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Almost $50,000 in fines handed out to churchgoers who broke COVID rules by attending The Christ Embassy service in Blacktown
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Almost $50,000 in fines have been handed out to churchgoers who broke public health orders by attending a service in Sydney's west.
Sixty people, including children, travelled to The Christ Embassy at Blacktown from COVID hotspots on Sunday evening.
Police were called to Fourth Avenue after a member of the public contacted Crime Stoppers.
The service — which was streamed live on Facebook — was led by Pastor Martin Osaghae.
During a different service earlier in the day, Mr Osaghae called for an end to lockdowns.
"In the name of Jesus, we refuse every lockdown in our cities, in the name of Jesus go ahead and pray," he told the congregation.
Hours after the evening service, 30 people were fined $1,000 each for breaching the public health orders — including Mr Osaghae.
Police fined him and another 27 people $500 on Wednesday for failing to wear or carry a mask at the illegal gathering.
Mr Osaghae was also served a prohibition order, which prevents the church from operating for a week.
The Christ Embassy has been fined $5,000 — taking the total number of fines issued to $49,000.
"Inquiries revealed there was no QR code present at the entry to the building," a NSW Police spokesperson said.
"Those in attendance were from various LGAs including Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield and Liverpool."
The Christ Embassy was founded by Chris Oyakhilome, who previously urged his followers against getting COVID-19 vaccinations.
Its main headquarters are in Lagos, Nigeria.
See our full coverage of coronavirus
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Organization Fine
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East Africa is suffering its worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 ...
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East Africa is suffering its worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years
By Bethlehem Feleke, CNN
Updated 1524 GMT (2324 HKT) January 25, 2020
Swarms of millions of locusts strike East Africa 01:34
Nairobi (CNN)
The Horn of Africa has been hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Friday.
The invasion poses an unprecedented threat to food security in the entire sub region, where more than 19 million people in East Africa are already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, the agency said.
In Kenya, it is the worst invasion in 70 years, and the government is spending $5 million to manage the swarms of locust and prevent spreading.
Invasions of desert locusts are irregular in the region, the last instance occurred in 2007 at a much smaller scale.
"This current invasion of desert locust is significantly larger in magnitude and scale than previously experienced in Kenya and across East Africa," said Dr. Stephen Njoka, the Director General of Desert Locust Control Organization.
Irregular weather and climate conditions in 2019, including heavy rains between October and December, are suspected to have contributed to the spread of locusts in the region.
A cyclone that swept through northeastern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia in December, bringing heavy rains to the area, created ideal conditions for the insects to breed for the next six months, said Keith Cressman, FAO's senior locust forecasting officer.
Large swarm areas of northeastern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia are not being detected or treated, leaving the area vulnerable to new generations of locusts.
If locusts are left untreated by control measures, swarms can potentially grow 400 times larger by June, Cressman said.
Unexpected and unpredictable rainfall in northern Kenya that carried into January also continues to enable favorable breeding ground. As large swarms continue to move into Kenya and multiply, "you have a recipe for the situation to deteriorate further," said Cressman.
"Under a worst-case scenario," the invasion could become a plague if it is not contained quickly, the FAO said in a statement.
Emergency action plan
The locusts have already devastated large swaths of food and pasture in the region, but the extent of the damage cannot yet be determined since new swarms are spreading across borders everyday, said Njoka.
While Njoka remains positive the pesticides are working, the rapid and constant movement of the locusts makes it difficult to assess just how effective it has been.
The FAO has escalated the situation to the highest disaster level, leading the agency to put in place a six month emergency action plan and suggest it will take USD $70m to contain the swarms across the region.
A man walks through a locust swarm in Kenya on 22 January 2020, Samburu County, Ololokwe, Kenya.
The desert locust is the most destructive of all food-eating locust species because of its speed and ability to multiply rapidly. According to the FAO, the insects do not attack people or animals and there is no evidence they carry diseases that can harm humans.
Desert locusts swarms can stay in the air for very long periods of time, traveling up 130 kilometers (80 miles) or more a day, the FAO said.
A swarm can vary from one square kilometer to several hundred square kilometers with up to 80 million adult locusts in each square kilometer of a swarm.
A swarm the size of Paris can devour as much food as half the population of France, according to the FAO.
CNN's David McKenzie contributed reporting.
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Insect Disaster
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Swimming-Rattled by ripped trunks, Hungary's Milak settles for gold
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Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Swimming - Men's 200m Butterfly - Medal Ceremony - Tokyo Aquatics Centre - Tokyo, Japan - July 28, 2021. Kristof Milak of Hungary poses with his gold medal on the podium REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel
TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters) - Hungarian gold medallist Kristof Milak was left furious, flustered and convinced his chance of beating his own world record had vanished on Wednesday, when his swimsuit ripped moments before his Olympic 200 metres butterfly final.
Milak was knocked off his stride by the torn trunks, with the satisfaction of winning his first gold medal and taking American Michael Phelps's 13-year-old Olympic record playing second fiddle to his rage about a spurned world record shot.
"They split 10 minutes before I entered the pool and in that moment I knew the world record was gone," Milak said after marching off the pool deck to collect his kit bag and pulling out the damaged trunks, which he switched for a spare set just before the final.
"I lost my focus and knew I couldn't do it."
The Hungarian turned third at the midway point but powered off the wall and opened up an insurmountable lead down the third length to finish in 1:51.25, four metres ahead of silver medallist Tomoru Honda of Japan, with Italian Federico Burdisso winning bronze.
Milak won't be keeping the defective swimwear as a souvenir of his Olympic victory.
"It was a problem for me. I have a routine, a rhythm, a focus. This broke my focus and that problem impacted my time," he told a news conference.
"I wasn't swimming for the medal. I was swimming for the time. I said earlier I wanted a personal best. And my personal best is a world record."
The gold was no surprise for Milak, 21, who has dominated the event and has the top four career times in the 200 butterfly, with the next three belonging to Phelps.
"It was impossible to win this race because Milak is Milak," said bronze medallist Burdisso, a comment that drew a shoulder shrug and confident smile from Milak.
Honda gave a similar response when asked if winning gold was impossible - a question Milak took offence to.
"I'm angry about the question, this is not respectful to the other swimmers," he said.
"I want respect for all the competitors. Obviously, they're swimming for the gold."
Slideshow: Best of July 28
Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Women - Pool F - Japan (Ishii/Murakami) v Switzerland (Huberli/Betschart) - Shiokaze Park, Tokyo, Japan - July 28, 2021. Megumi Murakami of Japan in action. REUTERS/John Sibley TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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New York-based Human Rights Watch on Friday criticised corporations sponsoring the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for ignoring what it says are China's crimes against humanity in its far western region of Xinjiang.
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Break historical records
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India and Pakistan brace for worst locust attack in 27 years
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NEW DELHI -- In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, India and Pakistan are battling another crisis -- their worst locust attack in nearly three decades.
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Insect Disaster
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2010 Slovenia floods
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The 2010 Slovenia floods, on the weekend of 17–19 September 2010, were caused by heavy rains in Slovenia, resulting in one of the worst floods in the country's history. Among the regions affected were the capital Ljubljana, the Central Sava Valley, Laško, the Slovene Littoral and Lower Carniola. [3][4] Initial damage was estimated to reach €15 million. [5] Three people died. [1][2]
In Ljubljana, the river Gradaščica – together with the Mali Graben stream – flooded several parts of the Vič District, and record water levels were reached. [3][6][7] Several transformers were shut down to prevent accidents, leaving some 3,000 people without electricity. [7]
In Zagorje ob Savi, a great part of the town was flooded by the Sava river and several landslides were reported. [7][8]
The town of Laško was flooded by the Savinja river and road connections were cut by the flood waters. [7][9]
In the Littoral region, the Rižana and Dragonja rivers flooded several roads, closing all three border crossings with Croatia in the region. Parts of Portorož Airport and the Sečovlje salt fields were flooded as well. [10] The Vipava River was flooding in the northern Littoral. [7]
The Sava, Krka and Kolpa rivers flooded in the Lower Carniola. The towns of Krško, Brežice and Otočec were partially flooded. [8]
In Upper Carniola, the town of Žiri was affected by the Poljane Sora. In Železniki, a town that was most affected in the floods exactly three years before,[11] no bigger problems were reported. [12]
Some parts of Croatia along the Sava river were also flooded,[13] around 20 people were evacuated around Zagreb. [14]
By Monday, 20 September, the water levels began to decrease, although landslides in some regions remained a threat. [15] Four days after the flooding, the area of the Municipality of Dobrepolje was still 6 meters above the usual water-level. [16]
Slovenia was extensively flooded on the morning of 18 September 2010
Floods affected more than 60 percents of the country
Many settlements were so flooded that people used boats as transport
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Floods
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President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran deal
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New York: President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Iran deal, one of the biggest foreign policy moves of his presidency and a decision that will have repercussions in every corner of the globe. After months of threatening that he would abandon what he called "the worst deal ever made", Trump confirmed the seemingly inevitable at 2pm on Tuesday (4am Wednesday AEST). "It didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace and it never will," Trump said on Tuesday as he announced his decision to withdraw. "It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen." A signature foreign policy achievement of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the agreement between Iran and six world powers (US, UK, Russia, France, China and Germany) lifted crippling sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran slowing its nuclear research and development program and allowing UN weapons inspections in. The deal allowed Iran to sell its oil to the West again and reintegrate into the global economy. Trump said he would reinstate "the highest level" of sanctions that the US had waived as part of the 2015 nuclear accord. Reimposing sanctions will likely lead to higher global oil prices. The Economist projected a rise of between $US5 and $US10 per barrel. Dumping the deal could also increase tensions in the already volatile Middle East, strain US alliances with Europe and complicate dealings with Russia and China, which are signatories to the pact. However, in his announcement, Trump repeated his previous complaints that the deal was too soft on Iran, didn't do anything to address Iran's ballistic missile program, and helped enable Iran to become a player in other conflicts, particularly in Syria and Yemen, and to sponsor terrorism. President Donald Trump shows a signed memorandum confirming the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. He referenced a recent claim by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran had run a secret nuclear weapons program, in violation of the agreement. Even if Iran complied with the accord, the regime could be on the verge of a nuclear breakout due to the accord's "totally unacceptable" sunset clause which could see the agreement end in as little as 10 years, Trump said. "If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East," he said. "Everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs." He left the door open to negotiating a better deal with Iran. Trump's decision was "akin to a soccer player turning around and booting the ball into his own goal deliberately," said Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the bipartisan foreign relations committee. He predicted that Iran would now feel "more emboldened" in its more nefarious activities, and European nations would try to hold the deal together by offering to increase economic activity with Iran. However, officials in Iran have given mixed signals. Some have said the deal is pointless without American involvement but President Hassan Rouhani, who was heavily invested in the deal, indicated a willingness to stay in the accord without the US. "Iran is a country that adheres to its commitments, and the US is a country that has never adhered to its commitments," he said in a press conference shortly after Trump's announcement. In parts of the Sunni Arab world, however, the reaction was positive. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist and adviser to the government in the United Arab Emirates, tweeted "When dealing with Iran you need a stick not a carrot. The bigger the stick the better. Predominantly Shiite Iran is regarded with suspicion and hostility in Saudi Arabia and across other parts of the Arab world. Former president Barack Obama, under whose administration the Iran nuclear agreement was reached, said the decision was "misguided." "I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake," Obama said in a statement. Nicholas Burns, a former US ambassador to NATO and former lead US negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program, said the withdrawal was "reckless" as it would isolate the US and strengthening anti-Western hardliners in Iran. "I don't see what's in this for the US," he said. "It seems [Trump] is just intent on, again, tearing something down that President Obama built up, just as with the Paris Climate Change [Accord] and Trans-Pacific Partnership. "He tears down international agreements and yet suggests nothing to put in their place. That's weak leadership." Loading However, Republican senator Tom Cotton said he supported Trump not "stand[ing] idly by on a deal that only, at best, postpones Iran's nuclear weapons capability". On the 2016 presidential campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised to pull out of the "insane" deal. "It's one of the worst deals I've ever witnessed, and I've witnessed some beauties," he said earlier this year. The President’s own aides had persuaded him twice last year not to take this step, the New York Times reported. However, internal resistance subsided considerably in recent months after Trump appointed two vociferous anti-Iran deal advocates - John Bolton and Mike Pompeo - as national security advisor and secretary of state, respectively. Trump said the deal did nothing to stop Iran's involvement in terrorism and had not brought peace to the region. Credit:AP European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, conceded that the deal with not perfect but was too dangerous to dump. They had lobbied Trump intensely and attempted to craft improvements that would satisfy him. But Republican strategists said the writing was always on the wall when Trump made the withdrawal an election promise as intrinsically linked to his persona as building a wall on the Mexico border. "I don't see how he can be Trump and stay in," Jim Hanson, a Trump ally and head of the right-leaning Center for Security Studies, told the LA Times ahead of the announcement. The Iran nuclear pact was signed after two years of negotiations involving the US and a further 10 years of negotiations prior to US involvement.
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Tear Up Agreement
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Read: David Brooks’s message to the Boston College Class of 2021
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On Monday, May 24, the Class of 2021 graduated from Boston College. At the in-person ceremony, the graduates and their guests were addressed by David Brooks, a columnist at The New York Times and the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, among other books. Mr. Brooks spoke about the challenge and opportunity of graduating into a world emerging from a pandemic and developing a new set of cultural values. During the ceremony, Mr. Brooks was awarded an honorary degree. Below is the full text of the address. Hello, Boston College Class of 2021! You guys certainly didn’t take the easy route to get here. You managed to complete all this during one of the hardest periods of our lifetime. And yet, this day is real. You know it’s real because you are hungover, your parents are proud, your professors are shocked, and I am in awe. Today, the power Covid had over our lives is shrinking and the power we have over our lives is growing.Tweet this
You are the Winston Churchill of college classes. You’ve shown tenacity, courage and admirable ability to only moderately cheat on the social distancing rules. You mastered amazing skills. You learned the principles of biology over Zoom at the same time you were actually making yourself breakfast. You learned to aggressively contribute to seminar discussions in the first third of your class so you could turn off your video for the second two thirds of the class. You learned to adjust back to in-person discussion and the harsh realization that you were going to have to go back to wearing pants. You learned to stare at me right now with expressions of rapt attention, even though, in fact, you are all fast asleep. Whenever I am honored to give addresses to graduating classes, I try to pass along a few pieces of valuable information. First, this may be your first college graduation so you should know that when you get your degree it’s customary to tip Father Leahy 10 or 20 bucks; just to show him he did a good job. It’s also important to tip your commencement speaker—usually something in the low four figures. The other ritual of these exercises is that the school picks a person who has had some career success to give you a speech saying career success doesn’t matter at all. Several years ago, it was the fashion for people like Steve Jobs and J.K. Rowling to give addresses on how important it is to fail. From this, you learn that failure is wonderful if you happen to be Steve Jobs or J.K. Rowling. My advice to you is don’t fail. The usual clichés of this sort of address are pretty familiar: Follow your passion. Take risks. Listen to your inner voice. Your future is limitless. Be true to yourself. First, my generation leaves you with a mountain of debt, and then we give you a bunch of career-derailing advice that will prevent you from ever paying it off. So, let’s dispense with all that today because this is a college graduation like no other in our lifetimes. All graduations are transitions, but this is the mother of all transitions. For you most of all, but for those of us in the stands and at the podium, this is a new opening. The fact that we are all in this stadium together is a new birth and it’s truly a day to celebrate. The hard part will be choosing wisely how to spend our time, so that we spend our time on the things we really love and not the distractions we sort of like.Tweet this
First, I want to take a minute to celebrate those who are not here. So many people who love you and who made this day possible couldn’t be here because of Covid restrictions. They are watching online. Think about your grandparents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles. They are filled with joy today because you are happy. They are proud of everything you do and everything you are going to do. How about we take a second to give them some applause, for those online. We are all coming out of something hard. For many of us there has been grief and loss and fear and dread. For almost all of us there was exhaustion, stress and memory loss. I don’t know about you, but during the peak of Covid, I’d wander into rooms wondering why I went there. I spent an awesome amount of time wondering where my ear buds were. I became more touchy, fragile, vulnerable doing all of this. I think it was because of all the emotional nourishment that we missed - dance parties, spring break, sitting around a bar late at night and laughing. Before Covid, 25 percent of Americans said they were lonely. Now it’s 35 percent, and 61 percent of young people. But here’s the good thing about enduring a hard thing when you are young. Forever after, you’ll now know you have the capacity to survive hard things. And you don’t need to be terrified of them. Do something that will both make you more interesting and widen your horizon of risk.Tweet this
Today, the power Covid had over our lives is shrinking and the power we have over our lives is growing. The image that comes to my mind is recess. Think of a bunch of kids stuck for months and months inside. Suddenly they get to burst through the doors of the playground and they sprint out into the playground of life. That’s us right now. We’re on the brink of having a lot of fun. Spring is here. The economy is probably going to be smoking hot. We’re moving from restraint to release, from absence to presence, from distance to communion, and the only question is are we going to let old anxieties hold us back or are we going to seize the abundance that is actually available starting today. I don’t know about you, but I am going to try to be the world’s best appreciator. I’m going to try to deeply appreciate all the things I took for granted. All the things that didn’t used to seem fun are suddenly going to seem fun: Not being able to catch the bartender’s attention because the bar is packed. That will seem fun! I’m a Mets fan, but going to a Yankees game will seem fun—so long as they lose. Going to weddings will be fun, even when we think the couple is making a mistake. Going to age-inappropriate concerts will be fun. I don’t care if you don’t want a damn boomer at your Cardi B concert. I’m going anyway. The problem in the month ahead is not distance but probably overstimulation, too many options, frazzle. The hard part will be choosing wisely how to spend our time, so that we spend our time on the things we really love and not the distractions we sort of like. We all love a lot of things, but as St. Augustine said, some desires are higher than other desires. In a world of plenty, it’s probably going to be necessary to sit down with a piece of paper and rank the desires of your heart, and then make sure your schedule matches your rankings. This is actually a surprisingly hard exercise: What do you want more than anything else in the world? What is the ultimate truth to which you surrender? What are you doing when you feel most alive? What is your ultimate desire? If you can’t rank your loves you’ll scatter your talents and your life won’t accumulate into anything. And you will lead an aesthetic life of pleasure, displeasure and boredom, but it will not be an accumulation of accomplishments. How you spend your days is how you spend your life, said Annie Dillard. The answer to your life’s deepest questions are not inside; they are outside.Tweet this
This is the part when I give you practical advice. So, write this down or at least try to remember one of these things:
1. Form a giving circle. Take ten of your best BC friends. All of you commit to put money in a pot every year. Then gather every year for a few days to decide how to give it away. The charity piece of this exercise is nice, but that’s really just a pretext so you can live life side by side with a group of lifelong friends. 2. Divide your life into chapters. Sad people experience their lives as just a progression of days and before long they realize their life has sort of drifted away. Happy people stop at crossroad moments like today and say, “Okay, this next three to five years is a chapter of my life. What do I want this chapter to be about? What is my life task right now?” And then after the next three to five years, do it again. And then do it again. 3. Identity Capital. Your job in your 20s is to build what Meg Jay calls identity capital. This is having some wild experience that people at dinner parties and job interviews are going to want to ask you about for the rest of your life. Maybe it’s salmon fishing in Alaska or teaching kindergarten in Mongolia. But do something that will both make you more interesting and widen your horizon of risk. 4. The gem statement. When you are fighting with someone about something, there is always something deep down that we agree on. We siblings may disagree about our father’s medical care, but we both want the best for our father. When you are in the middle of a disagreement, you can save a lot of relationships by focusing on the gem statement. 5. You need to think about marriage long before you think you need to think about marriage. I don’t mean you have to get married this week. But you have to practice making romantic commitments, so you have some experience when it comes time to make the biggest decision of your life: who to marry. And remember, a marriage is a 50-year conversation. Pick somebody you can talk to for the rest of your life. Love waxes and wanes, but admiration endures. Pick someone you admire. 6. How to find your purpose. The wrong thing to do is to ask, “What do I want from life?” The right question, as Viktor Frankl put it, is “What does life ask of me?” What problem is out there that I’m equipped to tackle? The answer to your life’s deepest questions are not inside; they are outside. I’ll end by talking about the most important process we’re all going to go through over the next couple of months: The Great Unmasking.
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Famous Person - Give a speech
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FBI searching for suspects in string of suburban bank robberies
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Surveillance footage shows two men accused of robbing banks in Lombard and Wilmette before attempting to rob a Naperville bank Monday, according to the FBI. Courtesy of FBI Chicago Two men are accused of robbing banks in Wilmette and Lombard before attempting to rob a third in Naperville on Monday afternoon. Courtesy of FBI Chicago The FBI is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of two men suspected in a string of suburban bank robberies Monday afternoon. The first occurred about 1:45 p.m. in Lombard at the PNC Bank, 2810 S. Highland Ave., according to the FBI. The second took place less than an hour later at the Byline Bank Wilmette branch, 3245 Lake Ave. The suspects then attempted to rob the Fifth Third Bank at 1311 Ridgeland Ave. in Naperville about 4:17 p.m. before fleeing the parking lot and heading north on Naperville Road in a green Dodge Challenger, officials said. Officers pursued the car on eastbound Interstate 88 but lost sight as it approach Interstate 294, according to Naperville police. No injuries were reported. The two suspects were described as Black men in their early 20s wearing face masks, according to police. One was between 5 feet, 11 inches and 6 feet tall, weighing 150 to 170 pounds, and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with "AMG Petronas Motorsports" on the front. He wore blue jeans, white shoes and white gloves, the FBI said. The second suspect was about 5 feet, 9 to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing 150 to 190 pounds, and wearing a gray Nike long-sleeve hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and multicolored Air Jordan shoes. Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to contact the FBI Chicago office at (312) 421-6700.
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Bank Robbery
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Thomas Mills | Mark Meadows unwittingly outlines a coup
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Donald Trump’s former Chief-of-staff Mark Meadows, who was also a Congressman from North Carolina, has never been the sharpest tool in the shed. He once dumped money into an organization that believes the earth is only 6,000 years old and that humans lived side-by-side with dinosaurs. Now it appears he created a Powerpoint that outlined plans to end our democracy by staging a coup to keep Donald Trump in office. Meadows gave the Powerpoint, as well as other damning communications, to the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol. He surrendered the documents to the committee after agreeing to cooperate with the investigation. After they received them, Meadows changed his mind and is no longer cooperating. The Committee has moved to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress. In speculating why he would turn over such incriminating material and then abruptly stop working with the committee, Rolling Stone Magazine added, “It’s also possible that Meadows just isn’t very bright.” Bingo. The Powerpoint is titled, “Election fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN.” In it, slides outline options for undermining the certification of the election. Three options depend on then-Vice President Mike Pence somehow appointing bogus electors or delaying the counting of the electors. Another slide titled “Recommendations” calls on Trump to declare a state of emergency claiming that voting systems have been taken over by “foreign influence” despite evidence to the contrary. The documents Meadows disclosed paint a clear and undeniable intent to overturn the election and the will of the voters. They also indicate that Trump was, at the very least, aware of the planning. In another age, Meadows would be in chains awaiting trial and, quite possibly, execution. That the country is not shocked and outrage says a lot about the worrisome state of our nation. Nobody seems to be taking these actions seriously except the members of the House committee. Republican member Liz Cheney says the hearings “will tell the story of the riot at the Capitol in ‘vivid color.’” I hope she’s right, but I’m skeptical that the public will give the attempted coup the attention it deserves. The right is pushing back with a disinformation campaign to discredit the hearings to the Republican base. The GOP establishment is unwilling to stand up to the populists who are ascendant in the party and trying to downplay the actions of Meadows, Trump, and other plotters. And the Democratic Party is enmeshed in an internal squabble between the moderates and the left flank, seemingly far more concerned about social policies than protecting democracy. Reporter Barton Gellman wrote a piece for the Atlantic that claims, “January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election.” The article is carefully documented and depicts a base that is easily misled by disinformation, lacking the critical thinking skills to discern what’s true and what’s distortion. Gellman describes a party that’s no longer based on ideology but driven by loyalty to Donald Trump. “The party is in his thrall. No opponent can break it and few will try.” It’s a disturbing article because so much rings true. Gellman later said that his article is not a prediction, but a warning. Americans must protect our democracy and recognize the threat. Holding people accountable for January 6 is key to achieving that goal. Mark Meadows laid out the nefarious desires and intentions of the Trump White House. We cannot look away now or we risk an end to the American experiment as we’ve known it.
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Regime Change
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Return of the rabbit plague: South Island's environmental fiasco
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The saying goes: “Never turn your back on a rabbit, especially in Central Otago”. But New Zealand has. And now the population has exploded - again. This week, Newsroom Investigates launches an in-depth series about the South Island rabbit rampage. Rabbits are eating their way through parts of the South Island, turning productive farm land into bare, honeycombed ground where only weeds survive. Lifestyle blocks and subdivisions around Queenstown are infested. The North Otago town of Moeraki has them in plague proportions. Welcome to another environmental fiasco in Aotearoa. There have been two occasions in our history when rabbits were almost wiped out: in 1947, when the government set up a Rabbit Destruction Council with the aim to “kill the last rabbit,” and exactly 50 years later when the calicivirus was released illegally by a fed-up farmer. READ MORE: * High hopes for rabbit virus dashed as rabbit numbers explode across Otago * Contractually binding farm plans a better idea * Anzac letters: 'Dear Mother, they have taken my right leg' * Aotearoa's animals, & their humans But in both instances, as soon as it looked like the pest problem was under control, the government and many landowners put their chequebooks away. Once left to breed unhindered, it is near impossible to bring their numbers back under control. And while the authorities dither, the rabbits breed like, well, rabbits. A single female rabbit can produce 50 offspring in a year and females can breed at five months of age. The Otago Regional Council concedes there are “hot spots”, but says rabbits are not at plague proportions yet. But there are many who disagree. Landowners told Newsroom if better control measures are not introduced immediately an ecological disaster is just around the corner. While the release of the 1997 virus worked for a time, wiping out 80 per cent of the rabbit population, over the last 24 years it has gradually become less effective, with some rabbits forming an immunity and others - such as the rabbits in Moeraki - stumping scientists as to why the virus doesn’t seem to affect them. The range of factors playing in the rabbits' favour in Otago and beyond has been widening over the past decade, with a rapid change in land use. While rabbits have been the bane of dryland farmers' lives since the 1870s, these days so-called ‘lifestyle rabbits’ are laying waste to the gardens of homeowners, reserves and golf courses throughout Otago and Southland. Thousands of acres of farmland are being subdivided into lifestyle blocks, a third of all houses built around Alexandra in the last 10 years were in rural areas. With people and pets residing where once there was just wide open space, control options narrow (you can’t poison or trap) whilst creating a more desirable home environment for Mr and Mrs Rabbit and their rapidly expanding family. How do you catch a rabbit in a sub-division? In towns like Moeraki in North Otago, they’re living under people’s holiday homes, on the marae, under tanks, boats and along reserves and roadsides. And where there are rabbits, other pests follow – feral cats and ferrets who enjoy a side dish of native bird with their rabbit. Locals say climate change is exacerbating the problem – the three to four month window of opportunity to poison hungry rabbits over a good old-fashioned, freezing-cold Central Otago winter, is now more like six weeks. Owners of lifestyle blocks throughout Central Otago are finding they have to spend two or three thousand dollars a year on rabbit control – that’s after they’ve forked out $10,000 on a rabbit-proof boundary fence. Advertisement “The Real Estate agents didn’t tell us about the rabbits” is an often heard complaint from recently-arrived Aucklanders. The Ministry for Primary Industries describes rabbits as one of the country’s most serious environmental pests. “It’s previously been estimated that rabbits cost New Zealand over $50 million in lost production, plus a further $25 million in direct pest control a year.”
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Insect Disaster
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2017 Patan riots
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The 2017 Patan riots refers to the riots between Muslims and Hindus in the Vadavali village in Gujarat’s Patan district. [1]
According to the police the violence started following a minor fight between two students of different communities. [2][3] Sunsar residents stated that Muslim students had beaten Hindu students and them being attacked by Vadavali residents when they reached there, while Vadavali residents accused Thakores of starting the riots. [4]
The mobs attacked and looted around 50 Muslim houses and set them on fire including many vehicles. [2] Two people were killed, and ten were injured,[2]
The Indian government deployed 100 police personnel and two companies of State Reserve Police at the village. [5] In an official report sent to the revenue department, the district collector of the district, KK Nirala called the event a "Hindu-Muslim riot" and media reports said the violence followed after a fight between a Muslilm student and a Thakore student outside an examination centre. [6] However, a report by Vadavali Nagrik Adhikar Samiti, an NGO formed by human rights workers and lawyers, stated that the violence was a well planned and organised attack on the Muslims residents by a team that included a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The police filed two FIRs, which included 31 people of Thakore community, and 14 Muslims. A total of 14 arrests have been made. [7][8][9]
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Riot
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2014 East Harlem gas explosion
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The 2014 East Harlem gas explosion occurred at 9:31 a.m. on March 12, 2014,[1] in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The explosion leveled two apartment buildings located just north of 116th Street at 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue,[2] killing eight people, injuring at least 70 others, and displacing 100 families. [1][4][5][6] City officials initially pointed to a gas leak as the cause of the blast. [2][7] In June 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed the explosion on failures by Consolidated Edison and the city. [8]
The two collapsed buildings were five stories tall and stood at approximately 55 feet (17 m). Together, the two buildings contained 15 residential apartment units. 1644 Park Avenue had the "Spanish Christian Church" on the ground floor, while 1646 Park Avenue had a piano store occupying that space. [2][9]
Utility company Consolidated Edison said it received a gas leak call 15 minutes prior to the explosion and had sent its two crews to the spot; however, they arrived after the explosion. [10]
The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) – which has responsibility at the Federal government level for investigating accidents involving pipelines and the transportation of hazardous materials[11] – said that natural gas was found in nearby soil in varying concentration. NTSB Board member Robert Sumwalt also revealed that the gas main buried under Park Avenue near the scene at 116th Street dated back 127 years, to 1887. [12]
Bricks, wood, and other debris landed on the adjacent elevated Metro-North Railroad tracks, suspending service to and from Manhattan for most of the day while crews cleaned up the mess. Service was restored by the evening rush. [13]
In on-the-fly television interviews, witnesses described feeling the force of the blast from blocks away, including entire buildings shaking as though it were an earthquake, and it furthermore blew out windows in adjacent properties. Morning television shows on the major city networks were preempted in favor of nonstop news coverage of the explosion and its aftermath. [14]
The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the New York City Police Department responded to the scene after the explosion within two minutes. [15]
Two fire companies, quartered in an FDNY firehouse located approximately five blocks to the south, reported hearing and feeling the effects of the massive explosion and alerted the department's dispatch office. Within a short amount of time, the incident escalated to a five-alarm fire, bringing over 250 firefighters to the scene. [16]
The American Red Cross in Greater New York was on the scene and helping those displaced, but otherwise not requiring emergency medical services, using nearby Public School 57 as a makeshift center before MTA buses transported them to a Salvation Army shelter at 125th Street. [17] The NTSB was investigating the scene. [18]
The fatalities in the explosion and collapse included eight people. [6][19][20][21]
Two bodies were pulled from the wreckage that were not initially identified. [6][20][21]
The NTSB, which is responsible for investigating gas-related incidents, reported on June 9, 2015[25] that faulty welding of two Con Edison gas pipes was primarily responsible for the explosion, but that it might not have happened at all if New York City had repaired a large hole in a nearby sewer main which it had known about for 8 years. The hole in the sewer undermined the soil beneath the gas pipes, causing them to sag and then crack open. Thus it was the combination of the two circumstances which caused the disaster. The NTSB also faulted local residents who did not report the odor of leaking gas, which began at least a day before the explosion, and Con Edison's failure to notify the New York City Fire Department immediately once the leak had been reported to the company. [8]
Con Edison sued New York City, and the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio rejected the NTSB's finding of fault on the city's part, saying that the effects of sewer leakage was "localized" and did not cause the gas pipes to break. [26] The utility's suit, filed in June 2015, blamed the gas explosion on neglect by the city. Con Edison said the city was notified on multiple occasions about depressions on the street pavement. [27]
In November 2015, an investigation by the New York Public Service Commission accused Con Edison of 11 violations of gas-safety regulations. The PSC found that the utility did not correctly install a gas pipe, and failed to notify the Fire Department after two reports of gas odors. The report said that undermining of a gas line by a neglected city sewer line was a contributing factor. [28] In February 2017, Con Edison agreed to pay $153 million to settle the PSC charges. It was described by New York governor Andrew Cuomo as the largest payment for a gas safety incident in the state's history. The settlement will largely go to gas safety education, repairs of pipes prone to gas leaks, and costs incurred by residents and businesses as a result of the explosion. The utility did not admit wrongdoing. [29]
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Gas explosion
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1929 Arthur's Pass earthquake
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The 1929 Arthur's Pass earthquake occurred at 10:50 pm NZMT on 9 March. The sparsely settled region around Arthur's Pass of the Southern Alps shook for four minutes. [1] Tremors continued almost continuously until midnight and sporadic strong aftershocks were felt for several days. The earthquake was measured at 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale and the intensity of shaking in the epicentral region has been assessed from historical records as VIII (Severe) on the Modified Mercalli Scale. Intensities of VI (Strong) were observed in Christchurch and Westport. [1] The earthquake occurred on the Poulter Fault, which was not identified and mapped until 2001. New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component is accommodated by the North Island Fault System. [2] The Poulter Fault runs for approximately 50 km Northeast from the junction of the Bealey and Mahinga rivers to the valley of the Hurunui River. Between 16 km and 36 km of the fault ruptured, with dextral displacement of up to 4 metres and dip-slip displacement of 1–2 metres (North side up). [3]
Numerous landslides were triggered, damaging the Midland Railway and blocking roads. The highway connecting Canterbury and the West Coast via Arthur's Pass was closed for several months. Many water tanks and chimneys were damaged or toppled. Two years after the earthquake, trampers in the Otahake Valley discovered that a 900m high section of the side of a mountain had collapsed, blocking the valley and sending debris 5 km downstream. Although (as of 2009[update]) this is one of the ten largest land-based earthquakes to strike New Zealand since European settlement, it was overshadowed by the more deadly 1929 Murchison earthquake a few months later.
