described as "very disgusting and very avoidable".
"When a foreign object, such as tree roots, kids toys or sprinkler heads get lodged in a pipe, more often than not, fat or wet wipes will accumulate behind the blockage," Ms Jackson said.
"This limits the flow of water through the pipes.
"Our trade waste discharge regulations have helped avoid the large sewer blockages witnessed in other parts of the world, where fat and wet wipes have stuck together and caused severe obstructions."
Ms Jackson said items marketed as "flushable" wipes should not actually be flushed.
SA Water said it would be releasing more images from its Christies Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant in Adelaide's south across its social media platforms over the next few weeks.
"It's asking the community to work with us on this because ultimately if you start flushing things down your toilet or your putting fats and oils down your drain, there's a good chance it'll actually block up right back into your house," Ms Jackson said.
"A third of the world's population not even having access to a toilet, I really think we need to appreciate our toilets."
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Environment Pollution
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Firefighters search mud after Brazil dam collapse; 60 dead
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BRUMADINHO, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian firefighters on Monday carefully moved over treacherous mud, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, in search of survivors or bodies, four days after a dam collapse buried mine buildings and surrounding neighborhoods with iron ore waste. The confirmed death toll rose to 60, with 292 people still missing according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. In an ominous sign, nobody was recovered alive Sunday, a stark difference from the first two days of the disaster, when helicopters were whisking people from the mud. The fire department said the expectation is the number of confirmed fatal victims will grow "exponentially" this Monday. Rescue workers carry away a body they pulled from the mud after a dam collapsed and flooded Brumadinho, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) The slow speed of search efforts was due to the treacherous sea of reddish-brown mud that surged out when the mine dam breached Friday afternoon. It is up 24 feet (8 meters) deep in some places, and to avoid the danger of sinking and drowning searchers had to carefully walk around the edges or slowly crawl out onto the muck. Beginning early Monday morning, rescue teams worked on areas where many bodies are expected to be found: the site of a bus and the Vale cafeteria, where many workers were eating lunch when the dam ruptured. Helicopters looking for bodies were taking off and landing nonstop. On the ground, dozens of rescuers with tracking dogs were searching for bodies through the mountains of mud. The Associated Press witnessed a helicopter rescue of three bodies that arrived at the search center. Rescue efforts were suspended about 10 hours Sunday because of fears that a second mine dam in the southeastern city of Brumadinho was at risk of failing. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by afternoon civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk. Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable. Still, it was slow going for the search teams, and residents were on edge. Rescue workers in a helicopter search a flooded area after a dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Some residents have taken matters into their own hands. Wagner Rogerio, 43, searched for childhood friends with no equipment or instructions. "My family tells me I'm not a superhero and that I should go home. But the very least my friends deserve is a dignified burial," he said with tears in his eyes. More than 100 Israeli specialists equipped with specialized rescue technology joined the 200 Brazilian firefighters on Monday morning. Throughout the weekend, there was mounting anger at the giant Vale mining company, which operated the mine, and questions rose about an apparent lack of an ahead of Friday's collapse. In an email, Vale told The Associated Press that the area has eight sirens, but "the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible" when the dam burst. Clamor for culpability was growing. Sen. Renan Calheiros on Sunday called for Vale's board of directors to step down and on Monday, Attorney General Raquel Dodge told reporters that Vale executives could be held responsible. Civil firefighters survey a destroyed rail bridge two days after a dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Vale's defense lawyer, Sergio Bermudes told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper that the board will not step down, arguing that "no wrongdoing has been proven, much less blame." "Vale doesn't see any decisive reasons indicating the company's responsibility. There was no negligence, recklessness, or malpractice," Bermudes said. "Why do dams break? There are several factors, and they will be subject to technical investigations." Over the weekend, courts froze about $3 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims. Vale stocks fell 25 percent on Brazil's B3 stock exchange on Monday morning. The carpet of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation. According to Vale's website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals." Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. That disaster left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.
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Mine Collapses
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Jaffa riots (April 1936)
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The Jaffa riots of April 1936, refers to a spate of violent attacks on Jews that began on 19 April 1936 in Jaffa. A total of 14 Jews and 2 Arabs were killed during the riots. The event is often described as marking the start of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. British Mandatory authorities and other contemporary sources dated the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine to 15 April,the date of the Anabta shooting in which Arab followers of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam set up a roadblock on the Nablus to Tulkarm road, stopping about 20 vehicles to demand cash and weapons; separating out 3 Jews from other occupants of the vehicles. The Arabs then shot the 3 Jewish men; only 1 survived. The two killed Jewish drivers were Israel (or Yisrael) Khazan, who was killed instantly, and Zvi Dannenberg, who died five days later.The following day members of Irgun shot and killed two Arab workers sleeping in a hut near Petah Tikva. On 17 April, the funeral for Khazan was held in Tel Aviv, attracting a crowd of thousands, some of whom beat Arab passersby and vandalized property.
