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Lava pours out of volcano on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands
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LA PALMA, Spain, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island. Authorities had begun evacuating the infirm and some farm animals from nearby villages before the eruption at 3:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) on a wooded slope in the sparsely populated Cabeza de Vaca area, according to the islands' government. Two hours later, with lava edging down the hillside from five fissures torn into the hillside, the municipality ordered the evacuation of four villages, including El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane. After nightfall, video footage showed fountains of lava shooting hundreds of metres into the sky, and at least three incandescent orange rivers of molten rock pouring down the hill, tearing gashes into woods and farmland, and spreading as they reached lower ground. One stream, several hundred metres long and tens of metres wide, crossed a road and began engulfing scattered houses in El Paso. Video footage shared on social media, which Reuters has been unable to verify, showed the lava entering a house. "When the volcano erupted today, I was scared. For journalists it is something spectacular, for us it is a tragedy. I think the lava has reached some relatives' houses," local resident Isabel Fuentes, 55, told Spanish television TVE. "I was 5 years old when the volcano last erupted (in 1971). You never get over a volcanic eruption," added Fuentes, who said she had moved to another house on Sunday for her safety. 'STAY IN YOUR HOUSES' Canary Islands President Angel Victor Torres told a press conference on Sunday night that 5,000 people had been evacuated and no injuries had been reported so far. Lava pours out of a volcano in the Cumbre Vieja national park at El Paso, on the Canary Island of La Palma, September 19, 2021, in this screen grab taken from a video. FORTA/Handout via REUTERS "It is not foreseeable that anyone else will have to be evacuated. The lava is moving towards the coast and the damage will be material. According to experts there are about 17-20 million cubic meters of lava," he said. Flights to and from the Canaries were continuing as normal, the airport operator Aena said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in La Palma, the most northwesterly island of the archipelago, late on Sunday for talks with the islands' government on managing the eruption. "We have all the resources (to deal with the eruption) and all the troops, the citizens can rest easy," he said. Stavros Meletlidis, a doctor of volcanology at the Spanish Geographical Institute, said the eruption had torn five holes in the hillside and that he could not be sure how long it would last. "We have to measure the lava every day and that will help us to work it out." King Felipe spoke with Torres and was following the developments, the royal household said. La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries. In 1971, one man was killed as he was taking photographs near the lava flows, but no property was damaged. The earliest recorded eruption in La Palma was in 1430, according to the Spanish National Geographical Institute (ING).
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Volcano Eruption
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Burning of the Riga synagogues
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The burning of the Riga synagogues occurred in 1941, during the first days of the World War II Nazi German occupation of the city of Riga, the capital and largest city in the country of Latvia. Many Jews confined in the synagogues died in the fires. Many other anti-Semitic measures were launched at the same time, ultimately followed by the murder of the vast majority of the Jews of Latvia. The German army crossed the border in the early morning of Sunday, June 22, 1941. All along the front, the Soviet armed forces suffered a crushing defeat. On June 29, 1941, the occupying Red Army began a disorganized withdrawal from Riga, then under German aerial bombardment. To slow the German advance, the retreating Soviets had blown up all the bridges over the Daugava river. The highest church spire in the city, St. Peter's, had been set on fire by German bombs. Some Soviet sympathizers in the city set out pails of water and gave bread to the retreating troops, but these were futile gestures amid the military disaster. [1] On July 1, 1941, the German army entered Riga. [2] There were about 40,000 Jews in the city at that time. [1]
The occupying German forces were initially well-received by many of the civilians in Riga. From June 1940 to June 1941, the Soviet regime in Latvia had carried out a reign of terror against "anti-Soviet" elements. In Riga alone, thousands of men, women and children were arrested, with a majority never to be seen alive again. Consequently, much of the population perceived German occupation as the lesser evil. Additionally, the Soviet regime's extensive list for purges included a disproportionate number of Jews in professions that are perceived as potentially "anti-Soviet" - rabbis, intellectuals, labor organizers and Zionist organizers, liberals and social democrats, and urban professionals and merchants. The June 1941 wave of deportations, which had been concluded only three weeks before the German invasion, sent approximately 5,000-6,000 Latvian Jews to Siberian gulags, including virtually the entire Jewish civic leadership. At the time of the German invasion, the surviving Jewish community in Latvia was in a state of shock and disarray; unlike many of the other Jewish communities that came under Nazi rule in WWII, there was no plan or systematic effort in Latvia to warn the population of the existentialist threat from the Nazis. Shortly after German troops entered the city on July 1, 1941, the Nazi occupation authorities incited Latvian nationalists to commit deadly anti-Jewish riots known as "pogroms". [3] Within three months, more than 6,000 people were killed in Riga and the vicinity. [4] Professionals such as lawyers, physicians and engineers in particular were targeted by the Nazis. Frida Michelson reported that they were singled out by fellow Latvian professionals from among the other Jews arrested and immediately shot. [5] Large groups of prisoners were taken out of the Central Prison by truck to Bikernieki Forest, where they were shot. [6] On July 2, at the instigation of the Germans, Latvian armed youths wearing red and white armbands went about the city dragging Jews out of their homes and arresting them. [7] The Latvians assaulted a number of Jews, some so severely they died, and shot others. The same morning, all the telephones of Jewish homes were disconnected. [2]
Pērkonkrusts (Thunder Cross or Swastika) was the name of the Latvian fascist party that was active in the 1930s. Members of Pērkonkrusts including, among others, Viktors Arājs and Herberts Cukurs cooperated with the Nazis in exterminating the Jews of Latvia. [2] The university fraternities were also involved with the party. [citation needed] In July 1941, after the German occupation, Pērkonkrusts took over the house of the Jewish banker Schmulian, in Riga, at 19 Valdemara Street (Gorki Street under Soviet rule), to use as their headquarters. [2][7] A Riga newspaper Tēvija, ("Fatherland") regularly published anti-Jewish propaganda, such as an editorial on July 11, 1941, entitled "The Jews—Source of Our Destruction". [8]
The Jews arrested were taken to police headquarters (or "prefecture") and the Central Prison, also known as the Zentralka. [8] Old and sick people were brought in naked. Young women were stripped naked and confined to cellars where they were raped. [7] There were reports of women being raped in front of their husbands and children. [7] Traditionally-attired Jews, especially those with beards, were targeted for humiliations such as dragging them around by their beards and forced shaving. [2] Others were forced at gunpoint to put on the talith (prayer shawl) and tefilin (phylactery), then dance and sing Soviet songs. [7] People, including non-Jews, were commonly accused by their enemies of "Communist-Jewish activities". [9]
In the days following July 2, the Jews at the prefecture were marched out to perform forced labor, then confined back at the prefecture during the night. The Latvian Roberts Stiglics was in charge of the prefecture. [8] Much of this was simply makework designed to humiliate and intimidate the Jews, although in at least one instance a small group of Jewish women was detailed to Jelgava to work in the fields for six weeks. [7][9] According to Kaufmann, the Latvians were in charge this entire time. Among other things, they forced the Jews to sing Nazi songs and the "Internationale". [2] The only Jews not subject to brutality at the hands of Latvian thugs were those who had been members of the Jewish Latvian Freedom Fighters Association (Latvian: Lačplēsis[10]), but this immunity did not last. [11]
Professor Ezergailis, while not disputing Kaufmann's descriptions of the Latvians' activities, finds the things Kaufmann describes to have been typical of initial Nazi abuse of Jews in other locations. He also draws the inference that the lack of deliberate killings by the Latvians shows the Germans were at the root of the plans for the massacres. Jews were rounded up and forced into synagogues, which were then set on fire. [13] The Great Choral Synagogue, on Gogol Street, was burned on July 4, 1941, with 20 Jews locked in the basement. Historian Press states that some of the victims were Lithuanian Jews who had taken refuge there. [14] Gertrude Schneider identifies the victims as mostly women and children.
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Fire
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Remington Rand strike of 1936–1937
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The Remington Rand strike of 1936–1937 was a strike by a federal union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Remington Rand company. The strike began in May 1936 and ended in April 1937, although the strike settlement would not be fully implemented until mid-1940. The strike is notorious for spawning the "Mohawk Valley formula," a corporate plan for strikebreaking to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, use local police and vigilantes to intimidate strikers, form puppet associations of "loyal employees" to influence public debate, fortify workplaces, employ large numbers of strikebreakers, and threaten to close the plant if work is not resumed. The Mohawk Valley formula was described in an article by company president James Rand, Jr., and published in the National Association of Manufacturers Labor Relations Bulletin in the fourth month of the strike. The article was widely disseminated in pamphlet form by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) later that year. In a landmark decision, the National Labor Relations Board called the Mohawk Valley formula "a battle plan for industrial war. "[1]
In March 1934, the AFL began organizing skilled workers at two typewriter companies, Underwood Typewriter Company and Remington Rand. The employees organized the District Council of Office Equipment Workers, a federal union affiliated with the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor. Six plants were organized in the towns of Tonawanda, Ilion and Syracuse in New York; in Middletown, Connecticut; and in Marietta and Norwood in Ohio. [2][3]
James Rand, Jr., president of Remington Rand, refused to bargain with the union. On May 8, 1934, 6,500 workers struck to force the company to recognize the union and sign a collective bargaining agreement. On June 18, 1936, the firm recognized the union and signed a contract which provided wage increases and established a grievance procedure. [2][3]
Remington Rand, however, continued a policy of harassment and obstruction toward the union. It often violated the contract in small ways (forcing the union to file time-consuming and costly grievances), harassed union leaders, and generally contested the union at every turn. [2][3][4]
In February 1936, the District Council of Office Equipment Workers became the Remington Rand Joint Protective Board. [2][3]
Worker anger had built high by May 1936, when the company spread rumors that its plants were being bought by an unknown firm that would no longer recognize the union. Remington Rand then announced it had purchased a typewriter plant in nearby Elmira and might close the Tonawanda and Syracuse facilities. The union demanded information on possible plant closures, which the company refused. The union then threatened a strike. In retaliation, the company distributed its own strike ballots and claimed that it alone could speak for workers. Outraged union officials seized and destroyed the company's ballots, interrupted and broke up meetings at which ballots were handed out, and harassed and physically intimidated managers trying to conduct balloting. [5][6][7]
The Joint Board quickly held its own strike vote. More than 75% of the union's members voted to strike. Union officials asked the company to submit the dispute to a federal mediator, but the company refused to do so. Instead, Remington Rand fired the presidents of the local unions in Tonawanda and Syracuse along with fifteen other union activists. Infuriated workers in Ilion, Syracuse and Tonawanda walked off their jobs on May 25, 1936, followed by Remington Rand workers in Ohio and Connecticut the following day. [6][8][9]
The Remington Rand strike was a particularly violent strike. Although no one died during the strike, both sides[need quotation to verify] engaged in beatings with fists and clubs, rock and brick throwing, vandalism, threats and physical intimidation. But historians and federal officials point out that the company went out of its way to antagonize workers and use private security personnel (sometimes disguised as workers) to instigate violence and riots. The record before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the scholarly literature show that the level of violence in the strike was deliberately manipulated by Remington Rand, and was several orders of magnitude higher than it would have been had the company not taken the actions it did. [2][4][7][10]
Notable incidents include:
The Remington Rand strike is notable for the wide array of aggressive anti-union tactics employed by the employer. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) documented these tactics in a 120-page decision, Remington Rand, Inc., 2 NLRB 626 (decided March 13, 1937). The tactics used were not merely inventive (although some had been used by employers before), but, as the NLRB argued, were specifically designed and utilized to undermine the democratic process, manipulate public opinion through deceit and terror, and violate federal law. [7][10]
With the union out on strike, Remington Rand quickly began consolidating its plants. The company later admitted that it had long wanted to close several of its plants, but that the union was too strong and would not have permitted it. Remington Rand contracted with millwrights several months before the strike began (discussions which courts and federal agencies later interpreted as a sign of the company's bad-faith bargaining) to dismantle the plants. Within days of the strike's commencement, Remington Rand contractors began crating plant machinery in Middletown, Syracuse and Tonawanda. Workers tried blocking the millwrights and trucks from entering and leaving the plant but were mostly unsuccessful. Strikers subsequently pelted trucks with stones, bricks and bottles, or laid iron spikes in the roadway to puncture the tires of trucks. [2][6][7][16][17]
Misleading information about plant closures was also common. When the strike began, the mayor of Syracuse met with Rand and won Rand's personal reassurance that the company would not close the plant. But Rand planned exactly that, and his lie was designed to win backing of city officials for the company's anti-union campaign. The company also often placed "For Sale" signs in front of factories or announced their closing in advertisements. In some cases, the company went so far as to hire private security guards to pose as millwrights to support its claim that it was closing plants. [18] Announcements of plant closures were designed to demoralize striking union members and frighten workers who had remained on the job into staying. They also were used to terrorize local citizens who feared for the economic life of their towns. Often, company officials would later make statements suggesting that the plant would stay open if the union gave up the strike, statements which encouraged local citizens to put intense emotional, political and economic pressure on the union. [7][10][19][20]
Remington Rand also hired very large numbers of private security forces to protect its property and attempt to re-open some facilities. The company had engaged in extensive pre-strike planning with "detective agencies" (a euphemism for private security guard companies) in all its locations. In discussions with these firms, the company clearly conveyed the attitude that it had every intention of provoking a strike in order to break the union, and would not engage in good-faith bargaining.
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Strike
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KISS is latest to postpone tour dates after Gene Simmons tests positive for COVID-19
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If you don’t think the Delta variant is real, a few performers and concert promoters might change your mind: KISS and Florida Georgia Line are the latest musical acts to announce they’re canceling or delaying shows because of the resurgent pandemic. Stevie Nicks, Nine Inch Nails, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Garth Brooks and other artists also have recently scrapped or postponed tour dates as the coronavirus’ highly contagious Delta variant continues to sweep across the United States and abroad. Several musicians have returned to the stage as the country gradually reopens for the first time since COVID-19 vaccines became widely accessible. But some have begun to back out of performances as the recent surge in coronavirus cases takes an increasing toll — primarily on the unvaccinated community. Other performers — such as Phoebe Bridgers, the Foo Fighters, the Eagles, Phish, Dead & Company and Maroon 5 — are requiring concertgoers to produce proof of immunization or recent negative test results before entering their shows. AEG Presents, the promoter of marquee music events such as the Coachella festival, recently announced a mandatory vaccination policy for staff and fans at upcoming shows. Meanwhile, some major festivals are already canceling this year’s dates, with more likely to follow suit. Music Coachella promoter AEG sets mandatory vaccination policy for fans and staff “We are aware that there might be some pushback, but I’m confident we will be on the right side of history” the Coachella and Stagecoach promoter said Thursday. Aug. 12, 2021 As of Aug. 20, 64% of Californians had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — but hospitals are quickly becoming overwhelmed after seeing coronavirus hospitalizations multiply over the span of a few weeks. The new wave of live music cancellations is, of course, reminiscent of the beginning of the pandemic, when musician after musician — from BTS and Billie Eilish to Khalid and Mariah Carey — began scrapping their planned 2020 concert appearances slowly, and then all at once. Here’s a running list of artists who have altered their 2021 touring schedules so far. Rock band KISS delayed its next four appearances in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin after bassist and singer Gene Simmons tested positive for COVID-19. “While [guitarist and singer] Paul Stanley recently tweeted that he has recovered from COVID, Gene Simmons has now tested positive and is experiencing mild symptoms,” the group said in an Aug. 31 statement. “The band and crew will remain at home and isolate for the next 10 days. ... All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new dates once announced. More information will be emailed to ticket holders directly.” KISS’ End of the Road tour is expected to resume Sept. 9 at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine. On Aug. 20, country music duo Florida Georgia Line canceled the remainder of their I Love My Country tour, citing safety concerns. In California, the “Cruise” hitmakers were expected to travel to San Diego, Mountain View, Wheatland, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Bernardino in November. Other stops on the itinerary spanned Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Connecticut, New York, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C. “While we’ve been able to see some of y’all at shows recently, everyone’s continued safety has been weighing heavy on us,” the group said in a statement. “We’re so bummed to have to cancel this tour, but we know in our hearts that we still have to make sure we’re keeping our fans and crew safe. We love y’all and can’t wait to be back out when the time is right.” Global pop supergroup BTS officially pulled the plug Aug. 20 on its highly anticipated Map of the Soul tour, long after postponing the North American leg of the tour in March 2020. “Our company has worked hard to resume preparations for the BTS Map of the Soul tour, knowing that all fans have been waiting eagerly and long for the tour,” the band’s record label, Bighit, said in a statement. “However, due to changing circumstances beyond our control, it has become difficult to resume performances at the same scale and timeline as previously planned. ... [Allow] us to offer our sincere apology to all fans who have waited for the BTS Map of the Soul tour to resume. We are working to prepare a viable schedule and performance format that can meet your expectations, and we will provide updated notices as soon as possible.” On Aug. 19, rock band Nine Inch Nails canceled the remainder of its 2021 concert appearances “with great regret.” “When originally planned, these shows were intended to be a cathartic and celebratory return to live music,” the group said in a statement. “However, with each passing day it’s becoming more apparent we’re not at that place yet. We are sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment and look forward to seeing you again when the time is right.” Country superstar Brooks announced Aug. 18 that his stadium tour would be going on hiatus while his team continues to “monitor the virus’ impact and watch how schools, sports, and other entertainment entities are handling this stage of the pandemic.” As a precaution, the singer has canceled five upcoming performances across Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts and Tennessee. “In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part,” Brooks said in a statement. “It is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all 5 shows but with a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us.” “The joy I have seen in everyone’s faces as live music returns has been more than worth our constant diligence to maintain safety protocols not only for the fans, but for our band, the crew and the hard working staff in these stadiums,” he added. “Their dedication to safety for the people who fill those seats has been a miracle to watch and a blessing to receive. I am truly grateful.” Opinion Op-Ed: Garth Brooks, bringing some unity through country music Having Brooks onstage was a way to reach out to the entire country, including his fans in red states. Jan. 20, 2021 California metal band Korn canceled and rescheduled a slew of concert dates Aug. 16 after frontman Jonathan Davis tested positive for COVID-19. “On Saturday, we received the unfortunate news that Jonathan tested positive for Covid, and needless to say, we had to postpone the show last minute,” the group said in a statement. “As always, our primary goal is to ensure the safety of everyone involved, so this is something that has to be done. Jonathan’s spirits are high, and he’s resting and recovering now. We’re as disappointed as you are about the circumstances, but we’ll get through it though, and we can’t wait to see you once we’re back, firing on all cylinders once again.” Some of Korn’s August shows in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire were postponed to late September and early October, while performances in New York have been canceled. After performing back-to-back, sold-out shows with frequent collaborator Lady Gaga in early August at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, famed crooner Bennett will no longer go on tour this fall as planned. “There won’t be any additional concerts,” Bennett’s son told Variety Aug. 12. ”This was a hard decision for us to make, as he is a capable performer. This is, however, doctors’ orders. ... He’ll be doing other things, but not those upcoming shows.” Earlier this year, Bennett’s family revealed that the veteran musician had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to his health complications, Bennett’s advanced age — he just turned 95 — places him firmly in the high-risk category for COVID-19. Music Tony Bennett turns 95 and celebrates with big news about final album with Lady Gaga Lady Gaga announces “Love for Sale,” her second album with Tony Bennett. She and the birthday boy, who has Alzheimer’s, perform tonight and Thursday. Aug. 3, 2021 “It’s not the singing aspect but, rather, the traveling,” his son told Variety. “Look, he gets tired. ... [D]oing concerts now is just too much for him. We don’t want him to fall onstage, for instance — something as simple as that.” Titled “One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,” the singer’s recent appearance in the Big Apple already had hinted at Bennett’s retirement from live performing. Still on the horizon, however, is his second and final joint album with Gaga, “Love for Sale” — out Oct. 1. pic.twitter.com/mPbeGYaEdL On Aug. 10, legendary Fleetwood Mac rocker Nicks, 73, announced her reluctant decision to abort a string of upcoming tour dates in Colorado, California, Texas and Louisiana. “These are challenging times with challenging decisions that have to be made,” the “Edge of Seventeen” hitmaker explained via Twitter. “I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising Covid cases should be of concern to all of us. “While I’m vaccinated, at my age, I am still being extremely cautious and for that reason have decided to skip the 5 performances I had planned for 2021. Because singing and performing have been my whole life, my primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer. I’m devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022.” Music The moonlight confessions of Stevie Nicks On the eve of the release of a solo concert film, Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks opens up on Lindsey Buckingham’s exit and looking for love in her 70s. Sept. 30, 2020 Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd pulled out of its forthcoming shows in Ohio, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama on Aug. 9 after longtime guitarist Rickey Medlocke tested positive for COVID-19. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Aug. 13 appearance in Atlanta was moved to Oct. 23. “Rickey is home resting and responding well to treatment,” the group said in a statement. “We will continue to update you on his condition.” Music ‘DaBaby will no longer be performing’: Rapper’s list of canceled festival gigs grows From Lollapalooza to ACL, here’s a running list of music festivals that have scrubbed rapper DaBaby from their lineups after his homophobic rant. Aug. 4, 2021 Canadian singer-songwriter Bublé also amended his touring schedule on Aug. 6 “due to concerns over the rising number of Coronavirus infections.” The “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” artist’s August concert appearances in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have all been rescheduled to October, while new dates for the South American leg of the tour “will be announced shortly,” according to Bublé's Twitter account. On Aug. 7, rap-rock band Limp Bizkit, which performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago late last month, indefinitely postponed the remainder of its August tour dates “out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of the band, crew and most of all the fans,” according to a statement. “In short, the system is still very flawed,” frontman Fred Durst told Billboard. “Even if the performers, crews, staff, and promoters do their best to ensure safety on and behind the stage, that doesn’t ensure the safety of the audience as a whole.” Tickets purchased online for shows in New York, New Hampshire, Virginia, Nebraska and Texas will be automatically refunded. https://t.co/cXRBBhOMYY pic.twitter.com/5blU12dEsL On Aug. 11, Grateful Dead cover band Joe Russo’s Almost Dead postponed its upcoming indoor shows in Wisconsin and Missouri to late March, while canceling multiple appearances in Michigan and New Orleans. “After much consideration and discussion, we believe it’s in the best interest of our fans, band and crew to err on the side of safety and caution at this time,” the group said in a statement. “As of now, we will continue playing [select] shows with ... additional safety precautions. ... As the year progresses, we will make decisions based on the best data available with the health and safety of ourselves and our fans in mind. We apologize for the bad news and deeply appreciate your understanding.” pic.twitter.com/pFmSvfko8V On Aug. 12, Colorado jam band the String Cheese Incident canceled its weekend performances in Kentucky and Ohio after one of its members tested positive for COVID-19 — “despite all being vaccinated.” “We are super bummed we can’t play music for y’all, but this is how the world seems to run these days,” the group said in a statement. “Thanks for the continued support, and we look forward to crossing paths soon.” The band also canceled appearances in late August at the Big Top and the Backwoods Festival at Mulberry Mountain, but its website says it will play shows in October and later in the year.
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Organization Closed
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2018 United States adenovirus outbreak
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The 2018 United States adenovirus outbreak was an occurrence in which an unusual number of adenovirus cases were reported at two locations, one in Maryland and one in New Jersey, from September to December of 2018, resulting in deaths in both states. [1][2] At least 35 people contracted the disease in each location of the outbreak. [3][4] In New Jersey, the ill ranged in age from toddlers to adults,[5] and eleven children died. [6][7] It was "one of the nation's deadliest long-term-care outbreaks"[7] and "one of the nation's worst recorded outbreaks of the [adeno]virus. "[8] The adenovirus outbreak led to the passage of new legislation in 2019 concerning the containment of outbreaks in long-term care centers in New Jersey. [9]
In September 2018, an adenovirus outbreak began at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation,[6] a care facility for those with short-term rehab or long-term needs in Wanaque, New Jersey. [10] on September 26, 2018, when a child developed symptoms of a respiratory ailment in the pediatric ventilator unit,[11] followed by a second child misdiagnosed as having respiratory ailments. [6] At the time, Wanaque did not have enough space to isolate the ill children from others. [12] The parents of ill patients were notified on October 19, 2018,[13] and that day as well the NJ health department was notified of a "cluster of respiratory illnesses. "[11] Two children had died at that point[6] while twenty overall had showed symptoms. [8] On October 10, 2018, the state Health Department sent a communicable disease specialist to the center. [14] The outbreak proved to be the type 7 adenovirus. [5] Not typically dangerous, it can be deadly to vulnerable patients. [12]
The commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health was notified about the outbreak on October 19, when five children had died. [15] The state sent inspectors on October 21[6] in a surprise inspection, concluding that the center had yet to "establish and maintain an infection prevention and control program. "[16] Six employees were observed inadequately washing their hands, continued in inspections on November 9, 11, and 13. [14] Medicare inspections of the facility in 2016 and 2017 had also found "infection control issues. "[16]
On October 24, 2018, a government inspection report cited Wanaque for several deficiencies from 2015 to 2018. Elnahal, head of the state health department, asserted the issues had been corrected[17] and that the state would permanently surveil the facility. [18]
Reported on November 9, 2018, two anonymous employees spoke to NJ Advance Media and claimed that "senior administrators delayed sending kids to the hospital" to keep the pediatric unit as full as possible, maximizing funds amounting to $519.46 from Medicaid per patient per day. After the report, the state health commissioner sent inspectors to the facility. [19] After November 12, 2018, the outbreak was reported under control. [7]
On November 14, the center was ordered by the state to isolate sick patients[7] by November 21[20] and curtail all new admissions. [7] By November 16, there were 43 children on the first-floor ventilator unit where the virus was spreading. 19 children were in a second-floor unaffected pediatric unit, with 125 adult patients in the facility. [14] On November 19, 2018, it was reported that The Wanaque Center had separated its medically fragile patients from those with adenovirus symptoms. The dropping number of patients had allowed enough space to separate beds, whereas previously patients were being cared for in close proximity. [20]
From October to November 2018, the virus infected 35 people at the Wanaque Center, including 23 children. [21] Ultimately, 36 residents and one staff member were diagnosed with the adenovirus. [5] The ill ranged in age from toddlers to teens,[5] and eleven children died. [6][7] It was "one of the nation's deadliest long-term-care outbreaks"[7] and "one of the nation's worst recorded outbreaks of the [adeno]virus. "[8]
Over three visits in early November, state inspectors gave the Wanaque Center the worst rating possible, "immediate jeopardy. "[14] Federal inspectors also visited the center, from November 13 through 17, giving the center six "immediate jeopardy violations" for systemic deficiencies in care. [7] Inspectors initially blamed poor hygiene for the outbreak. [7] However, later, federal inspectors also implicated poor planning by management. [7] A November 17[7] report by the New York office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)[16] blamed the outbreak on the center's response, particularly management for lack of planning and slow responses, leading to delays "in identifying, reporting and controlling the outbreak. "[7] The pediatric medical director, for example, was not informed what exactly his job was,[16][7] and was not informed of the number of infected patients until after the fourth death. [7] Wanaque Center strongly contested the findings, calling the report flawed[16] and appealing the report to dispute "unfounded allegations. "[7] Several lawsuits concerning the outbreak were filed against the center in late 2018. [7][22]
At the height of the outbreak in New Jersey, an outbreak of the same strain of the virus occurred among students at the University of Maryland, College Park. The college learned about the first case of adenovirus on November 1,[4] and by mid-December, 35 cases involving the same strain of the virus had been reported at the university. Among those cases, 18-year old freshman Olivia Paregol, who was "immunosuppressed because of medication for Crohn's disease",[3] died on November 18, 2018. [2] In its coverage, the press noted that an adenovirus vaccine exists but not generally available to the public. [1][23] It has been proposed that the Maryland outbreak was connected to a mold outbreak on the campus during the same period. [21]
In January 2019, the University of Maryland began a weeks-long effort to have a contracted cleaning company disinfect all surfaces in the dorms where the outbreak occurred. [24] The death of Paregol prompted Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to address the matter as "very concerning". [2]
On November 20, 2018, members of the New Jersey Legislature representing the affected district sent a letter to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal requesting an investigation of claims that "the facility delayed sending children for treatment for non-medical reasons" relating to the collection of Medicaid payments. [25]
A hearing on the outbreak was held by the NJ Senate Health Committee[7] on December 3, 2018. [7][8] At the hearing, the NJ health department head announced that state health policy had been changed as a result of the outbreak, requiring the health commissioner to be notified immediately when outbreaks result in the deaths of children. [15]
In direct response to the Wanaque outbreak,[5] a June 2019 report from the New Jersey Health Department called for new legislation that would require New Jersey's long-term care centers to submit outbreak response plans to the state.
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Disease Outbreaks
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NBA Board of Governors launch first-ever NBA Foundation with NBPA to support Black communities and drive generational change
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NEW YORK – The NBA Board of Governors announced today that it will contribute $300 million in initial funding to establish the first-ever NBA Foundation dedicated to creating greater economic empowerment in the Black community. The Foundation is being launched in partnership with the National Basketball Players Association. Over the next 10 years, the 30 NBA team owners will collectively contribute $30 million annually to establish a new, leaguewide charitable foundation. Through its mission to drive economic empowerment for Black communities through employment and career advancement, the NBA Foundation will seek to increase access and support for high school, college-aged and career-ready Black men and women, and assist national and local organizations that provide skills training, mentorship, coaching and pipeline development in NBA markets and communities across the United States and Canada. As a public charity, the Foundation will also aim to work strategically with marketing and media partners to develop additional programming and funding sources that deepen the NBA family’s commitment to racial equality and social justice. The Foundation will focus on three critical employment transition points: obtaining a first job, securing employment following high school or college, and career advancement once employed. Through contributions, the NBA Foundation will enhance and grow the work of national and local organizations dedicated to education and employment, including through investment in youth employment and internship programs, STEM fields, job shadows and apprenticeships, development pathways outside of traditional higher education, career placement, professional mentorship, networking and specific partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. “On behalf of the NBA Board of Governors, I am thrilled to announce the creation of the NBA Foundation,” said NBA Board of Governors Chairman and Toronto Raptors Governor Larry Tanenbaum. “All NBA team governors recognize our unique position to effect change and we are committed to supporting and empowering young Black men and women in each of our team markets as well as communities across the U.S. and Canada.” “The creation of this foundation is an important step in developing more opportunities for the Black community,” said NBPA President Chris Paul. “I am proud of our league and our players for their commitment to this long-term fight for equality and justice, and I know we will continue to find ways to keep pushing for meaningful institutional change.” The Foundation will work directly with all 30 teams, their affiliated charitable organizations and the NBPA to support national organizations and their local affiliates as well as local grassroots organizations to facilitate sustainable programming and create change in team markets. “Given the resources and incredible platform of the NBA, we have the power to ideate, implement and support substantive policies that reflect the core principles of equality and justice we embrace,” said NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts. “This Foundation will provide a framework for us to stay committed and accountable to these principles.” “We are dedicated to using the collective resources of the 30 teams, the players and the league to drive meaningful economic opportunities for Black Americans,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “We believe that through focused programs in our team markets and nationally, together with clear and specific performance measures, we can advance our shared goals of creating substantial economic mobility within the Black community.” The 30 NBA teams will be members of the NBA Foundation with its eight Board of Directors comprised of representatives from the NBA Board of Governors (four board seats), players and executives from the NBPA (three board seats) and the league office (one board seat). The Foundation’s board will oversee all business affairs and provide strategic direction with respect to programming and grantmaking. Taylor will lead the Foundation’s mission to drive economic empowerment for Black communities. Seven organizations have been selected as the recipients of the first grants from the Foundation. Playoff games will resume on Saturday, August 29 Taylor will lead the Foundation’s mission to drive economic empowerment for Black communities. Seven organizations have been selected as the recipients of the first grants from the Foundation. Playoff games will resume on Saturday, August 29 Breaking down stats and film on key storylines throughout the league after the 1st month of the season. Giannis Antetokounmpo's dominant showing Wednesday against the Lakers has L.A. flustered as its road trek begins. Philadelphia has dealt with plenty of adversity this season, from the absence of Ben Simmons to players missing games due to health and safety protocols. The Lakers are 4-6 overall this season without James, who has missed the last eight games with an abdominal injury. Sheppard's offseason moves have helped the Wizards to their best start since 1974-75.
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Organization Established
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Diamond–Dybvig model
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The Diamond–Dybvig model is an influential model of bank runs and related financial crises. The model shows how banks' mix of illiquid assets (such as business or mortgage loans) and liquid liabilities (deposits which may be withdrawn at any time) may give rise to self-fulfilling panics among depositors. The model, published in 1983 by Douglas W. Diamond of the University of Chicago and Philip H. Dybvig, then of Yale University and now of Washington University in St. Louis, shows how an institution with long-maturity assets and short-maturity liabilities can be unstable. Diamond and Dybvig's paper points out that business investment often requires expenditures in the present to obtain returns in the future. Therefore, they prefer loans with a long maturity (that is, low liquidity). The same principle applies to individuals seeking financing to purchase large-ticket items such as housing or automobiles. On the other hand, individual savers (both households and firms) may have sudden, unpredictable needs for cash, due to unforeseen expenditures. So they demand liquid accounts which permit them immediate access to their deposits (that is, they value short maturity deposit accounts). The banks in the model act as intermediaries between savers who prefer to deposit in liquid accounts and borrowers who prefer to take out long-maturity loans. Under ordinary circumstances, banks can provide a valuable service by channeling funds from many individual deposits into loans for borrowers. Individual depositors might not be able to make these loans themselves, since they know they may suddenly need immediate access to their funds, whereas the businesses' investments will only pay off in the future (moreover, by aggregating funds from many different depositors, banks help depositors save on the transaction costs they would have to pay in order to lend directly to businesses). Since banks provide a valuable service to both sides (providing the long-maturity loans businesses want and the liquid accounts depositors want), they can charge a higher interest rate on loans than they pay on deposits and thus profit from the difference. Diamond and Dybvig point out that under ordinary circumstances, savers' unpredictable needs for cash are likely to be random, as depositors' needs reflect their individual circumstances. Since depositors' demand for cash are unlikely to occur at the same time, by accepting deposits from many different sources the bank expects only a small fraction of withdrawals in the short term, even though all depositors have the right to withdraw their full deposit at any time. Thus, a bank can make loans over a long horizon, while keeping only relatively small amounts of cash on hand to pay any depositors that wish to make withdrawals. Mathematically, individual withdrawals are largely uncorrelated, and by the law of large numbers banks expect a relatively stable number of withdrawals on any given day. However a different outcome is also possible. Since banks lend out at long maturity, they cannot quickly call in their loans. And even if they tried to call in their loans, borrowers would be unable to pay back quickly, since their loans were, by assumption, used to finance long-term investments. Therefore, if all depositors attempt to withdraw their funds simultaneously, a bank will run out of money long before it is able to pay all the depositors. The bank will be able to pay the first depositors who demand their money back, but if all others attempt to withdraw too, the bank will go bankrupt and the last depositors will be left with nothing. This means that even healthy banks are potentially vulnerable to panics, usually called bank runs. If a depositor expects all other depositors to withdraw their funds, then it is irrelevant whether the banks' long term loans are likely to be profitable; the only rational response for the depositor is to rush to take his or her deposits out before the other depositors remove theirs. In other words, the Diamond–Dybvig model views bank runs as a type of self-fulfilling prophecy: each depositor's incentive to withdraw funds depends on what they expect other depositors to do. If enough depositors expect other depositors to withdraw their funds, then they all have an incentive to rush to be the first in line to withdraw their funds. In theoretical terms, the Diamond–Dybvig model provides an example of an economic game with more than one Nash equilibrium. If depositors expect most other depositors to withdraw only when they have real expenditure needs, then it is rational for all depositors to withdraw only when they have real expenditure needs. But if depositors expect most other depositors to rush quickly to close their accounts, then it is rational for all depositors to rush quickly to close their accounts. Of course, the first equilibrium is better than the second (in the sense of Pareto efficiency). If depositors withdraw only when they have real expenditure needs, they all benefit from holding their savings in a liquid, interest-bearing account. If instead everyone rushes to close their accounts, then they all lose the interest they could have earned, and some of them lose all their savings. Nonetheless, it is not obvious what any one depositor could do to prevent this mutual loss. In practice, due to fractional reserve banking, banks faced with a bank run usually shut down and refuse to permit more withdrawals. This is called a suspension of convertibility, and engenders further panic in the financial system. While this may prevent some depositors who have a real need for cash from obtaining access to their money, it also prevents immediate bankruptcy, thus allowing the bank to wait for its loans to be repaid, so that it has enough resources to pay back some or all of its deposits. However, Diamond and Dybvig argue that unless the total amount of real expenditure needs per period is known with certainty, suspension of convertibility cannot be the optimal mechanism for preventing bank runs. Instead, they argue that a better way of preventing bank runs is deposit insurance backed by the government or central bank. Such insurance pays depositors all or part of their losses in the case of a bank run. If depositors know that they will get their money back even in case of a bank run, they have no reason to participate in a bank run. Thus, sufficient deposit insurance can eliminate the possibility of bank runs. In principle, maintaining a deposit insurance program is unlikely to be very costly for the government: as long as bank runs are prevented, deposit insurance will never actually need to be paid out. Bank runs became much rarer in the U.S. after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was founded in the aftermath of the bank panics of the Great Depression. On the other hand, a deposit insurance scheme is likely to lead to moral hazard: by protecting depositors against bank failure, it makes depositors less careful in choosing where to deposit their money, and thus gives banks less incentive to lend carefully.
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Financial Crisis
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Home win as Spanish goat cheese wins top cheese award
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08-Nov-2021
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08-Nov-2021 at 10:59 GMT Related tags:
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Quesos y Besos’ Olavidia won the honors at the event at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos as part of the Asturias Paraíso Natural International Cheese Festival 2021.
Produced by a family-run business established in 2017, Olavidia has brought international acclaim to Silvia Peláez and her team of just six people. Matured with Penicillium candidum and a layer of olive stone ash running through its middle, the soft goats cheese was championed in the final judging stage by Jason Hinds from Neal's Yard Dairy in the UK, who said, “This cheese charmed me and stole my heart. This is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Its appearance is so original and it didn’t let me down. It’s unctuous, seductive, pillowy, warm and comforting.”
In a close run final, second place went to an Epoisses Berthaut Perrière, made by Fromagerie Berthaut in France and entered by Savencia Fromage & Dairy, while third place was taken by Eminence Grise - Tomme Chèvre Grise au Bleu, produced by Van der Heiden Kaas in the Netherlands. The Top 16 also included cheeses from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the UK.
John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organizers of the World Cheese Awards, said, “As the World Cheese Awards was founded over three decades ago to showcase the work of small artisan cheesemakers, it gives me immense pleasure to see a tiny family-run cheesemaking business taking top honours once again. It’s an incredible feat to stand out in a field of over 4,000 cheeses from every corner of the world, but Quesos y Besos’ Olavidia clearly had everything; delivering an exceptional appearance, aroma, texture and flavour, along with bags of originality. I’d also like to thank our judges and our partners, the Asturias Paraíso Natural International Cheese Festival, for helping us to stage the World Cheese Awards once again, giving the global cheese community a day of well-earned celebration following a period of such challenges, uncertainty, resilience and innovation.”
Silvia Peláez, head cheesemaker at Quesos y Besos, said, “We’ve been making cheese for less than five years, so we never imagined we could win the world’s biggest prize in cheese so soon. It was wonderful to witness the judging in person and be there for the announcement, but it’s all still sinking in and will take a long time to digest! Everything we do is inspired by our love for our family, including the name of the business itself, Quesos y Besos (Cheese and Kisses), so this is such a special moment for us. We’ve made it our mission to encapsulate the essence of our family in all of our cheeses, so to have such recognition from the World Cheese Awards judges is an incredible achievement and truly overwhelming.”
The 33rd edition of the World Cheese Awards was bigger and more international than ever before, with 4,079 entries. Competing cheeses represented 45 different countries, including recent additions such as India, Japan and Colombia, and the event featured 250 judges from 38 different countries.
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Awards ceremony
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China’s Debt Reckoning Hammers ‘Too Big to Fail’ Borrowers
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China’s campaign to cut leverage and instill corporate discipline is reshaping the nation’s $12 trillion credit market. One of China’s most prolific debt issuers hasn’t sold a single dollar bond in 17 months, the longest dry spell since 2013. An investment grade-rated conglomerate mostly owned by the government is facing a cash crunch in a test of state support. Analysts at UBS Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now say the notion of ‘too big to fail’ no longer applies in China as defaults this year exceed $23 billion, a record pace. LISTEN: Sofia Horta e Costa, Bloomberg Chief China Markets Correspondent, discusses China’s debt problems with Juliette Saly on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia. Beijing is taking advantage of a strengthening economy and stable financial markets to toughen up its corporate sector. The result is a repricing of risk that should discourage the kind of reckless debt-fueled expansion that inflated some companies to a dangerous size. The spawning of such bloated empires created a threat to the financial system as well as a challenge to President Xi Jinping’s grip on power. The danger for Xi is that smashing investor faith in government guarantees triggers precisely the kind of crisis he’s trying to avoid. It’s a dilemma that has frustrated Chinese leaders for decades: Ending moral hazard for indebted giants like China Huarong Asset Management Co. and China Evergrande Group would make the financial system more resilient over the long run, but a major default would cause significant short-term pain. “The government has grown more comfortable with defaults, even important regional state firms, but Huarong and Evergrande present much bigger and more systemic challenges,” said Jeffrey Chwieroth, a professor of international political economy at the London School of Economics and co-investigator at the Systemic Risk Centre. “Deleveraging and eliminating the prevalence of government guarantees may induce undesirable consequences and market panic.” Breakdown of China’s outstanding onshore bonds, in trillions of yuan. 2021 data is as of March 31. Source: JPMorgan, WIND, Bloomberg. For the Communist Party, which celebrates its centenary next week, inaction is no longer an option. Officials are repeatedly warning of bubble risks after last year’s monetary and fiscal stimulus pushed economic leverage to a record. The shift was visible in May’s credit data, which showed net corporate bond issuance contracting by the most in four years. Issues stemming from over-leveraged conglomerates are mounting. HNA Group Co., a little-known airline operator that grew into a sprawling giant before collapsing, faces some 1.2 trillion yuan ($185 billion) in claims from creditors, Bloomberg News reported this month. The group spent more than $40 billion on acquisitions across six continents from 2016. One of China’s biggest defaulters last year was Tsinghua Unigroup Co., which had aspirations to be the nation’s first giant in the global semiconductor industry and once planned a $23 billion bid for U.S. memory-chip giant Micron Technology Inc. These firms were in many ways emblematic of the way China grew in the years after the global financial crisis. Authorities unleashed a stimulus blitz that fueled a heady economic expansion through binging on credit. Concern over the scale of China’s resulting debt mountain and the possibility of a “Minsky moment” prompted Xi to launch a deleveraging campaign in 2017, before shelving it during the trade war with the U.S. With Xi renewing his drive to cut debt, the real estate sector has become a major target. The government in August said it had drafted new financing rules for the industry, which accounts for about 29% of economic output. Evergrande has pledged to meet at least one of those borrowing limits, known as the “three red lines,” by the end of this month. The firm is ramping up asset sales as it seeks to reduce its $100 billion burden. Evergrande hasn’t sold dollar bonds since January 2020 and was this week cut further into junk by Fitch Ratings. On Thursday, the developer said it arranged for funds to repay a bond maturing Monday, as well as interest payments. Another focus has been the bad-debt management industry, tasked with cleaning up China’s soured loans. A key player is Huarong, which became embroiled in financial scandal under its former chairman before his arrest in 2018. After Lai Xiaomin was executed this year on bribery charges, concern over the company’s future intensified when it failed to release its 2020 earnings in March. Beijing’s silence over its plans for Huarong have left some of the firm’s longer-dated bonds trading at stressed levels. Huarong and its affiliates have $39.8 billion of debt outstanding. Huarong and Evergrande comprise 6% of Chinese index-eligible corporate bonds. Source: Citigroup, Bloomberg. Companies are under more scrutiny than ever as Xi enters a crucial period in his rule. China’s leader has in the past year doubled down on perceived threats to the Communist Party ahead of a 2022 leadership shuffle that could see him hold on to the presidency for a third term. Beijing has increased regulation of corporate giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., and forced high-profile entrepreneurs like Jack Ma and Meituan’s Wang Xing to lay low. State-owned enterprises aren’t immune. SOEs and other non-private corporates accounted for 54% of the value of onshore defaults in the first four months of the year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Evidence of broader market contagion has been relatively limited. Investment-grade dollar bond spreads over respective government bonds have tightened since blowing up to a nine-month high in the wake of Huarong’s missed earnings report. But the stakes are high: a surprise default or painful restructuring risks triggering widespread panic. While Beijing will likely intervene to avoid a credit crisis should that happen, there’s “considerable” uncertainty over the timeliness and extent of such support, wrote Goldman Sachs analysts in a note earlier this month. UBS analysts agreed, warning investors to prepare for fading government support for state-owned enterprises. “The problem with too big to fail is that it can quickly turn into too big to save,” said Michael Pettis, a Beijing-based professor of finance at Peking University. “China has since the financial crisis maintained stability by repressing risks. It can’t do that forever.”