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Earthquakes
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Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888
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The Burlington railroad strike of 1888 was a failed union strike which pitted the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (B of LE), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (B of LF), and the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association (SMAA) against the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) its extensive trackage in the Midwestern United States. It was led by the skilled engineers and firemen, who demanded higher wages, seniority rights, and grievance procedures. It was fought bitterly by management, which rejected the very notion of collective bargaining. There was much less violence than the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, but after 10 months the very expensive company operation to permanently replace all the strikers was successful and the strike was a total defeat for them. [1]
The Burlington system of railroads was one of the great transportation networks of the 19th Century, operating about 6,000 miles of line in 1888, the year of the great strike. [2] The system consisted of seven individual railroads, of which the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) was the core unit, headed by company President Charles Elliott Perkins from 1881 and young General Manager Henry B. Stone. [3] The line was conservatively managed and profitable, paying its largely Boston-based[4] investors healthy annual dividends of 8 percent throughout the decade of the 1880s. [2]
The profitability of the Burlington line rested on the twin pillars of maintenance of high shipping rates through pricing agreements with competitive lines[5] and the suppression of wage rates, with President Perkins taking the view that wages were set by the simple market principle of supply and demand, leaving no room for misguided external intervention practices such as arbitration. [6]
Perkins was hostile to the notion of unionization and to the strike movement, approving a local decision to terminate striking Chicago freight handlers in 1886 and seeking to "go for" the Knights of Labor (KOL) in the wake of that union's strikes upon other rail lines in that year. [7] The company formally served notice on its workers that membership in the KOL and continued employment by the Burlington line was incompatible, forcing many members to quit the union to keep their jobs. [7]
During the era of steam locomotion, operation of an engine was a two-person job, with an engineer controlling the throttle and responsible for the vehicle's safe operation, alongside a lesser-paid fireman, who broke coal into combustible-sized pieces and stoked the boiler which provided the train's motive energy. [8] These two cab-dwelling operators were together known as "enginemen," with the typically young fireman subordinate to the engineer and generally an aspirant to later promotion to the rank of engineer. [9] Despite their proximity in the workplace and their commonality of interests, these two groups maintained their own distinct craft organizations, which frequently stood a cross-purposes with one another, divided by jurisdictional jealousy. Membership in these craft brotherhoods, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (B of LE) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (B of LF), which were historically fraternal benefit-societies and which had taken a bleak view of the efficacy of striking, was still tolerated. [10] These seem to have represented little risk to the company, with the B of LE having engaged in no strikes anywhere since its various local defeats in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877,[11] and the firemen a seemingly easily replaceable group of lesser skilled workers with a similar tradition of antipathy to strikes and collaboration with employers. [12]
On January 23, 1888, a meeting of the grievance committee of the B of LE was convened at Burlington, Iowa, joined by the adjusting committee of the B of LF. [13] the two bodies met individually for two days to identify their own specific concerns before holding a joint session on January 25, at which a negotiating committee of 14 engineers and 14 firemen was elected. [13] The cause of an engineer terminated the previous week by the CB&Q, ostensibly for failing to maintain a schedule, which the B of LE believed was mitigated by a defective watch, was placed near the top of the joint committee's agenda. [14] Adding fuel to the fire was the terminated engineer's important place in the B of LE as a member of the brotherhood's previous grievance committee. [15]
A meeting of the joint grievance committee with General Manager Stone over the fate of the fired engineer was sought without success, and he left to Burlington to take a new position with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad in short order. [16] Bad will remained in the aftermath. The fate of the fired engineer was not the primary cause of the strike. A further and far more intractable division between the employees and the railroad related to a new schedule of pay for enginemen put forward on February 15 by the grievance committee, which sought to eliminate a much maligned system of differential pay based upon the time employees had spent with the company and specific conditions of various routes, and instead basing pay upon raw mileage traveled — a method of wage calculation which would have had the effect of significantly increasing wages across the board. [17]
The profitable Burlington system and its method of pay according to a myriad of classifications was seen by employees as significantly less remunerative than the pay scales in use by other railroads in the Chicago area, which tended to be based upon mileage traveled. The summary rejection of the change to a mileage-based system by the unyielding General Manager Stone via a circular letter dated February 22, reaffirmed in a series of face-to-face negotiations over subsequent days, set the stage for a work stoppage. [18]
The nature of the pay increase was frankly admitted. In a contemporary history of the strike, B of LE official John A. Hall acknowledged that
"It is true that the Brotherhoods have demanded ... 'a considerable average increase of pay,' but the public must understand that they did not demand this increase from the Burlington over what is paid by its competitors in business. Had the Burlington conceded this increase of pay, it would only have been called upon to pay precisely what its neighbors and rivals have been paying for years. A large average increase of pay must be made before the employees of this road are placed upon an equal footing with those of other roads. For many years the Burlington road had the advantage of a first-class equipment of enginemen at rates of pay far below what its competitors have been compelled to pay for the same service. "[19]
In an effort to break the impasse head of the B of LE Peter M. Arthur and head of the B of LF Frank P. Sargent were brought into Chicago on the morning of February 23. [20] In discussions with General Manager Stone, Arthur noted that 90 percent of neighboring roads paid their enginemen by the mile; an offer was made to accept a lower rate of mileage pay — 3.5 cents per mile for engineers running passenger lines rather than the 4 cents per mile previously demanded. [20] Stone refused to move from the current pay schedule and rates on behalf of the railroad, effectively ending the initiative. [20]
The brotherhood chiefs sent a telegram to President Perkins declaring their men to be "determined to strike" but "we want to prevent it" and offering to accept the "same terms as made with the Chicago and Alton Railroad and Santa Fe system — that is, 3.5 cents per mile for passenger trains and 4 cents per mile for the slower freight trains for engineers, with firemen receiving 60 percent of these rates. [21] Perkins responded that while "the CB&Q is ready and expects to pay as good wages as are paid by its neighbors," at the same time "the railroad situation is not such as to justify any general increase at present" and indicating plans to arrive in Chicago in about a week's time. [22]
This vague offer proved unsatisfactory, however, and the joint committee of engineers and firemen, in consultation with the brotherhood heads, voted to strike for the new methods and rates of pay. [23] The strike was slated to begin early in the morning of Monday, February 27, and the various delegates of the grievance committee departed for their respective homes along the Burlington line to announce the decision in person and make preparations for a strike. [23] No announcement was to be made to the company until noon on February 26, in the hopes that a last-minute settlement might be arranged or alternatively company preparations for the stoppage be left wanting. [24]
At the appointed time of 4 am on February 27, engineers and firemen across the CB&Q Railroad abandoned their engines at their terminal points, halting their routes and returning to the nearest terminal point if they were already on the road. [25] The company, having been formally notified of the strike date only the day before and believing that more time remained for negotiations, was taken by surprise. [26] Company officials in Chicago immediately determined that their top priority was to keep suburban commuter trains running if possible, with the line standing as the second largest suburban commuter line in the region. [27] No freight traffic would be run until passenger service was restored, company officials determined. [27]
The loss of CB&Q freight service was particularly damaging to the massive Chicago meatpacking industry, with the road the number one importer of live cattle into the city for slaughter. [27] The line also was positioned to have a dominant transportation role for the city's lumber industry, which would be quickly submerged by filled railroad cars unable to reach other lines save over gridlocked Burlington tracks. [28]
Emergency crews consisting of an engineer and fireman had been chosen to run passenger trains on the morning of February 27 if regular crews failed to show up for work at the appointed hour. [29] Company officials expected that about 40 percent of regular crew members would remain on the job despite the strike; brotherhood officials predicted a total walkout. [30] Ultimately union officials were more correct, with only 22 engineers out of 1,052 and 23 firemen out of 1,085 remaining on the job after the strike deadline, barely 2% of the company's enginemen. [30]
Strikers anticipated that the railroad could not function without them and anticipated a speedy settlement on favorable monetary terms, with some of them leaving personal belongings in the roundhouses after the strike deadline.
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Strike
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Philippines and Kuwait sign agreement on workers' rights
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A bitter dispute between Kuwait and the Philippines over the treatment of domestic workers is set to end with the signing of a new agreement.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had banned workers travelling to Kuwait amid allegations of abuse.
Public outrage followed the murder of a young maid whose body was found in a Kuwaiti apartment freezer in February.
The resulting diplomatic row resulted in the expulsion of an ambassador and the arrest of embassy employees.
About 260,000 Philippine citizens live and work in Kuwait, most as domestic servants.
A copy of the agreement seen by AFP news agency reportedly includes the right for workers to keep their passports and mobile phones, which are routinely confiscated by employers in Kuwait and other Gulf states.
Workers would be guaranteed food, housing, clothing and health insurance - and employment contracts would be renewed only with approval from Philippine officials, AFP said.
Speaking after the signing of the new agreement on Friday, Philippine officials said a new ambassador would be appointed to Kuwait and would advise President Duterte to lift his ban on workers travelling to the country.
"I think the crisis is over. We will move on with the bilateral relations and we will resume normal ties with Kuwait," an official told AFP.
Millions of Filipina maids and other domestic workers travel abroad and send money home to their families. Moving abroad to work is so common that the government runs academies to train people in skills for foreign service industries.
Stories of abuse, however, remain common. The death of Joanna Demafelis, a 29-year-old maid, was one cause of the diplomatic crisis.
She was found dead in a freezer in her employer's apartment in February, more than a year after she was reported missing, with signs of torture.
Her employers, a married couple, were found after an extensive search aided by Interpol. Both have been sentenced to death in absentia in Kuwait, which has requested their extradition from Lebanon and Syria where they are being separately detained.
The spat between the two nations reached new highs in April, when Kuwait expelled the Philippine ambassador over video showing embassy staff "rescuing" workers allegedly abused by their employers.
Kuwait called the actions "smuggling" and a violation of its laws, and arrested employees of the Philippine embassy. It said it would "chase down" those responsible and put them on trial.
It also recalled its own ambassador to the Philippines - which the Philippines only discovered when it summoned him to protest against the treatment of its citizens in Kuwait.
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Sign Agreement
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Tokyo Olympics: Namibia’s Christine Mboma Breaks U20 Record Twice as Nigeria Secure Wrestling Medal
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Namibian sprinter Christine Mboma twice broke Allyson Felix’s under-20 world and Olympic record as she reached Tuesday’s final of the women’s 200m on day ten of the Tokyo Olympics.
Her compatriot Beatrice Masilingi twice set a personal best to progress as well, both athletes were forced to withdraw from their preferred 400m heats when they were ruled in July to have high levels of testosterone.
Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou will have another chance to win an Olympic medal as she also reached the 200m final.
Wrestler Blessing Oborududu secured Nigeria’s first medal of the Games by reaching Tueday’s final of the women’s 68kg freestyle event.
Late on Sunday there was good news for Botswana’s 2012 silver medallist Nijel Amos when he was reinstated into Wednesday’s final of the men’s 800m after he fell in his semi-final.
Namibia’s Christine Mboma reached Tuesday’s final by breaking the under-20 world record for the second time in one day as she finished second in her semi-final of the women’s 200m behind Jamaica’s defending Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Mboma became the first under-20 athlete to run under 21 seconds as he lowered her own record to 21.97 seconds
The Gambia’s Gina Bass’ time of 22.67 in fourth place in the same semi-final was not fast enough for her to progress as a fastest loser.
Moments earlier Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi set her second personal best of the day as she finished second behind the former Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica in her semi-final, both qualified automatically for the final.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast won the third semi-final to join the two Namibians in the final.
Nigeria’s Grace Nzubechi Nwokocha finished fourth in a new personal best and Niger’s Aminatou Seyni set a new national record in fifth in the last semi-final but neither was quick enough to progress.
Mboma had broken the under-20 world and Olympic record for the first time earlier on Monday in her heat of the women’s 200m.
The 18-year-old’s time of 22.11 seconds eclipsed the time set by the USA’s six-time Olympic champion Allyson Felix, as she won silver at the Athens Games in 2004.
Her compatriot Beatrice Masilingi also set a personal best to progress to the semi-finals, along with Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou, Niger’s Aminatou Seyni, The Gambia’s Gina Bass and Nigeria’s Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha.
Both Mboma and Masilingi were informed in July by World Athletics that their testosterone levels were beyond the allowed limit for female athletes wanting to run their preferred distance of 400m unless they medically lower their testosterone for a period of at least six months.
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan became the third African to finish just outside the medals in a sprint event in Tokyo as she finished fourth in the women’s 100m hurdles final. The race was won by Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou and South Africa’s Akani Simbine both finished just outside the medals in the women’s and men’s 100m finals respectively.
In the women’s 1500m reigning Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon started her title defence by sailing through to Wednesday’s semi-finals with a comfortable win in her heat.
“It was hot today and at least I made it to semi-finals. We used a lot of ice because it was hot and we had to stay in normal temperatures, going to the track it was better it was not like we were warming up,” she said after her race.
Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo finished second behind Kipyegon to progress along with two more Kenyans – Winny Chebet and Edinah Jebito – as well as Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu and Freweyni Gebreezibeher.
Jebito was awarded a place in the semi-finals despite finishing 12th in her heat after she fell alongside Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan, who managed to recover and win the heat.
In the men’s hammer Egypt’s Mostafa Elgamel failed to progress to the final after a managed a throw of 72.76m.
Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu beat Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold in the semi-finals of the women’s 68kg freestyle event to secure at least a silver medal, the first for her country at the Tokyo Games.
She will face Tamyra Marianna Stock Mensah in Tuesday’s to decide who wins gold. It will also be Nigeria’s first ever Olmypic wrestling medal.
Nigeria women’s campaign came to and end with a third straight defeat this time losing 102-13 to hosts Japan.
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Break historical records
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Judge ordered a man with a long criminal history to receive rehabilitation and four years instead of the seven-year prison sentence
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In a sentencing hearing Friday, Chief Judge Doug Walker ordered a man with a long criminal history to receive rehabilitation and four years in a Durango halfway house instead of the seven-year prison sentence recommended by the Assistant District Attorney. Samuel John Clark pleaded guilty to reduced charges of felony conspiracy to distribute or possess illegal drugs, a Class 3 felony, and to aggravated motor vehicle theft, a Class 4 felony. On Sept. 1, Clark and Elizabeth Rogers were arrested at the Maverick gas station on U.S. Highway 491 on suspicion of drug possession and distribution. Clark was also charged with motor vehicle theft that occurred on March 4, and for unlawfully attaching license plates that were not issued to the vehicle, according to court documents. During booking on Sept. 1, a package found on Rogers allegedly contained 145 counterfeit Oxycontin pills suspected to include fentanyl, and 32.2 grams of suspected meth. Rogers faces numerous charges including two felony counts of alleged illegal drug possession with intent to manufacture of distribute, two felony counts of alleged unlawful possession of illegal drugs, accessory to crime, violation of bail bond conditions and harboring a minor. Rogers also faces charges for the alleged theft of an Airstream trailer from the Dolores River Campground in August 2020. The trailer was recovered after a man who purchased the stolen trailer notified the owners when he saw a social media post about the alleged theft. Citing Clark’s long criminal history in Arizona, Will Furse, assistant district attorney in the 22nd Judicial District, recommended a state prison sentence of three years and four years to run consecutively. As part of the plea agreement, other charges were dismissed. During the sentencing, Furse said Clark suffers from a drug addiction and he “has a tendency to engage in drug distribution on a medium scale. Hopefully he will think differently when out of custody.” Under the recommended prison sentence, Clark could have been paroled in less than three years. But Clark’s attorney, Kenneth Pace, argued that prison sentences have not worked for Clark because they don’t address the root problems of drug addiction, behavioral problems and lack of life skills. Pace pushed for a community corrections sentence at Hilltop House in Durango, to be preceded by 90 days in an intensive residential treatment center to treat Clark’s drug addiction and behavior issues. Pace said Clark has been incarcerated for 11 years of the past 15 years. If imprisoned without rehabilitation, he likely would continue his criminal history and face prison again. “If we keep doing the same thing and get same result, maybe try something different,” Pace said. “Prison never addressed underlying criminogenic reasons he continued to offend.” Clark was only granted the chance at probation once. He once spent three months on parole in transitional housing with treatment services, which led to a period where he was law abiding for a few years. “I posit if had given him a longer stay in transitional living and a more structured environment, he would not be in front of us today,” Pace said. Pace argued that rehabilitating and treating Clark would be better for the community than imprisoning him and leaving him to return to crime upon release. “The ability to gain structure, maintain employment, learn basic skills of life and gain sobriety is how we can make a change,” Pace said. Hilltop House community corrections is a lockdown facility that allows residents to come and go while employed. Hilltop provides a variety of rehabilitation services. “It is not a slap on the wrist. Clark knows it is a difficult program, and he has a long road ahead of him,” Pace said. In a statement during the sentencing hearing, Clark said he came to Colorado to escape trouble in Arizona. “No matter how far I ran, my problems and addictions came with me. I am tired of running and am seeking help,” he said. “I’m thankful that Colorado believes that people are capable of change.” Walker handed down a four-year sentence to community corrections at Hilltop House, and $5,764 in restitution be paid to the victim of the vehicle theft. He instructed Clark to follow the requirements of Hilltop House and advised him that if he were kicked out of Hilltop and faced re-sentencing, he could receive a longer prison sentence. “I’m giving you the one chance you ask for; understand that it is one chance. Good luck, Mr. Clark,” Walker said.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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A majority of infected Indians with mild symptoms are recovering at home or in state-run centres
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A patient with an oxygen mask sitting outside a hospital in New Delhi on April 22, 2021. BANGALORE - Even as critically ill patients with Covid-19 in India are desperately seeking hospital beds with oxygen support in many states, a majority of infected Indians with mild symptoms are recovering at home or in state-run centres. Dr Balram Bharghava, head of the Indian Council for Medical Research, has said that the second wave of Covid-19 is leading to a higher proportion of asymptomatic patients. Health experts urge such people and those with mild symptoms to isolate at home and consult doctors by phone. The mild symptoms are fever, sore throat, cough, nausea, muscle pain, diarrhoea and loss of smell and taste. About 47 per cent of people with Covid-19 in Delhi, 80 per cent in Chennai and 84 per cent in Pune remain in home isolation as at Thursday (April 22). Not all states report these figures. But since those who isolate at home tend to be asymptomatic, the share of asymptomatic cases in the overall population of active cases can be a rough proxy for patients in home isolation. The proportion of asymptomatic cases was as high as 79 per cent in Mumbai and 99 per cent in Bengaluru. "As long as there is no shortness of breath, we recommend home care. Even people without pre-existing conditions that make them susceptible to severe Covid should keep watching their vitals," said Dr Archana Prabhakar, a Bangalore-based doctor with RxDx Healthcare, which does teleconsultations for Covid patients. As soon as home-based patients feel breathless, and their oxygen saturation drops below 94 per cent, they're asked to contact a physician. Documentary film-maker Shaunak Sen, 33, had isolated in his home in Delhi but contacted a doctor when he felt his mild fever spike on the third day. His oxygen was at 90 and he felt "extremely wheezy". A doctor his friend recommended told Mr Sen to walk for six minutes in his room and then check his oxygen saturation. "My oxygen had gone up, but she advised me to look for bed availability in any case. When my wheezing grew the next day, I called an ambulance and rushed to a hospital," he said. But having run out of beds with oxygen support, the hospital staff admitted Mr Sen into the psychiatry ward, where they gave him steroids until his oxygen normalised. Now, on the seventh day since he tested positive, Mr Sen is recovering in a room in his parents' house. He checks his temperature twice a day, his oxygen every hour. "My sleep has drastically increased to 10 hours. The rest of the time, I read news about the Covid-19 tsunami outside and binge on Netflix," he said. Film-maker Shaunak Sen in Delhi spends his home isolation watching Netflix, reading news, and regularly checking his oxygen levels and temperature. PHOTO: SHAUNAK SEN Private hospitals, clinics and digital healthcare companies now offer 14-day packages for home care, ranging from 5,000 rupees (S$90) to 20,000 rupees, including kits with a thermometer, an oximeter and a blood pressure measuring machine. Some hospitals also offer patients phone or video consultations with doctors. Nurses call them twice a day to monitor their vitals and give feedback. On Apr 22, the Indian Health Ministry advised Covid-19 patients at home to lie prone, that is, with their face down as it improves oxygen flow in critical patients and ensures that they are less likely to require ventilator support. Home treatment unburdens the healthcare system, but experts note that it could lead to excessive self-medication, oxygen stockpiling by panicking families, and late arrival to hospital. Home-based patients who suddenly become critical could also find neither space in hospitals nor essential drugs and oxygen. Home care facilities call for a separate bedroom and bathroom, which most poor Indians cannot manage. The state authorities worry about virus transmission due to inadequate home isolation but are unable to convince many to come to the state quarantine centre. Mr Siddhe Gowda's family is struggling to isolate the 60-year-old in their one-bedroom house in Bangalore, but refuses to send him to a Covid centre. "Who will go to that jail? Instead, we will do our best at home," said his granddaughter, Ms Shalini.
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Famous Person - Recovered
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Warnings of economic catastrophe come as Congress prepares to debate debt ceiling
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A general view of the White House in Washington, U.S. July 15, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's top aides and local officials nationwide pleaded with U.S. lawmakers on Friday to resolve a government debt showdown that they warned could spark an economic crisis. Congress plans next week to consider legislation that would avoid a default ahead of an October deadline, when the Treasury Department estimates it will no longer be able to pay all of the country's bills. The White House warned on Friday that a failure by the U.S. Congress to extend the debt limit could plunge the economy into a recession and lead the country to default on its payment obligations. A coalition of local elected officials, meanwhile, said a failure to resolve the issue could send ripple effects through credit markets and leave cities unable to fund healthcare and other services. The dire warnings come as lawmakers appeared no closer to resolving a dispute between Biden, his fellow Democrats, and Republican lawmakers, who have declined to help lift the $28.5 trillion federal borrowing limit to pay for programs already authorized by Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next week on a measure to resolve the showdown and a "continuing resolution" that could fund emergency spending on wildfire and hurricane disaster relief as well as the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan, according to a letter from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to colleagues. A decision had not been made on whether to pair the debt ceiling and continuing resolution measures, according to a senior Democratic aide. For months, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged Congress to act, saying cash and "extraordinary measures" being used to temporarily finance the government will run out next month. Some independent estimates see the deadline being in November. Republicans, who lost control of the White House in the 2020 election, have balked and placed the potential crisis on Democrats' shoulders. Democrats hold control of the House and Senate by slim margins. read more GRIM WARNINGS A new White House fact sheet warned that the failure to come to an agreement could send ripples through U.S. financial markets and halt billions of dollars in aid for disaster relief efforts, infrastructure and education funding, not to mention the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Economic growth would falter, unemployment would rise, and the labor market could lose millions of jobs," the White House said. "We expect Congress to act promptly." The United States Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan group representing 1,400 U.S. cities, added that "failure to increase the debt limit would send our economy into freefall" and that "this is no time to allow partisan politics to reverse the progress we've made." Investors continue to bet that an increase or suspension of the debt ceiling will take place in time to avoid a default of any kind, but Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note this week that the current go-round over the issue is "the riskiest debt-limit deadline in a decade." A broad U.S. default would be unprecedented. U.S. government debt is considered a safe investment and a benchmark for financial contracts worldwide, but periodic partisan showdowns over the debt ceiling have raised doubts. read more Goldman told its clients that the current deadline seems as risky as a 2011 standoff that led Standard & Poor's to lower its rating on U.S. sovereign debt and a 2013 crisis that coincided with a partial shutdown of the government. Early signs of concern have begun to emerge in the Treasury market, with modest premiums seen in yields for bills due to mature in October and early November. "The markets are assigning a small chance of problems," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney, an investment bank.
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Financial Crisis
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2017 Brazilian general strike
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The 2017 Brazilian general strike took place on April 28, 100 years after Brazil's first general strike in June 1917. [1] The movement was a protest against reforms of labor laws, which were later adopted and social security proposed by Michel Temer government and pending in National Congress of Brazil. [2][3][4]
More than 150 cities recorded stoppages,[5] and according to the organizers, there were 40 million people,[6] with no official admission balance or the number of protesters on the streets. [5] With wide coverage in international media,[7] the strike was minimized by the Brazilian press according to the journalist Paula Cesarino Costa, with emphasis given to conflicts between police and strikers. [8] With diverse reactions, politicians who support the government reduced the impact of the strike while oppositionists defended it as popular expression. [9][10][11] Political scientist Marco Antonio Teixeira, in an interview for the BBC, said that the strike was "smaller than organizers expected, but larger than the government would like". [5]
Several trade union centrals called for protests against new labor and social security laws proposals to the National Congress of Brazil by Michel Temer government. Supported by local unions, the strike was called by several trade unions. [12][13] Other movements were also at the forefront of demonstrations, such as Landless Workers' Movement,[14] Homeless Workers' Movement[15] and National Union of Students. [16]
The political parties that declared support or encouraged their militancy to appear on the streets were Worker's Party,[17] Brazilian Socialist Party,[18] Communist Party of Brazil,[19] Socialism and Liberty Party,[19] United Socialist Workers' Party, Brazilian Communist Party,[20] Democratic Labor Party[21] Solidarity[22] and Sustainability Network. [23] The strike was also supported by the Catholic Church in Brazil. Several bishops and priests summoned the faithful to protest against reforms. National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) issued a note calling on Christians to fight "in order to seek the best for our people, especially the most fragile". [24]
A military police officer from Goiás caused serious injuries to the university student Mateus Ferreira da Silva during a protest in the city of Goiania. The aggression was photographed and filmed, with photos in sequence capturing the moment when the captain's baton Augusto Sampaio breaks when reaching the student's head. [25] The student spent 11 days in the intensive care unit[26] and suffered several fractures in the face, in addition to traumatic brain injury. [26] The police officer was removed from external actions and awaits in administrative activities the conclusion of an investigation into the incident. [27][28]
The strike had international repercussions[10][8][7] and generated diverse reactions among journalists, government officials and political scientists, whereas, according to the Folha de S.Paulo ombudsman, national coverage was minimized and exacerbated conflicts between demonstrators and police forces. [8]
The president Michel Temer criticized acts of violence. [29][8][9] The former Minister of Justice, Osmar Serraglio, said that the strike would have failed. [30] Politicians who supported the government criticized the strike and its motives, while opposition politicians supported it as a backing of the popular will. [11] João Doria Junior, mayor of São Paulo, fought the strike stating in a social network that "Friday is a day of work". Free Brazil Movement also strongly campaigned against it, saying that demonstrators depend on the union tax. [31] The union centrals have classified the strike as the biggest of the last decades, counting on the adhesion of 40 million people. [6][10]
The political scientist Milton Lahuerta said that the strike represented "an expression of indignation". [9] Already for the journalist Merval Pereira, the strike would not be a popular uprising, but of unions that would be "losing perks". [32] The Rádio Jovem Pan declared that "there was no general strike" and that "in fact, the strike failed": "There were only small pickets of people who tried to stop Brazil". [33][10]
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Strike
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1975 Near Islands earthquake
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The 1975 Near Islands earthquake occurred at 08:43 UTC on February 2 off the coast of Attu Island, Alaska. The earthquake had a surface wave magnitude of 7.6 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). It caused heavy damage on Shemya Island, injuring 15 residents. The runways of Shemya Air Force Base sustained cracks up to 16 inches (41 cm) wide, and crevices with as much as 54 feet (16.6 m) of displacement were observed on the island.
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Earthquakes
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22-YEAR-OLD STARTS THE YOUNG BLACK PANTHER PARTY IN LANSING, MICHIGAN
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After learning about last year’s tragic police killing of George Floyd and also witnessing the remnants of police brutality and racial injustice in this country, a young Black man in Lansing, Michigan, decided to form a party that would be reminiscent of the original Black Panther Party. According to Lansing State Journal, 22-year-old Lansing resident James Henson has started a group in the original Black Panthers’ image, the Young Black Panther Party. Its website states: “We fight for what is right we believe that our freedom means more then anything. We fight for the future of our kids we fight for elders because they are the library of our history we are here to help out the black community to. Help out the homeless help out the kids in school we are here to clean the community clean up the streets find ways to support our people so if you want to know morn about us it is very simple. We are The Young Black Panther Party we not only here to support also here to do things and fix things.” Henson’s group is not aligned with the New Black Panther Party and already has chapters in Ohio and Washington, D.C. The YBPP identifies itself as anti-fascist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist as they believe in Black pride, gun rights, and African American socialism. “I always wanted to start something like this, but I never really had the time,” Henson tells the Lansing State Journal. “Since there was COVID with everything on pause, I found this opportunity to bring Black people hope in Lansing.” The State News reports that Henson wants to replicate the mission of the original Black Panther Party, which was started in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party was originally created to help monitor police activities in the Black community but it also moved onto social projects, such as giving out food and opening free health clinics. “Right now, I am donating some seeds to Black families that know how to plant,” Henson said. The donating of the seeds is the beginning of a larger project for Henson and his party as he is aiming to establish gardens in Black communities in order to feed families and teach them how to grow their own food. Henson has planted his own seed so that the Young Black Panthers can be a team for the Black community.
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Organization Established
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White House: U.S. to Withdraw from INF Treaty
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty at the State Department Friday. The United States will withdraw from a key international agreement governing the development of nuclear weapons, the White House has announced. Acting on an ultimatum given late last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday the U.S. will cease complying with the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty beginning Saturday. The treaty with Russia has been a key nuclear arms control, and the move risks the beginning of a new nuclear arms race. SEE: President Donald Trump also released a statement announcing the move on Friday. Russia, Trump said, has violated the agreement "for far too long." "We will move forward with developing our own military response options and will work with NATO and our other allies and partners to deny Russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct," he said. The U.S. will fully withdraw within six months, "unless Russia comes back into compliance by destroying all of its violating missiles, launchers, and associated equipment," Trump said. He added that the U.S. has upheld its end of the treaty for more than 30 years. A Russian official told reporters Friday that the Kremlin expected the U.S. announcement. Reuters reports that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was expecting "with much regret" to receive an official notification in the coming days, and lamented that U.S. officials have been "unwilling to hold any substantial talks" with Moscow to save the treaty. Russia has repeatedly rebuffed America's assertions that it has broken terms of the treaty. At times, the nation has denied existence of missiles and argued its range was compliant.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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Broken gas line leads to road closure near 59th Avenue and Thomas Road in Phoenix
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A major road had to be closed Wednesday afternoon after a gas line leak at a construction site in the West Valley.
Firefighters shut down Thomas Road just west of 59th Avenue after receiving reports at about 3:30 p.m. of a broken underground gas line, according to Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Todd Keller.
Firefighters from Avondale, Phoenix and Glendale responded to the incident, according to Keller.
Once they arrived, firefighters found out that construction workers had been digging when they hit a 2-inch steel gas line, according to Keller.
A hazardous materials team pulled hose lines to the affected area as additional fire crews assisted in evacuating 35 people from an apartment complex nearby, according to the Phoenix Fire Department.
Southwest Gas along with on-scene hazmat crews safely secured the 2-inch line with a “footage clamp,” according to Keller. "Shortly after the line was secured and there were zero readings of any present gas, tenants were notified that they could return to their apartments."
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Southwest Gas was at the scene after learning that it was one of its gas lines that was struck.
"We responded once we got noticed that there was a struck gas line. And sure enough, it was a third party that hit a gas line with a backhoe in the area," said Southwest Gas spokesperson Amy Washburn.
"Anytime anyone's going to pick up a shovel and start digging at all these, you'd call 811 to make sure they know what's underground, just to make sure they're not going to hit anything and the infrastructure that's under there," Washburn said.
Wednesday's incident is the latest gas leak at a Southwest Gas-serviced property. Several leaks have resulted in evacuations and an explosion at a Chandler print shop in late August.
The explosion prompted the Arizona Corporation Commission to begin an investigation into Southwest Gas with a meeting on Sept. 21 on pipeline safety.
“We cannot allow Arizonans to be afraid of the pipe below their very feet,” Commissioner Sandra Kennedy said.
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Gas explosion
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White House says Ebola outbreaks in Africa need swift action to avoid ‘catastrophic consequences’
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The two burgeoning Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea require swift action “to avoid catastrophic consequences,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. It’s the first official statement from the White House on the reemergence of Ebola in the two African countries. Psaki said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situations in Central and West Africa. “While the world is reeling from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola has again emerged, simultaneously, in both Central and West Africa. The world cannot afford to turn the other way,” Psaki wrote in the statement. “We must do everything in our power to respond quickly, effectively, and with commensurate resources to stop these outbreaks before they become largescale epidemics.” The World Health Organization announced last week that it had confirmed new cases of Ebola in Butembo, a city in North Kivu Province in the DRC. The city was an epicenter of the second-largest Ebola outbreak in the world, which was declared over in June. WHO officials said Friday it was transporting vaccine to the hard-to-reach city and racing to contain the highly lethal disease before it spreads widely. Separately, officials in Guinea confirmed over the weekend the reemergence of Ebola in N’Zerekore, in southern Guinea. On Sunday, after at least three people died and four others were infected with the disease, the West African nation declared an Ebola epidemic. Neighboring countries Sierra Leone and Liberia have put their citizens on high alert. Unlike the highly infectious coronavirus, which can be spread by people who don’t have symptoms, Ebola is thought to spread mainly through people who are already visibly sick. The virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of people who are sick or who died of the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ebola has an average case fatality rate of 50%, though it can vary by outbreak, according to the WHO. Psaki said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday spoke with the ambassadors of Guinea, the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia “to convey the United States’ willingness to work closely” with those countries. “Mr. Sullivan emphasized President Biden’s commitment to provide U.S. leadership to strengthen health security and create better systems for preventing, detecting, and responding to health emergencies,” Psaki said. “Outbreaks require swift and overwhelming response in order to avoid catastrophic consequences.” The reemergence of Ebola in Guinea and the DRC has global health specialists particularly concerned because those countries are home to the two worst Ebola outbreaks in history. The outbreak in the DRC that was declared over in June lasted for nearly two years. By the time it ended there were 3,481 total cases and 2,299 deaths, according to the WHO. The infamous West Africa Ebola outbreak began in Guinea in 2014 before spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the WHO. By its end in 2016, there were more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths, WHO says. “Since the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the United States has endeavored to elevate and prioritize health security assistance with partners through the Global Health Security Agenda and with strong support from Congress,” Psaki added Tuesday. “We cannot afford to take our foot off the gas – even as we battle COVID, we must ensure capacity and financing for health security worldwide.” During the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the U.S. CDC confirmed 11 cases of Ebola in the U.S., mostly among medical workers who had traveled to Africa to assist with the response. Dr. Syra Madad, senior director of the systemwide special pathogens program at New York City Health + Hospitals, told CNBC on Tuesday that the city is working to ensure its outbreak-response protocols are up to date. “Anytime we see an epidemic declared, at least in New York City — we know we’re a travel hub — we need to make sure that our staff are up to date on competencies when it comes to [personal protective equipment] and identifying these patients,” she said in a phone interview. “There’s a big scramble just to make sure that the concept of operations plan is dusted off.”
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Disease Outbreaks
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Delhi: Malls, markets can now open as per normal timings from Monday, says CM. Details here
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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said restrictions on timings to open market, shopping malls and others amid Covid-19 have been lifted from Monday and they will be allowed to function as per normal timings. Earlier, the Delhi government had allowed markets to remain open only till 8 pm in view of Covid-19 cases. However, with cases and positivity rate under control, the new relaxations will be effective from next week. A senior officer of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said along with the markets, restaurants and bars will also be allowed to open without any closing time restrictions. The liquor stores in the city that were allowed to open till 8 pm will also be allowed to open till their normal closing timing of 10 pm, officials said. Markets, restaurants and bars were closed with a surging second Covid wave in Delhi, from April 19. With improvement in the pandemic situation, markets, shopping complexes and malls were allowed to reopen between 10 am to 8 pm from June 14, by the DDMA. The closing time of markets in different parts of the city are decided by the market associations concerned. The restaurants and bars were allowed to reopen with 50 per cent seating capacity from June 21. However, a cap of 8 pm was imposed on their closing timings. Under the phased reopening of the economy, restaurants were later allowed to open from 8 am to 10 pm, while bars were permitted to serve customers from 12 noon to 10 pm. The restaurants and bars will now be allowed to remain open till their normal closing timing at 12 in the night. However, the restriction on 50 per cent seating capacity will continue, according to a DDMA order issued in Saturday. The status of COVID-19 in NCT of Delhi has again been reviewed and it has been observed that though the overall number of COVID-19 patients and positivity rate has declined considerably and the overall situation has improved, due caution and care has to be continued, said the order. "....adequate standards of Covid-appropriate behaviour continues to be followed and any such activity, that can lead to surge in cases, is allowed only after rigorous and due diligence," stated the order. The mention of closing time restriction on markets and shops, restaurants and bars has been omitted in the DDMA order, meaning they are allowed to open till their usual closing times, said the DDMA officer. The prohibited and restricted activities according to the DDMA order will remain in force from August 24 to 31, it said. The decision to keep markets open longer as per normal timings comes in the backdrop of Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) on demanding that the closing time of malls and markets in the national capital should be extended from the present 8 pm to 10 pm. In its letter to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), the CTI said the permission to operate shops till 8 pm is proving to be insufficient for most of the retail markets, especially during the festive season. According to the CTI, the markets get "crowded" and "chaotic" as soon the clock hits 8 pm, something that can be taken care of by extending the duration of its closing time. "If the shops will open till late in the evening, then there will be no crowd in the market. Everyone will be able to do their work comfortably, Corona rules will also be followed well," it added. Delhi was under a lockdown from April 19 to May 30 during the second wave of the Covid pandemic. Markets were allowed to open from June 7 under a phased reopening plan by the city government. Meanwhile, no death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Saturday, the second consecutive day the daily fatality count stood nil, while 19 fresh cases were reported, the lowest since April 15 last year, according to data shared by the city health department. This is the twelfth time since the starting of the second wave of the pandemic in the national capital that zero fatality has been logged in a day. On Saturday, 19 fresh cases were recorded as the positivity rate dropped to 0.03 per cent, according to the latest bulletin. According to covid19India.org, a crowdsourced initiative that collects data on COVID-19 and vaccination in India, Delhi had recorded 17 cases on April 15, 2020. On Friday, 57 fresh cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.08 per cent. Twenty-five cases of COVID-19 and two deaths due to the disease were recorded on Thursday, while the positivity rate had stood at 0.04 per cent, according to the official figures. On Wednesday, the city had registered 36 cases and four fatalities, while the positivity rate had stood at 0.05 per cent.