On 19 April, rumors spread in the Arab community that "many Arabs had been killed by Jews", and Arabs began to attack Jews in the streets of Jaffa. An Arab mob marched on the Jewish-owned Anglo-Palestine Bank. The British Mandatory police guarding the bank defended themselves by firing into the mob, killing two of the rioters. This incited the mob to "fury" and Jews began to be killed in the streets.
Manuela Williams describes this as the "peak" event in a series of violent attacks leading up to the declaration of a general strike by the Arab Higher Committee.
According to Aryeh Avneri, citing the History of the Haganah, the rioting broke out first among the Haurani dockworkers in Jaffa Port. [14] A mob of Arab men rampaged through the mixed Muslim, Christian and Jewish streets of Jaffa, killing and beating Jews and wrecking Jewish homes and businesses.
11 people were reported dead in the first day's rioting. These included 2 Arabs "shot by British police in self-defense," and 9 Jews, with dozens of others wounded, "most of the Jewish injured bore knife wounds. The rioting went on for a total of 3 days, it was finally suppressed by the British military.
The continuing threat of violence combined with the destruction of Jewish property and arson attacks that destroyed Jewish homes forced 12,000 Jews to flee Jaffa as refugees. 9,500 were housed by the Tel Aviv municipality, imposing a heavy financial burden on the city. Seventy-five temporary shelters were created in schools, synagogues, government and industrial buildings. During May and June the Haganah was able to stabilize the security situation to the point where about 4,000 of the refugees were able to return to their homes. Others found housing privately, so that by July only 4,800 remained in public refugee camps; 3,200 of these were utterly destitute. By November, Jewish charities had placed even the destitute refugees in housing, and the refugee camps were closed.
One impact of the riot was the start of a political demand that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jaffa be separated from Jaffa and incorporated into Tel Aviv.
Chapter 11 of Leon Uris's bestselling 1984 novel, The Haj, is entitled Jaffa - April 19, 1936. In The Blood of His Servants, Malcolm MacPherson writes of 19 April as the day when the Arab revolt on Palestine began, and a "campaign of armed attacks" started. In his 1968 book, Days of Fire, Shmuel Katz, a senior member of the Irgun, wrote of arriving in Tel Aviv from Jerusalem on 19 April to find the town in turmoil with reports of stabbing in nearby Jaffa.
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Riot
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All accounted for, four injured after 'explosion' at Dunwoody apartments, firefighters say
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Four people were injured and several dozen displaced after an explosion at a Dunwoody apartment complex.
DUNWOODY, Ga. - Four people were injured after an "explosion" at a Dunwoody apartment complex on Sunday afternoon believed to have been caused by some sort of gas line issue, DeKalb County Fire Rescue said. Officials said about 40 to 50 units were destroyed.
It happened at the Arrive Perimeter apartment complex located in the 2000 block of Asbury Square, less than a mile northeast of Perimeter Mall. Dunwoody police said they were notified at around 1:24 p.m. on Sunday.
Four people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, DeKalb County Fire Rescue Captain Jaeson Daniels said. Two more people were not immediately accounted for, but have since been located and as of 6 p.m., officials said all residents were accounted for.
SKYFOX 5 was over an apartment explosion in Dunwoody on Sept. 12, 2021. Four people were injured. Employees said they smelled the odor of gas, but firefighters are still investigating the cause.
Crews are working to assess the stability of the building and shore it up to allow rescue workers to search inside. Fire investigators said at least three apartments were destroyed in the blast and caused a partial collapse of the building. Officials are using drones to help assess the damage.
A few pets inside the apartments were also reportedly rescued.
Fire officials said more than 70 firefighters responded to the scene for the initial call. Crews are expected to work well into the evening saying it will be "slow-moving."
Residents of a Dunwoody apartment complex look at the aftermath of an alleged "explosion." Credit: Dezmon Green (FOX 5 Atlanta)
Officials with Atlanta Gas Light issued a statement around 9:30 p.m. that reads:
"Our crews have now completed safety checks of all relevant Atlanta Gas Light facilities to ensure those not impacted by the incident are operating safely. Natural gas remains turned off to the apartments directly impacted by the incident, and there are no additional service outages. We will continue to work with local and state agencies as they continue the investigation."
The official cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
All utilities to the building have been disconnected.
Dunwoody police said Perimeter Center North was shut down as part of the response.
The entrances and exits to the apartments were also shut down for a time and residents not impacted by the blast were asked to shelter in place.
A FOX 5 News viewer shared a video that showed the blast caused some severe structural damage to a building. Debris could be seen around the building and part of the exterior appears to have collapsed.
The Red Cross is at the scene to help those impacted by the explosion. Officials said they expect to help the residents of about 40 to 50 units.