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Financial Crisis
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WITH ADMISSION OF SWITZERLAND, UNITED NATIONS FAMILY NOW NUMBERS 190 MEMBER STATES
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WITH ADMISSION OF SWITZERLAND, UNITED NATIONS FAMILY NOW NUMBERS 190 MEMBER STATES
Priorities Listed by President of Fifty-seventh
Session Include Elaboration of Anti-Terrorism Convention
By unanimous decision, Switzerland became the 190th United Nations Member State this afternoon at the opening of the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly.
Kaspar Villiger, President of the Swiss Confederation, said the decision of the Swiss people to take on United Nations membership reflected the country's system of direct democracy, as it had been decided at the ballot box after intensive and controversial debate. The Swiss people had reconciled their fears related to the possibility of prejudicing their valued principle of neutrality, as well as their concerns over the right of veto held by Permanent Members of the Security Council.
Stressing that the world today faced unacceptable global differences in levels of wealth, continued recourse to violence instead of peace, terrorism and environmental degradation, Mr. Villiger said the United Nations, the only universal organization that could take up those challenges, was needed now more than ever. If Switzerland's work -- guided by the central values of peace, democracy, neutrality and solidarity -- made a contribution that advanced the aims of the United Nations, then membership would have been worthwhile.
Welcoming Switzerland to the "family of nations", Jan Kavan (Czech Republic), President of the General Assembly, said the country's membership would strengthen the universality of the United Nations as well as its legitimacy and effectiveness.
In his opening statement to the Assembly, Mr. Kavan strongly emphasized the priorities facing the fifty-seventh session. As the international community was in the midst of commemorating the tragic events of 11 September 2001, he urged Member States to remain focused on the fight against international terrorism and to uphold the international anti-terrorist coalition. While he highly commended the work of the Security Council’s Terrorism Committee in that regard, he stressed that the Assembly still had an important task ahead –- namely the elaboration of a General Convention, including the definition of international terrorism.
He went on to urge the Assembly to continue its work in the area of conflict prevention. Other issues of great importance that he would follow closely included poverty eradication, the fight against HIV/AIDS, and sustainable development in
the accelerating process of globalization. To that end, the fifty-seventh Assembly would face the important task of preparing for the 2003 High-level Dialogue following up the Monterrey Consensus. "I am convinced that for anyone who truly understands the meaning of international solidarity, fighting against poverty and for human dignity is a task which must be tackled", he said.
In other action this afternoon, the Assembly appointed the following States to its Credentials Committee: Argentina, Barbados, Belgium, China, Mali, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation and the United States.
The President announced that on Thursday, 12 September, at the opening of the general debate, the Secretary-General would give a brief presentation of his report on the work of the Organization. It was also announced that the speakers' list was now open for the high-level Assembly plenary to consider the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), scheduled to be held Monday,
16 September.
As the Assembly began its work, the President announced that Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Republic of Moldova, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Tajikistan, and Vanuatu were in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations within the terms of Article 19 of the Charter.
[Article 19 of the United Nations Charter states that a Member State in arrears in its contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of the arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contribution due from it for the preceding two years.]
The General Assembly will open its general debate on Thursday, 12 September.
Assembly Background
The General Assembly met this afternoon to open its fifty-seventh session. It was expected to appoint the members of its Credentials Committee and approve its organization of work. It was also expected to admit Switzerland as a new Member State.
The Assembly had before it a draft resolution on Admission of the Swiss Confederation to membership in the United Nations (A/57/L.1).
Also before the Assembly was a letter dated 9 September 2002 from the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences to the President of the General Assembly (document A/57/389). It authorized the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Working Group on the Financing of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and the Committee on Conferences to meet in New York during the main part of the Assembly’s fifty-seventh session.
The Assembly also had before it a letter dated 9 September 2002 from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly (document A/57/390), which lists 16 Member States in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter.
Opening Statement by General Assembly President
JAN KAVAN (Czech Republic), President of the General Assembly, said he would assume his office with a great responsibility, desire and commitment to contribute, in his modest personal capacity, to further strengthen the role of the United Nations. He then turned directly to highlight the priorities of the Assembly’s work for the fifty-seventh session. As the international community was in the midst of commemorating the tragic events of 11 September 2001, he urged the Assembly to remain focused on the fight against international terrorism and to uphold the anti-terrorist international coalition.
He said strengthening United Nations instruments, including the set of international treaties combating terrorism, should be central to the international community’s efforts. While he highly commended the work of the Security Council’s Terrorism Committee in that regard, he stressed that the Assembly still had an important task ahead -– namely the elaboration of a General Convention, including the definition of international terrorism. He urged Member States to proceed with their work in the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Sixth Committee (Legal) on that issue. He also stressed his readiness to take an active part in all United Nations efforts to combat international terrorism.
He went on to urge the Assembly to continue its work in the area of conflict prevention. Recent experience suggested that certain conflicts could be prevented through diplomacy, preventive deployment and preventive disarmament. Further, in a relevant report, the Secretary-General had emphasized the need to enhance the capacity of the United Nations preventive capacity and to help move the world from a culture of reaction towards a culture of prevention. The need for an effective strategy for conflict prevention was underlined by the number of existing conflicts in the world today, including one of the most protracted –- the Middle East. During the fifty-seventh Assembly he would like to contribute, to the extent possible, to existing efforts to political resolution of that conflict.
Other issues of great importance that he would follow closely included poverty eradication, the fight against HIV/AIDS and sustainable development in the accelerating process of globalization. To that end, he said that the fifty-seventh Assembly would face the important task of preparing for the 2003 High-level Dialogue following up the Monterrey Consensus. Building global partnerships for development was the key to its success, and during his presidency he would pay special attention to closer cooperation between the United Nations and major stakeholders, namely the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as other multilateral institutions and representatives of the private sector and civil society.
He went on to say that he would support an early follow-up to the recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable Development. Although he was sure there was no direct causal link between poverty and terrorism, he was equally sure that extreme poverty was one of the important ingredients which, in combination with others –- including unresolved and protracted political conflict –- could produce a potentially explosive cocktail. At the very least it could lead to anger, powerlessness and frustration which could create fertile ground for fundamentalist, radical or even terrorist behaviour. It was therefore imperative to implement the Millennium Development Goals and fight poverty, not only for moral and humanitarian reasons but also as an integral part of the fight against terrorism and extreme intolerance of all kinds. "I am convinced that for anyone who truly understands the meaning of international solidarity", he said, "fighting against poverty and for human dignity is a task which must be tackled...Inaction is not an option".
DOMINIQUE VILLEPIN, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, introduced the draft resolution on Admission of the Swiss Confederation to membership in the United Nations (A/57/L.1). He said geography had made France and Switzerland neighbours, but history had made them friends. Switzerland’s admission to the United Nations would allow it to play a role in crucial questions of development with full respect for its neutrality, and enjoy fresh opportunities for action and influence in the name of peace, prosperity and security for humankind.
Following the unanimous adoption of the resolution, the representatives of Côte d’Ivoire (on behalf of the African States), Iran (on behalf of the Asian States), Ukraine (on behalf of the group of Eastern European States), Suriname (on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Group), Portugal (on behalf of the West European and other States) and the United States (on behalf of the Host Country) were among those who congratulated Switzerland on its admission today to the membership of the United Nations.
KASPAR VILLIGER, President of the Swiss Confederation, affirmed, on behalf of the Swiss people, the desire of Switzerland to join the United Nations and expressed their gratitude to all members of the General Assembly for admitting his country into the United Nations. Faced with unacceptable global differences in levels of wealth, continued recourse to violence instead of peace, terrorism and environmental degradation, the United Nations was needed more than ever, said Mr. Villiger. As the United Nations was the only universal organization that could
take up those challenges, Switzerland had been working closely with the Organization for many years.
The Swiss people had struggled with the question of full United Nations membership, said Mr. Villiger. On one hand, the defining values of justice, peace and solidarity expressed by the preambles to the United Nations Charter were central to Swiss democracy, as was the importance of international law. On the other hand, there were concerns over whether the United Nations was in a position to achieve its aims. Other fears about membership related to the right of veto held by the Permanent Members of the Security Council, and the possibility of prejudicing the principle of neutrality long valued by the Swiss people.
Switzerland was a country brought together by a common will, said Mr. Villiger. National cohesion was not taken for granted in a country lacking the unifying force of a common culture or language. Therefore, only the people of Switzerland were able to undertake the decision for membership in the United Nations. That decision followed an intensive and controversial debate in Switzerland.
Switzerland’s application for membership in the United Nations made reference to its neutrality, a principle, said Mr. Villiger, which had as its basic precept a rejection of war and violence as a means of resolving conflict. That had long been a maxim of Swiss foreign policy and had served as an instrument for national cohesion. Yet Swiss neutrality was not self-serving, and would not prevent Switzerland from protesting against injustice. Neutrality, combined with solidarity, meant that while the Swiss would not participate in any peace enforcement operations, they would be ready to help in peacekeeping and humanitarian tasks. Finally, on the eve of 11 September 2002, it was important to note that there would never be neutrality where terrorism and criminal acts were concerned.
The work of Switzerland within the United Nations would be guided by the central values of peace, democracy, dignity, neutrality and solidarity, promised Mr. Villiger, and Switzerland would remain committed to good governance, protection of the environment, sustainable development and conditions conducive to an open world economy. If Switzerland made a contribution that advanced the aims of the United Nations, he concluded, then membership of the United Nations would have been worthwhile.
* *** *
For information media. Not an official record.
Highlights
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Join in an Organization
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Olympics: Emma McKeon Pops Olympic Record in Prelims Of 100 Freestyle As Aussie Assault Continues
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The strength of the Australian women’s arsenal has been on full display through the first half of the Olympic Games in Tokyo . A world record from the Dolphins’ 400 freestyle relay. A pair of gold medals from Ariarne Titmus. A title from Kaylee McKeown . And there is – almost surely – more to come.
In the preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle, Emma McKeon ripped an Olympic record of 52.13, good for the eighth-fastest time in history, to secure the top seed for the semifinals. Already a member of Australia’s gold-medal 800 freestyle relay and the bronze medalist in the 100 butterfly, McKeon is riding a wave of momentum. She will be joined in the semifinals by countrywoman Cate Campbell, who went 52.80 for the fourth seed.
The fact that McKeon emerged from prelims as the fastest performer was hardly a shock, given that she split 51.35 in the 400 freestyle relay. She was followed in the second position by Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey, who went 52.70 while following up a silver medal in the 200 freestyle during the morning session. The third seed is Great Britain’s Anna Hopkin, who clocked a British record of 52.75.
In fifth was Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, the world-record holder who is looking sharp despite suffering a fractured elbow earlier this year that interrupted her training. Sjostrom touched in 52.91, just ahead of the 52.95 of Canada’s Penny Oleksiak, who was the joint champion in the event in 2016, sharing the gold medal with Simone Manuel. Also dipping under the 53-second barrier was Denmark’s Pernille Blume in 52.96.
“It feels OK; nothing comes for free and I really have to fight out there,” Sjostrom said. “Even if I feel a bit tired, I can still keep up the speed during the whole run, so I’m happy with that.”
A swimoff for the final spot in the semifinals was scheduled, due to the 16th-place tie at 53.71 between the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo and France’s Marie Wattel. But Kromowidjojo, the 2012 Olympic champion in the event, opted to scratch and focus on the 50 freestyle later in the week.
Canada’s Kayla Sanchez, who finished 10th, also scratched, so the two swimmers who originally tied for 18th place, the USA’s Erika Brown and China’s Wu Qingfeng, swam off for the last spot. Brown dominated that swim-off, winning 53.51 to 54.47.
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Break historical records
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Happily Ever After: See All of the Celebrity Weddings of 2021
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Surprise! During an October appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the actress revealed that she and her photographer fiancé eloped during quarantine "When we got engaged we thought we'd have this most magical wedding," Pinto explained. "But then COVID happened and it's still happening and we just realized we'd be planning this for the rest of our lives and never doing it. So we decided one day to go to the Honda Center in Anaheim [California]." "It was absolutely perfect. We got married and then we got to go home and take an afternoon nap," she shared. Over the summer, the couple announced they were expecting their first child. Pinto told fans that "baby Tran" was due in the fall. In an Oct. 21 Instagram post, the Slumdog Millionaire star posted photos from the big day to celebrate their one-year anniversary. "@coryt and I believe so much in balancing spontaneity with just the right amount of planning. One day it felt so right and so genuinely aligned that we decided we wanted to make it official," she wrote. "This felt so special and fun and let's be honest… it reflected the time in our world just perfectly!"
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Famous Person - Marriage
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All The Biggest Celebrity Breakups of 2018
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It's been a long year, you probably forgot a lot of these splits even happened. It's been a year full of surprising celebrity engagements, weddings, and sadly, breakups. From Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux's unexpected divorce announcement to the end of Cassie and Diddy's 10-year relationship and a whirlwind engagement between Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson, 2018 delivered a series of A-list splits we're still not over. As the year comes to an end, take a look back at all the biggest celebrity breakups. Cardi B announced her split from Offset in an Instagram video shared on December 5th. In the short clip, the rapper said that the couple decided to go their separate ways, but will still work together to be good parents to their baby daughter, Kulture. Just a few days later, the Migos rapper took to Twitter to share that he "missed Cardi" after she changed her "Motorsport" lyrics to "I told him the other day/Yeah, we gon' get a divorce," during a live performance. Paris Hilton and Chris Zylka called it quits just 10 months after he popped the question with a $2 million ring in Aspen. Sources told E! that she realized he just wasn’t right for her.
After nearly 10 years together, Cassie and Diddy called it quits this year. Although neither has publicly commented on the breakup, Cassie's representative released a statement in October confirming the split, "They are indeed no longer together and haven't been for months."
The romance of the year only last a few short months. Ariana and Pete first met on the set of Saturday Night Live in 2016, but started their romance in May 2018. Shortly after, they announced their engagement, but called it off only 4 months later—which resulted in her hit song “Thank U, Next.” Affleck and his girlfriend of one year split in August after she reportedly couldn't handle his addiction issues. “It was very hard for her to break up with Ben, but she knew he wasn’t getting better and that it was time for her to step aside,” a source told People. One of the most surprising and devastating breakups of the year, Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan announced their split on Instagram in early April—and the world hasn't stopped crying since. Both have reportedly moved onto other relationships, with Channing confirmed to be dating singer Jessie J. Kourtney Kardashian’s most serious relationship since breaking up with Scott Disick was with French model, Younes Bendjimin. The duo were first spotted traveling the globe together in May 2017, and he was often photographed hanging out with Kourtney’s three kids. In summer 2018, their split became headline news when Younes began commenting shady things on Kourtney’s photos, and was seen getting cozy with other girls. After almost three years together, Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole announced that they had gone their separate ways in June. The two share a son named Bear, who was born in 2017. G-Eazy and Halsey have been on again, off again since 2017. The couple first called in quits back in July. “G-Eazy and I are taking some time apart,” Halsey wrote on Instagram. They reconciled a few months later, but split again for good in October. After a two-year marriage, Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston announced their separation this past February. In a joint statement to the Associated Press, the pair explained the separation was "mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year.”
The actress and musician split in January after more than five years together.
In March, the pair raised brows when they unfollowed each other on Instagram and purged their respective social media pages of all relationship photos. Later that month, Amber confirmed the breakup rumors in an interview. Victoria's Secret Angel Alessandra Ambrosio split from fiancé Jamie Mazur in March of this year. The pair had previously been engaged for ten years.
The young couple never announced their split officially, but Beckham was recently spotted lip-locked with model Lexi Wood—so we're inferring that the American actress is out of the picture.
In February, it was confirmed that Elon Musk and Amber Heard were splitting up for the second time, following a brief relationship reconciliation in December of 2017. According to Us Weekly, the timing just wasn't right for the business mogul and Hollywood actress.
In March, Anderson Cooper and longtime Benjamin Maisani called it quits. After a nine-year relationship, the CNN host released a statement saying: “Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago. We are still family to each other, and love each other very much.”
After splitting from ex-husband Blake Shelton in July of 2015, country star Miranda Lambert moved into a relationship with Anderson East. After two years of dating, multiple reports confirmed that the couple called it quits in April.
Twitter all but exploded with relationship buzz when Nicki Minaj and Nas posted couple-y photos on social media in May of last year. But come 2018, the rapper pair allegedly stopped seeing each other.
In late February, Alicia Silverstone and husband rock musician Christopher Jarecki ended their two-year relationship. Despite sharing two decades and son Bear, Page Six reported that the split was mutual and amicable.
Parenthood's Monica Potter filed for divorce from husband, orthopedic surgeon Daniel Christopher Allison, in February of this year. The pair tied the knot in 2005, share a 12-year-old daughter, Molly, and split due to “irreconcilable differences," according to E! News.
In an interview with Access Hollywood at the end of March, Olivia Culpo confirmed the rumors of her breakup from Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola. "We are broken up," the fashion influencer revealed. "But it's still so fresh for me, I don't really feel comfortable talking about it."
The actors reportedly split in January after several months of dating.
In April, Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Jennie Garth's husband Dave Abrams filed for divorce after three years of marriage.
In March of 2018, it was confirmed that first-son Donald Trump Jr. and his former-model wife, Vanessa Trump, had filed for divorce. The couple married in 2005, pre-Trump presidency, but since his father's arrival in the White House, Trump Jr. has faced a number of high-profile scandals.
The Property Brothers star announced his separation from longtime girlfriend Jacinta Kuznetsov with a heartfelt Instagram breakup post on April 6.
The on-again-off-again couple sadly called it quits for good in March of 2018. After reconciling in 2017 following a brief breakup, Evans confirmed the relationship was kaput in a March interview with The New York Times.
Rapper Logic recently split from Jessica Andrea, his wife of two years. According to TMZ, the 28-year-old rapper (born Sir Robert Bryson Hall II) and the 25-year-old vlogger have not yet officially filed legal divorce documents, though the breakup news hit the media in March.
Needing some time on her own, the This is Us actress announced her split from boyfriend Josh Stancil in an interview with Wendy Williams in late March.
After being married for fourteen years, Rebecca Gayheart filed for divorce from Grey's Anatomy alum (McSteamy) Eric Dane this past February. Citing "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split, People reported that the 46-year-old actress is requesting joint legal and physical custody of the couple’s two young daughters, Billie and Georgia.
On April 1st, Ruby Rose announced that her relationship with The Veronicas singer Jess Origliasso was over. The Orange is the New Black star officially confirmed the split by tweeting: "It's with a heavy heart to share that Jess and I parted ways a few months ago. We still love each other very much and I will always support her and be her biggest advocate."
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Famous Person - Divorce
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Queensland Government employed credit reporting agency fined for deceptive conduct to answer coronavirus hardship calls
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A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
Queenslanders suffering from economic hardship during the coronavirus pandemic, who have telephoned the Government's state penalties enforcement registry (SPER), have had their calls diverted to a credit reporting agency previously fined millions of dollars for breaching customer law.
The undisclosed contract to provide phone support during the pandemic was given to the private company, Equifax, despite a Federal Court ruling the firm had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.
In 2018, Equifax was ordered to pay penalties totalling $3.5 million for breaching consumer law, in what was described as "unconscionable conduct" towards customers.
The breaches included using unfair sales tactics and lying to customers.
The company is not a call centre, but was handed the Government contract for inbound-phone support during the pandemic by SPER, which operates within Queensland Treasury.
The ABC has asked Queensland Treasury for details on the cost of the contract.
But as part of its ordinary contract disclosures, Treasury has reported it paid $1.87 million to Equifax for a "customer portal and ongoing support — proof of concept" in January without going to an open tender.
No other contracts to Equifax have been disclosed.
"SPER has enlisted the resources of a private sector organisation, Equifax, to temporarily supplement its inbound call capacity, in order to help people in hardship as a result of COVID-19," a Queensland Treasury spokesperson said.
Queenslanders typically call SPER to repay traffic debts or seek extensions to payment deadlines.
An Equifax spokesperson said the company did not comment on customers or prospective customers.
Following ABC inquiries about whether Equifax collected information from the calls, the company spokesperson said: "When dealing with the Government we take steps to follow all appropriate guidelines and procurement policies relevant to that customer."
Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast.
"Where Equifax conducts consumer credit reporting activities, they are carried out strictly under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act, which sets out the rules about what information can be collected and included in credit reports, as well as how it can be accessed and used, and therefore the scenario you describe is not permitted."
Equifax's website states that the company is "passionate about accumulating data, transforming it and then connecting it, to provide our customers with the complete picture".
Queensland Treasury said SPER's arrangement with Equifax had ended.
Equifax participated in Labor's series of so-called cash-for-access business forums in 2019, donating $5,500 to the Australian Labor Party in August last year.
The administration of SPER has been under assessment by the state's Crime and Corruption Commission after several referrals by Queensland Treasury.
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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Jersey City expanding COVID-19 rent relief program Oct. 4
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Updated: Sep. 23, 2021, 11:07 a.m. | Published: Sep. 23, 2021, 11:07 a.m. By Ron Zeitlinger | The Jersey Journal Jersey City is expanding its COVID-19 rent relief program with a focus on low-income families, Mayor Steve Fulop and the Jersey City Housing Authority announced jointly Thursday. The next application period for the city’s COVID-19 Rent Relief Program opens Oct. 4 and runs through Oct. 18, officials said. The program will provide eligible low-income Jersey City families — living at or below 50% of Area Median Income (AMI) — with up to $10,000 in rental assistance. “We’ve been very clear from the start of the Rent Relief Program that we’d use a phased approach to ensure our neediest residents and landlords receive the financial assistance they deserve, rather than opening it up broadly only to have limited funds monopolized by large developers and out-of-town investors,” Fulop said. “We’ve already rolled out several financial assistance programs over the past 18 months to help residents, small business owners, and landlords impacted by COVID-19, and we will continue to expand financial assistance to those who need it most.” City officials defended the first phase of the program, which reserved eligibility for very low-income households renting in small, owner-occupied buildings to provide financial aid to Jersey City’s most vulnerable residents, both landlords and renters. The rollout has been criticized for its limited scope — the initial funds were reserved for owner-occupied buildings, where the owner lives and relies on the rental income for sustaining their own home. City officials countered that it didn’t want the first round of funding to go to large developers or absentee landlords. Under this next phase, financially impacted residents that earn up to 80% AMI and are at risk of experiencing housing instability may apply. In accordance with federal guidance, the program will prioritize households with income less than 50% AMI; and with one or more members who have not been employed for 90 days preceding the date of application. Under New Jersey’s eviction moratorium, all low-income residents earning less than 80% AMI are protected from eviction due to nonpayment through December 2021. The rental assistance will be paid directly to the landlord or property manager. “We continue our outreach efforts to make sure tenants, small landlords, and community-based partners are aware of this opportunity and know how to apply for the program,” said Vivian Brady-Philips, executive director of the Jersey City Housing Authority. “Our staff will also continue to assist renters and landlords with completing the online applications. If this round is oversubscribed, we can conduct selection by random lottery.” Officials said the city is dedicating more than $7 million received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds to provide up to $10,000 per qualifying household to cover rent and rental arrears. Earlier this year, the Fulop Administration dedicated $2.5 million in direct aid to more than 1,600 low-income families for utility and rent relief allocated from the Mayor’s COVID-19 Community Relief Distribution Fund and CARES Act funding. Some 95% of that grant money provided direct aid to residents in the Jersey City Heights and neighborhoods in the southwest section of the city, officials said.
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Financial Aid
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On the Ethiopian border, refugees fleeing fighting, famine make for Sudan
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Nobel Peace Prize-winner Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia launched a government offensive last November against rebels in the northern region of Tigray. At the time, he promised the war would be over in a matter of weeks. But the ongoing conflict has led to thousands of deaths, displaced almost 2 million people, and led to charges of ethnic cleansing and widespread sexual violence, mostly by government forces. Benedict Moran and Jorgen Samso report. Hari Sreenivasan: In November of last year, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, launched a government offensive against rebel forces in the northern region of Tigray. At the time, he promised that the war would be over in a matter of weeks. But the conflict continues with thousands dead and 1.7 million people displaced. Last month, the United Nations declared that parts of Tigray are now in the midst of famine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on all parties to commit to an immediate, indefinite and negotiated ceasefire. Since the beginning of fighting, tens of thousands of Ethiopians have sought safety in neighboring Sudan. But the conditions in Sudan's refugee camps are presenting new challenges. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Benedict Moran and videographer Jorgen Samso report. Benedict Moran: Back home in Northern Ethiopia, Tewodros Tefara is a doctor in one of his country's largest hospitals. Here in Humdayat, on the tense border between Sudan and Ethiopia, he's still a doctor but also a refugee, caring for other refugees. His entire clinic fits into a small room without electricity or running water. He has a laboratory, pharmacy– Dr. Tewodros Tefara: And here is where I do some procedures, some wound dressing and wound care. Benedict Moran: Tefara is one of the estimated 50,000 people who fled violence in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, dodging Ethiopian government soldiers and swimming across fast-flowing waters to seek safety in this remote part of Eastern Sudan. Refugees arrive with everything from common infections to gunshot wounds. Dr. Tewodros Tefara: Last week we saw 920 patients in seven days. Benedict Moran: Not everyone can make it to safety in Sudan. Compared to the flood of refugees that arrived last November, today, only a trickle of arrivals cross into the country every week. Just behind me here is Ethiopia, and it's an active conflict zone. Many of the refugees who recently arrived here say they were hunted by militias who are trying to prevent them from seeking safety in neighboring Sudan. Doctor Tefara sees it regularly, he says: young men killed on their way to safety. Dr. Tewodros Tefara: It was only last week that young men drowned when they tried to cross in. They were running from the soldiers who were following them to shoot. And then these young men were running and then they drowned in the river and they died. Benedict Moran: 42-year-old Shiwaye Hemayo arrived just days before we met him. The Ethiopian army attacked his village in Western Ethiopia last November, he said. He fled, but was eventually caught. Suspected of being a rebel fighter, he told us soldiers arrested him. Shiwaye Hemayo, Refugee: Without any reason, we had to stay for three months in Uemura prison because we are another tribe we didn't have rights in the prison. My friend had a chronic illness; he didn't get medication so he died in the prison. Benedict Moran: Hemayo eventually made it to Sudan. Another friend, who he was traveling with, did not. Shiwaye Hemayo: We traveled during the night with smugglers and they almost found us. When we were crossing, one of our friends was shot and two others fled back. Benedict Moran: Hemayo no longer has to run for his life. But his well-being is not yet guaranteed. Sudan's refugee camps do not yet provide safe haven. One hundred miles further inland, on a remote plain, more than 20,000 refugees were relocated here, to Tunaydbah Refugee Camp. When refugees arrive, they are given essential household items like blankets, sheets, and containers for cooking. There is regular distribution of food including cooking oil and grains like sorghum. But the camp's living conditions are dire. Benedict Moran: Thirty-two-year-old Solomon Gebrehenes arrived here six months ago. Ten days before we visited him, a storm blew over his tent. Videos taken by aid workers show wind and rain pounding the camp, causing many shelters to collapse. Aid workers say nearly 70 percent of the camp was destroyed. Nearly two weeks later, much of the camp is still in disrepair. Since the storm, Gebrehenes, his wife and four children have slept in the muddy remains of his shelter, or out in the open. Solomon Gebrehenes: When the wind comes, it's really strong. We fix it in the morning, but by night. It is totally collapsed. There is nothing here. There's no jobs, there is nothing, from the morning to the night. Benedict Moran: Aid workers we've spoken to say the conditions in these camps are so bad that thousands of refugees have left. Choosing to return home to the conflict zone in Ethiopia, others north to Libya, hoping to reach the shores of Europe. Benedict Moran: The rainy season will soon bring even more extreme weather. Aid workers like Sergio Scor are bracing for the worst. What do you think is going to happen in the rainy season? You've seen the early rains in May but the rains are going to get really bad probably in the near future. What are you expecting? Sergio Scor: I expect an exodus, to be honest, of people. So more people, I think, are going to leave the camp. Solomon Gebrehenes: Many of Sudan's major donors are also worried. In a letter to the UNHCR, the United Nations agency that set up the camps, ambassadors from the U.S., EU, and six countries expressed, "serious concern about the UNHCR's leadership," and requested urgent action to improve the camps, writing: "The safety, security, and dignity of refugees is at severe risk, and lives may be lost." The Deputy Representative of UNHCR Sudan, Fatima Mohammed Cole, told PBS Newshour that the agency is working to improve the camps. But she did not provide specifics. Benedict Moran: Were mistakes made by the UNHCR? Fatima Mohammed Cole: All I can say for now is that we're working against nature. We're working against time. What they've highlighted in the letter is worrying for us, particularly as a protection and a humanitarian agency. And these are issues that we take seriously. Benedict Moran: With ongoing fighting in Ethiopia, and even a potential famine there, aid agencies in Sudan don't expect an ebb in new arrivals. Back at the Humdayat border crossing, Tewodros Tefara continues to work from dawn to dusk. His wife and children remain in Ethiopia. Unsure when he'll see them again, he finds meaning in his daily work as a doctor. Benedict Moran: How do you feel of being a refugee and also helping other refugees? Dr. Tewodros Tefara: It's very difficult to describe really because we are in a very new environment. We practically escaped for our lives, and we run out of our places with nothing in our hand. So we have to deal. We have to sleep on the ground. We have to eat whatever we were supplied with and we have to drink whatever we get. I'm trying to handle it in a way that I tell myself every time that it's OK. I'm trying to help.
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Famine
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2003 Peoples' Friendship University of Russia fire
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The 2003 Peoples' Friendship University of Russia fire was a fire that occurred about 2:30 a.m. on November 24, in a hostel that stood among other dormitories on the campus of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, Russia. Firstly, it was reported by police that at least 36 people died inside the hostel, three bodies were found outside, some died in hospital and another 170 were hospitalized. [1] It was reported that one exit was blocked and too many people were crammed into tiny rooms. A press secretary for the Mayor of Moscow claimed that firemen had trouble reaching the source of the blaze as hallways and rooms were blocked with bags and boxes of belongings. [2] Evacuated students told reporters that dozens of fire engines were jammed into a narrow access road blocked by parked cars, causing them to reach the fire late. [3] The fire was extinguished some three hours after the first reports of a fire. [4]
An evacuated student recalled being awoken to cries of "Fire, fire!" so they ran outside, and witnesses other residents jumping from windows, with dead and injured students laying on the snow. [2]
44 people died in the fire. [5] The victims were from various countries such as China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Tahiti, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru, Lesotho, Mexico, Malaysia, Mongolia, India, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sri Lanka, and Palestinian citizens. [1]
Education minister Vladimir Mikhailovich Filippov told reporters there were two possible causes of the tragedy, "arson or careless use of electrical appliances". [6] African and Asian students seemed to back the belief of arson, and placed blame on the incident on far-right groups which had threatened to raze the dormitories. [2]
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Fire
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2017 Philippine jeepney drivers' strike
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Jeepney transport groups
Government of the Philippines
Department of Transportation
Philippine National Police
The 2017–2019 Philippine jeepney drivers' strike is a series of protest and strike action staged by jeepney drivers in the Philippines to oppose the government's plan to phaseout jeepneys over 15 years old. The strike, which started on February 6, caused hundreds of passengers to be stranded and prompted universities, cities, and towns to suspend classes. [1][2] Part of the protest is to forward an alternative on modernization based upon national industrialization and not corporate takeover. [3]
Afternoon classes in the cities of Manila, Malabon, and Pasay were suspended. Classes in Adamson University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, De La Salle University, Far Eastern University, National University, University of the Philippines Manila, and University of Santo Tomas were also suspended. [4]
On the evening of February 26, Malacañang Palace, through the Office of the Executive Secretary, suspended the classes for elementary and secondary levels in Metro Manila. [5] Several universities, cities and towns—such as Makati, Iloilo City, Talisay, Cebu, Mandaue, Navotas, Pateros, Cainta, Parañaque, Taytay, Valenzuela, Bacolod, and Antipolo—have suspended classes. [6]
On October 15, 2017, Malacañang announced that classes and government work were suspended throughout the Philippines on the second day of strike, October 17, 2017, due to the third strike. [7]
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) suspended the enforcement of the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP), known as the number coding scheme on October 17, 2017, the second day of the strike. [8]
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that its consular offices closed on the first day of strike, October 16, 2017. [9]
On March 19, 2018, PISTON held the fourth protest against the jeepney modernization. [10]
Malacañang announced that classes suspended throughout Metro Manila on March 19, 2018, due to the strike. On June 25, 2018, Piston held the fifth protest against the jeepney modernization. [11]
Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara announced on June 22 that classes suspended in some portions of Albay due to the strike on June 25. [12]
On September 30, 2019, Piston held the sixth protest against the jeepney modernization. [13]
Classes are suspended in several areas in the Philippines due to the strike. [14]
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Strike
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Marise Payne doesn't expect Beijing to retaliate over the axing of Victoria's Belt and Road deal.
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Marise Payne doesn't expect Beijing to retaliate over the axing of Victoria's Belt and Road deal.
Australia's foreign minister has defended her decision to tear up Victoria's Belt and Road agreement with China, saying she doesn't expect retaliation from Be...
Australia's foreign minister has defended her decision to tear up Victoria's Belt and Road agreement with China, saying she doesn't expect retaliation from Beijing.
Marise Payne announced on Wednesday night the infrastructure deal had been cancelled under the Commonwealth's new veto powers.
China's embassy in Australia responded swiftly, expressing "strong displeasure and resolute opposition".
"This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China," a Chinese embassy spokesperson said in a statement.
"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."
Senator Payne on Thursday said the decision to tear up the agreement, along with two older ones between the Victorian government and Iran and Syria, was "very careful and very considered".
"It's about ensuring that we have a consistent approach to foreign policy across all levels of government, and it isn't about any one country, most certainly not intended to harm Australia's relationship with any countries," she told ABC Radio National.
Advice about the decision had been provided to Chinese authorities in Canberra and Beijing, Senator Payne said, adding that she did not expect the country to retaliate.
"I hope that if there are any concerns, they will be raised directly with the government," she said.
"But we are not going to move away from our principles, which are about protecting and advocating for sovereignty."
The Morrison government in December granted itself the power under the Foreign Relations Act to veto deals between states and foreign powers that "are not consistent with Australia's foreign policy".
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government had simply followed through with its pledge to protect Australia's national interests.
"We can advance our national interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific and a world that seeks a balance in favour of freedom," he told reporters in Canberra.
At a press conference with her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta in Wellington, Senator Payne said more state-based agreements will likely be scrapped.
Victoria signed a memorandum of understanding in relation to the Chinese regional infrastructure initiative in 2018 and then signed a "framework agreement" with Beijing in 2019.
Areas of co-operation included increasing participation of Chinese companies in Victoria's infrastructure program. It was not legally binding.
Victorian Employment and Small Business Minister Jaala Pulford said the cancellation of the agreement would not affect work on the state's infrastructure projects.
"The Foreign Relations Act is a matter for the Commonwealth government," she told reporters on Thursday.
Victoria's Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien, who vowed to scrap the "dud deal" if elected in 2022, welcomed the federal government's decision.
He said China gained far more from the Belt and Road Initiative than Victorians.
China in the past 12 months has launched a series of damaging trade strikes against Australia after Mr Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chinese government also remains furious with Australia over foreign interference and investment laws and a decision to ban Huawei from the country's 5G rollout.
"We're worried about cyber attacks and we're worried, obviously, about state governments that enter into compacts with the Communist Party against our national interests," Defence Minister Peter Dutton told 2GB radio.
"We're not going to allow our policy, our principles, our values to be undermined. We aren't going to be bullied by anyone, we are going to stand up for what we believe in."
Labor's spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said the federal government must now work to diversify trade and economy.
"Under Scott Morrison's watch, Australia is more trade dependent on China than ever," she said in a statement.
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Tear Up Agreement
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Gas Stokers' strike
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Gas Stokers' strike of 1872 was a serious political disturbance in the industrial south-eastern districts of Victorian London involving Trade Unionists, striking to assert their rights. The reaction of the radical Liberal ministry and the court case that preceded it proved a landmark in British industrial relations law. The shifting sands of the constitution and changing rights of workers informed the passage a decade later of Third Reform Act, enfranchising working-men for the first time. Even the most enlightened Manchester Liberal capitalists were hostile to Trade Unionists during the downturn of the early 1870s. Cabinet ministers William Harcourt, Forster, Hughes, and A. J. Mundella were major participants in legislation to reform trade unionism laws in 1873. In 1872 Henry James, the employment minister, drafted a new piece of trade union law. In November 1872, the London gas stokers went out on strike at the Chartered Gas Company, which had already summarily dismissed 1400 workers. [citation needed] Five of the ringleaders were brought before the central criminal court and Justice William Brett, known for his conservatism, and harsh attitude towards industrial disputes; but the accused on this occasion were charged with criminal conspiracy in R v. Bunn and Others (1872-3): the five men were John Bunn, George Ray, Edward Jones, Robert Wilson and Thomas Dilley. There was also disturbances at the Beckton Works of Gas and Coke Company. The Gas Stokers Defence Committee sent a letter of appeal to the Home Secretary. [1] The members of the committee were: H. King, George Potter, M. Sinclair, W. Osborne, Henry Broadhurst, Mr. Bailey, Daniel Guile, George Odger, George Shipton. Henry Broadhurst the secretary was already involved with the Reform League, was a mason and joined the Stonemasons Union. He was later a Liberal MP, and in 1886 became the first working-man to be appointed a minister. [2]
A demonstration in Hyde Park found speakers who denounced this attempt to subversion of the much cherished Trade Union Act 1871. This recognized Union combinations as lawful. The speakers condemned common law remedies being used to resolve the dispute. Men at Cardiff had been condemned by the courts for breaking contracts of employment by striking over the unseaworthiness of vessels in the merchant fleet. Justice Brett recalled that John Wilkes had said that the worse effect to put a man was to hang him. The men They believed in their "rights to protection for the combination of labour", and consequently on appeal wrote directly to Parliamentary Under-secretary[3] at the Home Office, Henry Alfred Austin Bruce. [4]
In the House of Commons the Attorney-General John Coleridge mocked Harcourt's staidness, but Coleridge concluded by agreeing that the law needed changing or else it would lead to contempt of court. Harcourt's bill was supported by James Rathbone MP and Antonio Mundella MP. The Home Secretary ordered the release of the five prisoners sentenced by Justice Brett after serving four months only of the two years sentence at Maidstone Prison. Three of the ex-convicts were emigrated to Australia. [citation needed] The other two tried in vain to find work. On 13 November 1873, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone wrote to offer Harcourt the post of solicitor general, but on the same day, William Harcourt MP left the government, resigning to take up an offer to become Master of Trinity College, Oxford. This was partly due to the pressure exerted by a journalist pen-named Historicus in The Spectator magazine, who was likened to a Liberal Benjamin Disraeli, being activist and rightist. Sir William Brett's decision has been called one of the most important in the Victorian period. [5] The strike of 1872 forced many union organizers to think more widely: they set up a Federated body to represent workers across London. But it would not be until the Gas workers strike of 1889 that they would earn the 8-hour day. The Gas stokers had a particularly harsh existence. The work was dirty and dangerous. The casualty rate was high amongst workers with many fatal accidents leading to children without fathers. The judge's handling in the case was questioned. His opinion flanked the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and revived the whole examination of trade union right to strike; this raised the safety issues in relation to the general public; and the inequality of the Master-servant relationship inherent in the act by the same name. The Trades Unions Congress of January 1873 meeting at Leeds vowed to repeal the act.
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Strike
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2015 Bangladesh student protests against VAT on education
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The 2015 Bangladesh student protests on "No VAT on Education" were protests by students of private universities in Bangladesh demanding the VAT imposed on higher education in private universities be eliminated. [1][2]
The present Finance Minister of the Bangladesh Awami League government first introduced a 10% VAT upon higher education in private universities in the draft of budget of 2015–16. [3] Following strong opposition, the VAT was reduced to 7.5%. [4] The imposed VAT was withdrawn by the finance division after a cabinet meeting on 14 September 2015. Previous government tried to impose similar VAT on private university tuition fee in 2010, but had to revoke their decision as students protested strongly. On 22 June, law enforcement authorities foiled a procession of private university students heading for the finance ministry building to press home their demands. [4]
At the start of August 2015 the government announced they would not withdraw the VAT and that students must pay it. [5] The news sparked outrage among students. On 9 September, police opened fire on a protest by the students of East West University. [6] This caused outrage and immediate support for the cause by thousands of other students from different universities. [7] On 10 September, road blockades were carried out by students from different private universities to protest the VAT on tuition fees. [8][9] The protest was sparked by controversial statements by the minister of finance, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith but he stood firm on the decision for the VAT to stay. [10] The government also issued a circular stating the VAT was only imposed on the private university authorities and the students need not pay. [11]
There were two notable incident. First one happened at Dhanmondi 27, private universities students were attacked two times in a row[12] and the second one happened at Banani-Kakoli Square.[when?] On 14 September 2015 at a regular cabinet meeting directed by prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the Finance division decided to withdrew the VAT imposed on tuition fees. [13]
Traffic jam during a protest by private university students in Dhaka against the VAT on tuition fees
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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To stem the growing threat of famine in Yemen
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8379TH MEETING (PM) Permanent Representative Says Houthi Must Return to Negotiating Table, Abide by Resolutions to End Suffering To stem the growing threat of famine in Yemen, the international community must act urgently to unblock imports, ensure distribution of aid and counteract a lack of foreign exchange in the war-torn gulf nation, the United Nations top humanitarian affairs official told the Security Council this afternoon. “There is now a clear and present danger of an imminent famine engulfing Yemen: much bigger than anything any professional in this field has encounter during their working lives,” Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said in a briefing on the Yemen crisis that focused on food security. Half the country — some 14 million people — are threatened by famine in a worst-case scenario, Mr. Lowcock said. Fighting around the key port of Hodeidah continues to choke off life-sustaining supplies, Government regulations have hampered commercial imports and the collapse of the economy means that there is no foreign exchange to pay for essential goods. To avert catastrophe, he called on all stakeholders to urgently support a humanitarian ceasefire in and around all importation infrastructure and to do everything possible to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance as required under international law. The United Nations, as he already has indicated, is ready to play an enhanced role in ensuring the appropriate use of key facilities especially around Hodeidah. Restrictions must be lifted and main transport routes kept open and safe so that essential aid and imports are allowed to reach their destinations, he stressed. A larger and faster injection of foreign exchange through the Central Bank is also urgently needed, along with expedited credit for trade and payment of pensioners and civil servants. Increased funding is needed to match the scale of the crisis, he added. Finally, and most importantly, he called upon belligerents to seize this moment to engage fully and openly with the Special Envoy to end the conflict. Council members took the floor to affirm the urgency to avert famine in Yemen, with many also sounding the alarm on the other aspects of the humanitarian crisis. They also called on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law by allowing unhindered access for aid and other essential goods. While stressing that the Russian Federation will continue its unpoliticized aid to Yemen, that country’s representative also underscored that the solution lies in the political dimension. Most speakers echoed that, asserting that only an inclusive United Nations‑led and Yemeni-owned political process can end the suffering. They called on all parties in the country to pursue that process through the United Nations Special Envoy, with Kuwait’s representative affirming the continued relevance of the Gulf Initiative in that context. Some called for greater Council pressure on the parties to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. Yemen’s representative, emphasizing his Government’s commitment to international humanitarian and human rights law, called on the Security Council to act with strength to bring the Houthis to the negotiating table and to abide by Security Council resolutions so that his people’s suffering can end. Describing Government strategies to decentralize humanitarian assistance so it can be distributed to those in need, he said that it has also taken measures to restore the economy through the banking system, including meeting the needs of small traders and the oil company. Actions, he added, have also been taken to neutralize the Houthi black market. He announced that measures to control credit lines will be postponed awaiting dialogue with traders on the situation. Calling for assistance in building up foreign currency supplies, similar to what Saudi Arabia has done, he thanked that country, the United Arab Emirates and other donors, as well as the United Nations, for their assistance. He also called on all donors to meet the needs set out in the 2018 humanitarian appeal for his country. Also speaking were representatives of the United Kingdom, China, France, Netherlands, Poland, Ethiopia, Peru, Sweden, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, United States and Bolivia. The meeting began at 3 p.m. and ended at 4:47 p.m. Briefing MARK LOWCOCK, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, while noting assessments were ongoing, underscored that “there is now a clear and present danger of an imminent famine engulfing Yemen: much bigger than anything any professional in this field has encounter during their working lives”. Although he had warned of famine twice in the past, he stressed that the situation is now much graver than on either of those occasions because of the sheer number of people at risk — possibly reaching 14 million, half the total population of the country — and the fact that the immune systems of millions of people are collapsing from being on mere survival rations for years on end. Recalling that last month he told the Council about the intensification of fighting around Hodeidah, choking the lifeline of aid operations and commercial imports, he reported that the situation around that city has worsened over the past several days. Due to ongoing hostilities, the eastern road from Hodeidah to Sana’a remains blocked and clashes continue to prevent access to a major milling facility, with several humanitarian warehouses occupied for over two months. The parties to the conflict continue to violate international humanitarian law through mass civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure. Delays in issuing visas, restrictions on importation of equipment and cargo, retraction of permits, interference in humanitarian assessment exercises and monitoring, all further limit the ability to provide life-saving assistance. The relief effort will ultimately simply be overwhelmed, he warned. Yemen is still almost entirely reliant on imports for food, fuel and medicines, and available foreign exchange has been inadequate to finance the imports needed, given the collapse in the economy, he continued. That has been partially mitigated by aid generously funded by donors, with aid agencies implementing the world’s largest humanitarian operation. Some 200 organizations are working through the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan and have delivered assistance in all 33 districts this year. As many as 8 million people are receiving life-saving assistance every month, but the aid operation cannot conceivably meet the needs of all Yemenis. For that purpose, he said that his call last month for an urgent and substantial injection of foreign exchange and the resumption of payments to pensioners and key public sector workers has resulted in a pledge from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for $70 million to cover allowances for 135,000 teachers. However, action in that area looks to be too small and too slow to reverse the trajectory towards famine. Those involved must address the matter with great urgency. Meanwhile, the Government of Yemen appears to be planning further restriction on trade in essential commodities, with only a handful of necessary lines of credit being issued since June, mostly in just the last few days, he continued. The alarming effect of those regulations is that two vessels carrying substantial amounts of fuel have been refused entry at the Government’s request in the past few days increasing the possibility of famine. To avert catastrophe, he called on all stakeholders to urgently support a humanitarian ceasefire in and around all importation infrastructure and to do everything possible to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance required under international law. The United Nations, as he has already indicated, is ready to play an enhanced role in ensuring the appropriate use of key facilities especially around Hodeidah. To ensure essential aid and imports reached their destinations, restrictions must be lifted and main transport routes kept open and safe, he emphasized. A larger and faster injection of foreign exchange through the Central Bank is also urgently needed, along with expedited credit for trade and payment of pensioners and civil servants. Increased funding is needed to match the scale of the crisis. Finally, and most importantly, he called upon belligerents to seize this moment to engage fully and openly with the Special Envoy to end the conflict.