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Organization Closed
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2010 University of Puerto Rico Strike
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The 2010–2011 University of Puerto Rico strikes (UPR) refer to the student strikes which took place between May 2010 and June 2010 in ten of the university system's eleven constituent institutions, as well as the protests that occurred from October 2010 to February 2011. The 2010 strike began as a 48-hour walk-out on April 21, 2010, at the Rio Piedras Campus. The strike quickly grew in size and support as other campuses joined the protest. The strike forced UPR's Río Piedras Campus to shut down for more than 60 days. [1]
The UPR operating costs are provided by a variety of sources, including federal, state, and private grants and tuition and fees paid by students; however, they are mostly provided by the state government based on a fixed formula of 9.6% of the average collections deposited in the government's General Fund during the preceding two years, which was established in the university's organic law in 1966. [2]
On March 3, 2009, Governor Luis Fortuño announced his Fiscal and Economic Recovery Plan, which included reducing the government's annual expenditures by more than $2 billion at the start of the next fiscal year in July 2009 and possibly laying off up to 30,000 public sector workers. Eventually, 12,505 were laid off. [3] In 2007 and 2008, the General Fund collections ceased to grow, and even began to diminish, as a recession took hold of Puerto Rico's economy. Several new revenue streams, that had been created in fiscal control laws signed by Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá in 2006, were excluded from the General Funds and were not part of the base used for UPR's formula-based state revenues. Following the implementation of Law #7, declaring a Fiscal Emergency, government revenues going to the General Fund were further diminished or were reassigned to other areas of the budget. The property tax 5% temporary surcharge, the income tax 5% temporary surcharge, half of the revenues of the IVU tax sent to the Compelling Interest Fund Corporation (COFINA in Spanish), and the stabilization fund, which is basically a loan and not revenue, are excluded from the revenue base used in the computation of the formula. [citation needed]
The government's budget for this year exceeded $9 billion. Governor Fortuño stated in his Budget Message that, had the 1966 formula been based on expenditures and not revenues, the University would have been assigned approximately $864 million and not $733 million. He said that by dividing the $730 million from the budget of expenditure, the formula-based appropriation is close to 8.1% of expenditure,[4] although it remains 9.6% of General Fund revenues. In order to ameliorate the effect that a reduction on recurring revenues has had on the UPR budget, Gov. Fortuño made two non-recurring grants from the temporary ARRA federal funds, of $105 million and of $25 million, during the first two fiscal years of his term. [citation needed]
On September 25, 2009, the government announced it would lay off thousands of government workers from various agencies. On September 28, 2009, a General Student Assembly was held, prompted by the magnitude of these layoffs. This assembly created action committees for every college. It also decreed several days of strikes, and joined the so-called "National" Strike celebrated on October 15, 2009. [5][6]
These action committees were validated by Student Assemblies (held in venues with a maximum capacity much lower than the size of the student bodies), in September 2009 and again in April 2010. These committees have played a key role in the 2010 UPR-RP strikes. [citation needed] In almost every instance, vote by secret ballot has been opposed by the General Student Councils. The General Student Council of the Rio Piedras campus held a General Assembly of Students on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at the UPR-RP Theatre. Due to student overflow, the assembly was simultaneously held at Amphitheater Number 1 at the School of Education. In assembly, students approved a motion to create a Negotiating Committee which would be delegated to discuss several issues with the university administration. [7] The students demanded a repeal of Certification 98, put into order by the Board of Trustees, which made changes to the student waiver policies by limiting them. [8] These policies would waive some payments related to tuition and other additional fees. Students were also opposed to tuition fee increases and demanded guarantees that campuses would not be privatized. A call to strike was approved to pressure the administration to talk to and negotiate with students. The strike would last 48 hours starting on April 20, 2010 and if the administration failed to comply with student demands, an indefinite strike would begin on April 23, 2010. [citation needed]
Students from the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico also held a general assembly, in which they ratified the indefinite strike vote. The ratification vote led to a long and heated debate during the assembly, as students took turns in favor and against the strike. Students also deliberated on whether to vote by secret ballot or by hand vote. The vote for indefinite strike was ratified by an evident majority of the students through a hand vote. With this vote for strike, Mayagüez students joined the 9 other campuses, including Rio Piedras, on a campus-wide indefinite student strike. The Medical Sciences Campus was the only campus to remain operational throughout the strike. [9][10]
Before the strike began, members of the Negotiating Committee of students attempted unsuccessfully to meet with President José Ramón de la Torre and Interim Chancellor Ana R. Guadalupe, but the administration maintained it's stance in favour of the quota and budget cuts. [11]
The strike on the Rio Piedras Campus began on the morning of April 21, 2010; between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. students closed off access to the campus by locking all gates and building improvised barricades. [9] Students clashed with university guards that tried to prevent the students from closing the gates. Interim Chancellor Guadalupe ordered an indefinite shutdown of the campus around 9:35 a.m., and denounced that 19 university guards were harmed in the takeover. The Administration refused to meet up with the students in those 48-hours, therefore students activated their vote for an indefinite Strike to begin at midnight of 23 April. [12]
Students at 10 of the 11 campuses continued their protests. On May 3 the professors and students of the Cayey campus joined the indefinite strike. [13] At the Rio Piedras campus students remained inside throughout the strike, using portable showers and stoves in their makeshift camps. [9] Desks and chairs continued to barricade university gates for weeks, while student dorms were taken over by students. In May demonstrators and police clashed outside the Sheraton Hotel where a PNP fundraising event, which the governor Luis Fortuño attended, was taking place. [14]During June, In the midst of the strike, UPR President de la Torre announced a 24-hour ultimatum for the strike to end. [15] Students, however, continued their protests. [16] During the strike, there were also several reports of police preventing students camping inside from receiving food and water.
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Strike
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Egypt dig uncovers a 2,200 year old 'Alexander the Great' statue
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Alexander III of Macedon, also known as Alexander the Great, was a Greek king who ruled the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He was born in 356 BC in Pella, Greece, as a member of the Argead dynasty. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has discovered a statue of Alexander the Great within an ancient "residential and commercial zone" in Alexandria that they believe was a trade centre during the Ptolemaic period. After 9 months of digging, the archaeologists made their discovery. At the site, the team discovered moulds for statues of Alexander the Great, as well as an alabaster bust of the legendary ancient leader. Among these items were materials for making warrior amulets. As they explored the al-Shatby neighbourhood of Alexandria, "the mission discovered a large network of tunnel tanks painted pink for storing rain, flood, and groundwater to be used during the draught time," said Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, to the Xinhua news agency. Waziri went on to describe the town's layout: "it was composed of a main street and several branch roads that were all connected by a sanitation network." He believes the area was active between the 2nd and 4th centuries B.C. Waziri also mentioned that the team discovered pottery pots, coins, plates, fishing tools, and rest stops for travellers. The ruins of the area's buildings, combined with the artefacts discovered there, have led the team to believe that the town once had a bustling market selling pots and workshops for the creation of statues, amulets, and other items. Alexander III of Macedon, also known as Alexander the Great, was a Greek king who ruled the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He was born in 356 BC in Pella, Greece, as a member of the Argead dynasty. At the age of 20, he succeeded his father, King Philip II, to the throne and spent the majority of his reign conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and Northeastern Africa. Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (the Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; the Great Library (the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. After Rome, Alexandria was once the second-most powerful city in the ancient Mediterranean region. In recent years, Cairo has announced a slew of archaeological discoveries in the hopes of reviving a vital tourism sector battered by a 2011 uprising, insurgent attacks, and the coronavirus pandemic.
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New archeological discoveries
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ConocoPhillips Completes Acquisition of Concho Resources
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HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Concho Resources (“Concho”) (NYSE: CXO) following approval by shareholders of both companies. “We appreciate the strong support for this transaction from the shareholders of both companies, which we view as further affirmation of the significant benefits it will deliver” “We appreciate the strong support for this transaction from the shareholders of both companies, which we view as further affirmation of the significant benefits it will deliver,” said Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer. “This acquisition results in the combination of two premier companies that can lead the structural change for our vital industry that’s critical to investors. We expect the company to deliver differential performance on three key mandates: providing affordable energy to the world, generating superior returns on and of capital and demonstrating ESG leadership.” Lance added, “I also welcome Tim Leach to ConocoPhillips’ board of directors and executive leadership team. Tim and his organization built a best-in-class Permian company and we both look forward to creating significant value from this transaction. Thanks to the considerable efforts of our transition teams over these past few months, we’re off to a fast start toward seamlessly integrating our two companies and building momentum as a sector leader.” ConocoPhillips and Concho will each file the vote results for their respective special shareholder meetings on a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In accordance with the terms of the merger agreement, each share of Concho common stock was converted into the right to receive 1.46 shares of ConocoPhillips common stock at the effective time of the merger. --- # # # --- About ConocoPhillips Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ConocoPhillips had operations and activities in 15 countries, $63 billion of total assets, and approximately 9,800 employees at Sept. 30, 2020. Production excluding Libya averaged 1,108 MBOED for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2020, and proved reserves were 5.3 BBOE as of Dec. 31, 2019. For more information, go to www.conocophillips.com. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE "SAFE HARBOR" PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 All statements other than historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events and anticipated results of operations and business strategies, statements regarding the merger, including the anticipated benefits of the merger, the anticipated impact of the merger on ConocoPhillips’ business and future financial and operating results, the expected amount and timing of synergies from the merger and other aspects of operations or operating results. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that ConocoPhillips expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Words and phrases such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “budget,” “continue,” “could,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “expect,” “objective,” “projection,” “forecast,” “goal,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “effort,” “target” and other similar words can be used to identify forward-looking statements. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. Where, in any forward-looking statement, ConocoPhillips expresses an expectation or belief as to future results, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to be reasonable at the time such forward-looking statement is made. However, these statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors beyond ConocoPhillips’ control. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in the forward-looking statements. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those included in this press release. These include the ability to successfully integrate Concho’s businesses and technologies; the risk that the expected benefits and synergies of the merger may not be fully achieved in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that ConocoPhillips will be unable to retain and hire key personnel; unanticipated difficulties or expenditures relating to the merger; uncertainty as to the long-term value of ConocoPhillips common stock; the diversion of management time on merger-related matters; the inability to realize anticipated cost savings and capital expenditure reductions; the inadequacy of storage capacity for ConocoPhillips products, and ensuing curtailments, whether voluntary or involuntary, required to mitigate this physical constraint; the impact of public health crises, including pandemics (such as COVID-19) and epidemics and any related company or government policies or actions; global and regional changes in the demand, supply, prices, differentials or other market conditions affecting oil and gas, including changes resulting from a public health crisis or from the imposition or lifting of crude oil production quotas or other actions that might be imposed by OPEC and other producing countries and the resulting company or third-party actions in response to such changes; fluctuations in crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG and NGLs prices, including a prolonged decline in these prices relative to historical or future expected levels; the impact of significant declines in prices for crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG and NGLs, which may result in recognition of impairment charges on ConocoPhillips’ long-lived assets, leaseholds and nonconsolidated equity investments; potential failures or delays in achieving expected reserve or production levels from existing and future oil and gas developments, including due to operating hazards, drilling risks and the inherent uncertainties in predicting reserves and reservoir performance; reductions in reserves replacement rates, whether as a result of the significant declines in commodity prices or otherwise; unsuccessful exploratory drilling activities or the inability to obtain access to exploratory acreage; unexpected changes in costs or technical requirements for constructing, modifying or operating E&P facilities; legislative and regulatory initiatives addressing environmental concerns, including initiatives addressing the impact of global climate change or further regulating hydraulic fracturing, methane emissions, flaring or water disposal; lack of, or disruptions in, adequate and reliable transportation for ConocoPhillips’ sales volumes, including crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG and NGLs; the inability to timely obtain or maintain permits, including those necessary for construction, drilling and/or development, or the inability to make capital expenditures required to maintain compliance with any necessary permits or applicable laws or regulations; the failure to complete definitive agreements and feasibility studies for, and to complete construction of, announced and future E&P and LNG development in a timely manner (if at all) or on budget; potential disruption or interruption of ConocoPhillips’ operations due to accidents, extraordinary weather events, civil unrest, political events, war, terrorism, cyber attacks, and information technology failures, constraints or disruptions; changes in international monetary conditions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; changes in international trade relationships, including the imposition of trade restrictions or tariffs relating to ConocoPhillips’ sales volumes, including crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG, NGLs and any materials or products (such as aluminum and steel) used in the operation of ConocoPhillips’ business; substantial investment in, and development and use of, competing or alternative energy sources, including as a result of existing or future environmental rules and regulations; liability for remedial actions, including removal and reclamation obligations, under existing and future environmental regulations and litigation; significant operational or investment changes imposed by existing or future environmental statutes and regulations, including international agreements and national or regional legislation and regulatory measures to limit or reduce GHG emissions; liability resulting from litigation, including litigation related to the merger, or ConocoPhillips’ failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations; general domestic and international economic and political developments, including armed hostilities; expropriation of assets; changes in governmental policies relating to crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, LNG and NGLs pricing, regulation or taxation, and other political, economic or diplomatic developments; volatility in the commodity futures markets; changes in tax and other laws, regulations (including alternative energy mandates), or royalty rules applicable to ConocoPhillips’ business; competition and consolidation in the oil and gas E&P industry; any limitations on ConocoPhillips’ access to capital or increase in ConocoPhillips’ cost of capital, including as a result of illiquidity or uncertainty in domestic or international financial markets; ConocoPhillips’ inability to execute, or delays in the completion of, any asset dispositions or acquisitions ConocoPhillips elects to pursue; potential failure to obtain, or delays in obtaining, any necessary regulatory approvals for pending or future asset dispositions or acquisitions, or that such approvals may require modification to the terms of the transactions or the operation of ConocoPhillips’ remaining business; potential disruption of ConocoPhillips’ operations as a result of pending or future asset dispositions or acquisitions, including the diversion of management time and attention; the inability to deploy the net proceeds from any asset dispositions that are pending or that ConocoPhillips elects to undertake in the future in the manner and timeframe ConocoPhillips currently anticipates, if at all; the inability to liquidate the common stock issued to ConocoPhillips by Cenovus Energy as part of ConocoPhillips’ sale of certain assets in western Canada at prices ConocoPhillips deems acceptable, or at all; the operation and financing of ConocoPhillips’ joint ventures; and the ability of ConocoPhillips customers and other contractual counterparties to satisfy their obligations to ConocoPhillips, including ConocoPhillips’ ability to collect payments when due from the government of Venezuela or PDVSA. Additional important risks, uncertainties and other factors are described in ConocoPhillips’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and ConocoPhillips’ Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020 and September 30, 2020, certain Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings ConocoPhillips makes with the SEC and in Concho’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and Concho’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020 and September 30, 2020, certain Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings Concho made with the SEC. Except as required by law, ConocoPhillips does not undertake or assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or to reflect subsequent events or circumstances or otherwise. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. # # #
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Organization Merge
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Deadly virus’s pathway to infect cells identified
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Mosquito-borne Rift Valley fever virus slips into cells via protein linked to cholesterol metabolism by Tamara Bhandari•September 23, 2021 Goats shelter inside a pen during an investigation into a Rift Valley fever outbreak in Saudi Arabia in 2000. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pittsburgh have discovered how Rift Valley fever virus enters cells, pointing the way to new therapies to treat the deadly disease. Rift Valley fever virus causes economically devastating outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle. These mosquito-borne outbreaks lead to infection in people working with dead or dying animals, sometimes causing hundreds of human cases and dozens of deaths. Rift Valley fever, for which there is no specific treatment, has been limited to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. But mosquitoes capable of transmitting the virus can be found all over the world, necessitating a need to understand and control the virus. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research and School of Public Health have discovered that the virus gets inside cells by taking advantage of a protein normally involved in taking up low-density lipoproteins (LDL, the carriers of so-called bad cholesterol) from the blood. The discovery, published Sept. 23 in the journal Cell, could lead to therapies that prevent Rift Valley fever or reduce its impact by interfering with the ability of the virus to get into cells. “For people in areas where Rift Valley fever is endemic, an outbreak threatens not only their livelihood but their health,” said co-senior author Gaya K. Amarasinghe, PhD, a professor of pathology & immunology and of biochemistry & molecular biophysics at Washington University. “People have a 1% to 2% chance of death if they get infected with this virus, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s about the same as COVID-19. The disease is much more severe in domesticated animals, especially young animals, which get very ill and die in large numbers. This virus has been flying under the radar, but given that it’s transmitted by mosquitoes that are found everywhere, it could spread into other parts of the world and become a serious issue.” The World Health Organization has listed Rift Valley fever as a prioritized disease likely to cause epidemics in the near future. The virus spreads easily among domesticated animals via mosquito bite. People also can be infected by mosquito bite, but most people who become infected are workers exposed to infected animal body fluids as they care for sick animals or dispose of their remains. To find out how the virus invades cells, first author Safder Ganaie, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher who works with Amarasinghe, grew the virus on mouse cells in a dish. By systematically disrupting normal mouse genes, Ganaie and colleagues found that the virus failed to infect mouse cells that lacked certain genes, notably the gene for LDL receptor-related protein 1 (Lrp1). Further experiments showed that the virus needs LRP1 to infect mouse, hamster, cow, monkey and human cells, indicating that the virus uses the same protein across distantly related species. The finding constitutes an opportunity. If the virus needs LRP1 to infect cells, then temporarily taking LRP1 out of commission may limit its ability to spread in the body, thereby reducing disease. The researchers used a protein that effectively does this. Called RAP, the protein attaches to LRP1 and fends off anything else that tries to attach. The researchers infected a group of mice with the virus and simultaneously treated them with RAP. A second group of mice also was infected but was left untreated for comparison. Most of the treated mice survived, while all of the untreated mice died. Further, the treated mice had lower levels of virus throughout their bodies on the third day after infection compared with the untreated mice. RAP itself is not a good prospect for drug development, since it’s a normal mammalian protein that plays a role in many important biological processes. But the results suggest that targeting LRP1 may lead to therapeutics for Rift Valley fever. “This finding is the key to understanding how Rift Valley fever virus spreads not only throughout the human body but also how it is able to infect mosquitoes and different species of mammals. Knowing how the virus spreads will help us develop targeted therapies, which currently do not exist for Rift Valley fever,” said co-senior author Amy Hartman, PhD, an associate professor of infectious diseases & microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “This discovery opens up new opportunities to study virus-host interactions at the cellular and organismal level and enriches our understanding of the basic biology of mosquito-transmitted emerging viruses.” The discovery that Rift Valley fever virus uses LRP1 to get inside cells is interesting because the protein is better known for its role in cholesterol metabolism. It also is thought to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease and possibly in infections by the intestinal bacterium C. difficile. It’s not clear why these disparate biological processes are linked, but Amarasinghe, Hartman and their collaborators already have several projects underway to explore these connections. Ganaie SS, Schwarz MM, McMillen CM, Price DA, Feng A, Albe JR, Wang W, Miersch S Orvedahl A, Cole AR, Sentmanat MF, Mishra N, Boyles DA, Koenig ZT, Kujawa MR, Demers MA, Hoehl RM, Moyle A, Wagner N, Stubbs SH, Cardarelli L, Teyra J, McElroy AK, Gross ML, Whelan SJP, Doench JG, Cui X, BrettT, Sidhu SS, Virgin HW, Egawa T, Leung DW, Amarasinghe GK, Hartman AL. Lrp1 is a host entry factor for Rift Valley Fever Virus. Cell. Sept. 23, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.09.001 This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers R01NS101100, P01AI120943, R01AI123926, R01AI107056, U19AI142784, U19AI10972505, R01AI130152, T32AI060525, T32AI106688, 1K08AI144033; the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, award number 1013362.02; the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Society for Pediatric Research; Alzheimer’s Association, grant number AARG-16-441560; and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,700 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, consistently ranking among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
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Disease Outbreaks
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China Airlines Flight 334 crash
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China Airlines Flight 334 was a Boeing 747-2R7F/SCD freighter aircraft that was hijacked by pilot Wang Hsi-chueh (Chinese: 王錫爵) on May 3, 1986 while en route to Don Mueang, Thailand. Wang managed to subdue the two other crew members and changed course to land the 747 in Guangzhou, where he defected to the People's Republic of China. The incident forced the Chiang Ching-kuo government in Taiwan to reverse its Three Noes policy in regard to contacting the communist government in mainland China, and Chiang dispatched several delegates to Hong Kong to negotiate with mainland officials for the return of the aircraft and crew. The incident was credited as a catalyst in renewing cross-strait relations between mainland China and Taiwan. [1][2]
The aircraft was a Boeing 747-2R7F/SCD freighter,[note 1] registration B-198, built in September 1980 originally for Cargolux (as LX-ECV "City of Esch-sur-Alzette"). The ROC Ministry of Transportation Civil Aviation Authority acquired the aircraft in June 1985 and then leased it to China Airlines. On 29 December 1991, this aircraft, later operating as China Airlines Flight 358, crashed into the side of a hill near Wanli, Taiwan after the separation of its number three and four engines, killing all five crew on board. The following times are all in the Beijing/Taipei/Hong Kong time zone (UTC+8). By forcing the ROC (Taiwan) to communicate with PRC (China), Flight 334 was the first step in the thawing of relations. It effectively ended the Three Noes policy and ultimately led to the reunification of families across the straits a year later and has led to officially establishing the Three Links that were originally outlined in a 1979 PRC proposal by 2008. In 1987 the ROC officially ended martial law due to thawing relations and other global realities, like the declining influence of communist aligned parties like the Soviet Union.
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Air crash
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Women in the yellow vests movement
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Women have been involved in the yellow vests movement since its inception. This is a result of women on the whole being more affected by poverty in France than their male counterparts, in part because many are heads-of-household and need to take time off from paid employment to give birth to children. Their role is greater than most past social movements in France because of the economically precarious position that many women in the country find themselves in. Two women played critical roles in starting the movement. Priscillia Ludosky was one of the first people involved, after launching it inadvertently on 29 May 2018 by posting an online petition about the need for lower taxes, reducing salaries and pensions of public officials and creating an implementation of the citizens' initiative referendum. After she had heavily promoting it in September, it began to really gain traction in October 2018. Jacline Mouraud played another critical role that month in creating the movement, when she posted a Facebook video that went viral about France's proposed eco-tax to which she was opposed. Act I saw women like Laëtitia Dewalle and Marine Charrette-Labadie organize local marches. Both would become key local spokespeople for their regions. Act II saw continued involvement of women, along with gender specific violence targeting women of color who were stuck in traffic as a result of the protests. An 80-year-old woman was killed in Marseille during Act III. During the same time period, research was published that said poor working women in France as a percentage of the population grew by around 2% from two years prior. Act IV saw the creation of a Facebook group "Femmes gilets jaunes" by Karen, a 42-year-old from Marseille. It also saw President Emmanuel Macron mention the presence of women in yellow vest protests, though he failed to address any specific needs of poor women. Act VI saw Eric Drouet arrested and key female figures in the movement condemn his arrest. It also saw an anti-Semitic act committed by men on the Paris metro against a female Holocaust survivor. Act VII saw the first of the yellow vest women's march taking place on 6 January, the Sunday after the main events of the Act. Act X saw social justice around women's needs begin to feature as an issue that needed to be addressed. Act XII saw women presenting female specific demands for the first time. The yellow vest movement has birthed several political parties, two of which are being led by women. Citizen-Led Rally was created in January 2019 by Ingrid Levavasseur to try to effect political change. The Risen was founded by Jacline Mouraud with the intention of running candidates in France's local elections in 2020, sitting out the 2019 European Parliament elections. It was positioning itself as neither left wing, nor right wing. Of the class of people represented by the yellow vest movement, 45% are women. [2][3][4] 52.1% of poor adults in France are women. [3] Women on the whole are more affected by poverty in France than their male counterparts, in part because many are heads-of-household. [2] Many women have to spend time out of the workforce to give birth to children, and are unable to make up the salary loss and the consequent government contribution towards retirement payments. [2] Government models for social payments have largely been based around the needs of men, with the assumption that a head-of-household is a man married to a woman who has children. [2] At the same time, women across France are subject to daily sexual harassment and insults, with men on the street calling them whores and sluts. [3]
Women's role in the yellow vest movement is greater than in most past social movements in France because of the economically precarious position that many women in the country find themselves in. [2][3]
As a group, poor women in France have never been specifically targeted by campaigners. At the same time, most poor women have not self-mobilized prior to the yellow vest movement to articulate the needs of their gender-based class. [2][3] Some of this has been attributed to the feminist movement in France being led by liberals, who prioritize issues like anti-racism, multiculturalism, and the needs of women in other countries ahead of French women. [4]
Women have been involved with the yellow vest movement from the start, serving through their acts as catalysts for the movement and as spokespeople even before the movement took to the street. [3][5][6][7][8][9]
Priscillia Ludosky was one of the first people involved in the yellow vest movement,[5][6][10] launching it inadvertently on 29 May 2018 by posting an online petition about the need for "lower taxes on essential goods, the implementation of the citizens' initiative referendum, lower pensions and salaries of senior officials and elected officials". [5][7][8][11] Initially, no one gave any attention to the petition, and went about life as usual from June to September 2018. [5][9] In mid-September she tried to get more attention for her petition. [9] She started reaching out on more social networks and to local media. [9] Eventually, her petition was picked up nationally by Le Parisien. [9] Because of her surname, some journalists initially assumed she was of Polish descent or married to a Polish man. [12]
Seeking to gain more support for the grievances listed in the petition and to combat rising fuel prices, Eric Drouet reached out to Ludosky in October 2018. [5][9] Drouet was interested in organizing action to protest fuel prices, and their concerns became joined. [9] The pair together called for the first protest on 17 November 2018. [6] While the biggest protest was in Paris, Ludosky participated in a 17 November protest near her home. [13] Meanwhile, her petition had 938,325 signatories by 20 November 2018. [9] On November 27, the pair met for the first time at the Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition to share their message from Ludosky's petition with the government. [6][13]
According to The Guardian and other news sources, Jacline Mouraud has "been widely credited with starting the yellow vests movement" (French: gilets jaunes). [5][7][8][9][11][10] Mouraud's visibility in the movement came as a surprise to her and others. [13] At the time, she was earning less than €1,000 a month and her most valuable possession was her car, a black diesel SUV that she had bought ten years earlier for €11,000. [13][14][15] Some months, she was earning only €800 per month.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Tokyo Olympics 2021: Kaylee McKeown wins gold, sets OR in 100m backstroke final
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Australia's Kaylee McKeown won gold and set an Olympic record in the final of the 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
In doing so, she became the first Australian woman to ever win the event at the Olympics - and promptly celebrating by saying "f--k yeah' on live TV.
McKeown, 20, clocked 57.47 to lead home Canada's Kylie Masse in 57.72. USA's Regan Smith was third (58.05), while Aussie veteran Emily Seebohm - a London 2012 silver medallist in the event - placed fifth (58.05).
OLYMPICS LIVE BLOG: DAY 4 UPDATES, NEWS | TOKYO GAMES EVENTS CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY
McKeown swam in lane three and got out slowly before putting on an incredible swim to hit the wall first. The Aussie phenom backed up her favouritism for the event in resounding fashion.
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women's 100m Backstroke Final on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 27, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) (Getty)
McKeown set the event's world record at the Australian Olympic trials, clocking 57.45. She has now won Australia's third gold of the Games, after the women's 4x100m freestyle relay and Ariarne Titmus in the 400m freestyle.
"It's definitely something that a lot of people dream of, it's something I've always dreamed of and to make it a reality is really amazing," she said on pool deck afterwards.
"I'm just thankful that I have a really good support team. A few people before the race just came up to me and said, 'You're the hardest trainer and just have all the faith in the world that you've got this'."
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women's 100m Backstroke Final on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 27, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) (Getty)
Then asked what she'd like to say to her family back home, mum Sharon and sister Taylor, McKeown blurted out: "F--k yeah", before quickly realising her slip. "Wooh!"
It will no doubt become an instantly iconic blooper in Australia.
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia poses with the gold medal after winning the Women's 100m Backstroke. (Getty)
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia poses with the gold medal after winning the Women's 100m Backstroke Final. (Getty)
It was an emotional win for the McKeown family. Kaylee's father, Sholto, died of brain cancer last year.
"I hope your proud and I'll keep doing you proud," McKeown said afterwards in a message to her dad, becoming emotional.
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia reacts after winning the gold medal in the Women's 100m Backstroke Final on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 27, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) (Getty)
Seebohm was competing in her fourth Olympics and had the class to make the final at age 29.
"I'm really happy, pretty close to getting back to my best, which is really, really good," she said on pool deck.
"It hasn't been an easy road to get here and it's been a long wait this five year, it's really been a long wait. But totally worth it.
"It was an awesome race to be a part of. I'm so, so happy for Kaylee."
Seebohm is a dual Olympic gold medallist in relay racing; the 4x100m medley at Beijing 2008 and the 4x100m freestyle as a heat swimmer at London 2012.
Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia is congratulated by Emily Seebohm. (Getty)
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Break historical records
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Kenya: Five family members die of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning
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A police official said that an autopsy is planned to identify the exact cause of death.
January 2, 2021
1 min read
A middle-aged couple and their three children were found dead on Saturday morning inside their house in Githurai 45 area, Kiambu County, Central Kenya .
They are suspected to have died due to inhaling of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Phineas Ringera, Ruiru Divisional Police Commander said that the father earned a living by selling boiled maize in the area.
“We believe he lit the jiko (cooker) and left his maize to boil overnight exposing the family to the carbon monoxide which suffocated them.
“They all died,’’ Mr Ringera said.
He added that the Police believe the victims, including the three children aged three months, six and eight years respectively, inhaled the poisonous gas that killed them.
Mr Ringera said that an autopsy is planned to identify the exact cause of death.
He added that they found the boiled maize on a jiko in the family’s house.
The Police were alerted by neighbours, who became concerned when they did not see the man as he is an earlier riser.
The neighbours said they knocked on the door, which was locked from inside, but there was no response.
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Mass Poisoning
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Black Ribbon Movement Myanmar
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The Black Ribbon Movement Myanmar was a movement of medical professions and medical students against the appointment of military officers to positions within Ministry of Health in Myanmar (Burma) in August 2015. [1][2][3]
Successive Burmese governments since the military took over in the 60s have transferred retired military officers into management positions in various civilian departments[4] and army appointees across various sectors have often stifled the progress of experienced civilian staff. Pe Thet Khin, a paediatrician and Minister for Health, was forced into retirement on 29 July 2014,[5] and was replaced by Than Aung, a former military doctor. [6] On reform, the department of health under Ministry of Health was split into two departments; department of public health and department of medical services, and as a result, about 330 new vacancies appeared. [7] There had been widespread speculation within the Ministry that the minister planned to appoint 350 military officers. [8]
On 28 and 30 July, Ministry of Health announced [9] that 14 officers[10] from Ministry of Defence would be transferred to the department. [3] Five of the appointment notices were leaked online in early October. [11][12][13]
According to the appointments, not only military doctors but also other military officers graduated from Defence Services Academy were appointed to senior positions. [7] These military officers[6] will become assistant and deputy directors of Ministry of Health. [11]
As of 2015, more than 100 ex-military officers are serving in various positions within the Ministry appointed before reforms in Myanmar. [3]
As for DSMA, it is an academy, they (military medical students) get the salaries, their life as a public servant starts. As for universities of medicine, they (medical students) are students; when they pass the exam (when they graduate), they apply for job, and they get the job. So, the length of service becomes different. When a medical student's service is one year, a person from his side (Minister) will be 7 or 8 years. — Saw Win, a paediatrician[14]
On 10 August, doctors from Mandalay Orthopaedic Hospital[15] and Taungoo Hospital created a Facebook page named Black Ribbon Movement Myanmar 2015. [13][16] The page reached 40000 likes within three days after creation. The campaign encouraged anyone, including medical professionals, to make a black ribbon, take a photo of themselves wearing it on their chest, and then share the image on Facebook. [8] People who lead the campaign welcomed the military veterans to participate in the campaign announcing that this movement did not mean to fight graduates from Defence Services Academy, and was just to oppose the dictatorial decisions. [17]
Participants were required to give exact information about themselves such as their names, majors, schools (if they’re students) and positions, departments and companies (if they’re employees) and allowed to post their photos taken individually or in groups on the social media page titled “Black Ribbon Movement Myanmar 2015”. [18] Well-known doctors like Ye Myint Kyaw, head of department of paediatrics, and Nyunt Thein, emeritus professor of University of Medicine 1, Yangon supported the campaign. [16] Doctors working in the ministry and civil organisations both at home and abroad as well as medical students were taking part in the campaign. [16] Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other medical staff from various hospitals across the country rallied against the appointment donning black ribbons in photos posted online and adopting the catch cry, Say no to militarisation of Myanmar Ministry of Health. Some organizers were planning to send a letter to the President and Parliamentary Speaker[19] to express their opposition and discussing with some MPs to submit an urgent proposal to the parliament. [7] Petitions against the transfers of military officers were also collected[20][19] in many hospitals,[18] and in Yangon, and Mandalay. [21] Union of Karenni State Youth and Kayan New Land Party declared that they supported the campaign. [22]
On 11 August, following the public backlash, Minister for Health conveyed a verbal message to the Myanmar Medical Association pledging that the Ministry would halt the further appointment of military staff. On 12 August, the Movement called on the Ministry to issue an official declaration and officially withdraw the recently appointed military officers. However, the Ministry refused to withdraw the military appointees or offer an official declaration. [3]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Rotting camels pollute sacred waterholes
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Masses of rotting camels are littering thousands of sacred Indigenous sites across outback Australia.
The past few weeks have seen a focus on damage caused by a plague of camels in the Northern Territory's Docker River community, with an aerial cull of 3,000 to be carried out in the next fortnight.
But perishing camels and their remains are already causing equally significant harm - both culturally and environmentally - to important Indigenous locations in the cross border region of Western Australia, south-west Northern Territory and north-west South Australia.
The Central Land Council, comprised of Aboriginal people elected from communities in the Northern Territory's southern half, is coordinating the $50,000 Docker River cull.
Its land management head, David Alexander, says scenes of camel carcasses choking watercourses, waterholes and rockholes are extremely common.
"Quite a large number of Aboriginal communities are affected in that cross border region," he said.
"There's rockholes up in range country that camels are able to get into, some fall into waterholes and won't be able to get out so they'll rot within the water, others will chase the last remains of any water in these areas and start to compete with each other... that's why we're ending up with these grisly scenes of camels in every stage of life, death and decay around waterholes.
"It means that those areas are not useable for Aboriginal people and when they do refill with water there's a significant health risk."
In May 2007 an ultralight aircraft found every waterhole in a 30 kilometre radius of Docker River was dried out and filled with thousands of camels that had died of thirst.
He says without rain, tens of thousands of camels across the landscape will soon be in the same situation, causing grief for those who inhabit the areas.
"They're basically stripping the waterholes of all their features and creating significant erosion around watercourses," he said.
"It has the capacity to change the flow of water, it changes the character of these places and some of the specific features around them have their own cultural significance, they have stories associated with them, ceremonial songs.
"For example, a ghost gum in the vicinity of a sacred waterhole may also have significance, so there might be multiple features around one waterhole which are all part of a story of cultural significance which need to be protected."
Mr Alexander says carcasses have a great impact on biodiversity.
"These waterholes, rockholes and watercourses are also for the wonderful native fauna, but the landscape is under so much pressure that we're losing those native species at a rapid rate," he said.
"As charming and charismatic as camels might appear, they're having a massive impact across the landscape."
It is estimated more than one million camels are currently roaming the Australian outback.
Mr Alexander says unless there is a significant reduction in that number, the figure will only increase.
"I've had experts say that environmentally there's nothing stopping camels getting to Cooktown [in north-east Queensland], and there'd surely be a bigger interest shown in them if they got anywhere near the east coast," he said.
"So the need is there now to deal with these numbers... there is a significant exercise to undertake to get the levels down to a point where we're not seeing this continual mass perishing of camels out in the landscape."
He says senior traditional owners will fly in the helicopter when the Docker River aerial cull is carried out.
"They will give advice to the shooters about where to take the animals," he said.
"The objective of having the aerial muster done is to move them into areas that people don't pass through.
"There are a number of small outstation communities around it but the camels will be moved a significant distance from those areas so they're not creating any effects for people and sites of significance."
The 3,000 camels will be shot dead and left to rot within a 50 kilometre radius of Docker River.
A $19 million allocation was approved late last year by the Federal Government to deal with the problems being posed by camels.
Mr Alexander says contracts are still being finalised, but that the Central Land Council expects to be putting the funding to use early next year.
He says Australia's camel situation is at its worst and the issue has never before attracted this level of collaboration and funding.
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Environment Pollution
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Yemen: Building capacity to prevent new swarms of desert ...
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World Bank, the
Shutterstock/Ammar sharhan
The first thing that comes to mind when we think of the desert locust is destruction. Traveling in swarms that can number in the billions, or even trillions, and spread over large swathes of land, this small insect causes catastrophic damage to pasture and to crops. A small swarm can in one day eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people or damage 100 tonnes of crops across a square kilometre of fields. Locust invasions are a major threat to food security and, in worst-case scenarios, lead to famine and displacement. So, when developing swarms hit Yemen toward the end of 2019, the food security of almost 30 million people was at risk.