"Volunteers established a reception area at a nearby hotel parking lot for people awaiting news on whether they could return to their buildings. The Red Cross provided food, water and health and emotional support throughout the day, and is also offering shelter tonight for residents in need of temporary lodging," Red Cross officials wrote in a statement. "Red Cross caseworkers will continue to work with displaced individuals and families in the days ahead, sharing recovery planning and resources to help them get back on their feet."
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Gas explosion
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US notifies UN of withdrawal from World Health Organization
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in Washington. July 8, 2020, 3:53 AM António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, although the pullout won’t take effect until next year, meaning it could be rescinded under a new administration or if circumstances change. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said he would reverse the decision on his first day in office if elected. The withdrawal notification makes good on President Donald Trump’s vow in late May to terminate U.S. participation in the WHO, which he has harshly criticized for its response to the coronavirus pandemic and accused of bowing to Chinese influence. The move was immediately assailed by health officials and critics of the administration, including numerous Democrats who said it would cost the U.S. influence in the global arena. Biden has said in the past he supports the WHO and pledged Tuesday to rejoin the WHO if he defeats Trump in November. “Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as president, I will rejoin the WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage,” he said. Trump is trailing Biden in multiple polls and has sought to deflect criticism of his administration's handling of the virus by aggressively attacking China and the WHO. The withdrawal notice was sent to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday and will take effect in a year, on July 6, 2021, the State Department and the United Nations said on Tuesday. The State Department said the U.S. would continue to seek reform of the WHO, but referred to Trump's June 15 response when asked if the administration might change its mind. “I’m not reconsidering, unless they get their act together, and I’m not sure they can at this point," Trump said. Guterres, in his capacity as depositary of the 1946 WHO constitution, "is in the process of verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such withdrawal are met,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. Under the terms of the withdrawal, the U.S. must meet its financial obligations to the WHO before it can be finalized. The U.S., which is the agency's largest donor and provides it with more than $450 million per year, currently owes the WHO some $200 million in current and past dues. On May 29, less than two weeks after warning the WHO that it had 30 days to reform or lose U.S. support, Trump announced his administration was leaving the organization due to what he said was its inadequate response to the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in China’s Wuhan province late last year. The president said in a White House announcement that Chinese officials “ignored” their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured the organization to mislead the public about an outbreak that has now killed more than 130,000 Americans. “We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them directly, but they have refused to act,” Trump said at the time. "Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating the relationship.” The withdrawal notification was widely denounced as misguided, certain to undermine an important institution that is leading vaccine development efforts and drug trials to address the COVID-19 outbreak. The Republican chairman of Senate health committee, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said he disagreed with the decision. “Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it,” he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the move. “The President’s official withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization is an act of true senselessness,” she said in a tweet. “With millions of lives at risk, the president is crippling the international effort to defeat the virus.” And the top the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, said calling Trump's "response to COVID chaotic and incoherent doesn’t do it justice. This won’t protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick and America alone.” UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens called the move “short-sighted, unnecessary, and unequivocally dangerous. WHO is the only body capable of leading and coordinating the global response to COVID-19. Terminating the U.S. relationship would undermine the global effort to beat this virus — putting all of us at risk.” The ONE Campaign, which supports international health projects, called it an “astounding action” that jeopardizes global health. “Withdrawing from the World Health Organization amidst an unprecedented global pandemic is an astounding action that puts the safety of all Americans and the world at risk. The U.S. should use its influence to strengthen and reform the WHO, not abandon it at a time when the world needs it most," ONE president Gayle Smith said.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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'A Disaster Within A Disaster': Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Cases Are Surging In Texas
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People in Houston wait in line to fill their propane tanks on Wednesday amidst widespread power outages related to the winter storm. Cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in the state have increased in recent days, with officials attributing most to the improper use of heating devices like charcoal grills and portable generators.
Mark Felix/The Washington Post via Getty Images
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People in Houston wait in line to fill their propane tanks on Wednesday amidst widespread power outages related to the winter storm. Cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in the state have increased in recent days, with officials attributing most to the improper use of heating devices like charcoal grills and portable generators.
Updated at 10:31 p.m. ET
Texas is seeing a surge in carbon monoxide poisonings this week, as plunging temperatures and persistent power outages send residents searching for warmth increasingly from dangerous sources.
A total of 450 carbon monoxide-related calls statewide have been made to the Texas Poison Center Network since Feb. 11, a Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson told NPR on Thursday night. She said some of those calls were made en route to an emergency room or urgent care center. At least 300 cases, including two fatalities, were reported in Harris County — the state's most populous — as of Tuesday night, according to Judge Lina Hidalgo. She called that number "just the tip of the iceberg," saying it was likely much higher.
"The truth of the matter is, this carbon monoxide poisoning is in many ways a disaster within a disaster," Hidalgo said.
State and local officials attribute most of the cases to the use of improper home heating sources, from devices like barbecue pits, charcoal grills and campfire stoves to practices like running portable generators and car engines indoors. These mechanisms all release carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that at certain levels can cause permanent brain damage or death in mere minutes.