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Famine
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China's PLA conducts large-scale military drills in Tibet plateau
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PLA's Tibet military command took part in the drills with howitzers and multiple rocket launch systems including the Type 15 light tanks while conducting night and day exercises. According to China's state-run Global Times, People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Tibet military command recently conducted large-scale joint exercises in the Tibet plateau region. The Chinese army reportedly practised "multidimensional tactics with the goal of target elimination". The military exercise was held at an elevation of 4,500 meters named "Snowfield Duty-2021". At least 10 brigades and regiments affiliated with the PLA Tibet military command took part in the exercise with the latest weapons and equipment. Watch: Global Times said the PLA conducted live ammunition drills and kicked off the exercise "under the cover of darkness and launched the first wave of attacks at midnight". The PLA used artillery with howitzers and multiple rocket launcher systems and practised destroying communications centres and helicopter pads, the report claimed. The drills were also carried out during the day with the setting up of a reconnaissance unit at a peak of a 6,100 meter mountain, it said. The PLA used anti-aircraft batteries including tanks, infantry and assault vehicles. Attack helicopters were also used during the campaign with sappers reportedly used to clear obstacles with explosives.
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Military Exercise
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September 2007 Sumatra earthquakes
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The September 2007 Sumatra earthquakes were a series of megathrust earthquakes that struck the Sunda Trench off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, with three of magnitude 7 or greater. A series of tsunami bulletins was issued for the area. The most powerful of the series had a magnitude of 8.4, which makes it in the top 20 of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on a seismograph. The first earthquake occurred at 11:10:26 UTC (18:10 local time) on 12 September 2007, and was an 8.4 Mw[1][2] earthquake on the moment magnitude scale. It was centered about 34 km underground, at WikiMiniAtlas4°31′12″S 101°22′26″E / 4.520°S 101.374°E / -4.520; 101.374, about 130 km southwest of Bengkulu on the southwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and some 600 km west-northwest of Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta. It was followed by several earthquakes of magnitude 5 through 6 along the same fault, west of Sumatra. The second largest earthquake, 7.9 Mw,[4] occurred later the same day at 23:49:04 UTC (06:49:04 local time the following day). It was centred about 35 km underground, at WikiMiniAtlas2°37′30″S 100°50′28″E / 2.625°S 100.841°E / -2.625; 100.841, some 185 km (115 mi) south-southeast of Padang, Indonesia and about 205 km northwest of Bengkulu (about 225 km northwest of the magnitude 8.5 earthquake). After further aftershocks above magnitude 5, a third large earthquake, 7.0 Mw, occurred at 03:35:28 UTC (10:35:28 local time) on 13 September. [5] It was centred about 10 km underground, at WikiMiniAtlas2°07′48″S 99°37′37″E / 2.130°S 99.627°E / -2.130; 99.627, some 165 km south-southwest of Padang and 345 km west-northwest of Bengkulu. It is regarded as an aftershock of the two larger earthquakes. [5]
Aftershocks continued into 13 September and 14 September, with more earthquakes ranging up to magnitude 6.4. [6] Most of the aftershocks have been northwest of the original magnitude 8.4 earthquake. A 6.7 struck Southern Sumatra on Sept 20, 2007. Tidal buoys[7] positioned in the Indian Ocean and other seismic tools have led scientists to issue a series of tsunami bulletins. [8]
The tremors of the 8.4 Mw earthquake lasted for several minutes. It caused buildings to sway in Jakarta, and some buildings were reported to have collapsed in the city of Bengkulu, Bengkulu Province, about 100 km from the epicenter. Tremors felt in Jakarta were described as being "violent". [9] It was reported that several high-rise buildings were evacuated. [10] The earthquake also led to a power outage in Bengkulu, which crippled communications. [10] The death toll of the earthquakes is 21 with 88 people injured. [11]
Tremors were felt in neighbouring countries as far away as Southern Thailand. [12][13] In Singapore, which is about 670 km from the epicenter, the tremor was felt at around 11:10 UTC (19:10 local time). [14] Most of the Central and Eastern part of Singapore had felt the tremor. [15] In Peninsular Malaysia, tremors were reported after 19:15 local time, including Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor Bahru, Malacca and Penang. Like Singapore, the tremors were most severe on high-rises, resulting in minor panic and evacuations. No casualties were reported in the country, as of 13 September. [16][17]
Sea level readings indicated that a tsunami was generated. A total of 4 tsunami alerts were issued in 24 hours. After the first, and largest, earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami alert for much of the Indian Ocean basin. A tsunami approximately 1 metre high was reported at Padang, Indonesia. [18] A small tsunami, some 15 cm high, was reported at the Cocos Islands. [19] Sumatra was taken off tsunami alert after two hours. Tsunami warnings were also issued in India and other countries around the Indian Ocean soon after the earthquake. The Government of India asked the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry to be on high alert. [20] By late 12 September, the tsunami warning was recalled. [21] Similarly, a tsunami alert was issued in Peninsular Malaysia at 20:50 (local time) for the coastal areas of Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Penang; the alert was lifted two hours later. However, Malaysian authorities had detected a 1-3m high tsunami heading away from the epicenter of the earthquake. [16]
According to the US Geological Survey,[2] the earthquake was caused by thrust faulting on the boundary between the Australian Plate and the Sunda Plate. At the location of the earthquake, offshore of the west coast of Sumatra, the Australia plate moves northeast with respect to the Sunda Plate at a velocity of about 69 mm/year, oblique to the orientation of the plate boundary. The component of plate motion perpendicular to the boundary produces thrust faulting on the offshore plate-boundary. The magnitude 7.9 earthquake was also a result of thrust faulting on the same plate boundary. It occurred about 225 km northwest of the magnitude 8.4 earthquake, at the northern end of the aftershock zone. [4]
The magnitude 8.4 earthquake was the most powerful earthquake of 2007 to date, more powerful than the two March 2007 Sumatra earthquakes nearby and the 2007 Peru earthquake. It was the second most powerful earthquake since the magnitude 9.3 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, exceeded only by the magnitude 8.6 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake. The two largest earthquakes were the fourth and fifth earthquakes with magnitude 7.9 or greater to have occurred on or near the plate boundaries offshore of western Sumatra in 7 years, the others being the magnitude 7.9 earthquake of 4 June 2000; the magnitude 9.3 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on 26 December 2004; and the magnitude 8.6 Nias–Simeulue earthquake on 28 March 2005. According to data from the Japanese PALSAR microwave sensor aboard the Daichi(ALOS) satellite, South Pagai Island was uplifted, creating 6 new islands, and exposing previously submerged coral reefs as well as enlarging existing islands. [22]
Coordinates: 4°26′17″S 101°22′01″E / 4.438°S 101.367°E / -4.438; 101.367
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Earthquakes
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9 Unbelievable True Stories About People Who Survived Being Lost at Sea
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Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. How we test gear. The sea can be harsh and unforgiving. These fortunate souls fought back against all odds. The sea is like a wet desert: There's no food, water, or shelter, and in every direction, the view is simply a glistening sheet of nothingness. Not to mention, dangerous predators abound, lurking just beneath the depths. A shipwreck out on the open ocean can be a death sentence. If a rescue team doesn't come in the first 48 hours, it probably never will. Learning to survive will take skill, courage, and a heaping of luck. Here are nine stories of brave people who got lost at sea, and survived despite the odds. (The following maps are only rough approximations of route and distance traveled.) MORE DEEP SEA STORIES FROM POP MECH: ➡️ The 25 Coolest Shipwrecks in the World ➡️ The 50 Weirdest Freaks That Live Beneath the Sea ➡️ This Jurassic Deep Sea Creature Looks Like a (Terrifying) Starfish with Razor Teeth In many Pacific island chains, people use small boats to sail from one island to the next. The islands are close enough together that sailing from one to the other is a relatively simple, cheap, and straightforward mode of travel. For three teenage boys on the small island of Tokelau, sailing was routine. However, when Filo Filo, Etueni Nasau, and Samu Pelesa set sail on October 5, 2010, it would be a longer trip than any of them were expecting. Shortly after sailing into the ocean, the three teens lost sight of the shore and became disoriented. Not knowing which way was home, the group became lost, drifting further and further from land. They had brought enough water with them for two days, but that quickly ran out and they had to rely on rainwater. After a few weeks—with no food and no sign of rescue—they grew desperate enough to catch a bird and eat it. Meanwhile, after a month with no news, their community believed that the boys were dead. Around 500 people attended a memorial service for the boys, representing about a third of the total population of the island chain. Having spent more than a month adrift at sea, the three boys had no food and no water, and were suffering from extreme exposure. Their situation was so dire that they began drinking seawater, a sure sign that death is near. With only days or even hours left to live, a fishing boat halfway between Samoa and Fiji spotted them. They had drifted over 500 miles. The sailor rescued the three boys and took them to a hospital in Fiji, and then back to their homes on Tokelau. They had been lost at sea for 50 days in total. Deborah Kiley was no stranger to the seas. She had spent most of her life working as a crew member on yachts around the world. So, she thought that signing up to crew the 58-foot sailing yacht Trashman in October of 1982 was just another job. It would turn out to be anything but. John Lippoth, the captain of the ship, brought his girlfriend Meg Mooney along for the ride. The two other crew members on the trip were Mark Adams and Brad Cavanagh. The plan was to take the yacht from Annapolis, Maryland down to Florida to meet up with its owner. The first half of the trip was pretty smooth sailing, although Kiley started noticing things that made her uneasy. Lippoth kept making excuses to go below deck, for instance, and Kiley soon realized that their captain was afraid of the ocean. Lippoth and Adams also spent the entire voyage completely drunk. Of the five people on that yacht, only Kiley and Cavanagh were experienced, capable sailors. After the boat passed North Carolina, the trip took a turn for the worst. A massive storm appeared out of nowhere, and Trashman headed right into the heart of it. Kiley recalls wind speeds of over 70 knots, and 40-foot waves so powerful they ripped holes in the boat. Two days after they set sail, the yacht, torn apart by the sea, began to sink. The crew managed to make it to a lifeboat, but not before the ship's rigging seriously injured Mooney, leaving severe lacerations on her arms and legs. Her bleeding attracted sharks, who followed the lifeboat for the remainder of the journey. The crew found themselves adrift with no supplies or water, miles from land. Two days after the Trashman sunk, Lippoth and Adams, already dehydrated from alcohol and dying of thirst, began drinking seawater. They started hallucinating and rambling incoherently. On the third day, Lippoth—in a state of delirium—jumped into the water and attempted to swim to shore. He was immediately attacked and killed by the sharks. Soon, Adams jumped overboard as well, muttering something about going to get some cigarettes. The sharks attacked him also, so violently that the boat spun around and the water turned red. That night, Mooney succumbed to her injuries, dying of blood poisoning. Kiley and Cavanagh, the only two left, had to toss her body overboard where she, too, was eaten by sharks. Shortly after, Kiley and Cavanagh, close to death themselves, were spotted by a Russian cargo ship off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The crew rescued them four days after they abandoned ship, and five days after setting sail. Steven Callahan is an expert on sailing. Specifically, a naval architect who has been sailing ships since he was young. He even built his own boat, called the Napoleon Solo, and set sail from Rhode Island in 1981. His travels led him all over the Atlantic: first to Bermuda, and then to the coast of Europe. On his way back, bound for Antigua, he ran into trouble. About a week after he set sail for home, a storm started brewing. The storm was relatively mild, and Callahan said he wasn't worried. But his boat hit something that tore a gaping hole in the bottom. Callahan suspected it was either a whale or a large shark. The boat began filling up with water, and Callahan made it to his inflatable raft. But he needed the emergency supplies in the cabin, which was already underwater. Diving in again and again, he managed to retrieve food, water, flares, a spear gun, solar stills, and a handful of other items. All in all, he was particularly well-equipped to be adrift. And a good thing too, because Callahan drifted on his raft for 76 days. During that time, he faced threats from starvation, dehydration, sharks, and raft punctures. Finally, some sailors off the coast of Marie-Galante, near Guadalupe, spotted him. He had lost a third of his weight and could barely stand, so they took him to a hospital for treatment. However, Callahan didn't even stay the night, opting instead to recuperate on the island, while hitchhiking throughout the West Indies. Much later, Steven Callahan would work as an advisor on the movie Life of Pi, providing his sea survival expertise to make the film more realistic. Poon Lim holds the world record for the longest survival on a life raft. It's not a record he hopes anyone will ever beat. Poon was a Chinese sailor on the British Merchant vessel SS Benlomond during WWII. The ship had left Cape Town, South Africa on its way to New York when a German U-boat attacked it a few hundred miles off the coast of Brazil. That encounter destroyed the ship, but Poon managed to escape with a life jacket. He was the ship's sole survivor. After about two hours, Poon found a small wooden raft and climbed aboard. Amazingly, the raft contained some survival supplies, like food, water, and flares. But as the days turned into weeks, and his food started to run low, Poon had to improvise. He began by crafting a makeshift fishing hook and catching fish. With his new food supply and the water from his raft, he felt he might be able to make it. He still had his flares, and all he had to do was wait for a ship to come close. Then things took a turn for the worst. A storm hit, and Poon lost all his food and water. With no supplies, and close to death, Poon had to go to extremes to survive. With the last of his strength, he caught a passing bird and killed it, drinking its blood to quench his thirst. Poon realized that if he was going to survive, he would need a more permanent water source. The only one available happened to be protected by many sharp teeth. Still, Poon strengthened his fishing line and started trying to catch sharks. He managed to hook one, and brought it onboard. He drank the blood from the shark's liver to sustain himself. After 133 days, Poon drifted close to the shore of Brazil, where some fishermen rescued him, and took him to a hospital to recover. Despite being lost at sea for almost half a year, he had only lost around 20 pounds and could walk by himself. In 1973, Maurice and Marilyn Bailey were planning to live out their dream of moving from their home in England to New Zealand. They sold their house, bought a yacht, and set sail with their possessions. They believed the trip would be a pleasant journey. They were wrong. The first half of their voyage went well, and they passed through the Panama Canal in February of that year. Soon after, they ran into trouble, or more accurately, trouble ran into them. While both of the Baileys were below deck, they felt a massive impact. Rushing onto the deck, the couple saw a whale diving below the water and a large hole in their hull. The ship quickly began to sink, and the Baileys grabbed what little they could and headed for their life raft. The couple was stranded in the Pacific with a few days' worth of food, a compass, some flares, and little else. They collected rainwater to drink, and when their food ran out, they ate birds, fish, and even turtles. During their time at sea, they spotted seven ships, which they attempted to signal, but no one noticed them. As the weeks stretched into months, they became badly sunburned and malnourished. Their life raft started to deflate, they were plagued by sharks, and they suffered multiple storms. After 117 days stranded at sea, with no supplies and near the brink of death, they were finally rescued. A passing Korean ship spotted them in the water and changed course to bring them aboard. They could barely move and they were so weak that they couldn't eat solid foods. The Korean ship dropped the Baileys off at Hawaii, where they immediately vowed to build another yacht and return to the sea, because they clearly didn't get the message the first time. With the proceeds from the book they wrote about their experiences, they did indeed build a second yacht, and spent years sailing around the world comparatively uneventfully. John Glennie, Rick Hellriegel, Jim Nalepka, and Phil Hofman were four friends who decided to take a winter vacation to the island of Tonga. They left on their ship, the Rose Noelle, and hoped for smooth sailing. On June 4, 1989, three days after they set sail, a massive wave came out of nowhere and hit the ship, flipping it completely upside down and severely damaging it.
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Shipwreck
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Another 'maybe' chance for northern lights Wednesday night
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A cannibal CME, described below, has just hit Earth's magnetic field. Solar wind data from the DSCOVR spacecraft show a stairstep structure indicative of two or more CMEs pressed together. G1- to G2-class geomagnetic storms are possible in the hours ahead. The CME heading for Earth is a cannibal. SOHO coronagraphs caught the storm cloud leaving the sun on Nov. 2nd following a slow-motion solar flare (M1.7) in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2891: The G1 to G2 class storms show a predicted Kp-index of 5 on a scale of 0 to 9. That’s typically associated with an auroral oval that runs about as far southward as northern Minnesota. It usually takes a Kp of 7 to create auroras that are visible in southern Minnesota and Iowa. KP Index and aurora zones. NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center So the best chance for seeing any northern lights overnight into Thursday morning favors northern Minnesota. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a geomagnetic storm watch. **(UPDATE):The G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 04 Nov has been upgraded to a G2 (Moderate) Geomagnetic Storm Watch. The G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 03 November remains in effect.** Several CMEs (coronal mass ejections) erupted from the Sun on 01 - 02 Nov and analysis and model consensus indicate likely Earth-directed components to a few of them. CMEs took place from the southwest area of the Sun to include one associated with a C4 flare from NOAA/SWPC Region 2887 at 01/2133 UTC (02/1:33am EDT). This was followed by a full halo CME related to an M1 flare (R1-Minor Radio Blackout) from Region 2891 at 02/0301 UTC (02/7:01am EDT) near center disk. Confidence in a measure of Earth-directed components to these CMEs is moderate; while there is less confidence in timing and intensity. Please continue to visit https://swpc.noaa.gov for the latest information and forecasts. Skies will be clear across most of Minnesota overnight. So if northern lights happen, they could be visible away from city lights low on the northern horizon.
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New wonders in nature
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Pegasus rocket successful in responsive launch demonstration
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A Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet over the Pacific Ocean early Sunday and streaked into orbit with a small U.S. military space surveillance satellite named Odyssey, completing a successful rapid launch exercise in partnership with a secretive new Space Force special projects unit. The mission’s goal was to demonstrate how the military can develop and launch satellites on faster timescales. The small spacecraft, which a Space Force spokesperson said is named Odyssey, was buttoned up inside the nose cone of a Pegasus XL rocket. The mission, known as TacRL-2, was part of the Space Force’s “Tactically Responsive Launch” program. Mounted on the belly of an L-1011 carrier aircraft, the 53,000-pound (24-metric ton) Pegasus XL rocket departed Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s Central Coast about an hour before launch. The L-1011 aircraft, named “Stargazer,” flew to the Pegasus drop zone about 150 miles (250 kilometers) off the California coast and lined up on the launch trajectory heading south. Two pilots, a flight engineer, and two launch console operators ensured all systems were “go” for release of the Pegasus. The flight crew commanded release of the 55-foot-long (17-meter) at 4:11 a.m. EDT (1:11 a.m. PDT; 0811 GMT) as the L-1011 flew at an altitude of 39,000 feet (11,900 meters). After a five-second free fall, the Pegasus ignited its solid-fueled first stage Orion 50S XL motor to begin the climb into space. The first stage, fitted with a wing and steering fins, generated more than 160,000 pounds of thrust and fired more than a minute before burning out. The Pegasus then jettisoned its first stage and fired its Orion 50 XL and Orion 38 second and third stage motors to reach orbit with the Odyssey satellite. Northrop Grumman and the Space Force did not provide a live webcast of the mission. A statement released by Space Launch Delta 30, formerly the 30th Space Wing, at Vandenberg Space Force Base less than an hour after launch confirmed the mission was successful. The Space Force established the Tactically Responsive Launch Program to demonstrate the military could “call up” a launch provider and deploy a small satellite into orbit within 21 days. “Our mission partners and Delta 30 team demonstrated the Space Force tactical response capability to launch small satellite payloads within three weeks,” said Col. Robert Long, commander of Space Launch Delta 30, in a statement. “It takes a resilient team providing agile services and responsiveness to our launch customers for mission success.” “Today’s successful launch is a clear signal to our strategic competitors that we will not cede access to space,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, the Space Force’s chief of space operations. “When I challenged the Space and Missile Systems Center about a year ago to demonstrate a responsive space capability, they accepted and delivered! The team presented an integrated space domain awareness satellite ready for launch in record time; what normally would have required two to five years, took 11 months.” Military officials have released few details about the Odyssey satellite. Maj. Nick Mercurio, a Space Force spokesperson, said the payload is a “space domain awareness technology demonstration satellite.” Space domain awareness is a field that encompasses the detection, tracking, and characterization of satellites and debris in orbit. Publicly available orbit tracking data indicated the Pegasus XL rocket delivered the Odyssey satellite to a polar orbit with a perigee, or low point, of 251 miles (405 kilometers), an apogee, or high point, of 280 miles (452 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator. The Odyssey spacecraft was built by a new organization called “Space Safari,” modeled after the Air Force’s secretive “Big Safari” program that modifies aircraft for special missions, according to Raymond. “The thing that concerns me is our ability to go fast, so everything that we’re doing in the Space Force is designed to allow us to move at speed,” Raymond said Thursday in a virtual discussion hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. “So about a year ago, I challenged our acquisition organization to develop a capability in tactical timelines, integrated it onto a launch vehicle and launch it, and let’s see how fast we can do it. “So we stood up an organization called Space Safari, modeled kind of after what the Air Force has done with their Big Safari program, and in less than a year, they took satellite components off the self, married it up with a satellite bus that was off the shelf, put it together, and it’s a space domain awareness satellite.” In a press release, the Space Force said the Space Safari program “rapidly integrates mature technology and systems to quickly respond to specialized space needs.” Raymond said it takes about five years to build a GPS navigation satellite. “That’s not good enough,” he said. Building and launching a spacecraft in less than a year could pave the way for the Space Force to quickly deploy a satellite to respond to an emerging threat, or to replace a critical satellite in wartime. “This is a first experiment, and I’m proud of the team,” Raymond said. Once the satellite was built, the Space Force kept in storage until May, when officials called it up for launch. “We kind of had it on the shelf. We just gave them a 21 day call-up, saying get ready to launch in 21 days,” Raymond said Thursday. “The space domain is defined by speed,” Raymond said in a statement after Sunday’s launch. “And with this effort, we demonstrated the kind of speed it will take to win. We executed a ‘21-day call-up’ to get a satellite on orbit — pulling the payload, mating it with the rocket and integrating the combined package onto the aircraft. “Agile, responsive capability development, combined with our ability to rapidly launch and insert capabilities into space where we want, when we want, will deny our competitors the perceived benefits of beginning a conflict in, or extending a conflict to, space,” Raymond said. The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $28.1 million contract for the TacRL-2 launch last July. The Defense Department awarded the task order through the Orbital Services Program-4 contract, which covers launch services for small and medium-size military satellites through 2028. Northrop Grumman had the Pegasus XL rocket for the TacRL-2 mission in storage. It was one of two Pegasus rockets manufactured for Stratolaunch, a company founded by the late billionaire Paul Allen. Stratolaunch developed the largest airplane ever built, and purchased two Pegasus rockets to launch from the giant aircraft, then planned to work on its own launch vehicle. But Stratolaunch’s progress slowed after Allen’s death in 2018, and the company abandoned plans to launch Pegasus rockets. Instead, Stratolaunch said last year it is working on a hypersonic test vehicle. Stratolaunch’s airplane successfully flew for the first time in 2019, and completed a second test flight in April. After Stratolaunch’s plans changed, Northrop Grumman reacquired the near-complete Pegasus rockets from Stratolaunch to offer to other customers. Kurt Eberly, director of Northrop Grumman’s launch vehicles division, said the Pegasus team and the Space Force worked out how to execute the TacRL-2 mission in the months leading up to the call-up May 22, including agreements with the Western Range at Vandenberg on flight safety parameters. But some specifics, such as the target orbit and trajectory, were not known to the Pegasus team until 21 days ago. “I would say it was very successful,” he said in an interview. “What we just did with the space vehicle team is really hard. We got the call-up 21 days ago on a Saturday evening. Our team just swung into action. In that call-up, we got direction on the trajectory and where to launch to, and some other particulars. So our team had to adjust to all that.” The Odyssey satellite arrived at Vandenberg within the last three weeks. Technicians encapsulated the spacecraft inside the Pegasus payload fairing before mating it to the rocket. Ground teams at Vandenberg connected the Pegasus XL rocket to the L-1011 carrier aircraft Wednesday. Developed commercially by Orbital Sciences, now part of Northrop Grumman, the Pegasus rocket flew its 45th satellite delivery mission. Since the rocket’s debut in 1990, Pegasus missions have been staged from Vandenberg, Edwards Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Wallops Island in Virginia, Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, and the Canary Islands. The most recent Pegasus launch staged from Vandenberg was in 2013. “It’s the first time in eight years we’ve had a Pegasus launch from here on the Western Range, so that’s exciting to do something we don’t get to do very often,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Hromsco, commander of the 30th Operational Support Squadron at Vandenberg. Despite the growth of small satellite operators, the Pegasus rocket has only launched three times since 2013 amid growing competition from other launch companies like SpaceX. Other launch providers in the small satellite sector, such as Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, are also cutting into the market once served by the Pegasus rocket. NASA paid $56.3 million to launch a research satellite on the previous Pegasus rocket flight before TacRL-2. That mission was delayed more than two years due to technical problems with the Pegasus. NASA decided in 2019 to launch a future scientific satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a much larger launcher than the Pegasus. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, was originally designed to launch on a Pegasus rocket. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is vastly oversized for the IXPE satellite, but it has the ability to launch the small payload into a unique equatorial orbit from Cape Canaveral. And SpaceX can do the launch for $50.3 million, undercutting the previous publicly-available price for a Pegasus. The $28 million contract for the TacRL-2 mission is half the price NASA paid for the most recent Pegasus mission in 2019. Eberly said the Pegasus rocket, designed by Orbital Sciences in the 1980s as the first privately-developed satellite launcher, still has a role to play in the launch industry. “Solid rocket motor propulsion is maybe a little more expensive than some of the low-priced new entrants that we see come along,” he said. “We understand that.” The benefit of solid-fueled launchers, according to Eberly, is they are inherently responsive. “They are able to be stored for many, many years, and then are ready to launch at a moment’s notice,” Eberly said. “Solid rocket motor technology can enable very short call-up times and responsiveness. What it requires is to get all the work done up front, and get ready, and get the plan done.’ Northrop Grumman has one more Pegasus XL rocket in the hangar, and could build more. So far, the Pegasus doesn’t have a customer beyond Sunday’s TacRL-2 mission. The Space Force issued a request for proposals earlier this year for two additional tactically responsive launch missions — TacRL-3 and 4 — for flights in 2022 and 2023. The military in 2019 selected Aevum, Firefly, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, VOX Space, and X-Bow as eligible to compete for OSP-4 missions, including TacRL-3 and 4. The ground-launched Minotaur rocket family, derived from decommissioned solid-fueled military missile stages, and the air-launched Pegasus rocket are Northrop Grumman’s offerings under the OSP-4 contract. “If there is a need to shorten up these call-up times, then solids could have a place to serve in that role,” he said. “In addition to the vehicles launched from the ground, an air-launched solid then gives you flexibility in the basing and the drop point, and allowing you to get to different orbits more quickly than you could get to if you had to launch from the ground at a fixed launch point. “Maybe there’s a role there (for Pegasus),” Eberly said before Sunday’s launch. “So we’re going to do our best job here on TacRL-2 , and put our best foot forward … And then after the mission, we’ll see what comes out of it.”
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New achievements in aerospace
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Harry Dent: ‘Biggest Crash Ever’ Likely by End of June
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The strategist correctly called Japan’s 1989 bubble bust and recession, the dot-com crash and the populist swell that made Donald Trump president. What could be “the biggest crash ever,” he argues, will hit by the end of June , if not sooner. It will be “the initiation of the next big economic downturn,” Dent predicts. “Fake earnings, fake GDP, fake interest rates and super-high valuations” make for an increasingly untenable situation, he warns. The expanding market bubble has been building since 2008. But the Federal Reserve keeps averting the next huge crisis by continuously “printing money,” declares the Harvard Business School MBA. His HSD Publishing, an independent research firm, generates monthly newsletters that he and Rodney Johnson, HSD president, each write. In the interview, Dent delivers his prescription for investing amid the weakened economy and impending disaster, as he sees it: Zero in on long-term Treasurys. “What’s better than sleeping with 30-year Treasury bonds,” he exults. They’ll “magnify your money.” He then describes a portfolio allocation for the investor that’s “willing to take more risk.” As for the notion of high inflation, “no way in hell,” he says. Dent, whose latest book is “ What to Do When the Bubble Pops: Personal and Business Strategies for the Coming Economic Winter ” (G&D Media-April 2020), also tells ThinkAdvisor his considered opinions on cryptocurrency (“a big trend long term”), the GameStop frenzy (“stupid but admirable”) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax bill (“First of all, those assets are going to crash.”) ThinkAdvisor interviewed Dent on March 5. He was speaking by phone from his base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he has resided for the last several years. When the conversation pivoted to folks who attack him for his frequently inaccurate predictions, he offered some choice words and an explanation, then described key indicators he employs that show “very clear cycles.” Here are highlights of our interview: THINKADVISOR: How much risk is there in the stock market right now? HARRY DENT JR.: It’s the riskiest market since 1929. The difference is that ’29 wasn’t as global. This is an everything bubble. And with the $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus bill, we’re wiling to stimulate 40-something percent of GDP just to prevent a slowdown in the economy. That’s going to go down in history as the most insane thing ever. They’ll say, “What were they smoking?” Please elaborate on the extent of the risk you see. This may be the biggest bubble crash ever — stocks, commodities, real estate. The next crash is the initiation of the next big [economic] downturn, which will be much worse than the one in 2008-2009. When do you think the next crash will occur? It will likely come by the end of June, probably sooner. The S&P falls to 2,100 — lower than the March 2020 low — and that would be a 47% to 48% drop from recent highs, though it may go to 4,000 first. The next crash will be worse than the last one because it will come from higher levels and [plummet] to lower levels. Why will the downturn that you see be so harsh? The only reason the 2008 downturn didn’t turn into a depression was that they turned on the monetary spigots so hard and blew us out of it, which kept the bubble going. They kept printing money and put it off. Now we’ve got a bigger bubble. This downturn is going to be the Great Depression that the deep recession of 2008 was [falling into]. How long do you think the depression will last? If the economy finally falls apart after this much stimulus, economists will flip from being endlessly bullish to endlessly bearish. They’ll say, “Now we’re in a decade-long-plus depression, like the 1930s.” But I’ll say, “Nope, this thing will be hell: It’s going to do its work very fast. By 2024, it will be over.” By 2023 or 2024, we’re going to be coming out of it into what I call the next Spring Boom. Right now, you favor investing in Treasury bonds. What’s your strategy? Man, what’s better than sleeping with 30-year Treasury bonds — the safest investment in the reserve currency of a country that’s in big trouble — but not as much as Europe and Japan are in and nowhere near as much as China is in. We’re in the best house in a bad neighborhood. What will happen to the 30-year Treasury bond during the massive crash you foresee? It’s going to fall to half a percent and maybe zero. It will expand your money 30%, 40%, 50%, while stocks are crashing 70%, 80%, 90%. Real estate will go down 30%, 40%, 50%. Commodities are already down 50% and are going down another 30% or 40%. Everything is going to default. Cash will preserve your money. The 30-year Treasury will magnify your money. So, do you think 50% of an investment portfolio should be in Treasurys? If you’re willing to take more risk, you’ll have one bucket in long-term U.S. Treasury bonds and maybe in a few other good governments, like Sweden or Australia. Triple-A corporates could go in there too. Then you’ll have another bucket — of short stocks, not leveraged. Stocks are very volatile on the way down. You can also be in REITs that are in very solid areas, like multi-family housing in affordable cities and medical facilities because those will hold up the best. There’s a discernable euphoria now among investors. But John Templeton, the renowned investor and fund manager, famously said that “bull markets die on euphoria.” Do you agree with that? Yes. And Jeremy Grantham [GMO co-founder] said [on Jan. 5] this level of euphoria means you’re within months — not years — of a major bubble peak. You’re at the end. Wil cryptocurrency be part of that huge crash? Yes. I think Bitcoin is the big thing long term and that crypto and blockchain is a big trend. It’s like the internet of finance — money and assets — instead of information. So it’s a big deal — but in its early stages. Bitcoin is going to go to 58 [thousand], 60, 80 — and then end up back at 3,000 to 4,000. I would buy it long term, a couple of years from now. I wouldn’t touch it between now and then. What are your expectations for the economy once the pandemic substantially fades? Some industries are never going to come back. We’re not back to where we were before COVID — by GDP or any other major indicator. Everybody is acting like “When we get over COVID, we’ll be back better than ever.” The stock market is already anticipating that. But it’s wrong. The only reason people are spending is because the government handed businesses and consumers tons of money. But it will get to a point where it’s not going to matter how much money is printed — and then you’ll have an avalanche. A huge collapse is coming. What specifically will cause it? There’s is no way you can [keep] having fake earnings, fake GDP, fake interest rates and super-high valuations. Financial assets have to come down to reality. What are the implications? Loans will fail by the boatload. Then money disappears. That causes bank and business failures. We have to get all the financial leverage, financial assets and debt out of our economy. Twenty percent of public companies are zombies. They can’t even pay their debt service in a growth economy. They’re already dead. We’ve just keeping them alive with embalming.
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Financial Crisis
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Golden eagle poisoning probed by police in Aberdeenshire
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The bird of prey was discovered dead on the Invercauld Estate, near Crathie, on 19 March. RSPB Scotland said a dead mountain hare had been found nearby, laced with poison.
Police Scotland said forensic examination confirmed the bird had been "illegally and intentionally poisoned".
Officers searched properties on the estate under warrant on Tuesday, and inquiries are ongoing.
No arrests have been made, and police are appealing for information.
Det Con Daniel Crilley, of the wildlife crime unit said: "Poisoning a bird or animal is not only cruel and callous but it can also harm other wildlife.
"We are determined to protect these magnificent birds."
Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland's head of investigations said raptor persecution crimes on grouse moors in the area happened regularly.
"The perpetrators of these crimes don't just threaten wildlife, but put at risk the reputation of the area and the jobs dependent on the associated tourist industry", he said.
Invercauld Estate manager Angus McNicol said they had been informed by police that the bird contained pesticide.
"We are very disturbed indeed to learn that a bird of prey has been found on Invercauld in these circumstances", he said.
"We wholeheartedly support the appeal about this bird and anyone with information should contact Police Scotland. "Naturally we are offering our co-operation to the police as they conduct their inquiries and hope they are able to identify anyone who is involved."
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Mass Poisoning
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Protests over COVID-19 policies in Germany
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Since April 2020, when Germany's Constitutional Court ruled that the governmental lockdown imposed in March to counter the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow blanket bans on rallies,[2] several protests have been held in Germany against the two lockdowns and other anti-pandemic regulations. The protests attracted a mix of people from varied backgrounds, including supporters of populist ideas who felt called to defend against what they saw as an arrogant central government; supporters of various conspiracy theories; and sometimes far right-wing groups. [3] Anti-vaxxers generally also formed a major part of the protesters. [4][5] Some protesters held strongly negative views towards public media, who they believed to report in an unfair manner;[6] repeatedly, journalists covering the rallies were subjected to harassment and physical attacks. [7][8][9] Such attacks were the main reason why Germany slipped from eleventh to 13th place in the Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, according to a report published on 20 April 2021. [10]
Since about mid-2020, the main organizer of the protests has been a group called Querdenken ("lateral thinking"), which was initially based in Stuttgart[11] but soon started to organize rallies also in Berlin and other cities. In the second lockdown beginning in November 2020, as protests sometimes turned violent, observers considered it possible that more radical conspiracy theories and far-right groups were increasing their influence in the movement. [11] In several cases, higher courts overturned decisions by local authorities to ban rallies, but a ban on a rally planned for 5 December in the northern city of Bremen was upheld,[12] as on two rallies planned for 12 December in Frankfurt and Dresden. [13]
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution began to observe parts of the Querdenken movement countrywide in April 2021, placing it in a newly created category of concern for questioning the legitimacy of the state. [14]
Protests were frequently accompanied by counterprotests, which resulted in tense situations as police tried to keep the groups apart. [13] Police was criticized on several occasions for its de-escalation strategy which allowed pandemic regulations to be violated,[15] and for its actions against counterprotesters. [16]
Some observers noted that police faced difficulties in devising containment strategies due to the unusual mixture of protesters, which on several occasions included families with children and retirees. [17][18]
From 22 March 2020, Germany entered a first lockdown in order to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. [19] It was eventually extended, with some differences among federal states, until June 2020. [20] The lockdown regulations included, besides a physical distancing requirement of 1,5 metres in public – to which a requirement to wear a nose and mouth covering in stores and on public transport was added in late April[21] –, initially also a prohibition for restaurateurs to provide in-house dining; also, service providers in close-contact professions, such as hair-dressers, cosmetic, massage and tattoo studios, were required to close. [19]
The first protest of what became known as Hygienedemos (hygiene demonstrations) took place on 28 March in Berlin,[22] and soon spread to other cities in Germany. At the 28 March rally no speeches were given, with its motto, "Defend basic rights – say no to dictatorship" also reflecting demands repeated at later weekly Hygienedemos. Observers noted that participants were from very disparate groups, some even holding conflicting views; they further noted that while the protesters were united in rejecting the anti-pandemic measures by the government – in which they saw violations of basic rights enshrined in the German constitution, such as the freedom of trade in view of the prohibitions mentioned above –, they lacked a common notion how they wanted society to be reshaped. [23]
During May, attendance at the Hygienedemos generally decreased sharply. This was attributed by observers to a combination of several factors: the relaxation of the lockdown that had been imposed in March; a high level of satisfaction in the general population about the government's handling of the crisis; the impact of counter-protests; and the recognition by the general population that the protests had shown to be utilized by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and violent or extreme right-wing individuals sprouting conspiracy theories, including vegan chef Attila Hildmann. [24] The German non-government organization platform Campact warned its members against attending the Hygienedemos. [25]
From mid 2020, the main organizer of protests has been a group called Querdenken ("lateral thinking"), which was initially based in Stuttgart[11] but soon started to organize rallies also in Berlin and other cities; individual Querdenken groups often appended the phone area code of their cities (such as Querdenken 711 for Stuttgart). The Querdenken rallies saw a varied mixture of participants. [26] While protests became smaller after those of summer 2020, violence became more frequent. [27] There were increasing concerns that the rallies were becoming a platform for far-right, and even extremist, views, and that many protesters were embracing conspiracy theories, notably those of the QAnon movement originating in the United States. [11][28] Since March 2021, several rallies were organized by an initiative called Es reicht uns ("We have had enough"). [29]
In a number of instances, local authorities banned rallies as they deemed coronavirus protection plans submitted by the organizers as insufficient, also given the considerable numbers of protesters which these rallies began to attract from mid 2020. Several rallies only went ahead after a partial or whole overturn of such bans via court appeals. Prohibitions began to be upheld more often from late 2020, such as for a rally that had been planned in the northern city of Bremen for 5 December,[12] as on two rallies planned for 12 December in Frankfurt and Dresden. [13]
After a hiatus over the New Year, Querdenken founder Michael Ballweg announced on 27 January 2021 a resumption of protests through motorcades. [1] The first such protest, drawing several hundred participants and extending over several kilometers, took place in Stuttgart the same day. [30] Over the next fortnight, several motorcades took place in Munich. [31] Smaller motorcades in Mannheim on 6 February were dissolved by police. [32]
In June 2021, as Germany had overcome the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic – with daily case numbers having decreased substantially from the peak while vaccination rates were increasing – , observers considered that, while Querdenken had not run its course, it was finding it more difficult to mobilize protesters. Josef Holnburger, politologist at the think tank Center für Monitoring, Analyse und Strategie [de], said that while the protests of 2020 had resulted in an increase in the number of subscribers to Telegram channels of the movement, that number had essentially leveled out since November 2020, which he ascribed to a string of unsuccessful protests. However, he expressed concern that the content discussed in those channels was at times becoming more radical. He said that the movement had already become active in other areas where it aimed to undermine trust in government institutions and their representatives, including Climate change denial and allegations of rigging in the 2021 German federal election scheduled for September. While he deemed it likely that these two topics would be there to stay for considerable time, they were unlikely to be as effective in mobilization of protesters as the COVID-19 pandemic. [33]
The list of protests below is not exhaustive. Smaller protests also took place in several other cities. At the protest of 25 April, 1,000 protesters were gathered at the Volksbühne theatre. A slogan shouted by the people was: "I want my life back". [34][35] Protest signs read: "Protect constitutional rights", "Freedom isn't everything, but without freedom, everything is nothing", "Daddy, what is a kiss?". Physical distance requirements were violated by a part of the protesters. The police arrested 100 people, a spokesman said that "during coronavirus times and according to containment regulations, we are obliged to prevent a gathering". [35] Protesters handed out a newspaper questioning the need for lockdown measures and claiming the coronavirus is an attempt to seize power by spreading fear,[34] this newspaper quoted 127 medical doctors questioning the need for strict lockdowns. [35]
Two rallies against COVID-19 policies took place in Berlin on 9 May. At a rally in front of the Reichstag building, where conspiracy theorists had been speaking according to observations by a press photographer, police arrested about 30 protesters. The purpose of the arrests had mainly been to check identities after the minimum distance requirement had not been met multiple times, and as calls by police on protesters to observe the 50-person limit for the location were not heeded. [36] At a rally on Alexanderplatz, 86 protesters were detained.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Vaughan sacked by Dragons for COVID breach
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St George Illawarra have been forced to admit failings in club culture after Paul Vaughan was sacked on Tuesday for hosting an illegal party at his home with 12 other players at the weekend.