With conflict eroding their resilience and diminishing the country’s financing for public services, Yemenis were unprepared for this fierce insect. Prior to the conflict, Yemen had an efficient national monitoring and control program but when the latest local invasion struck, Yemen was short of pesticide and equipment to apply it along with vehicles to carry out “survey and control” field operations. People in rural areas were affected most by the locust invasion. The locusts destroyed plants and fodder on agricultural land, leading to crop and animal losses, eroding incomes, and adding to the burden rural, vulnerable households already felt from the conflict.
Farmers, livestock breeders and nomads living in infested areas were at risk of having their livelihoods annihilated. Most had never seen anything like it in their lifetime and did not have the know-how nor technical capacity to save their crops. COVID-19 added another layer of stress and prevented most farmers and herders threatened by the locusts from finding alternative incomes in nearby towns, as they would have usually done. Urgent action was needed to control the locust swarms which were fast spreading beyond its borders, eventually becoming the main source of swarms that invaded the Greater Horn of Africa and West Asia. Yemen’s regional importance in battling locust infestations cannot be overstated. Yemen is one of the key desert locust breeding grounds in the region, where swarms develop in several locations throughout the year and then disperse across the country and region, affecting the food security and livelihoods of tens of millions of people across East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Taming the threat
Using funding from international partners—Canada, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme fund—the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) worked with Yemeni authorities in 2020 to combat locust swarms. Desert locust surveillance and control operations were set up in key breeding grounds around Yemen to lessen local infestation and prevent swarms from invading neighboring countries. Extensive training and capacity building by the Ministry of Agriculture meant locusts were controlled in some infested areas. By the end of 2020, FAO-led locust control operations in Yemen had treated 48,082 hectares of agricultural land and surveyed a total area almost ten times that size.
World Bank funding provided through the Locust Response Project supported surveillance and control operations and strengthened Yemen’s preparedness for future infestations. From the beginning of the winter breeding season in 2020/2021, we began noticing promising signs that desert locusts were in retreat. Surveillance, spraying, and control operations in breeding grounds helped wipe out large numbers of the insect—good news for the millions of agriculture-dependent households trying to survive the effects of the protracted conflict. So far, the 2021 agricultural season has experienced no significant locust outbreaks.
Drawing on its more than 70 years of experience fighting desert locusts, the FAO expects swarms to continue breeding in Yemen's interior (figure 1 shows desert locust breeding areas and seasons in Yemen). So, while the battle against the desert locust swarms of 2020 may have been won, the war against locusts is expected to intensify given Yemen’s vulnerability to climate change. Climate change has triggered the strongest alterations in water temperature in the Indian Ocean in 60 years. Warmer seas create more extreme rainfall as well as stronger and more frequent cyclones, providing ideal conditions for locusts to hatch, breed, and disperse widely. That’s why it is so critical to strengthen Yemen’s capacity to tackle desert locust swarms in the future.
The most important part of strengthening Yemen’s desert locust response is rebuilding the country’s national network of Desert Locust Control Centers (DLCC) in key breeding areas. The World Bank-financed project will support the establishment/refurbishment, equipping and capacity building of the DLCC network. This network includes early warning and response systems to support the prevention and rapid response to new and existing locust infestation, thereby limiting in-country and cross-border spread of the swarms. The integrated warning and response system will have the most up-to-date information to trigger informed desert locust ground and/or aerial operations for swarm control. The system will also monitor meteorological data, which will enable response mechanisms for other disasters and adverse climate events. Monitoring will also help increase the sharing of reliable climate-smart pest management information in communities. This integrated system is based on an application installed on mobile devices to enter data in the field on the locust situation, monitor and maintain the necessary equipment and logistics, and track the quantity and quality of pesticide stocks. The warning and response system will be connected to the FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service, which receives and analyses data from locust-affected countries, so that it can issue warnings and alerts, promote collaboration among countries and keep the global community informed on locust developments.
The importance of maintaining operational surveillance and control capacity in Yemen cannot be overstated, particularly as any uncontrolled breeding in the future could once again affect the Greater Horn of Africa, as it did in 2020, and the entire Middle East and West Asia.
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Insect Disaster
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Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 crash
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Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 was a scheduled passenger flight between Baku and Aktau, Kazakhstan that crashed into the Caspian Sea at ca. 22:40 on 23 December 2005. [1] The flight was operated by an Antonov An-140. Around five minutes after a night-time departure from Baku Airport the crew reported a systems failure. Heading over the Caspian Sea at night without flight instruments made it difficult for the crew to judge their flight parameters. Whilst attempting to return to Baku, the aircraft crashed shortly afterwards on the shore of the Caspian Sea, killing all passengers and crew. [2][3]
Investigations from the Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company have discovered that three independent gyroscopes were not providing stabilised heading and altitude performance information to the crew early in the flight. [4]
Following the accident, Azerbaijan Airlines grounded the remaining Antonov An-140's and cancelled any future plans of acquiring more of the Ukrainian-built aircraft. This article about an aviation accident is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Air crash
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Japanese Yakuza Boss Who Was First To Receive Death Sentence Sent Chilling Threat To Judge
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The boss of the Japanese Yakuza gang sent a chilling threat to the judge after he was sentenced to death by a Japanese court. On Tuesday, 74-year-old Satoru Nomura was found guilty of ordering four assaults by Fukuoka District Court, and received what is believed to be the first death sentence in Japan. One of the victims of the assaults later died. Upon receiving his sentence, Nomura threatened the rest of the court over their decision. As per Japan Today, in a chilling threat, Nomura told the court, ‘I asked for a fair decision…. you will regret this for the rest of you life.’ The head of the Kudo-kai crime syndicate in south-west Japan denied all of the accusations against him, claiming not to have ordered the assaults. According to Japan Today, the assaults took place between 1998 and 2014, and included the fatal shooting of the former head of a fishing cooperative. The head of the cooperative had influence over port construction projects. Nomura was also accused of being responsible for: ordering an attack in 2014 on a relative of the murder victim; a knife attack on a nurse in 2013, who had worked at a clinic he had been receiving treatment; and the shooting of a police officer in 2012. The officer survived, however he suffered serious injuries to both his waist and legs, media reported. In the court hearing, it was argued by prosecutors that while Nomura did not carry out the attacks himself, that he had been the mastermind behind them. Nomura received a death sentence, despite The Times reporting that the prosecutors had no proof of his direct involvement. His right-hand man, Fumio Tanoue, was also jailed for life. Other gang members had already been convicted before Nomura and Tanoue’s sentencing on Tuesday. In Japan, multiple murders and cases involving robbery and murder, or rape and murder, are the only cases that normally resolve in a death sentence by hanging. After the chaos of post-war Japan, the Yakuza grew into a series of multi-billion-dollar criminal organisations. Its rings involved everything from prostitution and drugs to white-collar crime and protection rackets. It has long occupied a grey area in Japanese society, due to the Yakuza not being illegal (unlike the Italian Mafia or Chinese Triads). It has subsequently been considered a ‘necessary evil’ by many. Each group within the Yakuza has even been able to maintain its own headquarters while in full view of the police. However, in recent years, anti-gang regulations have become tighter due to lessening tolerance and a weakening economy. Yakuza memberships have subsequently fallen.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Suspended sentence for Cork man who caught partner by throat and threatened to kill her
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The judge imposed a sentence of two years which he suspended on condition that the accused would keep the peace for a period of three years and not harass or beset the victim during that period. A Cork man caught his ex-partner by the throat, started trying to strangle her and threatened to kill her and now he has been given a two-year suspended jail term. Garda John Sullivan charged 39-year-old Wesley O’Mahony of Mount St. Joseph’s Drive, Bakers Road, Gurranabraher, Cork, with assault causing harm to his ex-partner. O’Mahony later pleaded guilty. Judge James McCourt took into consideration factors including evidence that the accused is the primary carer for two children when he suspended the sentence. Sergeant John Sheehy outlined the background to the case where Wesley O’Mahony called to his ex-partner’s house between 4.30 and 5 p.m. in the afternoon back on November 17, 2019. “She tried to stop him coming in but he pushed her away and he put his hand around her neck and commenced trying to strangle her. “She ran up the stairs to get away and he caught her by the leg. He said, ‘I had serious trouble with the guards last night. You have no idea what they did to me. I have nothing to lose now.’ “He repeatedly said to her that he was going to kill her. “She ran downstairs, grabbed her phone, and ran up the street. He ran after her. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back. And he said to her, ‘You are done now.’ “She ran out again and she ran around the car. He followed her and she got back to the house and managed to lock the door against him. She then alerted gardaí. They arrived and found Wesley O’Mahony lying behind a parked car. He was arrested.” Sgt. Sheehy said. Defence barrister Brendan Kelly complained about Sgt. Sheehy’s testimony: “He has given evidence about other matters that should not have been given.” Mr Kelly said the defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm and the state had withdrawn the death threat charge even though such evidence was then called. Mr Kelly BL said there was no further difficulty between the parties. Sgt. Sheehy said that since the accused was charged in relation to this case there were no further difficulties. The complainant gave no victim impact statement and did not come to court to give evidence at the sentencing hearing. Mr Kelly acknowledged what was disclosed in the probation report that Wesley O’Mahony minimised the extent of what happened but pleaded guilty and did not put his former partner through a trial. “His behaviour was absolutely unacceptable and he is ashamed of it. He is sober in his habits now,” Mr Kelly said. Judge James McCourt said, “You invaded the victim’s living space and assaulted her. Not only that, but you pursued her down the street, it appears. “In mitigation, you addressed your drink problem positively. You have shown a degree of remorse. You offered compensation, which is not easy when you are not working. I give you credit for limited insight but it is insight nonetheless. “He accepts some responsibility but minimises the extent of the assault that occurred. “In circumstances that unique, you are the primary carer for two children – a significant and serious responsibility – I don’t think the interests of the children or society would be served by sending you to prison for any part of the sentence.” The judge then imposed a sentence of two years which he suspended on condition that the accused would keep the peace for a period of three years and not harass or beset the victim during that period. more Courts articles
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Report: 150 starved to death in Ethiopia’s Tigray in August
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A least 150 people starved to death last month in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region amid a near-complete blockade of food aid by federal and allied authorities, the Tigray forces say, while close to half a million people face famine conditions. The starvation deaths occurred in six communities as well as in camps for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in the town of Shire, according to a briefing late Monday by the Tigray External Affairs Office. It is the largest public assessment yet of starvation deaths, though The Associated Press reported at least 125 deaths in a single district earlier this year. Food aid ran out last month in Tigray, a region of 6 million people, as the United Nations has described intense searches and delays of humanitarian cargo by Ethiopian authorities who fear aid will reach the Tigray forces who have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces for the past 10 months after a political falling-out. “The complete depletion of food stocks has meant that IDP camps are receiving no aid and host communities, now running out of food themselves, are no longer able to support them,” the Tigray statement says. A spokeswoman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government has asserted that aid is reaching Tigray and has blamed Tigray forces and insecurity for any problems. The International Organization for Migration, which says more than 2 million people are displaced in Tigray, did not immediately respond to a question about starvation deaths, but the agency last month noted that “hosting capacity appears to have reached its limit” by the local population who support the majority of them. The first aid convoy in over two weeks arrived in the Tigray regional capital, Mekele, on Monday, but the World Food Program has said such a convoy of some 100 trucks is needed to arrive every day to meet the urgent needs of more than 5 million people. Telecommunications, electricity and banking services have again been cut off to Tigray since the Tigray forces retook much of the region in June. While witnesses have told the AP that access inside the region is safer and easier, they say dwindling supplies of food, fuel and cash make it increasingly impossible to help the hungry. The war has since spread into Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Health facilities supported by the International Committee for the Red Cross in those regions “have been receiving an increasing number of wounded people in the past few weeks,” the ICRC said Tuesday. “Unless the fighting dies down, we can only see the situation deteriorating extensively in the next weeks or months,” WFP spokesman Gordon Weiss told the AP. “We knew that there were around 400,000 people on the edge of famine-like conditions (in Tigray) in June. We have not really managed to assess the situation since then, it has been too difficult to do so, but we can expect that that population has grown and that their conditions have deteriorated.” The U.N., the United States and others urge the warring sides to stop the fighting and find a way to negotiate for peace, but Ethiopia’s government this year declared the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which once dominated the national government, a terrorist group. Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael in a letter dated Sept. 3, seen by the AP, and sent to more than 50 heads of state and government and multilateral organizations calls for pressure on Ethiopia for the “immediate and unconditional lifting of the siege on Tigray” and “an internationally sponsored and all-inclusive negotiation” for a cease-fire.
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Famine
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Bank robbers tied hostages to cars and used them as human shields during heists in Brazil
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Authorities say they have arrested a New Jersey bank robbery suspect seen on surveillance video as a red dye pack explodes during his escape. (July 5) AP After ransacking two banks in Brazil, a group of robbers escaped with hostages strapped onto their getaway cars Monday morning. Photos and videos on social media show people tied to the hoods of cars, and police confirmed the hostages were used "as human shields," according to Rádio CBN . The robbers created chaos in Araçatuba, a city in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo. Aside from robbing banks, the group detonated explosives across the city and set fire to dozens of cars. Two residents and one of the alleged assailants died, Reuters reported . Another bystander who was injured in one of the explosions had his leg amputated. 'Peaceful resolution': Hourslong hostage situation at Wells Fargo bank in Minnesota ends with arrest As the armed robbers entered the city and banks, they used drones to monitor the streets and police. "The feeling was one of helplessness,” Mayor Dilador Borges told Rádio CBN. "It was a night of terror.” Na fuga, os reféns foram amarrados nos veículos. Tentativa de impedir qualquer contra-ataque da polícia ao grupo. Deus guarde essas pessoas e todos de Araçatuba. Todas as agências bancárias do centro foram invadidas - informações preliminares. pic.twitter.com/lu0hBlcTCu — Yuri Macri (@yurimacri) August 30, 2021 As of Monday, two attackers had been arrested. More than 20 men carried out the attack and used 10 cars, police confirmed. Araçatuba residents expressed their concerns over the mayhem, many posting videos of the chaotic streets and others pledging to hide indoors until the attackers were found. Classes in the city were canceled, and officials warned residents to remain indoors until all the explosives were found. “I’m in tears and desperate,” one Araçatuba resident wrote on Twitter. “Help, Lord, protect the people here. My God, it looks like a movie scene what is happening here.”
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Bank Robbery
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2010 Air Service Berlin Douglas C-47 crash
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On 19 June 2010, a vintage Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Berlin Schönefeld Airport for a sightseeing flight over Berlin, which was operated by Air Service Berlin, a provider of event flights. There were no fatalities, but seven out of the 28 passengers and crew were injured. The aircraft involved was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registered D-CXXX, serial number 16124/32872), a preserved Rosinenbomber (English: Raisin bomber). [1] It had been built in 1944 and was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 engines. [2] It had participated in the 1948–49 Berlin Airlift, and because of the importance of this event for the city of Berlin it was acquired for sightseeing flights in 2000. [3] The aircraft was one of the last two aircraft to take off from Berlin Tempelhof Airport (one of the Airlift airports) when it was closed on 30 October 2008. [4]
Shortly after take-off at around 15:00 local time from Berlin Schönefeld Airport for a sightseeing flight over the city centre of Berlin,[2] the left engine failed and the aircraft was unable to gain height. The pilots went into a left turn and set down the aircraft into a field near the construction site for the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport. [1][5] There were three crew members and 25 passengers on board (among them Stefan Kaufmann, a Bundestag member),[3] all of which were able to leave the aircraft unassisted. [6][7] Seven people were injured, four of them were taken to hospital. [8] Schönefeld Airport was closed for fifteen minutes while its emergency services attended the crash scene. [9] A fire that arose from spilled fuel was put out by the airport's firefighters. [10]
The C-47 aircraft suffered substantial damage to its tail and port wing. [6] Nevertheless, due to its historic significance (and because it was the signature airframe of the company), Air Service Berlin stated that it intended a complete repair and restoration. Donations towards the cost of the restoration had been received from across the world, including a symbolic 100 USD from Gail Halvorsen, the pilot who is attributed to having started the dropping of sweets for children from aircraft participating in the Berlin Airlift. [4][9] Despite, this, the port wing was salvaged and was sold as limited edition Aviationtags. [11]
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Air crash
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2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division II
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The 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship Division II consisted of two tiered groups of six teams each: the fourth-tier Division IIA and the fifth-tier Division IIB. For each tier, the team which placed first was promoted to the next highest division, while the team which placed last was relegated to a lower division. The tournaments were a round-robin tournament format, with two points allotted for a win, one additional point for a regulation win, and one point for an overtime or game winning shots loss. To be eligible as a junior, a player cannot be born earlier than 1998. Division IIA was held in Dumfries, United Kingdom, while Division IIB was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia. The Division IIA tournament was played in Dumfries, United Kingdom, from 10 to 16 December 2017. As a result of the tournament, Japan was promoted to Division IB, and the Netherlands was relegated to Division IIB. All times are local (UTC). GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In Minutes
Source: IIHF
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)
TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF
The Division II B tournament was played in Belgrade, Serbia, from 10 to 16 January 2018. As a result of the tournament, Spain was promoted to Division IIA, and Turkey was relegated to Division III. All times are local (UTC+1). (minimum 40% team's total ice time)
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Sports Competition
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Would-be Hobart bank robber sought after two hold-ups in Moonah
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Police are hunting a man who tried to rob a bank and later held up a department store in the Hobart suburb of Moonah. The man went into the Westpac branch on Main Road just before 1:30pm and demanded $1,000 in cash from a teller, police said. No money was handed over and he fled on foot. Police said about 10 minutes later he stole an undisclosed amount of money from a nearby Harris Scarfe outlet on the same road. The man was described as Caucasian, 180 centimetres tall, with a thin build and a salt and pepper beard.
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Bank Robbery
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Live-fire Han Kuang exercises begin
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The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force fighter jets that were originally deployed in the western part of Taiwan were dispatched to Hualien Air Base in the east in a simulation of an invasion, a military source said. Military C-130 transport aircraft also sent military personnel responsible for fighter jet maintenance, together with related equipment and supplies, to designated locations in eastern Taiwan early in the day, the source said. Another source said that the aircraft included F-16Vs and Mirage 2000s, while Indigenous Defense Fighter jets were dispatched to air bases in western Taiwan. Photo: CNA Meanwhile, all of the nation’s major naval vessels left their home ports and sailed to designated locations off the coast in preparation for confronting enemy forces. The ships’ early departure is a preventive measure in anticipation of enemy bombardment of Taiwan’s ports, a military source said. A biological agent containment exercise was also held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons. Photo: CNA Soldiers were promptly sent to nearby hospitals for simulated treatment by civilian doctors. The military also rehearsed its procedures for the decontamination of vehicles and equipment during the drill. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday wrote on Facebook that the exercises constituted a solid foundation for the nation’s security. This year’s exercises in particular are aimed at showing the world the armed forces’ resolve in protecting the nation, she wrote. The Han Kuang exercises have been held annually since 1984 in the form of live-fire drills and computerized war games. This year’s tabletop drills were held from April 23 to 30. The live-fire exercises were originally scheduled to start on July 12 and run for five days. However, due to a domestic outbreak of COVID-19, the military postponed the live-fire component of the drill and rescheduled it for this week. The scope of the drills has also been scaled down to contain any possible spread of the virus. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that it had responded to a request for chip supply chain information from the US Department of Commerce. TSMC said in a statement that it had submitted answers to a questionnaire issued by the department, which asked that it be completed and returned by yesterday to address a global chip supply shortage. The chipmaker said that it did not disclose any confidential information about its customers. On Sept. 23, the US government held a meeting with TSMC, Samsung Electronics Co, Intel Corp and other companies on progress made by the industry to address issues in ‘A DOOR OPENED’: The head of the European Parliament delegation that visited last week said Europe has increased cooperation with Taiwan because of China’s aggression The head of a European Parliament delegation that visited Taiwan last week said there is now a consensus among European political factions that cooperating with Taiwan is important for the bloc, and that he would continue to push for closer bilateral ties. The delegation, which visited from Wednesday to Friday, comprised members of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the EU, including Disinformation (INGE). In an interview with French media outlet La Liberation in Taipei on Thursday, INGE President Raphael Glucksmann, who led the delegation, said that the visit was kept low-key before the delegation MUM ON ITINERARY: The source said that if the US military airplane stays for three days, that would show Washington’s trust in Taiwan, despite the lack of formal ties A delegation of US lawmakers visiting Taiwan has signaled the “strategic clarity” of Washington’s policy toward Taiwan, and they might visit Japan or South Korea next to promote the US’ Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a military affairs expert said yesterday. A US Navy C-40A aircraft, reportedly carrying six US lawmakers, on Tuesday afternoon departed from Manila and landed at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) later in the day. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later on Tuesday confirmed that a group of US lawmakers had arrived in Taiwan, while the American Institute in Taiwan referred reporters to the office of US Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn ‘GRAVE CHALLENGE’: The defense ministry pledged to make any attack as painful as possible for China by improving Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare capabilities China’s armed forces are capable of blockading Taiwan’s key harbors and airports, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, offering its latest assessment of what it described as a “grave” military threat posed by its giant neighbor. China has been ramping up military activity around Taiwan, including by repeatedly flying warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). In a report it issues every two years, the ministry said China had launched what it called “gray zone” warfare, citing 554 “intrusions” by Chinese warplanes into its southwest ADIZ between September last year and the end of August.
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Military Exercise
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1977 Houston Anita Bryant protests
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In 1977, the Texas State Bar Association invited country singer Anita Bryant to perform at a meeting in Houston, Texas. In response to Bryant's outspoken anti-gay views and her Save Our Children campaign, thousands of members of the Houston LGBT community and their supporters marched through the city to the venue in protest on June 16, 1977. The protests have been called "Houston's Stonewall" and set into motion the major push for LGBT rights in Houston. Houston's LGBT community has existed since probably the beginning of the city, but did not take off in full swing until the 1960s. Montrose became the city's gayborhood, evolving into a center of gay culture. By 1968, 26 gay bars were located in Montrose. [1]
Like for much of the United States, the 1969 Stonewall riots did not forward LGBT rights in Houston as much as they did in New York City. In part because Houston at the time was mostly considered a Bible Belt city. In 1970, a chapter of the Gay Liberation Front formed at the University of Houston but disbanded in 1973; another group called Integrity formed the same year. Political groups were also formed; the Gay Political Coalition formed in 1973 and advocated for anti-gay legislation to be repealed and protections to be installed. This was followed in 1975 by the Gay Political Caucus (GPC), which had much of the same goals. [1]
One other event spurred movement within the LGBT Houston community. Harris County Comptroller of the Treasury Gary van Ooteghem attended a county commissioner's court meeting to support gay and lesbian rights in response to Leonard Matlovich's struggle in the United States Army. In the meeting, van Ooteghem publicly came out as gay, although his employer Harris County Treasurer Harsell Gray told van Ooteghem beforehand that he was not allowed to participate in politics. Van Ooteghem was dismissed from his position, an event that was widely publicized and led to van Ooteghem being elected the GPC's first president. Additionally, police raids on gay bars were common at this time. In 1976, police shot and killed Gary Wayne Stock, a bartender at the gay bar Inside/Outside, stating Stock had run a red light and was shot in self-defense. [1] In the planning for the Anita Bryant demonstration every leader in the community participated. Designers created logos and fliers, Fred Paez and Ray Hill negotiated with the Houston Police Department for a non-confrontational and orderly event. Hill was assigned to co-ordinate the marshals and liaison with the police during the march and demonstration. The Hyatt Hotel in downtown Houston was chosen for the Texas State Bar Association's meeting on June 16, 1977. The TSBA invited country singer Anita Bryant to perform and speak at the meeting. Bryant was also an outspoken opponent of gay rights and had led a campaign called Save Our Children in Dade County, Florida to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance that protected gay people. The TSBA distributed 28,500 pamphlets advertising Bryant's appearance. Many members of the LGBT community denounced the invitation, and it was quickly rescinded. However, shortly after a second invitation was sent to Bryant, inviting her only to sing; the TSBA cited a mistake that resulted in the second invitation being delivered. [1] With the LGBT community not politically sound enough to prevent her from attending, Bryant was scheduled to appear at the meeting. [2]
On the day of the meeting on June 16, 1977, Reverend Joe West held an anti-gay meeting at Houston City Hall. [3] at 8:00 pm, about 3,000 protesters, consisting of members of the LGBT community and their allies, gathered in the Depository Bar parking lot in Montrose at the corners of Bagby and McGowen Streets. [4] Members of the crowd wore black armbands with pink triangles. They then peacefully[3] marched past the Hyatt Hotel to the Houston Public Library (HPL). There, then-publisher of The Advocate David B. Goodstein, actress Liz Torres, and founder of the Metropolitan Community Church Reverend Troy Perry addressed the crowd. [3][1] By the time the crowd reached the HPL, numbers had grown to between 8,000 and 10,000 protesters. 10 attorneys in attendance walked out of the TSBA meeting and joined the crowd, themselves wearing armbands. [1] The protest then turned into a candlelight vigil. [5] Police in riot gear were stationed at the protest site. [5] Inside the Hyatt Hotel, Bryant's performance received a standing ovation. [1]
Former GPC president Larry Bagneris called the demonstration "the first major political act that we, as gay people, took on in Houston. "[1] A minister at Houston's Gay Pride Parade in 1978 said, "It took Anita Bryant to bring this many of our brothers and sisters out of their closets. "[6] Gay activist Ray Hill stated, "Houston's gay and lesbian community actually became a community. Before Anita, gay community meant where the bars were; after Anita, gay community meant people. "[5]
More LGBT members subsequently became active in politics, and elected officials began searching for their input. In 1978, an event called Town Meeting I was held, during which Houston gays and lesbians met to discuss political and social issues they faced. By 1980, the community had gained an unprecedented amount of recognition, and gay ally Kathy Whitmire won the race for City Controller on a GPC endorsement. [1]
The march itself eventually became the Houston Gay Pride Parade. [7] It was also covered in Bruce Remington's 1983 thesis, "Twelve Fighting Years: Homosexuals in Houston, 1969-1981," which is one of the few existing pieces of literature about the early Houston LGBT community. [2]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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The Fed wins another round, but the endgame has not changed
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Kirsten Rohrs Schmitt is an accomplished professional editor, writer, proofreader, and fact-checker. She has expertise in finance, investing, real estate, and world history. Throughout her career, she has written and edited content for numerous consumer magazines and websites, crafted resumes and social media content for business owners, and created collateral for academia and nonprofits. Kirsten is also the founder and director of Your Best Edit; find her on LinkedIn and Facebook. The 21st century has proven to be as economically tumultuous as the two preceding centuries. This period has seen multiple financial crises striking nations, regions, and—in the case of the Great Recession—the entire global economy. All financial crises share certain characteristics, but each tells its own unique story with its own unique lessons for the future. Read on to learn more about the three most notable financial crises the world experienced in the 21st century. Financial and fiscal crises can occur for a number of reasons and be caused by both internal and external factors. A crisis could emanate from within a nation's financial system or federal government. Conversely, an exogenous event, such as a natural disaster or global recession, could send a country into a financial and fiscal crisis. Although they may occur simultaneously, there are distinct differences between a financial and fiscal crisis. A financial crisis is a generalized term for systemic problems in the larger financial sector of a country or countries. Financial crises often, but not always, lead to recessions. If the U.S. banking sector collectively makes poor lending decisions, or if it is improperly regulated or taxed, or if it experiences some other exogenous shock that causes industry-wide losses and loss of share prices, that's a financial crisis. Of all the sectors in an economy, the financial sector is considered to be the most dangerous epicenter of a crisis since every other sector relies on it for monetary and structural support. A fiscal crisis, on the other hand, refers to a problem with government balance sheets. If a government's debt load creates funding or performance issues, it may be said to experience a fiscal crisis. A fiscal crisis could occur in the United States if, for example, the federal government borrowed too much money and found itself shut out of the credit markets. A fiscal crisis could also occur if a major credit rating agency downgraded U.S. Treasuries, or if the federal government needed to suspend payments due to a budget shortfall. A fiscal crisis can also occur following a recession and periods of high unemployment, which usually results in less tax revenue being collected, creating a revenue shortfall for the government. Excessive borrowing or debt during wartimes can also push a nation into a fiscal crisis if the country can't repay the debt due to damage to the country's economy and infrastructure. Financial and fiscal crises may occur independently or concurrently. It is possible for a government's fiscal crisis to bring about a financial crisis either directly or indirectly, particularly if the government responds improperly to its budget problems by confiscating savings, raiding capital markets, or destroying the value of the local currency. For example, the sovereign debt crisis that gripped much of southern Europe in 2010 was a fiscal crisis, but it wasn't a financial crisis.1 Remember, financial and fiscal crises may occur independently or concurrently. Argentine crises have been a familiar feature since the great financial panic of 1876. The country experienced its first crisis of the 21st century from 2001–2002, which involved the combination of a currency crisis and a financial panic. An unsuccessful hard currency peg to the U.S. dollar left the Argentine peso in disarray.2 Bank depositors panicked when the Argentine government flirted with a deposit freeze, causing interest rates to spike sharply.34 On Dec. 1, 2001, Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo enacted a freeze on bank deposits.5 Families were locked away from their savings, and inflation rates hit an astronomical 5,000%.6 Within the week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it would no longer offer support to Argentina as the country was deemed a serial defaulter.5 International authorities didn't believe proper reforms would actually take place. The Argentine government lost access to the capital markets and private Argentine financial institutions were cut off as well.5 Many businesses closed. Some foreign banks—which were a large presence—pulled out rather than risk their assets. The erratic and extreme nature of interest rates made it virtually impossible for any financial firm to function properly. The Argentine banking sector was lauded for its progressive regulations in the late 1990s, but that didn't stop the carnage of the 2001–2002 crash. By 2002, the default rate among bond issuers was nearly 60%.5 Local debtors didn't fare any better, and their subsequent nonpayments crushed commercial lenders. The government of Argentina didn't fare much better. With the economy in a downward spiral, high unemployment, and no access to credit markets, the Argentine government defaulted on $100 billion worth of its debt. In other words, the government walked away from investors that bought Argentine government bonds. With the economy struggling and uncertainty surrounding the stability of the federal government, investment capital fled the country. The result was a devaluation or depreciation of the Argentine peso as investors sold their peso-denominated investments for foreign holdings. It's common for emerging market economies to denominate their debt in U.S. dollars, and during a devaluation, it can cripple a country. Any debt that was denominated in dollars for the government, companies, and individuals increased significantly nearly overnight since taxes and revenue were earned in pesos. In other words, far more pesos were needed to pay off the same principal balance owed for the dollar-denominated loans due solely to the peso exchange rate devaluation against the dollar. Widely considered the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, the global financial crisis in 2007-2009 ignited in the U.S. and spread across most of the developed world. Plenty has been written about the nature and causes of the Great Recession, but the essential story centers around major investment banks that overleveraged themselves using mortgage-backed securities (MBSs). The returns and prices of the banks' MBS instruments were predicated on rising home prices caused by an unsustainable asset bubble in the U.S. housing market. Falling housing prices created a chain reaction of defaults by bond issuers across the country, starting in subprime mortgages and eventually spreading throughout the entire MBS market. Unfortunately for international investment banks, the entire global financial system became increasingly interconnected in the 1990s and early 2000s. Junk securities backed by adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs)—many of which inexplicably received AAA ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's—permeated Japanese and European investor portfolios. The early stages of the crisis began in the second half of 2007, eventually peaking in September 2008. Several global investment banks were compromised, including Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial, Wachovia, and Washington Mutual. There were numerous bank failures in Europe as well, including Royal Bank of Scotland, which posted a $34 billion loss in 2008. RBS was one of the banks that the British government had to bail out with its $63 billion rescue package.7 The worst of the U.S. recession occurred in late 2008 and early 2009, but it took a few months for panic to hit Europe. Countries such as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal were hit hardest. However, the impact of the financial crisis wasn't limited to the U.S. and Europe. Global gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the total output of goods and services for all countries declined in 2009 to -1.67% from 1.85% in 2008, according to the World Bank.8 The Vladimir Putin-led Russian economy grew appreciably in the first half of the 21st century, thanks in large part to the thriving energy sector and rising global commodity prices. The Russian economy became so dependent on energy exports that nearly half of the Russian government's revenues were generated by the sale of oil and natural gas. But global oil prices took a nosedive in June 2014. The average price for a barrel of oil dropped nearly 40% in six months from the previous $100 threshold. The dip below $100 was noteworthy since that was the number that Russian officials estimated was necessary to keep a balanced budget. Putin exacerbated the energy problem by invading and annexing Crimea from Ukraine, resulting in economic sanctions from the U.S. and Europe.9 Major financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, began to cut off capital and cash to Russia. The Russian government responded with aggressive monetary expansion, leading to high inflation and crippling losses among Russian banks. As a result, economic sanctions were imposed by the U.S. and Europe as well as other countries, which included a ban on buying western technology to develop oil. Other sanctions included blocking Russian banks from obtaining capital from Europe or the U.S.10 The impact of the crisis and the sanctions on the Russian economy were significant. In 2015 the GDP declined by -1.97% from the year earlier. It wasn't until 2017 before the Russian economy posted an annual growth rate of over 1.5%, according to the World Bank.11 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Chronic Sovereign Debt Crises in the Eurozone, 2010–2012." Accessed Oct. 11, 2020. Gerald A. Epstein. "Financialization and the World Economy," Page 289. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005. Accessed Oct. 9, 2020. Gerald A. Epstein. "Financialization and the World Economy," Page 293. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005. Accessed Oct. 9, 2020. Gerald A. Epstein. "Financialization and the World Economy," Page 304. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005. Accessed Oct. 9, 2020.
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Financial Crisis
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Great Fire of New York
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The Great Fire of New York was a devastating fire that burned through the night of September 20, 1776, and into the morning of September 21, on the West Side of what then constituted New York City at the southern end of the island of Manhattan. [1] It broke out in the early days of the military occupation of the city by British forces during the American Revolutionary War. The fire destroyed about 10 to 25 percent of the buildings in the city, while some unaffected parts of the city were plundered. Many people believed or assumed that one or more people deliberately started the fire, for a variety of different reasons. British leaders accused revolutionaries acting within the city and state, and many residents assumed that one side or the other had started it. The fire had long-term effects on the British occupation of the city, which did not end until 1783. The American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775. The city of New York was already an important center of business but had not yet become a sprawling metropolis. It occupied only the lower portion of the island of Manhattan and had a population of approximately 25,000. [2] Before the war began, the Province of New York was politically divided, with active Patriot organizations and a colonial assembly that was strongly Loyalist. [3] After the battles of Lexington and Concord, Patriots seized control of the city and began arresting and expelling Loyalists. [4]
Early in the summer of 1776, when the war was still in its early stages, British General William Howe embarked on a campaign to gain control of the city and its militarily important harbor. After occupying Staten Island in July, he launched a successful attack on Long Island in late August, assisted by naval forces under the command of his brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe. [5] American General George Washington recognized the inevitability of the capture of New York City, and withdrew the bulk of his army about 10 miles (16 km) north to Harlem Heights. [6] Several people, including General Nathanael Greene and New York's John Jay advocated burning the city down to deny its benefits to the British. [7] Washington laid the question before the Second Continental Congress, which rejected the idea: "it should in no event be damaged. "[8]
On September 15, 1776, British forces under Howe landed on Manhattan. [9] The next morning, some British troops marched toward Harlem, where the two armies clashed again, while others marched into the city. [10]
A civilian exodus from the city had begun well before the British fleet arrived in the harbor. The arrival the previous February of the first Continental Army troops in the city had prompted some people to pack up and leave,[11] including Loyalists who were specifically targeted by the army and Patriots. [12] The capture of Long Island only accelerated the abandonment of the city. During the Continental Army's occupation of the city, many abandoned buildings were appropriated for the army's use. [13] When the British arrived in the city, the property of Patriots was confiscated for the British army's use. [14] Despite this, housing and other demands of the military occupation significantly strained the city's available building stock. [15]
According to the eyewitness account of John Joseph Henry, an American prisoner aboard HMS Pearl, the fire began in the Fighting Cocks Tavern, near Whitehall Slip. [16] Abetted by dry weather and strong winds, the flames spread north and west, moving rapidly among tightly packed homes and businesses. Residents poured into the streets, clutching what possessions they could and found refuge on the grassy town commons (today, City Hall Park). The fire crossed Broadway near Beaver Street and then burned most of the city between Broadway and the Hudson River. [17] The fire raged into the daylight hours and was stopped by changes in wind direction as much as by the actions of some of the citizenry and British marines sent, according to Henry, "in aid of the inhabitants. "[16] It may also have been stopped by the relatively undeveloped property of King's College, located at the northern end of the fire-damaged area. [17][18] Estimates for the number of buildings destroyed range from 400 to 1,000, representing between 10 and 25 percent of the 4,000 city buildings in existence at the time. [16][19] Among the buildings destroyed was Trinity Church; St. Paul's Chapel survived. [18]
Howe's report to London implied that the fire was deliberately set: "a most bad attempt was made by a number of wretches to burn the town. "[18] Royal Governor William Tryon suspected that Washington was responsible, writing that "many circumstances lead to conjecture that Mr. Washington was privy to this villainous act" and that "some officers of his army were found concealed in the city. "[20] Many Americans also assumed that the fire was the work of Patriot arsonists. John Joseph Henry recorded accounts of marines returning to the Pearl after fighting the fire in which men were "caught in the act of firing the houses. "[21]
Some Americans accused the British of setting the fire so that the city might be plundered. A Hessian major noted that some who fought the blaze managed to "pay themselves well by plundering other houses near by that were not on fire. "[21]
Washington wrote to John Hancock on September 22, specifically denying knowledge of the fire's cause. [21] In a letter to his cousin Lund, Washington wrote, "Providence—or some good honest fellow, has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves". [22]
According to historian Barnet Schecter, no accusation of arson has withstood scrutiny. The strongest circumstantial evidence in favor of arson theories is the fact that the fire appeared to start in multiple places. However, contemporary accounts explain that burning debris from wooden roof shingles spread the fire. One diarist wrote that, "the flames were communicated to several houses" by the debris "carried by the wind to some distance. "[20]
The British interrogated more than 200 suspects, but no charges were ever filed. [20] Coincidentally, Nathan Hale, an American captain engaged in spying for Washington, was arrested in Queens the day the fire started. Rumors attempting to link him to the fires have never been substantiated; there is nothing indicating that he was arrested (and eventually hanged) for anything other than espionage. [23]
Major General James Robertson confiscated surviving uninhabited homes of known Patriots and assigned them to British officers. Churches, other than the state churches (Church of England) were converted into prisons, infirmaries, or barracks. Some of the common soldiers were billeted with civilian families.