"Much of these poisoning calls ... they're due to bringing grills into the house, turning cars on in garages, basically using outdoor equipment inside," Hidalgo said. "You can use that equipment to stay warm, just don't use it in your home."
The improper use of portable generators, which can provide life-saving power but be fatal when run inside homes or garages, is a reliable source of fatalities after major weather events and took some 900 lives between 2005 and 2017.
Incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning have risen in the last few days. Please remember NOT to bring any outdoor appliances (grills, etc.) inside, or run your car inside the garage. Be safe and stay warm! #wintersafety pic.twitter.com/Z18BQMY0kO
Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said on Tuesday there had been so many carbon monoxide incidents and calls that officials could not track them all.
She implored residents to heed safety advice: leave grills and generators far away from windows, doors and vent openings; keep grills outside even once they've been turned off; avoid using ovens and stoves for heat and place generators 10 to 20 feet away from the home.
"Get all the blankets you can, dress in layers, huddle up together as a family," Christensen said. "Do what you have to do to stay warm, but please remember the hazards of carbon monoxide."
Spread the word! With power outages widespread and temperatures still cold, generator use is increasing. Already in the Houston metro there have been reports of carbon monoxide poisoning. Follow these guidelines to ensure this doesn't happen in the #rgv. #txwx #safetyfirst pic.twitter.com/d0EP2BWOWd
Dr. Samuel Prater, an emergency physician at Memorial-Hermann Health System in Houston, told NPR's All Things Considered that his emergency room saw nearly 60 carbon monoxide cases on Monday and almost 40 on Tuesday, with more than half of them children.
He said the unprecedented winter event has driven many people, particularly parents, to try to find warmth however they can.
"These are folks with the best of intentions who are just feeling desperate and trying to get themselves warm - more importantly, trying to get their children warm - and resorting to unusual means," he said.
Incidents have been reported sporadically by local officials, fire departments and hospitals in recent days. The surge in poisonings also prompted the Texas Department of State Health Services to issue a bulletin urging residents to "use extreme caution" with generators and other carbon monoxide-producing heat sources.
On Tuesday, The Cy-Fair Fire Department in Harris County reported transporting 14 people, including seven children, to hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning after they used grills to heat their homes. It later transported another nine, saying two families had reportedly used charcoal grills indoors.
If you are heating your home to stay warm, avoid hazards like fire or carbon monoxide poisoning:? NEVER use a charcoal grill, stove or oven to heat your home.? Regularly circulate fresh air in your rooms.? Keep heaters 3 ft. from other items.More: https://t.co/h9LR5JKN8J pic.twitter.com/XoJ6kPNI6E
Capt. Daniel Arizpe of the Cy-Fair Fire Department told NPR by email that as of 1:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, the department had responded to 18 incidents involving 40 patients, 26 of whom were transported with "measurable CO levels."
Houston police reported two carbon monoxide-related fatalities on Tuesday, when they said officers making a welfare check discovered a family of four who were poisoned after seemingly running a car in their attached garage for warmth. The adult female and female child did not survive, they said, while the adult male and male child were transported to the hospital.
And in Fort Worth, Cook Children's Medical Center said it treated at least 13 patients on Monday night whose families were attempting to heat their homes, either with propane- or diesel-burning engines meant to be used outdoors, or portable generators placed too close to the home. Treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning involves breathing in pure oxygen.
"Carbon monoxide poisoning prevents your blood from being able to buy into oxygen," explained Dr. Sam Selby, an emergency physician at Cook Children's. "You suffocate while you are still breathing."
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, chest pain, confusion and shortness of breath. Health officials say anyone experiencing such symptoms should move to a well-ventilated area outdoors and seek medical attention.
In a series of tweets, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urged people to use home heating devices properly and to remind any friends and family members experiencing power outages about the dangers of carbon monoxide, saying a quick check-in could save lives.
It also encouraged people to take stock of the safety of their own homes, like checking the status of extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors — things that sound like common sense, the CPSC said, which is why they are often forgotten.
"Also, when a crisis is happening, and it doesn't affect you personally, your reaction should be self-reflection, not shaming," it added, emphasizing the "desire to improve the quality of safety in your own life, not gawk at the lack of safety in someone else's."