In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the Dragons board decided to tear up the remaining 15 months of Vaughan's NRL deal which was worth around $750,000 per season.
Vaughan had already been fined $50,000 by the NRL and slapped with an eight-game ban for breaching COVID-19 protocols by hosting a party at his Shellharbour home.
Jack de Belin and other players have copped individual breach notices from the Dragons on top of the one-game suspensions and the $305,000 worth of fines handed out to the group.
Daniel Alvaro, Corey Norman, Gerard Beale, Jack Bird, Matt Dufty, Kaide Ellis, Tyrell Fuimaono, Josh Kerr, Blake Lawrie, Zac Lomax and Josh McGuire were also in attendance.
All 13 players as well as Vaughan's partner were fined $1000 by NSW Police for breaching a health order.
It has since emerged that de Belin and a handful of others misled authorities, the club and the NRL's integrity unit to cover up that he had been in attendance.
De Belin told the club that he had been walking his dog in the general area of the party and just dropped something off at Vaughan's house.
"I don't think we've got a culture problem but I don't think the culture is where we want it to be," Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb said on Tuesday.
"We need to honestly look at our culture and say we're not where we want to be and ask how are we going to improve it from here?"
It is Vaughan's second breach of the NRL's biosecurity rules after he attended a cafe while in the NRL bubble last season, and he was on his third warning for another unrelated incident.
Speaking on Fox Sports' NRL 360 on Tuesday night, Vaughan gave an emotional apology to the community, the NRL and his family, saying he realised early on the significance of his actions.
"I understand the community and the angst this has caused them. I never wanted that to happen. I can't say sorry enough," he said.
The 30-year-old also said he hopes this is not the last of his NRL career.
"I really hope not, this game I love so much, it really pains me to see the impact it's had on the game, it's heartbreaking," he said.
"I still have a burning desire to not only continue on playing but to show people I'm a good person and to win back their faith."
The 12 other players in attendance at the party were fined by the club, with the confidential figure to be donated to local charities.
They will have to complete "compulsory extracurricular club service".
It's understood Vaughan's eight-game NRL suspension will carry over to any subsequent NRL deal he signs.
The Dragons deliberated at length about whether to sack the ex-NSW and Kangaroos prop but did not consider tearing up the contracts of senior players de Belin and Norman.
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Ireland have toppled the All Blacks 29-20 in a thriller international match against New Zealand in Dublin.
AAP Newswire
Veteran prop James Slipper will captain the Wallabies after Michael Hooper was ruled out of their tour-ending Test with Wales with a foot injury.
AAP Newswire
Despite struggling against Argentina, playmaker Mathieu Jalibert and centre Romain Ntamack have been retained to play for France against Georgia this weekend.
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Tear Up Agreement
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Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner with 248 passengers had been hijacked
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A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner with 248 passengers had been hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) under orders of Wadie Haddad (who had earlier broken away from the PFLP of George Habash),[8] and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells. The hijackers had the stated objective to free 40 Palestinian and affiliated militants imprisoned in Israel and 13 prisoners in four other countries in exchange for the hostages. [9] The flight, which had originated in Tel Aviv with the destination of Paris, was diverted after a stopover in Athens via Benghazi to Entebbe, the main airport of Uganda. The Ugandan government supported the hijackers, and dictator Idi Amin, who had been informed of the hijacking from the beginning,[10] personally welcomed them. [11] After moving all hostages from the aircraft to a disused airport building, the hijackers separated all Israelis and several non-Israeli Jews from the larger group and forced them into a separate room. [12][13][14] Over the following two days, 148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown out to Paris. [13][14][15] Ninety-four, mainly Israeli, passengers along with the 12-member Air France crew, remained as hostages and were threatened with death. [16][17]
The IDF acted on information provided by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The hijackers threatened to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met. This threat led to the planning of the rescue operation. [18] These plans included preparation for armed resistance from the Uganda Army. [19]
The operation took place at night. Israeli transport planes carried 100 commandos over 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) to Uganda for the rescue operation. The operation, which took a week of planning, lasted 90 minutes. Of the 106 remaining hostages, 102 were rescued and three were killed. The other hostage was in a hospital and was later killed. Five Israeli commandos were wounded, and one, unit commander Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed. Netanyahu was the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, who would later become Prime Minister of Israel. [20] All the hijackers and forty-five Ugandan soldiers were killed, and eleven[5][6] Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s of Uganda's air force were destroyed. [4] Kenyan sources supported Israel, and in the aftermath of the operation, Idi Amin issued orders to retaliate and slaughter several hundred Kenyans then present in Uganda. [21] There were 245 Kenyans in Uganda killed and 3,000 fled. [22]
Operation Entebbe, which had the military codename Operation Thunderbolt, is sometimes referred to retroactively as Operation Jonathan in memory of the unit's leader, Yonatan Netanyahu. On 27 June 1976, Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300B4-203, registration F-BVGG (c/n 019), departed from Tel Aviv, Israel, carrying 246 mainly Jewish and Israeli passengers and a crew of 12. [23][24] The plane flew to Athens, Greece, where it picked up an additional 58 passengers, including four hijackers. [25][nb 1] It departed for Paris at 12:30 pm. Just after takeoff, the flight was hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO), and by two Germans, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann, from the German Revolutionary Cells. The hijackers diverted the flight to Benghazi, Libya. [26] There it was held on the ground for seven hours for refuelling. During that time the hijackers released British-born Israeli citizen Patricia Martell, who pretended to have a miscarriage. [18][27] The plane left Benghazi and at 3:15 pm on the 28th, more than 24 hours after the flight's original departure, it arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. [26]
At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by at least four others, supported by the forces of Uganda's president, Idi Amin. [28] The hijackers transferred the passengers to the transit hall of the disused former airport terminal where they kept them under guard for the following days. Amin came to visit the hostages almost on a daily basis, updating them on developments and promising to use his efforts to have them freed through negotiations. [23]
On 28 June, a PFLP-EO hijacker issued a declaration and formulated their demands: In addition to a ransom of US$5 million for the release of the airplane, they demanded the release of 53 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants, 40 of whom were prisoners in Israel. [29] They threatened that if these demands were not met, they would begin to kill hostages on 1 July 1976. [30]
On 29 June, after Ugandan soldiers had opened an entrance to a room next to the crowded waiting hall by destroying a separating wall, the hijackers separated the Israelis (including those holding dual citizenship) from the other hostages[nb 2] and told them to move to the adjoining room. [32] As they did so, a Holocaust survivor showed hijacker Wilfried Böse a camp registration number tattooed on his arm. Böse protested "I'm no Nazi! ... I am an idealist". [37] In addition, five non-Israeli hostages – two ultra-orthodox Jewish couples[23] from the US and Belgium[8] and a French resident of Israel – were forced to join the Israeli group. [34] According to Monique Epstein Khalepski, the French hostage among the five, the captors had singled them out for questioning and suspected them of hiding their Israeli identities. [34] On the other hand, according to French hostage Michel Cojot-Goldberg, the captors failed to identify at least one Israeli among the passengers who was a military officer with dual citizenship then using his non-Israeli passport and he was later freed as part of the second release of non-Israeli hostages. [36] US citizen Janet Almog, Frenchwoman Jocelyne Monier (whose husband or boyfriend was Israeli),[38][39] and French-Israeli dual citizen Jean-Jacques Mimouni, whose name had not been called up during the reading of the original passport-based list, reportedly joined the Israeli hostage group by their own choice. [40]
On 30 June, the hijackers released 48 hostages. The released were picked from among the non-Israeli group – mainly elderly and sick passengers and mothers with children. Forty-seven of them were flown by a chartered Air France Boeing 747 out of Entebbe, Uganda to Paris, France and one passenger was treated in hospital for a day. [41] On 1 July, after the Israeli government had conveyed its agreement to negotiations, the hostage-takers extended their deadline to noon on 4 July and released another group of 100 non-Israeli captives who again were flown to Paris a few hours later. Among the 106 hostages staying behind with their captors at Entebbe airport were the 12 members of the Air France crew who refused to leave,[42] about ten young French passengers, and the Israeli group of some 84 people.
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Air crash
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Winsum train collision
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The Winsum train disaster took place on 25 July 1980 near Winsum in the Dutch province of Groningen. 9 people died and 21 were injured. [1]
The accident took place on a single track between Sauwerd and Roodeschool which did not have ATB or signals, instead the drivers were informed by radio where other trains on the tracks were, which was a less reliable system that relied on trust. In the foggy early morning of 25 July the driver of commuter train 8726 departed from Winsum railway station. Because of the fog he could not see the other train (8713) coming from Sauwerd, which the traffic controllers had warned him about and they told him to wait departing from Winsum until it had passed. Both trains collide head on. [2]
The true cause of the disaster never became clear. [3]
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Train collisions
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‘Cancer is only a speed bump in life’: S’porean fights on after breast cancer diagnosis at 30 & double mastectomy
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October 28, 2021, 06:58 PM Yvonne Ang was in the prime of her life in 2019 when she was hit with news no one had expected. Then only 30 years old, Ang was happily married and working as a flight attendant — a job she loved — when she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. Ang had difficulty processing the information when she first got the news from her doctor. “To be very honest, my mind was blank,” she shared. “It just felt like something or someone just hit you hard at the back of your head.”
But her next reaction surprised even herself. Instead of being paranoid and dwelling on worst-case scenarios as she normally would, Ang immediately kicked into problem-solving mode. To Ang, it had to do with her “gan cheong” personality. “I like things to be done as soon as possible, same if I have a problem. So the next question I asked the doctor was, what can I do [about it]?” said Ang. At the doctor’s suggestion, Ang readily agreed to do a lumpectomy a few days later. “I just wanted to take it out quickly and not have to keep thinking about it,” she reflected. On the surface, Ang appeared to handle the news fairly well. In hindsight however, she said her reaction was out of character. “I think I reacted too positively, it was something I didn’t expect [I’d do].”
But her emotions eventually kicked in when she was waiting to make payment after the initial consultation. With her head down, the tears that she’d unconsciously held back finally fell. “I wasn’t really sobbing but I just kept thinking, siao liao, how am I going to tell my mother?”
Ang’s husband of six years who accompanied her to the appointment appeared just as calm on the surface, reassuring Ang on the steps to take and what he can do to help. But she knew that her husband’s stoicism was merely a facade. “He was putting up a brave front for me too. Deep down, he was super, super worried.”
As someone who loved her greens, exercised regularly and didn’t smoke, Ang never thought that she’d be at risk of getting cancer. As for her family, there was only an aunt who had a brush with the disease 12 years ago and survived. For Ang, the only indication that something was wrong was an occasional shooting pain she felt in her left breast which went on for months. She brushed it off as a muscle ache, until one day when the pain escalated. “It was May 2019 after a flight to India and I was just in a hotel room lying on my chest playing games,” said Ang of the twinge she felt in her left breast. She was ready to dismiss the discomfort as “normal”, but the pain refused to go away even after two days. Ang also noticed that her breast was swollen and “rock hard”. “I still wasn’t overly concerned, but I went to see a general practitioner (GP). I told him I felt pain in my left breast and only my left breast.” There, the GP did a breast examination, and he found a small lump behind the nipple. But he reassured her not to worry as “cancer lumps don’t usually hurt”. To be safe, Ang was scheduled for an ultrasound. When the results came back, she was told they “didn’t look good”. Ang explained:
“Normally if it’s a benign lump, the edges should be smooth, but mine was uneven, like a sunny-side up egg.”
Her GP advised her to see a specialist, where a biopsy was done on the spot, followed by an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan. Within a few days, Ang got the bad news — the lump was cancerous and at Stage 2. Thankfully, scans showed that the cancer had not yet spread to other parts of her body. “From the time I felt the pain in India to doing the biopsy and getting the results, it was about a week,” said Ang on the chain of events which quickly unfolded. After a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous mass, she was put on four rounds of chemotherapy — once every three weeks — as an additional measure to remove any cancerous cells that may have remained undetected. But with treatment, Ang’s greatest fear — of losing her precious hair — was realised. In fact, it was the first thing that she’d communicated to her doctors regarding chemotherapy. “I was so afraid of doing chemo because of my hair. Because I was a stewardess, hair was everything to me. And I really wanted to go back to work because I loved my job,” said Ang who had been flying for close to 10 years by then. Based on an assessment by her oncologist, Wong Nan Soon from OncoCare Cancer Centre, being a young cancer patient is a “double-edged sword”, as she could “recover very fast”, but the cancer could also “spread very fast”. Said Ang: “I had a 19 percent chance of having a relapse in nine years, which is considered high.” Despite being in favour of finding alternative treatments, she eventually relented to the idea of chemo, in part due to the advice of those close to her. “I have a good friend who’s a nurse and works with an oncologist. She’s the one who told me ‘please don’t be stupid, just go with chemo, especially when the survival rate for breast cancer is so high,” she recounted. Ang’s hair started to fall out in clumps about one month after her first chemotherapy session. “My hair kept getting entangled in my fingers in the shower, it was very frustrating. And when it dried, they just fell everywhere I went.”
That experience drove her to make an appointment at a hair salon to shave off all her hair the very next day. Ang had emotional scenes of K-drama-esque proportions unfolding in her mind on the way to the hair salon. But her fears of being bald ended up unfounded. In fact, Ang realised by the third stroke of the shaver across her scalp that being bald wasn’t so bad. “My head is actually pretty nice and round. It was the opposite of what I thought the result might be,” said Ang, who happily took photos of her new look. Rather than the trauma Ang envisioned, it ended up being “a very pleasant experience” for her. “The hair thing never bothered me anymore, because it also helped with the side effects of chemo,” said Ang, who suffered from hot flushes. “So [with no hair] I just have to take a piece of tissue and wipe my scalp.”
She didn’t even bother wearing the wigs she bought due to the suffocating heat. Instead, she turned to caps and beanies until fine hairs on her head began growing out again. Ang’s positive outlook and brave front she puts on can be attributed to her loved ones. The youngest of three siblings shared that her eldest brother broke down when he found out about her diagnosis. He cried in front of their mother — something he’d never done before. “Because of this, I cannot give up on myself, you see. They are the only reason why I’m so strong and they keep me fighting.”
Even her close friends rallied around her when she shaved her head, and accompanied her to chemotherapy sessions just to “sit and chat”. As her husband also works as cabin crew, he is not always around to accompany her for appointments or be with her at home. Whenever he is away, Ang’s mum would come by to stay and “cook on demand” for her. Her friends would also take turns to help her with the household chores or just to accompany her and her mum. This outpouring of love and affection from those around her pushes Ang to fight the good fight:
“I didn’t want to disappoint them. They had so much hope and so much love for me, I didn’t want to upset them and I wanted to do my part.”
Ang is especially conscious about staying strong for her husband. “If he was the one that’s ill and if he were to complain or lose hope, I don’t think I’ll feel good or be at ease when I’m at work. So I didn’t want to do that to him,” she explained. One thing which Ang reiterates to fellow cancer patients on their own journey is that “the patient is not the only one that’s suffering, it’s the caregiver as well, and it’s a very tough job”. Her determination to do her best in beating the cancer meant choosing to go for a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery — an “extreme preventive measure”, according to Ang’s doctor. This was despite the fact that Ang did not possess any pathogenic variants of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Ang gave the go-ahead to proceed. She shared that at that point, she was willing “to do anything” to lower the risk of the cancer returning. It may seem like a tall order for most, but even with the impending reality of losing both her natural breasts, Ang was hell-bent on enjoying the process as much as possible. Ang shared that she had fun at the breast surgeon’s office, playing with the “chicken fillets” (implants). She laughed: “I asked the doctor, since I’m doing this, can I ‘upsize’ or not?”
After months of chemotherapy and recovery from her mastectomy, Ang was given the all clear by the end of 2019 and is now considered cancer-free. But she still has to make a visit to her oncologist every two months and is on life-long medication to control her oestrogen levels. Despite her strength and tenacity, there’s definitely still a deep-seated fear that the cancer would return. “I always show people how positive I am, but deep down I definitely have this fear of a relapse or that things will get worse. But it’s something we cannot control, I just have to do my best. No matter how strong I am, I’m very scared [of dying].”
It doesn’t help that Ang has come across stories of people who suffered relapses despite putting up a strong fight. Relapses are also much harder to recover from. To further reduce the likelihood of that happening, Ang has modified her diet to exclude processed foods and foods that are high in oestrogen as much as possible. But she doesn’t believe in making extreme changes to her lifestyle or diet, as her goal is to reclaim as much of her old life as possible. If there is one takeaway that Ang has gleaned from this entire journey, it is the change in her perspective. “People wonder why those who are sick are always so positive? It’s because you’re already at the bottom. If I don’t look up, I don’t know which direction I should go.”
Her journey with cancer has also made her realise that “life and death is more important than any small, petty arguments”. In fact, Ang says that has learnt to appreciate life more and not let setbacks get her down. On her doctor’s advice, Ang was forced to stop flying in 2020 as “a regular lifestyle is better for me now”. It was a difficult decision for Ang, but with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a decision that turned out for the best. In a turn of events, Ang has also found her calling — in the beauty business. Ang, who does eyelash extensions, launched a beauty salon last year together with a friend, and the shop offers an initiative that’s close to her heart — free eyebrow embroidery for newly-diagnosed cancer patients before their first chemotherapy session. “I had my eyebrow embroidery done before my chemo and it helped a lot. With the brows there, I didn’t look sick even when all my hair dropped,” shared Ang, who also became a financial advisor this year. Her path has also made her realise how important having a supportive network is, and she consciously pays it forward, be it in her business or personal life. Ever since she was first diagnosed, she has openly shared her cancer journey on social media. This attracted followers who asked for help regarding what to expect, or how they can help their family members who are diagnosed with breast cancer. Ang has one tip to share. “If you’ve someone around you who is going through [the cancer journey], all the little words of encouragement really help,” said Ang, who described being immensely touched by messages of support she received, even from people in her life whom she’d not met for close to 10 years. Becoming a member of the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF) also meant she could help and support others who are on the same journey. “I always tell cancer patients that this is a speed bump in your life and it’s meant to slow you down. But after that, you can pick up your speed. So please focus on your treatment, do whatever you need to regain your life and then you can just move on.”
Given that her cancer diagnosis was a bolt out of the blue, what Ang’s journey has also taught her is the importance of doing regular self examinations for early detection. One should also not wait to find out if there are any unusual pain in your breasts. “Don’t wait until the lump grows, just go and check it out. If it’s something bad at least we know and can get rid of it now,” said Ang. “For me, I think I already caught it very early and I’m thankful. But I wish I had visited
the doctor when I first felt the shooting pain, it could have been detected even earlier.”
A preliminary check can also be done with your bare hands; the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF) provides a step-by-step video and guide on how to do self-examinations. Clinics also offer check-ups where you can also add on a breast ultrasound, making it very affordable, Ang shared. Ang is one of BCF’s “befrienders”, a programme where breast cancer survivors are trained in basic counselling skills and provide emotional support for women diagnosed with breast cancer as well as their families. Besides this programme and resources to aid in the early detection of breast cancer, BCF provides support to breast cancer patients in other ways. For those undergoing mastectomies due to breast cancer, BCF provides subsidies for prosthetics and bras for women with lower incomes. There’s also a free wig loan programme available to members. This Pink October Month, BCF has just opened Singapore’s very first Breast Cancer Centre, located at Sin Ming Court. The integrated facility houses a social space, kitchen as well as fitness studio, and holds programmes that foster a strong supportive network for members of the community. The centre also welcomes members of the public who wish to find out more about breast cancer. Said BCF’s president, Staphnie Tang: “Probably one of the most frightening sentences any patient can hear from their doctor is, ‘You have breast cancer’. “The discovery changes everything — daily routines, family roles, future plans.”
Tang added that throughout the ordeal, having the support of family and friends is critical in helping patients regain a sense of normalcy, maintain emotional stability, and improve their chances of ensuring a positive clinical outcome. “No one should do this alone.
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Famous Person - Sick
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Surfers fall sick after 'brown sludge' hits Port Fairy break
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The state government is investigating an incident that sent two surfers to hospital after coming in contact with "a brown sludge-like substance" at a popular south-west Victorian surf spot.
Two male surfers went to hospitals in Warrnambool and Port Fairy over the Easter weekend and were awaiting test results to determine the cause of their illnesses, but both said they came in contact with brown water while surfing at The Passage near Port Fairy.
One surfer is understood to have been in hospital on a drip for four days.
The Department of environment, land, water and planning (DELWP) has taken water samples at The Passage for analysis and will use drones to monitor the area.
The EPA confirmed it had received reports of brown water in the ocean at Port Fairy during that period.
Local water authority Wannon Water says it hasn't had any issues with its local sewage treatment plant or associated outfall, which discharges treated water out to sea at Griffiths Island near The Passage.
DELWP is advising the public to avoid direct contact with water in and around The Passage until further notice.
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Environment Pollution
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Asturian miners' strike of 1934
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Asturian Workers Alliance
The Asturian miners' strike of 1934 was a major strike action undertaken by regional miners against the 1933 Spanish general election, which redistributed political power from the leftists to conservatives in the Second Spanish Republic. The strike lasted two weeks from 4 October to 19 October 1934 in Asturias. The election led to the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA), securing a parliamentary majority in the Spanish government on 6 October. [1] The strike and subsequent demonstrations eventually developed into a violent revolutionary uprising in an attempt to overthrow the conservative regime. The revolutionaries took over the province of Asturias by force, killing a large portion of the region's police and religious leaders. [2] Their initial entry into Asturias – armed with dynamite, rifles, and machine guns – culminated in the destruction of some religious institutions, such as churches and convents. [3][4] The rebels officially declared a proletarian revolution and instituted their own local government in occupied territory. [5] The rebellion was crushed by the Spanish Navy and the Spanish Republican Army, the latter using mainly colonial troops from Spanish Morocco. [6]
The war minister, Diego Hidalgo wanted Francisco Franco to lead the troops against the rebellion but Spain's president, Alcalá Zamora, opted to send general Eduardo López Ochoa to Asturias to lead the government forces in an effort to limit the bloodshed. [7][8] Soldiers from the civil guard, colonial troops, and Spanish Legion were dispatched under López Ochoa and colonel Juan de Yague to relieve the besieged government garrisons and to retake the towns from the miners. The brevity of the confrontation led historian Gabriel Jackson to observe "every form of fanaticism and cruelty which was to characterise the Civil War occurred during the October revolution and its aftermath: utopian revolution marred by sporadic red terror; systematically bloody repression by the ‘forces of order’; confusion and demoralisation of the moderate left; fanatical vengefulness on the part of the right. "[9] The revolt has been regarded as "the first battle of" or "the prelude to" the Spanish Civil War. [8] According to hispanist Edward Malefakis, the Spanish left had rejected "legal processes of government" and revolted against the possibility of a right-led coalition, even though they would later use the "legality" argument to condemn the July 1936 coup was against an elected government. [10] Historian Salvador de Madariaga, a supporter of Manuel Azaña, and an exiled vocal opponent of Francisco Franco asserted that: "The uprising of 1934 is unforgivable. The argument that [the conservatives] tried to destroy the Constitution to establish fascism was, at once, hypocritical and false. [With the rebellion], the Spanish left was without even the shadow of moral authority to condemn the rebellion of 1936". [11][note 1]
The majority vote in the 1933 elections was won by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA). President Alcalá-Zamora declined to invite its leader, Gil Robles, to form a government. Instead he invited the Radical Republican Party's Alejandro Lerroux to do so. Despite receiving the most votes, CEDA was denied cabinet positions for nearly a year. [12] After a year of political pressure, CEDA, the largest party in the congress, was finally successful in forcing the acceptance of three ministries. However the entrance of CEDA in the government, although being normal in a parliamentary democracy, was not well accepted by the left. When the plans to invite members of the right-wing CEDA into government were leaked and the political left was distraught. [13] The left Republicans tried to reach a common formula of protest but were hampered because the formation of a new government was the result of a normal parliamentary process and that the parties coming to government had won the previous year's free elections. The issue was that the Left Republicans identified the Republic not with democracy or constitutional law but a specific set of policies and politicians, and any deviation was seen as treasonous. [14] That triggered revolutionary strikes and uprisings occurred in Asturias and in Catalonia as well as small incidents in other places in Spain, all a part of the Revolution of 1934. The rebels had stockpiled rifles and pistols, leading to general Emilio Mola calling them the "best armed" of all the leftist insurrections of interwar Europe. Most of the rifles came from a shipment of arms supplied by Indalecio Prieto, a socialist party moderate. The rifles had been landed by the yacht Turquesa at San Esteban de Pravia, north-west of Oviedo; Prieto swiftly fled to France to avoid arrest. Other weapons came from captured arms factories in the region and the miners also had their dynamite blasting charges, which were known as "la artillería de la revolución. "[15] Plans to subvert police and army units failed as these groups, even those with leftist sympathies, refused to join the rebels. Most planned armed revolts involving militiamen did not go ahead and the others were easily crushed by the authorities. [16] A "Catalan State", proclaimed by Catalan nationalist leader Lluis Companys, lasted just ten hours, and despite an attempt at a general stoppage in Madrid, other strikes did not endure. In Madrid, strikers occupied the ministry of the interior and a few military centres, a few of them firing pistols, yet they were soon rounded up by security forces. In the north there were revolutionary strikes in mining areas and clashes with the security forces that left 40 people dead, but the revolt was ended with the arrival of troops and the Spanish air force launching bomb attacks. [15] This left Asturian strikers to fight alone. [17] Anarchist and communist factions in Spain had called general strikes. However, the strikes immediately exposed differences on the left between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)-linked Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), which organised the strike, and the anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). [18] As a result, the strikes failed in much of the country. In several mining towns in Asturias, local unions gathered small weaponry in preparation for the strike. It began on the evening of 4 October, with the miners occupying several towns, attacking and seizing local Civil and Assault Guard barracks. [19] At dawn on 5 October 1934 the rebels attacked the Brothers' school in Turón. The Brothers and the Passionist Father were captured and imprisoned in the "House of the People" while waiting for a decision from the revolutionary Committee. Under pressure from extremists, the Committee decided to condemn them to death. [20] Thirty four priests, six young seminarists with ages between 18 and 21, and several businessmen and civil guards were summarily executed by the revolutionaries in Mieres and Sama, 58 religious buildings including churches, convents and part of the university at Oviedo were burned and destroyed. [21][22]
The same day, large groups of miners advanced along the road to Oviedo, the provincial capital. With the exception of two barracks in which fighting with the garrison of 1,500 government troops continued, the city was taken by 6 October. The miners proceeded to occupy several other towns, most notably the large industrial centre of La Felguera, and set up town assemblies, or "revolutionary committees", to govern the towns that they controlled. [21]
Taking Oviedo, the rebels were able to seize the city's arsenal gaining 24,000 rifles, carbines and light and heavy machine guns. [23] Recruitment offices drafted all workers between the ages of eighteen and forty for the 'Red Army'.
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Strike
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2021 Algerian protests
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The 2021 Algerian protests are a series of mass protests, nationwide rallies and peaceful demonstrations in Algeria against the government of Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the military. They were first held on the anniversary of the 2019-2020 Algerian protests, which resulted in the ousting of the government of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, after he announced his fifth term for the 2019 Algerian presidential election. Tens of thousands have since 16 February thronged the streets, using and echoing their voices to make them heard, like "Algeria, Free, Democratic, No Gang in Power". [1]
The preceding 2019-2020 Algerian protests were against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's announcement of a fifth term for the 2019 Algerian presidential election. This would result in the resignation of Bouteflika and his cabinet. [2]
The first protests started on 16 February (the anniversary of the 2019-2020 protests) in Kherrata and Algiers, followed by dozens of other towns and cities nationwide holding subsequent rallies; these would be referred to as the Hirak. The protest movement gained momentum when tens of thousands of protesters marched nationwide on 22 February, after 6 days of massive nonviolent anti-government protest rallies across the nation. Several protesters were draped in Algerian flags and waved other flags and used slogans, chanting against the government and president. [3]
Tens of thousands blocked streets in the largest street demonstrations since 2019, using non-violence, and engaged into peacefulness. In Bejaia, demonstrators was confronted by police, and was blocked off by the security forces. Protesters chanted and marched, forming chains and using placards and flags, banners and masks in the protests. Most of their demands were the same from the 2019-2020 Algerian protests, alongside calling for new elections. [4]
The protests would be the largest in the country and the countrywide strikes and massive nonviolent strike movement, protest rallies and anti-government demonstrations and street marches would be hitting 12-16 cities and towns nationwide. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered tight police presence deputed the growing civil disobedience amid street rallies and unrest. The national movement's slogans was not the same as last time. They chanted “a civilian state, not a military state” and “the gang must go” as they brandished Berber and Algerian flags. [5]
On Friday 26 February, protesters again poured into the streets in their thousands, protesting against the government and chanting Peaceful, Peaceful. Thousands of protesters were draped in Algerian flags amidst cold weather, defying police restrictions, protesting in large numbers and crowding around the Grand Post Office, where police subsequently used tear gas and truncheons. [6][7]
Riots broke out on 1 March in Ouargla after protesters hurled stones at police and set fires to tyres in protest at the arrest of Ameur Guerrache. Roadblocks and barricades was made as police fired tear gas and quelled the unrest. The protesters chanted slogans calling for his release. [8][9]
For a second consecutive week, thousands of students accompanied by supporters and lecturers marched in Algiers, defying the curfew and was blocked by police, who was present in the protests. On 2 March, shouting slogans demanding "a free and democratic Algeria" and an end to the military's domination of the North African country, up to 3,000 participated in the student-led protests, however, clashes broke out after police tried to block protesters from reaching the Grand Post Office and the Casbah. In Algiers, tens of thousands of people took to the streets at the end of February to voice their demands for an end to corruption and despotism, and for democratic reforms and genuine political change. Thousands led student-led marches nationwide as well, with holding banners and chanting anthems, using roses and wearing flag-style masks, chanting Peaceful and slogans against president Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the powerful military. The Hirak pro-democracy movement intensified throughout the nation. [10][11][12] The protesters chanted "Civilian State, Not Military, We Will Not Stop Until Our Demands of Hirak Is Met!" as thousands of student-protesters rallied in demonstrations in Algiers. [13]
On Friday 5 March, rallies kicked off again as demonstrators rallied again on 5 March, protesting against the military and political elite in Algiers, reviving the 2-year old Hirak pro-democracy movement and calling for the entire cabinet and elite to quit power and transfer power as soon as possible, draped under the Algerian flag. [14] Protesters chanted "Thieves, you’ve destroyed our country" and "نريد جزائر أفضل", meaning "We Want A Better Algeria". Thousands of anti-government protesters and Hirak supporters rallied as part of the weekly protests in Kherrata, and other cities nationwide. Police maintained a heavy presence but didn’t interfere in the protests and rallies. [15] The protesters chanted in the biggest protest marches in 2 weeks, chanting It’s either you or us. Thousands protested and chanted anthems, waved flags and clapped in solidarity with the 2019 protests in Algiers. Human Rights Watch has warned over the deteriorating human rights conditions as helicopters hovered around the protesters. [16]
On 12 March, large protests was held across Algiers, rejecting early legislative elections announced the day before, as weekly rallies by the resurgent Hirak pro-democracy movement gain momentum. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced legislative elections for 12 June, chanting "لا انتخابات مع عصابات المافيا "و" دولة مدنية لا عسكرية ". People also took to the streets in other parts of the country, including northwestern Oran, central Tizi Ouzou and eastern Annaba. Tens of thousands of female students now demonstrate side by side with the elderly, lawyers next to the unemployed, doctors with sanitation workers. [17][18]
On 19 March, thousands protested in Algiers to protest for press freedom, judicial independence and improvement of freedom of expression. "Return the power to the people", protesters demanded, addressing the ruling class. Demonstrators also criticised President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s decision to call early elections on June 12 in an attempt to assuage the country's political and economic crisis. Tebboune has reached out to the protest movement while also seeking to neutralise it. "No elections with the mafia gang (in power)", protesters chanted. Local media reported demonstrations in several other cities, despite poor weather. [19]
On 26 March, protesters held marches calling for reforms due to economic crisis and political tensions, students were arrested during rallies in Algiers. On 28 March, women and young men chanted slogans and demanded the government to release the students arrested during recent demonstrations. The students were later released. [20]
On April 2, Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully in huge peaceful protests commemorating the ouster of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Many participants sang, brandished the Algerian flag and shouted slogans that included "No to the military state" and "We won’t stop until the Hirak wins" under the watch of police helicopters.
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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Covid-19: 18,762 new cases bring total to 1,765,016
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PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 18,762 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday (Sept 1), bringing the cumulative total to 1,765,016. In a tweet on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said of the figure, 18,757 were local infections while five were imported cases. Another 278 people succumbed to Covid-19, bringing the country's death toll to 16,942. It also said there were 21,073 recoveries for a total of 1,482,800 to date. The number of active cases is now 265,274. Of this number, 1,007 are in intensive care units (ICU), with 464 requiring ventilator support. Selangor recorded the highest number of cases at 3,711, followed by Sabah (2,430) and Sarawak (2,414).
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Disease Outbreaks
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PFAS report reveals contamination at RAAF base, while MFS begins investigation at station
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The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) has warned a poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) scare at an Adelaide fire station could also impact firefighter's families.
It comes as the Department of Defence release a report into the same chemical at the RAAF Base Edinburgh.
PFAS testing at the Largs North fire station, in Adelaide's north-west, started today after blood tests found high levels of the chemical in firefighters from the site.
Soon after it was revealed staff grew their own fruit and vegetables and looked after chickens at the station.
The MFS has now collected eggs and fruit for testing, but said the station would remain open.
"At the moment there is no other cluster forming that we know of," MFS scientific officer Krystle Mitchell said.
Samples will be sent interstate and results are expected by Christmas.
She said up to 20 staff members had eaten the potentially polluted produce and said they would be testing soil, water and the produce.
"We've tested eggs, we're going to test some fruit, we're also going to test the feed they [give] the chickens and then we'll take some samples from inside the station," she said.
"We haven't proved we are the source of the pollutant.
"We need to determine where the source is."
Family members of firefighters have been warned not to consume any produce from the station and will be provided with a free blood test.
Concerns about contamination in suburbs surrounding the Edinburgh RAAF base were raised earlier this year by Salisbury Council.
Today, a report released by the Department of Defence found 12 areas that had "a significant source of PFAS contamination" on the base.
However, the report said there was not yet evidence that any off-site exposure had occurred.
The two-year investigation into the base confirmed PFAS levels above health guidelines for drinking water had been detected in soil and groundwater.
Almost 1500 samples — including those from private water supplies, rainwater tanks and dams — were taken.
PFAS contamination is emerging as a major ongoing Australian public health issue.
The report found defence personnel, maintenance workers and visitors might have been exposed to PFAS contamination as well as people who caught consumable fish from the Kaurna Park Wetland and off-site users of groundwater.
Importantly, no PFAS contamination was identified in the deeper "T1 Tertiary Aquifer", used by market gardeners and commercial irrigators.
"In samples taken off-base, PFAS concentrations above the human health guidance values were limited to shallow groundwater and edible aquatic biota, including fish and yabbies, within the Kaurna Park Wetland," the department stated.
"The results from samples taken at private properties were all below human health guidance values."
In May, an independent panel established by the Federal Government found limited evidence to link PFAS exposure to disease, but said health impacts could not be ruled out.
While it concluded there was no increase in overall cancer risk, it did note the "most concerning signal reported" in the scientific studies was a "possible link" with testicular and kidney cancer.
The MFS said there was no standard definition of what constituted a "normal level" of PFAS in the blood.
Adelaide GP Geoffrey Verrall, who has helped the MFS with its blood testing, said about 85 per cent of the global population had some level of contamination.
"Once it's in your body, it takes about three to five years… to reduce, so it's a substance that's very difficult to clear," he said.
The report into the Edinburgh RAAF base made recommendations including an ongoing monitoring program and further groundwater investigations.
The United Firefighters Union has warned the Largs North station will need to close if an ongoing contamination risk was found.
However, it acknowledged that a closure could have serious consequences.
"With relocating it can extend the response time," union secretary Max Adlan said.
"Those extra minutes that it can take if they're relocated away from the peninsula could put [lives] at risk."
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said it had no plans to carry out testing of surrounding sites.
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Environment Pollution
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2013 Helicópteros del Pacífico Mil Mi-8 crash
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On 7 April 2013, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter operated by Helicópteros del Pacífico (Helipac) broke up in flight and crashed en route from Iquitos to a Perenco site near the Curaray River, in the Loreto Region of Peru. All 13 people on board were killed. The occupants, all Peruvian nationals, were nine passengers and four crew. Among the passengers were Perenco workers and other contractors. [1][2]
The accident investigation by the Peruvian Comisión De Investigación De Accidentes De Aviación (Aviation Accidents Investigation Commission) established that while the aircraft was cruising at an altitude of 700 metres (2,300 ft), a luggage net that was improperly placed in a rear fuselage compartment became entangled with the tail rotor's transmission shaft and control cables, causing the cables to snap and resulting in a total loss of directional control. The crew then attempted an emergency landing by performing an autorotation, but likely over-control by the pilot while flaring over densely forested terrain resulted in the main rotor's blades striking the tail boom, severing it from the fuselage. The aircraft then crashed to the ground out of control. [3]
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Air crash
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The Bahamas’ $10.4bn national debt is bigger than the size of its economy, it was confirmed yesterday, further exposing the “daunting challenge” the Government faces in tackling twin economic and fiscal crises
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#The Bahamas’ $10.4bn national debt is bigger than the size of its economy, it was confirmed yesterday, further exposing the “daunting challenge” the Government faces in tackling twin economic and fiscal crises. #The Central Bank’s affirmation that The Bahamas’ national debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 100.4 percent at end-June 2021 was said by economists and fiscal observers to illustrate “the enormity of the work ahead” for the newly-elected Davis administration to pull the country out of its public finances tailspin. #The regulator, in its quarterly review for the three months to end-June 2021, revealed that the past year’s borrowing to keep Bahamian society and the economy afloat amid the devastation inflicted by COVID-19 had produced a $1.45bn increase in the national debt. This, in turn, has driven it to a size greater than the country’s total economic output. #With the Government’s direct debt increasing to 96.3 percent of GDP at the end of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, a 13.6 percentage point rise year-over-year, some $420.7m worth of liabilities guaranteed on behalf of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) pushed the national debt beyond the size of an economy thought to have contracted by up to $2bn as a result of the pandemic. #“The national debt-to-GDP rose to an estimated 100.4 percent, compared to 89.9 percent in the same quarter last year. While extraordinarily elevated because of the contraction in the nominal GDP, the ratios will remain expanded significantly above pre-pandemic levels after the nominal GDP recovers in the near to medium-term,” the Central Bank warns. #Its revelation places The Bahamas in unwanted, and uncharted, territory with a shrunken economy weighed down by a bigger national debt. While the economy is projected to regain much of its former strength and size by year-end 2023, due to the tourism industry’s rebound, the Central Bank is warning that the country’s debt levels and ratios will remain extremely high into the medium term. #Rupert Pinder, the economist who lectures at the University of The Bahamas (UoB), told Tribune Business that the Central Bank report represented an unfortunate vindication of what he had been arguing since last year. #He suggested then that the national debt was getting perilously close to matching the economy’s size, and said yesterday: “This is something I have said over and over again; that we were approaching a 100 percent debt-to-GDP mark. #“This report only gives a confirmation of what I have been saying all along. I don’t know how to say it better than that. We were certainly on track with our earlier estimates in terms of percentage. I think it’s fair to say this points to the enormity of the work that lies ahead; the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead.” #The Minnis administration’s 2020-2021 fourth quarter and full-year fiscal “snapshot”, though, had pegged the Government’s direct debt at 86.3 percent of GDP - a full 10 percentage points below the Central Bank. This was despite the two using very similar debt figures of $9.909bn and $9.935bn. The fiscal “snapshot” gave no ratio for the $10.356bn national debt. #Branville McCartney, the former Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader, described the 100 percent debt-to-GDP ratio as “very frightening” and said it indicated The Bahamas’ economic and fiscal position is “a little worse than expected”. #“That’s even more reason for the Government to get to work and put certain priorities in place,” he told this newspaper. “We are in crisis, from an economic and financial point of view, to say the least. That’s very daunting for the new government in terms of reorganising and restructuring what needs to be done. It’s a very daunting situation. #“That’s not good news for the Government and, more particularly, it’s not good news for The Bahamas; not good news at all. The question is: How is the Government going to deal with it. The outlook, although we knew it was bad, is a little worse than expected. The Government has got some work to do, I can tell you that. #“It’s very frightening. As a citizen of this country as well, it’s very, very frightening. They’ve got to put some boots on the ground in terms of being very deliberate in how they deal with the financial situation, very deliberate, and getting the best minds together to get us out of this crisis. That’s what we’re in; a financial crisis. Period.” #Rick Lowe, an executive with the Nassau Institute think-tank, told Tribune Business that he had long anticipated The Bahamas’ national debt expanding to match the economy’s size ever since fiscal deficits began to explode in size in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis when the last Ingraham administration was in office. #“It’s been anticipated, but anticipated for a long time,” Mr Lowe said of the Central Bank’s report. “We anticipated this. It’s just here a little earlier because of Dorian and COVID-19. It’s a challenge for the new government, that’s for sure. We knew it’s a challenge for all of us, but it’s definitely a challenge for the new government to work in. #“It’s one thing that revenues are down, but spending hasn’t stopped and likely had to be increased for the election, so the fiscal position can only be worse. The biggest challenge for this new government is spending, and how they bring that under control.” #And Mr Lowe added: “Will this government be honest enough to admit the country is headed in the wrong direction? Rather than tweaking public policies, they need to do what New Zealand did to turn itself around, with less onerous regulation and lower taxes. Those are two of the primary ones. #“You cannot just keep tweaking, tweaking and, all of a sudden, increase borrowing and load up the public sector with more people. If you don’t expand the economy you are headed for a fall, headed for the cliff. I wish the new government the best of luck because the country needs it.” #Mr Davis, in his initial addresses as prime minister, has pledged that he and his administration will tackle The Bahamas’ woes head-on. He added that there would be “no tinkering at the edges” given the breadth and extent of The Bahamas’ economic, health and fiscal crises, and yesterday said: “The many challenges we face mean we have to put all hands on deck.” #However, another sobering revelation from the Central Bank’s quarterly economic report is that the Government’s foreign currency debt now exceeds $5bn and is close to 50 percent of the total national debt. #“The public sector’s foreign currency debt grew by $352.6m (7.4 percent) to $5.091bn during the second quarter, and by $1.301bn (34.3 percent) relative to the same period last year,” the Central Bank said, in a nod to the fact that more than 90 percent of the Government’s 2020-2021 borrowing was in foreign currency to help prop up the external reserves. #“In comparison to the same quarter of 2020, total foreign currency debt service payments rose by $37.7m (47.6 percent) to $116.3m. Underlying this outturn, government’s debt service payments moved higher by $42.1m (73.4 percent) to $99.6m, as interest charges expanded by $42.8m (84.8 percent) to $93.3m, while amortisation payments fell by $0.6m (9.3 percent) to $6.3m.” #Mr Pinder yesterday reiterated his concerns about the growing pressure rising foreign currency debt will impose on the external reserves, and tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI), to generate sufficient inflows to cover higher repayment costs. #“It tells you again the enormity of the challenge, having to service that debt from our foreign reserves,” he told Tribune Business, adding that the Government has greater flexibility to manage its Bahamian dollar-denominated debt. When will all of the new cabinet ministers, new permanent secretaries, etc. be getting their fancy new cars?