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Fire
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Fatal crash on Ford Road in Busselton
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The WA Police Major Crash Investigation Section are investigating a fatal crash that occurred in Busselton on August 30 2021. The crash occurred around 8:30am when a Suzuki motorcycle travelling south on Ford Road collided with a Nissan Navara as it reversed from a driveway. The 40-year-old male motorcyclist was flown to Royal Perth Hospital where he died as a result of his injuries. The driver of the Navara (a man aged in his 70s) was not injured. Anyone that witnessed the crash, or that saw the involved vehicles prior to the crash is asked to contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1800 333 000 or by making a report online at crimestopperswa.com.au.
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Road Crash
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2013 Jakarta flood
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The 2013 Jakarta flood was a flood in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, which, in addition to areas in downtown Jakarta, also affected several other areas surrounding the city, such as West Java and Banten. Severe floods have been reported to have hit Jakarta in the past, including in 1621, 1654, 1918, 1942, 1976, 1996, 2002 and 2007. An important part of the flooding problem is caused by the fact that a substantial part of Jakarta is low-lying. Around 24,000 ha (about 240 square km) of the main part of Jakarta is estimated to be below sea level. [2] Flooding can become severe if heavy rain happens to coincide with high tides. When this happens, high tides tend to push water into low-lying areas just as the run off from rains in upland areas such as nearby Bogor is flowing down into the Jakarta area. The flood in 2013 began on Tuesday, 15 January 2013, in some parts of the city as a result of heavy rain and waterways clogged with garbage and other kinds of debris. Serious flooding began along several main thoroughfares of Jakarta. A 30-meter-long section of Jakarta's West Flood Canal dike on Jalan Johannes Latuharhary in Menteng collapsed. This breach quickly caused flooding in nearby areas. Military personnel, the Jakarta public works agency, and public order officers joined forces to quickly replace the collapsed dike section with a temporary retaining wall made of rocks and sandbags. Workers finished rebuilding a section of a canal dike. [3]
The clearing of the land above Jakarta has been identified as a major contributor to Jakarta's water table and flooding issues. [4] Jakarta has a very bad sewage system due to the disposing of trash in roads and sidewalks. There were 47 deaths reported. The city's main airport was open but many roads leading to it were reportedly blocked. The flooding disrupted train services from Manggarai Station in South Jakarta to Tanah Abang Station in Central Jakarta. Most commuter trains and buses were suspended, and roads were difficult to access. [5]
Flooding was reported at the presidential palace, forcing the postponement of a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his visiting Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez. [6]
There were 47 deaths reported. [1]
Evacuations were carried out in parts of Jakarta. An estimated 20,000 people were evacuated 17 January 2013[7][8]
Other parts of Indonesia, from Sumatra[9] to Sulawesi,[10] have also seen seasonal flooding, though it is most acute in the capital city, Jakarta. Five died in Sulawesi,[10] while another 4 died in Semarang by flood electrocution. [11] Yogyakarta is on high alert for lahars, as some 70 million cubic meters of volcanic material still cling to the slopes of Mount Merapi, and heavy rains could trigger an avalanche. [11]
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Floods
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US Ambassador Makes First Visit to Taiwan in More Than 40 Years
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Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen shares a toast with Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. at a banquet in Taipei on Mar. 30, 2021. U.S. Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland is also present (seated, second from left).
U.S. Ambassador to Palau John Hennesey-Niland became the first sitting envoy to travel to Taiwan in an official capacity since Washington cut formal ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979. Hennessey was accompanying a delegation from the Pacific Island nation of Palau, including Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr.
The visit coincides with the opening of a “travel bubble” between Taiwan and Palau, intended to promote safe travel with fewer COVID-related restrictions and create a boon for pandemic-hit tourism. Moreover, the presence of a U.S. official on this trip also provided an opportunity for Palau and the United States to display their solidarity with Taiwan amid ongoing diplomatic, economic, and military squeezing by the People’s Republic of China. Moreover, it also marked the first visit by a foreign leader to Taiwan since the global spread of the coronavirus.
Hennessey-Niland, who became U.S. ambassador to Palau in March 2020, expressed his support for the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act, which was signed into force in April last year. The TAIPEI Act calls for the U.S. executive branch to strengthen trade and economic ties with Taiwan, help sustain Taiwan’s official diplomatic ties and support other partnerships, as well as maintain the island’s international space.
In a press release, the American Institute of Taiwan said the visit “reaffirms our commitment to strengthening U.S.-Taiwan-Palau cooperation by promoting democracy and good governance, countering climate change, advancing digital health, fostering women’s empowerment, promoting agricultural trade, strengthening coast guard cooperation, and enhancing Palau’s cybersecurity.”
Palau is one of Taiwan’s 15 remaining official diplomatic partners, and one of four in the Pacific Island region (along with the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Tuvalu). Whipps, who was sworn into office in January, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) last month ahead of the visit that he had rebuffed overtures from Beijing last year to switch Palau’s diplomatic recognition. The Solomon Islands and Kiribati both broke ties with Taiwan in favor of China in 2019.
“I believe that we should be free to choose who our friends are,” Whipps said. “We value the relationship that we have with Taiwan and nobody should tell us that relationship should be severed,” he added. Whipps defeated incumbent Vice President and Minister of Justice Raynold Oilouch who had campaigned on switching ties to Beijing.
The new travel corridor’s first flight is set to take off on Thursday, with Whipps traveling to Palau with a group of 110 Taiwanese tourists. The initiative plans to have 16 flights a week on the route, with a goal of bringing the number of Taiwanese visitors to Palau to 100,000 annually.
Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.
The opening of the travel bubble may offer Palau an economic lifeline, as its tourism sector accounts for more than 50 percent of its gross domestic product. The small Pacific Island’s tourism industry also suffered a setback several years ago when Beijing reportedly imposed a ban of sorts on Chinese tour groups to Palau. According to Palau’s Bureau of Immigration and the South Pacific Tourism Organization, the number of Chinese tourists had grown to 87,000 in 2015, up from around 630 in 2008. State-run Chinese tour agencies are allowed to offer group package tours to countries that the government has given Approved Destination Status. Although Palau has never been granted this status, tours continued to operate until late 2017 when officials sent a memo to travel agencies reminding them that group tours to places not on the approved list were illegal; the memo mentioned Palau by name.
China has a successful record of courting away Taiwan’s diplomatic partners. Since 2013, eight countries have switched their recognition to Beijing. Against the backdrop of mounting pressure, the United States has stepped up efforts and initiatives to boost interactions with Taiwan, while still in an informal realm. A report in the Financial Times in late March also suggests that Washington plans to loosen restrictions on contacts with Taipei, a move that would make it easier for diplomats to meet with Taiwanese officials and counterparts. Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had declared as much less than two weeks before he left office; it now appears the Biden administration will continue down the same path.
As expected, the official line from Beijing emphasized the one-China principle as the foundation of ties between Beijing and Washington, adding that the Taiwan question is the most sensitive issue in the bilateral relations. In light of the U.S. ambassador to Palau’s visit to Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian offered a more pointed rebuke: “It must stop any official interaction with Taiwan, refrain from sending any wrong signals to Taiwan independent forces, stop any attempt to cross the bottom line, and properly handle Taiwan-related issues with prudence, lest it should damage China-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” Still, it seems clear that the Biden administration is set on a course to reinforce and elevate its partnerships in part to stymie moves by Beijing that it perceives as coercive.
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Diplomatic Visit
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1986 FBI Miami shootout
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The 1986 FBI Miami shootout occurred on April 11, 1986, in a then-unincorporated region of Dade County, Florida (incorporated as Pinecrest in 1996) when a small group of field agents for the FBI attempted to apprehend William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt, who were suspected of committing a recent series of violent crimes in and around the Miami area. Although they had partially surrounded the suspects after maneuvering them off a local road, the agents involved quickly found themselves outmatched by the weapons which Matix and Platt had in their vehicle. During the gun battle which ensued, Platt in particular was able to repeatedly return fire despite sustaining multiple hits. In total, two Special Agents died from their wounds, while five other agents were injured by gunfire. The shootout ended when both Matix and Platt were killed. The incident is infamous as one of the most violent episodes in the history of the FBI and is often studied in law enforcement training. The scale of the shootout also led to the introduction of more effective handguns in the FBI and many police departments around the United States. Michael Lee Platt (February 3, 1954 – April 11, 1986) and William Russell Matix (June 25, 1951 – April 11, 1986) met while serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Matix first served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969 to 1972, working as a cook (MOS 3371) in the officers' mess, serving overseas in Hawaii and Okinawa from April 1970 to March 1971 and April 1971 to March 1972 respectively. He was honorably discharged July 7, 1972, achieving the rank of Sergeant. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 10, 1973, serving with the military police under the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He served as a Military Police Officer and Squad Leader; Guard Supervisor for the Post Stockade and finally Patrol Supervisor before his honorable discharge August 9, 1976. [1]
Platt enlisted in the Army 27 June, 1972 as an infantryman. While in basic training, Platt applied for Army Airborne Ranger Training and subsequently entered Paratrooper Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On completion of jump school, Platt was assigned to the Military Police Unit. It was in this unit that he met and served with Matix. This is also where he met his first wife, Regina Lylen. He was honorably discharged in 1979. [1]
Both men's former wives had died under violent circumstances. [2] Matix's wife, retired U.S. Army Specialist[3][better source needed] Patricia Buchanich, and a female co-worker, Joyce McFadden, were stabbed to death on December 30, 1983 at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where both women worked. [4] Both were found murdered in the hospital laboratory. They had been bound and gagged with their throats slashed. [1] Matix reportedly told investigators he suspected Platt had carried on an affair with his wife. Matix was a suspect in the murders but was never charged. [5]
After his wife's death, Matix moved to Florida at Platt's urging, and the two founded Yankee Clipper Tree Trimming Service, a landscaping and tree removal business. [6] In May 1985, Matix married Christy Lou Horne, who moved out of the house two months later when Matix became enraged after learning she was pregnant. She would give birth to their son after Matix's death. [7][8]
On December 21, 1984, Platt's wife, Regina E. Lylen-Platt, whom he had married nine years earlier in 1975, was found dead from a single shotgun blast to the mouth. Her death was ruled a suicide. [9] He married his second wife, Brenda Horne, in January 1985. [citation needed]
Before embarking on their crime spree, neither Platt nor Matix had a criminal record. [10] At the time of Platt's killing, his wife had no idea that her husband and his friend Matix were armed robbers. On October 5, 1985, Platt and Matix murdered 25-year-old Emilio Briel while he was target shooting at a rock pit. The pair stole Briel's car and used it to commit several robberies. [11] Briel's remains were found in March 1986 but not identified until May. [citation needed] On October 10, 1985, five days after killing Briel, Platt and Matix attempted to rob a Wells Fargo armored truck that was servicing a Winn-Dixie supermarket. After ordering him to "Freeze", one of the pair shot a guard in the leg with a shotgun while the other fired handgun and shoulder weapons from the getaway vehicle. Two other guards returned fire, but neither Platt nor Matix was wounded. No money was taken in the botched robbery, but the injured guard later died from his wound. A few weeks later, on November 8, 1985, the two robbed the Professional Savings Bank in Miami, taking $41,469 in three Wells Fargo Armored Car Company money bags that had been delivered that morning. [1]
They resumed their robberies on January 10, 1986 by attacking a Brinks Armored Car Company courier as he opened the back door of his truck at Barnett Bank in Miami. The attack was initiated by one of them shooting the guard in the back with a large gauge shotgun. Both approached the wounded guard and shot him twice more with a military type .223 caliber weapon described by witnesses as an AR-15 or M-16 style rapid firing rifle. Afterwards, they escaped with $54,000 in the Chevrolet they had stolen from Emilio Briel. A civilian followed them from the scene and witnessed them switch to a white Ford F-150 pickup truck but lost contact thereafter. [1]:30 The guard survived the shooting, but was left with over 100 shotgun pellets in his body. [12]
On March 12, they robbed and shot Jose Collazo as he was target shooting at a rock pit in the Florida Everglades, leaving him for dead and stealing his black Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Collazo survived the shooting and walked three miles to get help. [12]
One week later, on March 19, 1986 at 9:30 a.m., carrying a short barrel pump shotgun and a military type shoulder weapon, possibly a Ruger Mini-14, they robbed the Barnett Bank branch. This was the same bank where they had shot and robbed the Brinks Armored Car courier a few months earlier.
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Bank Robbery
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Four-car PILE-UP on Great Eastern Highway in Bellevue causes traffic CHAOS on Perth roads
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A four car pile-up has caused traffic chaos along Great Eastern Highway after a car collided with a motorhome earlier tonight. Police and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services were called to the scene at the Farrall Road intersection in Bellevue just before 6pm tonight, where a driver of a Toyota sedan collided with a motorhome. One person was trapped in the car with serious injuries, and was conveyed via ambulance to Royal Perth Hospital for treatment. Four cars crashed in the pile-up, causing traffic delays for motorists as the right lanes of the busy highway were blocked off for several hours. The scene was chaotic as cars attempted to manoeuvrer their way through the crash, with a fire truck blocking one of the right lanes. It is expected the crash will clear shortly, and the lanes will re-open.
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Road Crash
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13 Shocking Autopsy Stories From Medical Examiners That'll Send Shivers Down Your Spine
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1. "When I was in EMS training, we had to do [medical examiner] rotations to learn gross anatomy. The ME told us of a case they had the previous month where they had an unattended death in a rental property of a single fortysomething person with no known medical history. The autopsy was unremarkable until the labs came back: carbon monoxide poisoning."
"Turned out his heating system had a weird malfunction that would emit massive amounts of CO. In this case the autopsy saved someone else's life as the heating system was fixed to avoid it from potentialy killing the next renter."
— u/i_am_voldermort
2. "Back in gross anatomy, I was cutting into my guy's butt. This guy had so much fat. If you didn't know fat is yellow. I finally separate the sea of yellow from his red muscles and as I'm parting his muscles, I see more yellow deep in his gluteus maximus. I'm thinking wtf is this. How the fuck does this guy have fat under his muscles? I pull it out and it ended up being a massive lipoma. Could easily fill a C cup, but don't think that's why he died. His lungs were pretty fucked up so I think he was a smoker."
— u/Definitlynotmartin
3. "Once, I sent a cow for autopsy after it died suddenly. The report came back that there was a wire in its heart (not hugely uncommon; they work through from the digestive tract), but also this cow had a deflated football in its stomach, which had been there for some time and did not appear to hinder digestion."
Dag Sundberg / Getty Images
— u/whiskey_throwaway
4. "We had this guy who had some heart issues, came to the hospital with some heart failure symptoms, got progressively worse and worse, and then just couldn't go anymore. This guy had extensive imaging, testing, the whole deal. Well, when we were doing the organs, everything looked fairly okay, even the heart didn't look THAT bad for the picture they gave us."
"Then, I slice open the liver (which was admittedly a bit larger than normal), and boom, it was about 80% replaced by a nasty, nasty abscess. I'm talking liters of pus. He didn't have a fever and they didn't see anything on imaging, clinical, or even blood cultures. We were never sure if the heart issues maybe worsened before he got to become septic, but that is still the largest liver abscess I've seen in my life."
— u/alksreddit
5. "A lady with cirrhosis died and when she arrived, she had a [swollen] belly. We assumed it was [fluid buildup in her liver due] to her cirrhosis, but when we opened her abdomen this thick, clear, gelatinous mucus poured out. We measured it at over two liters of this sticky gel. Turns out she had an undiagnosed mucinous tumor on her ovary, which had spread all throughout her abdomen."
— u/Nice_Dude
6. "When I was in my intro to EMS class, my teacher brought in a death investigator and former autopsy examiner to speak to our class. She told us while she worked as an autopsy examiner, she got this woman who, at the time, mysteriously suffocated after a car accident. Apparently, while she was driving, she grabbed her lighter from her purse and was holding it in her mouth while she fumbled through her bag for her cigarettes. While doing this, she got T-boned."
Justin Case / Getty Images
"The airbag went off and on the way to the hospital, they kept trying to put tubes down her throat to open her airway cause she was having trouble breathing. But no luck. She said when they cut open her throat during the autopsy they found her lighter jammed down there. Apparently, when the airbag went off, it got jammed down her throat and no one knew."
— u/I_Feel_Dizzy
7. "As a student in my dental school gross anatomy lab, we were dissecting the throat. Upon entering the larynx, we discovered a tooth the patient had swallowed. The tooth was lodged over the epiglottis, and we [changed] the cause of death to choked on foreign substance."
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Mass Poisoning
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1974 Zhaotong earthquake
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The 1974 Zhaotong earthquake occurred at 19:25 UTC on 10 May. It had a magnitude that was measured at 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale[4] and 7.1 on the surface wave magnitude scale. It had a maximum perceived intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The epicenter was located in Zhaotong prefecture in Yunnan province and it caused between 1,641 and 20,000 deaths. The earthquake has been ascribed to slip on a thrust fault trending north-south with a dip of 60° to the east, from geodetic data analysis. [5] It has also been interpreted to result from strike-slip faulting along a steeply-dipping NW-SE trending fault. [4] The isoseismal lines for the earthquake were poorly defined, due to variations both in topography and ground conditions. [1]
The earthquake consisted of more than ten separate sub-events. The sequence began with a few shocks in the first two to three seconds with magnitudes less than 5. These were followed by several shocks approaching magnitude 7 over a period of about a minute. The areal distribution of the individual shocks showed no progression along the fault plane as would be expected with a propagating fracture. [6]
The earthquake triggered many landslides in the epicentral area. The bedrock geology in the area contains rocks of almost all ages from Neoproterozoic through to Quaternary. Landslides were mainly confined to areas that experienced intensities of VII or greater and had slopes of moderate dip (26°–45°). In all but one case, the landslides involved Quaternary material, the exception being a slide that was controlled by bedding planes in a Permian limestone. Rock avalanches occurred on steeper slopes, particularly affecting jointed and weathered Permian limestone and Triassic sandstone/shale sequences. [7]
An area of about 400,000 square kilometres was affected by the earthquake. 28,000 houses collapsed and a further 38,000 were damaged. Houses with wooden frames in the epicentral area remained undamaged. [8] The number of deaths reported varies from 1,641 to 20,000[2][3] with a further 1,600 injured. The largest landslide formed a dam up to 30 m high across the Yangtze River, turning the valley above it into a lake. [8]
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Earthquakes
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Mount Morgan abandoned mine site brings environmentalists and farmers together
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It is not often you hear environmentalists and farmers asking government to help out a mining company — but that is what is happening in central Queensland as a resources project hangs in the balance.
Since 2014, Australian company Carbine Resources has been working on a proposal to pull copper, pyrite and gold tailings from one of Queensland's biggest abandoned mines.
Ian Scott lives downstream from the old Mount Morgan gold mine, near the Dee River at Wowan, south-west of Rockhampton.
He swam in the river as a child and ate fish from it, and still to this day, his 82-year-old mother irrigates water from the river for her small herd of cattle.
Waste has been trickling out of the mine into the Dee River in controlled amounts for years, but in 2013 after ex-tropical Cyclone Oswald, the mine's acidic dams overflowed for the first time in their history.
Mr Scott remembers the eerie effect on the Dee River.
"It was pale green, nearly luminescent," he said.
"The fish all died. It smelled. We obviously knew the water was toxic," he said.
The old mine is officially a ward of the State Government and it spends $3 million a year managing and maintaining the site, which is also a popular tourist attraction.
Since 2013, earthworks at the mine have reduced the chances of another uncontrolled overflow, a Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy spokesman said.
More than 1,100 megalitres of toxic pit water has also been treated since 2013, they added.
Yet no government has ever costed a full rehabilitation of the site, with estimates for a partial rehabilitation starting at $450 million.
While driven by profit, Carbine Resources claims its project would bring jobs to the struggling region, while also improving the old mine's acid mine drainage problem.
For Mr Scott, that is a better offer than what is happening now.
"While it's being pushed to the side, there's nothing getting done, there's no improvements, no infrastructure getting done," he said.
The company has most of its regulatory approvals but last month, it announced via the ASX that it has significant doubts about its project's financial viability, due to changes in exchange rates and expected mineral yield.
"It's extremely marginal," Carbine Resources managing director Tony James told the ABC.
The project is classified as a mining project, and Carbine Resources would therefore be expected to pay the state royalties on the tailings it pulls from the site.
Mr James said in order for the project to get private backing, the company needed $25 million from the state, either in the form of grants or a royalties reduction.
Mr Scott is backing the company's calls, as is a local farmer and environmentalist.
Farmer Neal Johansen, chairman of the Wowan-Dululu Landcare Group, said the proposal was "probably the best chance we've got for a clean-up at the Mount Morgan mine site".
Carbine Resources is at least the third company to consider pulling tailings from the site, and Mr Johansen is worried if the company baulks now, no others will come after it.
"The Queensland Government could definitely forgo the royalties on this project altogether," Mr Johansen said.
"They're getting a massive favour done.
"I know the government doesn't want to set a precedent with dealing with mining companies, but they really have an opportunity here to set a precedent with cleaning up abandoned mines."
Australian expert in legacy mines, Corinne Unger, said the devil was in the detail when it came to the extent of the environmental benefits of Carbine Resources' proposal.
She described the company's calls for help as a "very significant opportunity" for the government, given the abandoned mine's $450 million liability to the state.
"If we don't want taxpayers to foot that money, then offsetting it with gaining value from the site makes a lot of sense," Ms Unger said.
"We'll find further value not only in reducing environmental impacts but through employment and development of the local economy."
Ms Unger said the case highlighted how difficult it can be for added value to be found in the 50,000 abandoned mines now strewn across Australia.
"It's clear from Carbine's website that they've found this a fairly torturous path," she said.
"And that's likely because the legislation is not clearly articulated about how a company would re-process mining waste."
Queensland Mines Minister, Anthony Lynham, said the government was continuing to work with Carbine Resources on its proposal.
"The Palaszczuk Government continues to work closely with Carbine Resources to help realise its ambition to reprocess tailings at the site of the former Mount Morgan Mine," he said.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
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Environment Pollution
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Happy Olympic Day!
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Sir Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands set respective men’s and women’s world one-hour records at the Wanda Diamond League exhibition meeting here tonight.
Britain’s multiple world and Olympic champion held off the challenge of his training partner, home athlete Bashir Abdi, to set a new mark of 21,330 metres - eclipsing the 21.285m set by Haile Gebrselassie in 2007, with Abdi finishing just eight metres behind.
Hassan’s record in a stadium lacking supporters but not noise - thanks to the controlled recordings of crowd sounds from past meetings - also came after a titanic battle, in this case with Kenya’s world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei.
Both women moved to more than a minute inside world record pace, although it later transpired Kosgei had been disqualified for stepping onto the infield with seven minutes of the race remaining.
It seemed a very harsh decision for what was a momentary slip of the left foot that did the reverse of bringing any advantage.
The Dutch world 1500 and 5,000m champion reached 18,930m as the hour elapsed, beating the existing mark of 18,517m set by Ethiopia’s Dire Tune in 2008 after getting away from Kosgei with a final, wild, arm-pumping sprint.
As the men’s race moved into the final quarter of an hour, the ghostly figure of the current world record holder, Gebrselassie, was shown on the screen images in virtual shape, running at their side. And they were bang on the pace.
With 10 minutes to go they moved ahead of the world record schedule, passing 18,000m in 50min 42:07sec.
Inside the final five minutes Abdi, who the day before had confessed that he expected Sir Mo to beat him, moved to the lead, but the multiple champion was shadowing him still.
As advertised, the Wavelight visual pace-guidance system employing differently coloured LED lights installed on the inside edge of the track made the pursuit of records on the night immediately intelligible.
With three minutes remaining, both men were 30 metres clear of the leading blue lights, showing the intended pace, and the green lights snaking behind them, showing the actual world record pace.
A second world record appeared in the offing - and the same question was being asked as in the earlier women's race - who would break it?
Two world records in one race!Belgium's @BashirAbdi7 led through 20,000m in a world record 56:20.02 to better @HaileGebr's mark of 56:26.00. pic.twitter.com/C6W1xEiSvu
As the gun was fired to signal a minute to go, the Briton made his decisive move and by the time he entered the home straight for the final time he had the race won.
As the final seconds ticked away he secured his victory, and world record, at almost exactly the same spot where Hassan had earlier triumphed. Taking a few seconds to realise it was all over, he ran on until the stadium announcer told him: "The world record is yours, Mo!"
It was the 37-year-old's first officlal world record in his long and successful career - he set an indoor world mark for two miles in Birmingham five years ago but that did not have official world record status.
Later Sir Mo explained that he had noticed there were 24 seconds left as he went over the finishing line for the last time, but that he had been unable to see another clock so had kept on running just to be sure of the record.
He added that he and his training partner had deliberately run at a steady pace for the early part of the race before feeling ready to accelerate, and it was a plan that worked perfectly.
Abdi had the consolation of lowering Gebrselassie's world mark for 20,000m from 56min 26sec to 56:20.02 having led his friend at that point.
He assured reporters afterwards that this was not deliberate - "I had gone to the front to help, to make sure we kept on the world record pace," he said.
There was doubtless an additional savour to the record for Sir Mo, given his huge public bust-up with Gebrselassie during last year’s London Marathon build-up, when he alleged he had had property stolen while staying at one of the Ethiopian legend’s hotels.
Kenya’s Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon had to settle for another near miss as she attempted to beat the world 1000m record of 2min 28.98sec set on this track in 1996 by Russia’s double Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova.
Having finished just 17 hundredths of a second short at last month’s opening Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Kipyegon seemed on track to achieve her ambition with 200 metres remaining, but faltered slightly over the final few metres to cross the line in 2:29.92.
Norway’s 19-year-old European 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who has already reduced the European record to 3:28.68, made a bold effort to improve on that but his honourable solo effort saw him finish in 3:30.69, with Jesus Gomez of Spain a distant second in 3:34.64.
Just over an hour before the men’s pole vault event got underway, Britain’s 24-year-old Harry Coppell, gold medallist at the 2013 World Youth Championships, announced his intention of joining the big boys of the event by setting a British record of 5.85m in Manchester.
That effort took the Briton up to sixth in the 2020 world rankings.
Back in Brussels the competition took on familiar shape as Sweden’s 20-year-old world record holder Armand Duplantis saw the last challenger, home vaulter Ben Broeders, fall away with a best of 5.70m.
Sweden’s 20-year-old European champion then went on to clear 6.00m at his first attempt before having another crack at 6.15m, a centimetre higher than the best outdoor clearance ever made, by Sergey Bubka in 1994, but he failed to make it this time.
Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian.
Gonzales' controversial comeback on final day of Men's World Boxing Championships
Denver were awarded the 1976 Winter Olympic Games ahead of Sion in Switzerland, Tempere in Finland and Vancouver in Canada at the International Olympic Committee Session in 1970. But in a Colorado referendum in November 1972, voters rejected funding for the event. It is the only time a city has been awarded the Olympics but pulled out. The IOC then offered the Games to Whistler in Canada, but they too declined owing to a change of Government following elections. Salt Lake City offered to host the Games, but the IOC, still reeling from the Denver rejection, declined and selected Innsbruck, the 1964 host city, as a replacement.
IOC - Senior Olympic Marketing Campaigns Manager - Lausanne, Switzerland
Your mission will be to lead in the creation of annual global marketing campaigns, developing an aligned set of communication strategies that will enhance our brand and enable direct relationships with people through all continents. Furthermore, you will lead the creation, design and execution of brand defining campaign moments.
More jobs
A controversial decision by the International Modern Pentathlon Union to remove the riding element from the sport after the Paris 2024 Olympics has hit the headlines this week, with a host of athletes highly critical of the lack of consultation that took place. Mike Rowbottom speaks to those unhappy with the move and considers where the sport goes next.
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Break historical records
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Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crash
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Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 was a regularly scheduled domestic Austral Líneas Aéreas flight operating a route between Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata in Argentina that crashed after encountering poor weather conditions during landing on 16 January 1959, killing 51 of the 52 passengers and crew on board. At the time, the crash was the second-worst accident in Argentine aviation history and is currently the sixth-worst involving a Curtiss C-46 Commando. [1]
The Curtiss C-46 Commando, registration LV-GED, took off from Buenos Aires at 19:50 local time with five crew members and 47 passengers aboard for an approximately 250-mile flight to Mar del Plata. The aircraft had already been delayed for 35 minutes due to poor weather conditions at its destination. The flight was uneventful and Flight 205 was cleared for landing by controllers on runway 12 as it neared Mar Del Plata Airport. At the time the airport's non-directional beacon (NDB) was not functional, contributing to issues with navigation. As the aircraft passed over the runway at an altitude of 85 metres (279 ft), it overshot the runway. Missing the approach, the captain decided to commence a go-around. However, in bad visibility with poor airport lighting, the C-46 stalled and crashed into the sea about 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) away from the airport at 21:40 local time. All members of the crew were killed and the only survivor of the 47 passengers aboard the crash was seriously injured. [2]
An investigation of the crash placed most of the blame for the accident on the crew. The pilot was not familiar with the airspace and had miscalculated his instrument approach, resulting in a missed approach. In addition, the crew's mental state contributed to the subsequent stall and loss of control that caused the aircraft to crash. Contributing factors were the non-functioning radio beacon and the poor visibility which made discerning the airport's lights and runway difficult. [1][2][3]
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Air crash
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1990 Bijnor riot
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In October 1990, there was a major communal riot in Bijnor, a town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Stemming from a celebratory procession by local Hindu groups, it was the most destructive riot in the wake of concurrent Hindu nationalist campaigns, which eventually led to the demolition of Babri Masjid. The riots were also characterized by phases of passive and active complicity of the state machinery. Official estimates put the death-toll at 87; unofficially, the count varies from around 200 to 300. Amrita Basu et al. notes that there was a near-total absence of any communal riots at Bijnor before 1988. [1][2][3] A few distinct events manifested across the politico-religious sphere in the following years, that led to the gradual build-up of animosity and did serve as a precursor to the riots. [1][2]
In the 1988 municipal elections, a Muslim lawyer - Zafar Khan, from BSP was elected as the chair, having defeated Sandip Lal, a fellow Hindu contender from BSP, who was also backed by BJP. [1] Effectively, it was more of a religious fight than political. [1] Notwithstanding the demographic skew against Hindus, Lal was poorly educated and corrupt (contra Khan) and his history of switching political allegiances drastically hampered his chances; the election also saw a lower voter turnout among Hindus. [1]
Soon enough, the elected Hindus in the council (most of whom were prominent faces of communal outfits) accused Khan of being partisan in the distribution of funds and appointments at key posts including Vice Chairman, which was traditionally allotted to opposition. [1] The claims of fund misuse and partisan appointments have been since located to be entirely unfounded; a Muslim was illegally installed as the Vice Chairman, in absence of Khan, via a conspiracy hatched by the Hindu councilors. [1]
Along while, there were multiple attempts to bring a no-confidence motion against Khan esp by weaponizing the nominated members, but none managed to succeed esp that he was close to Mulayam Yadav, the then-chief minister from BSP (who changed nominated members at will). [1] The last such attempt was in June 1990. [1]
In around July 1990, there was a huge fracas about the fate of vacant land adjoining a mosque. [1]
The Hindu councilors along with local members of RSS claimed that the property belonged to a Hindu, who was settled elsewhere but failed to pay taxes. [1] On notification by the municipality of pending usurpation, he did pay the dues but yet Khan had evicted him to unilaterally allot the property to a Muslim, who was supposedly planning to inaugurate a beef shop. [1] A local daily The Bijnor Times, (which was promised with favors by Lal, shall he were elected) heavily aided in the amplification, so as to discredit Khan. [1] The allegations were unfounded in that the municipality owned the land, since long back and there was only a single request for renting out the property, which the entire council had approved of. [1]
On 25 August, a group of Hindus, led by Bajrang Dal, occupied the property and were soon reinforced in large numbers, as rumors spread of an impending attack by Muslims. [1] After a bout of stone-pelting between the communities, local police vacated the property by force and arrested the agitating Hindus. [1] An old Muslim woman was killed by a ricocheting bullet and another Muslim died in the hospital, later. [2] In light of the volatile situation, the municipality temporally stalled the scheduled land-allocation, in what was conceived as a victory by the Hindus. [1]
In the wake to the Babri Masjid demolition, VHP organised a cross-state tour, wherein karsevaks went about in a procession with flame-torches and sought to rekindle the Hindu spirit. [1] The then BSP government chose to prohibit them from entering the town by installing a barricade over the lone entry-bridge, fearing communal disturbances. [1]
In response, thousands of Hindu women formed into a flash mob, stormed the bridge in active defiance of state orders, and enabled the Ram-jyotis into the town. [1] This proved to be a major turning point as to the inclusion of women in physical manifestations of Hindu nationalism, and for the female-inflicted violence, that would form a major part of the Bijnor riot. [1]
The relations further deteriorated when the-then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav held one of the many 'communal-harmony rally' at Bijnor on 9 October 1990. [1] Poised as an antidote to RSS-BJP processions in the wake of Ayodhya, it was widely attended by Muslims from across nearby districts. [1] Incidentally, Lal was the chief organiser, whilst Khan chose to boycott it, fearing a flare-up of tensions. [1]
In the speech, Mulayam vowed to protect the Babri Masjid and spoke about unity between Muslim and Backward Classes against Savarna Hindus. [2] The speech was perceived to be inflammatory by Hindus and widespread violence followed soon afterward. [1][2] Muslims were heckled to prevent attending the rally and their vehicles were attacked, whilst returning during night; effigies of Mulayam were burnt by a combine of BJP and ShivSena, as well. [1] The district president of VHP was attacked, in what has been since alluded to an internal conspiracy for the sake of rumor-mongering, by local intelligence agencies. [1]
Three people (two Hindus and one Muslim) died and thirty shops were subject to loot and arson, in the aftermaths; bomb blasts were frequently heard around the town and the local marketplace was closed for four days. [1][2] Ninety-five people (sixty-five Hindus and thirty Muslims) were arrested but soon released due to continuous protests by the Hindu populace, who accused the authorities of minority appeasement. [1]
The initial destruction of Babri Masjid was planned on 30 October 1990. [1] The karsevaks started to arrive by 25th and pursuant to instructions of Mulayam Yadav, were subject to mass-incarcerations; by 26th, 637 were already arrested and that local prisons were filled up, a girls' intermediate college was transformed to a temporary prison. [1][2] Securities at the latter facility were minimal and they wandered out to the town, with ease. [1]
Schools and colleges chose to announce indefinite closure, in light of the communally polarized environment. [1] Public assemblies were banned soon afterwards. [1]
On 30 October, the detained karsevaks assembled at an Arya Samaj temple, in the town square with local VHP members, in anticipation of the demolition. [1][2] At around 11 a.m., a police officer reached the temple and spread misleading news, supposedly referenced from BBC, about the procession having reached Ayodhya and started with the planned destruction. [1] Within an hour, a several-hundred strong victory procession made its way through a Muslim locality of the town and engaged in provocative sloganeering; the slogans were strikingly similar to those used in previous communal riots. [1] Local Hindus however, rejected the claims and asserted of singing devotional songs, only. [2] The administration did not choose to not pay any heed to multiple calls for action on the initial congregation, which was a violation of the imposed prohibition on public assembly or on preventing its passage through the Muslim quarters. [1][2]
Amidst this volatile atmosphere, a local Muslim doctor – Mushir Ahmed – chose to keep open his dispensary. [1] After the Muslims started pelting stones at the Hindu rally; Ahmed chose to shelter a few Hindu women at the forefront of the rally, who were caught in the cross-fire. [1] The Hindus in the rally however suspected Ahmed of abducting those women, and he was murdered. [1]
This served as the immediate basis for the riot that was to follow.