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Mass Poisoning
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Police appeal for witnesses to bank robbery in Middleton
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Barclays Bank, Middleton Police are appealing for witnesses to a robbery at Barclays Bank in Middleton this morning (1 April). Police were called at 11.15am to the bank on Long Street to reports a man was armed and making threats. The man stole a quantity of cash from the bank before making off on foot. Enquiries are ongoing. Detective Inspector Matthew Hamer said: "A man entered the bank with a note and making threats, and demanding money - he then made off with a quantity of cash. "He is described as a white male, wearing dark grey cargo pants, black body warmer, long-sleeved black top, black woolly hat, blue surgical mask and an orange high-visibility jacket." Anyone with information should contact Rochdale CID on 0161 856 4668, the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 or make a report via the GMP website, quoting 1091-01042021
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Bank Robbery
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1987 Indianapolis Ramada Inn A-7D Corsair II crash
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The Ramada Inn crash was an aircraft accident in which a United States Air Force pilot failed to reach the runway at Indianapolis International Airport and crashed into the Airport Ramada Inn in Indianapolis, Indiana. On the morning of October 20, 1987, a United States Air Force A-7D-4-CV Corsair II, serial 69-6207, piloted by Major Bruce L. "Lips" Teagarden, 35, was en route to Nevada via Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, after departing Pittsburgh International Airport earlier in the day. At 9:11 a.m., Teagarden notified controllers at Indianapolis International Airport that his aircraft had sustained some sort of engine failure about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of the city at around 31,000 feet and he was returning to Indianapolis to attempt an emergency landing. [1] Controllers at Indianapolis routed Teagarden to Runway 5L, but due to the low cloud ceiling and poor visibility over Indianapolis, Teagarden was at 3,100 feet (940 m) mean sea level when he came to the threshold and was forced to try to land on Runway 32 instead. [2]
Teagarden made a right turn to head east away from the airport, but continued to drop from 3,100 feet (940 m) to 2,000 feet (610 m) just to the east of Interstate 465 at the eastern edge of the airport where controllers lost him from the radar. As his altitude dropped, Teagarden was forced to eject from the aircraft 500 feet (150 m) above ground, and the plane made a slight right turn towards the Park Fletcher business development. It struck the Bank One branch in the 5600 block of Bradbury Avenue, bounced off the roof, flew across the street and hit an embankment, went 25 feet (7.6 m) airborne, and then crashed into the front of the Ramada Inn. [3] Teagarden landed in the parking lot of the Ace Supply Company, four blocks from the hotel, suffering bruises and muscle strain. [4][5]
As the plane crashed into the Ramada Inn, the cockpit and engine went into the lobby, killing nine people immediately or within minutes; another died 10 days later from burns. The wings went into the upper floors of the top of the carport and upper floors of the hotel. The aircraft's jet fuel ignited on impact, causing a fireball that covered the front of the hotel up to the fourth floor. [6] Indianapolis Airport crash trucks arrived on the scene a minute after impact, and firefighters used foam to bring the fire under control four minutes later. Other elements of the Airport fire department searched the building for survivors, while assistance was requested from the Indianapolis Fire Department, Wishard Ambulance Service, the Wayne Township Fire Department, and the Decatur Township Fire Department. Meanwhile, the hotel was evacuated by Ramada Inn staff and guests. Teagarden was assigned to the 4450th Tactical Group, which at the time was clandestinely involved with the development of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. [7]
The Air Force paid $50,427 ($114871.35 when adjusted for inflation) in property claims damages, according to The New York Times. [8]
Teagarden was grounded until a flight evaluation board held him blameless in the incident because of the controller's actions. The cause of the crash, which was revealed in the Air Force's final report in January 1988, was a defective gear in the accessory gearbox. It sheared, causing the driveshaft to rip open the lubricating oil system, and the engine seized up soon afterward. Air Force mechanics had first noticed excessive wear on the driveshafts of a Corsair in November 1984, and subsequently two others. This prompted a safety directive to check driveshaft splines during compressor work on all in-service Corsairs. [9]
The charred building stood for more than two years; the hotel owners never rebuilt because they were unable to decide on an appropriate design. Currently, a parking lot stands on the site. The bank branch damaged by the plane is still standing today. It has been converted to a hospice. [9]
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Air crash
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'Special gentleman' Elliot Bourne dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in Hythe after falling asleep near fireplace
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| Updated: 16:11, 28 July 2021
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An immensely popular 27-year-old man died of carbon monoxide poisoning after falling asleep by the fireplace at his mum's house.
Elliot Bourne, a computer-aided designer from Sidcup, tragically lost his life in Hythe when he settled down and rested on the sofa.
Elliot Bourne was a computer design engineer. Picture: Facebook
Suffering with a cold, he arrived at his mum's home in Highridge at about 11am on Saturday, May 8.
Elliot went to sleep on a sofa with the fire lit nearby - but was sadly found unresponsive on the furniture the following day.
Paramedics rushed to the house yet Elliot was pronounced dead at the scene.
An inquest to establish the circumstances of the tragedy was opened at Maidstone's County Hall on Friday, where the cause of death was given as carbon monoxide poisoning.
Coroner Katrina Hepburn opened the inquest before immediately adjourning the hearing until September.
Elliot Bourne has been remembered for his warm smile. Picture: Facebook
Sport-loving Elliot, who lived in Sidcup all of his life, had a very close relationship with his sister Jen and adored his two-year-old niece, Amelia, with whom he was "totally besotted with".
He would make Origami roses for the pair and regularly play ball games with Amelia.
The former Hurstmere School pupil went on to take an apprenticeship with Parsons Brinkerhoff, before moving to a Bexley-based design firm where he became a CAD technician.