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Financial Crisis
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1932 Kimberley rescue crash
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In 1932, pilot Hans Bertram and mechanic Adolph Klausmann were rescued while attempting to circumnavigate the world in a Junkers W 33 seaplane. After departing Koepang, Dutch Timor, they endured a storm in the Timor Sea on 15 May and were forced to land in a remote coastal area of the Kimberley region in northern Western Australia. The stranded men spent almost six weeks severely deprived of food and water and were close to death when they were rescued by a group of local Aboriginal fishermen on 22 June. On 29 February 1932 four aviators flew out of Cologne, Germany on a round-the-world flight attempt. The group comprised pilot Hans Bertram, co-pilot Thom, mechanic Adolph Klausmann and cameraman Alexander von Lagorio, and was intended to find potential markets for Germany's aviation industry as well as a goodwill tour visiting German communities along the route. The plane was a Junkers W 33 seaplane (float configuration), registration D-1925, named Atlantis. [1]
Over ten weeks, the group successfully flew through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and Dutch Timor. After arriving in Jakarta, it was agreed that Bertram and Klausmann would continue flying down the Indonesian archipelago and on to Australia, while Thom and von Lagorio would travel separately and the four would rendezvous in Shanghai, China. Their engine was overhauled in the Dutch naval aerodrome in Soerabaja (now Surabaya), Dutch East Indies and the pair departed from there on 13 May, stopping for fuel at a bay near Koepang (now Kupang) in the western part of Dutch Timor the following day. At midnight on 14 May Bertram and Klausmann left Koepang for Darwin, expecting the 450 nautical miles (830 km; 520 mi) trip to take about 5 or 6 hours. They flew over the Timor Sea and had intended to land at dawn the next day but they encountered a severe storm and, low on fuel, were forced to land their seaplane in the first sheltered bay they found. They had put down on the Kimberley coast, hundreds of kilometres west of the intended destination; while they guessed that they had landed somewhere on Melville Island, north of Darwin, they were actually at Cape St Lambert (14°20′1.2″S 127°46′45.4″E / 14.333667°S 127.779278°E / -14.333667; 127.779278), just north of the mouth of the Berkeley River on the western coastline of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and about 370 kilometres (230 mi) south-west of Melville Island. Extremely isolated and surrounded by harsh bush, on the first night they were visited by an Aboriginal man but were unable to communicate successfully and he left them. The aviators, with only 15 litres (3.3 imp gal; 4.0 US gal) of fuel left, decided to attempt a take off and head west in what they thought was the direction of Darwin. They managed to get airborne but were forced to land again in another bay about 35 kilometres (22 mi) away, their engine cutting out as the plane ran out of fuel and rolled up a small beach. Being unable to find water, they could only think that the Aboriginal man they had met in the other bay might be able to provide help, so they secured the plane and set out to walk back to the previous bay. They were plagued by heat, thirst and hunger and were overwhelmed by swarms of flies. After attempting to swim across an inlet they were chased by a crocodile and lost their clothes. Barefoot and naked they abandoned the search and resolved to return to the plane. After seven days of walking a more inland route, and without water, clothes or footwear, and ravaged by mosquitoes and completely exhausted they arrived back at the seaplane. Now thirteen days into the ordeal, the pair drained the radiator of the remaining water and removed one of the seaplane floats to use as a makeshift kayak and started paddling in a westerly direction. The ship MV Koolinda passed by only 500 metres (1,640 ft) away but did not see them. They paddled for four days and nights and eventually came ashore north of Cape Bernier, east of King George River. Still thinking that they were on Melville Island they decided to walk overland to find civilisation, but when they discovered that they were not on an island they returned to the float. The float had been damaged, so to be able to paddle it again they had to cut off a section. The shortened float was not as seaworthy as previously used, so they only got a few kilometres before deciding it was too dangerous to continue and they returned to shore where they found shelter under a rock ledge at Cape Bernier. They remained there until being finally rescued. The Dutch gunboat HNLMS Flores set out from Surabaya four days after the disappearance to search along the planned route across the Timor Sea. [2] At the request of the German Consul-General, the Western Australian government also commenced a land, sea and air search of possible landing sites. A West Australian Airways de Havilland DH.50 mail plane was chartered for the purpose. [3] Coastal ships from the State Shipping Service were also notified to be on the lookout. On 13 June a foot search by native trackers found a cigarette case bearing the initials "HB" and a handkerchief which were handed to a missionary passing in a boat. The details of the location were vague however and a malfunctioning telegraph delayed the information getting to the correct authorities; when it eventually did the land search was resumed with increased vigour. Sixty people were directly involved in the search which by now had received widespread publicity. [4]
The seaplane was located by a search aircraft on a beach near Rocky Island, 160 kilometres (99 mi) from Wyndham on 15 June but there was no sign of the men. Several days later, the Wyndham Meat Works launch Kimberley arrived at the site and found a note left by the airmen: "27 May 1932. Australia. Today we left the plane in float as a boat in a westerly direction. Bertram." On 22 June, the men were found sheltering in a cave near Cape Bernier by a group of Aboriginal people. [5][6] They were near death and had been lost for 39 days. A police overland party under Constable Marshall arrived a week later and they were taken to the hospital at Wyndham by boat, arriving there on 6 July. The ordeal had taken 53 days. Klausmann had become demented as a result of the tribulations and needed to be restrained. After convalescing in Wyndham, both men were taken to Perth—Bertram accepted an offer of a flight in West Australian Airways mailplane, departing from Wyndham on 13 July. The plane was greeted by a crowd of 6,000 at Maylands Aerodrome. [7] In the evening, Bertram made a radio broadcast from the Australian Broadcasting Commission's offices of 6WF, which was the first public relay from Western Australia to the Eastern states. In Perth, Bertram was befriended by and stayed with the founder of West Australian Airways, Norman Brearley. [8] He returned to the site of the abandoned plane on 18 September with Fred Sexton, a WAA mechanic. [9] They brought with them fuel and a replacement float from a de Havilland DH.50 which they managed to fit to the Junkers; they then flew the plane to Perth.
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Air crash
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Everything to Know About Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon's Relationship
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Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon shocked the world when they married on the beach in the Bahamas in 2008 after just a few weeks of dating. The singer-songwriter had previously been married to Sony executive Tommy Mottola and had a few more public relationships with baseball star Derek Jeter and musician Luis Miguel, but her whirlwind romance with Nick, who was then best known for his hosting gig on MTV, surprised and delighted fans. In true music world fashion, the two fell for each other on the set of one of Mariah’s music videos and the fairytale continued for several years, starting with a candy-centric proposal at Mariah’s New York City penthouse. Throughout their marriage, Mariah and Nick celebrated their love with a literal “Cinderella” vow renewal at Disneyland, an adorable set of twins, and even commemorative wedding tattoos. Though their relationship ran its course, the two continue to be friendly today and co-parent their twins. Discover the relationship timeline of Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey — two superstars who fell in love and made each other’s dreams come true for a moment in time. Getty Images Mariah and Nick initially met at the Teen Choice Awards in 2005, where he presented her with the surfboard award for Choice Music R&B Artist. At the time, Mariah was riding high on the success of her album The Emancipation of Mimi, and Nick was working on his MTV show Wild ‘N Out. In her autobiography, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Mariah wrote that she’d heard Nick was saying “nice things” about her. ″With a genuine beaming smile and a flame in his eyes, he replied, 'If you give me a chance, I'll prove all of it is true.’” Getty Images Mariah cast Nick as the love interest in her video for “Bye Bye” and the sparks were flying. In her book, Mariah said she was attracted to the musician and entrepreneur because she felt safe with him and didn’t feel like they were operating on different levels both personally and professionally. “He was faith-based. He was ambitious,” Mariah wrote. “He had been in the entertainment industry for a long time, so he understood the madness. He paid attention to me.” Nick agreed that their similar backgrounds and knowledge of the industry helped them connect. “I always used to say it worked so well because it was a healthy balance,” he shared. “I had no problem falling back. It was never a competition with me. It was like ‘I’ll turn mine off so she can turn hers on.’ I was comfortable in myself and who I was.” Getty Images Nick actually popped the question to his famous bride twice—first with a 17-carat pink diamond ring by Jacob & Co. hidden in a Ring Pop candy, and then again on a romantic helicopter ride over New York City. Sounds like a fairytale, right? Even the superstar herself was a bit blown away. “They’ve been calling me Cinderella since I first started out,” Mariah said at the time. “Most people would think, 'Okay, please! This doesn’t happen in real life.'” However, their romance was real and things moved quickly; the two kept their relationship and engagement low-key to avoid prying eyes and gossip. “We really kept the whole relationship aspect of it quiet,” Mariah recalled. “We didn’t want to give people a chance to be like, ‘What are you doing? What are you talking about? This is so quick...Are you sure?’” Nick and Mariah’s relationship worked because they understood each other and were forthright about their expectations. “We were both at this place where relationships really aren’t our thing but we like each other,” Cannon said of their whirlwind courtship and wedding. “We talked everything out. What if this and what if that. We talked about how much fun it would be if we just got married three weeks into knowing each other. It was more that whimsical fantasy idea of let’s have as much fun as we possibly can and when it no longer feels like fun, when it feels like a task and a job, then we should amicably be able to move on.” Getty Images Nick and Mariah shocked the world when they announced that they had gotten married at Mariah’s home in the Bahamas. The two had only been dating for about six weeks when they decided to tie the knot. “We really do feel we are soulmates,” Mariah told People at the time. “I never felt a love like this was in the cards for me.” As for Nick, he said of his bride, “She is beautiful on the outside and 10 times as beautiful on the inside.” Unlike her first wedding to music exec Tommy Mottola, where she wore a massive Princess Diana-style gown, Mariah opted for a slim, beachy slip dress by designer Nile Cmylo, along with a simple shoulder-length veil for her second wedding. She finished off her bridal look with a pair of bedazzled slingback Christian Louboutin stilettos. The couple jumped into the ocean together after saying their vows and later got tattoos to commemorate the special day. Nick inked Mariah’s name on his shoulder, while Mimi had “Mrs. Cannon” tattooed on her lower back. Mariah and Nick had so much fun at their wedding that they decided to renew their vows every year on their anniversary. They re-tied the knot in Paris, in a Cinderella-inspired ceremony at Disneyland, and even in the hospital when their twins were born! The Reverend Al Sharpton presided over that ceremony! For their 2010 renewal, Nick gave Mariah a diamond-studded Ring Pop as a nod to their engagement. Moroccan and Monroe Cannon, also known as “dem babies,” were born on April 30, 2011—exactly three years after their famous parents tied the knot. ″Our desire to have children became a force of nature and why we got married so quickly," Mariah shared in her book, noting that before she met Nick, she wasn’t sure she wanted to have kids. Moroccan is named after the Moroccan-themed room in Mariah’s NYC home where the two got engaged, and Monroe is named for—you guessed it—Marilyn Monroe, one of Mariah’s idols. Getty Images The couple separated in 2014 and Nick filed for divorce shortly thereafter, though their divorce wasn’t final until 2016. Things were rocky at first. “Honestly, I think Nick and I could have worked it out between the two of us, but egos and emotions got inflamed (which can translate into many billable lawyer hours, and ultimately it did). It was tough,” Mariah wrote in her book. She also mentioned that their careers had an impact on the end of their marriage. ‘‘Making the necessary adult adjustments to being working parents in entertainment took its toll on our relationship,” she wrote. As for her ex-husband, he believes that their balance continued even in the hard times. “My ego outside the house was grand but in the house it was healthy. I was there to be in support of whatever she wanted to do,” he told Variety. “I mean, it’s Mariah Carey. How am I supposed to be? She’s one of the most talented women to ever [exist on] this planet. I can’t hold a candle to that woman.” Today, the two are committed to their family and continue to co-parent their twins. “We both wanted to make sure everything was cool for our family. We will always be family, and we make it work.″ Their family has changed a bit over the years; Mariah was briefly engaged to billionaire James Packer, and Nick has since welcomed five more children, including another set of twins. Nick previously said that he isn’t interested in marrying again, but if he did, he’d want to reunite with Mimi. “If I was to do it again, it would be to her. It would be Mariah,” Nick said in a podcast interview. “She’s always gonna be someone that I love.”
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Famous Person - Marriage
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1863 Hawke's Bay earthquake
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The 1863 Hawke's Bay earthquake was a devastating magnitude 7.5 Mw earthquake that struck near the town of Waipukurau on 23 February 1863. It remained the single largest earthquake to strike Hawke's Bay until 1931, where a magnitude 7.8 quake leveled much of Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people. New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate 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 Hikurangi Subduction Zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the North Island Fault System (NIFS), which runs from Wellington, up Hawke's Bay and through to Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty. The 1863 earthquake is believed to have occurred outside the Mohaka Fault, just west of Waipukurau. Residents living in Hawke's Bay at the time reported numerous landslides, as well as vast soil liquefaction and the opening of large fissures in the ground. Residents also reported overturned furniture and snapped chimneys. According to The Hawke’s Bay Herald, There was considerable damage to stock in stores and hotels and although some chimney bricks fell through rooves, no major injuries were reported. Houses were shaken off their piles. Aftershocks continued at short intervals for the rest of the morning. [4]
Outside of Hawke's Bay, the earthquake woke many people in Wellington, causing minor structural damage but had a large toll on personal belongings. The Wellington Independent noted that the initial earthquake lasted 30–40 seconds and was followed by several smaller aftershocks. [4]
In Wanganui, the earthquake was described as the sharpest shock in both duration and severity since the magnitude 8.2 Wairarapa earthquake in 1855. However, no damage was sustained. [4]
In Nelson the earthquake was felt as three sharp shocks in quick succession at about 1:20 a.m.[4]
In Gisborne the earthquake was felt, but did not do any damage. [5]
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Earthquakes
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1989 Jordanian protests
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The 1989 Jordanian protests (Arabic: هبة نيسان, April boon) started in Ma'an on 18 April after the government cut food subsidies, increasing its price. Demonstrations and riots quickly reached neighboring southern towns. Protestors accused the government of rampant corruption, and demanded that the prime minister Zaid Al-Rifai be sacked; martial law be lifted; the electoral laws be reformed; and restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press be removed. The Jordanian economy was suffering a recession during that time after Jordan disengaged from the West Bank in 1988. King Hussein responded to the protests by sacking Al-Rifai, lifting martial law that had been in place since 1957, and resuming parliamentary elections that had been paused since 1967. The King also appointed a royal commission to draft the National Charter, a document with a timetable for reforms and democratization acts. Jordan held parliamentary elections on 8 November 1989, the first in 22 years, and the National Charter was drafted in 1990. Some Arab countries, primarily Saudi Arabia, were apprehensive about Jordan's democratization. A general election took place in 1967 just before Jordan lost the West Bank, and when the parliament's tenure ended in 1971, no elections could be held due to the fact that the West Bank was under Israeli occupation. In 1984, Hussein appointed a parliament from both banks of the Jordan River. [2]
Jordan's disengagement from the West Bank (renouncing claim of sovereignty and cutting administrative links) the previous year in July 1988, proved to be depressing for the economy. [2] Jordan's foreign debt was double that of its gross national product (GNP). [2] Jordan was combating an economic crisis with austerity measures, Western economists attributed the crisis due to government overspending. [3] The Jordanian dinar had lost a third of its value in 1988. [3]
An IMF statement read: "Jordan agreed to strengthen foreign reserves, reduce inflation through tight credit policies and improve the current account balance. It also pledged to reform the tax system and reduce its budget deficit. "[2]
On 16 April, the Government increased prices of gasoline, licensing fees, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, between 15% to 50%, in a bid to increase revenues per an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). [3] The IMF agreement was to enable Jordan to reschedule its $6 billion debt, and obtain loans totaling $275 million over 18 months. [3] On 18 April, riots from Ma'an spread to other southern towns like Al-Karak and Tafila, where The New York Times reported that around 4,000 people gathered in the streets and clashed with the police. [3] 6 protestors were killed, and 42 were injured, while 2 policemen were killed and 47 were injured in the clashes. [1]
Despite the fact that the protests were triggered by a troubling economic situation, the crowd's demands became political. [2] Protestors accused the government of rampant corruption, and demanded that the prime minister Zaid Al-Rifai be sacked; martial law be lifted; the electoral laws be reformed; and restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press be removed. [2]
Hussein relented to the demands by dismissing Zaid Al-Rifai, and appointing Zaid ibn Shaker to form a new government. In 1986 a new electoral law was passed, thus the decision to reintroduce parliamentary elections went smoothly. [2] The cabinet passed amendments to the electoral law that excluded articles dealing with West Bank representation. [2]
In May 1989 just before the elections, Hussein announced his intentions of appointing a 60-person royal commission to draft a reformist document named the National Charter. The National Charter sought to set a timetable for democratization acts. Although most members of the commission were regime loyalists, it included a number of opposition figures and critics. [2]
Parliamentary elections were held on 8 November 1989, the first in 22 years (since 1967). [4] The National Charter was drafted and ratified by parliament in 1991. [2]
Prince Ra'ad bin Zeid, Hussein's cousin who was Lord Chamberlain of Jordan, later said in an interview about Jordan's 1989 moves towards democracy:
Many Arab leaders were not pleased about this. They felt that King Hussein was letting the genie out of the bottle. In addition, they accused him of interfering indirectly in their domestic politics. They were especially critical of the notion of citizens' rights. The Saudis and others felt that Shari'a law included that. They were apprehensive. They did not understand the relevancy of democracy to the Saudi people. For them the Shari'a law was all that the Saudi people needed. [5]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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U.S. climate envoy Kerry urges China to keep politics out of global warming
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U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is seen on a screen with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting via video link as Kerry visits Tianjin, China September 1, 2021. U.S. Department of State/Handout via REUTERS
SHANGHAI, Sept 2 (Reuters) - U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told Chinese leaders that climate change was more important than politics, he said on Thursday, responding to warnings that diplomatic tensions between the two countries could undermine cooperation on cutting emissions.
"My response to them was, look, climate is not ideological, not partisan, and not a geostrategic weapon," Kerry told reporters after two days of talks with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in the northern city of Tianjin. read more The United States, which has resumed its role in global climate diplomacy after a four-year hiatus under President Donald Trump, has long hoped to keep climate issues separate from its disputes with China on issues such as trade, human rights and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas China believes they should be linked.
China's State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Kerry that the United States saw the two sides' joint efforts against global warming as an "oasis", the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"But surrounding the oasis is a desert, and the oasis could be desertified very soon," he said, speaking by video link on Wednesday. "China-U.S. climate co-operation cannot be separated from the wider environment of China-U.S. relations.
Kerry told Wang that Washington wanted China to do more on climate, a State Department spokesperson said.
"Secretary Kerry affirmed that the United States remains committed to co-operating with the world to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands, and encouraged the PRC to take additional steps to reduce emissions," the spokesperson said.
In a separate video meeting with Kerry, Chinese vice premier Han Zheng urged the United States to "create a good atmosphere of co-operation", state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, adding that Kerry responded that the United States was willing to improve communications between the two countries. CLIMATE ACTIVISTS HOPE FOR MORE
Climate watchers hope the talks will bring more ambitious pledges from both countries to fight greenhouse gas emissions.
"The G2 (China and the United States) need to realise that beyond their bilateral oasis and desert, the whole planet is at stake," said Li Shuo, a senior climate adviser with environmental group Greenpeace.
"If they don't make joint climate progress fast enough, it is soon all going to be desert."
The Tianjin meeting is the second between Kerry and Xie, following one in April in Shanghai. Kerry's remit is limited to climate change issues.
Though Wang warned that climate change could now be tied to other diplomatic issues, China has said its efforts to cut emissions and adopt cleaner forms of energy are vital to its ambitious domestic agenda.
"Chinese leaders have long said they are engaged in climate action not because of outside pressure, but because it benefits China and the world at large," said Alex Wang, a climate expert and professor at UCLA.
"If that is so, then U.S.-China tensions should not slow Chinese climate action."
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday paid tribute to outgoing German chancellor Angela Merkel, commending her 16-year leadership of Europe's largest economy and describing her as a "very good person".
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Diplomatic Visit
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Automotive Grade Linux Announces New Instrument Cluster Expert Group and UCB 8.0 Code Release
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Aug 22, 2019 — Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), an open source project developing a shared software platform for in-vehicle technology, today announced a new working group focused on Instrument Cluster solutions, as well as the latest code release of the AGL platform, the UCB 8.0. The AGL Instrument Cluster Expert Group (EG) is working to reduce the footprint of AGL and optimize the platform for use in lower performance processors and low-cost vehicles that do not require an entire infotainment software stack. Formed earlier this year, the group plans to release design specifications later this year with an initial code release in early 2020. “AGL is now supported by nine major automotive manufacturers, including the top three producers by worldwide volume, and is currently being used in production for a range of economy and luxury vehicles” said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux at the Linux Foundation. “The new Instrument Cluster Expert Group, supported by several of these automakers, will expand the use cases for AGL by enabling the UCB platform to support solutions for lower-cost vehicles, including motorcycles.” Unified Code Base 8.0AGL is also announcing the latest UCB 8.0 code release. Developed through a joint effort by AGL member companies, the AGL Unified Code Base (UCB) is an open source software platform that can serve as the de facto industry standard for infotainment, telematics and instrument cluster applications. The AGL UCB 8.0, nicknamed “Happy Halibut,” includes an operating system, middleware and application framework. New updates to the platform include:
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Organization Established
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Brazil dam collapse toll rises to 84, mining firm’s output to be hit
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The death toll from the collapse of a Brazilian dam rose to 84 on Tuesday as mining giant Vale announced that moves to dismantle similar structures would hit production. Brazilian authorities are stepping up their probe of Vale, with five engineers involved in the operating licenses and the last inspection of the dam arrested on prosecutors’ orders in the state of Minas Gerais, where the disaster occurred Friday at one of the firm’s mines. Flavio Godinho, Civil Defense spokesman in Minas Gerais, said the death toll had increased from 65 to 84, while the number of missing fell from 292 to 276. Shares in Vale — the world’s biggest iron ore miner — meanwhile ticked up nearly two percent in Sao Paulo, still far from recovering from a 24-percent wipeout suffered on Monday. The company said it will freeze operations around 10 dams in Brazil to dismantle structures such as the one that resulted in the Friday disaster — a move that will reduce annual iron ore production by 10 percent or 40 million tons. The dam collapse at the Vale mine near the town of Brumadinho occurred three years after a similar disaster at another one of its sights in the same region. That 2015 dam rupture, near Mariana, killed 19 people and caused what was considered the worst environmental catastrophe Brazil had seen. After the latest disaster, credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Vale’s score, and Moody’s said it had the company under review for a downgrade. Three US law firms were also making moves toward starting a class-action lawsuit against the miner. Brazilian media speculated that Vale’s board and top executives might be replaced. The overwhelming majority of the dead and missing were workers at the mine. Authorities have ordered $3 billion in Vale assets be frozen to pay for fines, compensation and employee salaries to families. “If there has truly been negligence or recklessness by certain people in that company, they will face criminal action,” Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao vowed Monday. The search for bodies was ongoing Tuesday, with a team of Israeli soldiers joining Brazilian crews who have been laboriously probing for days the expanse of mud released by the dam. The barrier, which was in the process of being decommissioned, held around 13 million tons of tailings, or sludgy mining waste. Men were digging, often by hand, to depths of up to 15 meters (50 feet) to recover corpses encased in mud. The remains were then bagged and airlifted away by helicopter. The fetid odor of decomposing bodies rose from the brown surface. With a dozen kilometers (eight miles) of mud to carefully scour, the operation has proceeded slowly, barely denting the long list of the missing. Jose Ferreira da Silva, a 55-year-old laborer, was blocked by police as he attempted to enter the zone to look for his 27-year-old son Josue, who worked for a Vale contractor. “We just want to try to do something,” he said, tearfully. No survivors have been found since Saturday, only bodies. Corrego do Feijao, the closest village to the mine, has been in mourning since the disaster. Most of its inhabitants work for Vale, and 20 of their number were missing. “I’m living a horror film. These are people I grew up with. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this,” said Cleyton Candido, who was waiting on news of his missing nephew and several friends. The toxicity of the mineral-laced sludge was not yet known. But an indigenous community downstream complained that fish it relies on for its livelihood were dying. Brazil’s authorities feared pollution from the mine waste could reach hydro-electric power plants between early and mid-February. The environmental group WWF said that a forest area “equivalent to 125 football fields” had been lost, and it was still too early to know the full ecological scope of the disaster. The tragedy has turned public opinion against Vale. On Monday, dozens of people staged a protest with mud in front of the company’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Newspaper editorials blasted it — and the government — for not learning the lessons of the 2015 Mariana disaster. Minas Gerais prosecutors said they have launched a probe “evaluating the criminal responsibility of the Vale company.” The five engineers arrested were part of that investigation. They were to be held for up to 30 days for questioning. Three of the engineers work for Vale and were directly involved in the process of the facility’s operating licenses, the prosecutors said. The other two worked for TUEV SUED, a German company that in September carried out the last safety inspection of the collapsed mine.
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Mine Collapses
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Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–11
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The Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911, or the Westmoreland coal miners' strike,[1] was a strike by coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers of America. The strike is also known as the Slovak Strike because about 70 percent of the miners were Slovak immigrants. [2] It began in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 1910, and ended on July 1, 1911. At its height, the strike encompassed 65 mines and 15,000 coal miners. [2][3] Sixteen people were killed during the strike, nearly all of them striking miners or members of their families. [4] The strike ended in defeat for the union. The Irwin gas coal basin is an area in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It encompasses the townships of North Huntingdon, Penn, Sewickley, Salem, South Huntingdon, Hempfield and Irwin, and the boroughs of Murrysville, Export and Delmont. The coal mined in the district was unsuitable for use as coke. However, it was ideal for gasification and conversion into coal gas. [3]
Seven companies dominated coal mining in the Irwin Basin in 1910. In 1854, the Westmoreland Coal Company was formed to begin mining coal in the region. In 1905, it bought a controlling interest in Penn Gas Coal, a company established in 1861 to gasify coal. Penn Gas Coal, in turn, had obtained a one-third ownership in the Manor Gas Coal Company. Through these purchases, Westmoreland Coal had a near-monopoly on the gas coal market, and was the largest bituminous coal company in Pennsylvania. [3][5] In 1892, Robert Jamison and his sons founded the Jamison Coal and Coke Company (originally the Jamison Coal Company). [6] In 1886, the Berwind family and Judge Allison White founded the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.[7] In 1902, a number of smaller coal gas companies in and around Greensburg, Pennsylvania, merged to form the Keystone Coal and Coke Company. In 1905, Latrobe-Connellsville Coal and Coke Company was formed when Marcus W. Saxman merged three of his wholly owned or controlled coal companies. [8]
These companies were very paternalistic. Company towns (colloquially referred to as "coal patches") were established, company stores founded and workers often paid in company scrip. [3][9]
Coal miners increasingly agitated for improved wages and working conditions after 1900. Miners demanded an eight-hour day and wages equal to those paid in the nearby Pittsburgh coal basin. Since miners were paid by the ton, workers also wanted to standardize the size of coal wagons to ensure they were paid fairly. Miners also sought to be paid for mining "slack" (very fine coal), and for "dead work" (laying of track, shoring up tunnels, pumping out water, and removing slate and clay). [3]
Westmoreland Coal, Penn Gas Coal and Keystone Coal and Coke strongly resisted the miners' demands and any attempt at unionization. Companies used the Coal and Iron Police to physically intimidate and sometimes beat pro-union miners, workers were fired, and coal companies evicted families from the "coal patches" whenever miners struck. [3]
The situation came to a head in 1910. The coal companies reduced wages by 16 percent, paying only 58 cents per ton-and-a-half of coal mined. The breaking point came when Keystone Coal and Coke announced that miners would have to begin using new safety lights and new forms of explosives—and pay for these items themselves. [2]
Miners' unions had tried to organize Westmoreland County coal mines since 1883, but had little success. In February 1910, however, the lower wage rates and new expenses led miners at Keystone Coal and Coke to meet and discuss their grievances among themselves. The miners decided to invite the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to form a union. [2]
On March 7, 1910, Van Bittner, a UMWA vice president, arrived in Westmoreland County and formed a local union. Four hundred miners signed up and paid dues. Keystone Coke and Coal immediately fired 100 miners for attending the union organizing meeting. The Keystone miners walked off the job, and the strike swiftly spread throughout the Irwin Basin. [2]
Union recognition became the biggest issue in the strike. The workers felt that if they could win recognition of the union, their other demands would come easily. [2][10]
When the miners struck on March 9, the coal companies evicted thousands of families from their company-owned homes. UMWA spent $25,000 purchasing tents and constructing shanties, and set up 25 tent cities to accommodate the homeless. Near the town of Export, more than 100 tents went up, making it the largest tent city during the strike. [2][3]
Ethnic tension threatened to divide the nascent union. Slovaks comprised 70 percent of the striking miners, but the strike committee was led by native-born miners of English, German and Irish descent. UMWA organizers Bittner and Frank Hayes worked hard to overcome these divisions, however. Multi-lingual organizers were employed, each ethnic group elected its own representatives, and parades and rallies featured musicians and speakers from all groups. [2]
Public backing for the strike was high. Westmoreland County had a long history of support for unions. Local religious leaders signed petitions in favor of the union, testified before the United States Congress on behalf of workers, and called on the governor and state legislature to force the coal companies to submit to arbitration. [2]
UMWA support for the strike, however, was not nearly as strong. International union president Thomas Lewis had not condoned the strike, and criticized efforts by leaders in surrounding UMWA Districts to drum up increased support for the strikers.
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Strike
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1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion crash
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On October 10, 1933, a Boeing 247 airliner operated by United Airlines and registered as NC13304[1] crashed near Chesterton, Indiana. The transcontinental flight carried three crew and four passengers and originated in Newark, New Jersey, with its final destination in Oakland, California. It had already landed in Cleveland and was headed to its next stop in Chicago when it exploded en route. All aboard died in the crash, which was caused by an on-board explosive device. Eyewitnesses on the ground reported hearing an explosion shortly after 9 p.m. and seeing the aircraft in flames at an altitude of about 1,000 feet (300 m). A second explosion followed after the aircraft crashed. The crash scene was adjacent to a gravel road about 5 miles (8 km) outside of Chesterton, centered in a wooded area on the Jackson Township farm of James Smiley. [2]
Investigators combed through the debris and were confronted with unusual evidence: the toilet and baggage compartment had been smashed into fragments. Shards of metal riddled the inside of the toilet door, while the other side of the door was free of the metal fragments. The tail section had been severed just aft of the toilet and was found mostly intact almost a mile away from the main wreckage. [3]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declassified 324 documents related to the investigation on November 16, 2017. [4]
United States Bureau of Investigation investigator Melvin Purvis said, "Our investigation convinced me that the tragedy resulted from an explosion somewhere in the region of the baggage compartment in the rear of the aircraft. Everything in front of the compartment was blown forward, everything behind blown backward, and things at the side outward." He also noted that the gasoline tanks "were crushed in, showing [that] there was no explosion in them. "[5]
Dr. Carl Davis of the Porter County coroner's office[6] and experts from the Crime Detection Laboratory at Northwestern University[3][7] examined evidence from the crash and concluded that it was caused by a bomb, with nitroglycerin as the probable explosive. One of the passengers was seen[by whom?] carrying a brown package onto the aircraft in Newark, but investigators found the package amidst the wreckage and ruled it out as the source of the explosion. [3] Investigators found a rifle in the wreckage, but they determined that a passenger carried it aboard as luggage, as he was en route to a shoot at Chicago's North Shore Gun Club. [3][6] No suspect was ever identified in this incident and it remains unsolved,[8] but it was the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation. [9]
Pilot Captain Terrant, his co-pilot, stewardess Alice Scribner, and all four passengers were killed. Scribner was the first United stewardess to be killed in an aircraft crash. [8]
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Air crash
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1936 Bundaberg distillery fire
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The 1936 Bundaberg distillery fire was a disaster in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia. In the early evening of 21 November 1936 the Bundaberg Rum Distillery was struck by lightning. The resulting explosion caused a raging inferno within minutes, as the contents of the rum vats fed the flames. There were 63 vats of rum and spirits each containing 10,000 gallons. [1] This spectacular fire drew a large crowd of spectators and police cordoned off the area due to the intense heat. The glow from the flames could be seen as far away as Childers and Gin Gin. By midnight the flames were brought under control but the building itself was in ruins. The damage was estimated to have been approximately £200,000. No deaths or injuries were reported. The fire also had a devastating effect on the wildlife in the adjacent Burnett River with thousands of dead fish washed up on the river bank including sharks, cod, salmon and barramundi. [2] The general manager of the distillery, which was owned by the Millaquin Sugar Company stated it was "one of the biggest fires in the history of the State". [3]
Although it took three years the distillery was rebuilt and is currently operating on the same site today. The State Library of Queensland holds some of the original correspondence and financial records for the Bundaberg Distilling Co. Ltd relating to the 1936 fire. [4]
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Fire
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Westpac hit with a $1.5m fine from APRA for being late with its paperwork
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A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
Westpac has copped a $1.5 million fine for failing to meet its legal obligations to report data on time to the banking regulator, APRA.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority served infringement notices on Westpac and two of its subsidiaries, St George Finance Holdings and Capital Finance Australia, for breaches of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act.
Westpac was up 20 days late in filing March data which was supposed to be in the regulator's hands by May 1.
The two subsidiaries were even more tardy, missing the deadline by up to 37 days.
APRA was unimpressed with Westpac's explanation and served an infringement notice this afternoon.
The cumulative penalty for the three businesses is $1,501,500, which APRA said is the maximum financial penalty it can issue for the infringement notices.
Westpac, like most of the major banks, has spent millions in recent times fixing compliance shortcomings identified by regulators and over the course of the banking royal commission.
APRA deputy chair John Lonsdale said the regulator's reporting standards were legally binding in the same way as its prudential standards.
"Access to accurate and timely data is critical for APRA to monitor effectively the safety and stability of the banking, insurance and superannuation sectors," Mr Lonsdale said.
"By issuing these infringement notices, APRA wants to send a strong message to industry that compliance with our reporting standards is mandatory, and cannot be considered secondary to other business priorities."
This is the question left unanswered by the original settlement proposed by ASIC and Westpac over the bank's alleged responsible lending law breaches.
Westpac said it appreciates the importance of APRA's new Economic and Financial Statistics Collection Program and regrets that it was not able to provide the relevant EFS returns on time.
"Westpac is confident it now has in place processes that will ensure that APRA receives all required data in accordance to agencies' timelines," the bank said in a statement. Westpac and its entities now have until 6 September to pay the fines imposed by the infringement notices.
It should not present a problem — assuming they manage to meet the new deadline — given the fine is effectively a rounding error in last year's $8.1 billion profit, or 0.02 per cent of its last full-year net profit.
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Organization Fine
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Japan August consumer prices flat year/year -govt
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TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Japan's core consumer prices were flat in August, ending a decline for the first time in 13 months, data by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed on Friday. The so-called core-core inflation index, which excludes food and energy prices and is similar to the core index used in the United States, fell 0.5% in August from a year earlier. The core consumer price index data, which excludes volatile fresh foods but includes oil products, matched a median market forecast for a flat reading, following the prior month's 0.2% decline, far below the Bank of Japan's 2% inflation target. Inflation is at a 31-year high. But these Mad Money megatrends could help you fight back. Shares of Paysafe (NYSE: PSFE) plunged on Thursday after the payments platform issued a forecast for sales and profit that fell well short of investors' expectations. As of 2:15 p.m. EST, Paysafe's stock price was down more than 40%. Paysafe's revenue declined by 1% year over year to $353.6 million. (Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk doesn’t exactly sound optimistic about the prospects of Rivian Automotive Inc., even after the rival electric-vehicle maker’s blockbuster IP0.Most Read from BloombergWhy Hong Kong Is Building Apartments the Size of Parking SpacesFarmers Take on ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ Food CrisisGreece’s Popular Islands Are Crowded — With PlasticHong Kong's New Museum Tries to Please Art World — and BeijingTesla Inc.’s chief executive officer said he hopes Rivian can boost production rates an For most of the past two years, all the focus has been on the coronavirus, but these biotechs have big plans to develop inoculations against other diseases, too. Analysts raise their price targets on Nvidia and reiterate positive ratings ahead of the company's quarterly earnings next week. Three of last year's hottest stocks are trading 49% to 57% off their recent highs. Let's go shopping. The CEO of the electric vehicle pioneer detailed his sales to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He exercised 2.2 million options, sold some to pay income tax, and then sold 3.6 million more shares. Rivian's debut in the public markets has investors buying up shares of other EV sector start-ups. CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report" panel focused on lithium stocks Thursday as they selected their top picks for 2022. Market Rebellion co-founder Jon Najarian named QuantumScape Corp (NYSE: QS) his top stock for 2022. "You just can't have enough lithium right now," Najarian said. He noted that there are other viable stocks to buy in the lithium recycling space, but reaffirmed that QuantumScape is his top pick. See Also: Quantumscape Insider Sold Over .8M In Company Stock Requisite Capital Mana Negative headlines have come in rapid fire for the company in recent weeks—and it dramatically missed sales estimates for the third quarter. Shares of solar energy stocks jumped almost across the board on Thursday as the industry got some good news about potential tariffs. Asian solar panel manufacturers led the way, but everyone from residential solar installers to adjacent equipment manufacturers experienced at least a small bounce. At their peaks Thursday, Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) was up 15.6%, Daqo New Energy (NYSE: DQ) gained 10.3%, JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) was up 11.9%, and Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) popped by 8.9%. Every stock has a backstory, and the backstories offer hints and clues to what lies ahead. A smart investor will learn which clues or signals bode best for the stock. These are the ones to follow. One sound signal is insider buying. These insiders are corporate officers; they hold positions of high trust and responsibility in their companies, with accountability to shareholders and Boards for company success and profits – and they have deep knowledge of the company’s inner workings and plans. In Tesla CEO weighs in on Twitter on a blockbuster week for EV maker Rivian, the biggest IPO of the year. The recent spin-off of its managed infrastructure business into a company called Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) removes a noncore business from its balance sheet. Also, management promised that the two companies would maintain the current combined dividend. Shares of several related stocks are ripping higher today, suggesting that investors are feeling especially bullish on the prospects of the EV industry. Nio (NYSE: NIO) is up 6.1%. Fisker (NYSE: FSR) is up 15.9%. Investors need not worry about these stocks, yielding from just over 3% to nearly 9%, being yield traps. Share prices of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) jumped 10% on Monday, Nov. 8, after the chipmaker announced that Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) has adopted its EPYC server CPUs (central processing units). AMD stock closed the day at an all-time high as investors cheered the news, which isn't surprising as the new business could significantly boost the chipmaker's growth in the long run. Let's see why the adoption of AMD's server chips by Meta is going to be a big deal.
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Financial Crisis
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Great Dayton Flood 1913
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The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 resulted from flooding by the Great Miami River reaching Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history. In response, the General Assembly passed the Vonderheide Act to enable the formation of conservancy districts. The Miami Conservancy District, which included Dayton and the surrounding area, became one of the first major flood control districts in Ohio and the United States. [1]
The Dayton flood of March 1913 was caused by a series of severe winter rainstorms that hit the Midwest in late March. Within three days, 8–11 inches (200–280 mm) of rain fell throughout the Great Miami River watershed on already saturated soil,[2] resulting in more than 90 percent runoff. The river and its tributaries overflowed. The existing levees failed, and downtown Dayton was flooded up to 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. This flood is still the flood of record for the Great Miami River watershed. The volume of water that passed through the river channel during this storm equaled the monthly flow over Niagara Falls. [3]
The Great Miami River watershed covers nearly 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2) and 115 miles (185 km) of channel that feeds into the Ohio River. [4] Other Ohio cities also had flooding from these storms but none as extensive as the cities of Dayton, Piqua, Troy, and Hamilton, along the Great Miami River. [5]
Dayton was founded along the Great Miami River at the convergence of its three tributaries: the Stillwater River, the Mad River, and Wolf Creek. The city's central business district developed within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the confluence of these waterways. [4] When Israel Ludlow laid out Dayton in 1795, the local Indigenous Peoples warned him about the recurring flooding[citation needed]. Prior to the 1913 flood, the Dayton area had suffered major floods nearly every other decade, with major water flows in 1805, 1828, 1847, 1866, and 1898. [6] Most of downtown Dayton was built in the Great Miami River's natural flood plain, which seemed advantageous in the early years when cities depended on rivers for transportation needs. The storms that caused the flood at Dayton continued over several days, and affected an area across all or parts of more than a dozen states, most notably states in the Midwest and along the Mississippi River. [7][8][9] Heavy rain and snow saturated the soil and produced widespread flooding, known as the Great Flood of 1913, across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, and Pennsylvania. [10][11]
The following events took place in Dayton between March 21 and March 26, 1913. [4]
Friday, March 21, 1913
Saturday, March 22, 1913
Sunday, March 23, 1913 (Easter Sunday)
Monday, March 24, 1913
Tuesday, March 25, 1913
Wednesday, March 26, 1913
Ohio governor James M. Cox sent the Ohio National Guard to protect property and life and to support the city's recovery efforts. The Guard was not able to reach the city for several days because of the high water conditions throughout the state. They built refugee camps, sheltering people in tents who had been permanently or temporarily displaced from their homes. [4]
Initial access was provided by the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad and Terminal Company, the only line not affected by the flood. [14]
Governor Cox called on the state legislature to appropriate $250,000 (about $11 million in today's dollars) for emergency aid and declared a 10-day bank holiday. [15] When newly elected President Woodrow Wilson sent telegrams to the governors of Ohio and Indiana asking how the federal government might help, Cox replied with a request for tents, rations, supplies, and physicians. [16] Governor Cox sent a telegram to the American Red Cross headquarters in Washington D.C. requesting their assistance in Dayton and surrounding communities. [17] Its agents and nurses focused their efforts in 112 of Ohio's hardest-hit communities, which included Dayton and others located primarily along Ohio's major rivers. [18]
Some of the Dayton flood victims made their way to National Cash Register's factory and headquarters, where John H. Patterson, the company's president, and his factory workers assisted flood victims and relief workers. [15] NCR employees built nearly 300 flat-bottomed rescue boats. [5] Patterson organized rescue teams to save the thousands of people stranded on roofs and the upper stories of buildings. [6] He turned the NCR factory on Stewart Street into an emergency shelter, providing food and lodging. He organized local doctors and nurses to provide medical care. [5] NCR facilities served as the Dayton headquarters for the American Red Cross and Ohio National Guard relief and rescue efforts and provided food and shelter, a hospital and medical personnel, and a makeshift morgue. The company's grounds became a temporary campground for the city's homeless. Patterson also provided news reporters and photographers with food and lodging and access to equipment and communications to file their stories. When the presses of the Dayton Daily News became inoperable due to the floodwaters, the newspaper used NCR's in-house printing press, providing Dayton and NCR with press coverage on AP and UPI newswires. [15]
As the water receded, damages were assessed in the Dayton area:
Cleanup and rebuilding efforts took approximately one year to repair the flood damage. The economic impacts of the flood took most of a decade to recover. [4] Destruction from the flood is also responsible for the dearth of old and historical buildings in the urban core of Dayton. Its center city resembles that of newer cities established in the western United States. The people of the Dayton area were determined to prevent another flood disaster of the same magnitude. Led by Patterson's vision for a managed watershed district, on March 27, 1913, Governor Cox appointed people to the Dayton Citizens Relief Commission. In May, the commission conducted a 10-day fundraiser, which collected more than $2 million (over $50 million in today's dollars) to fund the flood control effort. [4] The commission hired hydrological engineer Arthur E. Morgan[3] and his Morgan Engineering Company from Tennessee to design an extensive plan based on levees and dams to protect Dayton from future floods. [23]
[24] Morgan later worked on flood plain projects in Pueblo, Colorado, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Morgan hired nearly 50 engineers to analyze the Miami Valley watershed and precipitation patterns and to determine the flood volume. They analyzed European flood data for information about general flooding patterns. Based on this analysis, Morgan presented eight different flood control plans to the City of Dayton officials in October 1913. The city selected a plan based on the flood control system in the Loire Valley in France. It consisted of five earthen dams and modifications to the river channel through Dayton.