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Riot
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2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
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An outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred in South Korea from May 2015 to July 2015. [5] The virus, which causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), was a newly emerged betacoronavirus that was first identified in a patient from Saudi Arabia in April 2012. From the outbreak, a total of 186 cases have been infected, with a death toll of 38. [3]
South Korea reported its first MERS case on 20 May 2015. [6] A 68-year-old man returning from the Middle East was diagnosed with MERS nine days after he initially sought medical help. [7]
The following table shows the daily statistics on the number of infected persons since 20 May 2015, based on the official report of the Central MERS Management Task Force, Ministry of Health and Welfare at the beginning of each day. [2][8]
^*1 Includes a case reported in China[9]
^*2 Parentheses indicate interim value
2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea
MERS confirmed cases status
MERS quarantine status
The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare initially withheld details from the public,[11] as identifying the medical institution treating a MERS patient might cause unnecessary anxiety to its other patients. This policy lacked public acceptance,[12] and was heavily criticized as preventing the Ministry from properly notifying hospitals and municipal governments. On 3 June, it was found that the Ministry had not notified the Incheon municipal government of the transfer of an infected patient to its local medical institution. [13] The following day the Seoul municipal government announced that it had learned by chance, through an official attending a meeting, that a hospital doctor, who began to show symptoms on 29 May and tested positive on 1 June, had been moving freely within the city and had attended a gathering of 1,565 people in Gaepo-dong on 30 May. [14] The municipal government obtained a list of the 1,565; the Ministry proposed to undertake "passive surveillance"; the municipal government rejected this as "lukewarm" and intervened directly: initially by contacting those listed. [14]
On 7 June, after 2,361 people were isolated, 64 patients were confirmed infected and 5 had died,[15] the central government finally disclosed the names of MERS-exposed medical institutions. [16]
On 7 June 2015, the South Korean government released the names of 24 MERS-affected hospitals to the public. [17] These hospitals include the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's (SeongMo) Hospital (??????) and the Seoul Samsung Hospital (??????), an affiliate of Samsung Medical Center. [18][19][20]
A 44-year-old South Korean man travelled to Huizhou, China via Hong Kong,[22] on business, on 26 May, contrary to a doctor's advice and in breach of a self-quarantine order from the government: his father and elder sister were both confirmed infected by MERS. [23] He was later found to have a fever,[23] and was subsequently confirmed infected. [22] He was suspected of dishonestly failing to disclose to Hong Kong border quarantine officers that he had visited his father in hospital on 16 May for nearly 4 hours. [23]
On 30 May 2015, a website said that a driver in Huizhou who transported a South Korean male MERS patient was suspected to be infected but later the government clarified that this was a rumor. [24]
A Chinese fugitive who stayed in South Korea for 3 years turned himself in as he was afraid of the outbreak. He arrived at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport on 4 June. [25]
On 8 June 2015, a South Korean couple who did not follow the self-quarantine notice were found to have visited the Philippines on 6 June. They had visited the respective clinics in Sunchang County where a 72-year-old woman was confirmed positive for MERS after having visited the clinic for lumbago treatment. The couple said that they only knew that the 72-year-old woman was a MERS-positive patient only after reading the news. [26]
On 9 June 2015, two Hong Kong students from City University of Hong Kong doing a three-month exchange program in Sungkyunkwan University were ordered by a professor to get out of the classroom as they refused to remove their protective masks. The professor also said that they were too sensitive to the outbreak because of the history of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003. Sungkyunkwan University replied that some professors saw wearing masks as impolite and said if students insist on wearing masks, they might be refused to give presentations in class and may be unable to graduate due to this. Affected students said this reflected that the South Korean public was not attentive to the threat of the MERS outbreak. [27]
On 25 June, a South Korean man who had been treated at a Chinese hospital after being diagnosed with the MERS virus in late May, was released from the hospital and returned to South Korea. [28]
The following table shows the number of schools that temporarily closed due to the outbreak:
On 11 June 2015, South Korea's central bank cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to stem the economic fallout from the outbreak. [37]
South Korea's department store sales decreased by 16.5% compared to the same period last year, and retail shops also decreased 3.4%, according to the Minister of Strategy and Finance, as of June 17, 2015. [38]
As of 17 June 2015, 100,000 tourist visits to the nation had been cancelled. [38]
After the outbreak, South Korea developed a system to rapidly expand testing capabilities during future disease outbreaks. This has been credited as a reason for South Korea's widespread testing and effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [39]
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Disease Outbreaks
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Locust invasion in Afghanistan - A race against time - FAO
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AYBAK, Northern Afghanistan, May 2002 -- Farmers in Northern Afghanistan are fighting a silent enemy. Afghanistan's bread basket, hit hard by three years of drought and many years of war, is finally blooming with crops and relative peace - but is threatened by hundreds of millions of locusts marching across fields and mountain slopes.
More than 200,000 hectares of farm land have been infested, with up to 70 percent of crop production and the livelihoods of some four million people at risk. Together with farmers, national plant protection experts, non-governmental organizations and international agencies FAO has launched a US$1 million campaign to combat the worst locust plague to hit Afghanistan in the last 30 years. Out of the nine provinces, three are most seriously affected (Baghlan, Samangan and Qunduz).
Invasions of the Moroccan Locust are not new to the people in the northern provinces of Afghanistan. They are used to keeping outbreaks under control mechanically, by digging trenches to trap young locusts.
Over the last year or two, conditions have favoured the locusts. "For security reasons, the Taliban did not allow people to work in the fields and check locust infested areas," says Shah Mahmuud, an Afghan FAO expert. "Many farmers fled to the cities and had to abandon their land. In a politically unstable situation nobody paid attention to locust control. The government was weak, without a proper functioning plant protection service. During this time, the international community also lost interest in Afghanistan and the fight against locusts received fewer resources."
Although the anti-locust campaign started late this year because of problems with security, once it got going many people were mobilised in the provinces affected, such as Samangan. There the governor declared a state of emergency, the city closed down and more than 10 000 people participated in mechanical control. They dug small trenches around the areas where the locusts were hatching, chased the insects with pieces of plastic and blankets into the trenches and buried them. Even now the technique is being pursued in the upland areas where the locusts hatch out later.
This strategy is successful against bands of young hoppers with reduced mobility. Farmers managed to kill millions of them and by early May had treated 81,000 ha of infestations mechanically. But, as the hoppers develop, they expand into larger areas which become more difficult to deal with using the mechanical method. In order to deal with the expanded area, FAO brought in non-persistent insecticides to supplement the mechanical control campaign. Farmers received protective clothing and training and FAO distributed more than 1,500 hand-held sprayers.
Lines of spraying farmers in orange overalls can now be seen moving across fields desperately trying to stop the advance of the locusts. Sprayers were also mounted on pickup trucks and were used to spray even larger areas, provided the terrain allowed the vehicles to drive across it. More than 21,000 ha have been treated so far with chemicals. A carpet of dead insects is already covering vast areas of crop land where chemical control took place.
"Despite some localized losses, we have managed to keep overall damage under control and we appear generally to be winning the battle. One of our important collaborators, the Irish NGO Goal has just carried out a survey of Samangan. Up to 1 May, of 219,187 ha of wheat, 5,827 ha have been destroyed by locusts, which is less than 3 percent," says Andrew Harvey, FAO coordinator of the locust campaign in Mazar-I-Sharif.
"Our main objective is to limit crop damage to the lowest possible level. The campaign has about 30 to 40 days to run, by which time it is expected that the wheat harvest will be well underway. The threat to crops will then be largely over. The Afghan plant protection officers, the villagers, the NGOs and the international agencies are doing a tremendous job in difficult working conditions. If we can keep damage to the present levels, or prevent it reaching more than about 5 percent, we can consider that reasonably successful but the next few weeks are crucial and will show what we have managed to achieve," Harvey says.
It is a race against time. FAO is now planning to air-lift more insecticides, plastic sheets and nets to areas which are not accessible by road.
And the next challenge is already around the corner. Each female locust lays up to three egg pods, each containing an average of 30-35 eggs. "We have to organize the proper monitoring of the sites where egg laying takes place in the late summer and autumn, so that we can be ready for the spring hatching and know where it is going to occur. Preventive control next spring will be planned to start earlier, villagers will be mobilized more quickly to carry out mechanical control and if insecticides are needed we hope to include environmentally benign materials including biopesticides in the armoury," Harvey says.
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Insect Disaster
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Korean Air Flight 85 crash
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On September 11, 2001, Korean Air Flight 85 was on route to Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, when information about the September 11 attacks was relayed to the crew. The pilot in command's ACARS message reply included the letters "HJK", a prompt interpreted as a distress signal indicating that the flight had been hijacked. When ordered to squawk 7500 (a "hijack" code), the pilot complied, despite miscommunication that implied he would disregard the instruction. [2][3]
Flight 85 was ordered to divert to Whitehorse International Airport in Canada's Yukon territory. U.S. officials and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien authorized the aircraft to be shot down if it did not cooperate. [4] The airliner pilots complied and the 747 landed safely in Whitehorse, with U.S. F-15 military jets escorting it. After the September 11 attacks, a call went out for all international planes to return to their airports of origin (or if they did not have enough fuel, to land in Canadian territory). While discussing the day's events with the Korean Air office, the pilot of Flight 85 included the letters "HJK" (the code for "hijacked") in an airline message. [1] When the pilot sent his message, the text messaging service company, Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC) noticed the "HJK" code. [1] ARINC officials, worried that the South Korean pilots might be sending a coded message for help, notified North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Taking no chances, NORAD scrambled F-15 jets from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage to intercept the 747, with Alaska Air Traffic Control (ATC) asking the pilots coded questions. ATC instructed the flight to change its transponder code to 7500, the universal signal for hijack, expecting that, if they had not been hijacked, the pilots would respond to that effect. Instead, they simply complied with the instruction, which ATC took as confirmation that the flight had indeed been hijacked. [2][5] Worried that a possible hijacked plane might strike a target in Alaska, Governor Tony Knowles ordered the evacuation of large hotels and government buildings in Anchorage. At nearby Valdez, Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard ordered all tankers filling up with oil to head out to sea. Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, who was in charge of the NORAD planes that scrambled to shadow Flight 85, told reporters in 2001 that he was prepared to order the South Korean airplane to be shot down before it could attack a target in Alaska. [1]
With NORAD telling Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center (AKA: Anchorage ATC) that it would shoot down the airliner if it came near any potential targets, these controllers informed Flight 85 to avoid all population centers and head out of the U.S. to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. NORAD promptly called Canadian authorities seeking the go-ahead to shoot the plane down over Canada:
I said, 'Yes, if you think they are terrorists, you call me again but be ready to shoot them down.' So I authorized it in principle, It's kind of scary that ... [there is] this plane with hundreds of people and you have to call a decision like that. ... But you prepare yourself for that. I thought about it – you know that you will have to make decisions at times that will [be] upsetting you for the rest of your life. Ninety minutes after the South Korean pilots changed their transponder signal to the 7500 hijacked code, the plane landed safely in Whitehorse. Canadian officials evacuated all schools and large buildings before the plane landed. [6] On the tarmac, Flight 85 was met by armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, who, after interrogating the pilots, learned the whole ordeal was caused by a translation error. [6] The South Korean pilot stated that he had been ordered by Air Traffic Control to change the transponder signal and Air Traffic Control confirmed having done so. [2] A second Korean Air 747, a cargo plane, was also diverted to Whitehorse that day. [7] The incident coincided with Operation Yellow Ribbon, the operation that Transport Canada created to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights following the attacks. Korean Air still uses Flight 85 on its Seoul-Incheon to New York-JFK route. However, the flight no longer stops in Anchorage and its normal equipment is now the Boeing 747-8I, Boeing 777-300ER, or Boeing 787-9.
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Air crash
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Russia, China Hold Joint Anti-Terror Drills – TASS
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Russia and China have kicked off multinational anti-terrorism military exercises as the countries seek to fill a regional security void left by the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Russian state media reported Monday. The two powers will hold the Peace Mission 2021 drills in Russia's Orenburg region near the Kazakh border from Sept. 20-24 under the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The SCO, along with the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has since its founding in 2001 been viewed as Russia’s and China’s counters to Western geopolitical dominance. In addition to Beijing and Moscow, the SCO consists of the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with India and Pakistan joining in 2017. Afghanistan holds observer status in the SCO, though the Taliban — a militant group that recaptured the country from the U.S.-backed government last month after 20 years in retreat — has not been invited to the bloc’s latest summit last week. “Over 5,000 troops from nine states will demonstrate their readiness for joint operations to rout large outlawed armed gangs and neutralize terrorist threats,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted a senior Russian military officer as saying. According to the outlet, Peace Mission 2021 will involve 5,500 troops from SCO member-states and more than 1,200 weapons and equipment in the Orenburg region’s Donguz training ground. China has deployed 558 troops and 130 vehicles and pieces of equipment to Peace Mission 2021, covering a distance of 6,300 kilometers, according to the Global Times. These include Y-20 strategic transport aircraft, Z-19 attack helicopters and Z-8G transport helicopters, Type 08 infantry fighting vehicles, Type 11 wheeled assault gun and Mengshi off-road assault vehicle. The biennial drills will be split into two stages with the active phase including the Russian- and Chinese-led troops leading in five operational episodes. Peace Mission 2021 will also be the first SCO anti-terror drills for Russia’s key ally and neighbor Belarus, said Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin, who leads the Russian Defense Ministry’s Central Military Command. Russia and China last month held joint Zapad/Interaction 2021 military exercises against the backdrop of regional security concerns and deteriorating ties with the U.S. President Vladimir Putin has hinted at the possibility of a Russian-Chinese military alliance, an upgrade from the current strategic partnership, in the future.
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Military Exercise
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Shropshire Star
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Businesses in Bridgnorth High Street were briefly evacuated after a loud explosion was heard. Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service scrambled two appliances from Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock at 9.24am after receiving reports of a "hole in the pavement following explosion."
They initially classified the incident as a gas leak and sent an operations officer to join responders from gas, and electricity providers in investigating.
But a spokesperson for gas supplier Cadent confirmed it "was an electrical fault, Cadent will be handing over to Western Power Distribution" before leaving the site.
Western Power Distribution reported up to 86 properties being without power during the course of the morning.
"We are aware of this power cut incident which was raised at 8:11am and our engineers are working to get the power returned as quickly as possible," said the WPD website. They expected power to be restored to 44 properties by 4pm.
Andy Corfield, landlord at the Crown pub in High Street, said: "I was putting away my deliveries this morning. I had gone back upstairs and heard a loud bang.
"I looked outside and saw the bakery were just getting their delivery in, and I thought that someone had dropped some pallets."
But he added: "My other half called up and said that half our lights went out, and outside a manhole cover had blown off, and some of a paving stones were up as well.
"Because of what happened a couple of years ago I thought I had better call the fire brigade, and they were here very quick."
Another witness who did not wish to be named said businesses were briefly evacuated.
Bridgnorth town mayor Councillor Sarah Barlow praised the emergency services for their speedy response. No-one was believed to be hurt.
"All I know is that there was a small explosion," said Councillor Barlow, who is recovering after having covid for 10 days.
"The pavement was cracked outside one of the shops."
But she said the emergency services for responding.
"Thankfully nobody was hurt," she said. "I have nothing but praise for the emergency services and the way that they responded."
It is not the first time Bridgnorth has been disrupted in this kind of way.
In May 2019 a gas leak lead to the evacuation of buildings and several residents had to be housed for the evening by Bridgnorth Town Council.
In that incident the fire service said a fault in an electrical cable sat above the gas pipe caused a small explosion which ruptured the gas main. Luckily the gas was not ignited.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/bridgnorth/2019/05/20/bridgnorth-high-street-evacuated-over-potential-gas-leak/
But Councillor Barlow said she believed the two incidents were probably "co-incidental".
By 11am today the emergency services had gone, but that work was still ongoing to restore electrical power to some businesses.
At 10.20am police confirmed that the road was open again, thanking people for their patience.
By David Tooley
Senior Reporter@TooleyMedia
Senior reporter at the Shropshire Star, focusing on the south of the county.
Got a story? Get in touch at david.tooley@mnamedia.co.uk.
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Gas explosion
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Baba Adhav diagnosed with cancer
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Pune: Eminent social activist Baba Adhav (92) on Tuesday confirmed that he had been doing well at home post-diagnosis of cancer.
The nonagenarian has appealed to citizens to refrain from visiting him during the course of his illness.
“I am doing well at home and recovering. Please do not rush to meet me out of worry. It would be dangerous to contract Covid at this stage as cancer has weakened my immunity,” Adhav said in a social media post.
“Adhav has been diagnosed with a mild type of cancer of blood cell a month ago. He is not at all bed-ridden, but needs ample rest,” senior cardiologist Abhijit Vaidya said.
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Famous Person - Sick
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2024 European Women's Handball Championship
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The 2024 European Women's Handball Championship will be held in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland in November and December 2024. [1] This will be the first tournament to feature 24 teams. The vote took place on 25 January 2020 at the EHF Extraordinary Congress in Stockholm. The solo bid of Russia was eliminated in the first round, leaving the joint bids of Austria/Hungary/Switzerland and Czech Republic/Poland/Slovakia. The final round Austria/Hungary/Switzerland was awarded the event over Czech Republic/Poland/Slovakia by 7 votes with 28–21. This handball competition article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Sports Competition
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Modern Capitalism and Sunflowers
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LONDON — European banks have seemingly weathered the coronavirus crisis well, but there are still some major challenges ahead that have the potential to rattle the sector. There’s been a noticeable difference between the pandemic and the global financial crisis of 2008: European banks have a much stronger capital position now than they did before. This is in part thanks to much tougher requirements imposed by regulators in the wake of the 2008 shock — and it looks to be paying off. European banks are so confident about their capital positions that some are even ready to resume dividend payouts this year, despite regulators asking for caution. “The most important takeaway is that we have not seen a deterioration in asset quality yet since the onset of the crisis,” Arnaud Journois, vice president at DBRS Morningstar, said about the latest set of quarterly results from European banks. Fahed Kunwar, head of European banks equity research at Redburn, also said the latest quarterly results have been “strong” with three-quarters of banks beating on revenue, and closer to 90% beating on capital and provisions. Major lenders in Europe have benefited from stimulus measures introduced by governments, but also from policies from the European Central Bank and Bank of England. Their steps have contained the number of business failures and have boosted lending. But the situation could change over the next year as these fiscal and monetary interventions are potentially scaled back. “Bad loans will start to appear over the next year or so. That’s when we will get a clearer picture of how bad the situation is in the corporate sector,” Nick Andrews, Europe analyst at investment research firm Gavekal, told CNBC over the phone. Elisabeth Rudman, head of European financial institutions at DBRS Morningstar, also said that “the full level of non-performing loans is still to materialize.” Governments haven’t announced that they are lifting financial support, but as the health crisis slows down and economies reopen they will likely pull back on their contributions. That will put pressure on certain firms, which might end up missing their debt repayments and file for insolvency. “When these measures are withdrawn, we expect to see an increase in defaults and non-performing loans at banks,” Rudman added. The second challenge is interest rates. “One risk given the level of government spending is if interest rates do start to move up markedly, that will increase the cost of trying to respond to the pandemic,” Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays, told CNBC on Thursday. Interest rates were cut to record low levels in the wake of the pandemic, but central banks could consider raising them back up if prices rise significantly in the near future. This is a smaller risk in the euro zone, according to Andrews from Gavekal, where recent increases in inflation were associated with one-off events, such as new consumer tax rules in Germany. However in the U.K., economists have predicted that prices could overshoot the Bank of England’s inflation target later this year, which would likely lead to the central bank increasing rates. “It will be tougher for the overall economy,” Staley said if that plays out. Higher rates will mean that business owners and property buyers will find it more expensive to take on new debt. However, there is one bright spot that could help European banks in the recovery phase. Economists believe that consumers will return to the shops and restaurants, and start to make the economy move again the moment that social restrictions are eased. “We could see a stronger rebound on the back of pent-up demand,” Andrews from Gavekal said. This could lead to more business investment and end up supporting banks’ balance sheets too.
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Financial Crisis
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Morrison government quashes Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China
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Michelle Grattan 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.
University of Canberra provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.
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The Morrison government has cancelled the Belt and Road agreements Victoria has with China.
In the first decisions under the government’s new law allowing it to quash arrangements states, territories and public universities have, or propose to have, with foreign governments, Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced four Victorian agreements would end.
Two are with China, and the others are with Iran and Syria.
The agreements with China are the memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road initiative signed in October 2018, and a subsequent more detailed framework agreement signed in October 2019.
The agreement with Iran related to student exchanges and dates from 2004. The protocol with Syria was for scientific co-operation, and goes back to 1999.
Payne, who makes the determinations under the foreign arrangements scheme, said the agreements were “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations” under the scheme’s test.
The action is likely to elicit another sharp response from China, which is extensively targeting Australian trade and regularly delivers rhetorical attacks.
The Victorian buy-in to the Belt and Road network – China’s global infrastructure and development strategy – was seen as the prime target when the government first announced its plan to review the agreements with foreign governments and their entities.
Scott Morrison said last year about Belt and Road that it was a program Australia’s foreign policy did not recognise “because we don’t believe it is consistent with Australia’s national interest”.
The foreign arrangements scheme, operating since December, was driven substantially by concern about foreign interference in Australia, in particular from China.
It also reflects the broader principle that foreign relations are a national matter and agreements by states and territories with foreign governments should not be at odds with the federal government’s policies.
Federal sources say the Victorian agreements with China have not yielded any tangible outcomes for the state. The other two agreements have been overtaken by major changes in relations with those countries.
Payne said under the audits of existing and proposed foreign arrangements required by the new law, she had been notified of more than 1000 arrangements.
“States and territories have now completed their initial audit of existing arrangements with foreign national governments.
"The more than 1,000 notified so far reflect the richness and breadth of Australia’s international interests and demonstrate the important role played by Australia’s states, territories, universities and local governments in advancing Australia’s interests abroad.”
Payne has approved a proposed Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Human Resources Development in Energy and Mineral Resources Sector between the Western Australian and Indonesian governments.
A spokesperson for the Victorian government said the law was “entirely a matter for the Commonwealth government”.
The Chinese government has condemned the cancellation of the Belt and Road agreements as “provocative”. A statement from a Chinese embassy spokesperson expressed “strong displeasure and resolute opposition” to Payne’s announcement. “The BRI is an initiative for economic cooperation, which follows the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and upholds the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and transparency. "It has brought tangible benefits to the participating parties. The BRI cooperation between China and the Victoria state is conducive to deepening economic and trade relations between the two sides, and will promote economic growth and the well-being of the people of Victoria.”
The statement said this was “another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China. "It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself.”
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Tear Up Agreement
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The Latest: UN chief to hold meeting on Afghanistan funding
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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief will convene a ministerial meeting in Geneva on Sept. 13 to seek a swift scale-up in funding to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where nearly half the country’s 38 million people need assistance. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric made the announcement Friday and said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also appeal “for full and unimpeded humanitarian access to make sure Afghans continue to get the essential services they need.” Dujarric said the U.N. appeal for $1.3 billion for 2021 to help more than 18 million people is just 40% funded, leaving a $766 million deficit. “Afghanistan faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe,” the U.N. spokesman said. “One in three Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from. Nearly half of all children under the age of 5 are predicted to be acutely malnourished in the next 12 months.”
Earlier Friday, Dujarric said the secretary-general is “very grateful for the generosity” of Denmark, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United States for making available facilities and transport for the temporary relocation of U.N. staff in Afghanistan.
Dujarric announced Aug. 18 that about 100 of the U.N.’s 300 international staff were being moved to Kazakhstan to work remotely because of security concerns.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he will travel to Qatar and Germany to visit U.S. diplomats and troops along with Afghans who were evacuated from Kabul amid the scramble to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. Blinken’s visit to Qatar will coincide with the first stop of a tour of Persian Gulf allies by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Blinken told reporters Friday he will visit the Qatari capital of Doha and the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, starting this weekend to thank U.S. personnel for their work in completing the pullout Monday.
The State Department says Blinken has no plans to meet representatives of the Taliban while in Doha, where the group that now controls Afghanistan has an office and which had been the site of failed peace talks with the former Afghan government. Blinken will see Qatari officials and visit with Kabul embassy staffers who are based in Doha since the U.S. closed its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. Qatar’s permission for the United States to temporarily house Afghan evacuees at al-Udeid air base was a key to facilitating the Kabul airlift.
In Germany, in addition to visiting Ramstein, Blinken will meet with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and participate in a virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of roughly 20 other nations with interests in Afghanistan.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. military bases housing Afghanistan evacuees are building their own city-type leadership organizations to deal with sanitation, food and other challenges as the numbers of Afghans coming into the U.S. grows.
Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who heads U.S. Northern Command, said there were more than 25,000 Afghan evacuees being housed at the eight bases as of Friday. He acknowledged there have been problems as the bases grapple with language, cultural and other issues.
He told Pentagon reporters that he’s “building eight small cities, we’re going to have challenges.” He said the bases have designated a military officer as a “mayor” to be in charge of a couple dorms or housing units and an Afghan counterpart who can communicate about any ongoing issues. He said Northern Command has asked the Defense Department for additional linguists who are fluent and can speak with the Afghans.
The U.S. military will eventually be able to house as many as 50,000 Afghanistan evacuees at the eight bases around the country and won’t likely need to tap additional facilities, said VanHerck, who is also the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Afghans at the bases are divided, with single males and single females in separate housing, and families walled off in their own sections where possible to provide privacy.
So far, he said, there have been few problems with evacuees testing positive for COVID-19, and he has heard of no serious security problems.
A defense official said the number of Afghans at each of the eight bases will fluctuate over time, but as of Friday the approximate totals were: Fort McCoy, Wisc., 8,800; Fort Bliss, Texas, 6,200; Fort Lee, Va., 1,700; Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, N.J., 3,700; Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., 650; Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., 800; Fort Pickett, Va., 3,650 and Camp Atterbury, Ind., 65.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security says the government expects to admit more than 50,000 people into the country from the Afghanistan airlift.
Alejandro Mayorkas suggested Friday that figure could climb in what he called an unprecedented evacuation. Mayorkas told reporters during a news conference that the U.S. has brought more than 40,000 people into the country from Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul last month. About a quarter of those who have come so far are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The rest, he said, include people who have received the special immigrant visas for Afghans who worked for the U.S. or NATO as interpreters or in some other capacity. Also included in this group are people who have applied but not yet received the visa and those considered “vulnerable” under Taliban rule.
That last group includes women, children, and members of civil society, Mayorkas said. The secretary, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Cuba as a child with his family, spoke proudly of the evacuation effort and said the number of people admitted could exceed 50,000. He said all those entering the U.S. are undergoing security screening and vetting in a number of transit points, where they are tested for COVID-19 and offered a vaccine. —-
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Persian Gulf allies to thank them for their cooperation in the evacuations from Afghanistan.
Spokesman John Kirby said Austin will depart Sunday and visit Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He said the Pentagon chief will reaffirm U.S. defense relationships in the region. He also will visit with U.S. service members. Qatar’s permission for the United States to temporarily house Afghan evacuees at al-Udeid air base was a key to facilitating the Kabul airlift. It will be Austin’s first visit to the Gulf since President Joe Biden announced in April that he was ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A Qatari jet carrying the Gulf country’s special envoy for counterterrorism and conflict resolution has arrived in Kabul.
A Qatari official with knowledge of Friday’s visit said officials would discuss efforts at an inclusive government and the resumption of civilian commercial operations at the airport. The official addded that Qatar continues to work closely with nations whose embassies relocated to the Qatari capital of Doha from Kabul in past days. Those countries include the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan part of an effort to provide safe corridors and freedom of movement for those still in Afghanistan.
No further details were provided. Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, the Qatari envoy who landed in Kabul, said his nation remains “an impartial mediator” and has engaged with all sides. Qatar has hosted Taliban political leaders for years, as well as unsuccessful attempts at peace talks between the militant group and the U.S.-backed government before its collapse.
Al Qahtani said in a statement to The Associated Press that Qatar’s “priority with the Taliban includes guaranteeing a peaceful transfer of power and ensuring an inclusive and effective government is formed to serve the Afghan people.”
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PRISTINA, Kosovo --- Kosovo’s government says that the number of Afghan evacuees who had worked with NATO, and their families arriving in the country has reached 467.
The first group of 111 Afghans arrived in the country on Sunday.
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla on Friday met with international organizations to “discuss the current situation and needs on the temporary housing of the Afghan citizens in Kosovo.”
Svecla said that NATO has assisted in their accommodation so far and called for assistance from the organizations despite their support for “dignitary accommodation to make their stay easier” in the country.
Kosovo has said it may temporarily shelter up to 2,000 Afghans while they process documentation on their final destination to the United States.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s foreign minister says the country will not recognize any Taliban government.
Jeppe Kofod told Danish broadcaster DR on Friday that leaders there are concerned about “ensuring that the progress we have made through two decades of efforts in Afghanistan can be sustained.”
The most immediate priority, Kofod said, is ensuring that everyone on the country’s evacuation list can leave Afghanistan “in good order.”
—-
KABUL, Afghanistan — A few dozen protesters have gathered outside the presidential palace in Kabul, urging the country’s new Taliban leadership to uphold women’s rights achieved under Western patronage and include women in the upcoming government. At one gate on Friday, around a dozen women held up small printed pages urging for “A heroic Cabinet with the presence of women.” The protestors chanted slogans asserting human rights and saying they did not want to return to the past.
A document circulated by protesters demanded that Afghan women are granted full rights to education, social and political contributions in the country’s future, and general freedoms including that of free speech.
___
MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:
— US defends strike that Afghan family says killed innocents
— Qatar says it’s not clear when Kabul airport will reopen
— Those left in Afghanistan complain of broken US promises
— Afghans face hunger crisis, adding to Taliban’s challenge
— Biden defends departure from ‘forever war,’ praises airlift
— UN chief urges countries to help Afghans in ‘hour of need’
___
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
___
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
WARSAW, Poland – A government official says that Poland will temporarily host some 500 Afghan evacuees who had worked for NATO in Afghanistan.
Michal Dworczyk said Friday that the Afghans will remain in Poland for up to three months before moving on to other countries. Depending on their choice, up to 50 persons will be able to settle in Poland. However, Poland has not been a popular destination in Europe for migrants.
Dworczyk, a top aide to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Radio RMF FM that the first group of some 250 persons would arrive Friday from the NATO air base in Ramstein, Germany.
Separately, Poland has evacuated some 1,300 people from Kabul, mostly Afghanis, who had worked with Poland’s military and diplomatic mission, and their families and said it is taking responsibility for them.
___
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban say Western Union will resume its operations in Afghanistan, opening a rare conduit for foreign funds to flow into the cash-strapped country.
The group’s ’s cultural commission spokesman, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, announced the move Friday. The American financial services giant had halted operations in Afghanistan when the Taliban took power in the capital on Aug. 15. The opening will be especially welcomed by Afghans with foreign relatives abroad. Hundreds of people have been lining up daily outside Afghan banks to withdraw cash. Withdrawals have been limited to $200 per week and cash machines aren’t working. The overcrowding means that not everyone manages to obtain money on a given day. ___
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited injured U.S. troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday night.
There are 15 Marines at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, who were wounded in an Aug. 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. The attack occurred as the U.S. government was arranging evacuations of Americans, Afghans and allies before the nearly two-decade war in Afghanistan officially ended Aug. 31.
Eleven Marines were also killed in the attack, as well as one Army solider and one Navy corpsman. Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday to witness the return of their remains to U.S. soil in a solemn “dignified transfer.”
One of the wounded Marines was in critical condition. Three were in serious condition and 11 in stable condition.
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Diplomatic Visit
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Global Cold Chain Alliance
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Cape Town, South Africa – Members of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) South African have pledged their time and commitment to serve on the newly created GCCA Food Safety & Compliance Committee. This committee was created so members could discuss the laws and regulations impacting cold chain logistics and refrigerated storage industry in South Africa and collectively build stronger relationships between industry and related government agencies. The seven committee members beginning their one-year term on 1 August 2020 are: "I am excited to launch the inaugural GCCA South Africa Food Safety & Compliance Committee with these seven leaders who have made the commitment to help strengthen Africa’s cold chain through food safety & compliance,” says Regional Director Lizelle van der Berg. “Collectively, they will serve as the voice of the cold chain industry and help GCCA Africa create exponential value for our members.” Committee service offers members the opportunity to engage in focused, high-level strategic discussions about the industry and/or association programs. This is a unique chance for members to learn from their peers while giving back to the association by sharing their time and experience. Participation in committees is restricted to individuals from member companies only. About the Global Cold Chain Alliance and GCCA South Africa Comprised of its Core Partners, including the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), the International Refrigerated Transportation Association (IRTA), and the Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA), the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) represents all major industries engaged in temperature-controlled logistics. GCCA unites all partners to be innovative leaders in the temperature-controlled products industry. GCCA works throughout Africa to strengthen the cold chain and maintain product integrity and quality between rural areas and more populous cities. Member services in the region range from post-harvest technical assistance to international connections for companies involved in the importing and exporting of temperature-controlled products. Visit www.gcca.org for more information. Media Contact: South Africa Regional Director: Lizelle van der Berg. +27 72 225 9820 or Lvanderberg@gcca.org. The Global Cold Chain Alliance is comprised of three associations and one foundation, called Core Partners. GCCA serves as the focused voice of the cold chain industry, representing 1,100 member companies in over 85 countries.
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Organization Established
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Solomon Islands oil spill report leaked to ABC reveals economic losses of up to $50 million
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Solomon Islands oil spill report leaked to ABC reveals economic losses of up to $50 million
Documents leaked to the ABC have estimated the economic losses caused by an oil spill near a world heritage-listed area of Solomon Islands last year could be as high as $50 million.
More than 300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil leaked into the waters of Kangava Bay in February last year from the damaged hull of a bulk carrier after it ran aground on Rennell Island in rough seas.
The bulk carrier MV Solomon Trader had been attempting to load bauxite from a nearby mine on the island.
The report said the grounding caused the direct loss of more than 10,000 square metres of reef and more than 4,000 square metres of lagoon habitat.
Almost 30,000 additional square metres of lagoon habitat was exposed to heavy fuel oil in the weeks following the spill.
A team of local and international experts conducted the environmental damage assessment for the Solomon Islands Government four months after the spill.
Their report was handed to the Solomon Islands Government more than a year ago, but its contents have never been made public and locals are yet to be compensated.
The ABC obtained a copy of the assessment that outlines significant and long-lasting impacts to the nearby marine environment.
Images in the report showed a thick black sludge extending across the bay's turquoise blue waters.
Surveys of the seafloor detailed in the report found "reduced invertebrate abundance and richness, reduced fish biomass … and reduced live coral cover".
"Statistical analysis suggests these impacts extend to within 1 to 3 kilometres of the grounding site," the report said.
Rennell Island is recognised as a biodiversity hotspot.
The eastern half of the island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998, but due to pressures from logging, mining and invasive species, the site is listed as "in danger" by the international group.
The majority of the western half of Rennell Island was leased to Asia Pacific Investment and Development Ltd (APID) for a bauxite mining operation in 2015.
The report said APID subcontracted mining operations to Bintan Mining Solomon Islands who are "currently exporting approximately 300,000 tonnes per month" of bauxite ore in 34 shipments.
The researchers also interviewed locals to gauge the socio-economic impacts of the disaster on the island's 2,500 inhabitants.
They found it had affected their physical and mental health, and they also documented concerns about the loss of subsistence fishing, dietary changes and negative impacts on cultural practices.
While clean-up efforts generated employment and support services for workers such as housing, transport and trade, negative economic impacts affected the seafood industry and tourism.
The long-term impact on the local population was the loss of environmental resources.
The report calculated those losses to be between $19 million and $51 million, depending on the rate of natural recovery and the effort to rehabilitate the area.
If no efforts are made to rehabilitate the ground site, the recovery could take up to 130 years, the report said. An active rehabilitation program could reduce the time to 50 years.
Lawyer William Kadi from the Public Solicitors Office told the ABC he was preparing a compensation case on behalf of Rennell Islanders.