Elliot's family remember him as an "exceptionally unique and special gentleman who possessed fine qualities and talents beyond measure".
Tributes were paid to the much-loved young man - who was born in Greenwich to parents Steve and Jay - in a eulogy read out at his funeral.
The inquest opening was held at County Hall
"He was generous to a fault and would happily give you anything," it stated.
"He was caring, thoughtful and affectionate – he would hug everyone. El was also incredibly kind and he had a good sense of humour and a real zest for life.
"El was extremely popular and had loads of friends.
"He loved weekends and enjoyed going out to the pub to socialise with his friends. He always wanted to ensure that everyone was having a good time, so invariably he was skint because he would buy beer for those he was with.
"He was a pub man, and he loved going to all the local pubs, especially those that served cheap beer!
'He was caring, thoughtful and affectionate – he would hug everyone...'
"El loved his car and it was always immaculate inside and out as if it had been newly valeted.
"But then he always looked immaculate too, especially when he was going out. El was a sharp dresser and had an impressive collection of trainers and had an extensive selection of jumpers."
Following Elliot's unexpected death, an online fundraiser was launched to help pay for funeral costs.
It performed incredibly well, with 434 donators raising more than £24,000 for his heartbroken family.
Floods of tributes from family and friends were left on the JustGiving page, with one donator saying they will remember Elliot as "one of the most genuine and kind-hearted guys", while another stated how he was the "most amazing human to roam the earth".
Elliot was a very popular figure among family, friends and work colleagues. Picture: Facebook
Elliot's workplace, FHP Engineering Services Solutions and CJ Design Partnership, posted a tribute on its website remembering the 27-year-old.
"Elliot worked within our Bexley team as MEP CAD technician for seven years and had progressed within the company to become a very competent young professional.
"He would go above and beyond every single day to help out his colleagues, while ensuring that he undertook his own roles and responsibilities to the highest of standards.
"Elliot was always happy and smiling and brought such a positive vibe to the office and our working lives. He will be dreadfully missed by all."
Eddie Howes, from the company, said: "It was a joy to work in the presence of Elliot. I will never forget the warmth his smile brought to the office each and every day."
Other memories read out in the eulogy convey how popular Elliot was.
"El made such a positive impact on everyone he met. He was able to have fun and joke and always remain respectful.
"El’s family received so many letters from people he had contact with - most notably letters were sent from teachers (even though he had left school nine years ago), many old work friends he met through various projects and people he only met for a short time but seemed to make a big impact on."
The inquest has been adjourned until September, where further details as to how the tragedy unfolded will be analysed.
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Mass Poisoning
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1988 IMF/World Bank protests
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The 1988 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank were met with an international protest in West Berlin. Whereas the organizations' earlier meetings were met with smaller, national protests, the 1988 meetings attracted protesters internationally against what was the largest assembly of the international monetary order since the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. Protesters demonstrated against the IMF's austerity policies towards developing nations. Representatives from Third World countries called for debt cancellation, and others advocated for solutions to world hunger and poverty. Due to the protest's high-profile venue, media outlets extensively covered the protests. Later IMF and World Bank meetings received smaller protests, but following the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, all meetings of the IMF, World Bank, G7, and G8 summits were met with significant protests. [1]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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2015 East Malaysian floods
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High intensity rainfall since 17 January 2015 caused major flooding across several parts of Sarawak and Sabah. Around 13,878 people had been evacuated with one teenage girl became the only casualty. [3][4][5][6]
According to a paper published by Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) in 2012 titled "Malaysia Climate Change Scenarios", the northeast monsoon has become more intense. There were drier months corresponding with heavier rainfalls in the past 10 years. [7] As part of the northeast monsoon, continuous rain affected most areas in Sarawak including Johor in West Malaysia and parts of Sabah. MMD in a statement on 4 January said Kuching Division was expected to receive 900mm of rain while other divisions in Sarawak would receive between 400mm to 500mm of rain. [8]