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Floods
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2014 FIFA World Cup Final
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The 2014 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match that took place on 13 July 2014 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to determine the 2014 FIFA World Cup champion. [2][3] Germany defeated Argentina 1–0 in extra time, with the only goal being scored by Mario Götze, who collected André Schürrle's cross from the left on his chest before volleying a high left-footed shot into the net. The match was the third final between the two countries, a World Cup record, after their 1986 and 1990 matches, and billed as the world's best player (Lionel Messi) versus the world's best team (Germany). [4][5]
Before the match, Germany had reached the World Cup final seven times (six times as West Germany from 1954 to 1990), winning three (1954, 1974, 1990) and being runners-up four times (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002); Argentina had reached four finals, winning twice (1978, 1986) and placing second twice (1930, 1990). The result marked Germany's fourth World Cup title and their first World championship as a unified nation. The victory meant that three consecutive World Cups have been won by teams from the same continent, following Italy and Spain in 2006 and 2010 respectively, the first time this has happened in World Cup history. It was also the first time that three consecutive World Cup finals were still tied after 90 minutes. The final marked the first time a World Cup hosted in the Americas was not won by a team from the continent. In the winning German team, Miroslav Klose, who had become the top scorer in World Cup history in the semi-final victory over Brazil, became one of the very few players ever to have won gold, silver and bronze medals in the World Cup (bronze in 2006 and 2010, silver in 2002 and gold in 2014), joining a club with earlier German players like Franz Beckenbauer,[6] Sepp Maier[7][8] and Wolfgang Overath[9] (1966–1974), as well as Italian Franco Baresi (1982–1994). According to FIFA, 1.013 billion individuals globally watched the final match of this tournament. [10]
The two teams had met in 20 previous matches, with nine wins for Argentina, six wins for Germany and five draws. In these games, both teams had scored a total of 28 goals. Six of these matches were at a World Cup, two of them in the final. The 2014 final was the seventh World Cup match between them, equalling a tournament record for meetings between two teams (along with Brazil vs Sweden, and Germany vs Yugoslavia). The last three meetings were in three consecutive World Cups, having met in quarter-finals of 2006 and 2010 campaigns. In the 1966 FIFA World Cup, Argentina and West Germany played a 0–0 draw in the group stage. FIFA cautioned Argentina for its violent style against the Germans which saw Argentine Rafael Albrecht sent off and suspended for the next match. [17][18]
The 1990 FIFA World Cup Final saw two Argentine players sent off and West Germany won 1–0 due to a controversial penalty kick late in the match. The 2006 quarter-final game, where Germany won 4–2 in the shootout after the game ended 1–1, was marred by a post-match brawl caused by the Argentines, which resulted in suspensions for two Argentine players and one German player. [19][20][21]
The most recent meeting between the two teams until the final, was a friendly match played on 15 August 2012 at Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt am Main, won by Argentina 3–1. [22] Before the tournament, a friendly was scheduled for 3 September 2014, being the first match for both teams after the World Cup. Argentina won this meeting 4–2. [23]
Among the players in the 2014 World Cup squads, the following played in the 2006 and 2010 meetings:
2010
The match ball for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, announced on 29 May 2014, featured a variation of the Adidas Brazuca named the Adidas Brazuca Final Rio. [24] Whilst the technical aspects of the ball were the same, the design was different from the Brazuca balls used in the group stages and other playoffs, with a green, gold and black coloring. [24] It was the third special ball for FIFA World Cup final matches, after the +Teamgeist Berlin (2006) and the Jo'bulani (2010). Nicola Rizzoli, from Italy, was named as the referee of the final, together with fellow Italians Renato Faverani and Andrea Stefani as the assistant referees, and Carlos Vera and Christian Lescano from Ecuador as the fourth and fifth officials. [25] Earlier in the 2014 World Cup, Rizzoli took charge of the Spain–Netherlands and Nigeria–Argentina matches in the group stage, and the Argentina–Belgium quarter-final. He had previously taken charge of the 2010 UEFA Europa League Final and the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final. He was also one of the referees at the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He became the third Italian referee to take charge of a World Cup final, after Sergio Gonella in 1978 and Pierluigi Collina in 2002. [25]
Both teams named unchanged starting line-ups from their semi-finals, but German midfielder Sami Khedira withdrew during the warm-up with a calf injury. He was replaced by Christoph Kramer, who had made two brief substitute appearances during the tournament. Kramer himself suffered a head injury after a collision with Ezequiel Garay inside the penalty area, but was initially cleared to continue playing. Fourteen minutes later in the 31st minute however, he collapsed to the ground, apparently suffering from concussion and was replaced by André Schürrle. [26]
Argentina's Gonzalo Higuaín missed a good opportunity in the first half, dragging his shot wide after being put through on goal by a misjudged header from Toni Kroos. He had a goal disallowed later in the first half, when he was ruled offside after tapping in a cross by Ezequiel Lavezzi from the right wing. Germany responded when Thomas Müller raced into the penalty area and cut the ball back for Schürrle, who saw his first-time effort saved by a diving Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero. As the half ended Germany had a brief flurry of chances, the closest coming when Benedikt Höwedes' header hit the post from a corner during injury time. In the second half Lionel Messi missed an early opportunity when he fired wide of the German goal from inside the penalty area after receiving a through ball, but the remainder of the half saw fewer chances with the closest coming from a Toni Kroos shot that went wide in the 81st minute. In the 88th minute, Germany’s all-time leading scorer Miroslav Klose was substituted for Mario Götze. This would be Klose’s final appearance for Germany. Early in the first half of extra time André Schürrle received a pass in front of goal from Götze, but his close-range shot was stopped by Romero. Minutes later, Rodrigo Palacio's lob over Manuel Neuer went just wide after the forward jumped on a mistake by Mats Hummels in the German penalty area. [27][28]
In the second half of extra time Mario Götze of Germany scored the winning goal in the 113th minute. Schürrle raced past two defenders on the left before crossing into the penalty area, where Götze controlled the ball on his chest and then volleyed left-footed into the net. [29] He became the first substitute to score a World Cup-winning goal,[30] as well as the youngest player to score in a World Cup Final since German Wolfgang Weber in 1966 (same age, 22). [31] Thomas Müller had a chance to double Germany's lead shortly afterward when he dribbled past two defenders, but his shot across the net was too wide. Late in extra time, Messi had an opportunity to equalise from a free kick within goal-scoring distance, but his attempt flew high over the crossbar. [32] In addition to Klose, Germany captain Philipp Lahm and veteran defender Per Mertesacker, a late substitute, announced that the final would also be their last match for Germany. Combined, these three players had amassed 354 appearances for the national team between them.
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Sports Competition
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Miss World riots
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The Miss World riots were a series of religiously-motivated riots in the Nigerian city of Kaduna in November 2002, claiming the lives of more than 200 people. The Miss World beauty pageant, which was controversial in Nigeria, was relocated to London after bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians, caused by what some Muslims deemed to be a "blasphemous" article in the Christian newspaper ThisDay about the event. The Miss World riots were part of the Sharia conflict in Nigeria, that started in 1999 when several predominantly Islamic states in Northern Nigeria decided to introduce Sharia law. Because the 2001 contest was won by the Nigerian Agbani Darego, Miss World 2002 would take place in (and be aired from) the Nigerian capital Abuja. In the run-up to the pageant there were many controversies, like the fact that it coincided with the Muslim holy month of ramadan, and the whole beauty contest was perceived by many conservative Muslims and also Christians to be unchaste.The organisation conceded to the first complaint by moving the event from the end of November to 7 December, but did not act on the second complaint. In several places, especially in the mostly Muslim North, peaceful protests were held against conducting Miss World in Nigeria. Feminists argued the pageant was too sexist because it merely considered women's beauty and paid no attention to intelligence and character; the organisation conceded to them by altering the swimsuit parade to a photo shoot.
However, conservative Islamic groups turned even more strongly against the Miss World organisation when it took a stand in the case of the Nigerian woman Amina Lawal. Amina had been condemned to death by stoning by a regional Islamic court because of alleged adultery. [5] First, Miss Côte d'Ivoire Yannick Azébian and Miss Norway Kathrine Sørland indicated at the end of August 2002 that they would boycott the beauty contest; other Misses expressed their doubts as well. [6] Miss Belgium, Denmark, France and Spain too decided to stay away, Miss Holland ignored calls to do so; the chairman of the Miss Holland opined: "Then you are actually giving the people in the North what they want. They are stopping an event which is 'perverse' in their eyes and are just continuing their ridiculous legislation. " Other Misses also found that exactly by showing up in Abuja they could make a statement against conservative beliefs about women. Civil rights activists eventually were able to persuade the Miss World organisation as a whole to plead for the release of Amina Lawal to the Nigerian federal authorities, eventually convincing them to promise that the stoning would not be permitted.
After this, a column appeared in the Lagos-based Christian newspaper ThisDay on Saturday 16 November,[4] in which journalist Isioma Daniel wrote that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would probably have approved of the Miss World competition: 'The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring ninety-two women to Nigeria and ask them to revel in vanity. What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them. ' This sparked outrage among some Muslims, and from 20 till 23 November the city of Kaduna was the stage of bloody riots between Muslims and Christians. Two years earlier, Kaduna had already seen violent Christian-Muslim clashes. Many inhabitants had a strong sense of injustice because none of the perpetrators had been prosecuted afterwards.Moreover, the riots had caused Christians and Muslims to concentrate and isolate themselves in separate districts. The ThisDay incident caused latent tensions in the religiously-divided city to erupt. [2][8]
On 26 November, Islamic clerics from Zamfara State issued a fatwa against the journalist Isioma Daniel for insulting the prophet. The fatwa constituted a death sentence, and all Muslims worldwide were called on to murder her. In a statement that was later broadcast on local radio, the deputy governor Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara declared: "Like Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed. It is binding on all Muslims wherever they are to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty. " The federal government of Nigeria rejected the fatwa,[14] and it was declared null and void by the relevant Saudi Arabian authorities.
The Kaduna riots claimed the lives of about 250 people, mostly men and boys; 20,000 to 30,000 people lost their homes. More than 1,000 people were arrested on suspicion of inciting or partaking in the violence. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International eventually helped Daniel to go in exile in Europe, because it was too dangerous for her to return to Nigeria. Among those killed were the parents of Nigerian footballer and international, Victor Moses, who fled the country as a result.
Amina Lawal, who was very thankful to the Misses for their concern about her fate, but who had spoken out against a boycott (just before the riots broke out), was eventually acquitted on 25 September 2003.Upon the pageant's return to England, many of the boycotting contestants chose to attend, including Miss Norway, Kathrine Sørland, who was tipped in the last few days as the number one favourite for the crown she had previously boycotted.The competition was eventually won by the Turkish Azra Akin; she was the second and at present last Miss World from a Muslim-majority country (the first being the Egyptian Antigone Costanda in 1954).
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Riot
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Yemen needs urgent assistance to prevent famine
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15 March 2017, Sana'a/Amman -Severe food insecurity threatens more than 17 million people in conflict-ridden Yemen, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released by the United Nations and humanitarian partners today. Twenty of the country's 22 governorates are in ‘emergency' or ‘crisis' food insecurity phases and almost two-thirds of the population are now facing hunger and urgently require life and livelihood-saving assistance. Without additional humanitarian and livelihoods support, Taiz and Al Hudaydah, two governorates accounting for almost a quarter of Yemen's population, risk slipping into famine. With an estimated 17 million people at ‘emergency' or ‘crisis' levels of food insecurity, Yemen is currently one of the worst hunger crises in the world. These numbers represent a 21 percent increase since June 2016 and underscores the findings of the February 2017 Emergency Food Security and Nutrition Assessment . Conflict is driving food insecurity The conflict has had a devastating impact on food security and livelihoods. Almost 80 per cent of households in Yemen report having a worse economic situation than before the crisis. The decrease in domestic production, disruption of commercial and humanitarian imports, increasing food and fuel prices, rampant unemployment, loss of income, relatively low levels of funding for UN agencies providing food assistance and the collapse of public services and social safety nets are all factors contributing to a worsening food security situation. Taiz and Al Hudaydah, traditionally food producing governorates, have been the focus of intense violence in the two years since the current crisis escalated. These two governorates have the highest rates of global acute malnutrition in the country, ranging from 17 per cent in Taiz City to 25 percent in Al Hudaydah. The emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization is 15 percent. "The conflict has a devastating impact on agricultural livelihoods. Crop and livestock production fell significantly compared to pre-crisis levels," said Salah Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen. "It is absolutely essential that the humanitarian response encompass food and agriculture assistance to save not only lives but also livelihoods." Stephen Anderson, WFP Representative and Country Director in Yemen said the situation had deteriorated rapidly since the conflict escalated two years ago. "The current dire food security and nutrition situation in Yemen requires significant financial resources to allow immediate, adequate and sustained food, nutrition and other assistance for those in greatest need to prevent a slide into famine," he said. "Unrestricted access to all areas, including for commercial trade, will also be critical to ensure the food insecurity in the country does not further deteriorate," he added. "We are seeing the highest levels of acute malnutrition in Yemen's recent history. Of the 2.2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition, 462,000 are Severely and Acutely Malnourished (SAM). To put things in perspective, a SAM child is ten times more at risk of death if not treated on time than a healthy child his or her age. The ongoing conflict and food insecurity will have long-term implications on the health and overall development of children in Yemen." said Dr Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF Representative. Persistent insecurity disrupts livelihoods Fighting along the Red Sea coast in recent months has caused extensive damage to Yemen's largest port, Al Hudaydah. This has disrupted imports, which account for 90 per cent of Yemen's staple foods. Access restrictions and the loss of boats, nets and other gear, have wiped out fishing - an important source of food and income. Insecurity along the coast will likely affect the start of the planting season for sorghum in April - the most important domestically produced cereal. Moreover it will hamper trade, force more people to leave their homes, further limit the availability of food and disrupt livelihoods. Across Yemen as many as 2 million households engaged in agriculture now lack access to critical agricultural inputs, including seeds, fertiliser and fuel for irrigation pumps. High fuel prices also make irrigation prohibitively expensive.
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Famine
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Foiled bank robbers target customers
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Two armed men have turned on customers at a bank in Adelaide's southern suburbs after the bank's security defences were activated. Two men wearing balaclavas and carrying a shotgun walked into BankSA on Main South Road, Morphettvale at about 10:25am ACST. They threatened staff who immediately activated security screens. Several customers were in the bank at the time who the bandits then proceeded to rob. Police Senior Constable Kate Denman says the thieves stole wallets, purses and other personal items before fleeing. "The men left the scene in a stolen Ford Telstar which was located shortly afterwards in Albert Terrace, Morphettvale," she said. Police say customers in the bank were not physically injured in the ordeal.
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Bank Robbery
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Air Rhodesia Flight 825 crash
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Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a scheduled passenger flight that was shot down by the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) on 3 September 1978, during the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft involved, a Vickers Viscount named the Hunyani, was flying the last leg of Air Rhodesia's regular scheduled service from Victoria Falls to the capital Salisbury, via the resort town of Kariba. Soon after Flight 825 took off, a group of ZIPRA guerrillas hit it on its starboard wing with a Soviet-made Strela-2 surface-to-air infrared homing missile, critically damaging the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. An attempted belly landing in a cotton field just west of Karoi was foiled by a ditch, which caused the plane to cartwheel and break up. Of the 52 passengers and four crew, 38 died in the crash; the insurgents then approached the wreckage, rounded up the 10 survivors they could see and massacred them with automatic gunfire. Three passengers survived by hiding in the surrounding bush, while a further five lived because they had gone to look for water before the guerrillas arrived. ZIPRA leader Joshua Nkomo publicly claimed responsibility for shooting down the Hunyani in an interview with the BBC's Today programme the next day, saying the aircraft had been used for military purposes, but denied that his men had killed survivors on the ground. The majority of Rhodesians, both black and white,[4] saw the attack as an act of terrorism. [5] A fierce Rhodesian backlash followed against enemy strongholds and increased racial tension even though few black Rhodesians supported attacks of this kind. [4] Reports viewing the attack negatively appeared in international journals such as Time magazine, but there was almost no acknowledgement of it by overseas governments, much to the Rhodesian government's indignation. Talks between Nkomo and Prime Minister Ian Smith, which had been progressing promisingly, were immediately suspended by the Rhodesians, with Smith calling Nkomo a "monster". [6] On 10 September, Smith announced the extension of martial law over selected areas. The Rhodesian Security Forces launched several retaliatory strikes into Zambia and Mozambique over the following months, attacking both ZIPRA and its rival, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The attack on ZIPRA in particular brought great controversy as many of those killed were refugees camping in and around guerrilla positions. [7] In February 1979, ZIPRA shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 827, another civilian flight, in an almost identical incident. A dispute over the terms for the granting of full sovereignty to the self-governing colony of Rhodesia[n 1] led the colonial government, headed by Prime Minister Ian Smith, to unilaterally declare independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965. The idea of "no independence before majority rule" had recently gained ground in Britain and elsewhere amid decolonisation, and Rhodesia's government was dominated by the country's white minority, so the unilateral declaration went unrecognised internationally. Britain and the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Rhodesia. [8]
Two rival communist-backed black nationalist groups initiated military campaigns to overthrow the government and introduce majority rule: the Chinese-aligned Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), mostly comprising Shonas, created the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and adopted aspects of Maoist doctrine, while the Ndebele-dominated Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), aligned with Soviet-style Marxism–Leninism and the Warsaw Pact, mobilised the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). [9] These guerrilla armies proceeded to wage what they called the "Second Chimurenga"[n 2] against the Rhodesian government and security forces. The resulting conflict, the Rhodesian Bush War, began in earnest in December 1972, when ZANLA attacked Altena and Whistlefield Farms in north-eastern Rhodesia. [11]
After the security forces mounted a successful counter-insurgency campaign during 1973 and 1974,[12] developments overseas caused the conflict's momentum to shift in the insurgents' favour. The leftist Carnation Revolution of April 1974 caused Portugal to withdraw its key economic support for Smith's administration, and led to Mozambique's independence the following year as a communist state openly allied with ZANU. Around the same time, Rhodesia's other main backer, South Africa, adopted a détente initiative that forced a ceasefire, giving the guerrillas time to regroup. [13] Following the abortive Victoria Falls Conference of August 1975, Smith and the ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo held unsuccessful talks between December 1975 and March 1976. [14][15] ZANU and ZAPU announced in October 1976, during the run-up to the unsuccessful Geneva Conference in December, that they would henceforth attend conferences as a joint "Patriotic Front". [16][n 3]
In March 1978, Smith and non-militant nationalist groups headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and Chief Jeremiah Chirau agreed what became the "Internal Settlement". This created a joint black–white transitional government, with the country due to be reconstituted as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, pursuant to multiracial elections. ZANU and ZAPU were invited to participate, but refused; Nkomo sardonically dubbed Smith's black colleagues "the blacksmiths". [18] ZANU proclaimed 1978 to be "The Year of the People" as the war continued. [18] Officials from Muzorewa's United African National Council, sent to the provinces to explain the Internal Settlement to rural blacks, were killed by Marxist–Leninist guerrillas. [19] Insurgents also began to target Christian missionaries, climaxing in the killing of nine British missionaries and four children at Elim Mission near the Mozambican border on 23 June. [20]
The transitional government was badly received abroad, partly because the Internal Settlement kept control of law enforcement, the military, the judiciary and the civil service under white control. [21] No country recognised Rhodesia's interim administration. [22] Smith again worked to bring Nkomo into the government, hoping this would lend it some credence domestically, prompt diplomatic recognition overseas, and help the security forces defeat ZANLA. Starting on 14 August 1978, he attended secret meetings with Nkomo in Lusaka, Zambia (where ZAPU was based), doing so with the assistance of the mining corporation Lonrho. Attempts were made to also involve the ZANU leader Robert Mugabe, but Mugabe would have no part in the talks. [22] According to the South African military historian Jakkie Cilliers, negotiations between Smith and Nkomo progressed well and "seemed on the verge of success" by the start of September 1978. On 2 September, Smith and Nkomo revealed publicly that the secret meetings had taken place. [23]
Rhodesian air traffic was not seriously threatened until about 1977, in the latter stages of the war; before this time, neither revolutionary force had the weapons to launch a viable attack against an aerial target. The weapon that made such attacks feasible for ZIPRA was the Strela-2 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile launcher, supplied by the Soviet Union from the mid-1970s as part of the Warsaw Pact's materiel support. [n 4] By September 1978, there had been 20 reported attempts to shoot down Rhodesian military aircraft using these weapons, none of which had been successful. Some Rhodesian Air Force Dakotas had been hit, but all had survived and landed safely. No civilian aircraft had yet been targeted during the Bush War. [24]
Air Rhodesia was the country's national airline, established by the government on 1 September 1967 to succeed Central African Airways, which was dissolved at the end of that year. Based at Salisbury Airport, Air Rhodesia's flight network during the late 1970s comprised a domestic programme of passenger and cargo flights, as well as international services to the South African cities of Johannesburg and Durban. [25]
The Flight 825 aircraft was a Vickers Viscount 782D, a British-made turboprop aircraft with two engines on each wing. It was named the Hunyani after the river of the same name, which flowed between Lake Kariba and the Rhodesian capital Salisbury. [4]
The Hunyani was on the second and final leg of its regular scheduled journey between Victoria Falls and Salisbury, stopping over in the resort town of Kariba. [26] Despite the occasional rocket and mortar attacks launched on Kariba by ZIPRA guerrillas on the northern side of the Zambezi (in Zambia), the resort had endured as one of Rhodesia's choice tourist destinations.
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Air crash
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Giant grasshoppers ravaging Central Florida - Orlando Sentinel
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Giant grasshoppers ravaging Central Florida
By By Ramsey Campbell
Orlando Sentinel |
Aug 20, 2002 at 11:33 AM
EUSTIS -- Monstrous grasshoppers -- too nasty-tempered and toxic to be eaten by natural predators and too big to be bothered by conventional pesticides -- are on the rampage in Central Florida this summer.
Alice McKinstry Davis, curator of the Eustis Historical Museum and Preservation Society, first saw the 4-inch creatures chowing down on a flower-garden smorgasbord outside the museum in downtown Eustis a few weeks ago.
"We didn't know what to think," Davis said. "I'd never seen anything like them. They were devouring all our broadleaf plants."
Davis ran for the bug spray. The king-sized grasshoppers just sneered. Alarmed, she called experts for help.
"About all you can do is hit 'em with a 2-by-4," said Pris Peterson, master gardener at the Lake County Agricultural Center.
So Davis went out and rounded up some enthusiastic high-school volunteers willing to stomp on the critters. Between the teens and a direct application of an unusually potent insecticide, museum workers beat back the infestation.
Davis had made the acquaintance of an Eastern lubber, which is to grasshoppers what King Kong was to apes. Yellow with red and black markings, it's the only one of the 70 species of grasshoppers that live in Florida that defies natural predators and insecticides.
It's a nasty pest. Too fat to fly, lubbers can jump high and long. When disturbed, they spread their wings and hiss. Try to touch one, and it's likely to eject a foul-smelling, irritating foam intended to keep you away. It's highly effective.
Agricultural officials and bug specialists from the University of Florida say no back yard in Central Florida is immune to a lubber infestation this year.
Usually the population of Eastern lubbers is held back by lack of food or water, parasites and insect diseases. But the combination of a dry winter with a return to normal rainfall this summer may be responsible for a bumper crop in Central Florida, said John Capinera, a professor and chairman ofUF's Department of Entomology.
"Lubbers seem to like a wet environment," Capinera said.
Capinera said he has been getting a rising number of inquiries about the bad boys of the insect world. But even though grasshoppers are the most abundant insect above ground, little is known about them.
Scientists have learned that most grasshoppers are important in returning nutrients stored in plants back into the soil and as a food source for birds, reptiles, skunks, foxes and mice.
Nothing finds lubbers tasty, however. Biologists think they are poison to birds, said Capinera, author of Grasshoppers of Florida, a field guide published last year.
Lubbers favor shrubs, herbs, broadleaf plants and grasses -- in other words, almost every plant on the farm or in the garden. If their numbers get out of control, they can cause significant crop damage.
So far, however, they've just been startling homeowners unaccustomed to seeing grasshoppers that look as if they'd have a starring role in a horror flick. After all, they have five eyes, viselike jaws and ever-moving mouth parts. The best way to control the lubbers is to hope that something gets them when they're young -- they're not so toxic then, and birds sometimes eat them.
"But when they get older, they are too big and crunchy to be appetizing," said Linda Landrum, an urban horticulturist with the Volusia County Cooperative Extension Service.
Need to get them out of your back yard? You might try offering some to a local school -- they're commonly used for dissection in biology courses because of their size.
Other than that, you could try Landrum's favorite disposal method: Grab the squirmy hoppers and drown them in a bucket of soapy water.
Be advised, however, that catching and holding them down can be stinky, tricky and often gross. The lubbers tend to resist the procedure.
Ramsey Campbell can be reached at rcampbell@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5923.
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Insect Disaster
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Two die in separate crashes in Pingrup, Kumarina after deadly day on WA roads
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Two people have lost their lives in separate crashes after a deadly day on WA’s roads. A man died at the scene of a crash in the State’s north last night when his ute collided with a prime mover about 7.40pm on the Great Northern Highway, about 40km south of Kumarina, a town located between Meekatharra and Newman. Police said the prime mover with three trailers was travelling north when it crash happened. Major crash detectives will travel to the scene this morning to investigate. TEEN ARRESTED AFTER FREEWAY PURSUIT Earlier in the day, an elderly woman died and an elderly man was rushed to hospital after their car crashed into a tree in the Great Southern. The tragic crash happened about 12.30pm, when a grey Nissan X-trail veered off the road and ploughed into a tree on Chester Pass Road in Pingrup. The 73-year-old woman died at the scene, while a 78-year-old man suffered serious injuries and was taken to Katanning Hospital. There have been 42 fatalities on WA roads so far this year, according to the Road Safety Commission. The two recent crashes bring the regional road toll to 28, while 14 of the fatal crashes have been in the metropolitan area. Major crash officers are investigating and have appealed for witnesses to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report the information online at crimestopperswa.com.au. Dash-cam or mobile phone vision relating to this crash can be uploaded directly to investigators here.
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Road Crash
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SpaceX to launch communication satellite Türksat 6A
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The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said it awarded SpaceX a contract for the launch of Turksat 6A, scheduled for Q1 2023. In a government statement, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu said the government considered “many launcher companies” before selecting SpaceX, “which offers the best solution in terms of both technical, administrative and financial aspects.” The project will make Turkey one of the 10 countries that can produce its own communications satellite, he underlined. Turksat 6A will be the country’s first communications satellite built domestically by the TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute. The spacecraft will operate from 42 degrees east with a payload of Ku- and X-band transponders. Karaismailoğlu said assembly of the satellite is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year, with the satellite finishing environmental testing by the end of 2022. Previously, the Türksat 5A satellite was also launched by SpaceX in January 2021. The satellite secured Turkey’s orbital rights for the next 30 years, covering Europe, the Middle East and large regions of Africa as well as the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Black Sea region. A Falcon 9 launched Turksat 5A in January and Turksat 5B is scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2021. Both Turksat 5A and 5B were built by Airbus Defence and Space.
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New achievements in aerospace
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1835 Philadelphia general strike
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The 1835 Philadelphia general strike took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the first general strike in North America and involved some 20,000 workers who struck for a ten-hour workday and increased wages. The strike ended in complete victory for the workers. [1]
Prior to the shorter work day movement, employers had hired and paid workers on the basis of the agriculture working day of "sun to sun" (sunrise to sunset) – a situation which meant comparatively short hours in the winter months but days extending to as many as fifteen hours during the late spring and early summer. [2] For some trades this worked out to a manageable average over the course of a year, but for the construction trades in particular, a business marked by heavy unemployment during the winter months owing to the weather, this state of affairs was regarded as an intolerable burden. [2] As a result, the idea emerged that the length of the work day should be fixed by time rather than the rise and fall of the sun, and agitation for a ten-hour day began. [3]
During the 1820s and 1830s, a number of strikes were commenced to shorten the work day. In June 1827 some 600 Philadelphia journeymen carpenters – that is, the wage laborers employed by master carpenters – went on strike for the citywide establishment of the ten-hour day. [3] Carpenters in Boston, Massachusetts similarly struck for a ten-hour workday in 1825 and 1832. However, the strikes were unsuccessful at shortening the work day. [4]
In 1835 Boston carpenters went on strike again for a ten-hour workday and were soon joined by masons and stone-cutters. The strikers chose Seth Luther and two other workers as leaders, and they issued a circular stating their demands. [5] The circular read in part "We have been too long subjected to the odious, cruel, unjust and tyrannical system which compels the operative mechanic to exhaust his physical and mental powers. We have rights and duties to perform as American citizens and members of society, which forbid us to dispose of more than ten hours for a day's work. "[4]
During the strike, the Boston workers organized a travelling committee and requested the assistance of workers in other cities. The Boston circular was well received by workers throughout the country. Although the Boston strike was eventually defeated, the circular was pivotal in motivating workers in Philadelphia to organize their own strike that year for a ten-hour workday. The president of the Carpenter's Society of Philadelphia, William Thompson, told Seth Luther that "the carpenters considered the Boston circular had broken their shackles, loosened their chains, and made them free from the galling yoke of excessive labor. "[5]
Influenced by events in Boston, unskilled Irish workers on the Schuylkill River coal wharves the same year went on strike for a ten-hour day. Three hundred workers marched on the coal wharves. They were led by a worker with a sword who threatened death to anyone who crossed the picket line and unloaded coal from the 75 vessels waiting in the water. [6] The coal heavers were soon joined by workers from many other trades, including leather dressers, printers, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, house painters, bakers, and city employees. [1]
On June 6, a mass meeting of workers, lawyers, doctors, and a few businessmen, was held in the State House courtyard. The meeting unanimously adopted a set of resolutions giving full support to the workers' demand for wage increases and a shorter workday, as well as increased wages for women workers and a boycott of any coal merchant who worked his men more than ten hours. [7]
The strike quickly came to a close after city public works employees joined the action. The Philadelphia city government announced that the "hours of labour of the working men employed under the authority of the city corporation would be from 'six to six' during the summers season, allowing one hour for breakfast, and one for dinner. "[8] On June 22, three weeks after the coal heavers initially struck, the ten-hour system and an increase in wages for piece-workers was adopted in the city. [1]
The news of the strikers' success spread to other cities and was given large coverage. The labor press carried the news as far south as the Carolinas, and a wave of successful strikes followed in its wake. Strikes for the ten-hour day hit towns such as New Brunswick and Paterson, New Jersey, Batavia and Seneca Falls, New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and Salem, Massachusetts. By the end of 1835, the ten-hour day had become the standard for most city laborers who worked by the day with the exception of workers in Boston. Subsequently, the ten-hour day became an integral part of the labor movement in Europe. [9][1]
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Strike
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1997 Jiashi earthquakes
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The Jiashi earthquakes were a series of earthquakes from 1997 to 2003, with several earthquakes larger than Ms 6 occurring between January and April, 1997. [1] Two strong earthquakes with magnitudes Ms 6.4 and 6.3 occurred on January 21, 1997, at 09:47 and 09:48 local time, respectively, in Jiashi County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, NW China. [2] The earthquakes occurred on a major strike-slip fault beneath the Tarim Basin. The fault has no surface expression and prior to the earthquake was unknown. At least 12 people were killed and 40 injured in the earthquakes of January 21. [3] Another earthquake on March 1, 1997, at 14:04 local time with magnitude Ms 6.0 killed another person. [4] On April 6, 6, 11, 16, other four earthquakes with magnitudes Ms 6.3, 6.4, 6.6, 6.3 killed 8 people. [5] Several predictions were made in this earthquake series. Some of the predictions were not fulfilled, while some preceded the predicted earthquake from 2.5 hours to 4 days. The April 11 earthquake occurred 30 minutes after a prediction was made. [6] Rebiya Kadeer wrote that her career was significantly affected by the earthquakes, which were "one of the worst natural disasters that had occurred in the Uyghur nation in recent memory." One hundred villages and one thousand homes were leveled. Kadeer organized donations and aid for the area. [7]
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Earthquakes
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BBC WS radio on US withdrawal from UNESCO – part one
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As we saw in a previous post, the BBC News website’s reporting on the October 12th announcement from the US State Department regarding withdrawal from UNESCO did not provide BBC audiences with the background information essential for understanding of one of the three cited reasons for that action – anti-Israel bias. Rather, in addition to repeatedly placing that phrase in scare quotes, the article told readers of “perceived anti-Israel bias” at an organisation that passed no fewer than 46 anti-Israel resolutions between 2009 and 2013. So did listeners to BBC World Service radio fare any better? The same story was the topic of an item aired in the October 12th edition of the programme ‘Newshour‘ which was introduced by presenter Tim Franks (from 17:57 here) as follows: [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added] Franks: “The US has announced it’s pulling out of the UN’s cultural organisation UNESCO and it’ll be joined by Israel. The State Department said that the decision comes out of concerns with what it called ‘continuing anti-Israel bias’ at the agency. The formal withdrawal will come into effect at the end of next year.” Franks then introduced the item’s sole interviewee: Franks: “Crystal Nix-Hines was President Obama’s appointee as the US ambassador to UNESCO until earlier this year.” Nix-Hines: “I think it’s a terrible decision for the US to withdraw from the organisation it helped found in…right after World War Two to promote peace and international cooperation around the world. And it’s, you know, yet another example of the Trump administration withdrawing from the international community and abdicating its leadership role.” Franks: “Well you say it was set up in the wake of the Second World War with noble intentions; the argument now is that it has departed from those aims and it is a highly politicised and – in the words of its critics – anti-Israel talking shop.” Nix-Hines: “Well there’s no question that the resolutions have come out of the executive board adopted by member states have been incredibly inflammatory and quite frankly…ah…offensive. But the thing that people don’t realise is that because the United States has a seat at the table on the executive board, we’re able to block the implementation of those resolutions. We vote no every single time. Sometimes we’re the only member to do so and because of that the UNESCO secretariat does not enforce the resolutions because they aren’t adopted by consensus. By staying out of the organisation, giving up our seat on the executive board, we now lose that critical ‘no’ vote and the resolutions are free to proceed.” Franks made no effort to pursue the topic of the factors lying behind the politicisation of UNESCO or to explain to listeners that the stream of resolutions (sponsored and supported by assorted Arab states) that erase and deny Jewish history and heritage in the region are part of a long-standing Palestinian campaign to delegitimise Israel. With the BBC often failing to report – or reporting badly – on Palestinian actions at UNESCO, most listeners would be unable to fill in the blanks for themselves. He continued: Franks: “Well except that I suppose the argument could be used that, I mean, essentially you’re accepting the criticism of UNESCO for having a slant – a bias – against Israel, for denying the Israeli or the Jewish cultural and religious and historical links to sites in Jerusalem, the site in Hebron and actually, you know, using your veto is one thing but actually walking away from the organisation is a…a braver and more honest thing to do until it sorts itself out.” Nix-Hines: “I disagree. You can’t effect change if you’re not part of the organisation and working to encourage positive change.” Nix-Hines went on to claim that “UNESCO is the only international organisation that teaches Holocaust education” and “the only organisation that is really doing anything serious to develop educational tools to help young people resist violent extremism and encourage tolerance and multiculturalism” before making a statement that Franks chose not to explore further. Nix-Hines: “And why should, you know, a power like the United States let the Palestinians and their supporters drive us out of an organisation that we helped found and we’re moving in the right direction?” Franks’ final question related to the possibility of change at UNESCO that might “persuade the US to reverse its decision”. His interviewee’s response included further political comment: Nix-Hines”…we [the US delegation] encouraged the organisation to return to that depoliticised time. And they could still do that and it would be a positive step in the right direction. But nonetheless it’s important to stay engaged in these international organisations – as the Obama administration realised – to promote real change.” Listeners to this item once again heard superfluous qualification appended to the phrase anti-Israel bias. They heard one particular view of the US administration’s announcement – along with one particular shade of political comment – with no alternative view offered. They did not however hear Tim Franks present any sort of serious challenge to the person who represented the United States at UNESCO for two and a half years on the question of why she and others failed to make any progress in ‘depoliticising’ the organisation in that time.
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Withdraw from an Organization
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The Singapore and United States navies are conducting a two-week bilateral exercise in the waters off Guam
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SINGAPORE - The Singapore and United States navies are conducting a two-week bilateral exercise in the waters off Guam, which includes maritime counter-terrorism training and a simulated boarding operation by naval divers from both sides. The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said on Tuesday (July 6) that the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) also fired torpedoes and conducted an Aster anti-air missile firing during the third edition of Exercise Pacific Griffin from June 22 to Wednesday (July 7). This year's exercise is the first time that an RSN littoral mission vessel (LMV) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF) fighter jets, which are on rotational deployment to Guam from May to July, are participating in. The RSN and RSAF jointly executed a successful coordinated missile firing against a surface target, said Mindef, as well as conducted other integrated missions in support of maritime operations during the biennial exercise. For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the exercise involved some physical interaction between RSN sailors and the US navy, all of whom have been vaccinated. All Singapore Armed Forces personnel had undergone pre-departure isolation and tested negative for Covid-19 before their deployment, said Mindef. RSN's deputy Fleet Commander and the exercise task force commander, Colonel Ooi Tjin Kai, said the exercise, which was first held in 2017, is an important part of a series of regular bilateral interactions with US counterparts. "We always look forward to training with the US Navy (USN) as it provides us the opportunity to conduct exercises to hone our capabilities and enhance our cooperation," said Col Ooi. Mindef said the RSN's Formidable-class frigates, RSS Tenacious and RSS Stalwart, and the Independence-class LMV RSS Fearless, exercised alongside the US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold, auxiliary ship USNS Amelia Earhart and a Los Angeles-class submarine. A statement by the US Indo-Pacific Command on June 23 said the exercise will feature events both on shore and at sea, such as maritime special operations, anti-air defence exercises, anti-submarine warfare operations, and replenishments at sea serials. The USN's Commander of Task Force 71, Captain Chase Sargeant, said that the exercise benefits the two navies by allowing each to deepen their shared knowledge, while bolstering a strong and enduring maritime relationship. "Exercises like Pacific Griffin emphasise cooperation while building competencies in a complex and technologically advanced training environment. "This exercise demonstrates the trust and expertise we have built over the years with the RSN through increasingly complex and integrated training and live fire events," he said. Mindef said Exercise Pacific Griffin highlights the strong navy-to-navy relations between Singapore and the US, as well as the excellent and long-standing bilateral defence relations between both countries.
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Military Exercise
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Bulgaria fined, ordered to play matches behind closed doors by UEFA after racist chants against England
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Bulgaria fined, ordered to play matches behind closed doors by UEFA after racist chants against England
A Victorian man who flew from Brisbane to Hobart on flight VA702 today has tested positive to COVID-19 and has not been allowed to board a flight to Melbourne
A Watch & Act warning is in place for a fire in the northern parts of Mokine, in WA's Northam Shire. Keep up to date with ABC Emergency
English anti-racism group Kick It Out has taken aim at UEFA after Bulgaria was sanctioned for racist behaviour at a match against England earlier this month.
Bulgaria was punished after fans made Nazi salutes and participated in racist chanting, including monkey noises directed at England's black players, in the Euro 2020 qualification match in Sofia on October 14.
The match was stopped twice in the first half, in line with UEFA's anti-racism policy, but England opted to continue the match, recording an emphatic 6-0 victory.
The Vasil Levski national stadium was already partially closed for that match due to previous racist incidents in June.
As well as being ordered to play two matches behind closed doors — one of which is suspended for two years — the Bulgarian FA will have to pay a fine of 75,000 euros ($121,470).
The punishment has been heavily criticised by anti-discrimination groups though, who said it was far too lenient.
UEFA had the option to remove Bulgaria from the Euro 2020 playoffs in March.
Anti-racism organisation Kick It Out said it was "disheartened, but not surprised" by the ruling and urged UEFA to rethink a process it said produced sanctions which did not work.
"In our view, they have missed an opportunity to send an uncompromising message on racism and discrimination," the London-based body said.
"The current sanctions, however 'tough' UEFA think they may be, are clearly not working and leave victims with little faith in their ability to prevent abusive behaviour."
Those comments were echoed by Fare, UEFA's anti-racism partner.
"We are disappointed that Bulgaria will not be expelled from the Euro 2020 qualifying competition given their previous record, and obvious inability to deal with the problems they face," the group said.
The English Football Association did not directly criticise UEFA in a statement, but said racism still presents a "huge challenge". "While we acknowledge UEFA's ruling today, a huge challenge still exists around racism and discrimination in society," the FA said.
"Football has its part to play, and must do so, but it is for all to recognise the seriousness of the problem.
"While those responsible for such deplorable behaviour at home or abroad need to be held to account, we should not lose sight of the importance of education programs in finding a long-term solution.
"That has to be the way forward to help address the root cause of such disgusting behaviour."
Liverpool and England under-21 striker Rhian Brewster, who claimed he was racially abused in a UEFA Youth League game in December 2017 but no action was taken due to a lack of evidence, said the verdict was "embarrassing".
England has been fined 5,000 euros after their fans booed the Bulgarian national anthem before the game. Bulgaria was fined 10,000 euros for booing the English national anthem.
Although the England game was the third time Bulgaria fans were guilty of racist behaviour this year, the previous incidents at back-to-back Euro 2020 qualifiers in June were judged together in July.
UEFA's disciplinary code states a team will be punished for a second offence with, "one match played behind closed doors and a fine of 50,000 euros".
A third offence, "is punished with more than one match behind closed doors, a stadium closure, the forfeiting of a match, the deduction of points and/or disqualification from the competition", according to UEFA rules.
The English players union, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), suggested a lack of ethnic representation among the 10 men on the UEFA disciplinary committee, "will influence the way in which racist incidents are dealt with".
"Diversity on the pitch must be reflected at every level of the game, not just on the field of play," the PFA said.
The verdict could be challenged at UEFA's appeals committee by independent disciplinary inspectors who worked on the case if they decide it is too lenient.
Fare said it, "will be in touch with UEFA to explore options and maintain that Bulgaria and others in the same situation fundamentally reappraise how they deal with racism".
Bulgaria's next home game, which will be played behind closed doors, is against the Czech Republic on November 17.
Turmoil in Bulgaria since the game led to federation president Borislav Mihailov and national team coach Krasimir Balakov — players on the 1994 World Cup semi-final team — being ousted.
ABC/AP
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Organization Fine
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SEC Announces Enforcement Task Force Focused on Climate and ESG Issues
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By Securities Docket on March 5, 2021, 10:10 am The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force in the Division of Enforcement. The task force will be led by Kelly L. Gibson, the Acting Deputy Director of Enforcement, who will oversee a Division-wide effort, with 22 members drawn from the SEC’s headquarters, regional offices, and Enforcement specialized units. Consistent with increasing investor focus and reliance on climate and ESG-related disclosure and investment, the Climate and ESG Task Force will develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct. The task force will also coordinate the effective use of Division resources, including through the use of sophisticated data analysis to mine and assess information across registrants, to identify potential violations.
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Organization Established
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Cumulative number of Covid-19
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A person seen using the MySejahtera application. The latest infections brought the country’s cumulative number of Covid-19 cases to 1.82 million so far. (Photo by Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge) KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 4): Malaysia’s new Covid-19 cases fell to 19,057 today from 19,378 yesterday as states including Sabah and Johor reported lower daily figures. A total of 362 pandemic-linked deaths were reported, compared with 330 a day ago. Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in an update via Facebook today that the latest infections brought the country’s cumulative number of Covid-19 cases to 1.82 million so far. Among the states and federal territories, Sabah’s new cases fell to 2,279 from 2,404, Johor’s daily figure was down at 2,077 from 2,331, while infections in Kuala Lumpur dropped to 711 today from 740 yesterday. Elsewhere, Kedah’s new cases fell to 1,329 from 1,470, while Putrajaya’s daily figure was down at 18 from 41. Of the latest infections, Noor Hisham said 19,047 were local cases, while 10 were imported. "The 19,047 local cases comprised 16,784 Malaysians and 2,263 foreigners. “There are [now] 256,302 active cases [in Malaysia],” he added. Of the 362 deaths reported today, Noor Hisham said the deceased comprised 304 Malaysians and 58 foreigners, bringing the country’s cumulative pandemic-related fatalities to 17,883 so far. Across the nation’s hospitals, 978 Covid-19 patients were being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), with 460 of them intubated to help them breathe. Meanwhile, 21,582 recoveries were reported, bringing the cumulative number of individuals who had recovered from the pandemic in Malaysia to 1.55 million so far.
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Disease Outbreaks
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Tsunami swept Israel coast 10,000 years ago, may have erased signs of human life
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Researchers estimate wave was 50-130 feet high and reached 1.5-3.5 kilometers inland, possibly explaining absence of signs of human habitation in area south of Haifa Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel. Screen capture from video of a digital model constructed by researchers to show a huge tsunami they say likely hit Israel's Mediterranean cost thousands of years ago. (YouTube) Researchers say they’ve found evidence of a massive tsunami that hit Israel’s Mediterranean coast nearly 10,000 years ago, possibly wiping away any evidence of human habitation at settlements that took the brunt of the wave. The huge wave was estimated to have been 50 to 130 feet high (15-40 meters) and probably caused by a major earthquake in the area, researchers wrote in a paper published by the online journal PLOS One on Tuesday. The study was led by an Israeli researcher at the University of California, San Diego, in collaboration with researchers from Utah State University and the University of Haifa. The wave is believed to have struck in the area of Tel Dor — an ancient settlement site located about 30 kilometers south of Haifa — between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago, which would make it the earliest known tsunami in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Tsunamis
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President of Moldova Maia Sandu launches committee to investigate grand corruption
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• Updated: 08/06/2021
Moldovan President Maia Sandu, right, walks away after addressing protesters outside the parliament building in December 2020. - Copyright Roveliu Buga/AP
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President of Moldova Maia Sandu has launched an extra-governmental corruption monitoring body after declaring the state's own institutions "too slow".