Mr Kadi said he had been waiting for the Government to release the report so his clients could put a figure to their compensation demand.
Secretary of the Solomon Islands' Environment Ministry Dr Melchior Mataki said follow-up assessments have been planned, but it was unclear when that would happen.
"A lot of the work was supposed to be done this year, but then with the ongoing COVID-19 issue it has really affected our capabilities to actually mobilise resources to get our staff down there," he told the ABC.
Dr Mataki said the damage assessment report was released to "stakeholders" after being approved by cabinet.
He said the Government recently signed an international shipping convention that would allow it to pursue the ship owner's insurer for compensation.
)
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Environment Pollution
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Ukrainian President accomplishes years-long quest for a White House visit with Biden meeting
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Updated 2322 GMT (0722 HKT) September 1, 2021
President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in Washington.
(CNN)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with President Joe Biden in Washington on Wednesday, the culmination of a years-long struggle to get a White House visit locked up that -- at one point -- saw him at the center of US politics.
The much-anticipated gathering could have high-stakes implications for Zelensky, who has vied for American support since he took over in 2019. His ascension to office led to a congratulatory call from then-President Donald Trump, who pushed Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter. The call was at the heart of Trump's first impeachment by the House before the Senate acquitted the then-President, finding him not guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The White House meeting, some two years after both Zelensky and Biden were ensnared in that historic first impeachment, marked an opportunity for the Eastern European leader to set a new tone with a new administration in person.
Zelensky, for his part, has suggested that he wants to move on.
Late Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, the Ukrainian President was asked about the impeachment and whether the US-Ukraine relationship has improved.
Read More
"I would like Ukraine to be known, not notorious," he responded.
In the Oval Office earlier Wednesday, Zelensky made big requests for the Biden administration in front of the press, including getting the US' input on Ukraine's chances of joining NATO, establishing the potential US role in reaching a settlement in the Donbas region of Ukraine, and requesting American assistance in freeing hundreds of individuals imprisoned in Donbas.
"I have a very big agenda for our relations, maybe not for this meeting, which is too short to answer all the questions," Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian security issues would be a priority for the meeting.
Questions about the US' long-term foreign policy approach remain in the air.
Trump challenged America's long-standing diplomatic role in the world, building a nationalist platform he assured would put "America first" and often siding with Russia despite its escalating aggressions with Ukraine in their ongoing dispute over Crimea. And though Biden has asserted that American diplomacy is back, even allies are wondering how long it'll last -- especially in the wake of the US' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden stated that "the United States remains firmly committed to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, and our support for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations." He also said the US and Ukraine "have a similar value system."
Biden indicated that the US will "continue to support Ukraine as it advances its democratic reforms agenda and movement toward being completely integrated in Europe." And the joint statement from the two countries issued Wednesday afternoon also underscored the US' solidarity with Ukraine.
"In the 21st century, nations cannot be allowed to redraw borders by force. Russia violated this ground rule in Ukraine," the statement read, later underscoring that "the United States does not and will never recognize Russia's purported annexation of Crimea(.)"
Details of Wednesday's visit
Biden senior administration officials said the White House meeting would be designed to demonstrate the US' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, saying on a call with reporters on Monday that "in the 30 years since Ukraine achieved independence, our strategic partnership has never been stronger than it is now."
In the Oval Office, Biden formally announced $60 million in new security assistance, which officials on the call said would include new Javelin anti-armor missiles. Officials said he's expected to get an update on the security situation in the region amid continued acts of Russian aggression. He'll also press Zelensky to make reforms in his country targeting corruption.
A source at a US-based firm that engages closely with the Ukrainian government indicated that NATO membership and the defense agreement were top of mind.
Aside from defense cooperation and Zelensky's reform agenda, energy is another major topic of discussion that will arise. Biden hopes to boost support for Ukraine's energy sector after completion of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Ukrainian leader previously said he thought the US' easing of Nord Stream 2 sanctions would be a victory for Russia and a personal loss for Biden.
After the meeting with the Congressional Ukraine Caucus Wednesday afternoon, Zelensky told reporters through a translator that he and Biden discussed the "safeguards" in place with Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, while saying the details of those safeguards still had to be developed.
The US announced in the joint statement that it is expanding its Covid-19 assistance to Ukraine, providing "cold chain storage support and an additional $12.8 million in COVID-related assistance drawn from the America Rescue Plan Act." The US has already donated nearly 2.2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to the country. The US will provide an additional $45 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine this year and also plans to allocate over $463 million for development assistance, "including for programs focused on democracy, human rights, local governance and decentralization, privatization, and judicial reform," according to the statement.
Zelensky's visit to the White House comes after earlier meetings in Washington.
On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her Ukrainian counterpart, Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko, signed on to a strategic energy and climate dialogue alongside Zelensky. Zelensky and Minister of Defense Andrii Taranto also visited the Pentagon on Tuesday, where the US and Ukraine signed on to a strategic defense framework.
A long-awaited meeting
Earlier this summer, Zelensky implored Biden to hold an in-person meeting before the US President's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland. Ultimately, the White House rejected the request, opting instead for a summer meeting in Washington.
During his time with Putin in Geneva, Biden indicated that Ukraine would be top of mind during the summit and said later that he had "communicated the United States' unwavering commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."
The meeting between Zelensky and Biden was originally scheduled to occur on Tuesday, but was moved as it became clear that August 31 would be consumed with the final day of the war in Afghanistan.
The source at the US-based firm said there had been some unhappiness in Kiev about the shifting calendar for the visit, which had originally been eyed for late July, as well as some concern about the strength of US support for Ukraine in light of its moves on Nord Stream 2 and Biden meeting with Putin prior to meeting with Zelensky.
"Bringing two heads of state together is a complicated and fast-moving process," a Biden official said on Monday's call. "We want this meeting to receive the attention that it deserves. There is a wide range of issues for the two sides to discuss, and we're really looking forward to having the time and space to do that on Wednesday."
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Diplomatic Visit
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Gabon Express Flight 221 crash
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Gabon Express Flight 221 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 8 June 2004. The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 was carrying 26 passengers and 4 crew and was flying from Gabon's capital Libreville to Franceville via Port-Gentil when an engine failed. The crew tried to return to Libreville International Airport; however they overflew it and nosedived into the sea. At least 19 people were killed in the crash. It was the second deadliest plane crash in Gabon. Gabon President Omar Bongo declared three days of national mourning in response to the disaster. Flight 221 was a regular domestic passenger service operated by a Gabonese airline, Gabon Express. At the time the airline was the second largest airline in Gabon, with over 60 destinations. The flight was carrying 26 passengers and 4 crew. Among the passengers were 7 French nationals, 2 Lebanese and a German. Shortly after takeoff from Libreville the crew reported problems with the aircraft. A failure of the oil pressure on the No.2 engine occurred, causing the crew to turn back. [1]
While returning the crew tried to extend the aircraft's landing gear, however it did not do so, due to problems with the hydraulics. Witnesses on the ground stated that the aircraft was operating with only one engine. Flight 221 then nose-dived into the sea . [2]
The tail and the front part of the aircraft separated from the main body. As the aircraft was not fully submerged, several survivors managed to escape from the sinking wreckage. 4 hours after the initial impact, the wreckage sank and fully submerged , with many people still trapped inside the wreckage. [3]
Immediately after the crash, fire crew and emergency services were deployed. 11 survivors were evacuated from the scene and were taken by helicopters to local hospital in Libreville; none had received serious injuries. Divers were deployed by authorities to rescue people trapped inside the wreckage. Local fishermen, French Navy and French military also joined the rescue effort. [4][5]
As the crash of Flight 221 claimed 19 lives, the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, declared three days of national mourning in honor to the victims of the crash. A government official stated that a national funeral will be held in response to the crash. [6]
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Air crash
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Dibbles Bridge coach crash
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On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom of a steep hill at Dibbles Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver, and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of fatalities. [1]
The coach, a 1967 Bedford VAM5 run by Riley's Luxury Coaches, was carrying 45 female pensioners on a day trip from Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, to Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales. The trip was organised by Dorothy White, Lady Mayoress of Thornaby who had previously run several such trips. While driving on a downhill stretch of the B6265 road between Greenhow and Hebden, stand-in coach driver Roger Marriott, a British Steel Corporation security officer, missed a gear. He then applied the brakes. The brakes had been serviced a week before the crash and had new linings, but as magistrates were later told, "defects" due to improper maintenance "meant there was no braking on the offside rear wheel". [2]
The brakes were insufficient to hold the coach, and it accelerated, heating up the brakes until they eventually failed as the coach travelled down the 1,400-yard (1,300 m), 1:6 (17%, 10°) gradient from Fancarl Top to the bottom of the valley downstream of Grimwith Reservoir. After crashing through a steel crash barrier and a 3-foot (1 m) high stone parapet above the bank of the River Dibb, it landed on its fibreglass roof in the garden of a cottage 17 feet (5 m) below. The aluminium sides of the coach then buckled on impact with the ground. [2][3]
The son-in-law of the cottage owners, London barrister (now painter and sculptor) Lincoln Seligman, was having a barbecue with his partner in the garden at the time and was first on the scene. He later gave an eyewitness account to the Teesside Evening Gazette: "There were screams. I dragged some people out ... I don't know how many". [4]
Three teenagers from Hull who were camping nearby heard the crash and came to assist, namely: Steven Griffin, Steve Jennison and Carl Dickinson. One saw the bus flip over and saw the entire upper section crushed when it landed. They said the scene was silent when they arrived two minutes later, with the survivors stunned into silence. A car was flagged down and eventually one ambulance with a single driver arrived. He radioed a code which eventually brought a fleet of ambulances to ferry the injured to Airedale General Hospital in Keighley. [5]
The initial aftermath was 32 killed on the scene and 14 seriously injured all with major head and neck trauma. No-one was uninjured. One of the injured died. An inquest at Skipton Town Hall, in July 1975, recorded a verdict of accidental death on the victims. Jury foreman John Mitchell said the accident was caused by the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend, owing to deficient brakes on the coach, due to possible lack of care in the maintenance of the braking system. [2] The pathologist reported that the main cause of the loss of life was the crushing of the victims between the seats. [6] The proprietor of the coach company, Norman Riley, was later fined £75 (equivalent to £634 in 2019[7]) for running a motor vehicle with defective brakes. [8]
Even before the crash there had been a campaign to have electro-magnetic retarders fitted to all coaches. An electro-magnetic retarder uses the rotation of the axle to generate electricity, the energy for which has to come from the movement of the axle. The use of such a retarder means that the frictional brakes are kept cool for use at slow speeds. Local newspaper The Yorkshire Post staged a trial two weeks later: a coach which had been fitted with the retarder was put out of gear and allowed to run away down the hill without braking, and the retarder kept the coach's speed within safe limits. The Dibbles Bridge crash brought the issue to a wider public; ultimately, legislation was passed requiring improved braking systems. [2]
A memorial service was held at St Paul's Church, Thornaby, in May 2015 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the crash, when a memorial plaque was unveiled outside Thornaby Town Hall listing the names of those who died. [9]
Roger Marriott (driver), Betty Aitchison, Margaret Baldwin, Lillian Barclay, Rosaline Brown, Jenny Butler, Gladys Callaghan, Isobel Chisholm, Ada Christon, Gwendoline Dodsworth, Ida Fisher, Hannah Forth, Hilda Gibbon, Irene Groskop, Grace Harrison, Edna Herron, Elizabeth Hill, Doris Howsden, Henrietta Kirk, Jenny Lowe, Kathleen Maud, Margaret Mennell, Elsie Middleton, Henrietta Pedley, Eva Pratt, Harriet Riley, Eileen Ross, Jean Smart, Eva Thomas, Dorothy White (mayoress), Freda Wilkinson, Edith Woodhouse, and Sylvia Worn. Alice Benson, Mary Booth, Edna Clementson, Edna Dobson, Joan Hymer, Joan Marriott, Lillian McCleod, Helena Pickering, Madeleine Pratt, May Richardson, Margaret Robinson, and Eva Rogers.
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Road Crash
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HotSpots H2O: As Famine Looms in East Africa, Humanitarian Groups Call for Urgent Action
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Drought has left millions in the region facing food insecurity—and conditions are expected to get worse. The landscape of Kulaley Village in northern Kenya lays barren after a drought in 2011. Photo © OxFam East Africa / Wikimedia Commons. By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue — October 18, 2021 In 2011, two failed rainy seasons thrust the Horn of Africa into the worst famine of the twenty-first century. An estimated 260,000 Somalis died of starvation, over half of them children. Antelope carcasses dotted the savanna. As crops withered, about half of the region’s livestock, whose milk millions of children relied on for nutrition, perished. Such terrible outcomes could again be on the horizon. Climate models indicate the potential for another brutal famine in East Africa. As dry conditions bear on, humanitarian groups are calling on the international community to take action before it is too late. As of early September, over 29 million people were already experiencing food insecurity in the region, about 500,000 of which were in the worst category of “catastrophic,” meaning severe malnutrition and starvation. If the coming months bring another dry season—an outcome which all global and regional services are projecting—millions more will be pushed into hunger. “In the absence of immediate action, the magnitude of food insecurity and malnutrition across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia will likely grow,” according to an alert from the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group. East Africa typically experiences two rainy seasons: one from October to December, and another from March to May. Last year, both of these seasons came in below average. Chris Funk, the director of UC Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Center, wrote in The Conversation that the upcoming season is projected to be similarly dry. “We now think that a devastating drought is likely to happen again, in 2021/2022,” Funk wrote. Drought leads to famine only when support networks fail to respond. The purpose of the forecasting efforts is to support that response: “without effective early action, all the data collection and modelling is of limited value, and people end up suffering,” Funk added. Another poor rainy season would be nothing short of cataclysmic. The Kenyan government’s recent Long Rains Report found that production of maize, the country’s staple food, is projected to decline by 50 percent in the affected regions. Some areas are expected to face total crop failure. This would not only endanger agricultural communities, but also poor urban residents, for whom skyrocketing food prices could spell doom. Last century, droughts would occur every five or six years. Now, Funk wrote, it happens every two or three years—a cumulative strain on the region already weakened by civil strife, poverty, and, this year, locusts. “You have two seasons of depressed rains, desert locusts ravaging farmlands in the same counties and people fighting over the few resources available. That is the making of a disaster,” Asha Mohammed, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross, told The Guardian. Scientists say the pattern is yet another effect of global climate change. The La Niña weather pattern, driven by normal cooling cycles in the eastern Pacific, has always caused dry spells in East Africa. But as global greenhouse gas emissions rapidly warm the western Pacific Ocean, the La Niña is becoming more frequent and severe. Humanitarian organizations are urging the international community to send aid to the region. Proposed solutions include conducting animal health treatment campaigns, sending financial support to vulnerable farmers, distributing drought-tolerant seeds, and more.
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Famine
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Fish kill fears as blackwater floods Richmond River
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There are growing concerns about a fish kill on the New South Wales north coast, and renewed calls for a long-term solution to the problem.
Oxygen levels in the water have crashed as dissolved vegetation flows back into the Richmond River in the wake of recent heavy rain.
Phil Hilliard, from the Ballina Fishermen's Co-operative, said no-one wanted to see the river closed to fishing, as it had been after similar events in 2001 and 2008.
But he said clumps of dead fish had been found at several sites.
"We're talking about a couple of hundred kilos at each location, so that could add up to quite a lot of fish," he said.
"All the people that I've talked to are saying that there won't be a closure. "Only reason I can see somebody trying to put a closure on it is if they believe a mass of dead fish is going to create a health issue. "We've got everything crossed that doesn't happen." Ballina councillor Keith Williams said a blackwater event was to be expected after recent heavy rain caused a build-up of water in areas that were once wetlands, but were now often used for agriculture.
"The water sits in there on non-native grasses. They last for about seven days before they finally just disintegrate and all that rotting vegetable matter just strips all the oxygen from the water," he said.
"Everything is reliant on that oxygen, and what we've done by draining swamps and other things is a serious, serious problem."
Gary Owers, from the Rous County Council, said things could get even worse with more heavy rain on the way.
"There is a lot of water lying on the floodplain still and it has very low dissolved oxygen, so more rain will basically mean that water will get washed into the river," he said.
"So it's just going to make things a lot worse."
Southern Cross University geoscience professor Scott Johnston said a big-picture solution was needed to fix the problem. He said estuaries were overwhelmed by the frequency of stormwater events due to human interference in floodplain drainage.
Professor Johnston said thought needed to be given to the types of vegetation being grown in important drainage areas.
"There may be some areas where the wetlands are better functioning as wetlands," he said.
"It may be smarter for them to no longer be under agricultural production and be functioning as wetlands and be contributing to the health of the river system and the estuary. "To do that requires long term co-ordinated management, and also a big conversation that involves the entire community."
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Environment Pollution
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North Adams strike
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The North Adams strike was a strike in 1870 by shoe workers of the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin, against Calvin T. Sampson's Shoe factory, in North Adams, Massachusetts. The strike itself was broken when Sampson imported seventy-five unskilled male Chinese strikebreakers, from California. The craft union itself was eventually defeated by mechanization, although a decade later only five immigrants remained in North Adams. Those that did move out eventually moved to Boston to found their Chinatown. The United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, further restricting immigration to the country and continuing the gender imbalance that started with the laborers for many years to come. [1][2][3]
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Strike
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North Macedonia joins NATO as 30th Ally
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Today (27 March 2020), North Macedonia became NATO’s newest member, upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the US State Department in Washington DC. NATO Allies signed North Macedonia’s Accession Protocol in February 2019, after which all 29 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership.
Speaking in Brussels on Friday NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family, a family of thirty nations and almost one billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together.“ North Macedonia is a long-standing contributor to our Euro-Atlantic security, including by participating in NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and in Kosovo.
A flag-raising ceremony for North Macedonia will take place at NATO Headquarters on 30 March 2020, in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Delegation of North Macedonia to NATO, Mr. Zoran Todorov. The flag of North Macedonia will be simultaneously raised at Allied Command Operations in Mons (Belgium) and at Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk (US).
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Join in an Organization
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Race riots in Miami
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Race riots in Miami include a series of violent events that occurred in Miami mainly through the 1980s. After desegregation, much of the racial violence in Miami had calmed only to be reignited by the 1980s. The decade of riots were the result of policing controversies and ethnic tensions fueled by the perceived threat of recent immigrants to African Americans on the Miami job market.
In the United States through the 1960s, desegregation was empowering once disadvantaged African American communities to reach new political and economic gains. In Miami the Cuban exile seemed to undercut new African American gains as Cubans began to compete for jobs, residence, and political power. The later perceived successes of many Cubans gave a feeling of powerlessness to local African Americans. Many Cuban refugees lacked English language skills and ended up living in lower income neighborhoods and taking up blue collar jobs that many African Americans also held. In 1963, Ebony magazine characterized the Cuban exile as an "invasion" bringing in "grave social and economic problems. "
By 1968, Miami witnessed a riot in its Liberty City neighborhood during the 1968 Republican National Convention, caused by the frustration African Americans faced in the country. By the 1970s, the Hispanic population of Miami outnumbered the African American population and more Hispanic owned businesses had been opened than African American owned businesses.
Between the 1968 Miami riot and the 1980 Miami riots, up to thirteen "mini-riots" would occur in Miami, all stemming from police confrontations with African-Americans.
The 1980 riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten black motorcyclist Arthur McDuffie.
After the accidental police shooting of a man in an Overtown video arcade, a riot broke out in the neighborhood. Cars were burned, businesses were looted, and police were shot at. Ivey Kearson, director of the Overtown Jobs Program, said of the riot's cause "unemployment in the area is 50 percent or higher." "Most of the people here, they don't see anything happening for them and their neighbors and the guy down the street." "It's not just going to be in Miami and it's not going to just be blacks. People feel they have to react violently. " The policemen in the original arcade shooting were Latin American. "Leave these Latins get out of here, right now," shouted the Rev. Jonathan Rolle, in a television interview about the incident. Later, in a phone interview, he would say, "The Latin police, they just ride around in their cars, and they never get out". ". . . . The Latins are the ones who are killing the blacks. "
The 1989 Miami riot came after police officer William Lozano shot Clement Lloyd, who was fleeing another officer on a motorcycle. He crashed and his passenger, Allan Blanchard, was also killed. Four days of rioting later took place in Overtown. On January 21 after the shooting, violence erupted in Overtown and the next day in Liberty City. Schools were closed and police cordoned off a 130-block area and teargassed rioting crowds. [11]
After the arrest of Haitian demonstrators picketing a Cuban owned business, believed to have harassed Haitian customers, and the condemnation of Nelson Mandela's visit to Miami by many Cuban city officials, many black business organizations boycotted Miami entirely throughout the summer of 1990. This boycott was dubbed at the time as a "quiet riot". The boycott was noteworthy for its peaceful and successful tactics as compared to the recent riots. In the end $50,000,000 dollars was lost due to cancelled conventions in the city and ended with various business deals in the city to help expand black owned businesses and attract black professionals.
After police shot a shooting suspect in Overtown, rioting broke out in majority black neighborhoods of Liberty City, Overtown, and to a lighter degree in Coconut Grove. Twenty people were arrested after rocks were thrown at a police station, a city bus, and a dumpster was set on fire.
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Riot
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Tasmanian town Rossarden takes out best water award at event deemed Olympics of water
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A former mining town in Tasmania's north-east has taken out top honours at an international water judging event deemed the Olympics of water.
Rossarden, in the Fingal Valley, was once the centre of the state's mining industry and produced the bulk of Australia's supply of tin.
Until three years ago, the town's drinking water was on a public health notice due to contamination from residual mining operations.
Earlier this week the small town of 50 residents won the Best Municipal Water for 2021 award at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting event held in the US state of West Virginia.
The annual US-based competition is in its 31st year and claims to be the world's largest and longest-running water-tasting event.
TasWater acting chief executive Juliet Mercer said the award was a nod to the state organisation's 24glasses Regional Towns Water Supply Program, which worked to remove the public health alerts affecting 29 Tasmanian towns and drinking water systems.
"Seeing a town where so recently you could not even drink the water now recognised as having the best drinking water in the world is an incredible result and is a great source of pride to TasWater," Ms Mercer said.
The state-wide 24glasses program saw the installation of 17 new water treatment plants, including the one at Rossarden, and 16 reservoirs.
Northern Midlands Council Mayor Mary Knowles said she had lived in Rossarden for 33 years and was excited for the town to receive positive international recognition after years of water supply issues.
"[When] I moved there from the mainland, the water was the sweetest water I'd ever tasted, but it was terribly dirty because of all the old pipes," she said.
"[Today, we are] celebrating having the world's best drop straight from a tap."
Earlier this year, water from the town's water treatment plant was bottled and sent to the United States for the competition.
Nine judges — who are certified water tasters — sampled the entries for odour, visual appeal, taste and texture.
US water expert Arthur von Wiesenberger said water took on the mineral characteristics of the ground that it came of.
"The water reflects the terroir," he said.
He said judges were looking for "visual observation, absence of aroma, the taste of the different aspects of water — sweetness, saltiness or bitterness, depending on the minerals — and the aftertaste and whether it left a residue in the mouth".
"Certain minerals will give water a texture. Silica, for instance, will give water a slippery texture. If the water is astringent that could be due to high levels of calcium or magnesium," he said.
""Some people think salty water must get its taste from sodium. Well, not necessarily. It's really coming from calcium and magnesium carbonates, which changes in your mouth into something like salt."
The Tasmanian town trumped Santa Ana in California, which took out the category title in 2019, but came in at second place this year.
There are a few cities that claim to have Australia's best tap water — Melbourne and Hobart among them
Other categories in the competition included best bottled water, best sparkling, best purified drinking water, and the people's choice for best packaging.
The competition received entries from 19 US states and 14 countries, including New Zealand, Tajikistan, Bosnia and Greece.
The other Australian towns with entries were Bowral, New South Wales and Babinda, Queensland.
“The consistency in winners from year to year with different panels of judges validates the choices,” Mr von Wiesenberger said.
“It also speaks to the impressively high calibre of the waters entered."
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Environment Pollution
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Egypt announces new archaeological discovery
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Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry has announced the discovery of a number of ancient churches and rooms in the Bahariya Oasis, southwest of Cairo. Cairo Published on: March 14, 2021 12:00 IST Egypt announces new archaeological discovery Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry has announced the discovery of a number of ancient churches and rooms in the Bahariya Oasis, southwest of Cairo. In a statement, the Ministry said on Saturday that a Norwegian-French archaeological mission working at the Tal site in the Bahariya Oasis discovered a number of buildings constructed of basalt stone and carved into the rocks, as well as other buildings constructed of mud bricks, reports Xinhua news agency. The buildings made of mud bricks date back from the 4th to the 7th century AD, the statement said, adding that the remains are parts of three churches and rooms for monks. This discovery is important as it led the mission to know the planning of buildings as well as understanding the formation of the early monastic congregations in this region, according to the statement. The North African country has witnessed several large-scale archaeological discoveries in recent years in different parts of the country, including Pharaonic tombs, statues, coffins, and mummies.
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New archeological discoveries
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1978 Iranian Chinook shootdown crash
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The 1978 Iranian Chinook shootdown was an incident on 21 June 1978, when four Boeing CH-47 Chinook of the Imperial Iranian Air Force strayed into Soviet airspace during a training mission, with the end result being that two of the aircraft were shot down by the PVO.
During the 1970s, numerous incidents, probably including Project Dark Gene occurred on the Soviet-Iranian and Afghan-Iranian border, causing the Soviets to station a regiment of MiG-23s at the Ak-Tepe AB, near the border with Afghanistan, in what was then the Turkestan Military District. One of the most serious of these occurred in the early morning of 21 June 1978, at 06:21 AM, when a Soviet radar site near the village of Bagir, not far from Ashkabad, detected four slow moving contacts which came from Iran and penetrated 15 to 20 kilometers into the Soviet airspace near Dushak, in Turkmenistan. Five minutes later, these targets were detected by the radar site of Ak-Tepe Air Base, and deputy commander of the 152 IAP, Lt.Col. J. A. Miloslavsky, ordered one MiG-23M, flown by Capt. A. V. Dem'janov, to scramble. Once over the area, Dem'janov found only one helicopter, but misidentified it as a friendly Mil Mi-6. In addition, he got a command from the command post, "not to turn weapons on and not to come too close to the target". Because Dem'janov's answers to calls from the GCI station sounded uncertain, he was finally ordered back to Ak-Tepe AB and instead, at 06:52 AM, Lt.Col. Miloslavsky dispatched another MiG-23M, flown by Capt. Valery I. Shkinder. Shkinder approached four contacts, identified them properly as Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and got an order to attack. At the time, the Iranian Chinooks were flying in two pairs to the northwest along the Qaraqum Canal, but when their crews detected the interceptor over them, they made a turn to the southwest and flew towards the Kopet mountains and the Iranian border. Diving behind the two rear Chinooks, Capt. Shkinder fired two Molniya R-60 IR-homing air-to-air missiles. Both missiles found their mark and struck the rearmost helicopter, the wreckage of which crashed near the village of Gjaurs, killing all eight crew members. Capt. Shkinder informed his base of the destruction of the first target and got an order to attack the second helicopter. Turning around, he positioned his MiG-23M behind the damaged helicopter and opened fire with GSh-23L 23-mm gun, spending a total of 72 rounds in two passes and hitting the starboard engine of the CH-47C. The Iranian pilot was lucky enough to manage a landing near the Soviet border post at Gjaurs. All four crew members survived, but were subsequently captured by Soviet border guards. The remaining two Chinooks escaped, crossing back into Iranian airspace. Despite a severe loss of life for the IIAF, the incident was played down by both sides, and the Soviets subsequently permitted the damaged Chinook to be repaired by Iranians and flown back to Iran, together with all four crewmembers: Capt. Valery Shkinder was also not decorated for his feat, with the proposal for him getting a Combat Red Flag Award with Kremlin rejecting the proposal "due to a very complex international situation". Ten years later in 1988 in a similar incident, two Soviet MiG-23s shot down a pair of Iranian AH-1Js[4] that had strayed into western Afghan airspace. The Soviets were occupying Afghanistan at the time and were withdrawing. 15 years before this incident at least another shoot down had occurred in which an Imperial Iranian Army Aviation (IIAA) Aero Commander 560 had been shot down by a Soviet MiG-17P. [5]
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Air crash
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2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash
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On 4 July 2002 a Boeing 707-123B operated by Prestige Airlines and owned by New Gomair, crashed during an emergency landing at Bangui Airport. 28 people on board were killed and two survived. [1] The flight was bound to Brazzaville, but the crew decided to divert to Bangui when the landing gear had not retracted. The international flight was carrying passengers and a load of onions and garlic from Chad to the Central African Republic. There were 17 Chadian passengers on board. [2] The Boeing belonged to a small airline New Gomair, owned by local businessmen, but was chartered by Prestige Airlines at the time of the accident. [2]
On final approach to Bangui, the aircraft descended until it contacted the ground. The crash occurred in clear weather at about 11:15 a.m. in the Guitangola neighborhood, two miles short of the Bangui Airport's runway. [3][4] The aircraft exploded upon touchdown, scattering wreckage and reportedly causing the roof of an empty house to collapse. [3]
The two survivors were engineer Laurent Tabako and a woman from Chad, both were admitted to a hospital. [2] According to Tabako, the engines stopped before landing and the crew may have dumped too much fuel before an emergency landing. [2] The witnesses reportedly did not hear the usual engine noise during the crash and saw no flames when the aircraft disintegrated. [2] The aircraft's flight recorder and voice recorder were recovered and an investigation was launched by the government of the Central African Republic. [2]
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Air crash
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After deadly accident Cargill will shut down salt mine, but company claims its not because of recent collapse
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Six weeks after a roof collapse killed two miners at its Avery, La., rock salt mine, Cargill has announced plans to permanently close the facility. One of three Cargill mines in the U.S. that produce rock salt used to deice winter roads, Avery produces about 2 million tons of salt a year — roughly the same amount as its Lansing mine beneath Cayuga Lake. The other Cargill salt mine under Lake Erie near Cleveland produces about 3 million tons a year. The Avery mine employs about 200 people. Cargill said it has operated it for 24 years. The company said Thursday that it had already planned to halt production at Avery later this year when its lease with the landowner, Avery Island Inc., ends. However, federal law requires companies to notify the state within 60 days of closing a worksite of 50 or more, and Cargill had not filed such a notice as of Jan. 19, the Acadiana Advocate reported, citing Louisiana state records. The fatal accident at the mine Dec. 14 may have been a key factor in the closure, according to Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (CLEAN). CLEAN has warned that Cargill’s Cayuga Lake mine is vulnerable to a roof collapse as the company mines under sections of thinning bedrock separating the mine from the lake. “It’s possible that blaming the closure (of Avery) on the McIlheny family’s unwillingness to renew the lease distracts from revealing that mine safety and water leakage into the mine were more significant issues,” CLEAN’s Stephanie Redmond said Saturday. A group of 18 employees were working in the Avery mine on Dec. 14 when a portion of the roof collapsed. Sixteen miners escaped, but two were counted as missing for two days before their bodies were found. A preliminary report from the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration found that the two who died were trying to stop a water leak when one of the mine’s chambers collapsed near a rock fault, according to the Lafayette Daily Advertiser. “Two miners died when a back failure occurred in a large intersection,” the MSHA report reads, according to the Advertiser. “The miners were drilling in an attempt to intercept water leaks when blocks of salt and anhydrite fell from beneath a slickenside onto the miners.” Normal operations at the mine had not resumed as of Jan. 22, while investigations continued, Cargill’s Daniel Sullivan told WaterFront on that date. Six days later the company announced the permanent shutdown. Cargill said the process of closing the mine will likely take until 2024. “The company is working with employees to offer a variety of support services as they are needed,” the company said in a statement Jan. 28. Cargill’s Cayuga mine also employs about 200. The company has permits to mine 13,000 state-owned acres of leased mining reserves under the lake. The mine is roughly 2,200 below ground level. The company is completing a controversial new ventilation and egress shaft that will facilitate mining toward the northern end of the reserves. For several years, CLEAN, independent scientists, the Town of Ithaca and other neighboring municipalities have raised concerns about a potential catastrophic roof collapse at Cargill Cayuga. Even so, the past five New York State governors have not required the company to provide an environmental impact statement for its sub-lake mining. In a pending legal appeal, CLEAN and others are seeking to compel the company and the Cuomo Administration’s Department of Environmental Conservation to provide an EIS. The state has required Cargill’s chief in-state competitor, American Rock Salt in Livingston County, to produce an EIS. “American Rock Salt’s Hampton Corners Mine … is newer, safer and more productive than Cargill’s Lansing mine,” Redmond said. “We hope Cargill and the DEC are coming to the conclusion that mining under Cayuga Lake is too risky for both Cargill’s miners and for the potability of Cayuga Lake water and the surrounding aquifer.” In 2013, miners at Cargill’s Erie salt mine were evacuated due to mine safety concerns. The mine was closed for 10 days in that incident.
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Mine Collapses
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1842 General Strike
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The 1842 general strike, also known as the Plug Plot Riots,[1][2] started among the miners in Staffordshire, England, and soon spread through Britain affecting factories, mills in Yorkshire and Lancashire, and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall. The strike was influenced by the Chartist movement – a mass working class movement from 1838–1848. [2] After the second Chartist Petition was presented to Parliament in May 1842, Stalybridge contributed 10,000 signatures. After the rejection of the petition the first general strike began in the coal mines of Staffordshire. The second phase of the strike originated in Stalybridge. [3]
A movement of resistance to the imposition of wage cuts in the mills, also known as the "Plug Riots", it spread to involve nearly half a million workers throughout Britain and represented the biggest single exercise of working class strength in nineteenth-century Britain. On 13 August 1842, there was a strike at Bayley's cotton mill in Stalybridge, and roving groups of workers carried the stoppage first to the whole area of Stalybridge and Ashton, then to Manchester, and subsequently to towns adjacent to Manchester including Preston, using as much force as was necessary to bring mills to a standstill. The Preston Strike of 1842 resulted in a riot where four men were shot on 13 August at Lune Street. The West Riding of Yorkshire saw disturbances at Bradford, Huddersfield and Hunslet. At least six people died in a riot at Halifax. [4]
One perspective is that the movement remained, to outward appearances, largely non-political. Although the People's Charter was praised at public meetings, the resolutions that were passed at these were in almost all cases merely for a restoration of the wages of 1820, a ten-hour working day, or reduced rents. In contrast, Mick Jenkins in his "General Strike of 1842"[5] offers a Marxist interpretation which sees the strike as becoming insurrectionary and intrinsically linked to the Chartist movement. "What clearly emerges... is the changing character of the strike--an understanding that the main aim of the strike was for the People's Charter" (p. 144). He cites resolutions in support of the Reform Bill and the Charter. Jenkins also sees the political nature of the strike expressed in the repression of the strikers: "When the meeting had assembled, a party of the Rifle Brigade charged into the crowd, and one man had his hand run through with a bayonet." (p. 143). The repression that followed was "unmatched in the nineteenth century...In the North-West alone over 1,500 strikers were brought to trial" (p. 119). John Foster, in his introduction, argues that Jenkins' account of the strike "compels historians to reassess a number of crucial aspects in the country's political development" (p. 13). In considering universal suffrage, he argues that "historians have tended to emphasize the inevitability of Britain's progress towards majority rule. A study of 1842 supplies a useful corrective. It spurs us to look in a quite different direction to ask why universal suffrage was withheld for so long and what combination of forces made it possible to do this" (p. 14) and "how the demand for universal suffrage was successfully resisted, and in what way the working class was persuaded not to make political use again of its industrial strength ... poses the most interesting and fundamental problem" (p. 16).