Sarawak had been raising its level of preparedness since 7 January as the meteorological department had forecast continuous rain in Sarawak. [8] Around 3,417 personnel from various departments and agencies were ready to be mobilised to disaster and flood areas. [8] The Sarawak state government put 239 lorries, 178 four-wheel-drives, three helicopters, a Royal Malaysian Air Force plane and three jet skis on standby. [8] Operators at Sg Nyigu Light Industrial area, Bintulu were advised to clear industrial waste from their compounds in order to prevent flash floods from happening. [9]
On 19 January, the floods had left many low-lying areas in the south of the state of Sarawak submerged in water thus forcing the people there to evacuate. A total of 22 relief centres opened in Kuching Division. More than 2,000 people evacuated from Kuching and its surrounding areas. [10] A total of 1,015 villagers from 264 families in Kampung Simpok were evacuated to a relief centre in Sekolah Kebangsaan St Peter Kampung Simpok, Padawan. [11] A main water pipe in Padawan also burst, leaving 20,000 villagers without water supply. There were also several landslides at Jalan Puncak Borneo, Kuching. As of 22 January, there were 3,373 evacuees in Kuching and 1,598 evacuees in Samarahan Division. [12] Samarahan residents blamed on poor drainage system as the cause of floods. [13] On 26 January, only two relief centres left open in Samarahan. The Kuching Division and coastal area of Simunjan were declared flood free. [14]
The flood also affected the central region of Sarawak especially in Mukah and Balingian. On 19 January, a boat capsized in the Mukah river and a teenage girl became the first casualty of the flood. [3] As on 22 January, there were 34 evacuees in Mukah. [12] On 26 January, strong water currents swept two cars off Jalan Tatau, Bintulu. However, nobody was hurt during the incident. Rising water levels at Sungai Sebungan, Sebauh had forced 300 villagers to move to higher grounds. Only one relief centre was left open in Mukah on 26 January. [14] On January 27, flooding at Kuala Tatau had caused 198 people from 73 families to evacuate from their homes. [15]
In northern Sarawak, the flood also affected the Pan Borneo Highway which links Sarawak with Brunei and Sabah. [16] On 20 January, pupils from Sekolah Kebangsaan Siang, Lawas were evacuated in anticipation of floods in the morning. [17] As of 22 January, the number of evacuees from Limbang has risen to 1,244 people. A total of 9 schools were closed at Limbang and 5 schools were closed at Lawas. Limbang petrol station was also crowded due to public fear of limited supply of petrol. [12] Flood victims at Baram claimed that they did not receive sufficient food ration for their daily needs. [18] As of 26 January, one relief centre left open in Marudi while 356 people from 117 families still left in three relief centres at Limbang. [14] On 30 January, flash floods occurred in Miri. [19]
On 19 January, a total of 3,201 people were evacuated from their homes due to floods. A total of 39 relief centres opened on that day. [10] As of 22 January, the overall flood situation in Sarawak had improved. The total number of evacuees had decreased from 10,000 to 6,249 people. A total of 27 schools were closed in Sarawak. [12] As of 26 January, only 835 people from 265 families were still in relief centres. [14] On 29 January, floods receded almost completely in Sarawak, where only 19 people from 6 families stayed in Sebauh relief centre. [20] No major thefts were reported during the period of flooding in Sarawak. [21] Plantations and timber operations in Sarawak has not been affected by floods. [22]
In Sabah, more than 500 families are currently seeking shelter at seven relief centres with the number of evacuees keep increasing. [5] Around 2,700 students were affected as 11 schools were closed due to the floods. [23] As of 23 January, 39 schools with 7,000 students were affected by the flooding. The number of evacuees however continued to decrease as water levels began receding in several parts of Beaufort and Membakut. [6]
Malaysia — Prime Minister Najib Razak instructed the relevant agencies to channel aid to the people affected by floods immediately.
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Floods
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Coal mining disaster kills seven in south-west Pakistan
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The fire broke at a mine in the Tor Ghar area of Harnai district, approximately 170km west of the provincial capital Quetta. Harnai District deputy commissioner Sohail Anwar Hashmi told Reuters that the methane gas build-up in the coal mine had triggered an explosion resulting in the death of workers inside. Chief Inspector of Mines Shafqat Fayyaz told Reuters: “Rescue teams recovered the bodies of all seven coal miners this morning, who burnt to death as a huge fire broke out in the mine after the blast.” Hashmi was cited by Al Jazeera as saying: “The coal miners entered inside the mine to fill the cracks caused by [the] fire, but they died of asphyxia caused by the deadly methane gas.” The miners were working 1,500ft deep inside the coal mine when the incident occurred. Fayyaz added: “The five coal miners entered in the mine but have forgotten to open the ventilation which filled the mine with methane gas.” The operations at the coal mine are currently suspended and a probe into the accident has been ordered. This is the second mine disaster within a week in Balochistan. Last week, six miners were killed following a methane gas explosion in the Marwar coal field in Balochistan.