The Moldovan premier signed off on the new "Anticorruption Independent Consultative Committee" on Monday and the taskforce was set to begin work on Tuesday.
The six-member panel, co-chaired by United States diplomat James Wasserstrom, includes economists, jurists and journalists and is partially funded by the EU and US.
The Committee will function as an NGO and will investigate major cases in the country's financial and banking sectors, in partnership with law enforcement.
It comes after Sandu warned in March that Moldova's COVID-19 response had been hampered by corruption in a year that also saw the country narrowly avoid financial collapse.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu calls early election for July 11
In a statement on Monday after signing the decree, Sandu said: "Unfortunately, the state institutions that prevent and fight corruption are moving very slowly, much slower than the corrupt groups stealing (from) this country.
"The good thing is that the citizens of the Republic of Moldova are not alone in the face of this major challenge. Thieves from the Republic of Moldova managed to make themselves known internationally. The frauds they committed have come to be known by the whole world.
"Our development partners understand how serious the problem of corruption in the Republic of Moldova is and are ready to help us."
Moldova ranked 115th out of the 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index.
The country secured a $235 million (€193 million) emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund last April. Earlier this month, the EU's executive arm also promised the country a €600 million recovery package conditional on judicial and anti-corruption reforms.
Moldova’s vaccine rollout hampered by corruption, says president
Sandu, who was elected last November, dissolved the Moldovan parliament in late April and called a snap election scheduled for July 11 in a bid to reset the balance of power in the former Soviet republic.
Part of the new Committee's role will be to examine historic management issues within the state's own anti-corruption institutions.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, James Wasserstrom -- a former head of oversight at the United Nations and current anti-corruption officer at the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan -- told reporters: "We want to learn why the Moldovan corruption-combating institutions are not efficient in fulfilling their duty."
Moldova is the third country after Afghanistan and Ukraine to set up a parastatal body specifically to deal with alleged internal corruption.
The Committee's co-chair is Alina Radu, a Moldovan investigative journalist who has written extensively about nepotism and criminal activity in the country.
Its other members include IMF economist Tamara Razin, Drago Kos, chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's working group on bribery in international business, Council of Europe anti-corruption expert Laura Stefan and human rights lawyer Nadejda Hriptievschi.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate
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Emma Bunton announces marriage to Jade Jones with romantic wedding photo
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Congratulations are in order for Emma Bunton and Jade Jones. On Tuesday the pair announced the joyous news that they had gotten married. MORE: The Spice Girls' epic homes revealed: Victoria Beckham, Geri Horner, Emma Bunton and more The couple both made the announcement on Instagram with some dreamy shots taken by photographer Andrew Timms. WATCH: Jade Jones shares rare video of his and Emma Bunton's son Emma shared a close-up version of a photo of the pair together, their heads touching as they stood beneath a beautiful floral arch. Jade shared a similar version of the picture, taken further away, which perfectly showed off the former Spice Girls singer's short wedding dress. Emma looked so elegant in the small dress, which featured a large train on it, and she held a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Jade looked incredibly dapper with a checkered suit and white chinos, which were paired with some white shoes. The couple had a small wedding, which took place in a large room adorned with candles and with a large floral arch in the centre. The pair announced their surprise marriage The happy couple both shared similar captions with Emma writing: "Mr and Mrs Jones!" while Jade put: "Me & Mrs Jones." MORE: Emma Bunton's rare glimpses into ultra-stylish family home MORE: 22 best short wedding dresses for 2021 brides Fans were surprised by the announcement, but they rushed to the comments to share their happiness with the beautiful couple. Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Ola Jordan was among the well-wishers, she posted: "Congratulations," a sentiment that was echoed by dozens of the star's followers. "Oh you guys!!! Finally!!! Congratulations," another wrote, while a third added: "At last….after so many years guyz. Thought you will never. Congratulations, Mr &Mrs Jade Jones (Mr Baby Spice)." Emma and Jade got engaged in 2011 Emma and Jade have an enjoyed an on/off relationship over the years, with the couple first getting together in 1998 before they split the following year. They reconciled in 2000, but split again in 2002, before reuniting again in 2004, this time for good. The pair got engaged in 2011 although, in previous interviews, Emma has downplayed the possibility of them marrying, saying they didn't need marriage to "justify their relationship".
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Famous Person - Marriage
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Independent Air Flight 1851 crash
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On 8 February 1989, Independent Air Flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on an American charter flight from Bergamo, Italy to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, struck Pico Alto while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores for a scheduled stopover. The aircraft was destroyed, with the loss of all 144 people on board, resulting in the deadliest plane crash in Portugal's history. [2] All of the passengers on board were Italian and all of the crew were Americans. [3][4] The crash is also known as "The disaster of the Azores" (Italian: Il disastro delle Azorre). [5]
The aircraft was a 21-year-old Boeing 707 (Serial no. 19572, factory no. 687) that had been built in 1968, and made its first flight on 22 March the same year. It had been previously operated by Trans World Airlines (TWA). [6]
The flight crew consisted of Captain Leon James Daugherty, 41, first officer Sammy Adcock, 36, and flight engineer Jorge Gonzalez, 34. [7]
Captain Daugherty had 7,766 flight hours, including 766 hours on the Boeing 707 (278 as a first officer and 488 hours as a captain). He also had 2,259 hours on the Boeing 727 (347 hours as a first officer and 1,912 hours as a captain). [8]
First officer Adcock had a total of 3,764 flight hours, though only 64 of them on the Boeing 707. Gonzalez had a total of 6,756 flying hours, including 1,056 hours on the Boeing 707, He also had 2,888 hours on the Boeing 727 and 2,823 hours on the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. [8]
One of the flight attendants on board, Yvette Murray (26), was engaged to Captain Daugherty, planning to get married in May. [9][10]
The flight crew previously flew on 3 February to Montego Bay, Jamaica. On 4 February they flew to Fort Worth, Texas, then to Denver, Colorado. On 5 February, the crew returned to Montego Bay, where they received their assignment for flight 1851 from Milan, Italy to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with a scheduled stopover in Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal. On 7 February, after a flight of 10 hours and 40 minutes, the crew arrived in Genoa, Italy, having to divert from Milan Malpensa Airport due to poor weather. The crew arrived in Bergamo three hours later. which was located near the planned departure airport. The crew spent next 46 hours in a hotel, their activities being unknown. However, in the early morning of 9 February, a witness stated that everyone left the hotel in a good mood. [8]
Departure was scheduled for 08:00 GMT, but because of inclement fog, the aircraft was delayed in Genoa and was able to land at Orio al Serio Airport in Bergamo only at 07:20. According to the flight plan, the duration of the first part of the flight was to be 4 hours and 10 minutes, landing on runway 33. It is also worth noting that in terms of flight, the airport coordinates were given as 36756 North (latitude) and 025096 West (longitude), with the runway elevation being 0 feet. But the coordinates indicated did not correspond to either the charts nor any of the aircraft's navigation equipment, and the actual level of the airfield is 305 feet (93 m). Also during the investigation it was noted that the air navigation charts for this airport were outdated by 27 years, with the last update having been on 1 February 1962. [8]
At 10:04, Flight 1851 departed Bergamo Airport. [8]
Flight 1851 had communication difficulties with air traffic controllers at high frequencies (HF), although it worked without failures on the ground. At 12:46:33, the crew contacted the Santa Maria Air Traffic Control center and reported on the passage point. WikiMiniAtlas38°N 20°W / 38°N 20°W / 38; -20. Flight 1851 was handled by a trainee air traffic controller. [8] As the investigators later noted, phraseology was violated during the communications. The controller also used the word "point" instead of "decimal," meaning a decimal point. Radio communication with the land was conducted mainly by first officer Adcock, with the exception at 13:43:57 when flight engineer Gonzalez requested a weather report. [8] At 13:44:20 the controller transmitted: "One eight five one wind two six zero... Fourteen ah fourteen knots maximum two four knots visibility more than ten kilometers one octa at one two zero zero feet six octa at three thousand feet ah temperature one seven QNH one zero one niner." During the transmission, the controller used non-standard terminology "at" in the sentence, "one octant for one two zero zero." Due to the communication difficulties, the crew heard the message as "one octant two two zero zero," from which they falsely determined that there were no clouds below 2,000 feet. [8]
At 13:56:47, when flight 1851 was performing a descent to the airfield and passing a train of 220 (6705 meters), the controller dispatched: "Independent Air one eight five one roger you're cleared to three thousand feet on QNH one zero two seven and ah runway will be one niner." The controller made a major error during this transmission. He had reported to the crew about the reduced pressure of 1027 hPa, when it was actually 1018.7, (rounded 1018), which is 9 hPa lower. The instructor noticed this and wanted to transmit the correct information to the crew, but he was distracted by a phone call. Also, the crew members themselves failed to notice the transfer of high pressure, which 12 minutes earlier was much lower. This could have been facilitated by the presence of a flight attendant in the cockpit, whose voice was recorded by the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) at 13:48:30 and at 14:04:09. [8]
At 13:56:59 the co-pilot told the controller: "We're cleared to two thousand feet and ah...," but paused mid-sentence at 13:57:02. At that same time Daugherty said, "Make it three [thousand]." Then 13:57:07 Adcock continued his radio transmission: "one zero two seven." This was the last transmission from Flight 1851, but the controller did not hear the first part, as he continued to say that the flight would be landing on runway 19, and therefore did not know that the plane continued to descend to 2,000 feet (610 m). This was below the minimum safe altitude of 3,000 feet, the aircraft was flying straight to the mountain. [8]
At 14:02, at a speed of 260 knots, the plane passed a height of 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and got into a zone of light turbulence.
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Air crash
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Iberia Airlines Flight 602 crash
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On 7 January 1972, Iberia Airlines Flight 602 crashed into a mountain near Ibiza Town, Spain. The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle operating the flight had taken off from Valencia Airport in Valencia, Spain, destined for Ibiza Airport on the Balearic island of Ibiza, also in Spain. All 98 passengers and 6 crew died in the crash. Flight 602 was a domestic service flight that took off from Valencia Airport bound for Ibiza. The aircraft was a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle, under the command of a 37-year-old captain with 7,000 flying hours' experience. [1] On board were 6 crew and 98 passengers, most of whom were Valencia natives returning to Ibiza for work after the holidays. [2]
At approximately 12:15 p.m., the aircraft's captain radioed Ibiza Airport, requesting permission to descend to 5,500 feet (1,676 meters). Ibiza Airport sources reported that he also said, "Get me a beer ready, we are here. "[2]
The aircraft was approaching Runway 07 when it descended below 2,000 feet (610 meters). [3] Reportedly, neither the captain nor the co-pilot noticed the dangerous descent, as they were discussing a football match with the airport tower controller. [3] Flight 602 struck Mount Atalayasa approximately 90 feet (30 meters) below its 1,515-foot (462-meter) summit. [2][4] The aircraft exploded on impact. All 98 passengers and 6 crew on board were killed. [1]
At the time of the crash, visibility was approximately 5–10 miles and the weather was described as high overcast with broken clouds. It was ruled that the pilot had failed to maintain the minimum flight altitude for a visual approach to Runway 07. [5]
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Air crash
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2017 Medford, New Jersey helicopter crash
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On 8 September 2017, a Schweizer 269C helicopter crashed after an uncontrolled descent during a power-off landing attempt at the Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft had experienced engine trouble during a local sightseeing flight for the benefit of passenger Troy Gentry, founder and member of the popular American country music band Montgomery Gentry, which was scheduled to perform at a resort at the airport later that day. The pilot died at the scene; Gentry was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. [1][2]
The accident aircraft was a Schweizer 269C-1 helicopter, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aircraft registration number N204HF, serial number 0109, manufactured in 2000, with 7899.2 total aircraft hours logged at the time of the accident. It was owned by Herlihy Helicopters, Inc. and operated by Helicopter Flight Services, an FAA Part 141 flight school. The craft had passed its most recent 100-hour inspection on 17 August 2017, at 7,884 total aircraft hours, a mere 15 aircraft hours prior to the accident. The aircraft was equipped with a 180 horsepower (130 kW) Lycoming HO-360-C1A engine. [3]
The company flight instructor stated that the purpose of the flight was to provide orientation and pleasure for Gentry, who was scheduled to perform at the airport in the evening. [1][3] During the flight, the pilot reported over UNICOM that manipulating the twist-grip engine control had no effect on engine rpm, and he elected to prepare for a precautionary landing. [3] At 12:40 local time (16:40, 8 September 2017 (UTC) (2017-09-08T16:40UTC)), local police received a call that a helicopter was in distress,[1] and officers arrived at the airport a short time later. [2] At approximately 13:00 local time (17:00, 8 September 2017 (UTC) (2017-09-08T17:00UTC)), the pilot shut off the engine and initiated a power-off descent under autorotation from approximately 950 feet (290 m) above ground level; however, as the descent proceeded, vertical speed became excessive. The aircraft impacted the ground about 220 feet (67 m) south of and in line with Runway 01, leaving a 10 feet (3.0 m) ground scar; the impact substantially deformed the passenger cabin and separated the tail boom from the aircraft. [3] The pilot was trapped in the wreckage and pronounced dead at the scene; passenger Gentry died of his injuries after being taken to Virtua Hospital Marlton. [2]
The aircraft carried two occupants: passenger Troy Gentry and the pilot. [1][2] The pilot had logged 480.9 total hours of flight experience, of which about 300 hours were in a Schweizer 269 or similar aircraft, and he had logged 1.2 hours in the accident helicopter earlier that day. [3] He held both commercial and flight instructor pilot certificates. [3][4]
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately began investigations of the accident. [1][3] On 13 September 2017, the NTSB announced preliminary findings, reporting that the helicopter had experienced engine trouble and that the rotor blades had slowed significantly before the aircraft impacted the ground. [4]
Investigators found that after the pilot reported that the engine was not responding to throttle inputs, he consulted with a company flight instructor and a Designated Pilot Examiner, who both attempted to convince him to perform a shallow run-on landing; however, he decided to perform a power-off landing under autorotation, as this was more familiar to him. Despite being advised "multiple times" to aim for "midfield" and not to initiate the descent until over the runway, he initiated autorotation significantly south of the runway. As the descent progressed, the flight instructor reported that vertical speed became excessive and forward speed became inadequate, and that the rotors appeared as individual rotating blades rather than a "translucent disc," indicative of decaying rotor rpm. A video recorded by police likewise showed vertical speed increasing and horizontal speed decreasing as the descent proceeded. A post-crash examination revealed that the rotor blades suffered little to no damage along their respective spans toward the blade tips, which is consistent with low rotor rpm on impact. [3]
The throttle tie rod assembly was found separated at the threaded joint, and although it was contaminated by debris from the impact crater, cleaning and close examination of the tie rod threads revealed damage consistent with vibratory thread-to-thread wear. Investigators determined that a new throttle control cable had been installed on 31 August 2016 and that it had been most recently inspected on 17 August 2017. Additionally, the engine had been changed in 2011, and the carburetor had been changed in 2014. According to the aircraft maintenance manual, throttle rigging should be performed whenever the throttle control cable, engine, and/or carburetor is changed; however, the mechanic stated that he was "not 100 percent [sure]" that this had been done when the engine was changed, and he claimed that "no adjustments were necessary to achieve/maintain proper rigging" when changing the cable. [3]
The NTSB report quotes other documents warning against the excessive application of collective pitch during autorotation, stating that it could "result in a hard landing with corresponding damage to the helicopter" and that it should "never be applied to reduce rpm for extending glide distance. "[3]
The accident was attributed to "The pilot's early entry into and failure to maintain rotor rpm during a forced landing autorotation after performing an engine shutdown in flight, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent. Contributing to the accident was the failure of maintenance personnel to properly rig the throttle control tie-rod assembly, which resulted in an in-flight separation of the assembly and rendered control of engine rpm impossible. "[3]
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Air crash
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2005 Kavatshi Airlines Antonov An-26B crash
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On 5 September 2005, a Kavatshi Airlines Antonov An-26B crashed on approach to Matari Airport in Isiro, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all 11 people on board. [1]
Antonov An-26B ER-AZT was on approach to landing on 5 September 2005 at the end of a non-scheduled domestic passenger flight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Beni Airport in Beni to Matari Airport in Isiro. At about 07:30 local time, while on final approach to Runway 31 in fog, the aircraft struck a tree, crashed 1.5 km (0.9 mile) from the airport, and caught fire, killing all 11 people (four crew members and seven passengers) on board. [1] The accident occurred on the same day just an hour after another commercial plane Mandala Airlines Flight 91 crashed shortly after takeoff from Medan with 149 fatalities. The aircraft was a twin-engine Antonov An-26B, manufacturer's serial number 9005, which had first flown in 1979 and was registered as ER-AZT. The Galaxie Corporation, which did business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Kavatshi Airlines, leased the aircraft from Aerocom in November 2003. The aircraft's airworthiness certificate expired in September 2004, but the aircraft remained in service. [1]
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Air crash
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1989 Ice Hockey World Championships
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The 1989 Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Sweden from 15 April – 1 May. The games were played in Södertälje and Stockholm, in the newly built arena Globen. Eight teams took part, and each team played each other once. The four best teams then played each other again. This was the 53rd World Championships, and also the 64th European Championships. The Soviet Union became world champions for the 21st time, and also European champions for the 26th time. The tournament was marred by positive drug tests. Only the goal totals of the Americans were affected in the end. Their losses against the Czechoslovaks and the Canadians were ruled as shutouts because of Corey Millen's high testosterone levels. Canadian Randy Carlyle also came under suspicion, but his A and B samples did not match, and he was cleared of wrongdoing. [1][2] The Soviet team won all ten of their games. At the end of the tournament, Soviet star Alexander Mogilny defected to the United States by getting on a plane with two Buffalo Sabres executives. The Sabres had drafted Mogilny the year before. [3] He joined the team and went on to score 1032 points in his NHL career. Poland was relegated to Group B. Played in Oslo and Lillehammer 30 March to 9 April. The 5 April game between Norway and Austria was officially adjusted to 8-0 for Norway because of Siegfried Haberl's positive drug test. [2] Standard procedure, since 1969, had been for Group B and Group C to exchange two teams, but that stopped this year. Norway was promoted to Group A and Denmark was relegated to Group C.
Played in Sydney 18–27 March. The Netherlands were promoted to Group B, and Australia was relegated to Group D.
Played in Geel and Heist-op-den-Berg 16–21 March. Positive drug tests wiped out the results of the first day: both games were officially rendered scoreless, and were counted as losses for all four teams. [2]
Both Belgium and Romania were promoted to Group C.
The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:
The final standings of the European Championship were determined by the points earned in games played solely between European teams. [4]
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. Source: [1]
Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 50% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Source: [2]
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Sports Competition
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Georges Fire
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The Georges Fire was a wildfire in Inyo County, California in the United States. The fire was reported on July 8, 2018 in a rural area north of Lone Pine and west of Manzanar. The fire was started by a lightning strike and impacted recreational activities in the Inyo National Forest, as well as the habitat for Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, an endangered species. The fire burned 2,883 acres (12 km2), before burning out on July 18. The Georges Fire was reported on the afternoon of July 8, in a rural area north of Lone Pine and west of Manzanar. The fire was started by a lightning strike. [2] The fire started near Georges Creek, which was named after a Paiute chief. [3] By the evening, the fire had burned 750 acres (3 km2). Roads accessing the area were closed, with nine crews and a DC-10 Air Tanker being assigned to the fire. [2]
By the next day, July 9, the fire had grown 2,000 acres (8 km2) thanks to high winds. Two additional roads were closed and campers and residents in Whitney Portal were put on evacuation warnings. Inyo National Forest closed the Whitney Portal and Shepherd Pass Trailheads. [4] That afternoon, Whitney Portal was evacuated. [5] That same evening, the fire was declared 10 percent contained, however, the fire continued to grow in the south and west and fire suppression efforts were focused on the south due to the fire's threats to Whitney Portal. The fire's growth on the western end was limited due to a rock face the fire would hit, quieting the fire due to lack of fuels. [6]
On July 10, the National Recreation Trail was closed from Lone Pine Campground. [7][8] That evening, thunderstorms provided precipitation to the fire, however the moisture was quickly dried up by warm weather and high winds. On July 11, evacuation orders were lifted for Whitney Portal and Whitney Portal Road, Mt. Whitney Trailhead and Shepherd Pass Trailhead were reopened. [9] As of July 13, favorable weather improved fire conditions, including monsoonal moisture, decreasing the fire's growth and easing the ability of crew's to control it. [10]
On July 18, the Georges Fire became inactive, with no new smoke or fire activity reported, with the burn area remaining at 2,883 acres (12 km2). [1]
The fire primarily impacted areas in the Inyo National Forest, specifically hiking and campgrounds, including the closure of a portion of the National Recreation Trail. The community of Whitney Portal was evacuated and the main road accessing the community was closed during the fire's height. Two additional trails and roads were closed during the fire. [9]
The Georges Fire burned wintering habitats used by the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. The fire has helped clear pinyon and juniper canopy cover. This benefits the sheep, who are preyed upon by mountain lions and other predators who reside in the woodlands. [11]
This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document.
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Fire
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CNBC Exclusive Transcript: Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank
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The following is the transcript of a CNBC Exclusive interview with Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, conducted ahead of the ECB’s Forum on Central Banking 2021. Should you choose to use anything, all references must be attributed to CNBC and Annette Weisbach. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annette Weisbach (AW): Thank you very much for talking to us President Lagarde. Let me first ask you about your first two years, because it’s almost two years that you are now at the helm of the institution. What has been the most challenging moment in that time? Christine Lagarde (CL): It has been very different from what I had expected in the first place. I wasn’t expecting a walk in the park, but I was expecting something more quiet than what we had. The first thing that really hit our radar screen was the COVID crisis, where one country after the other, lockdown stopped its activity, and where we had to respond extremely fast. Then I had certain issues with some National Court that wanted to challenge the validity of what had been done. And I had initially planned on starting a strategy review, which had not taken place in the last 17 years at the Central Bank. We started it, we suspended it, we started again, and now we have completed that. So altogether, it’s been a very, very busy couple of years, with massive engagement to support the economic activity in spite of this terrible pandemic that came to hit all of us. AW: And it doesn’t stop, because what we’re witnessing today is inflation picking up a lot faster than previously expected; supply chains being disrupted across the planet. So what’s your assessment here? Do you think that we’re seeing inflation actually being stickier than when your last round of forecast was conducted? CL: That we will see when we have the data and the numbers, because we are really data-dependent and we try to assess the situation based on figures, on data, on facts. We don’t like to operate on the basis of hearsay assumptions here, price increases there. What is true though, is that we have been revising many of our projections upward in the last three quarters. So things have picked up faster, and that is true for growth. That is true for inflation. And that is true for employment. In a way, it’s all a package of good news, because it means that our economies are responding, jobs are being created again. The service activities, which were completely down for so long, are now coming back in full swing. So all that is good. But, of course, it induces frictions, and those bottlenecks or those supply chains that have been disrupted because of the pandemic, and reinitiating the machine is taking time. But in the main, all of that we hope will last when it comes to growth so that activity continues, we hope will last when it comes to jobs, so that employment continues and unemployment goes down. For prices, we think that there will be a return to much more stability in the year to come because many of the causes of higher prices are temporary. When you look at what’s causing it, a lot of it has to do with energy prices. You look back a year ago, prices were rock bottom - they have of course moved up. This difference is explaining a lot of the inflation that people are unfortunately experiencing at the moment. The same goes for some VAT impact, where VAT was reduced in order to stimulate activity, particularly in Germany. Now VAT is back. So that’s another base effect, if you will, that explains the prices level that we’re seeing now. AW: But it seems that for the first time in many, many years, the so-called slack in the euro area is actually reducing, meaning that wages are also on the rise because there are not enough people to fill the open positions. Is that something you are monitoring—you’re acknowledging as well? CL: Oh yeah. We’re paying great and close attention to this issue of slack. There is still quite a lot of slack in terms of employment. We still have at least 1 million more people unemployed today than pre-pandemic. So, there is still a lot of ground to cover for employment to return to pre-pandemic levels. We hope it will happen and as we close that gap, clearly economic activity will continue to be stimulated and we will see movement on the inflation front. AW: Is that also the reason why during the last press conference you didn’t want to say that what you’ve decided was tapering? In a way it is, because you’re reducing stimulus. What is tapering then? CL: I said “The lady’s not for tapering”. The lady’s for calibrating, because this has been our policy. Our monetary policy is intended to procure favorable financing conditions. Why is that? Because we want to support the economic players, whether it’s households, whether it’s enterprises, large corporates, sovereigns, all of them need to have favorable financing conditions, to cross that bridge towards the post pandemic stage. To make sure that there are favorable financing conditions, we look at the whole chain of financing. And we look at inflation outlook, and we determine how much monetary support is needed. That helps us calibrate the purchases that we believe are necessary, which is why we calibrated and decided to purchase moderately in the coming quarter. AW: You said you’re planning on purchasing moderately. What does it mean in numbers? Does it mean 60, 70? Or is there more flexibility to it? CL: There is flexibility to the pandemic emergency program. That is the one of the landmarks of the PEPP (Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program), because we want to adjust, we want to have the ability to really operate as close to variations as possible to make sure that financing conditions remain favorable. So it works both ways. If we see that fewer purchases will still procure those favorable financing conditions, we will purchase less. If we see that more is needed, we will add to the purchases. AW: The Financial Times ran a story based on a call between German economists and your chief economist that soon after the projection horizon, inflation will hit 2%. And then they concluded from that, that a rate hike could be on the cards already by 2023. So why is that wrong in your opinion? Because you have defended that conclusion. CL: It is not at all our conclusion. Anybody is free to draw their own conclusions on the basis of hearsay, secondhand information, quick look at this or that. What I know for a fact - because I know my chief economist and my colleague and friend Philip Lane - is that he never would have said something like what was alleged to have been said. Now, of course, he would say and I would say that if we continue having a good monetary policy in the future, at some stage we must hit the 2% mark, because that’s our job. Price stability is defined under our new strategy review by reference to the 2% inflation mark, which is identified over a period of time because we are not going to respond abruptly or trust one number. But of course, we believe that if our monetary policy is successful, we will indeed hit 2% inflation. AW: Of course, but my understanding of your forward guidance always holds that it needs to be 2% over the whole projection horizon. And then only after that would he think about hiking rates, is that correct? CL: No, it’s not over the whole projection horizon. What we say is that we want to see inflation at that 2% level – say, midway during the projection period, and lasting all the way to the end of our horizon. We also want to make sure that as we speak, when we look at the economic situation, the underlying factors give us sufficient confidence that we will reach that for the medium term. AW: Let’s talk also about the economic outlook because we are seeing - at least for Germany, but also for other countries - downgrades to the economic outlook because of the bottlenecks, but also because of the higher net energy prices, which is clearly a drag on companies’ performance. How concerned are you that you actually need to revise your growth outlook downward? CL: Again, we work on the basis of facts, figures, numbers, and then we do the best job we can to project. At the moment we have been revising our projection upward rather than downward. The numbers we are seeing at the moment lead us to believe that we are still in line with our with our projection. We will have new projections in December. We’ll see at that time, but for the moment we are on sync, and in line with our projection. AW: Coming back to inflation and energy prices, because what we are seeing with the gas prices currently happening is unprecedented. What is your assessment here? And do you think these kinds of imbalances in certain markets will be something which we will witness more often? CL: We are coming from a situation which was unprecedented, where everything stopped. And we are in this phase where everything is being reset, if you will. It’s inevitable that in those circumstances, there are bottlenecks, there are shortages of supply relative to much higher demand. So there is an adjustment period that is taking place at the moment. Typically, what we’ve seen in previous circumstances, previous crises, previous supply shortages/bottlenecks is that it is resolved over the course of time. When you cannot get your spare parts from a particular source, you try to identify another source. Remember some of those very serious damages to supply chains. For instance, when there were tsunamis or very dramatic incidents in Japan in particular, everybody thought that it would be damaged and disrupted for the next 12 months. Well, in a matter of three months, the supplies were identified so new supply chains were put in place. Things will fall into place - new sources of supply will be identified. Energy is going to be a matter that will probably stay with us longer because we are transitioning from fossil-industry-driven sources of energy to what we aspire to be much less fossil sources. So that’s the transition that is in play. AW: I remember, I think I’ve asked you once, whether you think the transition into a CO2-free world will have deflationary or rather inflationary aspects and that at the time you said it’s not clear yet. Is it clearer now? CL: My fear is that it’s not much more clear today. We are beginning to see some studies and academics are looking into it. And I think the jury’s still out. My hunch for having read some of those is that it’s likely to be pushing prices up for a short period of time, and probably later on might have some deflationary impact, but it’s very, very premature and early days to say. AW: Yesterday, the Fed had an all-important meeting and it’s clear that they are now on the trajectory of exiting their extraordinary measures. How much of a time lag do you think there is between the ECB and the Fed? CL: I have no idea. I have no idea because we are operating with different programs. I mean, there is an element of tapering in the way they have structured their support package to the economy, whereas we are not in that situation. We are in the process of calibrating and we have begun calibrating for October, November, December, based on the latest decision that we made, but it’s calibrating. It’s making sure that we are procuring those favorable financing conditions and purchasing what is needed in order to provide that. The Fed is doing something slightly different. And I don’t know whether they’re doing it. My colleague and friend Mr. Powell just said that November might be the time, but it’s fact-dependent again. AW: He also was saying he thinks that the Evergrande market turbulence is purely a Chinese problem. Do you think that as well? Because it has clearly a spillover effect on the debt markets: for now it’s only Chinese, but the markets are very global. CL: We are looking at it, we are monitoring. I had a briefing earlier on today because I think that all financial markets are interconnected. I have very vivid memories of latest stock market developments in China that had a bearing across the world, but in Europe and in the euro area in particular, direct exposure would be limited.
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Financial Crisis
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Hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi was heading for a landslide win in Iran's presidential election on Saturday
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Hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi was heading for a landslide win in Iran's presidential election on Saturday, as the man he will replace pledged a smooth transition a day after millions voted in a contest that critics boycotted over economic woes and political curbs.
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Government Job change - Election
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Richmond Theatre fire
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The Richmond Theatre fire occurred in Richmond, Virginia, United States, on Thursday, December 26, 1811. It devastated the Richmond Theatre, located on the north side of Broad Street between what is now Twelfth and College Streets. The fire, which killed 72 people including many government officials, was the worst urban disaster in U.S. history at the time. [1] The Monumental Church was erected on the site as a memorial to the fire. [2]
A previous building at the same location was known initially as the first Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences in America, and subsequently the site was known as "The Theatre Square." Chevalier Quesnay de Beaurepaire, a French officer who served in the American Revolutionary War, had developed the idea for the academy but the plan was abandoned due to the war. Richmond's first theatre, a barn-like building, opened its doors on October 10, 1786, with a performance of School for Scandal. [3] The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held in this building beginning on June 3 for three weeks "after first convening in the temporary capitol at Cary and fourteenth streets. "[4] Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry. This building was destroyed by fire in 1811. [5]
A new multi-story brick theatre was erected around 1810 on what was at the time the north side of H Street (now Broad). [6] There was an orchestra section, a first balcony, and an upper balcony, with narrow doorways. [7]
The performance on the evening of December 26, 1811, was a benefit for Alexander Placide and his daughter. The program was a double billing: first, a play entitled The Father, or Family Feuds, and after it, a pantomime entitled Raymond and Agness, or The Bleeding Nun. The benefit originally had been scheduled for December 23, but was postponed due to the death of one of the company's players, Eliza Poe, as well as Placide's own illness and foul weather. [8] It being Christmas time and the last opening of the season, the auditorium on December 26 was packed with an excited audience of 598 people,[9] with 518 adults and 80 children to view the pantomime, which commenced immediately after the play was finished. The fire started after the curtain fell following the first act of the pantomime, when the chandelier was lifted toward the ceiling with the flame still lit. The lamp became entangled in the cords used to lift the chandelier and it touched one of the items used in the front scenes, which caught fire. As soon as the boy worker who was operating the cords saw the flames, he fled the building. The flames rose up the scenery and spread in the fly gallery from one hanging scene to the other; there were 35 such hanging scenes which could be lowered. In addition to the hangings were also the borders that provided the outlines of buildings and skies, among other set pieces; these, too, caught fire sequentially. Pine planks (with shingles over them) fixed over rafters with no plastering and ceiling spread the flames, which fell from the ceiling and spread extremely rapidly. [10][11] The impact of the fire was worsened because the stage curtain hid the initial flames from the audience. [7]
The theatre had multiple exits: a little known side-door was used by those in the orchestra and back stage while an upper balcony exit was a clear way out. [7] In the panic of the fire, many people were pushed and fell, and they were unable to escape. Many people jumped out of the windows of the theatre. Others who were assembled near the window were afraid to do so. The editor of the Richmond Standard, present at the scene, urged people to jump; he, with help from many others on the ground, then heroically saved the lives of many of those who chose to do so. [2]
Also credited with heroism was Gilbert Hunt, a former slave who, having purchased his freedom, was working as a blacksmith at a shop near the theatre. Along with Dr. James McCaw, a physician who was attending the theatre that evening, Hunt was credited with saving close to a dozen people. McCaw would lower them from the burning second story, and Hunt would catch them. Hunt also saved McCaw, who jumped just as a burning section of wall was about to fall on him. [12] Today Hunt is memorialized by a historical marker on the site. [13] A book, entitled Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith, later was published in his honor and to provide financial assistance for him in his old age. [14]
It has been claimed that Peter Francisco saved over thirty people from the theater during the fire, having been in attendance at the performance. [15][16][17][18]
Of the 72 who died in the fire, 54 were women and 18 were men. [19] Among the victims were Virginia's sitting governor, George William Smith, and former U.S. Senator Abraham B. Venable; the governor had purportedly tried to save his child from the flames. [2][8] Also killed were Benjamin Botts, of Dumfries, and his wife; Botts had made a name for himself as a member of the defense in Aaron Burr's 1807 trial for treason. [20] Their son, John Botts, became a U.S. congressman and prominent unionist during the American Civil War. Dr. Robert Greenhow, later the husband of noted Confederate spy Rose Greenhow, survived the fire along with his father; his mother was killed in the blaze. [21] Another survivor was former U.S. Congressman John G. Jackson, then serving in the Virginia General Assembly. [22]
George Tucker, who became the University of Virginia's first Professor of Moral Philosophy, narrowly escaped with his life after being struck in the head by a timber which left a permanent scar. [23] In his autobiography, Tucker claimed to have saved several women from the conflagration. [24] Sarah Henry Campbell, daughter of Patrick Henry, was rescued from the flames by Alexander Scott, and later became his wife. [25]
Many members of the upper echelons of Richmond society were in attendance on the night of the fire, and many were killed; among the dead were listed Pages, Nelsons, and Braxtons, all members of some of the First Families of Virginia. [12]
On December 27, 1811, the Common Council commissioned a Committee of Investigation, which absolved the Placide & Green Theater Company of responsibility and blamed the inferior design and construction of the theater building for the great loss of life. [26]
The ordinance for building a monument for the victims was further modified by a resolution of the Richmond City Council to erect a church at the site, as a further commemoration of the victims of the fire. City Council also sanctioned an amount of US$5,000 as its contribution toward the building of the church by the "Association for building a church on Shockoe Hill".
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1991 Limon earthquake
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The 1991 Costa Rica earthquake, also known as Limon earthquake or Bocas del Toro earthquake, occurred at 3:57 pm local time (21:56:51 UTC) on April 22. The epicenter of the 7.7 Mw earthquake was in Pandora, Valle La Estrella, in the Caribbean region of Limon, Costa Rica, 225 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of San José. The earthquake was the strongest recorded in Costa Rica's history, and was felt throughout the country as well as in western Panama. [3][4]
The earthquake claimed 48 lives in Costa Rica and 79 in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Roads and bridges between Limon and Sixaola were all destroyed, and the epicentral region was only accessible by helicopter from the Panamaian side. [5]
In Limon, hotels and other landmarks collapsed and 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) of uplift at the waterfront left coral and sand bluffs exposed. In Panama, extensive damage also occurred in Guabito, Changuinola, Almirante and Isla Colon. The Chiquita Brands office building in Changuinola separated with a 3-meter breach. The international bridge of Sixaola stayed intact. At the Changuinola "Capitán Manuel Niño" International Airport damage on the south end of the runway was severe, and very few planes were able to land. Helicopters were the primary aircraft bringing in relief workers, food, and supplies. By 1993, the Changuinola-Guabito road was reconstructed with $10 million USD funded by the Panamanian government, and new housing facilities were constructed in Finca 4 and Almirante. Reconstruction of the Limon-Sixaola road took months, and in 2010 the road was paved and coded as Highway 36.
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Earthquakes
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Capital Airlines Flight 67 crash
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Capital Airlines Flight 67 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight operated by Capital Airlines which crashed on final approach to Freeland, Michigan, USA, during a severe snowstorm on April 6, 1958. The flight was en route from Flint-Bishop Airport to the Freeland-Tri City Airport (now MBS International Airport) when it crashed. [1] Flight 67 was the first of four fatal crashes in the space of two years involving Capital Airlines Vickers Viscounts;[2] the others were Capital Airlines Flight 300 (May 1958),[3] Capital Airlines Flight 75 (May 1959), and Capital Airlines Flight 20 (January 1960). Approach conditions towards Freeland were poor due to the weather; there was restricted visibility, and conditions were ripe for icing. The plane's crew apparently attempted a steep turn to align the craft with the runway. This caused the plane to stall, which was followed by a spin. [4] The crew could not regain control, leading to the crash. The official cause of the crash was listed as an undetected buildup of ice on the horizontal stabilizer which, coupled with airspeed and the design of the aircraft, caused it to lose control. [4] Furthermore, the aircraft's stall warning device was inoperative. [1][5]
A memorial to the victims was unveiled in a local cemetery in 2001. [6]
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Air crash
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With An Eye To History, Biden And Johnson Try To Rekindle The 'Special Relationship'
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Biden talk Thursday during a meeting in Carbis Bay, England, as they look over copies of the original Atlantic Charter from 1941.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Biden talk Thursday during a meeting in Carbis Bay, England, as they look over copies of the original Atlantic Charter from 1941.
In their first face-to-face meeting, President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a 21st century version of the historic Atlantic Charter, an attempt to depict their countries as the chief global leaders taking on the world's biggest challenges. The two leaders pledged to work "closely with all partners who share our democratic values" and to counter "the efforts of those who seek to undermine our alliances and institutions." The charter encompasses a commitment to cooperate on climate change, technology and science. It also reaffirms support for NATO while underscoring opposition to election interference and disinformation campaigns. "We must ensure that democracies – starting with our own – can deliver on solving the critical challenges of our time," the document says. By highlighting their similarities as "democracies," the two are trying to create a clear contrast with Russia and China. The document is a symbolic nod to the original Atlantic Charter signed in 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. That document was a blueprint for emerging from World War II, and included a set of common principles, such as liberalized trade, labor standards and commitments to restore self-government to countries that had been occupied.
Biden has often spoken of his presidency in grand historic terms, and he's repeatedly praised Roosevelt as a role model for his time in the White House. Likewise, Johnson sees Churchill as a personal idol and has even written a book about him.
This new charter comes not after a world war but a pandemic, and it is attempting to clarify what the coming decades can and should look like from the two leaders' shared perspectives, officials said. Signing this charter signals a renewal of the historic "special relationship," a phrase Churchill coined to describe the depth of ties between the two democracies.
Before the two men signed this new Atlantic Charter, they viewed a copy of the original document, under glass, as reporters looked on. The rest of their meeting was behind closed doors. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard a ship off Newfoundland in 1941, where they signed the original Atlantic Charter.
Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard a ship off Newfoundland in 1941, where they signed the original Atlantic Charter.
First impressions
Roosevelt and Churchill forged a deep wartime friendship that some historians now say "saved the world." There have been plenty of questions about how "special" (or not special) the personal relationship between Biden and Johnson might be. Before Thursday's meeting in Cornwall ahead of the Group of Seven summit, the two men had never met in person. And yet first impressions had already been made. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden mocked Johnson at a fundraiser, calling him as a "physical and emotional clone" of former President Donald Trump. Biden opposed the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Johnson championed Brexit, and eventually shepherded it through Parliament. Biden wants to rebuild America's global alliances. Johnson is seen as the embodiment of nationalist populist politics. Biden ran for president as an explicit rebuke of Trump. Johnson was known for being particularly chummy with the former president, who once admiringly called him "Britain Trump." Trump, and some political observers, saw Brexit in a similar vein to Trump's "America First" philosophy. Still, the first European leader Biden spoke with after his inauguration was Johnson, who was quick to acknowledge the president's victory at a time when his old friend Trump was bitterly fighting it.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters this week that Biden and Johnson have had a couple of phone calls, and he described those conversations as "warm" and "constructive." "They've been very much down to business," he said.
Northern Ireland, trade deal in focus
Still, the two men aren't starting from a clean slate. Last year, during the presidential campaign, Biden warned that a post-Brexit, U.S.-U.K. free trade deal could be in jeopardy if peace in Northern Ireland became a "casualty" of Brexit. We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit.Any trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period. https://t.co/Ecu9jPrcHL
One side effect of Brexit has been renewed tension in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which finally left the EU this year. The Republic of Ireland remains part of the EU.
As part of a deal to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland in the aftermath of a Brexit, a customs border has been created, dividing Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. In April, that helped trigger some of the worst riots the region has witnessed in years. Biden, who often talks about his Irish heritage, has warned he would scrap any trade deal if Britain damages the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to the region after decades of violence. The EU hopes Biden can press Johnson to abide by his government's agreement to institute the required customs checks along the border. Johnson is eager to cut a free trade deal with the United States. Although such a deal is not expected to be especially lucrative — trade barriers between the two countries are already low – it would boost Johnson's prestige and help him fulfill his promise to British voters that leaving the EU would free the United Kingdom to make new trade agreements with major economies.
Pandemic recovery, climate change A U.K.-U.S. trade deal is not particularly high on Biden's agenda. There are other issues, such as pandemic recovery and climate change, that are of importance to Biden — issues where the two men are expected to find significant common ground.
Johnson welcomed Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization. Trump had abandoned both. After Biden left his meeting with Johnson, the president announced a new donation of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries, and said the G7 would have more announcements to make on the issue on Friday.
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Socionext America wins Best of Sensors 2021 Award for its SC123X Series radar sensors
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Hungry to solve your latest design roadblock? Register for Sensors Innovation Week: Winter Edition This free virtual event, taking place this December 13-15, will cover the latest applications and trends across sensors, IoT, connectivity, and electronic devices to enable you to conquer your latest design challenges - register now!
Sensors Converge and Fierce Electronics presented the Best of Sensors Awards at the Sensors 2021 Conference and Expo on September 23
The 2021 Best of Sensors Award in the embedded technologies category went to Socionext America for their SC123x Series all-in-one 24GHz radio-controlled FMCW radar sensors.
"Socionext is honored to be nominated by Sensors Converge for our 24GHz radar sensing technology in the 2021 Best of Sensors Awards embedded technology category," said Teruaki Hasegawa, head of Socionext's IoT & radar sensing unit. "Radar sensors enable a wide variety of applications for monitoring, process control, and human safety. The company is committed to the advancement of sensing technology for improving people's lives in many ways."
The SC123x series of sensors features wide area detection (30 feet range with a 120-degree field of view), compact form factor (9 x 9 x 1 mm footprint), and ultra-low power operation (0.5mW average power consumption). They combine a high level of integration into a single integrated circuit, and their full CMOS-based semiconductor design helps lower manufacturing costs and reduce power consumption.
The SC123x series was designed for use in advanced smart home devices. Some of its applications include video doorbells, video conference systems, security cameras, air quality monitors, lighting, dash cams, appliances, home electronics, and more.