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Strike
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EgyptAir Flight 648 crash
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EgyptAir Flight 648 was a regularly scheduled international flight between Athens Ellinikon International Airport in Greece and Cairo International Airport in Egypt. On 23 November 1985, a Boeing 737-200[2] airliner, registered SU-AYH, servicing the flight was hijacked by the terrorist organization Abu Nidal. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops resulted in dozens of deaths, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history. On 23 November 1985, Flight 648 took off at 8 pm on its Athens-to-Cairo route. Ten minutes after takeoff, three Palestinian members of Abu Nidal hijacked the aircraft, the same group also responsible for the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 a year later. The terrorists, calling themselves the Egypt Revolution, were heavily armed with guns and grenades. [clarification needed] The terrorist leader, Omar Rezaq, proceeded to check all passports. At this point, an Egyptian Security Service agent, Methad Mustafa Kamal,[3] who was aboard, opened fire, killing one terrorist before being wounded along with two flight attendants. In the exchange of fire the fuselage was punctured, causing a rapid depressurization. The aircraft was forced to descend to 14,000 feet (4,300 m) to allow the crew and passengers to breathe. Libya was the original destination of the hijackers, but due to a lack of fuel and negative publicity, Malta was chosen as a more suitable option. While approaching Malta the aircraft was running dangerously low on fuel, experiencing serious pressurization problems and carrying wounded passengers. However, Maltese authorities did not give permission for the aircraft to land; the Maltese government had previously refused permission to other hijacked aircraft, including on 23 September 1982 when an Alitalia aircraft was hijacked on its way to Italy. The EgyptAir 648 hijackers insisted, and forced the pilot, Hani Galal, to land at Luqa Airport. As a last-ditch attempt to stop the landing, the runway lights were switched off, but the pilot managed to land the damaged aircraft safely. Nationalities of the passengers included the following:[4]
A notable passenger was actress Lupita Pallás. [5]
At first, Maltese authorities were optimistic they could solve the crisis. Malta had good relations with the Arab world, and 12 years earlier had successfully resolved a potentially more serious situation when a KLM Boeing 747 landed there under similar circumstances (KLM Flight 861). The Maltese Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, rushed to the airport's control tower and assumed responsibility for the negotiations. [6][7] Aided by an interpreter, he refused to refuel the aircraft, or to withdraw Maltese armed forces which had surrounded the plane, until all passengers were released. Eleven passengers and two injured flight attendants were allowed off the plane. The hijackers then started shooting hostages, starting with Tamar Artzi, an Israeli woman, whom they shot in the head and back. Artzi survived her wounds. Rezaq, the chief hijacker, threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes until his demands were met. His next victim was Nitzan Mendelson, another Israeli woman, who died. He then shot three Americans: Patrick Scott Baker, Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp and Jackie Nink Pflug. Of the five passengers shot, Artzi, Baker and Pflug survived; Mendelson died in a Maltese hospital a week after the hijacking. A British passenger commented that he saw that Rezaq had to raise his gun in order to shoot Baker, who was about 6' 5" tall. France, the United Kingdom and the United States all offered to send anti-hijack forces. Bonnici was under heavy pressure from both the hijackers and from the United States and Egypt, whose ambassadors were at the airport. The non-aligned Maltese government feared that the Americans or the Israelis would arrive and take control of the area, as the U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella was only 20 minutes away. A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules with an aeromedical evacuation team from Rhein-Main Air Base (2nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron) near Frankfurt, Germany, and rapid-deploying surgical teams from Wiesbaden Air Force Medical Center were on standby at the U.S. Navy Hospital at Naples. When the U.S. told Maltese authorities that Egypt had a special forces counterterrorism team trained by the U.S. Delta Force ready to move in, they were granted permission to come. The Egyptian Unit 777 under the command of Major-General Kamal Attia was flown in, led by four American officers. Negotiations were prolonged as much as possible, and it was agreed that the plane should be attacked on the morning of 25 November when food was to be taken into the aircraft. Soldiers dressed as caterers would jam the door open and attack. Without warning Egyptian commandos launched the raid about an hour and a half before it had been originally planned. They blasted open the passenger doors and luggage compartment doors with explosives. Bonnici claimed that these unauthorized explosions caused the internal plastic of the plane to catch fire, causing widespread suffocation. However, the Times of Malta, quoting sources at the airport on the day, held that when the hijackers realized that they were being attacked, they lobbed hand grenades into the passenger area, killing people and starting the fire aboard. [8]
The storming of the aircraft killed 54 of the remaining 87 passengers, as well as two crew members and one hijacker. Only one hijacker — Omar Rezaq, who had survived — remained undetected by the Maltese government. The terrorist leader, who was injured during the storming of the aircraft, had removed his hood and ammunition and pretended to be an injured passenger. Egyptian commandos tracked Rezaq to St. Luke's General Hospital and, holding the doctors and medical staff at gunpoint, entered the casualty ward looking for him. He was arrested when some of the passengers in the hospital recognized him. [citation needed]
58 of the 95 passengers and crew had died, as well as two of the three hijackers, by the time the crisis was over. Maltese medical examiners estimated that eight passengers were shot dead by the commandos. [citation needed]
Rezaq faced trial in Malta, but with no anti-terrorism legislation, he was tried on other charges. There was widespread fear that terrorists would hijack a Maltese plane or carry out a terrorist attack in Malta as an act of retribution.
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Air crash
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December 2013 Stockholm riots
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Rioters:
On 15 December 2013, violent clashes took place during an anti-racist demonstration in the Kärrtorp district of Stockholm, Sweden. The demonstration was organised by Linje 17, its name referring to the Stockholm Metro Line 17 that runs through Kärrtorp. The demonstration was violently attacked by neo-Nazis. Two demonstrators and two police officers were injured and hospitalised. [2]
Amid increasing racist activity in Kärrtorp including racist graffiti on a local school, the newly created Linje 17 organised a demonstration against this. About 200 people participated in the protest on Sunday 15 December. Only six police officers were put in place for the event. A group of about forty men belonging to the Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen), armed with brass knuckles and iron rods, interrupted and attacked the demonstration. They threw stones, bottles and fireworks. [3] Members of the far-left Antifascistisk Aktion and Revolutionary Front groups who took part in the demonstration went into opposition against the neo-Nazis. [4]
The chants of "Adolf Hitler" and "Sieg Heil" were audible. [5] The Swedish Resistance Movement attackers were forced to retreat the scene when police gained control of the trouble. [6]
Around 28 people were arrested immediately after the incident. [7]
In response to the trouble, Linje 17 organised a second anti-racist demonstration a week later on 22 December. 16,000 people participated, including many local and well-known artists and parliamentary figures. [8]
The word "kärrtorpa" was added to the 2014 Språkrådets nyordslista meaning "opposing to the spread of Nazi propaganda and Nazi violence". The world list is published yearly by the Swedish Language Council and contain new words in the Swedish language. [9]
Twenty three neo-Nazis were convicted of violence. [10] A far-left activist received a prison sentence in April 2014 for six and a half years for stabbing a neo-Nazi in the back. He was sentenced for attempted manslaughter, making illegal threats, illegal rioting, and unlawful possession of a knife. [5][11]
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Riot
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ESPN
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TOKYO -- Ryan Crouser wrote the note, stuck it in his backpack and brought it out to the field just in case.
"Grandpa. We did it. 2020 Olympic champion!" it said.
The world's best shot-putter had a feeling he'd win. After he did just that on Thursday, he pulled out that piece of paper and showed it to the world. Crouser's second straight Olympic gold medal was a tribute to his grandfather, Larry, who died shortly before Crouser left for Tokyo.
"To lose him the week before the Olympics was obviously sad," Crouser said. "But I feel like he was able to be here in spirit."
It was years ago in Larry Crouser's backyard that Ryan attempted his first toss with the heavy metal ball that would shape his life. What a journey it produced.
Crouser has seen the world thanks to that shot put. Dominated it, too. He set the world record earlier this summer at the Olympic trials. On Thursday, he raised his own Olympic record as well, to 23.30 meters (76 feet, 5½ inches).
He earned the first track and field gold medal for the American men at the Tokyo Games, coming later than anyone expected -- on Day 7 of the meet. It was too late for his grandpa to see it, though Crouser and his family have a feeling he knows.
"The same time that you're cheering the most fantastic thing, there's just that little bit of, 'I wish Grandpa was here,'" said Ryan's mom, Lisa, while celebrating at a watch party back in Redmond, Oregon. "You know he's watching."
On Crouser's big day, U.S. teammate Joe Kovacs finished second and Tomas Walsh of New Zealand was third.
That was the exact same podium as five years ago at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It marks the first time in any Olympic individual event that there's been a repeat podium in back-to-back Summer Games -- the same three athletes in the exact same positions, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon.
"We just keep pushing each other," said Kovacs, the 2019 world champion whose farthest toss was 22.65.
Crouser's childhood throws in his grandfather's backyard were unpredictable at times. Once, he lobbed one through the top of the garden shed.
"I went back the next day and replaced that," Crouser said.
Time marched on. Eventually, Larry Crouser lost his hearing. Ryan started writing notes.
"They had a letter correspondence going back and forth," his mother explained.
The last one might have been the most important.
Crouser put pen to paper in his room a few days ago to calm his nerves. Not so much about the event -- he wasn't nervous -- but about possibly testing positive for the coronavirus. The positive test that knocked pole vaulter Sam Kendricks out of the Olympics rattled him.
Even for the world-record holder and defending champion, the note was something of a leap of faith. But Crouser figured that, at worst, no one would ever find out about it. Turns out, he was spot-on. After the win, he proudly displayed it as he paraded around in his cowboy hat.
Crouser's grandpa was alive June 18 to see him break a 31-year-old world record at the U.S. Olympic trials.
"He watched that throw on the iPad, thousands and thousands of times," Crouser said. "He's been my biggest fan."
The note he wrote after that one was simple: "World-record holder."
Asked how far that throw might have gone at his grandfather's place, Crouser laughed and said: "It would have been into the neighbor's yard. I don't know if it would have hit a building, maybe a house."
On a steamy day in Tokyo, Crouser clapped his hands after his final attempt -- sending chalk dust into the air. Later, he went over and shared a hug and a handshake with his father, Mitch, who serves as his coach.
This win, though, was for Grandpa Larry.
"He always told me to stop and enjoy the moment," Crouser said. "He knows for me, I'm always super goal-oriented and looking long term. His thing that he always told me was to stop and smell the roses."
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Break historical records
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Enraged about Japan's tendentious textbooks and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Sun Wei, a college junior, joined thousands of Chinese in a rare legal protest march on the streets of Beijing last weekend.
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BEIJING, April 14 - Enraged about Japan's tendentious textbooks and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Sun Wei, a college junior, joined thousands of Chinese in a rare legal protest march on the streets of Beijing last weekend.
Yet the police herded protesters into tight groups, let them take turns throwing rocks, then told them they had "vented their anger" long enough and bused them back to campus.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Woman, 70, filmed allegedly poisoning husband's coffee with roach killer multiple times
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A 70-year-old woman in has been arrested after being filmed allegedly poisoning her husband’s coffee with ant and roach killer on more than one occasion.
The incident occurred on Jan. 12, when 70-year-old Suncha Tinerva of Queens in New York City was caught on video surveillance placing a “white powdery substance” from a bottle with a red cap and a yellow label into her husband’s coffee, according to a statement from Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office.
“Tinerva retrieved the bottle from the cabinet under the sink and allegedly spiked her husband’s coffee on two or three occasions,” said Katz’s office. “On Jan. 14, 2021 at approximately 10:40 p.m. … detectives recovered a bottle with a red cap and yellow label from the spot under the sink.”
Authorities then discovered that the contents of the bottle allegedly contained 100% boric acid -- a substance that is used to kill ants and roaches.
“People who have eaten boric acid have had nausea, vomiting, stomach aches, and diarrhea … Eating extreme amounts has resulted in a red, ‘boiled lobster’ like skin rash, followed by skin loss. People who breathed in borax had a dry mouth, nose, and throat. Coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath, and nose bleeds have also been reported,” according to the National Pesticide Information Center.
Katz’s office said that Tinerva’s husband became sick but, thankfully, did not die following the attempted poisonings.
“Domestic violence is not limited to mental and physical abuse. The defendant in this case allegedly used deception to sicken her spouse,” District Attorney Katz said in a statement.
Tinevra has since been arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny on charges of attempted assault in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
Judge Gershuny ordered Tinerva to return to court later this year on March 10 and, if convicted, Tinevra could face up to four years in prison.
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Mass Poisoning
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Textile workers Strike (1934)
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The textile workers' strike of 1934 was the largest strike in the labor history of the United States at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S. Southern states, lasting twenty-two days. The textile industry, once concentrated in New England with outposts in New Jersey and Philadelphia, had started moving South in the 1880s. By 1933 Southern mills produced more than seventy percent of cotton and woolen textiles in more modern mills, drawing on the pool of dispossessed farmers and laborers willing to work for roughly forty percent less than their Northern counterparts. As was the rest of economic life, the textile industry was strictly segregated and drew only from white workers in the Piedmont. Until 1965, when passage of the Civil Rights Act broke the color line in hiring, less than 2% of textile workers were African American. [1]
Throughout the 1920s, however, the mills faced an intractable problem of overproduction, as the wartime boom for cotton goods ended, while foreign competition cut into their markets. Although manufacturers tried to reduce the oversupply by forming industry associations to regulate competition, their favored solution to the crisis was to squeeze more work out of their employees through what workers called the "stretch-out": speeding up production by increasing the number of looms assigned to each factory hand, limiting break times, paying workers by piece rates, and increasing the number of supervisors to keep workers from slowing down, talking or leaving work. The stretch-out sparked hundreds of strikes throughout the Southeast: by one count, there were more than eighty strikes in South Carolina in 1929 alone. While most of them were short-lived, these strikes were almost all spontaneous walkouts, without any union – or other – leadership. That year also saw the massive strikes that began in Gastonia, North Carolina, and Elizabethton, Tennessee, which were violently suppressed by local police and vigilantes. Here again, workers were often more militant than their trade union leadership: to take one striking example, the workers at the Loray Mill in Gastonia walked out under the leadership of the communist-led National Textile Workers Union. The Communist Party founded the NTWU in its short-lived attempt to create revolutionary unions. [2]
In the meantime, the Great Depression made matters worse. The economic collapse drove a number of New England and Mid-Atlantic manufacturers into bankruptcy, while those employers who survived laid off workers and increased the amount and pace of work for their employees even further. Textile workers across the region, from worsted workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts and silk weavers in Paterson, New Jersey, to cotton millhands in Greenville, South Carolina, engaged in hundreds of isolated strikes, even though there were thousands of unemployed workers desperate to take their places. The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) appeared to change things. The NIRA, which Roosevelt signed in June 1933, called for cooperation among business, labor and government and established the National Recovery Administration (NRA). It was to oversee the creation of codes of conduct for particular industries that would reduce overproduction, raise wages, control hours of work, guarantee the rights of workers to form unions, and stimulate an economic recovery. The NIRA rarely, if ever, lived up to its promises: employers usually dominated the panels that created these codes, which often offered far less than what workers and their unions demanded, and the NIRA and the codes themselves were toothless, since the Act did not provide any effective means to enforce the standards. Even so, the promise of the right to join a union had an electrifying effect on textile workers: the United Textile Workers (UTW), which had no more than 15,000 members in February, 1933, grew to 250,000 members by June, 1934, of whom roughly half were cotton mill workers. Textile workers also put tremendous faith in the NIRA to bring an end to the stretch-out, or at least temper its worst features. As one union organizer said, textile workers in the South saw the NIRA as something that "God has sent to them." The NIRA quickly promulgated a code for the cotton industry regulating workers' hours and establishing a minimum wage; it also established a committee to study the problem of workloads. In the meantime, however, the employers responded to the new minimum wages by increasing the pace of work. When the labor board set a forty-hour work week, mill owners required the same amount of work in those forty hours as they had in the previous fifty- to sixty-hour week. By August 1934, workers had filed nearly 4,000 complaints to the labor board protesting "code chiseling" by their employers; the board found in favor of only one worker. Union supporters often lost their jobs and found themselves blacklisted throughout the industry. Workers, both north and south, wrote thousands of letters to the White House, the Department of Labor, the NRA, and Eleanor Roosevelt asking for them to intervene. In what proved to be a dry run of the larger strike to follow, cotton mill workers in South Carolina's Horse Creek Valley struck to force employers to live up to the code, only to face special deputies, highway patrolmen and a machine-gun unit of the National Guard sent to keep the mills open. When the NIRA's special board came to Horse Creek, it did not respond to the workers' complaints, but urged them to return to work. When they attempted to do so, the mill owners not only refused to allow the workers back, but evicted them from company housing. The NIRA took no action to stop the employers from violating the codes. When the mill owners made the cotton mill employees' hours larger still further – with the blessing of the NRA – without raising their hourly wage rates in May, 1934, the UTW threatened a national strike. This talk was largely bluster; the union had made no preparations for a strike that size. When the NRA promised to give the UTW a seat on the board, balanced by the addition of another industry representative, the UTW canceled the planned strike. While the UTW called off its plans for a strike, local leaders thought differently. The UTW locals in the northern part of Alabama launched a strike that began on July 18 in Huntsville, then spread to Florence, Anniston, Gadsden, and Birmingham. While the strike was popular, it was also ineffective: many employers welcomed it as a means of cutting their expenses, since they had warehouses full of unsold goods. In Columbus, Georgia, a city on the Alabama border, the Georgia Webbing and Tape Company had been on strike since July. On August 10, 1934 Reuben Sanders was killed in a scuffle between strikebreakers and strikers. [3] "Eight thousand people viewed Sander's body as it lay in state at the Central Textile Hall in the heart of the city on Sunday, August 12. "[4]
The UTW called a special convention in New York City on Monday, August 13, 1934 to address the crisis. The UTW drew up a list of demands for the industry as a whole: a thirty-hour week, minimum wages ranging from $13.00 to $30.00 a week, elimination of the stretch-out, union recognition, and reinstatement of workers fired for their union activities. The delegates, especially those from the southern states, voted overwhelmingly to strike the cotton mills on September 1, 1934 if these demands were not met. They planned to bring out the woolen, silk and rayon workers at a date to be set later. Mill owners had seen the strike threat as more empty talk from the union. The White House took a largely "hands off" attitude, leaving it to the first National Labor Relations Board to set up a meeting of the parties. The employers refused to meet with the union. The strike swept through Southern cotton mills, outpacing the union organizers and employing "flying squadrons" which traveled by truck and on foot from mill to mill, calling the workers out. In Gastonia, where authorities had violently suppressed a strike led by the National Textile Workers Union in 1929, an estimated 5,000 people marched in the September 3rd Labor Day parade.
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Strike
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Zambia becomes second nation to tear up Mauritius tax deal
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Zambia will now try to estimate how much revenue was lost under its tax treaty with Mauritius, which one official described as “not balanced or fair.”
Zambia has torn up its tax treaty with Mauritius, the latest African nation to cancel an agreement with one of the world’s leading offshore havens.
President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s cabinet terminated the 2012 treaty and will soon start to negotiate a new deal, according to a statement obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The cabinet highlighted the southern African country’s inability under the current treaty to tax payments from certain operations that happen in Zambia but that are paid to companies in Mauritius.
Many Mauritius companies exist only on paper with no full-time employees and were created, at least in part, to avoid paying taxes, ICIJ revealed in its 2019 Mauritius Leaks investigation.
International Centre for Tax and Development lead researcher Martin Hearson said Zambia’s decision was “surprising” because Zambia and Mauritius have recently renegotiated other treaties. “It illustrates that there is a real case for countries to re-examine whether some of their tax treaties can realistically be renegotiated in a way that creates more benefits than costs,” Hearson said.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Zambian official told ICIJ the treaty was “not balanced or fair.” Most firms that use the treaty “are not undertaking actual commercial activities in Mauritius and could be referred to as shell companies,” the official said. Zambia will now try to estimate the value of revenue lost under the deal, he said.
For decades, Mauritius has positioned itself as the “Gateway to Africa,” encouraging foreign companies to set up cheap, no frills companies on the island. Under bilateral tax treaties signed with Mauritius – also known as double taxation agreements or DTAs – countries, including more than a dozen in Africa, agreed to reduce or entirely scrap taxes that would otherwise be paid by corporations to treasuries such as that in Lusaka. Zambia was one of a small handful of African countries that agreed with Mauritius to give up receiving taxes on common cross-border payments, including interest and royalties.
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The Mauritius Revenue Authority did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
A second Zambian tax official, who was also not authorized to speak publicly, told ICIJ that the decision to cancel the treaty with Mauritius was “very important.” A new treaty, the official said, is “one of the top priorities for putting resource mobilization back on track.”
Zambia is the second African country this year to unilaterally cancel its treaty with Mauritius. In January, Senegal tore up its deal with the island tax haven following government estimates that the West African country had lost $257 million since 2004 under what officials called an “unbalanced” agreement.
Senior reporter and Africa coordinator
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Tear Up Agreement
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McNally Fire
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The McNally Fire was a massive wildfire in the Sequoia National Forest which burned 150,696 acres (609.8 km2) in July and August 2002, and the largest wildfire of the 2002 California wildfire season. [1] The fire burned from July 21 to August 29, 2002 through the Sequoia and Inyo National Forest, as well as 5% of Giant Sequoia National Monument. It destroyed 14 structures and cost an estimated $45.7 million to put out. The blaze was started due to the "careless use of fire" near the Roads End Resort in Kern Canyon, and spread east through the canyon and threatened the communities of Johnsondale and Ponderosa. It burned within one mile (1.6 km) of the Packsaddle Grove of giant sequoias. Of the acreage burned in the fire, over 73,000 acres were burned at a high to moderate severity. This left much of the soil dry and stripped, making parts of the Sequoia National Forest vulnerable to soil erosion and flooding. In November 2002, a strong rainstorm hit the fire-affected area, dumping 20 inches of rain over the course of 48 hours. This heavy rain, in conjunction with the stripped soil, caused the Kern River to swell rapidly and flood the surrounding areas of the forest. Following this flooding, an additional $3 million in emergency funds were used, in an attempt to minimize future damage from erosion and flooding. [2]
Recovery efforts from the fire began in 2005 and involved the planting of 400,000 saplings over 5,000 acres of the forest, with the rest being left to recover and regrow naturally. The replanted areas continue to be monitored for growth, with further replanting occurring in areas with low survival rates. However, full recovery from the McNally fire will take hundreds of years. [3]
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Fire
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Mann Gulch fire
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The Mann Gulch fire was a wildfire reported on August 5, 1949, in a gulch located along the upper Missouri River in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness (then known as the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area), Helena National Forest, in the U.S. state of Montana. A team of 15 smokejumpers parachuted into the area on the afternoon of August 5, 1949, to fight the fire, rendezvousing with a former smokejumper who was employed as a fire guard at the nearby campground. As the team approached the fire to begin fighting it, unexpected high winds caused the fire to suddenly expand, cutting off the men's route and forcing them back uphill. During the next few minutes, a "blow-up" of the fire covered 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in ten minutes, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 of the smokejumpers. Only three of the smokejumpers survived. The fire would continue for five more days before being controlled. The United States Forest Service drew lessons from the tragedy of the Mann Gulch fire by designing new training techniques and safety measures that developed how the agency approached wildfire suppression. The agency also increased emphasis on fire research and the science of fire behavior. University of Chicago English professor and author Norman Maclean (1902–1990) researched the fire and its behavior for his book, Young Men and Fire (1992) which was published after his death. [2] Maclean, who worked northwestern Montana in logging camps and for the forest service in his youth, recounted the events of the fire and ensuing tragedy and undertook a detailed investigation of the fire's causes. Young Men and Fire won the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction in 1992. [3] The 1952 film Red Skies of Montana, starring actor Richard Widmark and directed by Joseph M. Newman, was loosely based on the events of the Mann Gulch fire. [4]
The location of the Mann Gulch fire was included as a historical district on the United States National Register of Historic Places on May 19, 1999. [1]
The fire started when lightning struck the south side of Mann Gulch at the Gates of the Mountains, a canyon over five miles ( 8 km ) long that cuts through a series of 1,200 foot ( 365 m ) cliffs. [5][6] The place was noted and named by Lewis and Clark on their journey west in 1805. [7] The fire was spotted by forest ranger James O. Harrison around noon on August 5, 1949. Harrison, a college student at Montana State University, was working the summer as recreation and fire prevention guard for the Meriwether Canyon Campground. He had been a smokejumper the previous year but had given it up because of the danger. [8] As a ranger, he still had a responsibility to watch for and help fight fires, but it was not his primary role. [9] On this day, he fought the fire on his own for four hours before he met the crew of smokejumpers who had been dispatched from Hale Field, Missoula, Montana, in a Douglas DC-3. Several factors that combined to create the disaster are described in Norman Maclean's book Young Men and Fire. The C-47/DC-3 "Miss Montana", registration number NC24320, was the only smokejumper plane available at Hale Field, near the current location of Sentinel High School, on August 5, 1949, when the call came in seeking 25 smokejumpers to fight a blaze in a hard-to-reach area of the Helena National Forest. The C-47/DC-3 could only hold 16 jumpers and their equipment. Even though more help was needed, fire bosses decided not to wait for a second plane, and instead sent No. NC24320 out on its own. NC24320 flew with Johnson Flying Service from Hale Field in Missoula, Montana and was used to drop smokejumpers as well as for other operations for which Johnson Flying Service held contracts. It was hot, with a temperature of 97 °F ( 36 °C ), and the fire danger rating was high, rated 74 out of a possible 100. [10][6][11] Wind conditions were turbulent. The plane flight was especially rough. One smokejumper got sick on the way and did not jump, returning with the airplane to Hale Field. Getting off the plane, he resigned from the smokejumpers. The remaining 15 smokejumpers parachuted into an open area at the top of the gulch. Below them, they could see the fire burning on the south ridge further down toward the Missouri River. Gear and individual jumpers were scattered widely due to the conditions. Their radio was destroyed after its parachute failed to open. [12] After the smokejumpers had landed, a shout was heard coming from the front of the fire. The foreman, Wagner "Wag" Dodge, went out ahead to find the person shouting and to scout the fire. He left instructions for the team to finish gathering their equipment and eat, and then to cross the gully to the south slope and advance to the front of the fire. The voice turned out to be Jim Harrison who had been fighting the fire by himself for the past four hours. [6][13]
The two headed back up the gulch with Dodge noting that one could not get closer to within 100 feet of the fire due to the heat. The crew met Dodge and Harrison about half way to the fire. Dodge instructed the team to move off the front of the fire, and instead move down the gulch and cross over to the thinly-forested and grass-covered north slope of the gulch; "sidehilling" (keeping the same contour or elevation) and moving "down gulch" towards the Missouri River. They could then fight the fire from the flank and steer it to a low-fuel area. Dodge returned with Harrison to the supply area at the top of the gulch. The two stopped there to eat. From the high vantage point, Dodge noticed the smoke along the fire front boiling up indicating an intensification of the heat of the fire. He and Harrison headed down the gulch to catch up with the crew. By the time Dodge reached his men, the fire at the bottom of the gulch had already jumped from the south ridge to the bottom of the north slope. The intense heat, combined with wind coming off the river, pushed the flames up-gulch into the dry grass of the north slope causing what fire fighters call a "blow up". Various side ridges running down the north slope obscured the crew's view, so they could not see the conditions further down the gulch, and they initially continued down toward the fire.
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Fire
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2021 French labor protests
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Jean CastexPrime Minister of France
Gérald DarmaninMinister of Interior
In 2021, protests and strikes emerged among the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), a national trade union, and French citizens dissatisfied about their country's economic situation in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The protests have been oriented against job cuts. In recent months, France has been shaken by anti-security protests regarding protection of officials. The UNL, MNL [fr], and FIDL [fr] gathered to announce protests against the COVID-19 pandemic's health, economic, and social consequences. [1] They accused the government of catastrophic decisions affecting employment and the youth. Trade unions and other activist organizations decided to intensify the process of mobilization and initiatives in January and early February in order to preserve and develop employment and public services against insecurity. This process was based on previously-scheduled professional mobilizations, such as health calls on January 21, national education calls on January 26, and energy calls on January 28. The main protest rally which included all social categories was scheduled for February 4 in Paris and other cities across France. [2][3]
The first protests of the union began on Tuesday, January 19, in Marseille, where theater actors gathered, expressing dissatisfaction with the month-long closure of the theater on the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] On January 20, 2021, students from various parts of France gathered in Paris and several other cities chanting the slogan: "Defense of living conditions and studies. "[5] In Paris, on January 21, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Health, waving posters stating: "Our struggle, your health", "Increase our salaries! ", "Money for the hospital, not for the capital". They pointed out the poor working conditions of "all medical, social, health and animation workers." Within Segur, the staff of hospitals and nursing homes were offered a "salary increase" of 183 Euros net minimum, "and medical and social games in front of the buffet", we were "forgotten" while "we have equal diplomas. "[6]
At the invitation of several collectives of "Yellow vests" and as part of mobilizations against "global security" and "separatism"; a united march for freedom was scheduled for Saturday, January 23, 2021, in Paris. The meeting began at 11:00 a.m in front of the State Council, and concluded at noon at the Place du Palais-Royal. The convergence of the fights took place at 2:00 p.m in the National Assembly. Collections of "yellow vests" and citizens engaged in marches against the laws of "global security" and "separatism". Besides CGT and SUD, dozens of worker syndicates as well as companies like Sanofi, Cargill, SKF and General Electric, affected by the law participated in the protests. Left Party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon addressed the protest. [7] New major protests were scheduled for February 4th. [1]
On January 31, several thousand members of student associations and the LGBTQ community gathered together in Paris to protest against poor educational conditions and social standing. On February 4, more and more players from higher education such as unions, activists, and teachers protested in Paris with occasional minor incidents between police and protesters. [8]
In Bordeaux, February 6 was chosen among the unions as a new protest day and a national strike to demand pension reform. Several hundred people gathered on the occasion . [9]
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Strike
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Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man sign taxation agreement
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The three UK Crown dependencies have signed double taxation agreements aimed at helping businesses and individuals to avoid paying in two places.
The agreements also allow the exchange of tax information between Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
They were signed in London by representatives of each government.
Rob Gray, Guernsey's director of Income Tax, said they would help the islands' authorities in ending tax avoidance and evasion.
He said: "In view of the ease and frequency of transactions between all of the Crown Dependencies, having effective exchange of information provisions in place will also assist the Income Tax Office in the fight against domestic tax avoidance and evasion."
Mr Gray said the agreement between Guernsey and Jersey was an update of the previous one signed in the 1950s while it was the first time such agreements had been signed between the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man Treasury Minister, said it would "strengthen the close political and business ties between Crown Dependencies".
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Sign Agreement
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Plague threat as millions of locusts swarm into Cyprus - The ...
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Tens of millions of locusts have descended on Cyprus and the island now has less than 10 days to act before the invasion turns into a self-perpetuating plague.
Tens of millions of locusts have descended on Cyprus and the island now has less than 10 days to act before the invasion turns into a self-perpetuating plague.
The insect in question is the desert locust, dreaded among farmers for its voracious appetite for greenery of all kinds. In just one day, a ton of them can consume the food for 2,500 people. They are pink in colour, making them resemble an aggressive-looking flying prawn.
They reached Cyprus some days ago as the advanced guard of the infestations that have been blighting North Africa this season. Warm winds from the south blew them in, but it will now take a considerable effort to stamp them out before they start breeding, estimated to occur in just over a week.
Agriculture ministry director Antonis Constantinou said the locusts had not reached the full stage of maturity to start laying eggs. "We have to reduce the population to prevent them maturing and laying eggs here," he told Cyprus radio. Desert locusts take about 45 days to mature.
Cyprus's limited agriculture sector will not be ruined as long as the insects remained confined, as they are now, to the island's west. Authorities started aerial spraying with pesticides on Thursday, intent - if nothing else - on keeping the locusts away from the more fertile central and eastern plains. Andreas Kazantis, district head of agriculture for Paphos, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: "There are millions of them and it looks like we will be tackling them on a daily basis for the time being."
The island's infestation is the first by the desert locust, or its relation the red locust, in living memory. It coincides with the arrival of locusts in southern coastal areas of Turkey and in Israel and parts of the Lebanon - in the latter case, for the first time in 100 years. This summer there were small numbers of locusts in Italy, and a brief but destructive incursion into Spain.
West and North Africa, meanwhile, are suffering the worst locust plagues since the mid-1980s. They have caused damage in Algeria down to Gambia, with especially extensive destruction in Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
Last month, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, said that the swarms of locusts ravaging crops in Africa were "a much greater threat to livelihoods than any of the wars in the African region at the moment, Darfur included". He added: "We are now seeing hundreds of billions of locusts creating havoc all over northern Africa."
He warned then that, despite warnings, governments had been slow to respond to an appeal for donations towards the cost of swiftly eradicating the locusts. At the beginning of October he said: "This should never have been allowed to happen ... If we lose the battle in the next five weeks, we will have a tenfold increase in the locust swarms ... Tens of millions of people in the poorest countries will have no food, no livelihood, because locusts have eaten everything in that area."
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Insect Disaster
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1987 Bintaro train crash
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The 1987 Bintaro train accident occurred in Pondok Betung urban village, Bintaro, Tangerang, West Java (currently in Banten), Indonesia on Monday 19 October 1987. Two passenger trains collided, causing 139 fatalities, making it the worst railway crash in Indonesia to date. A train departing from Rangkasbitung Station in West Java province (currently in Banten) collided with a train from Tanah Abang Station in Jakarta. The investigation indicated negligence from a station officer who gave a safe signal to the train from Rangkasbitung without confirmation from Kebayoran Station. The safe signal was given because the lines at Sudimara Station were crowded. The accident happened between Pondok Ranji Station and Tanah Kusir Cemetery, north of Public High School 86, Jakarta, near the Bintaro Highway curve, about 200 meters after the Pondok Betung crossing and 8 kilometers before Sudimara Station. The Serpong Stationmaster permitted KA 225 to leave for Sudimara Station without checking the railway condition at Sudimara Station. When the diesel-hydraulic train, KA 225 Rangkasbitung-Jakarta Kota, arrived in Sudimara Station at 6:45 AM (GMT+7) on 19 October 1987, the lanes were all filled with KA 225 in the first lane, KA Indocement in the second lane and a headless freight train. KA 225 was intended to pass KA 220 Patas from Kebayoran to Merak. That meant KA 220 Patas at Kebayoran Station received lower priority for departure. Djamhari, the Sudimara Stationmaster, ordered KA 225's engineer to move his train to the first lane. This order were misinterpreted by the engineer as a go-ahead to continue the journey (compounded by an illegal boarder who hurriedly and wrongly confirms the engineer), and began to move the train. Five minutes later, Djamhari was telephoned by Umrihadi, the officer from Kebayoran Lama Station, informing him that KA 220 Tanah Abang-Merak had departed for Sudimara. Djamhari, shocked seeing KA 225 leaving the station, tried in vain to chase KA 225 while waving the red flag as the train moved at 50km/h. A switcher boarded the rearmost carriage who tries to make it through the train and warn the engineer, to no avail due to the crowded condition. The two crowded trains collided head-on at Km +18.75, causing serious damage. Both locomotives, Henschel-built BB303 and BB306, were also heavily damaged. The death toll came to 139 people, while hundreds more were injured. The driver of KA 225, Slamet Suradio, survived the crash and was charged with negligence causing death. He received the maximum penalty of 5 years, which he felt was unfair as he was only following the Stationmaster's instructions. He received no pension, despite more than 20 years of work for the rail company. Upon release, he returned to his hometown of Purworejo in Central Java province and became a cigarette seller. [1]
Adung Syafei, the conductor of KA 225, was sentenced 2 years and 6 months in prison. Umrihadi of Kebayoran Lama Station was 10 months in prison. Iwan Fals wrote a song titled "19/10", referencing the date of the crash. [2] Ebiet G. Ade was inspired by the disaster to write a song "Masih Ada Waktu" ("There's Still Time"). [3]
A film based on the collision, Tragedi Bintaro, was released in 1989. [4]
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Train collisions
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RISE, Stand Strong reveal organization’s new name: Lumina | San Luis Obispo Tribune
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RISE and Stand Strong, two San Luis Obispo organizations that support survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence, have announced their new name following their merger into one organization: Lumina Alliance. “Lumina,” a word with Latin roots, means “to light, to illuminate, to shine and to enlighten,” Lumina CEO Jennifer Adams said at a branding celebration Wednesday. “We believe the name will inspire hope and invoke feelings of safety and warmth, especially to those we serve,” Adams said. The name also symbolizes the organization’s work to educate the county about sexual and intimate partner violence, Adams said. The word “Alliance” represents the two organizations joining together, and the support friends, family and the community give survivors, Adams said. Lumina will provide “shelter, therapy, advocacy, legal services and other support” to survivors, just as its predecessors did, according to a previous news release on the merger. The organization has about 80 staff members, one 24/7 crisis and information hotline at 805-545-8888, and offices in the cities of SLO, Paso Robles and Grover Beach. The 24-hour hotline has been active since 1976. “For 45 years, there has been a steady stream of volunteers and staff answering that phone,” Adams said. “I think that’s phenomenal.” Adams said she’s seen the importance of hotlines firsthand, from calling one in 1990 about her own childhood sexual abuse to volunteering at shelters and crisis centers herself. “I have a special place in my heart for the 24-hour crisis line,” Adams said. Representatives of Rep. Salud Carbajal and state Sen. John Laird attended the celebration to officially recognize the organization. In August, Lumina will launch a social marketing campaign called Re-Define SLO, which is focused on improving the “social, emotional and physical well-being” of pre-teen boys to lower harm rates, Lumina chief programs officer Jane Pomeroy said. This story was originally published July 17, 2021 5:00 AM.
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Organization Merge
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