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Mine Collapses
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New England Compounding Center meningitis outbreak
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A New England Compounding Center meningitis outbreak that began in September 2012 sickened 798 individuals and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. [2][3][4] In September 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with state and local health departments and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), began investigating a multistate outbreak of fungal meningitis and other infections among patients who had received contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts. The NECC was classified as a compounding pharmacy. The traditional role of compounding pharmacies is to make drugs prescribed by doctors for specific patients with needs that can't be met by commercially available drugs. [5]
In October 2012, an investigation of the NECC revealed the company had been in violation of its state license because it had been functioning as a drug manufacturer, producing drugs for broad use rather than filling individual prescriptions. In December 2012, federal prosecutors charged 14 former NECC employees, including president Barry Cadden and pharmacist Glenn Chin, with a host of criminal offenses. It alleged that from 2006 to 2012, NECC knowingly sent out drugs that were mislabeled and unsanitary or contaminated. In a congressional hearing the FDA Commissioner was asked why regulators at the FDA and the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy did not take action against the pharmacy years earlier. The legislators were told that the agency was obligated to defer to Massachusetts authorities, who had more direct oversight over pharmacies. The FDA Commissioner also stated, "In light of growing evidence of threats to the public health, the administration urges Congress to strengthen standards for non-traditional compounding." The Drug Quality and Security Act (H.R. 3204), a bill to grant the FDA more authority to regulate and monitor the manufacturing of compounding drugs, was passed by the Senate on November 27, 2013. The incident resulted in numerous lawsuits against NECC. In May 2015, a $200 million settlement plan was approved that set aside funds for victims of the outbreak and their families. In September 2012, an outbreak of fungal meningitis was reported in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the outbreak to fungal contamination in three lots of a medication called methylprednisolone used for epidural steroid injections. The medication was packaged and marketed by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), a compounding pharmacy in Framingham, Massachusetts. Doses from these three lots had been distributed to 75 medical facilities in 23 states, and doses had been administered to about 14,000 patients after May 21 and before September 24, 2012. Patients began reporting symptoms in late August, but, because of the unusual nature of the infection, clinicians did not begin to realize the cases had a common cause until late September. Infections other than meningitis were also associated with this outbreak, which spanned 19 states. As of March 10, 2013, 48 people had died and 720 were being treated for persistent fungal infections. [6][7] In November 2012, some patients recovering from meningitis were reported to be experiencing secondary infections at the injection site. [8] Although no cases of infection were reported to be associated with any other lots of medication, all lots of all medications distributed by NECC were recalled in separate actions by NECC and regulators. Subsequent analysis identified some contamination in other lots. [citation needed]
On October 9, 2012, members of the United States Congress asked federal health officials for briefings on the outbreak as a first step toward possible legislative action to strengthen federal drug safety regulations. [9] On November 14, 2012, members of a congressional committee investigating the outbreak accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of failing to prevent the crisis by moving too slowly against the Massachusetts pharmacy. FDA commissioner Margret Hamburg testified that the agency's efforts to address problems at the compounding center had been hamstrung by Congressional interference, conflicting court rulings regarding FDA jurisdiction, and tenacious litigation by the compounding center itself. [10] At the same hearing, the co-owner of NECC chose to plead the Fifth, refusing to answer all questions. [11] By mid-December, over 400 lawsuits had been filed against NECC. [12]
In October 2012, Massachusetts shut down two more compounding pharmacies over sterility concerns after they conducted a surprise inspection. [13][14] In December, unexpected inspections of three more Massachusetts pharmacies found problems as well. [15]
On December 21, 2012, the New England Compounding Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Massachusetts district bankruptcy court. [12]
On September 4, 2014, pharmacist Glenn Adam Chin was arrested at Boston's Logan International Airport before boarding a plane headed to Hong Kong, and was charged with one count of mail fraud. Chin was responsible for supervising the clean rooms at the NECC and was involved in compounding the contaminated methylprednisolone. The FDA affidavit stated that Chin had used improper sterilization and testing techniques, unsafe practices, falsified cleaning logs, and ordered pharmacy technicians to fraudulently mislabel vials. Chin was the first to be charged in the ongoing inquiry. [16][17]
On December 17, 2014, 14 former NECC executives and technicians, including co-founder and president Barry Cadden, were indicted on a host of federal charges related to the outbreak. Most seriously, Cadden and Chin were charged with helping orchestrate a massive racketeering conspiracy that led directly to 25 of the deaths. [18]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) traced the outbreak to contaminated methylprednisolone (MPA) used for epidural steroid injections. [19][20] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) examined foreign materials from unopened vials under microscope and found fungal matter. The fungus was found in the cerebrospinal fluid of several patients, which confirmed fungus caused the meningitis. [21] The medication was packaged and marketed by the New England Compounding Center (NECC) of Framingham, Massachusetts. [20]
According to the CDC, between May 21 and September 24, 2012, patients in 23 U.S. states received injections from three implicated lots of a steroid, preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate, for back pain, and some of these patients developed symptoms consistent with fungal meningitis. [22][23] This form of meningitis can be caused by epidurally administered medications, but is not contagious by person-to-person contact. On October 9, authorities estimated as many as 14,000 patients may have been exposed to the contaminated drug. [24]
The NECC said that immediately after it was notified about the infections it initiated a voluntary recall September 26. [25] Next, on October 4, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a recall of all NECC medications, advising hospitals and clinics to remove and segregate all lots from their stock inventory. [26] NECC also announced on that day they were suspending all of their operations and voluntarily surrendered their licenses to the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services, while continuing to cooperate with the ongoing investigations by the CDC and the FDA. [27]
On October 15, the FDA issued a warning that two more drugs may have been contaminated. Both came from NECC.
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Disease Outbreaks
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