Radar has many advantages over traditional sensing technologies. Consider the video doorbell devices that are starting to become popular. The SC123x series allows users to set up a distance threshold to monitor people and objects entering or exiting the area in front of the video doorbell. The SC123x series 24GHz radar sensor can detect objects within a 120-degree field of view and a range of up to 30 feet.
The SC123x sensor can determine the detailed distance of an object in its field of view and track both its distance and movement in real-time. Once the object has passed the distance threshold, the smart device can use the information provided by the radar to trigger an alert for the homeowner as well as trigger the built-in camera to start recording video.
Design kits are now available for both the 24GHz and 60GHz sensing units. The evaluation kits come with the necessary USB cable, sensor code library, GUI-based evaluation software, the evaluation software operation manual, API specifications, and sample source code for the API.
Socionext was founded in 2015 from the system IC organizations of Fujitsu and Panasonic and is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. The company combines world-class expertise, decades of experience, and the resources of two successful companies with a proven track record in the electronics industry. Socionext is a leading supplier of standard and customizable SoC solutions for industrial, consumer, and automotive markets. Socionext America is the company's U.S. branch headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is one of the world's leading fabless ASIC suppliers.
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Awards ceremony
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Erwadi fire incident
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Erwadi fire incident is an accident that occurred on 6 August 2001, when 28 inmates of a faith-based mental asylum died in the fire. All these inmates were bound by chains at Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Erwadi Village in Tamil Nadu. [2][3]
Large number of mental homes existed in Erwadi which was famous for the dargah of Quthbus Sultan Syed Ibrahim Shaheed Valiyullah, from Medina, Saudi Arabia who came to India to propagate Islam. Various people believe that holy water from the dargah and oil from the lamp burning there have the power to cure all illnesses, especially mental problems. The treatment also included frequent caning, beatings supposedly to "drive away the evil". During the day, patients were tied to trees with thick ropes. At night, they were tied to their beds with iron chains. [4] The patients awaited a divine command in their dreams to go back home. For the command to come, it was expected to take anything from two months to several years. As the number of people seeking cure at dargah increased, homes were set up by individuals to reportedly take care of the patients. Most of these homes were set up by people who themselves had come to Erwadi seeking cure for their relatives. The origins of the fire are unknown, but once it spread, there was little hope of saving most of the 45 inmates, who were chained to their beds in the ramshackle shelter in which they slept, though such shackling was against Indian law. Some inmates whose shackles were not as tight escaped, and five people were hospitalized for severe burns. The bodies of the dead were not identifiable. [5]
All mental homes of this type were closed on 13 August 2001, and more than 500 inmates were placed under government's care. [6] As per Supreme Court directions, a commission headed by N. Ramdas was set up to enquire into these deaths. The commission recommended that care of mentally ill people is to be improved, that anybody wishing to set up a mental home to acquire a license, and that all inmates be unchained. [7]
In 2007, the owner of the Badsha Home for the Mentally Challenged, his wife and two relatives were sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a magistrate Court. [8]
Coordinates: 9°51′00″N 78°51′04″E / 9.85000°N 78.85111°E / 9.85000; 78.85111
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Nearly 1 in 4 hospitals treating Covid in Afghanistan have shut down, the W.H.O. warns.
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Over the past 20 years, significant health gains have been made in Afghanistan in reducing maternal and child mortality, moving towards polio eradication, and more. Those gains are now at severe risk with the country’s health system on the brink of collapse. There has been a surge in cases of measles and diarrhea. Almost 50 percent of children are at high — at risk of malnutrition. The resurgence of polio is a major risk, and 2.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine remain unused. Unless urgent action is taken, Afghanistan faces an imminent humanitarian catastrophe. Health workers are leaving, creating a brain drain that will have consequences for years to come. We visited a hospital where we met some nurses who have stayed. My heart broke when they told me they have not been paid in three months. The focus of our efforts now is to support and sustain the Sehatmandi Project, which is the backbone of Afghanistan’s health system, providing care for millions of people through 2,300 health facilities, including in remote areas. But a funding pause by major donors — only 17 percent of these facilities are fully functional. And two-thirds have stockouts of essential medicines. Afghanistan’s Health System Is on the ‘Brink of Collapse,’ W.H.O. Says By Lauren Katzenberg Nearly one-quarter of the hospitals treating Covid-19 in Afghanistan have closed in recent weeks, and the country’s efforts to respond to the pandemic have declined, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. The W.H.O. issued an urgent warning on Wednesday, saying that Afghanistan is on the brink of “an imminent humanitarian catastrophe.” The notice followed a recent visit to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where W.H.O. leaders met with the leadership of the Taliban, which is now in control of the country. The W.H.O. officials also met with United Nations partners, health care workers and patients. “Cuts in donor support to the country’s largest health project, Sehatmandi, has left thousands of health facilities without funding for medical supplies and salaries for health staff,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the W.H.O., and Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the organization’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a joint statement on Wednesday. Roughly two-thirds of the country’s health facilities are part of Sehatmandi, a three-year, $600 million project administered by the World Bank and financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the European Union, the World Bank and other donors. Because funds for the project were funneled through the Ministry of Public Health, donors withdrew their support after the Taliban seized power. Now, only one-sixth of all Sehatmandi facilities are fully functional, according to the W.H.O. “Many of these facilities have now reduced operations or shut down, forcing health providers to make hard decisions on who to save and who to let die,” the statement said. Officials also said that nine of the 37 hospitals treating Covid-19 in Afghanistan have closed, and coronavirus surveillance, testing and vaccination efforts have contracted. Afghanistan, which emerged from a surge in virus infections at the end of June, is starting to see cases rise again, this time involving the highly contagious Delta variant. Before last month, the W.H.O. said, about 2.2 million people, or about 6 percent of Afghanistan’s population, had been vaccinated against Covid-19. But in recent weeks, the organization said, vaccination rates have slowed markedly, and some 1.8 million vaccine doses in the country remain unused. The country’s acting health minister and last remaining holdover from the pre-Taliban Cabinet, Dr. Wahid Majrooh, stepped down on Tuesday. Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s under secretary for emergency relief, said on Wednesday that he was releasing $45 million to help prevent Afghanistan’s health care system from collapsing. “Medicines, medical supplies and fuel are running out in Afghanistan,” Mr. Griffiths said in a statement. “Cold chains are compromised. Essential health care workers are not being paid.” On top of the threat of a public health crisis, new figures released by the World Food Program suggest that 95 percent of Afghans lack secure access to adequate food, a situation that could worsen in the winter, when many remote communities are likely to be cut off from outside support for several months.
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Organization Closed
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Kuwaiti protests (2011–2012)
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The Kuwaiti protests refers to the series of 2011–2012 demonstrations for government reforms in the state of Kuwait. In November 2011, the government of Kuwait resigned in response to the protests, making Kuwait one of several countries affected by the Arab Spring to experience major governmental changes due to unrest. The protests began with stateless people (Bedoon). Sabah Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, gave every Kuwaiti citizen 1,000 dinars (3580 $) and a free food grant for one year on 18 January 2011,[2] officially to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from occupying Iraqi forces during the First Gulf War, as well as the 50th anniversary of the state's independence. [3] But the grant was not extended to the stateless Bedoun living in Kuwait. Dozens demonstrated in Kuwait City on 19 February against their supposed second-class status. [4] Opposition leaders called for further protests in March to pressure Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sabah to resign. [5]
Stateless people continued to protest into January 2012 despite a protest ban, turning out on 13 and 14 January in slums near Kuwait City to call for the right to citizenship. On both days, violence broke out, with riot police clashing with stateless demonstrators and arresting several dozen on 13 January and firing tear gas to disperse rally-goers on 14 January. [6][7]
Riot police on 2 October used tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse hundreds of stateless demonstrators who were demanding citizenship. Witnesses and activists said at least three people, including a policeman, were slightly wounded and 10 stateless were arrested as security forces laid a siege on the Taima suburb in Al Jahra which houses tens of thousands of stateless. The new protest comes a week after three international human rights groups sent an unprecedented letter to Emir Al-Sabah urging him to end alleged abuse against stateless people. [8]
On the night of 16 November, demonstrators and several opposition MPs stormed the National Assembly, briefly occupying it while singing and shouting slogans calling for Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sabah to step down. They left after several minutes to rally in the adjacent Al-Erada Square, although riot police attacked several protesters with nightsticks when a smaller group split off and tried to charge the prime minister's residence. [9]
Shortly after the Constitutional Court declared in June 2012 that the February 2012 National Assembly election were "illegal" and reinstated the previous pro-government parliament, thousands of Kuwaitis rally in Al-Erada Square on 26 June to protests against a court ruling that dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament. Demonstrators chanted "we will not surrender", while a prominent opposition MP called for a constitutional monarchy. [10] On 27 August, around 3,000 people, mainly men in traditional Kuwaiti dress, gathered opposite parliament at Al-Erada Square to protest changes to the electoral law which they said could harm the prospects of opposition lawmakers in upcoming elections. [11]
Around 1,500 Kuwaitis took part in a rally late on 10 September to protest against possible changes in the electoral law and call for more democracy. The crowd, which included opposition lawmakers and political activists, gathered outside parliament in a square which has hosted several anti-government demonstrations since late last year. However, the turnout was smaller than previous rallies in the major oil producer and there was only a light police presence. [12]
Thousands of Kuwait opposition supporters rallied on 24 September, a day ahead where the Constitutional Court is scheduled to rule on next day if the electoral constituency law is in line with the constitution based on a request submitted by the government last month. Around 10,000 people, who filled the seaside square opposite the parliament building, cheered loudly as opposition figures called for an elected government and warned against what they called a politicised ruling. The next day, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Gulf emirate's electoral constituency law was in line with the constitution, rejecting a government appeal. Dozens of opposition activists who were in the court room hailed the verdict and exchanged congratulations. [13]
On 15 October, Kuwaiti security forces detained at least five people, including the son of a prominent opposition figure, at an anti-government protest against possible changes to an election law. Several people were hurt in skirmishes at the rally, attended by at least 3,000 people who defied a request by authorities to cancel the Monday night demonstration. In some of the strongest remarks by an opposition figure, former lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak appealed directly to Kuwaiti Emir to avoid "autocratic rule". His speech to the crowd contained extremely rare criticism of the ruler, "In the name of the nation, in the name of the people, we will not let you, your Highness, practice autocratic rule," Barrak told the rally in a speech addressed to the emir, drew repeated chants of "we will not let you, we will not let you" from the crowd. Analysts said his remarks, including the criticism of the emir could spark a strong reaction from the authorities. The son of Ahmed Al-Sadoun, another prominent opposition leader and former parliament speaker, was among those detained during the protest near parliament where several anti-government demonstrations have taken place in the past year. [14]
After the 1 December elections which were won by pro-government candidates due to boycotts by the opposition, hundreds of opposition supporters demonstrated in various areas of Kuwait late on 6 December to demand scrapping the newly elected national assembly. Night demonstrations were staged in at least four areas of the state and that riot police used teargas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters. [15] Activists clashed with police on the next day as they took to the streets in at least eight areas of the Gulf state. [16] Thousands then demonstrated on 8 December to demand dissolving the new elected parliament. [17]
On 18 October 2012, former MP Bader al-Dahum was taken into police custody. Khaled al-Tahus, also a former MP, was summoned for questioning by the prosecution service. Later, a group of around 500 people gathered outside the Justice Palace late Thursday night to protest against the detention of the former lawmakers. On the same day, Kuwait's Al-Sabah royal family issued a rare statement calling for "obedience" to the government. [18] The three former lawmakers were all later released on bail on 23 October. [19] Local media reported on 24 October that authorities have banned gatherings of more than 20 people. [20]
Opposition lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak was arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on the night of 29 October following a news conference at his house where he called on the government to abide by the constitution. Activists says that his arrest could impact for the further protests, which demonstrators have vowed to stage another protest on 4 November. [21] He was freed after an appeal although he remains under investigation. [22] Another opposition figure, former Islamist MP Faisal Al-Muslim, has been summoned for questioning on 31 October. [23] On 3 November, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa quoted a security source saying that authorities may call in the army to help security forces stop a march called by the opposition for the next day, shortly after the government vowed to use force if necessary. [24]
There were allegations that Jordanian forces had been deployed to assist in quelling protests in Kuwait. However, the Jordanian government denies this, saying the reports were "fabricated" and "not worthy of comment. "[25]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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BHP, Glencore, Anglo American face OECD investigation over environmental damage and human rights abuses at Colombian coal mine
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BHP, Glencore, Anglo American face OECD investigation over environmental damage and human rights abuses at Colombian coal mine
Three of the world's biggest miners including BHP could be forced to close down Latin America's largest open pit mine, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) set to investigate environmental destruction and alleged human rights abuses.
The probe comes just months after the United Nations called on BHP, Anglo American and Glencore to suspend some operations at the massive Cerrejon thermal coal mine in Colombia, in the La Guajira region, near the border with Venezuela.
The mine has operated for 30 years and has long been accused by the local community, including the Indigenous Wayuu people, of forced evictions, pollution and human rights abuses.
Complaints to the OECD have been filed in Australia, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) with the support of a coalition of Colombian and international human rights and environmental groups.
The mining giants could be forced to progressively stop mining at Cerrejon, rehabilitate the environment and compensate surrounding communities if the OECD finds they are responsible for the problems under its guidelines for multinational enterprises.
GLAN director Gearoid O'Cuinn said there had been a systemic failure by the mine's owners to respect basic human rights. "We are focusing on the harms caused on the ground in Colombia to Indigenous communities and Afro-Colombian communities who have been severely affected both in human rights terms but also in environmental terms by the operations of the mine, which has resulted in the displacement of entire communities, the diversion of entire rivers and a significant amount of air pollution," he told the ABC.
Complaints have also been lodged against Ireland's Electricity Supply Board, which is a major purchaser of the mine's coal.
In September last year, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment David Boyd said Cerrejon had seriously damaged the environment and the health of the Wayuu, Colombia's largest Indigenous group.
Last year, Colombia's Constitutional Court also ordered Cerrejon to protect health and the environment, after it found high concentrations of harmful metals were present in the blood of people in communities living nearby.
Cerrejon is one of the largest coal mines in the world, with 150 kilometres of railway and port operations moving 550 million tonnes of coal annually.
But Dr O'Cuinn said any action against the three big miners depended on governments enforcing the OECD guidelines.
"The fact that these are non-binding really underscores the inadequacy of these voluntary guidelines," he said. Rosa María Mateus Parra, a lawyer with CAJAR, a Colombian human rights organisation, said the operation of Cerrejon was a "striking example" of large multinational businesses fuelling injustice. "The people of La Guajira have borne the huge social and environmental costs of the mine, while harmful fossil fuel coal is exported around the world in the midst of the climate crisis and a small number of companies record huge profits," she said. In November, Cerrejon said it had reached a preliminary agreement with the traditional owners to comply with environmental and health requirements in its operations, build a community health centre, rehabilitate the environment and carry out other measures ordered by the court.
However, community leaders denied there was an agreement with Cerrejon.
A report from Human Rights Watch last year said there were high rates of malnutrition, especially among rural Indigenous communities in the La Guajira region.
The NGO said there was "a lack of sufficient food, water, and access to health services, along with high poverty rates, complicated by a humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Venezuela, government corruption and mismanagement, and climate change".
GLAN is a non-governmental organisation made up of lawyers, investigative journalists and academics that pursues legal action across borders.
BHP is trying to sell some of its thermal coal mines, including Cerrejon and Mount Arthur in the Hunter Valley in northern New South Wales.
In recent years, South America has seen some of the world's worst mining disasters.
In 2015, the collapse of a giant waste dam at the Samarco mine in Brazil, co-owned by BHP and iron ore giant Vale, left 19 people dead and became the nation's worst environmental disaster.
In 2019, nearly 300 people were killed when a tailings dam collapsed at another Vale mine in Brazil.
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Environment Pollution
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Palestinian general strike
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The Arab general strike in Mandatory Palestine of 1936 was a general strike of all Arabs in Mandatory Palestine engaged in labour, transport and shopkeeping, which began on 19 April 1936 and lasted until October 1936; and which degenerated into violence and the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. As part of the intercommunal conflict, some Arab leaders sought to orchestrate anti-Jewish boycotts from 1922, with the official commencement of the British Mandate for Palestine. Arab dissent was influenced by the Qassamite rebellion following the killing of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam by the British military in 1935, as well as the declaration by Mohammad Amin al-Husayni of 16 May 1930 as 'Palestine Day' and calling for a general strike on this day, following the 1929 Buraq (Western Wall) Uprising. [citation needed]
In Egypt, anti-British demonstrations in November 1935 brought about the resumption of negotiations between the two countries for a treaty of independence. In Mandatory Syria a promise in March 1936 from the French authorities of self-government was made to end the 50-day Syrian general strike. In 1936, Walter Döhle [de], the Nazi German consul general in Jerusalem sent a telegram to Berlin reporting Amin al-Husseini's belief that Palestinian Muslims were enthusiastic about the new regime and looked forward to the spread of fascism throughout the region. Döhle met al-Husseini and many sheikhs again, a month later, at Nabi Musa. They expressed their approval of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany and asked Döhle not to send any Jews to Palestine. [1] Döhle subsequently wrote in his annual report for that year that the Arabs' political naïvety led them to fail to recognize the link between German Jewish policy and their problems in Palestine, and that their enthusiasm for Nazi Germany was devoid of any real understanding of the phenomenon. [2]
The strike began on 19 April in Nablus, where an Arab National Committee was formed,[3][4] and by the end of the month National Committees had been formed in all of the towns and some of the larger villages,[4] including Haifa, Jenin, Tulkarm and Jerusalem. On 21 April the leaders of the five main parties accepted the decision at Nablus and called for a general strike of all Arabs engaged in labour, transport and shopkeeping for the following day. [4]
While the strike was initially organised by workers and local committees, religious leaders, influential families and political leaders became involved to help with co-ordination. [5] This led to the formation on 25 April 1936 of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) under the chairmanship of Amin al-Husseini. [4] The Committee resolved "to continue the general strike until the British Government changes its present policy in a fundamental manner". The demands of the Committee included: (1) the prohibition of Jewish immigration; (2) the prohibition of the transfer of Arab land to Jews; (3) the establishment of a National Government responsible to a representative council. [6][7] On 15 May 1936, the Committee endorsed the general strike, calling for an end to Jewish immigration and a general non-payment of taxes. [8][9]
The response of the British to the strike was to impose heavy fines on villages and cities. The city-port of Jaffa was especially singled out. Under the guise of urban renewal the British ordered the demolition of hundreds of homes in the city and more than a thousand in neighbouring villages. [10] The British also authorised the building of a port in neighboring Tel Aviv to compete with the strike-bound Port of Jaffa. Solidarity campaign committees were formed in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Beirut. The strike was eventually called off in November 1936, by the HAC, under the influence of Britain. King Ghazi of Iraq, King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia and Amir Abdullah of Transjordan appealed to the workers to end the strike because as they wrote in Palestinian newspapers, "We rely on the good intentions of our friend Great Britain, who has declared that she will do justice."
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Strike
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3 of Hong Kong’s Most Prominent Young Activists Receive Jail Sentences
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The sentencings of Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam confirmed the fears of young Hong Kongers amid a growing number of arrests. Hong Kong activists, from right, Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow arrive at a court in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 23, 2020. Following a month of high-profile arrests in Hong Kong, young pro-democracy figures Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were sentenced to prison on December 2 over a protest during last year’s anti-government demonstrations. After pleading guilty last week to charges of unauthorized assembly, Wong received a sentence of 13 and a half months in prison, while Chow and Lam received 10 months and seven months, respectively. Former leaders of the disbanded political group Demosisto, they had faced up to three years in prison for organizing and inciting a protest in June 2019, when thousands blockaded the police headquarters calling for the release of arrested protesters and the scrapping of an extradition bill. “It’s not the end of the fight. Ahead of us is another challenging battleground,” said Wong, in a message relayed to his lawyers upon his sentencing. “We’re now joining the battle in prison along with many brave protestors, less visible yet essential in the fight for democracy and freedom for Hong Kong.” The trio are only in their early to mid-20s. Yet they’re already veteran activists in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, which has been subject to escalating crackdowns since Beijing imposed a national security law over the city in June. In November, 15 pro-democracy legislators resigned from the legislature – leaving it without an opposition – after four lawmakers were expelled on the grounds of national security. That month, three ex-lawmakers were arrested for legislature protests, and eight legislators were arrested for prior attempts to disrupt debates on pro-Beijing bills. Wong, 24, rose to global prominence as the poster boy for Hong Kong democracy during the city’s Umbrella Revolution in 2014, when he rallied students in massive protests calling for universal suffrage. Chow, 23, began her activist career in 2012, when she campaigned alongside Wong and Lam against a national education curriculum that critics claimed was akin to nationalist brainwashing. Fluent in Japanese, she has since amassed a huge following in Japan, and was recently hailed as the “real Mulan” as well as the “goddess of democracy” by supporters. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. Formerly chairman of Demosisto, Lam, 26, co-founded the activist group Scholarism in 2011 with Wong, fighting for education reform. He was jailed for storming the Legislative Council in a 2014 protest against a controversial development project in the New Territories. The sentencing of Wong, Chow and Lam does not come as a surprise for many of the city’s mostly young protesters. Since last year, there have been more than 10,000 arrests and 2,000 prosecutions related to the protests. Between last June and May of this year, approximately 1,700 of those arrested were under 18 years old, including 1,602 secondary school pupils and eight primary school students, the South China Morning Post reports. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. Grace (not her real name), a 24-year-old protester who took part in the same demonstration last year near the police headquarters, feels a mixture of sadness and resignation over the trio’s imprisonment. “Joshua arrived at the headquarters, tried to cheer everyone up. He didn’t really lead,” she said. “Everybody knew (their imprisonment) would happen someday – it’s already a bit delayed.” The three were high-profile figures in the anti-extradition bill movement last year, yet the demonstrations were considered mostly to be leaderless. Prior to his sentencing, Wong was also held in solitary confinement after an X-ray scan reportedly revealed “foreign objects” in his stomach, according to a post on his Facebook page. In recent months, many Hong Kongers have fled overseas, with a growing number seeking asylum in the U.K., Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and other countries. The sentencing marks yet another blow against the city’s young activists and will likely expedite the current exodus, says Grace, who has helped a number of protesters move abroad this year. “Not everyone likes Joshua, Agnes and Ivan. For me, they have good spirit. Do they have everything we want? No. So they are like us,” Grace said. “They have more courage, so they step up. They tell us that they can do it… so we can do it as well.”
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Hundreds of pairs of sunglasses and swim goggles wash up at Burleigh Heads
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Hundreds of lost sunglasses and swim goggles have washed up on a Gold Coast beach after unusual surf conditions.
Burleigh Heads residents awoke on Friday morning to find the unusual haul shining in the morning light amongst seaweed along the iconic beach.
Local Judy Cumming was on her daily walk when she stumbled across the find.
"[I saw] probably about 150 pairs of sunglasses, probably about 100 pairs of goggles," she told ABC Gold Coast.
"I'm not exaggerating and people have been walking past and taking a pair."
Ms Cumming and her friends regularly collect garbage they find washed up on the beach and on Friday, the group collected their unusual haul on a table and offered them to passers-by.
They usually find the odd item at low tide but Ms Cumming thinks the weather conditions combined to present them with the unusual phenomenon.
"I think the way the waves are running at the moment and the northerly wind conditions are making all the seaweed come into the beach," she said.
"All this stuff is caught up in the seaweed [and] that's why we have so many sunglasses and goggles on the beach."
Experts said the strange sight could have been caused by a number of surf and weather conditions.
Darrell Strauss from the Griffith University Centre for Coastal Management admitted it was a little odd.
There was no sand in sight at Deception Bay at the weekend when thousands of jellyfish stranded themselves
"It's amazing actually," Dr Strauss said.
"I guess though, if you consider how many people go for a swim down at Burleigh over summer often with their sunnies and their goggles on..."
He said the large haul of eyewear could just be this summer's collection of lost glasses from Burleigh Heads beach as the lightweight plastic items gather in the depths with the seaweed.
"They just drift out to that deeper water where not much is really happening," Dr Strauss said.
"Over time, they're gathering out there and just washing backwards and forwards."
He said the causes could be similar to recent mass of jellyfish washing up in Deception Bay.
"The wind ... kind of collects that stuff in the corner at Burleigh," he said.
"The other process is upwelling [where] the surface water is moving offshore and it gets replaced by cold water from underneath."
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Environment Pollution
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1978 Champion of Champions
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The Champion of Champions is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament. It was held in 1978 and 1980 and was then revived in 2013 by Matchroom Sport. The reigning champion is Mark Allen. The Champion of Champions features winners of World Snooker events over the preceding 12 months, with the field topped up, if necessary, from the current World Rankings. In 2020, the tournament had a prize fund of £440,000, of which £150,000 went to the winner. The event was created in 1978 by boxing promoter Mike Barrett. [2] The event was contested by four players at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. [3] It was played over two days with the semi-finals on the first day and the final on the second day. World Champion Ray Reardon beat the Masters winner Alex Higgins 11–9 in the final. [3] Brief highlights were shown on ITV's World of Sport on the following afternoon. [4]
The event was not held in 1979 but appeared again in 1980 at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane, London but in a different format. Ten players competed in the tournament, split into two groups. Each group played a round robin with the winners of the groups advancing to the final. Doug Mountjoy beat John Virgo 10–8 in the final. The tournament was then abandoned since the audiences had been poor and the event financially unsuccessful. [5]
The event was revived in 2013 by Matchroom Sport, replacing the Premier League Snooker on the calendar. [6] The event is held in November at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and contested by 16 of the world's leading players. [7] The event is broadcast live in the United Kingdom on ITV4. [8] The 2013 and 2014 tournaments were both won by Ronnie O'Sullivan but he chose not to defend the title in 2015. In 2015, Neil Robertson defeated Mark Allen by 10–5 to claim his first title in this tournament. [9] In 2016, John Higgins beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–7 in the final. [10] Ronnie O'Sullivan was beaten by Shaun Murphy in the 2017 final. Ronnie took back the trophy in 2018 after beating Kyren Wilson 10–9. Neil Robertson beat Judd Trump in the 2019 final to win the event for the second time. As a result of the continuing consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the tournament was temporarily relocated to the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes in order to create a secure bubble, the same as all other snooker tournaments played in that season.
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Sports Competition
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2008 FEI World Cup Jumping Final
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The 2008 FEI World Cup Jumping Final was the 30th final of the FEI World Cup Jumping show jumping series. It was held at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden from April 24 to April 27, 2008 for the twelfth time during the 2008 Göteborg Horse Show. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum of Germany won the event riding Shutterfly. Nobody won. Thirty-nine riders competed in the Table C €110,000 opening round of the 2008 FEI World Cup Jumping Final. Michael Whitaker opened the round, and quickly set the pace by completing a clear round in 75.05 seconds. However, his time was quickly surpassed two riders later when Malin Baryard-Johnsson took nearly four seconds off of Whitaker's time while representing the host nation of Sweden. Shortly after Peter Wylde narrowly took the lead from Baryard-Johnsson, Heinrich Hermann Engemann cleared the course in under seventy seconds to set a new standard. Although Steve Guerdat was also able to clear the seventy second mark, Engemann's time held up as he took the €25,300 first place prize. Two-time champion Marcus Ehning was eliminated after his horse refused twice at the eleventh jump. [1]
Thirty-eight riders returned for the Table A €110,000 second round of the 2008 FEI World Cup Jumping Final, with Marcus Ehning being the lone exception following his opening round elimination.
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Sports Competition
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2014 Oakland riots
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The 2014 Oakland riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that took place in Oakland, California and surrounding areas in November and December 2014. On November 24, 2014, following the decision of a Grand Jury in St. Louis to not charge Darren Wilson in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown, protests and rioting broke out in Oakland and later spread to other Bay Area cities. For more than two weeks, the Bay Area was the site of civil unrest as protesters clashed with police and damaged public and private property. Reactions to the protests were mixed. Some in the public supported the protests while still condemning the violence. However, others were more angry over the destruction. Storeowner Edwin Cabrillo scuffled with protesters using a broom as he tried to protect his wine store from being vandalized. "I put my whole life into this shop," he said. "This is what makes Oakland worse.".
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Riot
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Fiji to join Non-Aligned Movement in May
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Fiji to join Non-Aligned Movement in May
11:27 am on 7 January 2011
Fiji says its bid to join the Non-Aligned Movement has been accepted by its chair, Egypt.
The interim foreign minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, has told the Fiji Sun that the Egyptian foreign minister has advised him of the endorsement, allowing Fiji to join as the 119th member when the Movement next meets in Indonesia in May.
The Movement, which was formed in 1961, includes most African. Latin American and South Asian countries as well as Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu in the Pacific.
Fiji decided to seek membership last February, with Ratu Inoke saying the Movement has morphed into a tool for strengthening leverage when negotiating with the developed world.
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Join in an Organization
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Man charged over bank robbery
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Police have charged a 35-year-old man with robbery in relation to the hold-up of the Commonwealth Bank in Alice Springs yesterday. Police say the man allegedly told a teller he was armed, and demanded money. The teller raised the alarm and police arrested the man as he left the bank. Police say they recovered a quantity of cash. The man is due to appear in court later today.
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Bank Robbery
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Berkeley gang shooting involving at least eight shooters and a hail of 47 bullets on Russell Street in 2018
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Surveillance footage captured what authorities described as a Berkeley gang shooting involving at least eight shooters and a hail of 47 bullets on Russell Street in 2018. Two Berkeley gang members linked to four shootings in 2018 — including gunfire on I-580 witnessed by a CHP officer — have been sentenced to 12 years in prison as part of a recent plea deal, according to authorities and extensive court documents reviewed by Berkeleyside. A third man who received a lesser sentence for his role in the shootings was placed directly on parole, with credit for time served, and will now be required to register as a gang offender, according to court records. All three men — 22-year-old David Russell of Oakland and Berkeley residents Grayson Gordon , 22, and Malik Harrison, 23 — faced a raft of felony charges, including attempted murder, for gunfire in Alameda and Contra Costa counties in 2018. Ultimately, Russell and Gordon were sent to prison as part of their plea deal, while Harrison received a lesser sentence and has been released. The shootings received significant attention in 2018 in Berkeley and beyond. Amazingly, just one person was seriously wounded across all four incidents. Court papers associated with the gunfire in Berkeley provided rare insights into the dynamics of gang rivalries in the city. And the freeway shooting on Interstate 580 occurred among a spate of gunfire on East Bay freeways that raised alarm around the region. Recently, following the resolution of the case, police released surveillance footage — for the first time — from the most “brazen” of the Berkeley shootings where, according to court papers, at least eight gang members armed with guns unleashed a hail of 47 bullets on Russell Street at several people standing on a balcony at the Rosewood Manor apartment complex. That video appears at the top of this story. The black-and-white footage has no sound but is still dramatic. It shows a large group of figures in hooded sweatshirts making their way down the 1600 block of Russell Street on April 12, 2018, before opening fire at the Rosewood. The incident was unusual for Berkeley due to the large number of shooters who participated in the coordinated attack. The eruption of a long-simmering conflict The shootings described in court papers took place over five weeks in 2018, from March 9 through April 14, and stemmed from a fissure between teenage gang members throughout South and West Berkeley that had begun several years earlier. The feud involved turf battles as well as disrespect online. In their early days, according to BPD, “Babas” gang members committed crimes such as prowling, trespassing and burglary, but later moved on to robbery and assault, weapons violations and attempted murder. In 2017, police estimated that the gang — described as the “new generation” of West Berkeley’s notorious Waterfront gang — had 20 members ranging in age from their late teens to early 20s. On March 9, 2018, according to court papers, Babas used “three guns to fire at least 14 times” at a vehicle on Russell Street occupied by several rival “Ls” gang members in southwest Berkeley. Two young men were shot , including one who sustained a graze wound to the neck, but both survived. Then, on April 12 , Babas returned to Russell Street for the Rosewood Manor attack caught on video and, minutes later, also used three guns “to shoot up a residence” on Mabel Street associated with Ls gang members there, according to court papers. One man on Mabel was injured by flying shards of glass. A photo of the freeway shooting taken from the CHP officer’s bodycam. Credit: BPD The final shooting of the series took place two days later on Interstate 580, when Babas used “four guns to fire at least 34 times” at an Ls rival on the freeway, according to court papers. A California Highway Patrol officer who happened to be on a traffic stop on eastbound 580 near Richmond’s Central Avenue saw the occupants of a white SUV open fire just after 6:45 p.m. April 14, the CHP reported previously. One of those bullets struck a vehicle that had “ just been driving by ,” the CHP told the East Bay Times at the time. No injuries were reported, but the shooting investigation shut down the freeway for several hours. Not everyone drawn into the Berkeley conflict was to be so lucky. In July, two young men sustained life-threatening gunshot wounds — which they ultimately survived — during yet another shooting related to the gang rivalry; arrests were made but charges were never filed. That may come as no surprise given the nature of these cases, which often suffer from limited access to eyewitnesses. Berkeley police indicated, in a brief statement that was released with the Rosewood video, that it had been been a challenge to put the cases together due to the “difficulties in finding cooperative victims or witnesses.” In the end, BPD wrote, the agency was “thankful we were able to bring those who wish to bring harm to our community to justice.” Tensions were high in 2018 The gunfire on I-580 on April 14 was just one incident in a succession of freeway shootings in the East Bay in 2018, as reported by the East Bay Times and other news outlets that year. Several days earlier, authorities had investigated back-to-back freeway shootings one night near Concord. In March 2018, two people — included a child who sustained major injuries — were wounded in a freeway shooting near Hercules. A number of the shootings took place on I-580 between Richmond and other parts of Contra Costa County. But criminal charges in the April 14, 2018, gunfire case in Contra Costa County were not filed against Russell, Gordon and Harrison until March of this year, a few weeks before the preliminary hearing — a sort of mini-trial where a judge decides whether there is enough evidence for defendants to go before a jury — was scheduled for the 2018 Berkeley shootings. Defense attorneys often wait until the preliminary hearing, when they see the evidence the prosecution puts forward and how witnesses hold up, before deciding whether to encourage clients to take a deal. The Alameda County district attorney’s office had filed charges in the Berkeley gunfire case in 2018, initially against Russell and Gordon and later against Harrison . But charges in Contra Costa County were looming all the while, and were referenced repeatedly in the court file in various motions and other paperwork reviewed by Berkeleyside. On March 4 of this year, Contra Costa County filed eight felony charges and a multitude of enhancements against the trio, alleging a range of crimes — linked to all four shootings — from attempted murder and criminal street gang conspiracy to assault with a semiautomatic firearm and shooting at an occupied vehicle. Contra Costa County was also pushing for street terrorism allegations, which can carry a life sentence. The seriousness of those charges likely played a role in the defendants’ decisions in early May to halt their preliminary hearing before it had ended and agree to a plea deal. Ultimately, Gordon and Russell were convicted of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, which is a strike, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and street terrorism tied to Babas gang membership. “I understand that 12 years is a lot of time,” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson told Gordon earlier this year, according to court transcripts reviewed by Berkeleyside. “But given the amount of time that you could get in this case, plus the Contra Costa County case, given the quality of the evidence that I saw, it appears to me that this is a reasonably good plea agreement for you and that you’re saving the exposure of perhaps a much, much longer sentence.” In a later hearing, Jacobson told Gordon he hoped the young man would take the opportunity to make better choices with his life. “I’m sad that you are at this spot right now,” the judge said. “Having said that, you are a full-grown adult, and I think that you can see what you need to do to work your way out of this, and I hope that you’re able to do that.” Rachel Hart, Gordon’s mother, said in a GoFundMe post that her son had lost focus in high school when he was cut from the Berkeley High basketball team, diagnosed with a painful medical condition and transferred to a continuation school “where the throw away kids go.” In 2016, when he was just 16 years old, he was shot twice, she wrote. The first shooting left him in critical condition . “This young man needs to be at home with his family and/or in a program that can give him the chance to recover and begin to build his life,” Hart wrote earlier this year, before his sentence was handed down. “Grayson suffers from severe PTSD and being incarcerated for so long has been very difficult for him.” “Grayson is such an integral part of our family. We are ALL suffering a loss with him being gone,” she wrote. Slow march through the justice system In 2018, in the months after the shootings, Berkeleyside published several stories related to developments in the case as well the landscape of gang activity in Berkeley. Read more about the gang rivalry that sparked the 2018 shootings Gordon, then 18, was among the first to be arrested. In May 2018, police took him into custody after identifying him in part through surveillance footage. Police said they recovered a gun at the time of Gordon’s arrest. Police wrote in court papers that they had found the gun, which had an extended magazine, in Gordon’s backpack. Ballistics testing on the pistol found that it was a match to some of the casings on Russell Street, according to police. David Russell, then 19, was the next to be arrested . When police picked him up in August 2018, according to BPD, he admitted he had been part of both shootings on Russell Street, in March and April. Russell also told police he had thrown a Glock 9mm — which detectives believe was used in the shootings — off the Bay Bridge after Gordon’s arrest, according to BPD. Malik Harrison, then 20, was the last to be arrested. Phone records, photographs and a Honda helped police zero in on him, Berkeleyside reported in 2018 after reviewing court papers. When Harrison was arrested and charged in December 2018, Berkeleyside became the first news outlet to report the alleged Babas link to the Richmond freeway shooting . Since then, Berkeleyside has tracked the case through the justice system — as per our standard practice with the most serious cases in the city — to see how it would one day resolve. “A good choice” among limited options Malik Harrison. Credit: CDCR Harrison was the last of the three to be arrested and was ultimately the first to be released, in part due to health concerns related to COVID-19 and an asthma diagnosis, according to court papers. His attorney petitioned for his release on those grounds in mid-2020 and Harrison was released on bail in August of that year. At some point after the initial filing, the court split off Harrison’s case from Russell and Gordon’s. In April, Harrison entered no-contest pleas to two felony counts of carrying a concealed firearm along with a gang enhancement identifying himself as a Babas member. The conviction counts as a strike against him, according to court papers. During a hearing in April, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson told Harrison the plea deal seemed to be a wise move. “It’s a good choice that you are making amongst the choices that you have,” the judge told him. As part of the deal, all the other charges filed against him were dropped, including new felony charges from November 2020 in Alameda County related to evading authorities. Harrison had already been facing felony evasion charges from 2018, as well as allegations he had fired a gun April 12, 2018, in addition to other Alameda County charges and the Contra Costa County case . During the hearing, Harrison asked the judge what kind of police contact would get him in trouble between the plea hearing and a sentencing hearing in July. “I’m going to say be perfect. In this period of time be perfect, okay,” the judge told him, according to a court transcript reviewed by Berkeleyside. “If you get in another car chase with the police, that’s not going to be good. If you mind your business that way, monitor yourself, you are a man, take care of yourself, take care of your business, okay.” “Yes, sir,” Harrison told the judge. Harrison completed a 70-day ankle-monitoring program in mid-July, according to court papers. He was ordered to report to his parole agent in early August. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told Berkeleyside by email that, in August, Harrison had been “sentenced to three years, eight months in state prison for two counts of carrying a concealed weapon with one enhancement due to the street gang act. The sentencing court gave him 1340 days of pre-sentenced credits (usually given for time served in prison.) Per law, he was also eligible for 50% credit earning (one additional day of credit per each day served.) Since his credits exceeded his sentence, he was processed and released to parole supervision in Alameda County for 2 years.” According to Harrison’s probation report, he “never denied being one of the shooters” at the Rosewood. Detectives also found photographs, according to the report, “of Harrison, Gordon, and Russell holding pistols with other Babas gang members.” When questioned during his probation interview, Harrison denied the accusations. “The defendant stated that he is innocent and took a plea deal because he did not want to serve 10 years in state prison. He denied being a gang member,” a probation officer wrote. “The defendant stated that he is not a gang member but was labeled because of the people he associates with. He stated that his friends are his high school football teammates. He denies knowing of a gang called ‘Babas’ or the meaning of it.” During the probation interview, which took place before Harrison was sentenced, the probation officer recommended that he be sent to prison. “The defendant’s denial of his involvement in these egregious acts of gang violence renders him a continued threat to the community,” the probation officer wrote. “The defendant and his gang jeopardized the lives of innocent citizens as their violent behavior wreaked havoc on city streets. The severity of this case warrants a prison commitment.” Harrison’s assessment listed no mitigating circumstances: He “reportedly had a good childhood,” the probation officer wrote. But Harrison also told the officer he had started smoking marijuana at age 12 and continued to do it daily, according to court records. He said he had been allowed to participate in his graduation ceremony from Berkeley High despite being 10 credits short of his diploma. He never completed those credits, the probation officer wrote. Harrison also shared that his older brother, Lamont Johnson, had been fatally shot in Oakland in 2020 . He told the probation officer that, despite the challenges he had faced, he had dreams for the future. He was looking for a full-time job but also aspired to one day own his business “and expressed interest in opening a cannabis club and owning a food truck,” according to the report.
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Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence
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Man escapes empty-handed after trying to rob bank in Fresno, police say
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FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A man accused of trying to rob a bank in Fresno walked away empty-handed on Monday afternoon. The Fresno Police Department says the attempted robbery took place when a man in his 30s walked into Citi Bank on Blackstone and Ashlan Avenues. Fresno Police say the man went up to a bank teller and handed her a note demanding money. The bank teller told police the man had showed her what she thought was the butt of a gun in his waistband. During the encounter, the woman got scared and backed away from the man. Police say the man quickly ran out of the bank before he could steal any cash.
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Bank Robbery
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December 2016 Jakarta protests
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December 2016 Jakarta protests, also known as 212 Action, the 3rd Defend Islam Action (Indonesian: Aksi Bela Islam III), and the 2 December Peace Protest, was a mass protest led by Islamist groups which took place on 2 December 2016, in Jakarta, Indonesia. During the protest, marchers demanded for the termination of the gubernatorial office held by Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), who had been accused as a suspect in the blasphemy case. [1] The protest is the second demonstration against Ahok in 2016 succeeding the previous rally which took place on 4 November, and it was succeeded by the February 2017 Jakarta protests. The incumbent governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was contesting for the forthcoming 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, was accused of blasphemy against Islam following his speech on 27 September 2016. National outcry against his perceived misdemeanor had triggered a small scale protest on 14 October and a nationwide protest in November 2016, the later reported widely among the international media as well, with many consider it a crisis of democracy and the conservatism among the Islam in Indonesia. [2] Facing the counter-protest by the pro-Ahok groups on 30 November the oppositions and Islamist groups have jointly planned for even wider scale and more inclusive protest. Initially, the protest was planned to be held on 25 November 2016 but then it was agreed to be held on 2 December. [3] The National Movement of Fatwa Guards - Majelis Ulama Indonesia (GNPF-MUI), the main organizer of the 4 November protest, said it would hold a similar action again on 2 December 2016. The leader of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Muhammad Rizieq Shihab said that this action would take place with the extra commitment for nonviolence as it will be held in the form of joint worship. [4] This statement received mixed responses. The chairman of the House of Representatives, Ade Komaruddin chose not to respond to the statement and requested reporters to ask directly to the organizers. [5] The police chief Tito Karnavian threatened not to issue permission for the action upon fear of going violent. [6] After an agreement between the organizers and the police, the action was agreed to take place with activities in the form of praying and the joint performance of Friday prayers. The protest was held at the Merdeka Square surrounding the National Monument in Central Jakarta. The number of attendees ranged from 200,000 (police claims[7][8][9]) to millions (organizers' claims[10][11]). From video evidence scattered across various social media and video sharing websites via drone camera, it can be seen that the mass extends to the main road of Hotel Indonesia Roundabout. During the protest, a number of activities were carried out, including praying and joint Friday prayers. The president of Indonesia Joko Widodo attended the event and was warmly welcomed by the participants. [12][13] Among the celebrities who joined the protest, there were Ardian Syaf, the prominent Indonesian comic artist, and Wijayanto, the pop Islamic preacher. [14][15] Other prominent figures who joined the protest includes Hidayat Nur Wahid, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives. [16]
Basuki later lost the elections to Anies Baswedan and was found guilty, being sentenced to 2 years on 9 May 2017. [17] On the protests' anniversary, a “reunion” was held in the same location. The Sharia minimarket co-operative 212 Mart, setup in May 2017 was named in honour of the protests, and by August 2018 had 192 stores. [18]
In 2020, shortly after Muhammad Rizieq Shihab’s return to Indonesia, local police stated that they are not giving permits for the group to gather for a reunion due to the COVID-19 pandemic; should they do such, they are at risk of being disbanded. [19]
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Protest_Online Condemnation
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